"It's the apocalypse," Darcy said. "We're f*cked."

"Wait, wait." I leaned towards them, trying to get a peek at the level of despair on their face. "How did you get to that conclusion? Why are you mentioning other worlds so easily? Apocalypse?"

Darcy stood up, brows shaped like an A. "You obviously came through a reality rip! God knows what can come through next." They clutched their head, shoving their blunt bangs into the air. "I should report it but ugh, I don't feel like working during my off-time." Darcy stomped their feet.

I processed every word Darcy said. "Does a reality rip connect worlds?" My voice was likely too eager. "What institution do you work for?"

The dryer buzzed and our clothes settled down to a stop. I jumped up to quickly put on my shirt, anticipating needing to move the conversation elsewhere to get more info.

Darcy stared at me like a teenager fed up with a parents' old stories. "CenUMR."

My eyebrows shot up. "What?"

Darcy briefly flattened their mouth. "I work for... the Center for Utilitarian Management of Reality," they pouted.

As each word registered in my head, a reassured smile surfaced on my face. "Which department? What's your position?"

Darcy's pink lips bulged. "Technical Assistant in the Tech Department. I'm just a bottom feeder who runs errands and fixes jammed printers; I've never even witnessed a reality rip let alone repaired one." They pointed to themselves squeaking out, "And now my first encounter is the catalyst that's going to destroy the world? And I have to be the messenger?"

I placed a hand on their shoulder as I handed them their pants and said consolingly, "I tripped into a machine designed to travel parallel worlds."

Darcy's eyes widened and they glanced me up and down. Quickly, their eyes moistened and lips spread into a wide smile. "Tripped, eh? Into a portal? So you came by accident from an intentional portal?"

I nodded.

"And you come from another technologically advanced world that travels across worlds?"

I hesitantly nodded.

"Not a reality rip. So I don't have to report it?"

I vehemently shook my head. "Absolutely not." Had I been the one to witness this happen in my own world, I would absolutely report it. Every institution in the realm would know by morning. But in my current position, there were too many unknowns. My first step was assuaging Darcy's worries so that I could further question them for more information.

Darcy slipped one leg into their pants then glanced me up and down again. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital? Never mind the skin on your chin, don't you want to check for internal bleeding?"

I reached for my chin only to find it stinging as soon as my finger made contact. A health checkup to assess the effects of the TTD was a good idea, but I didn't want to cause myself nor Darcy any issues as someone without any identification. Or in the instance that someone was tracking my movement and waiting to ambush.

After Darcy fastened their pants, they seemed to glean the direction of my thoughts. "How about I take you to the clinic of a friend of mine? She's pretty low-key about things and has some equipment to do a basic screening."

I agreed and Darcy pulled out a device from their jacket that closely resembled a narrow flip phone then made a call to their doctor friend whose clinic had already closed for the day.

"Hey, hey. Someone got hurt, can we come in through the back door?" was all Darcy said. I figured their relationship was quite good for the friend to tell us to stop by without any fuss.

Before we left, I swung by the restroom to rinse out my mouth and take a look in the mirror. I was curious as to whether my appearance had changed as a side effect of crossing over. Fortunately, the person in the mirror was familiar—from the tired-looking protruding blue eyes to the dark, coily head of hair.

On the walk to the clinic, I observed the city streets and citizens. The weather, cars, architecture, and fashion all closely resembled that of my own world. With the knowledge I had about parallel worlds at the time, I considered the possibility that I had travelled to a closely related parallel timeline. The existence of a similar agency to WCOI supported this. But I knew I would need to do more investigation before concluding.

Fifteen minutes later, I sat in a barren examination room, watching the doctor's thick eyebrow lift inches away from my face as she stared into my open mouth.

"Has your lower left canine been chipped before?" she questioned.

My eyes widened briefly before I relaxed and pursed my lips. "No."

Darcy gave a pitying look and asked, "Can we reattach it?"

The doctor and I both looked at Darcy with expressionless yet patient faces. Feasibility aside, I was pretty sure the chipped off part was somewhere in the blood strewn on that alley sidewalk.

"It's fine," I assured the doctor. I ran my tongue over my tooth and it didn't feel like it would cause any issues with eating. I wasn't concerned with a cosmetic flaw at the moment. It might be distracting to staff when I return to my own world, but fixing it was definitely nowhere near the top of my priorities.

The doctor followed up with X-Rays she then displayed on her computer, allowing us to see the damage. The image of nearly half of the tooth gone was a bit of a shock, but none that I showed outwardly.

"Luckily, there's no fracture to your mandible and the damage to your chin is superficial." The doctor swiped to the X-Rays of my chest. "No damage to the ribs or internal bleeding. The blood you coughed up likely just came from the oral trauma. Just monitor your gums and the pain in your jaw; if it doesn't improve within three weeks or worsens, you should follow up with your..." she trailed off then glanced at Darcy.

Darcy shifted their eyes then glanced back and blinked several times; it gave a suggestive air.

I wasn't sure what the two were communicating but the doctor just sighed and pulled out bandages and ointment to treat my chin. Darcy smiled at me and sat adjacent. They opened their mouth to say something when a shout and banging on the back door interrupted.

"Doc! Doc! Big Bro! Big Broooooo!"

The doctor's mouth twitched imperceptibly. "Darcy." Darcy stepped up and was handed gloves. "Alcohol, ointment, bandage." Then she stood up and walked out.

As Darcy clumsily treated my wound, I heard the kind of after-hours business this doctor got.

"Big Bro was stabbed by those Bluebird sonuvaassholes! Save 'im Doc, save 'im!"

There was quiet.

"Doc! How could you say that?!"

"Shut up!" A deeper voice commanded. "You're too loud!"

"Big Brooo! You're conscious!"

"Your howling shook me out of it, punk. Don't cause Doc trouble."

"Big Brooooo!"

I switched my focus to Darcy whose eyes were on my chin before looking up at me. In addition to their eyes being close set, I noted the spindly eyelashes. They smiled sheepishly and released a weak chuckle.

"Parker is my friend from university. She's a good person."

It seemed like Darcy was perhaps incorrectly interpreting my thoughts. At this moment, I was only thinking about how this world seemed to have combined realms. If it were like my own, all citizens of age would work in organizations or businesses servicing those working in organizations. Only in the civilian realm do people have more freedom, giving rise to gangs and crime rings. I also realized that I would need to rely on Darcy's kindness a bit longer if I were to successfully return home, so I ventured to share my thoughts.

Darcy's lips parted in interest. "What else do you notice is different from your world?"

I hesitated, suspicion rising then settling again. "Nothing yet; we've only walked along the city road."

"Well, at least you landed in a world that's similar to yours. It'd be rough if it was a post-apocalyptic, ghost world or something, heh."

Indeed Darcy was right. If someone schemed this, I wondered if that was their intention, yet for whatever reason, the destination they aimed for wasn't processed by the TTD's system.

"So, what are your plans?" Darcy asked the key question after finishing my treatment. I touched the bandage and could feel it was crooked with ointment oozing out the sides.

I wiped the ointment off my fingers onto my pants and replied, "I want to go back to my world."

"I was afraid you'd say that. I'll be honest with you, so don't get discouraged, okay?"