I don’t know why. I just couldn’t help myself. From somewhere deep in my soul I felt the overwhelming urge to reach my hand through the portal. Maybe it was the scientists telling us all the time that at no point or for any reason should we come near this strange shimmering blue veil. It had seemed demeaning to me to suggest that just because we were janitors we would go poking around where we shouldn’t. That being said, I stood exactly too close and wanted very badly to touch what I shouldn’t. The way it moved like clouds was hypnotizing. It felt like there was a presence gently wrapping its arms around me and pulling me into its embrace. It almost didn’t register that it was my own arm lifting up beside me, fingers stretched out to grab an invisible hand. Somewhere in a far away place in my thoughts I saw this as a bad sign, but it quickly faded away. I needed this, I had to go in.

It felt like electricity on my hand. Close to that feeling you get when you sit on your leg too long and it doesn’t feel like yours anymore. It stretched up my wrist to my forearm and up to my elbow. No, it wasn’t moving, I was. It was pulling me in.

“What are you doing!” A panic voice yelled from somewhere behind me. I saw the horrified look on the mans face just before my entire body was engulfed.

The sensation of prickling and numbness was everywhere. I couldn’t tell if I was breathing or screaming or even if my feet were touching the ground. In my delirious state I pictured myself stuck in a TV screen with no reception. I was drowning in a sea black and white moving dots. Those dots were my body. Vibrating and ever changing.

Suddenly I felt solid and my body was being catapulted across a dark void and I was falling fast into a pool of bright light.

I gasped for air and franticly grabbed at myself, utterly grateful to be in one piece. The portal had dropped me back off where I had come, and part of me was disappointed. There were a crowd of awe struck people in the room now. They looked at me, none of them knowing what to do next.

“Are you…ok? Are you hurt?” It was the same man that had seen me go in.

Shakily I stood to my feet and looked down at my body. Same dirty black jump suit and worn non slip shoes.

“I feel ok. “ I said blankly. I should have been grateful that I had survived at all, but I felt let down.

“We need to get him to a bed, run some tests. We will need blood work, an MRI, I think we should start-“

“No!” I protested, interrupting the overzealous scientist. To my delight the room shook at my words.

“I’m tired of being treated like nothing!” A stack of papers and chairs flew from one end of the room to the other on my command. The static was back, but this time it didn’t scare me. I knew it came with power.

They all cowered now, completely at my mercy.

“Now you are nothing!”

The doors flung open and with a gush everyone was pushed through and out of my way.

I walked down the hallway, lights flickering and people stumbling over themselves to flee.

The glass in every window and light bulb exploded and rained down around me. Computers and laptops sizzled and smoked and set off the sprinklers.

It was all a mess, but I would not be cleaning it up.