Amanda had two jobs: the first one was that of a 2nd line operator for a service-desk and her second job, that she only did during the weekends, was that of an editor for an online computer magazine, though she volunteered for the last one and she didn't receive a paycheck for it.

Her lover, Carl, didn't understand anything at all about her passion for computers. He felt like being on second place although Amanda wasn't aware of his feelings about this matter. Now she was sitting behind her desk in the livingroom and focused on the computer. Carl looked at his watch. It was late, she have to go to bed now, he decided.

Amanda looked at him and for a while she didn't recognize him than she did and his suggestion to go to bed was quite annoying to her. Carl could tell by the look of her face.

"Amanda, please come on. You know that I love you too but I don't want to have your computer spoil our relationship. For crying out loud, it is like you can't see beyond your own nose. I don't know if you are aware of if but it goes bad with the economy nowadays. Suppose you're having your company. I mean more than just a number. What company do you think would like to start with you? You're a new comer and you know that there are a thousand of Multimedia companies out there. Why would they hire you?", he said and fell on his knees in front of her.

"Don't misunderstand me, honey. I would rather do nothing else but to support you and start our own company together for real. But this isn't the right time. We need the hard cash from your job at the bank to buy ourselves a house. You know that we can't live on the air that we breath. Amanda, you have to learn to be patient. Our time will come, you will see."

She smiled a little and looked at him for a while with her green eyes, without saying a word. After a while she decided that he's okay and that she still loves him and gave him a warm loving kiss. "I love you too, like I told you before and you know as well as I do that your dream is mine too Carl. But right now I would like to know more about Quantum Mechanics." A deep sigh escaped from his mouth. "You now what time it is?" She smiled a little and looked at the monitor and said "It's half past 12 a.m."

Carl didn't respond and walked away. He had these kind of discussions before with her and he knew when he had lost. She would probably go to bed at 05:00 a.m. or she wouldn't go to bed at all. "I am a fool to love her", he thought to himself. "The computer will always take the first place in her life. On what place am I to her?" and shrugged his shoulders while he walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth. "She wouldn't let go when she has something on her mind.

Amanda looked at him and five minutes later she found a program with the name QuantumTime.exe on the Internet. It was on a homepage that was all about time traveling via worm holes. QuantumTime simulated time traveling according the laws of Quantum Mechanics and it was developed by dr. John Gibbon. Mr. Gibbon also created the homepage.

Still, the homepage looked rather innocent, she could tell by the childish look of it. A kid could have done it, as far as she was concerned. It didn't look professional at all. Sorry for Mr. Gibbon, but he obvious didn't read the book "Laura Lemay's Web Workshop". If he had than his homepage wouldn't have a childish layout with ugly graphics. "Oh well", she thought. "Not everybody can create stunning web pages like I do and that's a good thing because otherwise nobody would ever ask me to create a website. Than again, nobody ever did, actually." Sigh.

Because of the lousy homepage she decided to use her real email address, phone number etc.She only hopes that the program Mr. Gibbon created wasn't as lousy. "No really, I am not kidding. You can't expect from a professor to have such an ugly homepage. At least, he claims to be a professor at the Nova Southeastern University in Florida. I wouldn't dare to come out with such a silly homepage", she thought.

The happening reminds her to the past when she opened a computer for the first time and fooled around with its components. She remembered the smoke in her room that cam from the CPU.

"Oh boy, what was my father upset when I did that. I was only 17 and wanted to know more about computers. But nowadays I know a lot more about computers, thank god.", and the thought made her smile. She decided to stand up to check if the fuse has blown. However, her legs refused to move. In fact she couldn't stand up and walk away. All she could do was stare in front of her and even about that she wasn't sure because she felt nothing. It was like she didn't had a body. Although she still could think clearly. But the silence and darkness around her frightens her. She couldn't even hear her own breath.

"Help, Carl, help me." She shouted. But the words didn't escape from her mouth. Nothing at all . . . except darkness and emptiness. Nothing else."Is there anyone who can help me?"

No response. Nothing at all but darkness and emptiness. She even couldn't hear her own voice. "Hello, is anyone out there?"
No response. Nothing but darkness and emptiness and again she couldn't hear her voice, although she had the feeling that she shouted like a sucking pig.
"Am I gone, no longer among the living?", she said even before she gave it a thought.
Though it explains a lot. At least it explains the darkness and the silence around her and why she doesn't feel anything at all. Like she's kept inside a stone. The thought of it made her sad.
"I don't wanna die! I want to live instead!"
Unfortunately there was no response. Nothing at all but darkness and emptiness. Not a sign of life. Only darkness and emptiness. No warmth or cold.
"Hey angels, where are you?", even now there was no response. Nothing at all but darkness and emptiness. No warmth or cold and the only sound she could hear was the sound of nothing, which made her furious. "Where's heaven and hell?", she demanded.
"Where are the promises I have read in the bible when I was a kid?" Again there was no response, nothing at all but darkness and emptiness. "Perhaps it is because I don't believe in anything. I even don't believe in a life after dead. Not to mention heaven and hell. They are just stories told by people to make money out of our fear. I am talking about TV preachers we all see nowadays. Things they have to offer are a bunch of lies. Yeah, like you can buy your own place in heaven after you're gone. It's a lot of bullshit they're selling if you ask me. Yet, perhaps I can create my own world if I believe in it. I can give it a try. What do I have to loose? I can simply play god and imagine my own world. Perhaps is that the meaning of heaven and hell", the thought made Amanda smile. She closed her eyes to ease the job a little because it's always easier to imagine something with your eyes closed.

Her thoughts about life suddenly surrounded Amanda with white noise. Voices and sound came from every direction and they didn't make any sense. But she welcomed the noise as if it were music from heaven. She opened her eyes. It was like she had over a thousand eyes at the same time.She saw how a little girl drowned in a dark lake, a snake that ate its victim, a bird being hit by a car, a man being killed by a psychopath, a boy being killed by a gunshot, lovers in a burning house, dead people lying in their graves six feet under and she also saw her boss staring at her. He pointed his index finger to her. "Get out of my dream, mad woman!", he yelled. Than a colleague of her silenced him with a phone that he stuffed in his mouth. Blood pours out his mouth. "Perhaps you can call 911!", Amanda answered while he closed his eyes.These were the unpleasant images she saw all at once in her mind. Psychotic views and more than that overwhelmed her and the hit her mind hard. Amanda saw it all and it was too much for her to handle. She tried to close her eyes again and stuff her fingers into her ears because the noise was now beating her soul. It was no longer the sound of heaven and she even welcomes the darkness and silence again if it was possible.All she can cover are just two ears and close two eyes, not a thousand. She couldn't release the images from her mind and it made her sick. Amanda felt the urge to puke and created a sea of blood. All the creatures she saw at once in her spiritual mind free themselves from the ground and were swimming in the sea of blood she had just created. Some of them drown while others were making love. Amanda discovered that she was on the sea too. Standing on a sailboat that drifted on the red ocean of blood. At least she was released from her spiritual mind and she could see the world she created with one pair of eyes and hear the sound with one pair of ears. It was a relieve to her to be free though she wishes that she didn't create a word like this. A world made of flesh and blood. It was like she was captured in Hell, allthough Amanda welcomed the fresh wind on her face. She was still a little dizzy and she had an awful sourish taste in her mouth. "I wish it would rain. Than I can rinse my mouth," she said out loud.As if on command it started to rain. "Am I a goddess now?", she wondered. "It seems to me that I created this word. But I still have a lot to learn, like how do I stop the rain?" because the sailboat was now filled with water and it started to sink. One good thing was that the ocean became crystal-clear. The rain rinsed the ocean from the blood. "I am the ocean, I am the world", Amanda realized as soon as the rain stopped. "So, this is life after death." Again she closed her eyes and thought about the sun. "I am the sun and the sky too." She thought intensely about the most beautiful sunrise she had ever seen and opened her eyes. There it was: a sunrise above the ocean. "This is true romance", she realized. "I think that I like this life after death though I don't know what caused my dead."It was better if she didn't think about her own dead because now she could smell rotten flesh. Amanda didn't know where it came from and looked around her. The boat was still sinking and it wouldn't take long before it disappeared in the deep ocean. She only hoped that she wouldn't drown. "But the smell of rotten flesh, where does it come from?", she wondered.

She didn't like the answer when she discovered that it her own flesh. Little green worms were eating her rotten flesh, digging holes on the surface of her skin. Blood purred out of the wounds they created and she felt the pain while they ate her skin. It was like needles and pins, but than a thousand times more than that. They chew her flesh from bones and she couldn't stop the process because she was no longer among the living.These are the creatures after life, eating your flesh and drink your blood while you create your own world. "Life after death, it's only there for a little while and than you die again. Perhaps a dozen times before it's finally over. Something you can't fight against. After all: you're no longer alive." Amanda realized while she looked at her hands. Her hands were bubbling and a dozen worms appeared on the surface of her hands. She tried to release the worms from her hands while she strikes out left and right. Some worms fell on the deck.The sea must have felt her fight against the worms because the waves swept the deck and she felt the water around her ankles. Amanda lost her conscious. 'Better believe in gods than this!' On a certain moment she came around again. Her body was sweaty but she was luckily back in her own well-known environment: behind her desk with the lights still on. It was like nothing had happened. Amanda was still dazed by her last adventures in the other world and looked at the monitor. She could read the following sentence "Welcome in QuantumTime. Press on your mouse to begin."

Everything else seems to be all-right, there was no sign from the scary moments she had in the other world. It was all quiet around the house, with the exception of the soft snoring sound caused by Carl. Amanda reached with trembled fingers for the mouse and pressed the button. After the click of her mouse she had the feeling that her legs were in a warm bath. She stared at her legs and what she saw down there almost took her breath away. Her legs were wet from the blood that flew out of a deep wound in her belly. Again she saw the little green worms crawling out of her skin, causing little cracks. They peeled her skin open as if it was a banana. This was even worse than the things she had seen in the other world. With a loud scream she lost her conscious and fell behind her desk. The noise she caused woke up Carl and he ran to the living, where Amanda's desk was. He saw her lying on the ground. Her face was deathly pale and her nose was bloody, mouth and eyes were open, while she was staring at the ceiling. Carl kneeled concerned in front of her and checked her heartbeat. He wasn't sure she was still alive because he couldn't hear her heartbeat. "Damn, why now Amanda? We're not even married!", he cried and tried to reanimate her, gave her the kiss of life until she finally started to cough. He had almost given up on her but she has come to life again.

She blinked her eyes, looked at him for a moment ad loses her conscious. At least she was still alive, he knew. To be sure he checked her heartbeat one more time. It was weak but it was present. "I better put her on bed and call 911", he thought and looked at her pretty face, the face he had seen for many years - they had met each other during a Heather Nova concert - and he still liked her looks. This woman stole his heart and he wanted to continue with her. Marry her and start a normal life with each other. He gave her a soft kiss and carried her carefully to the bedroom, which was nearby the living. It was separated by a small corridor of 2x8 yards.

"Not now, doc" Carl said while he almost stumbles over Bugs and carefully laid Amanda on the bed. After that he went out to the bathroom to find a face cloth to put it on her face. Bugs seems to have waited for him to leave the room because as soon as Carl went out, Bugs jumped on the bed and sniffles a little at Amanda's face. Because Amanda didn't respond, Bugs started to chew the blanked until Carl came back into the room. When Bugs heard him coming, he jumped of the bed and ran out of the room. Carl just stared at him and didn't know why Bugs was upset. Than he walked to Amanda, who was still unconscious and laid the face cloth on her face. With another face cloth he cleaned her nose. Thank god the bleeding has stopped.

He wondered what has happened to her. Amanda used to be a clever woman and stood in the middle of life. But now it was going bad with her. This was partly caused by her job but he was afraid that he was partly the blame for all the trouble she's been through as well. Not to mention her agoraphobia. Yet, all the time she hadn't respond like this. "Is this because of what I've said about the computer?", he wondered. "But if that's the case than I can never say anything at all to her, can I? Everything that she finds negative will make her dizzy."These thoughts filled his mind with sorrow and a few tears escaped from his eyes. He looked at the picture on the table. It represented an elderly man, Amanda's first love who suffered from a manic depression and committed suicide. That was a few years ago.

She opened her eyes once more and looked at Carl who was sitting on the bed. Still, looking at Roy's picture. She heard him crying and in order to comfort him she flattered her body against his back. He reacted enthusiast by her and put his arm around her. They kissed each other tender, without saying a word. Amanda discovered that her legs were okay. '˜The peeled skin was only in my imagination', she understood. Not to worry Carl too much and she decided not to tell anything about the past minutes, or hours for that matter. She didn't know how long the journey in the unknown took and she didn't want to do a returning trip. Why mentioning it to Carl? 'He wouldn't understand and he worries too much about me.'