Chapter 13: Curiosity killed the cat

Raven was in utter disbelief at what she had experienced. Her thoughts were frantic trying to come up with a reasonable, logical explanation. There were clear traces of some form of a physical phenomenon, so at least there was scientific proof that could be examined. She wasn't going crazy.

There have been concerns over her mental state during her childhood, concerns she didn't want anyone expressing again.

The Vaughn family tried really hard to give their daughter a normal life with ordinary normal friends and filled with joy. From the moment she was born, Raven's parents knew she was no ordinary child. She exhibited signs of genius from a very early age to everyone's delight. Raven would fit right in with the rest of the family but her mother's concern was always around what would happen to the child in the outside world.

At first they tried private tutoring, to slowly introduce Raven to strangers. Her developing personality would hopefully be shaped by interacting with normal, ordinary people and serve her well in the future; unfortunately that was not the case.

At the age of three Raven created her first invention. Her tutors were ecstatic, her parents less so.

Their personal circumstances and the nature of the work the Vaughn's were carrying out, left very little room for Raven to lead a normal life. Her parents tried, but by the time she was 10 she had already finished the materials for highschool and was starting to get bored. No one in the Vaughn family wanted to stifle her creativity and her genius, but the concerns became real when she wasn't exhibiting any signs of emotion. It was concerning for everyone, especially when they considered the possibility she might be a psychopath, capable of mimicking emotions but not really understand or feel them. It left the Vaughns feeling helpless and worried for their child.

Raven was extraordinary; she had the potential for great things, but that also meant she could potentially be swayed to the other side.

Her parent's lessons from her childhood were flashing before her eyes. She needed to stay calm and rational and take it all in. There must be an explanation for everything that was happening to her.

Slowly getting up from the floor, still in a daze somewhat, she picked up the book. Raven's hands were shaking worried that something else might trigger the pull again and she'd end up back in that strange world.

There ware no signs that whatever the phenomenon was would happen again, but she knew better; there were no signs to begin with.

Slowly and carefully she took the book to the kitchen counter top to open it. If she could just see inside, maybe that will help her understand better.

At first, she wanted to call her research partner and mentor Dr. Murdoch Mackenzie to discuss what she was experiencing. Raven was hoping the man might be able to help her understand this new phenomenon. His vast experience in physics research and his expertise studying the parallel universe theory was unrivalled, surely he could help.

Thinking about that another flash from her childhood memories invaded her mind.

'He won't believe me. He'll think I have finally lost it and gone crazy. If someone would tell me this, I would laugh at them and have them committed'. She sighed helplessly and decided to start on her own. She couldn't afford to lose sight of her objectives and end up in a situation with no escape.

There were dangers everywhere, especially when it came to people around her looking for any reason to question her authority and vision. Yes, she needed to be careful.

Deciding against involving anyone else with this strange happening, she slowly opened the book at a random page and started reading.

Raven could remember the original plot like the back of her hand. She had an eidetic memory and could easily identify discrepancies, and that's what she started looking for.

She was still shaking, and exhaustion slowly started creeping up on her. Her eyes were slowly starting to fog…

'No no no no! I need to stay awake, can't afford to be pulled back in, and sleep seems to be a trigger.'

Not wanting to go through the same experience again she asked her butler to make her a strong cup of coffee and began reading again.

First chapter was the same, second chapter was the same…

Although she knew the book by heart, she was looking for clues about her experiences whilst there and the scenario she caused. Originally, when raven first read the book, there was very little mention of an assistant that got a promotion. There were a couple of situations here and there where CEO's Li Naihe's assistant had arranged for dinners, or sometimes she would go into his office to get documents signed, but no character development.

She was baffled to see that nothing had changed.

Halfway through the book she paused and sighed, she was getting really tired now and her mind refused to cooperate. Just as she was about to give up on the notion of no sleep, something on the last row of the page she was reading caught her eye.

'CEO Li Naihe was unsure of his feelings, and even though he was ready to pursue Xiao Quin something was keeping him from it.' This was the last sentence on the page and it was different than the original version Raven had read.

"It was real!" she shouted in the darkness of her kitchen startling Dominic who slowly started to power up.

"Can I help you with anything Madam, it is now 6AM and time for your coffee and breakfast."

Raven couldn't concentrate. She couldn't think about anything else except that the book had changed. Was it her influence? Did this happen because she interfered with the story?

She couldn't be sure. Did all the versions of the book changed, or was it just hers?

"Dominic, can you please find the soft copy of this book and show page 252 on the screen?"

" Of course Madam."

Dominic's eyes changed from their usual brown colour to a yellow energy charged one for a flash, and the image was now on the screen.

"Madam, the page is loaded."

"Thank you Dominic, I appreciate your help." The assistant smiled kindly at her, almost affectionate. She was really pleased with his reaction, especially since her latest attempt to create an emotional learning mechanism for her androids. It was her biggest flaw in the eyes of everyone else, and somehow she felt like her children, her creations, shouldn't suffer from the same stigma her low EQ brought her. Yes they were androids, but they deserved better.

Determined to quickly solve this issue and go back to her life and goals, she speed read through the page getting to the last sentence.

Everything was the same as the original. The online version had retained the same last sentence, only her book had changed.

'Hmm this is really interesting.' Glancing at the version in front of her on the table and looking back at the screen she felt curious. For the first time in quite a long time, something other than her work made her feel excited.

If this was the sign of a new world, or even perhaps a parallel universe, it would be a monumental discovery.

Little did she know, it was not a confirmation of a physics theory, but the start of her new journey.

After all, who was it that said : 'Curiosity killed the cat'? She remembered with caution in her eyes, still looking at the pages in front of her.

'Whoever it was should've known better. Curiosity killed the cat but…