A Bump In the Road

Sebastian woke up to the sound of a loud and repeated banging on his bedroom door. He opened his eyes slowly: the pounding of each knock enraged every muscle within his head and amplified his hangover. He groaned to himself as he was in the process of sitting upright in his bed, to find he’d fallen asleep wearing the gray sweat-jacket, jeans, and white shoes that had been worn the day before and shook his head at the sight of himself. He grabbed his head and groaned louder. His bedroom was small, his twin-sized bed in the corner of the room directly across from his door. He had a computer desk at the far end of his room, just under its window, the screensaver of which ebbing and flowing with different colors throughout the spectrum and adding to his discomfort in the brief moment he stared over at it. The rolling chair he always had by it was straight ahead of him, closer to his bed, the seat of which piled with white, empty beer cans. He swallowed, and with his bone-dry mouth, it was incredibly painful to do so. The banging on his door hadn’t slowed or reduced in volume at all.

His voice was deep and scratchy, the latter because he was parched.

“Hold on…”

The banging stopped and he sighed in relief and got to his feet in a hurry. The second his feet touched the ground they loudly hit metal, and the pains in his head acted out again. He groaned once more as he got up from his bed, and looked down to see additional empty beer cans, the ones under his feet now crushed. He clumsily kicked them out of the way as he walked the few paces to his door, doing his best to ignore the pains in his head. He got to his door and opened it quickly, a look of distress and confusion on his face to greet the person on the other side. It all melted away when Sebastian was faced with the dark red of a flannel and looked up to see his best friend and roommate Daniel, standing eight inches over him.

Daniel being taller, naturally looked over his best friend, and onto the floor of cans. His voice was moderately softer and lighter than Sebastian’s.

“You ready to pick up where we left off? Allow me to quench your thirst…”

As Daniel said this, he pulled up a six-pack of beer cans of the same brand held by thin plastic rings and separated one from the rest and extended it to Sebastian. Sebastian was hesitant at first but decided in the end to grab it, and as he cleared his doorway for Daniel, he cracked it open and chugged it, walked to and sat on the edge of his bed, still drinking the beer. Daniel took the rolling chair, shaking it on its wheels to remove the clutter from the seat, each body clacks softly against the floor. He scooted in closer to Sebastian, who grimaced mid-drink as the wheels of the chair slowly crushed a few empty cans. Daniel spoke casually, as though he hadn’t just caused his friend discomfort.

“I hope our little pre-game last night got your creative juices flowing. I’ve been waiting for this.”

Sebastian stopped drinking his beer and removed the can from his lips.
He asked timidly, “What do you mean?”

Daniel squinted and smirked in disbelief, “Don’t pull that shit on me like you don’t know. If that’s the ghosts of all these beers talking, I’ll let it slide.” Sebastian said nothing, and when it stayed that way Daniel continued, “C’mon bro, you do have a story for me, right, like you said you would? And you promised you’d make me a part of it this time!”

Sebastian raised his brow and asked, “Is that all you want—to hear yourself be planted into a story?”

“Hey, I said your tiny ass was clever, I never said the stories were good. I’m just what you need, as long as you mention my eyes. Those are my best features, as you know.”

Sebastian timidly laughed as he took another sip of his beer, took a moment to collect himself and replied, “I guess I could have a story ready right now, and it would technically have you in it. But first, you need to answer a question I have.”

Daniel was surprised by this, but nodded in approval at the request, and took a beer from the remaining five, cracking it open.
He replied in an intrigued tone, “I guess… shoot.”

“You remember the day we became friends, yeah?”

Daniel scoffed, “Of course I do, man! And don’t take that as a compliment, because it’s not. You were a loser.”

Sebastian perked up and laughed at that statement, and Daniel did the same.

Sebastian initiated the reminiscence, “We had the same class in second grade, but we weren’t friends yet, and we never actually paid attention to each other until the incident, with, you know…”

Daniel nodded in agreement and picked up where Sebastian left off despite not seeing the point in it “Freaking Connor. Yeah man, he used to bully the crap out of you, and no one ever did anything, ‘cause like I said, you were a Goddamn loser.”

“Snitching only made it worse for me. That’s what I’d done to upset him that day at lunch.”

“I’ll never forget what happened. Connor got ballsy, went over to your desk and snapped your pencil straight from your hand as you were taking notes, while that bitch Ms. Santana was writing on the chalkboard.”

Sebastian picked up, “The fact she had her back turned was the only reason I was brave enough to do anything back at all.”

“You did something, alright. As Connor turned to walk away you burst from your chair, reached out, grabbed his head and…”

Daniel and Sebastian yelled in unison,
“BAM!”
“WHAM!”

Sebastian proceeded to take a sip from his beer, while Daniel laughed and said, “Bro, his head hit the edge of your desk so hard he collapsed, and then cried, SCREAMED, with a big-ass mark across his forehead. Ms. Santana turned around real-quick, and you scared the crap out of all the other kids with your quiet ass snapping like that.”

“Ms. Santana definitely gave me an earful outside.”

“Believe me man, I know. We were on the other side of the door eavesdropping. You know that. And I’ll never forget the story you told her about why you did it. You told her…” Daniel paused to chuckle and shake his head, and Sebastian picked up where he left off.

“I told her Connor had gotten amnesia at recess earlier from a dodge ball to the face, and that I was trying to reverse it.”

“‘It’s the least I could do for my friend Connor,’ you said, ‘So we can play together again.’”
Daniel and Sebastian laughed together.

Sebastian continued, “Yeah she was livid for sure, but in the end, she just sent me to the principal’s office.”

“And when you came back into class to get your stuff, I was there right next to the door, and said to you, ‘That’s some story you just told out there.’ And you looked me right in the eyes, with that shit-eating grin on your face and told me…”

“‘You think so? Well, you should hear some of my other ones.’”

Sebastian laughed.

Daniel cocked his head in confusion. “See, I remember you saying instead, ‘Yeah? Well, there are plenty more where that came from.’ But I guess that part doesn’t matter. You told me those stories alright, and never got tired of telling when I asked for them. As we got older, your stories got better as you got smarter. Eventually, the stories didn’t even matter, we were best friends without them. But every now and then, when life isn’t as in the way as it’s been, when you have a new story and we’re both off work at the same time, I can’t help but get hyped for the shit that’s gonna come out of your mouth. Because no matter what they’re about your stories remind me of when life was simpler, and we didn’t have to worry about adult shit.

“Your stories mean a lot to me man, because the shitty one you told to try and avoid getting in trouble, helped me to meet my best friend. But you wanna know what I think? I think you’re finally running out of ideas. You’re a good storyteller, but a terrible actor. And if I’m wrong then prove it, and I swear to God if I have to be any mushier with you… I need more to drink before that can happen.”

Sebastian laughed, smiled widely, and lifted his beer can over his head, “I suppose I don’t have a choice then. Here’s to tradition.”

“Here’s to tradition, AND to your new story. It ain’t the first, and it sure as hell won’t be the last!”

Sebastian and Daniel took a drink from their beers in unison. Sebastian was the first to finish his sip, placing the can down between his legs, “Thanks for humoring me, man, you’re my bro and I really do love you… And now that that’s out of the way, my newest story will be about…” Sebastian’s happy mood quickly changed to one of extreme hesitation. His body tightened indefinitely. “The night I died…”

Daniel stopped drinking his beer when he heard this, and once again nodded his head in approval, “Oh hell yeah you have my attention now. I’ll bite: how did you die?”

“I’m glad you asked. Let me just start off by saying, there is something after death, and I know that now… Because when I came to right after it occurred, I found myself in a strange place, alone and terrified with no recollection of how I got there. I was standing within a stone gazebo, made up of six cobblestone columns, three on each side of me, all of them holding up a domed rooftop. My eyes were met with the bright oranges of marigolds, and the dark, crimson color of roses tangled up with them. They grew all along the columns, down to the stone floor, and all the way to the concave ceiling above me in the opposite direction, pooling at the center in a bouquet. It’s like all of my senses were enhanced in that place. I could see the flowers and foliage clearly: they were beautiful, in full bloom, and blanketed by tiny, perfectly spherical dew drops. I could smell them as though they were right in front of my face, in fact I became a bit overwhelmed by them.

“But that moment, surrounded by the flowers and their fragrances, was the most peaceful moment I’ve ever experienced. And it was ruined by a large breeze that came into where I stood. I’m not sure why I was so oblivious before, but the wind made me realize I was completely naked. It was freezing cold, and I was instantly covered in goosebumps and didn’t want to be there anymore. But then I had a chilling realization: there was nothing to see beyond where I was. I, in that little place, was surrounded by pitch-black. The draft never stopped once it started, and it was becoming unbearable to just stand there idly: it felt like someone was throwing razorblades at me. Arms folded and hunched over, teeth chattering, I took my chance and went to exit the gazebo in hopes for a better shelter elsewhere.

“The wind gave more resistance the closer I’d gotten to exiting the platform, but eventually, I was able to do so, and I was greeted with a terrifying surprise once again. I extended my first foot outside, half-expecting to plummet into darkness below, but it touched ground instead, and the pitch-black transitioned instantly, to a grassy field underneath a starlit sky. Dark-green blades of grass taller than my ankles. The ground beneath me past the grass was muddy, soft, wet, cold, and I felt like I could sink at any moment if I idled too long. The harsh winds were still there and even more unbearable, out in the open, and the structure from which I came appeared to be the only one for miles. As the wind blew, it carried countless petals of cherry blossoms in my direction, varying from bright to dark pink, and even white, as they all managed to land everywhere around me, but never once hitting me at any point in my entire experience in that place. Their sweet scent filled the air now, but I felt exposed, vulnerable, the cold was stinging my skin, and so I couldn’t enjoy it. The entirety of the place around me was lit exclusively by the stars above as they filled the void-black sky in between splotches of purple and dark blue. I could see clutter: chunks of space rock and fragmented mineral, floating aimlessly in a lack of gravity.

“This openness made me uncomfortable, and I did the only thing that came to mind and began walking. The blades of grass were unnaturally sharp and cut my feet and ankles up pretty bad. It was incredibly painful, and the frigid air made it even worse. I left a trail of blood as I walked, staining the grass red behind me. I figured moving in the cold was better than just standing still in it, so I didn’t stop no matter how badly I wanted to. I had no clear destination, and I’ll admit, the walk took so long, feeling like hours, days, maybe even years; I’m honestly not sure anymore as I look back on it now. But I kept walking as though something beyond my own motives were driving me. I was gradually losing hope of uncovering anything else at all, but thankfully I did. Exhausted and in agony, I eventually arrived at the end of the vast field, and slowly coming into view as I inched closer, was a tree that towered over me. It had to have been a few stories tall, and it was so wide I couldn’t walk around it even if I wanted to. It was the source of the cherry blossoms, which continued to break away, but there were so much more intact, and they were all in bloom as they danced on their branches in the wind that tried to de-anchor them. There had to have been thousands of branches, and maybe tens of thousands of blossoms. Hundreds of thick, gnarled roots all sprouted from the tree’s base and were anchored into the ground. The biggest roots arched over and descended into the soil below. The aroma of blossoms was stronger than ever as I approached. Looking back at this whole thing now, it reminds me of the Yggdrasil. After a moment I began walking closer to the—”

“Hold up. Sebastian, bro, you’re doing that FUCKING thing again, where you talk about shit and act like we’re on the same page. You’re a smart dude, you know a lot, and more often than not, we are not on the same page. I thought you broke that habit? So, what is this, ‘eeg-druh-sill?’”

Sebastian took a moment to collect himself, breaking eye contact with Daniel, sloshing his beer around its can, “The Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology, is a magical tree that connected all of the universe’s realms, and the cosmos, with its roots and branches. Because it was all connected, the Yggdrasil kept the universe from collapsing in on itself.”

“Uh-huh…” Daniel took a sip of his beer, “So this tree could do that?”

“Sort of. I’ll get to that soon enough.”

“See I don’t care for stuff like that: nature, beauty, whatever. But I know you like that shit. I’m sure that’d be beautiful for you.”

“Well, that’s the thing, that beauty was an incredibly thin facade, in reality, it was… incredibly morbid. The blossoms were the only striking quality, everything else was the opposite. The exterior, just by looking at it, wasn’t bark, but decomposing flesh, discolored, soft, and bloated in appearance, and as I got even closer, what smelled like rotted meat, mixed with the fragrant blossoms, increased prominently. I wanted to puke but never got the chance. All throughout the body of the tree, there were these long slits, at least a dozen of them, some longer than others, and they all opened up. Almost all of them revealed large, spherical eyes, not one being the same color or size as another, all frantically moving in different directions, like when someone’s in a deep sleep and dreaming, before they all focused in and stared down at me. I turned around and started to run. As I did so I felt the ground around me trembling, and I turned my head back to see that the thing’s roots were freeing themselves. I realized then that they weren’t roots, but tendrils, as they swayed all around, filling in the space I was creating.

“Countless human bones: ribs, femurs, skulls and more, all of varying size, surfaced as the ground underneath and around this waking monster was disturbed. As the tendrils writhed, spasmed, and whipped the air, the largest and final slit within this thing, vertical along the center of its body, opened up, to reveal a row of jagged, vertical, rotted teeth on either side. Its mouth was at least twice as tall as me. I was a significant distance away due to my running, but its breath, warm and putrid, smelling just as rotted as its outside, hit me all the same. No sooner after the mouth opened it began to move, but no sound escaped. It was when I resumed running in full that I heard it speak. Its ‘voice’ entered my brain, telepathically I suppose…? But what I do know for sure was that I felt violated. The voice was an unwelcome one, and it shook my brain in my skull, and compromised my senses. It spoke in various noises: chirps, clicks, whistles, groans, but all the same I understood it… somehow…

“’Your arrival was expected,’ it said, short and simple, in a single voice yet sounding as though it was composed of several. Its threatening appearance somewhat faded with this remark; it not only caused me to stop running but even approach the thing a little bit as my curiosity grew. But I never lowered my guard. Though it stopped making those sounds, I saw that its mouth continued to move, and its teeth were gnashing and grinding against each other. I stood there a long time in disbelief, but soon gained the courage to ask with a pounding heart and lump in my throat, ‘Where am I?’

‘You are here, with me,’ it replied.

Naturally, that answer didn’t satisfy my question, so I asked instead, ‘What are you?’

To which it said, ‘I know the gate. I AM the gate. I am the key AND guardian of the gate. Past, present, future. ALL ONE IN ME.’

“Its equivalent to yelling caused my head to violently throb, and I cupped my head in my hands as I grew disoriented, but after that, I was able to talk again.

‘W-what happened… And why am I here?’

Its tendrils, which were all moving in a frenzied manner this entire time, stopped and held in the air.

It asked me, ‘You are ready for the truth?’

And I hesitantly nodded. So quickly that my guard was entirely useless, and the distance between us irrelevant, it reached out and grabbed me with its ridiculously long appendages, which in contrast to its appearance were rough, like sandpaper as it enveloped my whole body. Despite the things astounding force and speed, it scooped me up in its grip was delicate as though making sure not to break me in its grasp. It brought me close to its mouth, and its breath was even more putrid up close, and to my relief it lifted me up higher, closer to a few of its eyes. Its pupils rolled into the back of its head, and for an instant, reflecting in the whites of its eyes, I could see the brown in mine, widened in fear, and the dirty blonde in my hair. In that specific moment I felt smaller and more pathetic than I ever have up to that point; insignificant. Before I knew it, the ends of two of its tendrils slithered their way up to my head and dug into my temples. It was more painful than I could ever accurately describe, but I imagine it was similar to surgery while conscious and fully aware. I could feel them burrowing and wiggling effortlessly into my skull, as though they were knives through clay. A third tendril burrowed into the back of my neck, and it dug into my spine as it worked its way down. It was rupturing my spinal discs.

*POP! * *POP! * *POP! *

“Until it compromised every last vertebra below my neck. Soft tears flooded my face moments after unfathomable pain, turning ice-cold before the winds smeared and carried them away. When it finished, I could see what it saw, and before I knew it, I was the hospital, being wheeled down the familiar long hallway. I heard the nurses and doctors yelling around me. Most important of all, I saw you, Daniel. You were running right alongside me. From all the crying and heavy breathing that you did, your face was bright red, and your glasses were really fogged up. I could barely see the blue in your eyes. In that field connected to that thing, I felt every bit of pain I had felt in that stale hospital, in the crowded ambulance, and in the middle of the hard road, in the cold, night air. And it was then and there I remembered everything about that night: riding my bike home after my shift at work; the one time I wasn’t wearing my reflector vest. The driver, who was dangerously exceeding the speed limit. As I remembered these things, I’m not sure anymore if it was me, with that thing, or me in the hospital, but I reached out to you, with what strength I still had. You took my hand and gently placed it back down by my side and kept your hand on it. Your concern grew, and you started to cry again. You doing all that, was the last thing I saw, and then I blacked out. Once again, I was in the field, hovering over it as the entity gripped me, and all its eyes were back to normal and gazing at me. Its mouth began to move again.

Such is the fate of your being: infinite paths, one end.

Despite the sounds inside my head, I was so close to it now, that on the outside, I could HEAR the grinding and gnashing of its teeth, and a low, scratchy wheeze escape its mouth.”
Sebastian stopped speaking and allowed a silence to take over in his room, so that he could finish his beer.

Daniel’s eyes grew wide, and his mouth opened slightly in confusion, “That’s not it, is it? Whose goofy ass decides to stop a story after a part like that?”

Sebastian finished his beer, and without a second thought dropped the empty can on the floor, where it gently clanged against the ones already piled there.

“Hell no, that is not it,” he said, as he gestured for another beer.

Daniel complied and separated one from the rest, and lightly tossed it to Sebastian, who caught, opened, and put it to his mouth all in one motion.

“So then…” Daniel started, having paused before he resumed, “What happened after it showed you your death—what did it do next?”

After asking this, Daniel inched closer to the edge of the chair he sat in, and closer to Sebastian, who let out a long sigh after drinking the majority of his new beer in one go.
“It gave me a choice,” he said as he proceeded to clear his throat and wipe his mouth with his sleeve.

“You shall walk another path, it said to me, and before I knew it, I saw more of what it wanted and allowed me to see.

The disbelief, and then awe that raced through me was surreal, like a child at Disneyworld in Atlantis. There’s more of them, out there. More universes. More realities. I saw so many in that instance. As I died in some realities, I was born in others. Past, present, future, none of it linear, and the ones I existed in were fair game. I was so lost in all of them, I didn’t realize it left me to choose until it broke the silence.

‘You shall choose another path, to overwrite and claim as your own. Such as those before you, and those after you, lest your essence fuels the gate, for the junctions and its future passages.’

But, Jesus, I didn’t know where to begin.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? You’re telling me you could choose a new life—to be a genius, billionaire, playboy, or all of the above—what’s so hard about that!”

“It wasn’t that simple when I truly considered it. Every single reality available to me which I was a part of, was different in some way. Some differences were minor, while some were blatant. Some were harmless while others were… abhorrent. As I was hooked up to that thing, I saw that everything that is possible, IS reality somewhere. No religion in one reality, a fully unified, religious world in another. Some, where the stone ages last forever, others where scientific utopias have existed from the very start.”

“I still don’t see how those are a problem.”

“Then there were the horrible realities. Mass murder, mass genocide, and all the evils humans are naturally capable of. The supernatural realities: reanimated corpses, seeping black ooze from their orifices, spreading their filthy toil. Angels, demons, and spirits traversing the earth. Eldritch gods and entities, watching over us mere ants, waiting for the right time for their reign to continue on their domain, which we’re merely borrowing… You know how some people claim to see things: ghosts, demons, aliens. Bigfoots and lake monsters. But others never do in their lifetimes? Or the Mandela Effect, where we think something was originally one way and not how it really is? Although the being showing me these things didn’t say, I knew that somehow, every single reality was connected, and the things they were host to, seeped through the cracks, into other realities, like floods into houses, convoluting everything and each other. I had to be extremely careful, and smart about this, so I didn’t end up choosing a reality with some ridiculous, or dangerous anomaly, or one where I’d be completely out of my element in.

“But there was another thing I didn’t want: to join the abandoned bones below. The walk to the tree-being was long and exhausting, and if I interpreted the presence correctly, I was grateful that if another Sebastian or someone else was on their way, that same distance I trekked would give ME time to come to a decision, so that wouldn’t happen.”

Daniel puts out a hand to announce his interruption, “I don’t get it, man. People would kill for a position like the one you have in this story. I know I would choose any of those wild realities in a heartbeat, to have fame, fortune, smarts, swagger. To be reborn and have a fresh start, or to see things that blew my mind and gave me a thrill, like whatever that ‘el-drich’ thing you said is. If you wouldn’t want any of those life-changing things, then what would you want?”

“Simplicity. And if I’m being honest here, your perspective was racing through my head, and I was so close to choosing one or all of those. Then I actually thought about it for a moment: though my past life could’ve been better in a lot of ways, I was pretty happy with what I had, what I gave my life to get and hold onto, this early on into it: a stable job, a loving family and best friend, an affordable place and a fridge full of beer. I’ve grown comfortable with them and learned to enjoy all of those aspects together. But what if just one of those things didn’t exist in one of the lives of grandeur? I didn’t know anything else, nor did I want to. I wanted a life as close to my last one as possible, so that’s what I looked for. There were so many, dude. You better believe I put some thought into it, until I was certain, absolutely certain, that I found a reality that was as similar and normal to the one I grew up and thrived in as possible. I figured too, if I was lucky, I’d get something reasonably extraordinary anyways. I didn’t even need to say anything, the being knew which one I wanted.

‘You shall overwrite this one? All that was made in that plane, you shall have rendered obsolete, undoubtedly and irreversibly?’

“I thought about that statement for a second, and I admit the way it asked that left me hesitant. That part of the process was in the back of my head as I observed all the realms, but when the time actually came to choose one, I paused. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to live with myself, but at the same time, I died pretty young. ‘I’ did in a lot of realities, I’m sure. But unlike the others, in that moment in time, I had another chance. And I realize now that’s the point. A compromise, if you will. In that moment in time, I was provided an unbelievable decision and opportunity, no matter how selfish. When another Sebastian came along and was in the same situation as me, so be it, I’ll be just as vulnerable as the rest of them. There’s nothing I’d be able to do about it, powerless to powers I’ll never truly understand. I shook the hesitation out of my head and confirmed what I wanted.

‘As you wish,’ it declared.

“Two new tendrils slithered up and swiftly sunk deep into my eye sockets, agonizing for only a brief moment. The next thing I knew, I was in my new reality, which through my best judgement, is almost as exact as my last, from what I’ve seen so far.”

A long pause filled the room as Sebastian finished, and Daniel contemplated the story he’d been told.

“I don’t get it,” Daniel said, “What did the thing mean, when it said you were going to ‘overwrite this one?’”

“That’s just it. From what I can tell and what I understand now, for every reality created, it already has its respective individuals. I couldn’t simply have a new one created for me or be put into a random one. I needed to be put into one that already existed, where there already was a Sebastian. If I interpreted correctly, the vessel would remain unchanged, but what’s inside the vessel, the mind, even the soul, of that Sebastian, was replaced with mine.”

Daniel took a moment to absorb and reflect on this, “Let me get this straight… In your story, you hijacked another Sebastian? That means all his memories, likes, passions, and even his consciousness, were erased, and replaced with yours?”

Sebastian looked down at the pile of empty beer cans on his floor.

He poked at the inside of his mouth with his tongue, “Yeah… It was either that, or succumb to nothingness and feed that hideous thing, wherever in space and time it is.”

“Ok I guess I can accept that. But you chose a life just as lame and as simple as your last one—when you could have had something so much more?”

Sebastian smirks and shrugs his shoulders.

“You’re fucking crazy! Or stupid. I would have chosen a life where I was an all-powerful cyborg.”

Sebastian laughs at Daniel’s claim, “You know maybe I am stupid for my choice. After everything, I certainly feel like I’ve gone batshit insane.”

Daniel reflected on this for a long moment, then responded with a hesitant tone, “Now… you’re done with your story?”

“Now I’m done.”

As Sebastian downed the rest of his beer and dropped the can to the floor, his gaze slowly shifted to Daniel’s, who let out a long, exacerbated whistle and got up from his seat, breaking eye contact from Sebastian.

“Jesus, man,” he said, and looked down at the empty cans before raising his head back up and asking another question. “So, in this story, does everyone eventually end up in that place—could anybody choose a life they’d want to live, that they never did, if that’s supposed to be the afterlife, or Purgatory, or something? Would there be a limit to how many times one person could cycle through different places?”

“I don’t see why not. Those bones underneath that being had to belong to others at some point. Maybe they were just other Sebastians, but I doubt it. I doubt I’ll ever know though. Based on what we’re taught and the little we know, the universe is a big place, and the surface isn’t even scratched. But there’s no way ‘I’m’ that special, that ‘I’m’ the only one who would ever experience something like that. There’s no way… As for your last question, all I can say is that for an answer to be obtained, that’s something we’d certainly have to figure out ourselves, firsthand.”

Daniel paused for a moment, and then laughed, before chugging the rest of his beer.
He threw the empty can with the rest and proceeded to clap loudly, apathetic to his Sebastian’s hangover as he tried to play off a grimace.

“There is no contest,” Daniel says, dividing the rest of his statement with several claps before it resumes, “Out of the rest of them, ever, this is BY FAR your best story! Whatever shit you read, or take in your spare time, I’m gonna have to start asking for it.”

Daniel separated two more beers and gave one to Sebastian. They opened them in unison and gave a toast.

Sebastian said confidently, “Well, I’m glad you like it,” before taking a sip.

Daniel did the same and was the first to finish his sip and speak, “There’s just one thing I don’t understand. It’s no big deal, but I just want to know the reason behind it.”

“Oh yeah, and what’s that?”

“We’ve been best friends forever, man, so you know that my vision is near perfect and always has been. I’m not sure why you’d need to have me wearing glasses in your story.”

Sebastian was silent for a moment before chuckling softly, his body finally relaxing in the process.

“No particular reason,” he said, followed by a facetious, “You know, the Daniel in my story would be able to keep up with all I’ve been saying, without any elaboration. Have you ever considered the possibility that YOU’RE just dead weight?”

Daniel shook his head and laughed at his expense, “Yeah man that’s great, fake Daniel is as smart as you are. Whoopty-fucking-doo!”

Sebastian laughed, “Fair enough, man. But at this point I’d like to see you actually read anything!”

The two laughed alongside each other, clanged cans, and chugged their drinks.

Credit: Ryan Pappas