It was late in the afternoon and school was now over. Students were leaving, huddled around in small friend groups that were established earlier in the day, though Jorge walked by himself. As he passed the gates and made his way on the street, he heard a voice call out to him.

"Wait up!" Snoos cried, barely catching up in time. "Jorge, got time to hang out a bit?"

The boy grabbed onto his shoulder, panting. Neither said a word from then, but they had a silent agreement. Jorge followed him. Soon, they were walking through an unfamiliar part of town, passing by shops and businesses or varying sizes. 

"Where are we going?" Jorge asked, taking in the view. He had never seen a skyscraper before. "Is this where you wanted us to go?"

There was a tall, obsidian colored building looming over them. It was by far the largest in town, with big bold lettering on the top reading: "L.I.V.E. Backwards Society"

"Yeah, we're here now." Snoos said. He walked into a small shop named "SUPER Store," which looked somewhat dilapidated. There were some lights that were broken, and the paint on the walls was starting to peel off. A smell of old medicine was lingering throughout the shop. 

Jorge followed, slightly disappointed, breathing a heavy sigh. 

"Hey, don't worry about the L.I.V.E. Backwards stuff. That's just the building they use to research and make products" Snoos said, checking out whatever random goods they had in the aisle. "The first batches of their stuff always comes to this store."

He tossed Jorge a bottle of what appeared to be bleach, taking one for himself as well. Then, he took a big swig, gulping down the entire bottle in seconds.

"H-hey! You-"

"It's not what it looks like."

"What?"

"I work here, so it's no big deal if I try out a thing or two without paying, right?"

"Well, no, but you just drank detergent!"

Snoos shrugged and pointed at the label of the bottle. 

"It's Nuclear Clean." He burped. "It gives you powers if you drink it. One of the products they made at that building."

"Okay..." Jorge muttered. He opened the bottle and sniffed the contents just in case. It smelled like cherries. "Whatever you say, I guess."

As he went for a sip, Snoos found himself gaining several pounds of muscle instantly, ripping his clothes slightly. He was doing handstand pushups without any difficulty whatsoever.

"How have I not heard about this?" Jorge muttered in amazement. "This is incredible! You could help so many people with this!"

"Oh, I mean... It's only temporary." He replied, starting to deflate. "Plus, the side effects are pretty bad."

Snoos ran over to a trash can, vomiting out his breakfast and lunch. Then he collapsed, getting back up weakly. Jorge decided to toss away the can, but not without paying for it.

"I guess... this store is pretty... interesting." He muttered. "Why'd you bring me here, though?"

"Well, don't you see how impossible that was?" Snoos said, wheezing. "You couldn't possibly create something like that with modern science."

"What are you implying?"

The boy limped over to the counter, taking a seat by the cash register. There, he took out a key and opened a locked drawer, pulling out two ID cards.

"You saw me do it during class, but I guess you wouldn't understand" He said, snapping his fingers. The same strange feeling from before was coming back to Jorge, as some figure was starting to appear aside Snoos. "There are intangible things in this reality. You can't just have a chat with a concept or borrow the properties of phenomena, right? That's true for normal people, at least."

"If that's the case, then what is that... thing?" Jorge said, pointing to it. "I shouldn't be able to see that."

"You're wrong. You're like me. There are people who have this ability to interact with those concepts, those intangibles. We can even bring them to reality as people or whatever physical form. The thing that you're seeing is the concept of Sleep as a person."

Sleep waved at Jorge, who was shaking in disbelief. He understood everything, he perceived it and believed it, yet it was something so beyond what he could ever imagine.

"I've been doing some thinking lately." Snoos said. "When you held that bottle, didn't it feel sort of like Sleep's presence?"

Jorge nodded slightly.

"Then don't you think the whole L.I.V.E. Backwards Society, or at least someone important there, could be the same as us."

"I know what you're getting at, but why does that matter?"

"Well, all I'm saying is that they have a lot of potential to do something sinister." He said, leaning back on the chair. "I... 'borrowed' some key cards. Why don't we just... see for ourselves?"

Snoos held one out to him. The broken lights flickered on for a moment. The card read: "Tom Erye, Male, 36, Junior Assistant Researcher." There were small red stains on it.

It was dark in the store again. Jorge stood in silence. The sounds of the street were louder than ever. There were still students roaming around.

"So, 'Tom,' are you ready to work tomorrow?"