The World According to Max

Chapter 02: A Chat with the Voice

Chapter 02: A Chat with the Voice

Max...Maaaaax....yoohooo....

Max’s eyed opened to pitch darkness. He groggily moaned and yawned, stretching his arms. “Eh, cute girl’s voice? Guess...I’m still sleeping.” 

MAX! 

“I’M UP! Wow, cute girlie voice vanished there.” 

Max tried to blink. He blinked again. “Hey, give me back my eyesight. I’m awake already!” Max felt a small tug on his arm. 

Finally up. The voice began. I’m speaking in your head, no point seeing me so I pulled down the curtains. 

“Some nice curtains you got there.” 

There isn’t really any sunlight in my stomach anyway. Yes Max, my stomach.

“Right. So, why am I here? I usually get blue screens of death from defeating bosses, not black screens where the boss actually talks to me.” Max couldn’t tell but he swore he heard a slap. “Face...palm?”

I see you’ve always been like that, Max. 

“Like what?”

Max-like. You never seem to take things too seriously. 

“I’d like to think this is all a dream. No harm in being playful. I’d probably just wake up sweating if you come out and bite me.”

Max tried to move his limbs. It was like floating on jelly, each move was hard but he could definitely feel something. He just couldn’t see it. “So, this is what the blind feels like.”

Or those in a really dark room. 

“Yeah, anyway. I’d like to wake up now, so wanna let me go?”

Max felt the pressure around his body tighten. Moving became harder. He wished somewhere at the back of his head that the voice would tell him her secret to this thing; he’d definitely use it to make soda can’s explode back home. 

Not yet. There’s still some stuff I need to tell you.

“Like what? A dream’s pretty much just figments of MY imagination. Its not like there isn’t anything you could tell me that I wouldn’t know.”

First off, don’t think I can’t see that face you’re making. That smirk’s gotten you in trouble loads of times. And second, you’re dead, B-T-W. 

Max paused and thought about what kind of facial expression he was showing. He frowned. “Smirk? What smirk?” Max crossed his arms and closed his eyes-not that it made a difference. It was black all around. “And O-M-G, I so knew I was dead.”

Really?

There was a long and painful silence between the two. “Maybe not. My dreams are lying. I must be playing too many video games I die in.” Max raised his fist up above his head against the intense pressure that seemed to form around it. “Stop fabricating from my imagination, cute-girly-voice thingo!”

Listen, Max. YOU. ARE. DEAD. 

“Sounds fun.” Max thought to himself and a smile appeared on his face. He tried to cover his mouth as the smile grew bigger until eventually, he hit his limit and broke into laughter. “So, I’m guessing the gate to hell’s your stomach? Its actually A STOMACH? So, what? Do I like go through your intestines and out the-”

OH PLEAZE. You disgust me, boy.

“Don’t know ‘bout you but I can’t help but try. I am dead after all.”

You’re taking this pretty easily. 

“I’ve lived my whole boring life playing video games. Actually dying and being conscious is all I could wish for. Its like excitement growing in me.” In fact, that was what Max really feared about death; losing consciousness. It was that very factor that made him decide to fear death but now that he knew he’d still be conscious, everything was way better than living.

He tried to search his memories; something else he’d hope to have kept when he died. 

Max smiled at the moments when he played video games, when his mom would come home from work everyday. His heart felt warm during the birthdays he remembered. Amongst all that, there was still something off. He couldn’t seem to remember anything sad. He tried to search again but he couldn’t. He tapped each and every block in his memory and to no avail, nothing. Not a single moment where he felt sadness or fear or depression. It was all happy, too happy.

“Uhh, mysterious girl thingo, why can’t I remember anything agonizingly depressing?”

Ah, so you finally decided to try remembering things. Took you long enough. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m slow, I get it. So, why can’t I?”

Still demanding as always.

“Ghost-thingo, its not like you know me. Do you? That’d be cool, my own imaginary friend who I never knew about. That aside, why can’t I remember anything?” 

Max’s mind pounded in frustration. He hated moments when he couldn’t get anything he wanted when it was close enough. He kept trying to grasp at the memories that were missing but he couldn’t. It was there, he knew it was but nothing popped up. He felt like he was clawing at the only box in the treasure room that actually had the treasure. 

Some guy decided that you should live your purgatorial lives without having to remember those useless depressing things. 

“Purgatory? So I’m in purgatory?”

No. You have to go pass through my intestine and out my-

“Hold it! So, playing video games this whole time brought me to purgatory. Pur-ga-tory. Great, just great. I thought I’d end up in hell!” 

Well, to be specific. You weren’t exactly bad, you know.

Max thought he felt something warm from the last few words he heard. He brushed it off as excitement started to grow in him again; the exact same way it had grown whenever he played video games and fought the final boss. 

“So, who’s that guy?”

Oh, I wouldn’t know. He works in mysterious ways. Saved the world once and just left it.

“Yeah. I get a feeling you guys were close.”

There was a short silence and for the first time since Max woke up, he felt alone. The voice suddenly felt distant from him when it began to speak again.

Anyway, enough of that. You’d do well living the rest of your purgatorial life enjoying what you really wanted. 

Max rubbed his chin in thought. “This isn’t really purgatory is it?”

What makes you say that?

“Purgatory’s supposed to be where I work to get into that place with the clouds and stuff but you clearly told me to enjoy what I really wanted.”

Smart as always. 

“You act like you know me.”

More than you can imagine. Though, its true. This isn’t really purgatory. Its a place for you to enjoy living the life you couldn’t. 

“That’s not something you tell the player from the start. I’m supposed to figure that out myself.”

Ha-ha. Like you’d figure it out yourself.

“I just did!”

Either way, this isn’t purgatory Max. This is your world.