Karma

Prologue: Where Did He Go?

“The end came quickly, and there was no pain. It did not leave its body in the world, and I bet it watches over us happily from heaven,” said the priest. Gabby's dad cried out so loud that he scared the priest. Gabby's mom stood by the father's side and tried to comfort him, but her comfort had no effect.

Sometimes Gabby believes what the priest says; sometimes, she does not. “How can they know if Levi gets hurt or not? It might have a bullet hole in his head. How could that not hurt?” She always thinks this way.

At Laywell's funeral, everyone looked sad except its owner Gabby. She was probably the only human who knew that Laywell did not die.

But where did he go? She did not know that either. She could only remember she had the best lunner (between lunch and dinner), and all she wanted to do after was to take a short nap.

Suddenly, she heard a crashing sound, so she looked out the window. Her Levi was outside too, but unfortunately, a car was coming towards him! ‘OH, NO!’ Gabby shouted. She closed her eyes not to see the horrible, terrible picture outside. When she opened her beautiful green eyes, the car passed through quickly and smoothly; there was no blood-like stain on the ground.

She scanned the whole street to try to find Laywell, she preferred to call him Levi, but she could not. But one thing was sure, there was no dead bloody Doberman body on the street, even though everything had changed since she closed her eyes; the street was suddenly empty, the car accident that just happened was in the past, and there was more order than that usual.

She must be crazy; at least, she thought she was.

Part I: Memory

Grandma is the closest person to Gabby. She raised her before her parents came back from Japan; they were entrepreneurs before.

Gabby cannot remember her childhood at all; she can only choose to believe what her grandma told her.

Grandma did not go to Laywell's funeral, so Gabby decided to tell her about it.

“They were so sad; my dad cried out, so you…”

“I know your mom's comforting was not useful at all.” Grandma interrupted her.

“The priest was saying some bullshit; you really should see his face when he said…”

“There was no pain, right?” Grandma seemed to enjoy interrupting Gabby when she was talking.

“You are being weird now, Dolores; I know you weren't there,” Gabby was confused, “Wait a minute, you went there without telling us? Why?”

“I'm just old enough to know everything,” Dolores whispers, “And I know one more thing…”

“What is it?” Gabby asked; she's been feeling lately that there's something wrong with Dolores.

“Laywell…um, I mean, Levi, that dog ain't dead, right?” Dolores said it lightly.

What Dolores said shocked Gabby, but she wasn't sure where Levi went; she just hoped he was still alive.

“I'm not sure… he just disappeared, and later the whole street seemed changed after that…” Gabby tried to remember, but she couldn’t remember everything, “But how do you know?”

“Look who's here!” Dolores opened her bedroom door; a familiar figure ran out of it.

“Levi!” “Woof!”

They hugged tightly, like old friends who hadn't seen each other in ten years.

“I saved him from the car accident. I know you have a lot to ask but hear me out; I just traveled here from the future; you were so sad that Levi died, so I decided to bring it here first. But don't thank me too early; you must go back and save Levi again. I've used time wormholes too many times; this time, it's only five hours long, which means you only have 5 hours. Understand?” Grandma said smoothly as she practiced.

Gabby was taken aback by the sudden message, but she knew she had to do this if she wanted Levi alive.

“Okay, I'll do what you say. Please tell me how to do this right now!” Gabby said anxiously.

Dolores opened her refrigerator; what is unimaginable is that the back of her refrigerator was not a place to store vegetables and fruits, but a door connected to the black hole.

“Gabby, before you step in, you have to concentrate on where you are going and the time you are going to travel to, understand?” said Dolores, “You remember the day?”

“Yeah, I will never forget 22nd April 2022.”

“Good, now stand in front of the door; step in when ready.”

Gabby wanted to hurry up and save Levi and almost ran into the wormhole. She felt very strange; the closer she got to the wormhole, it seemed as if the vague memories of her childhood appeared in front of her eyes. Standing in front of the wormhole, meditating, she tried her best to concentrate on the place and time, but a memory she had never remembered came to her mind.

That was when she was about three years old, and it was the annual kindergarten physical examination day. Her grandmother helped her comb her double ponytail in the morning and gave her a blue strawberry hairpin. After arriving at kindergarten, Gabby was very afraid of blood draw during the physical examination. Dolores said to Gabby, “You are gorgeous today. Beautiful children can't cry.” Gabby's blood drawing process was incredibly long, but she didn't cry at all. After the whole thing, she felt a little lightheaded and walked like she was walking on a cloud.

At the same time, her head also felt dizzy; she felt unstable, so she fell forward.

She fell into the wormhole.

Part II: Grandmother's Secret

At the moment of the fall, Gabby routinely extended her hands forward, not wanting to let herself fall. But she caught two sticks and felt them carefully again like they were made of iron. She tried to stand still, waited for the things in front of her to become apparent, and observed the surrounding environment. She was holding the kindergarten gate, where she went with both hands. She let go of the iron fence and smelled her hand, which smelled of rust. This lets her know that she was not crazy, nor was she dreaming, but had traveled to the kindergarten that appeared in her mind before she entered the wormhole.

“Damn it! I traveled to the wrong place!” Gabby said in dismay, “Pfft, and the time.”

Gabby decided to blame the wormhole entirely for the fault. She thought that since she had time-traveled back to her childhood, she would go to see herself as a child, and she might be able to recall her childhood events. But before that, she decided to try her luck at Dolores’ house. Maybe Dolores, in 2009, already knew the way to time travel.

She walked to the door of Dolores’ house, and before knocking on the door, she smelled an unpleasant smell of blood. She would go to the window first to see what was happening in Dolores’ house.

Gabby walked into the grass, hid by the window, and peered into the house. Dolores’ room looked hot all over; the cupboard, coffee table, window sill, and even the dining table, every flat surface, was filled with candles; the whole room appeared scary and cozy.

It was getting dark, and the candles in the house seemed to be getting brighter. Dolores knelt in the middle, muttering something. Gabby couldn't hear, but she noticed a tuft of hair and a small blood tube in front of Dolores's kneeling.

Dolores stopped mumbling to herself, put the strand of hair on the candle flame, and lit it. She held the burning hair in the middle of her palm, and while the fire was burning, she kept smelling it. She seemed to feel no pain with the fire, as if the burning hair was her heroin.

Until the flames burned out, Dolores put the ashes into that little blood tube and drank it contentedly.

Gabby put one hand over her eyes, trying to forget what she just saw, and one hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming. But her ears told her that Dolores was laughing, a big laugh, even a crazy laugh. Gabby didn't understand the significance of Dolores's ritual, but she recalled the memory that popped into her head before entering the wormhole…

Gabby felt that it must have something to do with herself.

Part III： The Truth

Before Gabby could recover from Dolores’ horrified laughter, Dolores collapsed suddenly.

Although she was terribly frightened, they were still closest relatives, at least once before.

Gabby crawled into the house from the window in embarrassment. Even though the smell inside made her nauseous, she ran to the landline and called her father as fast as possible.

Gabby was an intelligent teenager, and to avoid unnecessary trouble, she pretended to be Dolores’ neighbor and asked them to come over and have a look. After all, Dolores, in the year 2022, said she only had five hours, and now three hours have passed. She didn't want to waste her precious time trying to explain anything.

But to find her childhood self, she still had to secretly follow the car her parents took her grandmother to the hospital.

She stole a bicycle, wasn't afraid of being caught, and didn't have much time left to stay here anyway. It was raining a little, and Gabby liked to hear the sound of raindrops falling on her clothes. Light raindrops fell all over her body, and her clothes got wet, and she even liked it a little now. At least that's what happened to her, not what anyone else said. At least she could feel it.

Sometimes, she felt like her time was being stolen. Who stole it? She doesn't want to know unless she really needs to. She hoped God not tell her because she would not accept this ending.

Part IV: Debunked

At the hospital

Gabby threw her bike at the hospital door and ran in wet.

“Which ward is Dolores in?”

“No. 13, go up to the second floor and turn left. Are you her family member?”

“Thanks.” Gabby didn't care what she asked, she didn't want to waste any more time, but she maintained basic courtesy.

She went up to the second floor and looked to the left. Her parents and her childhood self had just entered Ward 13.

She didn't want to look like a weirdo, so she waited for them to come out.

She was waiting by the seat at the door; they never came out.

She looked up at the clock hanging on the wall. “30 seconds,” she said.

Gabby had only 30 seconds left; she didn`t care what she couldn`t remember anymore; she wanted to tell her childhood self and cherish the time she had memories. She could write a diary so that she will not have so many questions about her current life in the future.

Gabby rushed into the ward; her dad was startled by her, the most familiar stranger.

She grabbed her childhood self with both hands, and before speaking, the child in front of her shouted a familiar name.

“GABBY?! “

It was her own name.

‘Was she calling herself, or was she calling at me?’

How could she guess? It was out of the question.

She almost forgot that others couldn't see her and didn't want the wormhole to scare them. In the last 10 seconds, Gabby ran out and closed the ward's door.

After a period of vertigo, Gabby returned in 2022 to Dolores's home. The wooden floor creaked as she stepped on it, and water dripped from the corners of her clothes and hair. Dolores wasn't home; she slumped on the ground, her limbs limping.

Gabby hopes this is all a dream, but she convinces herself that she must accept the truth.

Part V: The Punishment

Gabby sat for a while, looking around the room, and couldn't find Dolores and Levi.

She was heartbroken; she felt Levi was now helpless because of her inattentiveness. Levi was her best friend and would never betray her, but Gabby was too tired to cry now.

“Gabby!” The voice came from the side of the black hole.

Gabby turned around; she saw Levi running from the wormhole to her side.

She picked him up in surprise, like the wealth that had been missing for many years had suddenly returned, and she never wanted to lose it again.

The hug went on like this for a while, and Gabby suddenly felt a chill down his back and stiffness all over his body.

When did Levi learn to speak?

Gabby pushed the hug away, staring at Levi. Levi was a little terrified by her stare.

“Dolores?” Gabby asked suspiciously.

Levi didn't dispute Gabby's words. In fact, it was Dolores who didn't argue.

“Gabby, I hope you'll give me a chance to explain it. This time I want to be better.” Said Dolores, in Levi's body.

Part VI: Forgiving

Dolores told Gabby why there was a wormhole in her home, which was supposed to be her punishment from the universe.

She used to be a witch, specializing in helping others with life transfer rituals, which did not conform to the universe's rules. This kind of witchcraft can eat people's lives and energy, so she has the wrong idea about Gabby's three-year-old granddaughter. Dolores wanted to steal a few years of Gabby's childhood to keep her soul alive in the world. Her greed didn`t stop there. She didn`t want Gabby to have any memory and wanted to preserve her body, so she turned her body into a temporary vegetative state.

From the time Gabby was 3 to 12 years old, Dolores controlled her body. Gabby's soul is temporarily preserved in Dolores’ body.

The wormhole appeared on Gabby's 12th birthday, the day Dolores returned to her body. It told Dolores that the universe had given her a chance to change what she had done and that she needed to travel back in time and make amends for the wrong things she had done. But crossing comes at a price. Dolores's illness worsened every year, and her body got weaker.

Dolores ignored even the demands of the universe at the time. Every time she traveled back, she would still do a life transfer.

The wormhole was alive; it is a four-dimensional life form. It always knew what Dolores was up to but wanted Gabby to find out for herself, so it arranged the trip.

As for Dolores and Levi's exchange of bodies, it was the punishment the universe gave her.

“Gabby, I really recognize the mistake; it's all my fault! I'm telling the truth, and I'm so guilty.”

Gabby was surprised that she believed this explanation was reasonable because she had been through so many strange things. It's just that she didn't know whether to trust Dolores because she lied to herself for so long and did such bad things to her. She couldn't believe she was her closest relative. She felt like she was going to throw up.

“I'm sorry, you'd better leave; I don't want to see you again.”

“I see, Gabby, I'm leaving, and I won't be in front of you again,” said Dolores.

Gabby, a teenager, deceived for many years, now gave Dolores a middle finger, and the Doberman wagged its tail and ran away.

“But I forgive you,” Gabby whispered after Dolores left.

Epilogue: He's Here

In the middle of the night, Gabby was sitting on the sofa, thinking. Are all memories good? Are all fabricated memories fake? If they are fake, how did people get those memories?

She didn't get an answer, and Gabby thought it might be a test from the universe.

“Life has to go on,” she said, but her heart still couldn't let go.

Who can let go?

……

Gabby was about to nap on the couch; she was cold; she had never felt so cold before. She decided to remember the cold feeling.

Suddenly, she heard a crashing sound from the refrigerator, so she looked up.

Dolores jumped out of the wormhole on all fours, so much so that it smashed the refrigerator door. She sniffed as if she could smell Gabby and sounded excited.

“Woof woof!” She ran over happily.

“Levi! Oh my goodness, it's you!!” This time Gabby didn't feel stingy with her tears.

……

Although Gabby's best friend, a dog, used her grandma's body, she believed Levi could be a better human.

Now, Gabby finally had the same troubles as her peers.

“How should I explain it to my parents?”