THE MOMENT
It wasn't there before. Paul might've mistaken the white door for more of the constant snowfall if it didn't have prominent red text that read: Authorized Personnel only. But, even with an idle glance, he noted the fine print in smaller red letters: Property of Jenny M. He approached the door out of curiosity. Then, he walked around it in surprise. The sealed door stood free and upright seemingly leading to nowhere. The back of the door was solid, pitch black with no text or visible seams like in the front. He almost knocked; but, he was distracted by the sound of crunching snow.
He turned expecting to see someone approaching. Paul wasn't ready to find someone already approached and stood right behind him. She was a teenage girl with spiky blue hair not at all dressed for a mountaintop excursion. She had no backpack, no supplies. Only a purple and gold letterman jacket with an 'M' on the front and blue jeans. Luckily, she also smiled at him.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Jenny," she took a step closer to the door as she gave her name.
"Name's Paul," he introduced himself with a wave.
"You doing okay Paul? Need help with anything?" As she asked, she touched her hand to the door. The area around her hand glowed for a moment, then the door unlocked. The door pulled apart to reveal a long, narrow, white hall that was not visible from the other side. He stared at it in dumb awe for a moment until he realized she'd asked him a question.
"I wouldn't mind getting in out of the snow for a bit...," he answered. It would have been too forward to ask outright; but, she asked him if he needed anything and it was worth a shot just to find out what was going on. He could press her with questions; but, he felt he would find answers if he went inside.
"Oh, sorry," Jenny shook her head as she reached into her pocket. Then, she gave him a transparent glass card. "I don't know what's in there and it might be dangerous. But, this will get you to safety too. It's called a node and you can use it like a smartphone.
"You don't know what's in there?" Paul asked. Now he felt like he should ask questions. "You opened it, isn't it yours?"
"Kind of," Jenny nodded. "It's a lab registered to me. I'm the only one that can open it because I'm the one that set it up. But, I couldn't tell you when I did that. It was in another timeline," she said.
Paul looked down the white corridor, then back to Jenny. He couldn't deny that a lot of strange goings-on were happening. He briefly wondered if he was dead on the mountain somewhere.
"Are you a time traveler?" he asked. Jenny shook her head.
"Not really. Pretend the whole universe is in a time loop," she said. "But, the big, universal time loop is made up of many smaller time loops that play out in different ways. I set this lab up in one of those time loops so that I can access it while in a different time loop. Make sense?"
"Not ... really...," Paul shook his head.
"Oh, do you play games? Do you know what New Game+ is?"
"Yeah....," Paul nodded. He wasn't sure about this new direction.
"This is kind of like my New Game+," she said with a big grin.
"But you don't know what's in there?" Paul asked. Jenny shook her head.
"Not yet; but I'm gonna find out. You gonna be okay out here?" she asked as she gestured at the node in his hands.
"Yeah, thank you...," Paul nodded. He got the feeling she was ready to leave and he was too confused to ask her to stay.
"Good luck," she waved as she stepped into the hall. The doors began to close and Paul waved too. He was left with dozens of questions; but, she only added more with her last word before the doors closed. "See you around, maybe even in the next loop."