Lost

She had felt lost countless times in her life, but this was a different kind of lost. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be there – or maybe she was. If that was the case, she would never understand why. This time it was different in so many ways. She might not be lost in the traditional sense of the word yet, but she was about to get lost if she was to find her cat ever again.

Right now, she was still staring at the two purple creatures in front of her. The more wrinkly one – it looked much older than the other one – still looked at her with what she would have guessed would have been a mixture of fear and confusion if it had been a human but this was clearly no human so it was hard to tell what it might be thinking even though it seemed to speak English pretty well.

The less wrinkly one grunted again. “Did you not listen when I told you what to do when they stick their weird hairy heads in here?”

The second one didn’t get a single word out.

It grunted again and then looked at her. “Welcome to the other end, how can I help you?”

She stared at the two in disbelief. “The other side? Am I dead?” She was shaking by now. Her heart was pounding like it was about to break her ribs.

“Dead? What made you think so?”

“The other side …”

“No, no you don’t understand. This isn’t the other side in terms of life and death. This is the other end. The other end of the galaxy to be precise. This is a portal, ma’am”

“A portal?” she breathed. Barely any sound left her throat at all. This couldn’t be the truth. This had to be some cruel joke by the cleaning personnel to make her fear the damn mirror the way they pretended to do.

“Yes, ma’am, a portal. You walk through and you are somewhere else. Never heard of it?” It eyed her up and down waiting for a response that never came. “Let’s try again: how can I help you?”

This might be her chance. “Is this like an airport?”

The creature grunted again. “You humans really believe there are still intelligent forms of life out here who use your primitive technology. But since you somehow keep asking: this is not like an airport, it is much faster. But in terms of it bringing you from one place to another, yes, it is”

It was, perfect. This still looked so off. It seemed much more like a fever dream than like anything even resembling reality. If it wasn’t for her cat she would have ended this a while ago. “Is there a lost and found?”

The less wrinkly creature crossed its arms. “Of course. You humans lose your silly little items all the time.”