On Earth, the beginning of the year 2022 on a Friday night, in Nantes, France.

 

 

“Alright guys, I'm done for today.” I said while standing up, my speech slightly blurred from what I recall to be three pint of beers that I've finished in the last three hours. My group of friends sitting around me, just outside a random bar, made a feeble attempt to stop me. However, I declined to stay by saying. “You all know that I'm not a heavy drinker, and I have stuff to do tomorrow anyway. So I can't stay longer.” That was complete bullshit, but I really did not want to stay around wasted people. Trying to piece together what they tried to tell you was a chore in the best of days, and today was not the best of days. Well, it was not a horrible day, mind you. Just a less than average one.

 

 

“See you guys next week!” I said and started to leave. They replied to me before going back to their boring conversations about football, or soccer as the Americans liked to call that sport... Let's not comment on that part... Where was I again...? Right! The boring conversations! I can feel my brain melting every time those topics came up in our conversations. 'This player scored during that match.' 'That player got transferred to that club.' And when they were finally done, they always start talking about how one of them slept with [INSERTNAME] who he met at [INSERTNAME] and who was the friend of [INSERTNAME], so it becomes a small drama that fuel days of conversation... GOD!FUC...

 

 

Breath Lucas... Breath... Alright, I feel better. Thankfully, I was not talking out loud. Alright, maybe the drunk looking woman looking at me as if I was crazy disproved that theory. Whatever, I guess. Do I have my mask on? When I touched the surgical mask adorning my face, I discreetly sighed in relief. I admit that I may be a bit sensitive about what other people thought of me and being seen as weird by others may be slightly uncomfortable for me. Maybe.

 

 

Anyway, let's just keep walking to my apartment instead of wasting time here, shall we? Well, while we walk to the tramway station of 'Commerce', why don't I present myself? I'm Lucas, 30 years old and single. My last name? I would like to keep some secret, if you don't mind. If you hadn't already guessed, then I'm french. From France. The whole 'Omelette du fromage', baguette and wine kind of shit. Alright, I may have drunk a bit too much beer and I can feel my manners slipping.... How many pint did I drink again? 3...? or was it 4...?

 

 

Doesn't matter. Lucas, focus! You need to stay on track! After slapping discreetly my cheeks to regain some clarity, I started over. So... Lucas, 30, French and single. What can I add to that magnificent description? That my handsomeness is only equal to my cleverness... That's the way my mom likes to describe me when she doesn't want to hurt my feelings. I shook my head and sighed. I know the truth mom. I'm just average looking. Not ugly mind you, but if girls had to choose between going out with any of my friends or me, they would not choose me. Ever. Am I jealous? Maybe... Alright, a little... Fine! I'm freaking jealous alright! I'm only 1.70m tall (around 5ft6 for you weir... Cough! I mean Americans), so as a French man I'm more on the low side... Sigh... I think I'll just become a Buddhist Monk and go live in the middle of the jungle in a warm Asian country.... Maybe Thailand? I heard that the weather over there is pretty nice. Nice beaches too... Wait! Wasn't I thinking about becoming a Monk? Can they even go out of their Temples? Also, can they drink beers?

 

 

While my thoughts became more and more incoherent, my feet finally brought me to the tramway station, where I turned right in the direction of the river Erdre. In my (more than I dare to admit) inebriated state, I kept walking and looking around at the mostly empty neighborhood, due to the late hour. I could see the big ugly building that was known as 'Tour Bretagne', which was simply an office building, despite its nice sounding name. Well, maybe it only sounded nice to me. I like to imagine a magic tower placed on hill in the middle of Nantes, which represent the region where I was born...

 

 

I think I should stop drinking that much... I think I recall drinking a fifth pint... God, I'm going to suffer tomorrow... Next time, I'll just drink some water...

 

 

I tried to focus my mind by slapping my own face again, but this time a bit harder. Alright, let's not be too extreme. Maybe one or two glasses of water after the pints would be enou.... I stopped what would be considered as an internal nonsense, and looked at the wall on my left. As I was not paying attention to where I was going, relying on muscle memory to reach my small apartment, I did not notice that I ended up crossing the empty street and passing by the stairs leading to the Tower. Of course, that was not what stopped me in my tracks. After all, I've been living in the same apartment for almost a decade, so I knew this way by heart. Thus the muscle memory bit.

 

 

However, since I knew what to expect, seeing something that I actually did not expect made me freeze in my walking motion. Although, I probably looked ridiculous with one leg in the air, my two arms stuck in a wide motion. Cross the probably and switch it to definitely. Thankfully, the surprised and drunk me did not pay attention to my weird posture and instead focused on the strange lit up door that was in the middle of the empty wall.

 

 

When my lagging brain processed the ridiculous situation, my body seemed to come back to life and my limbs returned to a 'normal' position and I turned myself completely towards that bizarre door. “What the fuck?” Were my my first words. “Fucking cool is what it is! Are those Leds?” In my defense I was drunk, so stop judging me. “Since the light is on, it should be open, right?” Did I tell you I was drunk?

 

 

When I 'intelligently' made my deduction, I felt like I heard a disdainful chuckle, but in my intoxicated state, I did not pick up on it. God, I can be so dumb at times... Anyway, as I felt my curiosity pushing me to investigate that mysterious door, I started walking in its direction slowly, as if attracted by something beyond me... Right... That was definitely the real reason... Nothing to do with my intelligence...

 

 

As I arrived in front of the door, I reached with my right hand towards its handle and pushed it down. As I felt that it was unlocked, I pulled it towards myself to see what was hidden beyond. Unlike what I thought however, there was only a kind of silver light forming a similar shape to the door. The color was beautiful, at least to me, but there was something a bit disturbing about it... How should I put it...? It felt alive somehow. How could light look alive? I don't know why you're asking me, since I was as baffled as you are.

 

 

Of course, I was very intrigued with that weird light and in a strike of 'brilliance', I used my left hand to touch the beautifully strange glow.

 

 

The end.

 

 

Haha, I'm just joking. You should have seen your face! Cough! Anyway, let's just go back to the story.

 

 

Once I touched the moving light, my mind became completely blank and I only felt myself moving. But in a weird manner. As if I was somewhere one moment, and somewhere else an other. And that without ever really moving. Alright, if you understood that explanation, you deserve a medal.

 

 

When my brain seemed to restart after being frozen for an indeterminate length of time, I fell in a very graceful manner on the floor. Face first. After which I proceeded to puke my guts out, which to be fair might be a combination of the alcohol ingested previously and the effect of the strange move that happened to me. Hopefully the owner of this room will understand that I'm only partly to blame for ruining the... Wait! Why is the ground made of that weird silver light? Didn't you know that putting the same color everywhere makes a room depressing?

 

 

I kept pondering on very important topics, with my sweatshirt full of vomit, until I felt myself slipping in a most needed sleep, having one last thought when my brain registered the smell on my clothes. “It's definitely going to stain.” Afterwards, the darkness took me without me being able to, or even wanting to, stop it.

 

 

A certain amount of time later, my eyes fluttered open slowly. Before I could even pay attention to the environment I was in, or even remember what happened to me the previous night, a groan of pain escaped me. The biggest migraine of my life was waging war in my poor brain. Although I felt like I was going to die, it was definitely an illusion. I hope. As I was lamenting on my poor physical condition, I was suddenly interrupted by a strange voice.

 

 

[Hello, Mortal.]

 

 

Hearing the female voice, I finally looked around and only saw a small empty room full of a silver light which tugged at my memories. “I think I saw that light yesterday...? There was a door and... I can't remember the rest.” I mumbled. As the presence caught on my words, she added.

 

 

[And you vomited on yourself before falling asleep on the ground.]

 

 

Now that I heard the female voice telling the story, I felt a bit embarrassed. After all, my mom taught me that you're not supposed to go to a stranger's home and throw up all around. There is a story behind it, and it involved a friend as the main character, a bottle of whisky as the culprit and my bedroom as the victim... I'll let you fill in the blank.

 

 

I did not know if it was the weird situation I was in or other supernatural factors, but my migraine seemed to decrease slightly, and I could finally start to seriously think about my predicament. I then looked around trying to find the source of the voice, and despite having the result of my regurgitation on my clothes, which did not have any smell (Thankfully!), I saw nothing on the ground. It was as if the ground absorbed it during the time I was sleeping. Weird.

 

 

Feeling a bit nervous at the CLEARLY not normal situation, I tentatively asked. “He-hello? Who-who is there? Coul-Could you tell me whe-where I am?” An example of courage and bravery, I was. The voice then answered by asking a question in an amused tone. [Are you scared?]

 

 

“Who? Me? scared? Of-of course not! I was just...” I tried to vainly explain myself, but I was quickly interrupted. [Then why can I feel your body increasing it production of sweat, your heart rate speeding up, your breath becoming shorter and your hands trembling?]

 

 

After that oddly specific description, I did not know what to say. How am I supposed to defend my pride when that weird entity could 'read' my body as if she (I think it's a she?) read an open book. The expression on my face was probably too amusing for her, since I heard her burst into laughter. Not the creepy kind that villain used in movies, but more like... Well, I don't really have a comparison in mind, but just think beautiful and enjoyable.

 

 

The fact that she seemed good-natured reassured me greatly. Although I could not be sure of anything yet, at least I was still alive. I think? “Cough! By the way, am I alive or dead?” Reining her laughter, I could still hear the amusement in her tone of voice when she asked. [And what made you think you were dead? Would I be supposed to take you to Heaven if you were dead?]

 

 

Did she have to make fun of me all the time? That's very insensitive on her part, and she should be ashamed of herself. And I'm definitely going to tell her with those exact words. “Of course not, your Highness Majestic Divine Entity. Your humble servant only wish to live a peaceful life and if you could let me go now, I would definitely repay that favor in the future.” Or never, if I could help it.

 

 

[Are you sure you want to leave? I could give you an opportunity to become the master of this planet, the galaxy or even beyond. Wouldn't you like it, being the strongest being of your fellow humans and having billions of people serving you? You could have anything you want: personal power, unlimited money and any beautiful woman you asked for. Isn't it tempting? Think about it a bit longer before answering me.]

 

 

When I heard her words, I could not deny that I became slightly interested. After all, I was a simple man and those three propositions touched on the primal impulse that all men had, but had to rein in as they would become beasts, or at least act like them otherwise. I started to mumble to myself. “Well, personal power, I assume, should be like body strength and such. I would love it to be honest, as that would allow me to explore many places and bypass all the restrictions a lot of people are under on Earth. Then unlimited money... If you have physical power that transcend everything, what would be the point of money? I only need enough to live comfortably if I need to trade with others.”

 

 

“Billions of people serving me... Again, what's the point? I don't care about exerting power on others so there is no point. And the last one is women. That one is tricky, since I'm not interested in treating my woman or women as trophy wives. That would too boring. Well, I wouldn't mind having a few wives, but there has to be a limit. I really don't know how those protagonists in the novels I've read with tens of wives deal with that problem. I mean in some of them, they are married literally forever thanks to their unlimited lifespan. I can't believe that there is no fight or even break ups du... Damn it Lucas! Focus!”

 

 

After conducting an extensive debate with myself, I raised my head up and looked at the middle of the room and answered the entity. “Your Divine Ladyship Highness Majesty's proposition is very tempting, but I'm not really interested in the whole package. Can I change some options?” Why did I have to say that! Damn it! She's going to kill me, isn't she?

 

 

[...]

 

 

[You're kidding, right?] Yep, I'm dead.