Elsie YeaLim
13
The sun rose and everything fell.
The majority of everything and everyone in the entire universe were randomly transported to different places—like a new country, a new planet, a new galaxy, whatever.
To you, none of this really matters. You’re one of the lucky ones—part of the minority. Wherever you live, you’ve just woken up today but nothing much out of the ordinary happened. But then again, you’re probably plenty bored of your monotonous, colorless life. You’re probably cursing the universe for not picking you up and dropping you off in a soup of confusion. So this story is for you. Even though you wouldn’t be able to experience it first hand, at least you can take a virtual, literary tour.
So… Alex, this rather unfortunate fellow, found himself in a mysterious dark road. He was surrounded by one other living thing: a dog. Or was it a dog? Anyway, the dog wasn’t a nice puppy—when it spotted Alex, it let out a feral snarl.
Alex let out a high-pitched, totally girly shriek, and began running away from the dog. To be honest, he was extremely stupid. First of all, he probably didn’t know exactly how fast the dog was capable of running. Secondly, he didn’t know where he was or whether or not this dog was actually a dog or not. Because in a situation like this, one doesn’t know if he is in an alternate universe with dog-looking things that are actually rabid dinosaurs in disguise… or something else. Third, he didn’t know where the road led. Oh, and not to mention that it was all dark and stuff.
But anyway, he ran, shrieking all the way down the road.
The dog ran after him, and too bad for Alex, the dog was extremely capable at running. It caught up to Alex in seconds. The dog also proved to be a wolf up close. It started going to metamorphosis and turned into a rabid dinosaur. Things like this happen, because it wasn’t anywhere on planet Earth that Alex got dropped off on. Regardless, the rabid dinosaur ran with Alex until the end of the road… where there was nothing.
Nothing.
Or perhaps it wasn’t “nothing”, because “nothing” cannot exist. There has to be something, whether it’s solid, liquid, gas, or plasma. Or perhaps a fifth something, because science on Earth couldn’t answer to every weird thing in the universe. It was probably air and empty space that greeted Alex at the end of the road.
Alex could see stars. The world that he had landed in was what people in the olden days believed the Earth to be. Square, and flat. And where he was standing was the end of the square. Plus there was a rabid dinosaur towering over him. Why the rabid dinosaur didn’t eat him up, Alex did not know.
Alex screamed, “I want to get out of here!”
How English worked in this other world is anyone’s guess, but a genie appeared in front of Alex. It was just like the genie with Aladdin’s lamp, blue and fat and all.
“You made a wish, sir?” the genie asked.
“Yes!” Alex exclaimed. There is actually scientific research about how people do and say absurdly insane things when they are fearful or some other form of delirious. “I did make a wish! Get me a girlfriend! Now!”
A girl appeared next to Alex.
Before Alex could look at her face, the dinosaur gobbled her up. The rabid dinosaur’s was actually a weird species of dinosaurs that could only devour female prey.
The genie bowed. “Wish granted. Sort of. Sir, you have two left. Please go on, or press the ‘Save For Later’ button.”
“Where’s the ‘Save For Later’ button? I want to press the ‘Save For Later’ button,” Alex replied, frantically searching for it.
“Is that your second wish, sir?”
“No, no!” Alex cried. “Absolutely not! My second wish is to kill that rabid dinosaur!” The said rabid dinosaur was drooling on Alex’s shoulder after a delicious meal.
“Ah. Alright,” the genie said.
Suddenly Alex was standing in full gear, with a sword in his hand and daggers on his belt. “What the crap?” he looked up at the genie, demanding an explanation.
“You said you wanted to kill the rabid dinosaur, so I’ve prepared you for the fight,” the genie explained calmly.
“Screw this!” Alex screamed. That was when he finally remembered his real wish, of getting home. “Aghhh! Whatever! Third wish! You’d better do this right! I want to go back to my house!”
That wish was also stupid, because he there might be another “my house” somewhere in the universe. He wasn’t specific enough with his request, but nevertheless, the genie bowed. “As you wish, sir.” A door appeared before Alex.
Being the idiot that he was, Alex probably didn’t realize the flaw in his words. Alex was kind of amazed that genies actually existed, and the whole encounter and experience.
And without a second thought… and still in full battle gear…
Alex stared at the door handle and slowly turned the knob.
