February 18, 2023

The 22-year-old scruffy young man with shaggy sandy blonde hair and blue eyes rolled out of bed. “9 already huh?” I woke up early today. To be more specific it was already half passed. Getting up, I went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

My name is James Dewitt. I’m a moderately normal college student.

Having spent the last couple of years after high school working odd jobs while living at home. My parents sent me off to college because of my borderline hikikomori lifestyle about a year ago. Even so, having grown up on a farm I still had daily chores. When they told me to go, they didn’t really care what I studied, Mom just responded with “Just do it” which has been a household meme for a few years now.

After moving out into an apartment near the college, they probably didn’t expect me to keep being a hikikomori. Other than for daily necessities like food or when I had to do laundry. I didn’t go out much. The only other reason I left was for class. From the occasional presentation or the biweekly tests. Otherwise, everything could just be submitted online. Presentations have always been easy. The tests only require you to check the material from the last two weeks.

The apartment where I spent my time was rather small. One bedroom, with a bathroom on the other side of the hall. A closet before the living room with a kitchen on the side.

And because of Mom, I couldn’t take many things with me when I moved out. Other than a Switch and some games I snuck from home. The only other things I had of value were my TV and Laptop. The TV cost me a pretty penny from what I’ve earned over the years, being a 60-inch plasma screen. While my laptop was more of a going-away present from my parents. I wish I could still use my desktop.

It felt good to be on my own. I’ve always felt different from most, I guess. I never really had connections with people. Much less with those my age. My mind has always been different. I guess it started to get worse when I hit my teens and started getting into anime and manga. Though, it might also be because I don’t have a social life.

Having set some eggs to cook, I went to the Living room and turned on the TV. Noticing the glare from the window I went to adjust the curtains. When I looked back at the TV I saw that it had some dust covering the screen. Without much thought, I quickly tried to wipe it off with my hand. The screen felt 'off' to the touch. As my hand moved across the screen I felt it sink inside. “Huh?” I couldn’t help but verbally let out a reaction. I felt the screen stretched around my hand like a membrane. The screen itself distorted but everything displayed seemed unaffected.

When more force was applied I watched my whole arm sink into the screen I started to grow more curious and worried. Shortly, I felt something fluffy.  Grabbing hold of the fluffy object I tried backing away from the screen pulling both my hand and the fluffy object out.

When my hand came back out of the screen, I was holding a cloud. Not just a cloud, the cartoony graphic type that you would normally see on the news. When I looked at the screen It was an update on tomorrow's weather report.  As they cut back to the forecast there on the screen were identical copies of the same graphics as the cloud I pulled out of the screen. It was as if nothing happened. The weatherman remained unaffected by my disruption.

“My arm was inside the TV…I just pulled… out of the TV... Ouch…” I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Nothing was wrong with me, at least as far as I know. “I don’t do drugs… I'm not dreaming... I just pulled something out of the TV… The fuck! WHY!? How!?” My mind was filled with a deluge of questions.

As my mind raced the “Cloud” I had pulled out wasn’t going to wait for me to catch up. I was still holding it even after pulling it out. I had only held it for a few seconds before the room felt more humid. It being a graphic of a cloud was strange enough. Having it feel like what I could only imagine a condensed cloud would feel like.  It was soft and fluffy while also being cold and wet.

My hand planted deeply within the graphic gave my fingers a chill. I noticed that it was starting to disperse as water began to flow down my arm. It was dripping down my arm and raining down on the floor. Within a minute the cloud had fallen apart into mist.

Calling me stunned would be an understatement.

As the mist began to settle at the ground by my feet, I felt a slight chill. Shortly the remaining mist began to disappear right before my eyes. Leaving just the puddle at my feet.  (Was it acting like a normal cloud? Was it not just an image...?) I had so many questions.

As my natural curiosity took over I wondered "Can I do it again?" I asked myself. I stopped believing in magic as a kid but what else would you call this?

As I held my hand in front of the TV I was going to try and remove something else, another object maybe? As the thought occurred to me. If I could pull objects out of the TV then, what else could I take out? What if the limits weren’t just objects? Characters? People? It sounded ridiculous but at this point- “Should I kill two birds with one stone and see if this works on different screens? Where did I put my laptop...?”

After a quick search of my apartment, I found my laptop. Checking the battery, “Yep, it's dead”. I forgot to plug it back in. Well, at least that gives me time for breakfast and to clean up the puddle.

End

Seriously, I’ve rewritten this 5 times now. Fuck it, intros are hard.