MAX PEREZ: One Realm To Another

chapter 10 - a new, surreal world

      Alex had been getting a bit suspicious about Max being away so often. "Max, what have you been doing whenever you're away?" He had a piercing glare on his face. "Things have been a bit weird. You're a freelancer, so it can't be because of a job." Max didn't know what to say. He couldn't come up with a good lie, but Alex wouldn't believe the thing about returning to the object realm. He decided to tell the truth. "Okay, this'll be a bit of a long story, so just bear with me. Okay?" Alex didn't look like he was going to bear with Max. "Alright then."

      "So I was listening to music, when suddenly this pop rock stuff came on." Alex was confused as to why Max was mentioning this. "I knew it wasn't something on my playlist, so I checked what it was. That's when I got sucked into the object realm." "The object realm? I thought that was something you only go to once and never again once you return here." "Me too. But apparently, it isn't. And even stranger, I can get in and out by playing a music file. If I want to go to the realm, I play that song from the object realm. If I want to come back here, I play a song that's from here." "That doesn't make any sense. How is that even possible?" "I've been wondering the exact same thing! It's some sort of glitch. That's how the object realmers put it, anyway. I talked with a few of them when I first got there, some had gone through the same thing." "Interesting. I don't fully believe this, but you're also not the type to do anything malicious." "I swear this is true, I swear it is!" "You don't have to shout, you know. Anyway, there's nothing to hold against you here. I don't need to know anything else, since this is your personal matter." "Yeah. Let's just leave it alone. You might be my boyfriend, but you're not going to need any of this. Besides, it's not like you can even get into the realm!"

      Alex began questioning Max's last sentence. "You said that the song is what teleports you to that place, right? This is probably a very far-fetched thing to say, but it could be worth testing on someone else." Max thought about it for a moment. "You know, you could be right. Lemme find the file on my phone and see if it works." He scrolled through his music app and found the file. "Alright, let's test this thing out!" He let Alex start playing the song, and he disappeared. At least, that's what Max saw. It was a completely different story for Alex.

      "What is this?" Alex thought to himself. He was utterly confused. He looked down to see that his limbs were now black cartoon limbs that faded into a slight yellow, and noticed that he was now some sort of box. One with a lock. He looked back up, and heard a woman's voice loudly saying something along the lines of "Sign, we have a new tenant!". A potted orchid ran downstairs. "Greetings! This is our humble abode, we'd love to have you here with us." "I'm just, um, visiting." "Alright then. I'm not sure what to call you. What's your name?" Alex was thinking hard. He probably couldn't use his real name, so he came up with something on the spot. "Lock Box." "Alright, Lock Box. I don't know why you'd visit this place, but have a nice stay!" Orchid went back upstairs, leaving Alex to wander around.

      While he was exploring, he happened to encounter Aloe Vera. "Nice to meet you," they said. "I haven't seen you around. What's your name?" "My name is Lock Box." "Okay then. Nice to meet you, Lock Box!" Alex then realized that he had no way to return. At the same time, Max realized this. He entered the realm and tried to find Alex. He saw someone unfamiliar and assumed that was him. He walked over to him, grabbed his arm, and ran upstairs with him to his room. "Who are you?" "I'm Lock Box." "You sound familiar. Do you happen to recognize the name Alex Li?" "Yes. Wait, do you recognize the name Max Perez?" "Yeah, that's me! Alright, Alex, I found you. Let's get you back home." Max pulled out his phone, played another music file. and teleported back home with Alex.

Later that afternoon, Alex was in his room thinking to himself. "That was surreal."