RANEE MCCOMBS - INTEGRATING WORLDS

Ranee McCombs currently seeks an education at Full Sail University. Aspiring to attain a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing for Entertainment of the Fine Arts. Currently, self-employed McCombs is an entrepreneur, she dabbles in content creation, affiliate sponsorship and web content creation. These led her to Full Sail University. Having practiced perfecting her writing since 7 years old, starting from poems and bleeding into novels and sagas. She graduated with her GED at the age of 17. Ranee McCombs is now 23 years old with two young children. Her son Jeremy is 23 months old and her daughter Ariya is 4 years old.

Integrating Worlds
​

The kitchen is modern and white, behind Kevin are oak paneled walls in an open floor plan that leads into the living room. The same theme follows into the halls and lead to the open floor dining room, lined in ceiling to floor length windows, that let in the natural light.
The island bar is high off the ground, a marbled white counter top, where he sits and wonders whether to open a mysterious box, he found this morning. The box is a little more than suspicious. He had found it before dawn, the box was there sitting half-on-half off of his stoop, it leaned into his bushes; which line both sides of his front steps. The clouds were heavy, and the sun was still rising 
Fresh out of the shower in his robe, working his way around the kitchen; breakfast, coffee and the box. He still did not know what to do with it. Kevin decides to open the box. What’s the worst that can happen?  Kevin retrieves a knife. He sits down his coffee and slashes through tape. Wrapping paper surrounds the only thing in the box. An ornate, gold, skeleton key. Kevin picks it up.
Suddenly hazes of light fill his peripheral. Blues and oranges almost like a swirling fire. Kevin shakes his head. His pulse is erratic, his breathing is short and choppy. He puts the key down. He examines his hands, the key reappears. The world continues to change in front of his eyes. Kevin tries to throw the key, he looks at his hand again, the key was still there!? He cannot see anything. The kitchen seems small and confining. It is completely dark, void of light, he is pressed and squeezed, caged in.  
He moans in agony, Kevin whisperes in a small shaky voice, “I wish everything would go back to normal.” A great rushing wind howls past his ear, the key vibrates in his hand and slowly the world returns to normal. Except it isn’t, it is not his kitchen. Everything is now black themed. With cherry paneled walls instead of oak and black marbled counter tops. He looks at his surroundings carefully. Kevin is startled as he sees his reflection. He shakes his head abruptly and startles again when the reflection reaches for him. It’s not a mirror at all! An identical copy of himself in a dark brown terry robe instead of his usual terry cloth blue.
His copy smiles serenely, still offering his hand. “We’ve been waiting for you Kevin,” he says. His copy motions for him to follow. They walk through the halls toward the entrance. His copy opens the door and reveals a world polar opposite to his own. Everything in chaos. The lawns are ashen and burned, lines of flames run along the streets and yards. The sky is dark, cloudy, and thunderous. Planets loom over head and seem to be closer than the moon. 
Kevin begins to tremble, “Why have you been waiting for me, I am not anyone special,” he says. His stomach churns and sweat runs down his temple. Slowly the world spins around him, he leans against the door frame. He inhales deeply, Kevin tries to calm himself. “What do you think I can help you with?”
Copy Kevin smiles, “Well, with the rebellion of course,” he says. Copy Kevin took his hand and pulls him around the house, to a backyard also polar opposite of his own. Virtually an army base, full of tents, weapons, and an obstacle course. Every person who runs here and there, are all copies of himself. 
Kevin runs his hands over his face, he inhales deeply again. “Are these copies, or alternate versions of me?” he asks.
Copy Kevin grins wide and nods, “Now you’re catching on. Everyone you see here come from an alternate reality, a parallel world. You are the last piece of the puzzle, you have never known who you actually are, what you can do, how important you are. The powers you have, they were dormant until you touched the key, until we brought you here. You are the key to our success,” he says. 
Kevin is running out of air, his lungs burn, and his world spins. His no-nonsense life far behind him. Powers, concentrate, they want you to lead… “What is it that you think, I can do, I am not anyone special from where I come from. I am just an average joe,” he says. 
Copy Kevin gestures for Original Kevin to follow him. Through a winding maze of weapons was a lab, that sits far in the back behind all the chaos. They enter the structure, which is long and low to the ground. Inside everything is all stark steel and sterile beyond comprehension. Not after long they stop in front of a machine. It connects to a chair and a single device.
“Sit here, I will put this neural transmitter on your head and all the knowledge you need to know, all your abilities will be unlocked.”
“Wait, why can’t I go back home, I’m assuming after this that there is not going back.”
“There already is no going back, not unless we succeed. Your world will be last to endure the devastation ours has. But it does not matter that you were alone. You would eventually have kids, or friends who have kids, someone who you wouldn’t want to watch suffer. Knowing you could have stopped it all before it ever happened.”
“SO, there really is no going back,” he says. Kevin leans back in his seat and let his copy put the device on his head.  

​