Writing idea - Chapter One

 When Aimia got back to her house, the strangest thing happened. She went to put her key into the key hole and it wouldn't fit. She tried several times and nothing happened. She surmised that her key must be broken. 

Feeling frustrated, she wandered over to her side-gate and felt for the manual lock on the other side, pushed it open and walked through. She kept a spare key buried in her garden, so she'd have to dig it up and use it. The other key must be broken somehow. 

As she walked past her back window, she jumped, noticing someone was inside her house. The person inside jumped too, and walked over to the sliding door, opening it and saying to her "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Aimia looked at the man in her house, incredulous that he thought this was his property and said back "I live here, this is my house".

The man in the doorway looked at her with a genuinely puzzled expression and said "That makes no sense, I've been living here for the last two years, are you lost, do you need help of some sort?"

Aimia was very confused. "I'm just looking for my spare key" she replied "I usually keep it in the garden, Look, I don't know who you are, but I just went out for a morning walk only an hour ago, and now you're here in my house, I don't know who you are but I'm calling the cops". 

She reached for her phone and unlocked it, but noticed she didn't have a proper signal. She still had 72% batteries, similar to when she last checked, but she no longer had reception. "Darn phone" she exclaimed. "Fine, well I'm driving to the cops right now and they can come here and you can explain what you're doing in my house!" She said tersely. 

The man stepped out of the house. He was about her age - mid thirties, kindly looking, bald, with glasses and a beard and dressed casually. "Look ah...what's your name? I'm Steve" 

"Aimia" Aimia replied.

"Aimia" Steve said, repeating her name "I don't know how to explain this, but if you look inside my house, you'll see all of my furniture, my bookshelf with books, if what you're saying is that this is your house, how could all my stuff have gotten into here in only an hour?"

He stepped out and backed away from her, with the door open, ushering her towards it. "I'll stay out here, and you feel free to poke your head in and look see". He backed further away, so she had plenty of personal space to check things out and not feel threatened. 

Aimia didn't think he sounded scary, so she figured she might as well. Keeping her eyes on the man, she edged towards the doorway and peered into it, while still keeping him in her peripheral vision. She was shocked to see what looked like a well-lived in house, with the kind of habits you'd expect from a youngish man, not completely dirty but not well kept either, with clothing lying here and there. The wall structure and doorways, floors etc all looked like her house, but this couldn't be her house. 

Sticking her head back outside she said "What's your address?"

"5 Sterling Crescent, Wangaratta" Steve said. 

Aimia scratched her head and had a strange, sick sensation in her gut. "And it's 2020 yeah?"

"Yeah, November 4th 2020" Steve said. "Why" he chuckled "Are you from the future?" 

"No, it's November 4th 2020 according to me too" she said. "I just...this is all very weird. This morning i left THIS house to goto the Warby Ranges for a bushwalk, came back and now everything is different".

"Hmmm" Steve said. "Okay, so the only thing I can think of is that either you are in the wrong place, or you are in the right-place, but everything is different for a different reason" he said. "Maybe..." he backed away from her again

"I'm not crazy" Aimia said nervously. He took some more steps back into his fence. "I mean, I get that a crazy person would say that, but I'm not. I know I'm not, this is just impossible". 

"I'm starting to feel really uncomfortable" Steve said.

"Yeah me too Steve" Aimia said. 

"Look, I'm not sure what's going on, but you seem scared and lost, how about we find somewhere public to chat, so neither of us feel threatened and we can try and figure out what you can do".

"Well, I mean, one thing you could do is call my friends and family for me, since I've lost reception. Then they might know what's happening."

"Sure, sure, I'll do that" Steve said. "What's their number?"

Aimia recited her mothers number to him off by heart, he typed it into his phone and rang out, putting it on speaker.

A lady picked up "Hello, who is this"

"Mum!" Aimia shouted out, rushing over to the phone "Mum it's me, Aimi"

"Aimie?" the voice said, sounding confused "Sorry who is this? Is this a scam caller?"

"That's not my mums voice" Aimia said out loud, not particularly directed to Steve, but just out loud.

The person hung up.

"Can you try my best friend Sylvia?" Aimia said, scanning through her phone to find her number.

She found it and recited it to Steve. He called and it said the number was no longer in service.

"Okay, I can see this is getting us nowhere, let's goto a cafe and see if we can figure out what's happening and how to get you back to feeling good again. How about we meet down the street at Solimos cafe".

"Where's that?" Aimia asked

"It's next door to the KFC on Baker street" Steve said

"There is no KFC on Baker Street" Aimia replied, her eyes widening and looking scared.

"Wow...this is just...insane right?" Steve said, "I mean, this is sounding like you're ... this will sound totally totally ridiculous, but... I mean... it sounds like... you're legitimately from another dimension...? It's the same date and time, but you're in a slightly different universe. 

She looked at him like HE was crazy.

"Look, I'm just exploring all possibilities. Have you heard of pralell dimensions? Like in sci-fi tv shows, maybe you've shifted dimensions or something. I mean, nothings impossible right?" Steve said, although he didn't look like he believed his own words. "I mean, how else do you explain what's happening? 

Aimia thoguht it was far-fetched, but couldn't think of anything else to explain it.

Did anything bizarre happen while you were off hiking this morning?" Steve asked, giving Aimia a quizzical look, one eyebrow raised  higher than the other.

"Not really, I mean, It took more like two hours, I just went up to the track I always walk, and walked along it".

"You didn't veer off it at any point, or do something different? If the walk is a constant, then it couldn't have been during the walk that anything weird happened, right?" Steve asked

"Hmmm, well, now you mention it, I did make one slight detour. Near the start of the looped track, I saw an interesting flower, so I walked over to it to check it out, then, instead of walking straight back to the path, I walked through about 10 metres of  bushland to get to the path again".

"Maybe that's where your reality diverged from normal, into this one" Steve said. 

"Maybe" Aimia replied. "I just had a thought, why don't we drive around town and see how much is really all that different. I can goto some friends houses and see if they're there.

"Sure, sounds good" Steve replied. I'll meet you out front.

Aimia made her way out to the front via the dies entrance to where she'd left her car. She had a strange thought. Did she drive her car to her house? As she walked, she couldn't recall that happening. The last thing she remembered after the walk was being at her front door.

Steve met Aimia out the front, to find her standing in the middle of the crescent with a perplexed look on her face. "Are you okay?" he asked

"I don't know where my car is" she replied.

"When did you last see it?" he asked

"When I went on the hike"

"You didn't drive back in it" Steve asked

"I don't remember" Aimia replied. 

"I guess that makes sense, if you left your car in your universe, then it wouldn't be here. But then who drove you home?"

Aimia looked concerned. I have no idea. 

"How long does the walk and drive usually take, all up?" Steve asked.

"One hour" Aimia replied. 

"Earlier you said it had actually taken two hours. So does that mean there's an hour of your life that you don't recall?"

'I have absolutely no idea. Nothing about today makes any sense".

"Okay, well,... if you're comfortable, maybe you could ride in my car"

"I'd prefer to walk instead" Aimia replied. "No offense, but I don't know you, and I just realised that getting in the car with you a stranger... I just ... yeah"

"No worries, I totally understand. All good" Steve said, smiling. "Let's hoof it then".