Rima was the kind of person who made friends easily.

She was lively, carefree, and always seemed to have someone around her. College suited her. She enjoyed spending time with her friends, but she was also serious about her studies. She attended her classes, took careful notes, and usually knew when an assignment was due before anyone else did.

Her life was ordinary.

Then she met Jake.

Rima noticed him because of his looks at first. She would later feel slightly embarrassed admitting that. There had been nothing profound about their first meeting. She simply thought he was handsome.

But as the weeks passed and they spent more time together, something changed.

Jake was studying physics. He could talk endlessly about stars, gravity, space, and strange theories Rima only half understood. Sometimes she teased him about it.

“You know I have no idea what you’re talking about, right?”

Jake would smile.

“You will someday.”

She fell in love with him.

And she believed he loved her too.

One evening, Jake made a strange request.

“Run away with me.”

Rima laughed.

“Where?”

“I’m serious.”

She stopped laughing.

Jake wanted them to leave everything behind—their families, college, friends, everything.

Rima couldn’t understand why.

“Why would we do that?”

“I’ll explain when we get there.”

That wasn’t much of an explanation.

For days, Rima struggled with the decision. Her friends would think she had lost her mind. Her parents would be devastated. She knew disappearing in the middle of the night was reckless.

But another thought frightened her even more.

If she refused, she might lose Jake.

So Rima threw caution to the wind.

One night, while her parents slept, she packed a bag and left.

She didn’t even say goodbye.

---

Jake took her west.

They eventually arrived at a small town near the sea. It was beautiful, but strangely quiet. There wasn’t much around except a few buildings, a road that followed the coastline, and a bus that occasionally traveled through town.

For the first time since leaving home, Rima began questioning herself.

Where were they going to live?

How would they make money?

What about college?

She had abandoned everything without even knowing why.

Finally, she demanded an answer.

“Why did you bring me here?”

Jake looked toward the ocean.

“I found something.”

“What?”

“A portal.”

Rima stared at him.

“A what?”

“A portal to another world.”

She waited for him to laugh.

He didn’t.

Jake explained that while studying physics, he had discovered something he initially thought was impossible. There was another world—another Earth—and there was a way to reach it from this particular place.

Rima couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You made me leave my family for this?”

“I couldn’t leave you behind.”

“Jake…”

“It’s real.”

Rima studied his face.

He believed every word he was saying.

That frightened her more than the story itself.

“Are you sick?”

Jake’s expression changed.

He had expected disbelief, perhaps, but not that.

“I’m not sick.”

“You’re telling me there’s another universe in the ocean!”

“I can show you.”

“Then show me.”

“I can’t yet.”

Rima almost laughed.

Of course he couldn’t.

Jake told her the portal only appeared under certain conditions. They needed to wait for the full moon.

Ten days.

Rima had to wait ten days.

They argued.

Jake pleaded with her to trust him, but Rima wanted to go home. She wanted to find a hospital. Maybe if she could get Jake help, everything could still somehow be fixed.

Eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore.

She grabbed her bag and got on the bus.

Jake didn’t follow her.

Rima sat by the window as the bus traveled along the coast.

She felt relief as the little town disappeared behind her.

Hours passed.

The ocean appeared and disappeared through the window as the road twisted along the coastline. Eventually, the bus slowed.

Rima looked outside.

Her stomach tightened.

She recognized the road.

She recognized the beach.

And there, near the sea, was Jake.

The bus had brought her back to where she started.

Rima stormed toward him.

“What did you do?”

Jake looked confused.

“The bus brought me back!”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re keeping me here!”

Jake said nothing for a moment.

Then quietly he said, “Trust me.”

Rima refused.

The next day, she tried again.

She took another bus.

When it stopped somewhere unfamiliar, she got off and waited for another one. Surely that bus would take her toward the city.

It didn’t.

Eventually she was back at the sea.

She tried again.

And again.

Different buses. Different roads. Different stops.

Always the same result.

The sea.

The little town.

Jake.

Something was wrong.

Rima no longer knew whether she was frightened of Jake or frightened of the place itself.

So she waited.

---

Ten days later, the moon was full.

After sunset, Jake took Rima to the beach.

Moonlight stretched across the dark water.

Jake stared toward the sea.

“There.”

Rima looked.

“Where?”

“The portal.”

Rima saw nothing.

Only black water illuminated by moonlight.

“Jake, there’s nothing there.”

“Can’t you see it?”

Rima began to cry.

For ten days, some part of her had hoped he would prove her wrong.

Now she understood.

At least, she thought she did.

Jake was sick.

And she couldn’t save him.

Jake stepped into the water.

“Jake, stop.”

He kept walking.

“Jake!”

He turned toward her.

“Come with me.”

“There’s nothing there!”

“You can come with me, or you can take the bus and go home.”

The water reached his knees.

Then his waist.

Rima ran into the sea after him.

“Jake, come back!”

But no matter how quickly she moved, the distance between them seemed to grow.

Jake walked farther into the darkness.

Rima screamed his name.

“Jake!”

He didn’t turn around.

Then she couldn’t see him anymore.

Rima stumbled back toward shore.

She needed help.

Someone had to help him.

But the beach was empty.

The only person she could find was the bus driver.

“My boyfriend went into the water! He’s drowning!”

The driver looked toward the sea.

“Please!” Rima cried. “Help him!”

“I can’t swim,” the driver said.

“Call somebody!”

The driver shook his head.

“The only thing I can do is take you on the bus.”

Rima looked desperately toward the water.

There was no sign of Jake.

She got on.

The bus pulled away.

Rima barely looked through the window this time. She expected the same road, the same beach, the same impossible return.

But it didn’t happen.

The bus stopped in front of a hospital.

---

“My boyfriend is drowning!”

Rima rushed inside, frantic and soaked.

“His name is Jake. He’s at the sea. You have to send someone!”

The doctors tried to calm her.

She told them everything.

The town.

The buses.

The portal.

The full moon.

Jake disappearing into the sea.

The more she explained, the more concerned their expressions became.

Someone promised they would look into what had happened.

Someone else gave her medication to calm her down.

Soon, Rima’s eyes became heavy.

She fell asleep.

When she woke the next morning, her parents were beside her.

Her friends had come too.

Her mother hugged her and cried.

“Where were you?”

Rima immediately asked about Jake.

Everyone looked confused.

“Jake,” Rima repeated. “My boyfriend.”

Her mother looked at her father.

“Who is Jake?”

Rima laughed nervously.

“This isn’t funny.”

Nobody laughed.

Her friends didn’t remember him either.

They remembered Rima disappearing.

They remembered being worried.

They remembered searching for her.

But they didn’t remember Jake.

There were no memories of him.

It was as though Jake had never existed.

The doctors kept Rima under observation.

She was eventually diagnosed with psychosis.

Rima told them again and again that Jake was real.

She told them about the portal.

She told them about the buses.

She told them that Jake had disappeared into the sea.

But eventually, she stopped telling the story.

Three months later, after therapy and treatment with antipsychotic medication, Rima was discharged from the hospital.

She returned home.

She returned to her family.

Slowly, she returned to her life.

But there was one thing she couldn’t accept.

Jake had existed.

Maybe nobody else remembered him.

Maybe there were no photographs, messages, or memories left to prove it.

Maybe every reasonable explanation said otherwise.

But Rima remembered him.

And eventually she created an explanation she could live with.

Jake had found the portal.

He had asked her to trust him.

She hadn’t.

So Jake crossed without her.

And somehow, when he left their world, he took everyone else’s memories of him with him.

Everyone’s except hers.

Rima knew how that sounded.

So she kept it to herself.

And life went on.

---

Somewhere else, beneath the light of another full moon, the sea was perfectly still.

A figure appeared in the distance.

A young man emerged from the water.

He stumbled through the waves until his feet reached the shore.

Someone was waiting for him.

A young woman ran toward him.

“Jake!”

Jake looked up.

She wrapped her arms around him.

He held her tightly.

Her name was Rima.