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(Note: I am aware this is a niche book, so here’s the gist. Ava and Jules used to be employees at LitenVärld, a Swedish furniture store like IKEA. They were formerly in a relationship, and were forced to work together to find a grandma who’d fallen into a wormhole (maskhål). They used a device called a FINNA to navigate different universes. This piece is set after Ava finds Jules alive in a universe raided by clones.)
The crunch of bread crust and sweetness of tomato still feels unfamiliar to Ava. She sighs as she chews her half-finished club sandwich, the amalgamation of salty, sweet and spicy flavours flooding her mouth. While the park bench wasn’t the most comfortable, it was in an auspicious spot under the mild afternoon sun.
The food at LitenVärld was barely food. She recalls mindlessly stuffing herself on shift, the dry bagels tasting like old cardboard. Perhaps there would be Tricia barking orders, or a customer complaining about a missing tag, or Derek scratching his head asking where the missing pipe compartment was.
Anyhow, it was nice being able to actually eat. And digest. And relax in a nice space, especially with the person next to her. Jules hums to themself, chewing their identical sandwich, and staring at the swaying trees.
‘Jules,’ Ava calls.
‘Yeah?’
‘Uh, nothing.’ Ava says after a brief pause. She didn’t know what to say to Jules right now. They were barely alive in Captain Nouresh’s universe; Ava had found them in a nearby hospital ward, tangled up in all sorts of tubes and bandages. Even with all the gashes on their torso and arms, they didn’t die. Ava remembers the conversation when she found them.
Jules glances at Ava through heavy-lidded eyes.
‘Ava, stop crying. Really. I’m fine.’
The woman frantically wipes her tears, streaming involuntarily down her face. She hated to admit it, but the journey to find Nour i– or Nouresh – had fostered a new bond between them. She cared, as usual, too much. She clenches her fists and tries to look up.
‘Ava,’ Jules tries again, ‘it’s okay.’
‘I just…’ Ava begins shakily, ‘I was so afraid you’d died that day. I quit my job and couldn’t stop thinking about you. I had to find out, even if I was scared shitless.’
Jules gives a small chuckle. ‘Look at you, travelling universes to see if I got mauled to pieces or not.’
‘You’re such an idiot, you know that?’ Ava manages a weak smile, and squeezes Jule’s limp hand on their bed.
***
The pair of them finish their sandwiches in silence, and set off to walk around the park. It had been a week since Ava found Jules, and they decided to spend this Saturday catching up.
‘So, I was in Nouresh’s submarine, the L.V. Anahita, when this explosion happened under the water –’
Jules cuts themselves off as they notice something in the distance. Ava feels it too; the merging of universes, a place where the veil between this universe and another lies thin.
Ava points at a small glade under a willow tree. Jules nods.
‘A maskhål,’ Ava says, ‘or am I going insane?’
‘No, I see it.’ The hole spirals in a myriad of colours, blue, green and hints of pink. A tiny dot of black pierces the centre of the colourful wheel, like a splotch of ink. No one else walking on the path seemed to have noticed it.
They look at each other for a second before bursting out in a fit of laughter.
‘No fucking way I’m going in,’ Ava says, ‘this sandwich has sent me into a food coma. And don’t feel like dying today.’
Jules smiles in agreement, but before they leave, they spot a young woman casually walking into the maskhål. Her wavy brown hair flaps behind her as she strolls in, her rucksack swinging, and no FINNA at hand. A baggy red hoodie draped over her shoulders, and the tail of the rucksack was the last thing Ava and Jules saw before she vanished into the wormhole.
‘What the fuck,’ says Jules. They shrug and look at Ava, whose mouth hangs dumbly open like a hungry fish. She shakes her head, trying to gain her composure.
‘Now I’m tempted to go in myself.’ Ava fishes out the FINNA out of her handbag, and the silver sheen glistens in the sunlight. A green arrow promptly points towards the direction of the wormhole.
‘Fuck it, let’s go.’ Jules says, furrowing their eyebrows. ‘ We gotta find out what she’s doing.’
They seize Ava’s hand, and at her acquiescence, they bolt into the maskhål.
***
Behind them, the vignettes of the park warp and turn, the pavement winding above them and the rosy flowerbeds stretching underneath. Soon, they’re plunged into a dark street, packed with blaring car horns and gusts of windy rain. Flashes of red and green light illuminate the ground, and the lamplights loom over pedestrians like giant black pythons.
‘What kind of city is this?’ Ava asks. Buses and cars whizz past a wide road, and a line of Southeast Asian food stores stretch miles ahead of them.
‘Somehow, busier than our city,’ Jules sighs. They look at their watch. ‘and it’s already midnight here.’
Jules realises they’re still gripping Ava’s hand tightly, and they quickly let go. Still too soon to be doing this sort of thing, even as friends.
As they make their way down the street, stopping only to let swarms of people whirl past, they find themselves attracted to a quaint little drink shop. The sign outside read ‘STRAWW’ in white capital letters among a black canvas, and first struck them as too corporate. A rickety sign outside promoting warm bubble teas was enough to convince them to go in, especially with the choice of remaining in the frigid downpour.
The store, while painted a void black on the outside, welcomed them in with a comforting wood interior. Warm hanging lights diffused the store, much more favourable than the cold flat lights that LitenVärld had. It was rather soothing.
‘Oh, isn’t that the girl who walked into the maskhål?’ Jules asks. Ava peers over her shoulder; they’re right, it’s the same brunette wearing the neon green and black bag. When Ava looks closer, she sees various pins of animated characters attached onto the back. She tilts her head, slightly amused.
‘Shit, you’re right. Let’s act normal for now.’
‘Those pins are cool though,’ Jules says. ‘I’d buy a few if we had them in my universe. Look! This one has fox ears.’ They point excitedly towards a character with black, fluffy ears.
‘Maybe it’s best your universe doesn’t have them,’ Ava sighs, ‘or you’d be broke.’
‘Jokes on you, I’m already broke.’ Jules grins and pushes Ava playfully on the shoulder. ‘We ought to buy something since we’re here.’
They order a passion fruit tea from the counter, and after a couple minutes of perusing, Ava decides on a matcha milk tea. The girl at the till seems eerily cheery for someone working at midnight. Her words are light, and there’s a slight bounce in her step as she moves. Jules raises their eyebrows, clearly impressed.
‘Wish I had a quarter of her energy when I was working,’ said Ava thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what powers them.’
‘All that bloody sugar.’ Jules speculates, ‘They’re high on glucose, I swear.’
They both peer over the counter, and Jules was right; some of the employees were taking sips of their own free drinks. The way they mixed their concoctions and seized their drink at intervals plastered silly grins on both their faces. It was like seeing a hummingbird flit from flower to flower every five seconds. It’s a breeding place for diabetes, Ava thinks.
When their drink is called, Jules picks it up and stabs it sharply with a straw. Meanwhile, Ava had found a place to sit down to wait, and Jules followed suit. Cosy booths framed the right side of the shop, with sleek wooden bars draped across the ceiling.
‘Excuse me, your drink’s being called.’
Ava flinches at the sudden voice behind her. The brunette girl had bent down slightly and pushed her head through the wooden bars. A small twinkle glints in her eyes.
‘Oh right…sorry, I’ll get it now,’ Ava replies hastily.
She rises from her seat, and attempts to ignore Jules’ giggling as she slowly and shamefully picks up her order. The worker shoots her a familiar I’m-Annoyed-But-It’s-My-Job look, so Ava pipes up a small ‘sorry’ and sits back down.
‘Thanks,’ Ava says to the girl, and takes a sip. It’s bitter and sweet, just how she likes it.
‘Don’t worry,’ the wormhole girl says, standing near the booth, ‘I also forget to collect my drink. Especially after a long day of training.’
Training? Ava wonders what she’s talking about. Her voice was high and lilting; anything she said sounded enticing. She looks at Jules, and is surprised by their curious wide eyes.
‘What kind of training?’ Jules asks. They had stopped drinking all at once, like it was never there at all. Typical Jules, Ava thinks, once they’re interested, there’s no stopping them.
‘Ah, so there’s a University club—’
Before the girl could finish, the front doors slam violently into the wall. Two young men step in, walking languidly with their limbs swaying. They both wore black jackets, and dark grey facemasks covered the lower half of their faces. Compared to the creamy walls and gentle wood motifs in the shop, the two figures stood out violently. Everyone in the store freezes. They approach one of the workers cleaning the table, who tries their best to maintain their composure.
‘H-Hello,’ the store worker says shakily, ‘how can I help you?’
One man draws out a knife.
‘Oh fucking hell,’ Jules hisses under their breath. Ava shoots them a worried look. Their scrunched up face seethed, and they took short heaving breaths. Even after fighting a mass of worker clones, a knife was never a good sight. Ava’s gaze was fixed onto the scintillating blade.
The brunette girl placed her bag on the booth seat and watched.
‘Get the till,’ the man growled, ‘now.’
‘I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ the man replies. He backs off, inch by inch.
‘Don’t “I don’t know” us,’ hissed the other man, who was unarmed but waved his dangly clenched fists. ‘Get us the fucking money!’
The worker hesitates. The armed man gets ready to swing, only to be intercepted by a flash of red. The wormhole girl faces him head on, her stance poised and steady. Knife-guy chortles and shakes his head, lowering his knife.
‘Is this a joke?’ he cries, mockingly backing off, ‘Nah, this has to be a fucking joke. Ain’t no way you could h–’
And she flies forward, sweeping his front leg with hers. The man falls with a heavy kathunk, and the knife clatters away on the floor. Jules seizes the knife without thinking, while Ava simply stares and wipes her sticky palms.
Grimacing in visible pain, the man tries to get back up, but gets clobbered by a controlled punch from the girl. A strand of stray hair hangs from her forehead. Her chin is raised high, but Ava notices the way her head twitches and her hands contract and relax. Fear.
The workers shrink away in the corner, not quite knowing what to do. Suddenly, Ava realises that her phone was sleeping near her all along, so she exchanged understanding looks with the manager. Call someone. Regaining her senses, she begins to text the police. Her fingers were slippery with sweat, but she tapped away, desperate to help somehow. A call would be too conspicuous.
The wormhole girl is too fixed by the knife-guy’s state to notice the other guy fire a punch into the back of her shoulder. She winces and immediately spins around, not hurt enough to fall – the attack was laboured and merely grazed her.
Jules gave Ava a look, one that said I’m going to go. Ava replies with a frantic shake of her head, but the decisive fire in Jules’ eyes told her it was futile to argue.
‘You’re gonna die, you know that?’ the fist-guy yells between punches, all shirked and blocked by the girl. She fires several punches at him to throw him off; a punch to the head, an outward block, and then a swift strike to the collarbone, which elicits a pitchy shriek from the guy. Enraged, he crashes his head into her, knocking her off guard. He attempts a kick, but her eyes flicker and she blocks it with an arm sweep before slamming him in the back with her fist.
She fires an elbow into his chest, enough to make him stumble for a second to pin him down.
'Leave her alone!' Jules strikes him square in the jaw with the knife hilt. His eyes roll back and he collapses, unconscious. Stunned, the girl stares at Jules, half-horrified and half-relieved.
The whole room falls silent again. The girl and Jules stand between the two fallen men on the floor, one nearly unconscious and cradling his leg, and the other knocked clean out. Both of the standing fighters release the tension from their shoulders and exhale, glad the fight was over.
‘The police will be here in a few minutes,’ Ava says awkwardly. The store manager gives her a grateful nod, and watches most of the customers scurry out of the exit. A few minutes later, the police drag the men out of the shop, ask for a CCTV recording and then leave. The store rests in a stasis after the battle, but the cog was reeling again when customers flooded for drinks. It was as if nothing had happened…was this normal for this odd city?
Nevertheless, Jules finds themselves staring admirably at the girl. She had looked pretty cool taking them down, even in her loose red hoodie.
‘I need to work on my stamina,’ the girl says, huffing. ‘Oh, and I’m Freya by the way. What’s your name?’ She extends a hand out to Jules.
Quite startled by the genuine unfamiliar friendliness, they shake her hand. ‘Jules. Nice to meet you. You were pretty badass out there.’
Ava pats the spot next to her. ‘Do you guys want a seat?’
They sit gladly.
‘And I’m Ava, by the way.’ she adds on. She sticks an arm out to shake Freya’s hand, which was sticky from the heated battle.
Jules sips at their tea and swirls the straw around, making the jelly spin in a concerningly fast pace.
‘Aw man, the jelly’s gone all funny.’ they groan.
‘I liked the whirlpool,’ Freya says, propping her head up with her hands. ‘Do it again.’
Jules spins the jelly again, a fraction faster, and the three of them laugh. Ava often missed doing small and stupid things with them; those moments never left her even when they parted.
‘Aren’t you going to get a drink?’ Jules asks Freya.
‘Oh!’ she exclaims, ‘I nearly forgot to collect it. Thanks!’
Freya retrieves a hearty black sugar milk tea, and sits back down to face Ava and Jules.
‘So, as I was saying,’ she continues, ‘I’m part of my university’s Karate Society. We teach people, basically, how to fight.’
‘No shit.’ Ava smirks.
‘I thought you had some form of martial art practice, with all the stuff you were doing.’ Jules says. They took another sip, and carried on. ‘I wanted to train with a club back in my country,’ Jules almost found themself saying universe, ’but they were either McDojos or were discontinued.’
‘Oh, fantastic!’ Freya chirps, pressing her hands together, ‘That means you can train with us. We’re always down for having new members. You showed a lot of potential out there.’
Ava kicked Jules beneath the table, and they both knew they were thinking about how they had fought off the Dana and Mark clones with a single sword. If anyone could learn how to fight properly, it was Jules.
‘You can come with us, if you like.’ Freya says to Ava quickly.
‘No thanks. I don’t really like combat.’
‘Fair enough,’ Freya shrugs, facing Jules eagerly now. ‘How about you, Jules?’
They narrow their eyes, flicking through their schedule in their head, like a laptop scanning for viruses. After a few moments, they blink and come to a conclusion.
‘Yeah, I’ll consider it.’
‘Yay, I’m so excited for you to come!’ Freya exclaims, shaking her fists. ‘You’d get an orange belt in no time.’
Jules blushes at the praise and sips their drink, lowering her gaze. After a pause, Freya clears her throat to catch the pairs’ attention.
‘Also, I know you two followed me into the wormhole. You aren’t very subtle.’
‘Ah fuck,’ Jules says, pressing their lips, ‘I thought you just left?’
‘Not with that massive device you were holding, Ava.’ Freya tilts her head towards Ava’s bag. Ava takes out the FINNA, a big clunky thing, and adjusts its antennae. ‘It nearly blinded me! You’ve got to be more careful with that thing.’
Its lime-green arrow pointed towards the back of the shop, and flickered every time Ava moved it.
‘What is it?’ Freya asks.
‘A FINNA.’ Jules says, as if it were the most common fact in the world.
Freya pouts her lips and shrugs again. ‘No idea.’
‘It helps us navigate universes. You know, like finding maskhål – I mean, wormholes to get back home.’ Ava explains. ‘How did you get here without one?’
‘I don’t know,’ Freya says simply, ‘I just…walk in and out of them. I feel the vibes coming out of one nearby and leave.’
‘You mean,’ Jules says in shock, ‘you just wander in and out of wormholes? You don’t need a GPS or a FINNA or even a phone to help?’
‘Nah.’
‘What. The fuck.’ Ava says flatly. She couldn’t even exclaim the profanities; she was too mentally drained by the whole situation. Jules rubs the back of their head.
‘That’s a nifty device you have there, though.’ Freya says, stroking the exterior of the FINNA with the tips of her fingers. ‘It’s pretty. Maybe I should get one.’
‘You’d have to ask Tricia for one,’ Ava says.
‘Who’s Tricia? Is she nice? Is she rich?’ the girl asks, leaning into the table.
Jules imagines the robotic, apathetic Tricia talking to the warm-hearted Freya. They shiver in response; their boss would never order a FINNA for a random girl. Too much hassle for a big company like us, she would complain, and Jules, don’t forget to clear out the vase display!
‘She’s dead.’ Jules says quickly. Ava nearly chokes on her drink.
‘Oh. That’s a shame.’ Freya frowns.
The three of them chat for a while, enjoying the rare moments of peace in their lives. An hour or so passes, and they find themselves still talking with empty drink cups, sadly sitting there waiting to be thrown away.
A tired-looking man opens the door, and Freya’s face illuminates with recognition.
‘Alfie, what are you doing here?’ Freya leaps from her seat and pulls him into a hug.
‘Just saying hi,’ the man says, ‘Did I miss anything?’
‘A whole lot,’ Freya smiles.
Ava and Jules laugh and consider; perhaps we will visit this universe again.