Simon sat quietly at the kitchen table. The beer I had given him sat untouched next to him, pooling condensation on the particle board. It was just the three of us - me, Simon, and his roommate Charlie. The rest of the party had quickly cleared out when I pulled Simon back from whatever dimension I had put him in. I guess seeing your host screaming at the top of his lungs was enough to kill your buzz. Either that, or they were all afraid I would do the same thing to them. As if I had done this on purpose.

"You look different." I prompted. The guilt-spawned knot in my gut made it difficult to ask direct questions. I was afraid to know the answers; afraid of the truth of what I had done.

"It's been ten years." Simon replied, not meeting my gaze. Charlie spewed beer and started coughing from behind my chair. I leaned forward and scrubbed my face with my hands. It was supposed to be a joke. A party trick. No one was supposed to get hurt.

"I'm so sorry, man."

"You have to send me back." He said with more conviction than I had ever heard from him before. This was a guy who had changed his major three times in the past year. He was never sure of anything. This wasn't the same Simon I had been joking around with an hour ago.

"What? No. You're not thinking clearly." I tried to put my hand on his shoulder, but he shoved it away.

"You don't understand. I need to go back. Please." When he finally looked at me, his eyes were void of the anger I would have expected after something like this. Instead, his gaze was dripping with desperation. The bags under his eyes grew heavier, and the knot in my stomach clenched.

"Dude, do the math. You were gone for, like, 30 seconds before. If that was 10 years, then whatever you're trying to get back to is probably gone now." Charlie said from behind me.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Simon shot up from his chair to stare Charlie down. Simon had never been this confrontational either. Charlie and I locked eyes for a moment. His face had lost all color. I quickly came up to stand between them.

"Okay, man. Let's just talk about this." I said calmly. "I can't send you back without knowing more about what happened."

"This is YOUR power." Simon's hostile attention shifted to me.

"I...I didn't know this would happen. I've never disappeared anything alive before." There was nothing I could say that would be a good enough reason for my recklessness. Simon ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing the kitchen floor.

"I have a family, Ben." It was the first time he had used my name since he had returned, and my heart broke a little. "I have a daughter. She's three."

"I'm sorry, man." Charlie muttered.

"She needs me. She's special." He said with a sigh.

"Of course she is." I tried to put myself in his position.

"No. You don't understand." Simon stopped pacing and looked at me from the other side of the room. His hair was in complete disarray, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. "She's going to save the world. My coming was foretold by the ancient oracle, and her birth was the signal for a new age. Everyone on the planet knows the story, and some don't want it to be true."

"What?" I couldn't quite wrap my head around what he was saying.

"They hunt her. My wife is a powerful warrior. She will protect Nia as long as possible, but I must get back to her. She needs me to teach her our ways. I'm the only one who can." He was becoming more and more desperate as he spoke. My mouth hung open as I tried to process his story.

"Dude, I don't know what happened to you, but I think you're confused." I started. Simon took an abrupt step forward.

"You're not listening to me!" His hands were shaking, with anger or fear I couldn't tell. "You MUST send me back! Now!"

I glanced at Charlie, but he gave me a bewildered shrug. This was crazy. He was obviously crazy. But then again, any time I told people the truth about by 'magic trick', they thought I was crazy too. Whatever Simon had left behind was obviously important to him. I could clearly see his distress, even if I didn't fully understand where it was coming from.

"Okay." I said finally. "What if I send you back one more time?"

"Yes." He said abruptly.

"Dude, are you sure this is a good idea?" Charlie piped up.

"But I'm pulling you back just like before." I continued. "I can't leave you there. Your mom would never forgive me."

"I understand."

"And when you return, I want to know everything."

"Of course." He said too quickly.

"Alright. Stand behind me, like before." I turned around as Simon came closer. Charlie looked like he wanted to object, but for one reason or another, he said nothing as I reached my hand around and shoved Simon back through the portal.