Boredom. It was a Saturday morning the day after summer break started, I was in the 11th grade, School, for me, was everything, I used to study very often and investigate new topics all the topic, I was always very curious to see what the world had to offer. But this day was more boring than any day before it, I had nothing to do, nothing crossed my mind that day which would peak my interest.
Until I remembered.
One of the weird kids, he had told me about something. He was very weird about it, as he usually is with most subjects. But he seemed more, curious, more excited than usual. He told me that he found something, something which he called: “Real Metal”. He was a huge metalhead, an absolute nerd for that stuff, knew everything about it.
I dismissed it at the time, but I thought about it while in bed, this kid was always very picky about what he listened to, he always chose the highest quality songs, nothing less than what he considered perfection. He claimed to have had the “best” metal playlist of all, only the best of the best.
So for him to then claim that he found “real metal” was very interesting, wouldn’t he know what “real metal” is after collecting so many songs and going to so many concerts, events? I gave him a call, asked about his discovery of “real metal”. He told me, in an unusually calm voice, that what he indeed found was “real metal”, and that everything else he had listened to was nothing more but mediocre copies of “greatness”.
This peaked my curiosity much more further, I asked if I could listen to whatever he had, he agreed, with a joyful voice, uncharacteristic of him. So, my day was made, not boring, by the weirdest guy in class. I made it out my house and headed to his, he didn’t live too far away, only a mile.
I walked up to his porch, I felt a strange cold go over me, everywhere else was very sunny and hot, but here it was somehow suddenly calm, cold and shade passed over the place. I don’t know, but I felt very uneasy, like something was off that I wasn’t noticing. I looked at the door of the house and notice that it changed color. It used to be a light yellow, but now is completely black.
“Maybe they painted the house” I told myself, considering that the day previously it was it’s original color, meaning that they likely must have painted it early in the morning, really early or even late at night. Which was plausible, strange though, even if the door was also dry as desert sand, like it had always been that color, it had some imperfections that would be noticeable after a long period of time. But I didn’t think anything of it, I was distracted thinking about the “real metal” this strange guy claimed he had.
He opened the door for me. Another strange occurrence, as he never left his room, even for friends, as his mother or father always answered.
“Come in, to the house of perfection, where all your oddities are sorted out!”
I looked at him with a strange look, even this was out of his area of “weirdness” but I obliged and entered his home. I had no reason to suspect there was something macabre going on, he was a strange but friendly guy. So I didn’t really consider thinking about the rest of the things out of place in his home. This strange odor lingered in the air, the type of smell you’d associate with body odor, extreme body odor, mixed in with perfume, of all things.
He led me to his upstairs room, he walked like a robot and didn’t say a word as we entered the room. It was as you’d expect, covered in posters, tidy, warm, messy. He pointed at a headset, which was laying in the middle of a table, as if it was placed there for this occasion. I approached the headset, and put it on. I turned around to look at him, as he said, in a monotone voice.
“Smith, I’ll see you later”
My eyes widened, Smith was my birth name, but it wasn’t my current name, my name was changed just months after my birth, as my parents were on the run for several crimes they committed, as gave me up to a My grandparents. My name was changed because they thought it would protect me from media coverage or the legal system.
I tried to remove the headset, but I blacked out. Only hearing the most intense metal I have ever heard in my entire life, it was nothing like any song he had played, it was chaotic, like any other song of it’s kind, but organized at the same time. It was strangely soothing, calming, in contrast to what it actually was. It really sounded like “real” metal.
This lasted for a few minutes, ten to be exact. After the song ended, it was just a few minutes of static noise, my thoughts were racing before me, as I desperately tried to wake up.
But then, suddenly, a massive figure appears in front of me, I can only describe it as, a monster, it very strongly resembled the type of visions you’d see while on a drug like DMT, it had massive, red tendrils shooting out of it’s ‘body’, and a massive gaping maw in the middle, which had an infinite void inside. It started to get closer, slowly enveloping my body. To which then, I launched back in to my body and I regain my vision. I’m not in his room anymore, I’m in van.
I look to my side and see a woman I don’t recognize, she too is awake and stares back at me. We are both breathing heavily and shaking. I can’t muster any words, I try to. But she then said:
“Isaac? Is that you? How did we get here? Why do you so.. older?”
I respond: Brittany? I don’t know what happened, I just blacked out at Judas’ house, then woke up here”
“Judas? I was at his home too..”
We looked at each other for several seconds, before someone else breaks the silence.
“Isaac? Where are we?”
We both look towards him, it’s Judas, he looks at lot older, but I recognized the birth mark on his cheek.
I don’t say a word, as I open the back of the van and head out. I stumbled for several steps before regaining my composure and taking in my surroundings. Everything has changed, I can clearly notice that I’m in towns square, but the buildings are different, the old library isn’t even there anymore. I look towards a building right next to me and see a huge sign on the front.
“Happy New Years 2023!”
My mouth opens wide in shock, how could it be 2023, If yesterday it was 2003?
I run away from the van, running down a street which led to my house. I took me a few good minutes of running, it was an absolute pain, as my body acted as if it hadn’t ran in years. But I eventually made it to my home. It was gone, completely, it seemed to have been demolished, as only a concrete foundation remained.
My heart was pounding, I didn’t know what to think. One day I pass out and wake up in a place I don’t know, seemingly in the future. It took me a minute but I eventually calmed down. I put my hands on my waist, I felt a strange object in my pants, I took it out and it’s a cellphone of sorts , not just any cellphone, but a really advanced one with an interactive screen.
I unlocked the screen, with merely the muscle memory of doing it so many times in my “sleep”.
I check the cellphone and see a feature in the “home” screen. It’s this app I’m currently on, called “Reddit” I tap on the feature and get to learn about what it is and get the understanding that it’s a web forum. I’ve only been awake for a few hours, but I’m writing this so I don’t forget my story or leave it untold. I’ll learn how to more extensively use this feature and other features on the cellphone. But first I gotta find the rest of my friends and family.