The smell of the air changed. Within the blink of an eye, I was back in my old world. It felt the same as when I entered the photo-world during all of our experiments, so I wasn’t particularly stunned or anything. It was surprising how much I’d grown accustomed to this.
Apparently, I jumped out of the photo. The brief second suspended in the air made it difficult to land on my feet. Planting them squarely on the ground, I barely managed to catch my balance.
“Oh, whoa!” The shrill cry hurt my ears.
Turning toward the sound of the voice on reflex, I saw ██████-senpai standing diagonally in front of me, so close I could touch her if I held my arm out. From her perspective, I just appeared from thin air, so it was no wonder she was surprised. She reeled back, whacking her head against the stack directly behind her. The impact sent several books tumbling to the ground. A cloud of dust filled the air.
“Huh? What? What gives? What’s going on? What just happened?” It felt like I hadn’t seen ██████-senpai in ages as she threw question upon question at me, completely indifferent to the books she knocked down.
I could feel her breath on my cheeks. Oh, yeah. She was the type of person who would inadvertently enter my personal space… I felt like I was a bit more comfortable with the opposite sex after my co-ed life with Iris, but certain things simply made me feel awkward.
I was trying to squirm away from Senpai as she bore down on me. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to run in this cramped space lined by library stacks. Senpai pounced on me like a predator and began shaking me by the shoulders.
“Hey! C’mon, didn’t you just vanish? And then you reappeared! Or was that my mind playing tricks on me? No, I saw it with my own two eyes! Gyaaah! Shoot, I just saw a real paranormal phenomenon! ♪” she cried, absolutely ecstatic. If she saw an SCP object, I bet she’d faint from excitement.
At any rate, even though I spent several months in the other world, I was gone for less than a few seconds here. Perhaps since the photo was a still image, time didn’t pass while I was in it.
I didn’t really understand how that worked. I should report as much as I could remember and have researchers who were several dozen times smarter than me look into it. Then I could ask what they thought. That was easier, and it made me extremely happy that it was an option… I was thrilled that I could return to that world and talk to Iris in the future.
Seeing as time didn’t pass any in this world…there was no worry that I put my parents and everyone out by disappearing without a trace for so long. It was great this had a happy ending where no one was sad or upset.
Wait, hold up. There was still no guarantee I could return to that other world. It wasn’t like we had already proven I could bounce back and forth between the two worlds. Not to mention, Iris was the only one capable of pulling me out of the picture. Although the odds were less than one in a million, if she didn’t want to see me again, that would be the end of it. She could sever our bond and my connection with the other world from her side.
Pathetic as it was, I was suddenly filled with apprehension. I hastily began searching for my connection (that photo) with the other world! Dropping to my knees, I started to shuffle through the books scattered on the floor.
“Oh, oops! I made a mess! Let me help!” Senpai offered as she excitedly squatted under the false impression I was enthusiastically cleaning up the books that got knocked down.
She picked up the copy of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There lying next to her and looked at me. “You have to give me the dirt later! I want to unravel the paranormal phenomenon that I saw! And you’re a key player! I won’t let you off the hook…!” Senpai exclaimed. It was scary how she panted from excitement, but more importantly…
A photograph was peeking through the pages of the book in ██████-senpai’s hand. I carefully took the book from her and flipped it open with my heart racing. Tuning out senpai’s ramblings until they were nothing more than background noise, I stared at the photo in the book. My heart was filled with expectation.
For some odd reason, lately, whenever I cracked open a book in this world, I would find a photo stuck inside. It was always of a cute girl. In the past, I didn’t know that girl’s name. But I knew now. And I would probably remember it for the rest of my life.
Iris. Brought together in a world both near yet far, she was someone dear to my heart.
“Oh, what’s up with that photo? Where did it come from? Who the heck is that girl? Do you know her? Who are those people around her? Yikes! Isn’t there something freaky about that cat?!” Noticing something strange about what Senpai screamed in my ear, I looked back down at the photo.
As illogical as ever, some time seemed to have passed in the photo. Iris wasn’t the only one in it now.
First off, there was Dr. Bright standing unnecessarily proud with their head held high. I wasn’t sure if they were simply passing by or if Iris asked them to come, but Dr. Goldman and Dr. Selkie were also there. Finally, there was even Josie the Half-Cat with half its body missing. She was held in Iris’s arms.
I felt deeply touched as I looked at the photo. In the past, Iris was the only one who appeared in the photos here in this world. But now it included the people and SCP objects I met and interacted with during my time at that strange research facility. Above all else, Iris was smiling. Her smile was filled with affection directed toward me.
The things I experienced in that world weren’t a dream or illusion… I felt that keenly now. They would always remember the time we shared, and I would never forget. And if I wanted, I bet they would welcome me back to their world…with warm smiles like the ones in this picture.
I could return to my other home, where strange SCP objects existed all around us.
—END OF FILE