Tether

“But you have to. It’s the only way to sever the attachment.”

Saria looked down at the fresh, crisp hundred-dollar bill. She raised it to her face and inhaled deeply, as if trying to absorb its essence. She thought of Darwin, one of her personalities. Struggling to keep his family afloat, this bill would be a beacon of salvation, a lifeline in a sea of despair. But here, in this moment, it was a tether anchoring her to a reality she was meant to transcend.

But here, it was nothing. A useless scrap of paper with no value. And now, this entity, whoever or whatever it was, demanded that she tear it to pieces.

“There are situations where I would have done wretched things to get one of these,” Saria whispered, her voice low and trembling. Her eyes stayed fixed on the money, feeling the weight of her fractured existence.

“It isn’t you who would’ve done anything.”

“Yes, I know, I know. He’s one of my personalities. But I still feel him even when I’m not fully present. You don’t have to keep saying that” she snapped, her patience fraying. “I get it. I’m fractured and broken.” The constant lecturing and smirking tone of her teacher, or guide, or whatever this entity was, was becoming tiresome.

“I’ll keep saying it until you understand, which doesn’t appear to be happening soon. Tear up the money. Your disassociation will be hampered if you don’t. Rip it apart and throw it over the bridge. This is not punishment, Saria. It is severance of one of the many dimensional tethers that bind you to a splintered existence.”

Saria peered over the edge and looked down at the water. The current was slow, soft. It began to pick up speed as she searched for something to say, anything to stall the moment.

“Your courage will drown in that current the longer you look at it.”

She winced at the words, clenching the bill tighter in her fist. Her breathing quickened. Cold and clammy hands. A sharp tingling in her stomach. She couldn’t tear it.

The bridge beneath her silhouetted, flickered, then dissolved into a cobblestone walkway. The transition was seamless yet disorienting, as if the two spaces had always been one. She reached out instinctively, her fingers brushing the damp air in search of balance. The spatial shift overwhelmed her senses, a whirlpool of vertigo and fragmented thought. She stumbled, her mind struggling to grasp what had just occurred. After a few seconds, her senses recalibrated, adjusting to the stress of spatial drift. Unaware, this was not her first traversal between realities.

The walkway was dark and damp, torchlight struggling to pierce the thick fog. Saria stood still, newly conscious, her awareness sharpening as a figure emerged ahead. His movements were slow, weighed down by burden. She knew him instantly: Darwin. One of her personalities. Recognition was immediate and complete. She didn’t just recall him. She entered him. The world bent through his eyes, heavy with responsibility. She felt the pressure on his shoulders, the dull ache in his bones, and the persistent rumble of hunger in his stomach. The intimacy of the connection unsettled her. It was unfamiliar but somehow felt like home.

She withdrew her consciousness from his and glanced down at her hand. Unbelievably, the bill was still there, clenched tight in a white-knuckled fist. Only now, seeing it again, did she feel the pain radiating through her locked fingers.

Darwin steadily approached. The stress of his life bore down on him, slowing his walk to a solemn shuffle. Saria had time. She scanned the area and pried up a loose cobblestone. Beneath it, she placed the bill, then set the stone back down, positioned perfectly in view of anyone passing by. She smiled. Glancing ahead to confirm she still had time, she slipped into the shadows. Wide-eyed, she waited with bated breath as her personality moved slowly toward what could only be described as a gift from God. Yet she didn’t remember stepping into the shadows. She had simply appeared there. And her eye level now hovered nearly a foot higher than usual. Later, Saria would come to understand that these strange revelations marked the beginning of her actualization, a process still far beyond her comprehension.

Darwin was only steps from the money. Saria kept her gaze fixed on him, her perspective shifting. Slowly, it settled above and to the right of him. She looked down, watching as his expression changed, astonished by his sudden fortune.

“Saria! Saria, what have you done?”

She blinked.

She was back on the bridge. The entity stood before her, no expression on its face. But Saria could feel that it was not pleased.

“You’ve done a selfish thing. Not only have you strengthened the hold money has on you, but you’ve stalled your progression. Worse, you’ve implanted into your personality a subconscious and unrealistic expectation for money. But you, lost soul, have no idea what you’ve done… do you?”

Saria, still riding the warmth of her divine intervention, stood firm.

“Yes, I know exactly what I did. I fed my personality and his family for a week. Isn’t it my duty to help them?”

The entity stared, silent and unblinking.