The Prism - Shifting to red

So!
Here is an extract from the new Prism book.

In case you missed the first... go buy it!
But in the meantime, here's the need to know: Emily used to be a boring ofice clerk until she was given a crystal pyramid that has the power to shift her into parallel universes, making her live the lives of her alternate selves, showing her how much sexier and corrupt her life could be.

But there's more: the shifts are beginning to affect Emily, her darker selves leaving behind a residue in her personality, and after a particularly surreal experience (wait for the book!), Emily decides she has to settle a score with her mother...


I woke up, sat on my bed, and cursed under my breath.
My alarm clock told me it was five am. I lit a cigarette and stared at myself in the mirror.
The fucking bitch!, I thought.
I still felt the downward spiral of the ecstasy washing away from my system, the sweet cherry perfume of the pink childish clothes.
I closed my eyes, holding the smoke in my lungs.
A drugged good girl for a perverted mother.
Despite myself, I rubbed my thighs together.
And to think that here in this alternate she was such a tight-assed prig, always complaining about my cigarettes and my hours!
I put my clothes on, and I went for a walk before breakfast, thinking hard about the changes, the shifts, the different twists and turns.
But were they so different after all?
I came back home shuddering for the cold, and received a chilly welcome and a cutting stare at the cigarette dangling from my lips.
Me and my mother had breakfast at the same table, but it was like we were a million light years distant.
Breakfast over, I lit up, I wished her a good day and went to work.

#

During coffee break, I shared a cigarette with Chrissy.
“Yours are harder than mine,” she said, handing mine back. She had finished her last packet, and had had no time to buy a fresh one.
I took a long drag, enjoying the buzz, and exhaled in her direction.
“They are good,” I said.
She chuckled, and stretched her hand towards me. “Gimme another hit,” she said.
I placed the cigarette between her fingers, and lit another.
“Keep that,” I said. “You seem to like ‘em anyway.”

#

That night I was given more cold shoulder from my mother.
She sat at the dinner table, ostentatiously reading a book. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, her simple dress perfect. I ate and I stared at her, and a wicked idea got in my mind.
Later, while my mother was in the bathroom changing for the night, I slipped in her room, and placed the crystal pyramid underneath her bed.

#

The next morning I left earlier, my mother still fast asleep.
I spent the day at the office wondering if the pyramid had activated, and if so, what alternate universe was my mother experiencing.
Would shifting through have the same effect that it was obviously having on me?
Early in the afternoon, incapable of resisting anymore, I rang her up. My mother replied in a distant, dreamy voice. Her answers were routine, she seemed somehow distracted.
I hung up, and rang up Juliet, asking her if she felt like a movie that night.

#

“That’s really bad for your health, you know?”
I clicked the lighter shut and took a long drag. “Please, Jules, not you too.”
Juliet chuckled. “Your mom’s giving you a hard time?”
I blew the smoke out of my nostrils, and nodded.
“She hates me smoking.”
“How come you started?”
It’s because of you and your gift, I thought.
I shrugged. “Helps me relax. No more headaches.”
I turned to her, and took another cheek-hollowing pull. I held the smoke in and picked the cigarette from my lips between two fingers. “And it makes me feel sexy.”
We were standing in front of the multiplex, trying to decide our movie for the night.
Juliet kept staring at me as I let out a large cloud of smoke, engulfing her. She coughed, and laughed. “You are a bad girl!” she said.
I grinned. “Let’s say I’m on my way.”