Lauris stared at her identical self in both fascination and confusion. They both opened their mouths at the same time before closing it.

"Well, this is awkward."

The two stared at Marie in disbelief.

Marie snorted. "What? You guys may be long lost identical twins or whatnot, but I think an introduction might help."

Lauris nodded. She stared at her mirror self. "Uh, nice to meet you. I'm Lauris Maltikata, an IT consultant."

Her other self frowned. "We have the same name."

Lauris bit her lip. "Do you think the twins have anything to do with this?"

Other Lauris froze. "So, you know of them."

Lauris tilted her head.

Other Lauris sighed. "The twins gave each of us different pieces of information. You are one of the last to arrive."

Marie wrinkled her brow.

"How do you know this?"

Other Lauris turned around and began to walk towards the store. "Come in. There are others. Apparently, there should be one-hundred and fifty of us in total."

Lauris and Marie looked at each other. Other Lauris stopped.

"You don't need to come if you don't want to. However, there is apparently an expert in our group. She doesn't want to reveal what she knows until all of us get together. I think we all deserve an explanation, don't you think?"

Lauris pursed her lips. She glanced at the door. If all goes wrong, she could at least try to escape. The woman nodded. "Alright."

Other Lauris exhaled. "Wonderful. Now let's see why we're in this shitty situation in the first place."

Marie snorted. She looked at Lauris. "Well, I guess the same name does not equal the same personality."

Lauris sighed.

The three walked towards the store. Other Lauris stopped as they stood at the door.

"Before we go in, I suggest we don't go to the Wrecked Side. There's a Boundary"

Lauris glanced at her left, once more noting the strange contrast between broken and brand new.

"A what??"

Other Lauris sighed. She picked up a fallen leaf and cautiously approached the side, hopping away as the leaf trembled in mid-air before bursting into flames.

Marie and Lauris stared.

Other Lauris shook her head. "I don't even know how you guys survived."

Lauris pursed her lips.

Other Lauris slid open the door, revealing a large variety of people crammed into half of the store.

Lauris noticed how more than a few people had copies of themselves, milling around and confused. Marie just gaped.

The crowd parted as a woman in a plain grey blazer walked up. She scrutinised the group with her cold blue eyes. "Feel free to introduce yourself to the group. Once that's done, we shall begin the explanations."

Lauris and Marie looked at each other. Marie shrugged and walked forward. "I go by the name of Marie. Marie Lemocks."

Lauris watched as the crowd buzzed.

"No way."

"Didn't she die?"

Lauris frowned as Marie sauntered towards the crowd. Glancing at the woman, Lauris stepped forwards. "Lauris. Lauris Maltikata."

At that, someone yelled.

"Liar! You are not my dead classmate! You died in that landslide."

Lauris froze. "I-I." The woman heard a sigh.

"Go to your friend. I will take over the rest."

Lauris nodded. She watched as the woman waited for the crowd to become silent.

"To all newcomers, welcome. I am known as Sera. I think it is time for me to begin my explanations. However, before we get to that, has anyone met the Extra-Dimensional Being?"

Lauris watched as everyone looked at each other, perplexed. After a while, everyone turned their attention to the speaker.

Sera frowned. "Maybe I should take a different approach. I assume that all of you weren't here by choice, right?"

Some people nodded and murmurs of affirmation rippled through the crowd.

Sera sighed. She rubbed her forehead. "Okay. What if I told you that I forced my way here? What if I told you that I came here by choice?"

At that, the crowd exploded.

Lauris gaped.

By choice?

The woman thought back to the previous incidents.

Who would want to go to this place by choice?

Who would want to experience the confusion and the madness by choice?

"By the looks of your faces, I'm pretty sure my hypothesis is correct. However, I want to confirm that. Do me a favour and humour me, please. I to see what you know about your histories."

At that, the crowd fell silent. Not long after, a voice piped up.

"What do you mean by histories?"

Sera paused as if taken aback. "I mean by the usual facts, ones that are considered common knowledge."

"Like the World War?" someone called.

Sera nodded. "Exactly. Just feel free to call out anything that comes to mind."

"Colour television was invented in the 1950s!"

"What? Isn't that in the early 2000s?"

"What? No! It's definitely in the early 1950s."

Lauris witnessed as more and more people joined the argument. It was not the only argument either. She watched as a group of guys argued over another historical fact.

"What are you talking about? There was only one world war."

A man, perhaps in his early sixties, interjected. "No, you are wrong. There were seven."

Another man joined in. "What do you mean? There were only two. One was the War for Water, and the other was the War for Land."

Lauris blinked.

Seven world wars?

The War for Water?

She watched as various groups turned against each other, verbally challenging each different fact.

"You F*cking retard. None of your facts is correct. Did you even go to f*cking primary school, or are you one of the sh*tty Devolved Ones?"

"I can say the same to you, and what the f*ck is a Devolved?"

"Alright, that's enough."

The fighting continued.

"Are you all children? You are arguing over some facts, and you are already fighting? Is this the state of humanity? Do we want another Stampede incident?"

At that, everyone froze.

Lauris looked around, confused.

What the heck was a Stampede incident?

Sera sighed. "I what if I say that everyone is right?"

"I call bull!"

"That woman if f*cking retarded."

Sera rubbed her temples as she waited for the crowd to quieten down. Lauris frowned in sympathy. Once the conversation dulled to a low hum, she continued.

"Has anyone heard of the multiverse theory?"

At that, a few nodded.

Lauris frowned. She heard that term somewhere, but what did that have to do with this situation that seemed to come somewhere out of a paranormal TV show?

Sera took a deep breath. "I suspect that everyone here comes from a different universe. That is why there are seemingly clones of yourselves." She looked around. "And this place, this 'Between' you call it is exactly that. It is the space between the universes, where an amalgamation of different things collides, hence the strange things you see. Universes are not discrete bubbles. Instead, they are closer to paint smudges. Universes can interfere with one another up to a certain degree, just as paint can mix and form different colours. This mixing of paint, this amalgamation of different aspects of different universes is what we call The Between."

An angry voice piped frown the crowd. "How do we know that you aren't making this up?"

Sera paused as something flashed in her eyes. She sighed. "That's the problem, you don't. All I can tell you is how I got here, and hopefully convince you with my story."

The crowd fell silent.

Sera closed her eyes. "In my universe, technological development is focused on exploring theories. The division I was placed in explored the multiverse theory. We made a few breakthroughs, but the sponsors were considering withdrawing our funding. However, like a miracle, we managed to create a device allowing us to travel between universes. There were a few successful tests, accelerated by the prisoners that the sponsors supplied us. Eventually, it was our turn. I volunteered. It was just going to be a short trip, but somehow, I got transferred into this place. When I met the Extra-Dimensional Being, I finally realised where I was. I joined the group and decided not to say anything to ensure that everyone will be on the same page."

Lauris bit her lip. She glanced at Marie, who raised a brow.

Sera's explanation made sense, but something felt off about that explanation.

"So then why are we here?" A voice yelled.

Lauris raised her brow. That was a good question.

Sera looked up and pointed at the ceiling. "Why don't we ask that from the one that imprisoned you in this Between?"

Everyone turned to face the ceiling.

There, sitting on a giant eyeball, were the twins.

******

Casual human experimentation? Yikes. Also, did anyone understand the explanation regarding the nature of The Between? 

Hopefully, some of you picked up that this whole chapter seems strange, the explanation feeling slightly forced. That will be explained in the next chapter that will hopefully come out soon.

Thanks for putting up with this confusing story.

--keepthywits