I read the note over and over again, hoping that I had missed some part of the joke, but nothing else was there. I rubbed my eyes vigorously, in case I had undiagnosed dyslexia. Or, just maybe, I had taken some drugs that I had somehow forgotten about and all of this was a hallucination. 

Nope, definitely real.

How did I even get this letter? If the other Pandora really did exist, how did she manage to send me a letter from her universe? It all made no sense. Not at all. And yet, here Pandora was, clutching a letter addressed to her from herself in a different universe. 

_It’s urgent_, the note had said,_ come fast. Go through the second door in the alleyway outside of the Nightshade Club at EXACTLY 10:05pm tonight. I can’t tell you everything in the letter. It’s too risky. Please, just come. Elias is in danger. For the lost._

_ _Well, I guess I know what I’m doing tonight. Not that I had any other fun plans anyway. I just hope I don’t see my brother outside of the nightclub tonight. His sorry ass is there every Friday, trying to drink away the pain. Our mother committed suicide when we were young, and my brother still blamed himself for it. I think he still has scars he doesn’t want to heal.

I loved her so much, and I never knew how badly she was hurting. She was my everything: my roots, my star, my wind beneath my wings. The day she passed, I made a promise to myself that all of the things I did in my life would be for her. For her, and for my father who came into some bad company and never really got out. He cut ties with me and my brother a long time ago.

For the lost.

That was the only reason I was going to go. Somehow, Pandora knew how to pull my heartstrings, and knew my motto for life. Not only did it make me feel more motivated to go because of the vow I had made to myself, but I was also curious who this Elias person was. He must be special if Pandora sent a letter to me from a different universe, because I sure as hell didn’t have feelings for people, which means _she _sure as hell didn’t either. We were the same.

From my trashed and musty apartment that I shared with my drunkard brother, I began packing the things I thought I might need. I grabbed my phone, my keys, my wallet, and some pepper spray. 

_Pfft. Pepper spray?_ I thought to myself. _This will do nothing if I end up going against a three-headed snake that’s the size of an elephant._

_ _I chucked it back on the bed. I’m not even sure why Pandora asked me to help in the first place. I trained in Karate when I was 8 and only ever made it to a green-stripe belt. She should know that, because she did it too. 

After I gathered the essentials, I began walking out the door, down to the road that the Nightshade Club was on. Before I shut the door to our shitty apartment, I took one good look at it, as if it were my last, and turned on my heels.