"Hey, you should try it with me." The words were slurred, Alex had obviously been hitting the punchbowl tonight. The noise of the party dipped a little before rising. No one was paying attention to us.

"Not the best way to try and get over a breakup," I said, keeping my tone light, I didn't want to destroy the party spirit.

"Oh, come on, it will be a laugh. Just put me behind your back and pull me out."

"What if you can't breathe back there? What if there's a time dilation? What if I pull out a dead body?" I said, grasping for reasons not to do this. There had to be a reason I never did it with living, breathing creatures. Even if I couldn't fully remember, I knew it had to be bad. I hadn't done it since my sixth birthday.

Alex stepped closer, eyes locking with mine. There was a deep sort of despair there, that threatened to reach out and absorb everything within its radius. I took a deep breath but before I could speak, Alex smiled.

"Just put me behind your back and pull me out." The words were the same, but the sound was layered, as if multiple people spoke at once. My hands reached for Alex without my conscious thought. It was their superpower, the ability to mesmerize someone, to make them do what they wanted. It was also the reason for their most recent breakup.

"Don't make me do this."

"It will be fine, come on. Don't you want everyone to have a good time?" Alex said in their usual voice as my hands closed around their arm and passed them behind my back. Instantly moving my empty hands to the front of my body and then backwards again, I pulled Alex from behind me.

"What—"

The person who stood in front of me was older; dishevelled in a way I had never known Alex to be.

"Send me back! How dare you take me from my destiny." The voice was different too, and my heart sank. I had never been able to confirm what I suspected about my power, until now.

"Let me put you behind me. You should go back." I said, reaching out and guiding the stranger around. They vanished and I took a breath. Reaching behind again, I tried to envision the Alex I knew. Pulled them in front of me, and ducked. The sword whistled over my head, taking a few hairs with it. The person who looked like a young version of Alex gabbled something in a language that vaguely resembled French.

"Sorry, sorry," I said, any French I had ever known flying out of my head. Shoving them behind me, I reached again.

"What the hell man? Where am I? Oh, a party. Groovy, man. Groovy." I tried to snag this version of Alex but they wandered off, their psychedelic clothes matching with the aesthetic of the party. Damn. Hands going back, I pulled again.

"Well, aren't you the bold boy. I daresay I haven't been groped like that since I was a young'un." I blinked at a person who was old enough to be my grandparent. They fluttered their lashes at me, fanning themself with their hand.

"Back you go," I said, and pushed them behind me. Pausing, I tried to think. Reaching blindly wasn't working, all I was doing was pulling alternate versions of Alex from across parallel realities. Or their reincarnations from this reality. I wasn't exactly sure, but either wasn't ideal. So where had I sent my Alex? What reality were they inhabiting?

The answer that came to mind—driven by my memories— broke my heart. If I was pulling them from parallel realities, the reality my Alex would have ended up in... I closed my eyes, reached behind me and my hands closed on an arm. Pulling them in front, I dared a peek.

Tears coated Alex's face, and more horrifying than that, was the knife in their hand.

"Alex? Where did you go?" I asked, a little afraid of the answer. They stared at me, crying silently.

"I went... I went...Back." They said, their face crumpling. I pulled them into a hug, trying not to cry as the knife clattered to the floor. A few people looked our way and I waved them away.

"I realized. Are you... Were they...?" I asked, unable to finish the questions.

"No. They were still... they were still..." Alex gasped, their breath coming in gasps. I rubbed their back in circular motions.

"All right, all right. Breathe. Just breathe." I knew beneath the shirt that covered them there were terrible scars. Scars inflicted by the people they'd just seen, the people they'd just been sent back to. The horrible people that I'd stolen Alex away from when I was six years old.

The memory of that day finally unfolded fully in my head. I'd suppressed a large amount; hadn't wanted to deal with it. There I was, playing with my newly discovered power, and I had the bright idea of reaching for my imaginary best friend. I thought at the time that I made things appear, not just stole them from elsewhere. When Alex had appeared in my hands, bloody, their back a mess of old wounds and new, I thought my power had hurt them during the process. They had never talked about their past, but I pieced it together through what they screamed out during their nightmares.

They were the reason I had never touched another living thing. I was afraid, afraid of what had just happened. That I would send that living being back to a horrible place or take them from paradise. In my arms, Alex stilled, their breathing starting to go back to normal.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I would never have done it if—"

"If I hadn't forced you. I'd forgotten too. When I appeared in that room... The memories came back." They said, voice hoarse from weeping. Breaking free of my embrace they looked at me, their eyes still wet. "Thank you for finding me again."

I smiled, wiping their cheek as gently as I could.

"I will always find you. You're my best friend. Remember?" I said, and they nodded, trying to smile.

"Now, I don't want to overwhelm you, but while I was looking, I found a rather interesting version. They wandered off before I could send them back. So, I guess the question is, where would you go if you were feeling groovy?" Before Alex could respond, there was a shout from the punchbowl.

"Man, this punch is wicked, man. So gnarly!"

Wiping the remnants of tears from their cheeks, Alex managed a tiny smile. As we turned towards the beverage table, they leaned into me. I knew they needed my support, so I wrapped my arm around their waist.

"I think," They paused. "I might be at the punch. If I was feeling groovy."

I laughed, and as a small chuckle escaped Alex, we made our way over to the punchbowl.

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