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If Only You Were Dead to Me

The Destination is Unspecified?

The Destination is Unspecified?

Aug 01, 2025

When I got to the next destination via the plane, the flight attendents said to pick up our luggage at carosel 12. I decided to go to the place right by the carosels to find someone holding a sign that said my name, but I didn't see anyone holding any kind of sign, just names floating above their heads as they waited for their travelers. Then, I saw the man that I had seen in my dreams a few times with my name, Rory Hamilton, floating over his head in green letters. He had shoulder length dark brown hair and silver eyes. He looked exhausted and like he didn't want to even exist, let alone be here. I stopped in my tracks, trying to catch my breath as he took my breath away. Somehow between seeing his face and being unable to move, my eyes started tearing up. I barely even noticed until the tears were already flowing down my cheeks onto my shirt. He must've noticed me right after I did, because after I tried wiping the tears from my cheeks, I looked up to  see him right there in front of me.

"You must be Rory Hamilton, right?" The man asked, "My name is-"

"Blue Ben," I said, cutting him off mid-sentence with the nickname that I've had go in and out of my mind for the past several years.

"How do you know my nickname?" He asked, confusion apparent in his voice.

"I don't know," I said.

"Well, whatever," he said, brushing it off, "My name is Benairo Mitchellston. I'll be the one taking you to your destination, but unfortunately it was unspecified, so I guess I'll either take you to a hotel or back to my house until they give the right information to us. They haven't done this to a reassignment since 1200 reassignments ago, so I don't understand why they either forgot or didn't give us one to begin with. And I can't take someone who cries like that at our first meeting to a hotel to be alone. I mean, geez, who do they think I am? Some sort of psychopath or something? I'm sure that Adam is getting a kick out of this if he's watching like he said he was. I can't believe the nerve of these people. Do they like making me and the reassignment suffer or something?"

"I think your thoughts are leaking out," I said. Benairo looked at me and chuckled.

"You'll get used to it," Benairo said, "I don't work as a complainer for nothing."

"A what?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, right," Benairo said, "I forgot that you're new in this reality. Well, I got to say that you're in for a treat."

"But what do you do?" I asked.

"I work in a special department in our company," Benairo said, "My job is pretty much nicknamed 'the curse everyone out desk'. People call my department either on accident or on purpose and I pretty much complain and curse them out depending on my mood. My department is right next to the help desk and our number is just one number off from theirs and the help desk sends their worst callers to us, because if someone refuses to be helped, then what better shock then to give what they're dishing out right back to them? Our department only has two workers, but you'd be surprised how many calls we get, especially the repeat callers."

"What will my job be?" I asked.

"Oh, you've got the same job you did back in your own reality," Benairo said, "And since I came from a completely different reality than you and this one, I can't really tell you about what's better here or not."

"I don't understand the reality part," I said.

"You'll get used to it," Benairo said, "Did you get all your luggage? Or do you have more?"

"I need to go get them," I said.

"Got ya," Benairo said, "Which one do you need to grab your luggage from?"

"Carosel 12," I said, "But I don't know where that is." Benairo pointed in what felt like a random direction.

"It's this way," he said. I followed him and sure enough he was right. My luggage was all right there going around and around. I quickly grabbed them and Benairo and I left to go to what I thought would be his car, but it wasn't a car at all. It was a spaceship or something. He put my luggage into it before helping me into it. "First time in a Rotograde, huh, Rory Hamilton?"

"A what?" I asked. He climbed in next to me.

"A Rotograde," Benairo said, "Oh, is this reality more advanced than yours?"

"Yours wasn't?" I asked. Benairo adjusted himself in his seat and helped me buckle in after he buckled himself in.

"No," Benairo said, "Mine was more advanced. In my reality, this Rotograde would've been made 150 years ago. So, to me it's an antique even though it's brand new, but to others from other realities it's different." He started up the car and started driving the Rotograde up into the sky.

"Huh," I said.

"So, is it alright to call you Rory?" Benairo asked, "Since you already seem to know my nickname, just call me that."

"Yeah," I said, "You can make up a nickname for me too, if you'd like, Blue Ben?"

"Red Rory?" Blue Ben asked, "No, it just has the color theme and the same first letter theme. You're not red in any way." I felt my face warm up. I didn't think he'd actually try to choose a nickname for me on the spot. "No, you are Red Rory. So, quick question. Do you want to come back to my place for a few nights? Or would you rather go to a hotel for a few nights? I have a spare room that I don't use, so it's not like I'm asking you to sleep with me."

"To be completely honest, Blue Ben," I said, "This is going to sound weird, but I think I've had enough of meeting new people today, so I'll just go back to your place."

"That's fair," Blue Ben said, "New realities do scare off some people at first. Well, I guess I'm glad too. I'd say that I'd try not to hit on ya, but I guess that already flew out the window, huh?"

"You think?" I asked.

"I can't make any promises now," Blue Ben said, "But if I end up happy, I might just lose my job. So, don't try to do anything like that."

"Wait, you think I'm that attractive?" I asked.

"Well, it seems like dreams do come true," Blue Ben said, "Because I dreamt about you for years before I met you. Had no idea what your name was just saw that face of yours over and over again. Sometimes it felt like your hair and body shape was always changing, like my dreams couldn't tell anything about you other than your face. I think that's funny, don't you?"

"I am non-binary," I said, "So, it does work."

"Makes sense," Blue Ben said, "There's a lot of people at work who are out about being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I guess you can say that I'm still in the questioning phase. But it's more of a questioning my existence than a questioning whether or not I belong to the group or not. I know I belong, but I don't really know what label I want to use. I'm not really a label sort of guy and I remember this one time back in my own reality where a friend of mine was eaten by a monster because he put a label on his relationship with his partner. He decided to tell everyone that he and his partner were getting married and someone set a monster onto him. I don't really understand why that happened, but now I'm thinking that somebody was jealous of him and wanted his partner instead of him. It still gets me upset and it's hard to put labels on things for me because of that."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said.

"My friend survived," Blue Ben said, "But he was stuck in the belly of that monster for a week and smelled like rotten fish ever since. I can't even be near him anymore. It's hard to when the smell is so strong and nothing would make it go away. I was sent to this reality 3 months after that and haven't looked back even once, though I do send my family emails and such every so often."

"Oh, okay," I said. Soon, we pulled up to a big building but like halfway up the building.

"Here we are," Blue Ben said, "Home sweet home. Just give me a second to open the garage and I'll show you around in a bit." He pulled out a remote and just like back home a garage door opened, even though it was like 20 or so stories up from the base of the building.  Blue Ben pulled his car in and hit the remote again to close the garage door before he helped me get out and then started unloading my luggage. I looked at the door to the apartment and it had a large lock that was completely dark. "Oh, wait. I better have the lock learn your palm print before we go inside, that way you can open the door whenever and don't have to wait on me." He went over to the door and tapped the side of the lock three times before it made a chirping noise.

"Lock is ready for the new scan," the lock said in a high pitched robotic voice. I hesitantly put my right hand on the lock. "Scan in progress. Do not move." I tried to stay still for what felt like forever. "Scan complete. Other hand, tenticle, or other apendage type." I pulled my right hand away and put my left hand on the lock. "Scan in progress. Do not move." I tried to stay still again. "Scan complete. Please state name for full unlocking abilities." I looked over at Blue Ben, but he just nodded.

"Rory Hamilton," I said.

"Rory Hamilton, is this correct?" The lock asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Rory Hamilton can now unlock the front door," the lock said, "Only one hand needs to be used from now on. Have a nice day." The lock unlocked and the door swung open.

"So, what do you think?" Blue Ben asked, when I took my first step into his apartment. It was bigger than I had imagined, but I didn't know how to describe the feeling it gave me.

"It's interesting," I said.

"I own the entire floor as my apartment," Blue Ben said, "So, it better be interesting."

"You what?" I asked.
acage4me
A Cage for Me

Creator

So we meet the mystery man... But which direction will this go?

#nonbinary_main_character #science_fiction #alternate_realities

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