Is it the end of you? Or something else... The magical size bracelet chapter 38 by SatireMarker

The foam suddenly vanished, and you were surrounded on all sides by a maze, a mosaic of moving pictures, all in individual panels. In the open space between them, small blue sparks crackled. The pictures themselves were too far away, and too small, and too numerous to focus on. You gave an anguished scream at the visual assault, clutching your head.

Then you felt a hand on your shoulder and gave another scream. Turning, you saw...

Yourself. Smiling and waving at you.

Your eyes bulged and you screamed yet again, worried that the quantum foam had broken your mind totally.

"Nope," came your own voice, invading your brain. "Your mind's not broken."

"What's going on?" you thought loudly.

"Jesus, no need to shout," came the reply.

"Oh, sorry."

"No worries. Anyway, we're safe here. And Josh can't hear us either, don't worry."

You stared around again, the pictures still incomprehensible.

"What is this place?" you thought.

"You shrank out of space and time itself. Now you're in the place the bracelet came from. It's like a failsafe to prevent you shrinking so much that you become a negative force, which I think could destroy reality."

You blinked and shook your head.

"That doesn't make sense."

"'Course it doesn't. What we call 'sense' is based on our dimension's physics. They don't matter here."

"What?"

"Yeah. The crazy power of the bracelet all comes from here. Makes sense when you think about it, right? The thing defies all known science."

That, at least, you understood, after everything you'd just been through.

She sensed the next question and answered.

"It was us."

"What?"

"We made the bracelet. Well, one of us did. It's impossible to know when, but at some point we reached this dimension and then used the power here to create them. Then, in our kindness, we sold it to ourselves, and every time a new choice is made with the bracelet, a new timeline is created."

Your mind blown, you took a few seconds before forming another coherent question.

"But how did we 'get control' of this place? And where are you from?"

"Oh, I just like hanging out here," she said, raising her arm to indicate her own bracelet. "I shrunk myself to sub-Planck and ended up here by accident. I met a few other us-es here, and one of them told me everything. As for how we got control and invented the bracelet? No idea. But this place exists outside of time, so really we always had control. It's a... thingy. A paradox. My guess is she was pulled here accidentally while researching size, or something."

After a pause for you to process all this, she indicated your wrist and grimaced.

"Gave it to Josh, huh?"

"How'd you know that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because I'm you, genius. And also, because...look."

Taking your arm, she pulled you towards the nearest wall of pictures, floating quickly and effortlessly. She showed no sign of stopping as you approached; you were about to cry out when you were pulled through it. On the other side was more of the same visual cacophony, though the pictures appeared slightly different now your eyes were adjusting to them.

"What ARE these?" you asked.

"Haven't you figured it out? It's us."

"What?"

"Yeah. Apparently this place used to be totally dark, 'cept for those blue sparks. Those are the dimension's power, harnessed in the bracelet. As soon as the bracelets were handed out and choices were made, these started to appear. Supposedly."

You were struggling to take in this succession of insane revelations.

"They are every choice in every timeline. That's why there's so many. Look." She pointed at one you were passing, displaying a withered arm wearing the bracelet. "In that one, we grow old with Kainoa Wade. Very sweet. Oh, here we are," she said, stopping abruptly as your head span. She pointed to one screen that was noticeably different: it was Josh's point of view. You could make out his bed and the light, toned arm that wore the bracelet.

"The bracelets were programmed with a random chance to fit a new master if given up. It was written in the instructions, you know."

"Fuck," you cursed, having not read them thoroughly. "That's stupid."

"Not as stupid as giving it away," she said, nudging you playfully. "Anyway, when I saw him shrinking you so much, I figured you might be on the way. There's very few timelines where somebody else gets hold of it. One of them ended up in a pocket universe. A few poor bastards even managed to break it, which is difficult to say the least. One guy got stuck at one-thirty-second of an inch and captured by Josh for months."

"Not so bad."

"Yeah, but you'd get bored."

"True."

"Most of the time it went well, though. Apparently, young volleyball players really like being dominant giants. One of us became a grain of rice-sized pet for Tread and Matthew - they're secret lovers, by the way - and another teamed up with them to explore giant Magnus Hettervik. One shrank so small an arse became planet-sized, and lived there. One gave Alex Parks a mini-skyscraper full of tinies to rule. One pretended to be a wish-granting tiny fairy, another had Josh rule the world. One guy caused drama between Josh and Amber, then became Amber's little girlfriend... or Trevell Jordan' girlfriend... or a hundred others. Another made the sexy bear dad of one of the cleaning staff obscenely rich. I saw one where we shrink and explore my ex-boyfriend Carlsen from college. There was one I liked with...-"

"Alright, alright, I get it."

"Sorry." She said. "Point is, we do cool stuff, we do stupid stuff."

"But none as stupid as me, right?"

"At least you're alive."

He paused. "Anyway, here." She reached into a pocket and produced... another bracelet!

Marvelling, you took it from her. "Don't give this one up," she said with a smile.

You hugged her in relief, and she returned it warmly.

"But I was lost in space," you thought, pondering growing back. "How am I gonna get home?"

The other you laughed and shook her head. "Do you think these are just TVs?" waving her arm around.

"Um...No?" you thought back, and the laughter redoubled.

"Sorry, sorry," she said. "These are portals, my girl."

Your heart leapt. "Portals?"

"Yeah. You can hop through them and land in any timeline. It's best we stick to our own, though. It's not good to have two of us running around."

"So I can just..."

Other you nodded.

"How?"

"Hold your horses," came the response. "There's an issue. Josh has a bracelet. There's no telling what might happen if two bracelets give contradictory instructions."

"So I take it from him."

"Well, yes, but it's not that simple. He's the master of it."

"If he doesn't have invincibility on, I can just shrink his brain to nothing, right?"

"Right, but if he does..."

"Might destroy the universe."

"Exactly."

"What about if I talk to him? We could just both have the power."

"Might work. But good luck explaining all this to him."

You grimaced and thought about it. "What else can I do? I want to go home."

"Well..." She indicated another portal to her left. This one was pitch black. You looked at her quizzically.

"This is a version of us that died right after getting the bracelet for the first time. Grew our brain and not the rest of our body, head exploded, dead. Clown. Anyway, the portal's frozen in time, so you'll get in just after the choice is made and then take over her life."

"What? You mean just go back to the start?"

"Yeah...and leave your timeline to Josh. And I have to say, in some of the timelines where we let him decide what to do, he does some pretty fucked up stuff to the universe. But, then, so do we."

You pondered. You had no idea what Josh might subject your universe to, but it would be better than annihilating it.

"What about the dead girl's bracelet?"

"You're wearing it. I took it from her body when I knew you were coming. I also shrunk all evidence of her down to nanoscopic size. Nobody'll find her. So you can just head back to the stadium as soon as you go through."

"Smart."

"Thanks." She paused, then sent another thought. "So... you've got a choice. And as usual, it's a choice of two." She smiled.

"Hey, sometimes it's a choice of three."

"Yeah, not this time though."

"Right. Go to my own timeline to stop Josh and potentially destroy the universe, or... take over the dead girl's life and start over again? Head to the volleyball stadium like before?"

A nod.

Pondering your choice you took a deep breath as you gripped the object that had caused all this, then, with renewed resolve, put it on.

You felt a comfortingly familiar feeling: it nestled into the skin automatically, shaping itself perfectly around you. Its power surged through you once more and you sighed with relief.

"Your call, mate." said the other you. "When you're ready, put your hand on the portal you want and think about going through it. Doesn't need more than that."

"Thanks," you said to her sincerely.

"No worries, handsome," she replied cheerfully. "If I can't help myself, who can I help?"

"True."

She laughed, waved, and floated away. "Good luck!"

It took a couple of minutes, but you made your decision and reached out and touched the portal you had selected; it shimmered slightly as you made contact. As instructed, you concentrated hard on entering it. Immediately, a strange pull bore your entire body forwards and a burst of light made you cover your eyes. When it faded, things felt...normal again, somehow.

Opening your eyes, you saw that it had worked.