Hearing the sheer panic in Mason's voice, Dante thought something terrible had happened to Silas. He sprinted down the hallway and rushed into the room, a towel thrown hastily over his shoulder.

  Mason didn't say a word. He just pointed a shaking finger at Silas's shoulder.

  Dante looked down. The color completely drained from his face. He stumbled back a step, utterly shocked by what he was looking at.

  Feeling the rising panic from his friends, Silas finally looked down at his own shoulder. His breath hitched in his throat.

  The massive, gaping chunk of missing flesh was gone. The severe, blackened burns from the cauterization had vanished. In their place was completely smooth, unbroken skin. His wound was completely, miraculously healed.

  They stared at it in dead silence, unable to believe their own eyes. All three of them clearly remembered how horrific the injury had been. They had seen the exposed muscle, the torn tissue, and the rivers of blood. The current flawless condition of his shoulder didn't make any scientific or logical sense.

  Silas swallowed hard. He slowly moved his right hand toward the wound, grabbing the half-withered, mutated leaf that had been covering his shoulder.

  Mason and Dante held their breath. They braced themselves, fully expecting to see exposed bone and shredded, blackened muscle hiding underneath it.

  Silas slowly peeled the massive leaf away.

  They all stared in absolute silence.

  The gaping wound was gone. Where there should have been a horrific, jagged hole in his shoulder, there was only smooth, healthy tissue. The only evidence that he had ever been injured at all were a few minor, faded burn marks where the fire had scarred the surface. It was almost completely healed.

  They were all speechless. They just knelt there on the floor, staring blankly at his shoulder.

  Silas finally broke the heavy silence. "I think I just surpassed human limits," he said.

  The exact same question popped into both Mason’s and Dante’s minds: What????

  A slow smirk spread across Silas's face. "I really have transcended."

  Mason and Dante slowly tore their eyes away from the healed flesh. They looked up at Silas with expressions that clearly asked, Has he completely lost his mind? What kind of nonsense is he spouting?

  "I mean, what other explanation is there?" Silas asked, shrugging his perfectly good shoulder easily.

  Mason stood up, shaking his head. "There is definitely something wrong with your head. Maybe you were right about that plant. It seems the mutation caused it to develop an incredible, rapid healing power."

  Silas let out a deeply disappointed sigh. "You just can't bear to see me happy, can you?"

  Dante let out a breathless, relieved laugh. "Whatever it is, it's amazing. Your skin and a huge chunk of muscle were literally torn off. Now, except for those minor burn scars that look like they'll fade soon... it's as good as new."

  Before anyone else could speak, the bedroom door creaked open.

  Ronan stood in the doorway. He paused, taking in the scene.

  Silas was sitting half-naked on the floor, sweating and covered in strange, wet fluids—the antiseptic Mason had used to clean off the dried blood. Mason and Dante were kneeling incredibly close to him, hovering intensely over his bare shoulder in complete silence.

  Ronan slowly grabbed the door handle.

  "My bad for disturbing you guys," Ronan said awkwardly, his eyes darting away to the ceiling. "I will leave you all alone."

  He gently pulled the door shut, clicking it closed.

  Inside the room, the three of them blinked. Mason, who was still standing, looked down at Dante and Silas. Dante and Silas looked back up at Mason. They were all completely confused by Ronan's sudden exit, just staring at each other in bewilderment.

  Then, it clicked.

  Their eyes widened in sudden horror as they realized exactly what that intimate, quiet scene looked like without any context. All three of them scrambled off the floor and rushed out of the room into the hallway.

  "It's not what you're thinking!" Silas yelled down the hall.

  Ronan held up his hands defensively. "Don't worry, bro. I won't judge."

  Silas lunged forward and caught Ronan in a tight headlock. "Let me be the judge of whether you live or die!" Silas threatened playfully, wrestling him against the wall.

  Mason and Dante jumped in, laughing and trying to pull Silas off before he actually choked Ronan out.

  "How the hell am I gay if I literally have a girlfriend?!" Silas yelled, aggressively rubbing his knuckles into Ronan's hair.

  The chaotic, exhausted comedy went on for a few minutes in the hallway. The heavy, suffocating dread of the mutated dimension finally lifted from their shoulders. They needed this laugh more than anything.

  Eventually, they stopped, panting and completely out of breath.

  Silas, tired from all the commotion he had just caused himself, leaned against the hallway wall. "Well, at least no hospital visit is required for me."

  He walked back into the room and carefully picked up the remnants of the withered, mutated leaf from the floor.

  "I'm keeping this somewhere safe," Silas said seriously, slipping it into a plastic ziplock bag from his desk. "I need to check this thing on a cellular level. I can run tests on it in the labs when college starts back up."

  "Now," Mason said, crossing his arms, "let's sit down and think about what actually just happened to us out there."

  "I'll check online," Ronan suggested, pulling his phone out. "I'll see if there's any mention of this portal thing or giant bugs."

  "You guys do your investigation," Dante said, turning toward the door. "I'll go make something for us to eat."

  "Let's just order something," Silas interrupted. "I don't think any of us have the energy to stand over a stove right now."

  Dante sighed in immense relief. "You're right. I am exhausted."

  "Well then, what's the wait?" Silas smiled, grabbing his own phone. "What do you guys want to eat? Tell me. The treat is on me."

  Silas walked over to his desk and sat down heavily on the floor. His dog, Daisy, trotted into the room. Sensing his exhaustion, she plopped down beside him and rested her heavy chin gently on his open laptop keyboard.

  Silas reached out and scratched her behind the ears. "Do you want to eat something special too, girl?"

  Daisy’s tail thumped against the floor, her eyes perking up with immediate interest. Chuckling, Silas added a hearty meat and egg dish to the delivery order just for her, while the others shouted out their picks from across the room.

  While they waited for the food to arrive, Ronan and Mason scoured the internet for any clues, urban legends, or news reports about rippling air, missing people, or mutated insects.

  Meanwhile, Silas's phone began to vibrate wildly in his hand. The caller ID flashed. It was his girlfriend, Rhia.

  Silas stepped out of the room, leaving the others to their research, and walked down the hallway. He answered the call, instantly getting hit with a barrage of worried nagging.

  "Silas! You need to at least respond once!" she scolded him, her voice tight with genuine anxiety. "I called so many times! I was worried sick that something had happened to you!"

  Because they had been trapped in the mutated dimension, Silas’s phone had zero signal for hours. None of her messages or calls had gone through until they stepped back through the portal.

  "I'm so sorry," Silas said softly, the remaining adrenaline completely leaving his body at the sound of her voice. "I couldn't answer. I'll tell you everything in a little while, I promise."

  "Where were you?" she asked.

  "It's a really long story, and it's going to take some time to explain," Silas said. He sat down, leaning his head back against the wall. He let out a tired laugh. "But honestly, I'm not even sure if you're going to believe me. I was there, and I'm having a hard time believing what just happened myself."

  Hearing the deep exhaustion in his voice, her tone instantly softened. "You sound so tired. Just get some rest first."

  A warm smile spread across Silas's face. "I will."

  "Is it alright if I explain everything late tonight?" Silas asked. "The guys and I are about to have dinner."

  "That's fine," she said gently. "Go eat."

  Silas closed his eyes, feeling incredibly lucky to have her as his girlfriend. Sitting in his home, listening to her breathe over the line, he thought to himself: If I had died in that place, maybe not being able to talk to her again would be my biggest regret.

  "Honestly," Silas murmured, his voice dropping an octave, "if you were in front of me right now, I would just lick the fuck out of you."

  "Tone down the nonsense and go rest, you idiot," she laughed, clearly flustered.

  They hung up the phone.

  He went back to his room, placed his phone on the desk, and left to take a long shower to finally scrub the dried centipede blood off his skin.

  Soon he came out, feeling human again, and just as he did, the doorbell rang. Dante jogged to the front door, grabbed the heavy takeout bags, and brought them back into the room. He began preparing the plates, passing the hot food around for all of them to finally eat.

  Silas sat down heavily on the floor with the others. "God, I am hungry," he sighed, grabbing a container of food.

  Hearing this, Ronan shot him a slow, knowing smirk. "Really? I think you are plenty full."

  Silas looked up, his brow furrowed in confusion. Then he saw the smug expression on Ronan's face and instantly realized what had happened. Ronan had been eavesdropping on his phone call with Rhia just a few minutes ago. He had definitely heard Silas telling her exactly what he wanted to do to her.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Annoyed and embarrassed, Silas’s expression shifted. He offered Ronan a slow, dangerously sweet smile.

  "What exactly do you mean by that, Ronan?" Silas asked, his voice dropping ominously.

  Mason paused mid-bite, confused by the sudden, intense shift in the room's atmosphere. He leaned over and whispered to Ronan. "What did you do? Why is he suddenly angry?"

  "Nothing," Ronan said quickly, holding his hands up in defense. "I was just joking. I was just... thinking that big wound on your shoulder must have filled your stomach. Right, Silas? Right?"

  Silas held the threatening glare for another second before letting out a breath. "Nice save. Let's start eating, then."

  They all ate their fill in relative silence, the day's exhaustion finally catching up to them. Before he even touched his own food, Silas made sure Daisy had her bowl filled.

  After they were all done, Silas wiped his mouth and stood up. "I have some work to do."

  Mason and Dante looked up at him in disbelief.

  "What else is left to do?" Mason asked.

  "Aren't you completely exhausted already?" Dante added.

  "I am," Silas admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I have to do this right now. You guys go rest in the guest room beside mine. The mattresses are safely stored in the wooden rack—the one next to the table that doubles as a desk. Dante knows where everything is. I'll head to sleep as soon as I'm done."

  Ronan let out a loud yawn and stood up. "Let's let him be. I am way too sleepy to argue. Dante, show me where that rack is. I can't stay awake for a minute longer."

  After the three of them shuffled out of the room, Silas walked over to his desk and woke his PC from sleep mode. He started frantically searching the internet for keywords related to their nightmare: portals, mutated bugs, silver ash. After a long while, he sighed heavily, grabbing his forehead in bitter disappointment. He was completely unable to find anything related to what they had experienced.

  He stood up and quietly walked down the hall to check on the others. As he peeked into the guest room, Daisy lifted her head from the floor. Silas quickly placed a finger over his lips, signaling for her to stay quiet. She huffed softly and laid her head back down. Silas saw that his friends were already in a deep, dead sleep, their phones resting on top of the wooden storage rack beside them.

  He quietly went back to his own room and closed the door, locking it from the inside.

  He pulled a small key from his pocket and unlocked his bottom desk drawer. He reached inside and pulled out his heavy, university-grade microscope. Next, he pulled out the withered, mutated leaf and a small glass vial. Inside the vial was a pinch of the silvery dust—the exact same stuff that had been left behind when the centipede’s thick blood dried off his jacket.

  He placed the vial safely inside the locked drawer.

  Using a sterile scalpel, he cut a tiny piece off the leftover leaf. He set it carefully on a glass slide and peered through the microscope lens.

  His eyes widened instantly. A slow, deeply amused smirk crept across his face.

  "This is interesting," Silas whispered to the empty room.

  The leaf cells were massively larger than what a normal plant cell should be. But that wasn't all. Silas grabbed a dropper and squeezed a single drop of distilled water onto the slide. The dead, withered cells violently and instantly absorbed the water. Miraculously, the leaf cells came back to life right before his eyes, regaining their unnatural, purplish-green hue.

  Silas instantly grabbed the dropper again. He looked through the lens as he squeezed water onto the slide, drop by drop. He was absolutely amazed at the speed the water was getting absorbed. Soon, that entire test section of the mutated leaf was completely back to life. It looked as vibrant and greenish-violet as if it had been freshly cut from a brand new alien plant.

  Then, a sudden thought came to Silas's mind.

  If that silver dust was the thing that caused this mutation... and if the silver substance in the centipede's blood was that exact same thing...

  He unlocked the drawer and pulled the small vial of dust back out. Carefully, he coated the very tip of a sterile needle with the silvery powder. He gently tapped the needle over the revived leaf sample on the slide.

  He looked through the lens.

  The greenish-violet leaf cells instantly absorbed the dust and began replicating at an insane, terrifying speed. The plant matter expanded rapidly beneath the lens, but then, just a few seconds later, it abruptly stopped. Silas dropped a little more dust onto the slide, but he got no further reaction.

  So it is, in fact, this dust causing it, Silas thought, leaning back in his chair. And it looks like there's a biological limit to how much of this can be absorbed at once. Or maybe the test sample is just too small to support any further changes.

  He tapped his fingers on the desk. Whatever it is, mutation isn't a quick or easy process anyway. For any further changes, I might need a lot more of this dust than I currently have.

  Then, a horrifying question came to his mind. A drop of cold sweat poured down his forehead.

  We were in that dimension for so long. And all of this dust dropped directly on us from that monster's blood. Silas gripped the edge of the desk. If this microscopic amount can cause that much change in a plant... what will happen to us?

  Panic rising, he walked over and stood in front of his full-length mirror. He undressed quickly until he was just in his shorts. He looked closely at his body. He inspected every inch of his skin, searching for glowing veins or strange growths.

  He saw no visible changes. There was nothing that looked like a mutation.

  "I really hope this just doesn't cause me cancer," Silas muttered to his reflection.

  He let out a shaky breath and put his clothes back on. Walking back to the desk, a reckless, scientific idea formed in his mind.

  Silas grabbed a clean container. He placed the rest of the dried-up leaf inside, poured in a generous amount of water, and dropped exactly half of the silver dust he had left directly into the mix.

  Just as he suspected, the reaction was explosive.

  The leaf was back to brand new, but it remained firmly mutated. It was as if nothing had ever happened to it. It was completely repaired, regenerating even its damaged and missing parts perfectly, its thick veins pulsing with that sickly violet color. Good as new.

  Silas took a small piece of the newly formed leaf. He crushed it with the heavy handle of his scalpel until he made a thick, purplish-green paste from it.

  He grabbed his sharp pocket knife.

  He swallowed hard. A nervous, adrenaline-fueled smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. Without giving himself time to hesitate, Silas pressed the blade to his palm and made a quick, minor cut. A thin line of bright red blood immediately welled up.

  His hand trembling slightly, he scooped up a glob of the purplish-green paste. Nervously and slowly, he applied it directly onto the shallow wound.

  The stinging stopped instantly. Within seconds, the wound sealed and healed completely.

  Silas let out a breathless, hesitant laugh. He remembered the kind of horrific, gaping wound he had healed on his shoulder earlier that day. The healing ability of this thing is absolute insanity.

  And then, he wondered. What if it wasn't just because of the leaf? What if my own body absorbed the dust and gained the ability itself?

  To test the theory, he took the knife and quickly nicked the tip of his index finger. He grabbed a few drops of his blood and smeared them onto a fresh glass slide, observing his bleeding finger closely.

  He waited. The blood kept dripping.

  He let out a disappointed sigh. "And here I thought I also gained some kind of ability." He looked at his still-wounded finger, shaking his head. "Yup. No healing ability. It really was just that leaf."

  He wiped the excess blood off his finger and applied a tiny dab of the leftover purplish-green paste, instantly healing the small cut.

  Then, Silas had one last thought. He carefully dropped a tiny pinch of the silver powder directly onto his blood that was still sitting under the microscope. He pressed his eye to the lens, observing. He watched intently, anticipating and praying for a change.

  He stared at it for several long minutes. Nothing happened.

  Suddenly, his cell phone rang loudly on the desk.

  The sudden noise gave the hyper-focused Silas a massive scare. He jolted in his chair, his heart pounding against his ribs. Disappointed that there was no change in his blood even after waiting so long, he tightly closed the lid of the small vial of silvery powder.

  He picked up the phone. It was his girlfriend. He called her Rhia—a sweet, affectionate nickname only he used for her.

  He answered immediately, his voice buzzing with nervous energy. "Rhia! Get on your PC right now. I'll video call you. I have some insane things I need to show you."

  She agreed quickly, sensing his excitement. He instantly hung up and dialed her from his PC app. Both of their webcams flicked on.

  "Before I tell you anything," Silas said seriously, staring directly into the lens. "Stay absolutely calm and just watch."

  His girlfriend's face appeared on the monitor. Rhia was sitting in her bedroom hundreds of miles away. She looked so happy that he seemed energetic and safe. She offered him a warm, devoted smile. "Alright. But you need to calm down a little, Silas."

  Silas didn't answer. He adjusted the camera to point at his desk. He showed her the massive, greenish-violet leaf. He cut off a small section and crushed it into a thick paste right in front of the lens.

  Rhia tilted her head, wondering what on earth her boyfriend was doing.

  Silas grabbed the heavy pocket knife. He held his left hand flat under the camera and sliced the blade in a deliberate, long line across his palm. A shallow, long cut opened up. Dark blood beaded to the surface and began dripping slowly down his wrist.

  Rhia shrieked in absolute horror.

  She slammed her hands onto her desk, her face going pale with sheer panic. "Silas! What the hell are you doing?!" she screamed, her eyes wide with frantic, terrified worry. "Why would you do that?! Silas, are you out of your mind?! Please, what are you doing?! Answer me!"

  As Silas calmly scooped up the purplish-green paste and applied it to his bleeding wound, he looked up at the screen at his panicking girlfriend.

  "Do not panic," Silas said smoothly. "I will be alright, and you need to trust me. This is amazing. I know I might sound insane right now, but I just discovered it myself."

  In just a few minutes, the bleeding stopped. The wound sealed shut. While she was still panicking, her breath catching in her throat, he lifted his hand and showed her the palm.

  It was completely healed. Not even a scar remained.

  Rhia stopped yelling. She stared at the screen, utterly shocked. She couldn't comprehend how a simple leaf had the biological properties to heal a wound instantly.

  But the shock quickly gave way to furious, terrified relief. She immediately started yelling at him again, her voice shaking. "Don't you ever do something so dangerous to yourself again! Do you have any idea how terrified I was?! You don't get to just slice yourself open for some stupid experiment, Silas! Never again!"

  He let out a soft laugh, his heart aching a bit at how genuinely scared he had made her. He spent the next ten minutes apologizing and somehow managing to calm her down completely.

  Once she was quiet, he sat back and told her everything that had happened that day.

  Rhia listened in heavy silence. At first, she was horrified and deeply worried about the monsters. Then, she looked incredibly sad that the person she loved most had been forced to go through such a traumatic, near-death experience. Finally, a profound wave of relief washed over her features. He was alive.

  "Show me the wound on your shoulder," she demanded suddenly, her eyes narrowing. "I want to confirm it's really alright. I need to see it with my own eyes."

  "It was nothing," Silas smiled reassuringly. "Just a little burn mark remained where Mason cauterized it."

  He reached down and pulled his t-shirt over his head. He angled his bare shoulder toward the webcam so she could get a clear look. But as he glanced at his own monitor to check the camera angle, he froze.

  He was completely shocked.

  Even the burn mark had disappeared. The skin was entirely flawless.

  "Silas?" Rhia asked, her voice laced with sudden worry as she saw all the color drain from his face. "What happened?"

  He slowly looked at his monitor screen, where his girlfriend's beautiful, concerned face was visible.

  "It's... it's completely alright," Silas stammered quietly. "Like, not even the burn marks are there anymore."

  "Isn't that a good thing, then?" she asked, looking confused by his sudden fear.

  But Silas was breaking out in a cold sweat. "I removed the leaf off completely an hour ago," Silas whispered.

  "Maybe some of the sap was left on your skin," Rhia suggested quickly, trying to find logic to soothe him.

  Silas took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Maybe that was really it, he thought. I didn't see any visible change in my blood under the microscope, and the silver powder didn't seem to affect my cells. So it's probably all good.

  "Yeah, you're right," Silas nodded, forcing a smile for her.

  They talked for a long while after that, letting the comfort of each other's voices ground them. While they spoke, Silas carefully cleaned all of his medical equipment. He placed the massive mutated leaf into a heavy glass jar filled with water and sealed the lid tightly. It won't rot away, he thought, seeing as how violently it devoured the water earlier.

  Finally, the late hour caught up with both of them. Before they hung up to head to sleep, Silas's tone turned incredibly serious.

  "Rhia, I need you to be careful," he warned her. "There is no saying exactly what happened to us today, or if these portals are opening anywhere else as well. But what is absolutely sure is that there is something in this world that no one knows about. And it's deadly."

  "I will," she promised softly.

  "Stay aware of your surroundings," Silas urged. "If you ever notice the streets getting too quiet, or if the population around you suddenly seems to decrease... just turn your back and run."

  She offered him a reassuring, deeply devoted smile. "Silas, I won't even go out. It's the holiday season. Sleeping and resting at home is the best thing anyway." She rested her chin on her hand, looking at him longingly through the screen. "Though... it would have been really nice if you were here with me."

  Because they didn't live in the same city, distance was always their biggest enemy.

  Silas smiled warmly. "I know. But I will visit you in exactly two months for your birthday. I haven't forgotten."

  Rhia’s smile widened into a teasing, possessive grin. "And you better keep that promise, Silas. I've been waiting for so long."

  Silas chuckled, rubbing his tired eyes. "Well, I don't want to get beaten up and bullied by my own girlfriend, so I definitely will. Plus, I can't have my special heavenly sight pass revoked."

  Rhia blushed furiously, laughing brightly at his teasing. They both enjoyed the warm comfort of each other's digital company for a few more minutes before finally telling each other goodnight.

  Silas closed his PC. The screen went black, plunging the room into darkness.

  He stood up and walked out of his room to get a glass of cold water from the kitchen before he slept. But as he drank in the dark, the thought of the burn mark disappearing completely without the leaf still lingered heavily in the back of his mind.

  He shook his head, forcibly dismissing the anxiety. Overthinking all the time is not good, he told himself firmly. Just go to sleep, Silas. It’s been an impossibly long day. Even you need rest.

  He walked back into his bedroom and collapsed onto his single bed. He didn't bother turning on a lamp. His PC was closed. The only light in the room came from the faint, blinking blue LEDs of his internet router and the pale moonlight filtering softly through the window blinds.

  A moment later, he felt a soft weight near the foot of the bed. Daisy had quietly pushed the door open. She hopped up onto the mattress and laid down heavily beside his leg, letting out a long, contented sigh.

  Silas smiled in the dark, reaching down to give her a gentle, comforting pat. His eyes grew heavy, and he slowly drifted off into a deep, much-needed sleep.