And then—
A tear in reality.
A doorway between worlds, shimmering with impossible colors and humming with the combined power of seven divine artifacts. Through the opening, Alex could see—
His apartment.
The same cramped studio he'd left six months ago. The same secondhand furniture. The same motivational poster on the wall (ironically reading "Hang in there!" with a cat clinging to a branch). The same everything, frozen exactly as he'd left it that morning when he'd walked out and somehow ended up in another dimension entirely.
Except now there was a teenage girl sprawled across his couch, surrounded by what appeared to be approximately forty romance novels, with her phone held up to her face as she scrolled with the intensity of someone on a sacred mission.
Alex's sister, Sally.
