14 Is it an alternate universe?

"So, what would it be, miss? What would you like to order?" Alfie asked her pleasantly. He genuinely looked like he didn't know her or recognise her at all.

"You really don't know me, Alfie?" She asked, just to be sure.

He looked at her with a puzzled expression and smiled politely.

"I am sorry if I don''t recognise you, miss, sometimes we have a lot of customers and I am quite bad at remembering faces," he said apologetically with a rueful smile.

"Do you remember that you have a female co-worker here?" she asked tentatively.

He scratched his head, confused.

"No…my co-worker Zambree is a guy," he told her. "Are you looking for someone specifically? Maybe she was a customer and you thought she worked here," he said.

She shook her head sadly. It was obvious Alfie doesn't remember her. He acted like he has never seen her before. She has never heard of Zambree before so it looks like she doesn't have a job anymore.

"Maybe you confused our cafe with another cafe? Maybe the person you are looking for works in another cafe?" Alfie suggested. He seemed concerned.

She smiled at him. Just like Alfie to be helpful. At least he hasn't changed.

"Thank you Alfie, I guess I better be going, sorry for taking up your time," she told him and then left the cafe.

Outside, she looked around. Everything looked the same. The same busy street. The same rows of squat heritage buildings leaning against each other interspersed with tall modern buildings. Yet, it felt different. She began to get a suspicion that this is not actually her home. She must be in an alternate universe which looked exactly like where she grew up in. The old dragon must have purposely let her out in an alternate universe where she doesn't exists.

"Damn you old dragon!" she cursed angrily under her breath. She stomped down the street to the spot where she had reappeared.

She looked around. There was no sign or any way of going back to the old dragon's place. No magical door hanging in the air. No special door appearing out of nowhere. Nothing. She did a 360 degrees about turn.

Nothing.

What should she do now? This is obviously not her universe and she has no where to go. She walked aimlessly around and found herself in front of her home. Her old home. No, the house that looked like her home in this alternate universe, she told herself.

The house looked exactly like how she left it. The exterior walls are still sporting peeling paint. The wooden window shutters on the first floor are also peeling and almost rotten. The same colourful tiles covered the five-foot way. The front door is still the old wooden louvred door painted a reddish brown tint. She wondered if she should go up to it and knock just for the heck of it.

Shrugging, she walked up to it and knocked. She gasped when a man opened the door and squinted at her from the cool darkness of the sitting area.

It was her father! He looked healthy and clean. His hair neatly combed and he was wearing a nice dress shirt and proper trousers too. She has never seen him so well dressed.

"Papa!" she exclaimed when she saw him. He stared at her bewildered.

"Who are you?" he asked.

No. No. No. No. It can't be! She shook her head. Her own father! It can't be! The old dragon will pay for this! How dare he!

Then a middle-aged woman came to stand next to him. She has grey hair tied neatly in a bun and she was wearing a simple t-shirt and shorts.

"Ah Chun, who is this?" she asked as she looked at Zi Mei curiously.

Her father, no, no, this stranger who looked like her father, shook his head.

"I have no idea…she knocked and then called me 'papa' but I've never seen her before in my life," he told the woman.

Now she knows for sure that she must be in an alternate universe. That is the only explanation for what is happening now. That is why her own father doesn't know her and it looked like he is married to some woman. Tears filled her eyes. She doesn't belong anywhere here.

"I'm sorry, I…I…came…to the wrong address…" she stammered and turned away before the tears rolled down her cheeks. The man who looked like her father closed the door without saying anything.

The old dragon had ruined her life. He kidnapped her, forced her to sign a contract to become his mistress and now he had thrown her in some alternate universe where she obviously had never existed. She trudged down the street dejectedly.

What is she to do now? Go back to the old dragon? Not like she had any choice in the matter. She walked for a long time from one street to another, barely noticing her surroundings until she came to a pocket park in the middle of the city. A tiny green oasis amidst the busy bustling city. She sat down on one of the benches that was not occupied. A few homeless people were asleep on the other benches at the park.

She supposed she is also like them now. Homeless with no where to go. She doesn't belong anywhere. No family. No friends. Not even loansharks to chase after her to settle a debt she couldn't afford. It was as if she doesn't exist at all.

She is nothing. She took in a shaky breath. What had she ever done to deserve this?

"Hey, Thorin! Why are you doing this? You might as well continue keeping me in your luxurious prison because this is just the same," she said loudly, hoping he could hear her with his magical powers or something.

Suddenly, a pale and thin man wearing sunglasses and a black suit appeared next to her.

"Miss, do you want to go home? I can escort you back now," he said, bowing respectfully.

She stared at him. He doesn't look like much of a bodyguard. He is so tall and thin, he could pass off as a lamp post, she thought. Just a push and he could probably fall over. How is he to protect her if someone was to attack her? With the sharp points of his bony hands and elbows?

"You're my bodyguard?" she asked him. He nodded in reply.

"I am Lim," he said.

"Fine. Lim, take me back to Thorin's place," she said, refusing to call his place her "home". It is not her home. It is her prison. A prison where she is destined to be his sex and baby making slave.

"Unless, of course, you have a way to take me back to my real home in my universe," she said hopefully.

Lim looked puzzled by her request.

"But, you are in your universe," he said, sounding confused.

"Ha. Don't joke. It is obviously not my universe. No one here recognises me. Not even my own father!" she retorted.

"But Miss Zi Mei, there are no other universe like this one. The other one similar to this is currently nearing the end where half the earth was destroyed and forest fires are spreading to the other half," he said, his tone honest and truthful.

"No, no, no, this can't be! If this is not an alternate universe, then why doesn't anyone remember me? Why even my own father can't recognise me?" she asked.

"I don't know miss. Maybe you can ask Mr Loong when we get back?" he said. He snapped his fingers and gestured to a door that had suddenly appeared at the thick trunk of a tree in the park.

She huffed in frustration. She went to the door, opened it and stepped inside.