“I wasn’t about to jump.”

Shera sat back to get a bit more comfortable before she spoke. “I know, I stopped you.”

“No.”

His words hit her like a rock to the chest. “What do you mean, no? I pulled you back! You were going to die.”

“I wasn’t going to jump” he repeated, his face expressionless. He eyed her, as if he were watching her every action. It made her want to puke.

Shera’s expression grew dark, her mind preparing herself to leave any minute.

She tried her best to compose herself. “Then what were you doing?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Shera pressed a finger to her eye socket. Something tells her that this headache is not from the fall but from something else.

“Then, I’m going.” Shera stood up from the ground, dusted off her skirt and was about to walk back towards the rooftop entrance before she felt a hand around her wrist.

The young man stood up, his grip still unreleased. “Wait, don’t go.”

“Why? There’s nothing more to say.”

“I have something to tell you.”

He lowered his eyes and stalled for a moment. Finally getting a good look at him, Shera realized he was rather boyish. At around 170cm (5’6”) tall with long hair and a delicate face, he didn’t seem overly masculine or intimidating.

She carefully released herself from his grip. His arm fell limp to his side.

“I have a theory, which is similar to the one we learnt about in class”.

“What are you talking about?” Asked Shera. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, but the way she turned towards him showed that she was suddenly interested in the conversation.

“A theory about another world. One that is almost exactly like our own. It is said that our brain, a part of our own body, is rationalizing everything we perceive. It alters it. So when we see something, it is not what we are actually seeing but what our brain is telling us to see.

“Uh, English please” Shera complained, but he ignored her and went on.

“We are unable to recognize and make use of a lot of things around us; infrared, radio waves, certain pitches of sound… All because our body deems that it is not necessary for us to know.”

“It’s not just with physical stimuli. Even when we are occupied in an activity, such as watching a stage play, what we notice and actively remember from that experience is only small part of everything that is actually happening. We are focused on the actors, the melodies, the harmonious timing of the lights and the cheer of the audience after a scene concludes…. But what we fail to register from that experience is…. Is carpet dust, flying into the air, the sound of static from all the lights that is ever present, and the insects that still reside in every nook and crevice of the building... What about the physical force that is pulled on the rope every time the curtains are drawn, and every time it happens, the rope gets more and more worn down?

“We don’t think about it, and therefore it ceases to exist. Because our perception from within becomes our reality that is imposed on the outside world, we fail to consider the presence of many things that are really there.”

Shera blinked, then squinted. “So what does this have to do with the other world theory?”

“I’m saying that what we are made to believe as our reality, may only be a small part of our true reality. We need to open our mind to the existence of things we can’t see, hear, touch, experience…. Things that make us question reality itself.”

“Metaphysical things… huh.” Mumbled Shera. Recollections of the February 26th event that the teacher had mentioned earlier start coming back to her.

“Yes! Metaphysical things. Like parallel universes, and….”

He turned to Shera to intently grasp her attention.

“Other versions of ourselves.”