Change

In a chilly and pitch dark room, a sudden loud sound was heard "Beep, beep, beep."

"Oh, shut up." a voice in the darkness was heard groaning.

After a while of beeping later, the voice had enough of the alarm and slowly got up from the bed. The voice walked over to the alarm that lay across the room in the pitch-black darkness and turned it off. It then turned to the left and pressed a switch, immediately lighting up the entire room.

The room was relatively empty, containing only a drawer, a desk, a chair, a ceiling lamp, and a single bed in the innermost corner of the room. The room was pretty small but could definitely house a teenager without any issues.

The voice kept walking towards the drawer, picked out some clothes, and picked up a backpack strewn across the top of the drawer lazily. It then headed towards the door, twisted the doorknob, and pushed it open.

On the other side of the door was a small and narrow corridor containing only a big mirror hanging on the wall to the left; the voice kept walking till it reached the big mirror.

In the reflection, one could see a relatively young-looking man, maybe 6 feet tall, with somewhat pointy ears, black hair, and green eyes. His hair was medium in length, reaching a little below his eyes.

This kid's name is Alaric, an orphan living alone.

Alaric looked at the reflection, lifted his hands to his head, and roughed up his hair until he was satisfied with the result. Feeling happy with the result of his messy hair, he trotted along through the corridor.

The end of the corridor split into two rooms; the room on his right contained a small kitchen, a small table, and a couple chairs.

To his left was a room even smaller than the one to his right; it contained only a small wardrobe with 2 coats, a shoe stand, and a door.

Alaric turned right into the kitchen, took an apple from a fruit basket standing on one of the countertops, and turned back around, heading towards the smaller room.

He bent down, took out a pair of shoes from the shoe stand, and put them on. He then turned towards the door, twisted the doorknob, and pushed open the door.

As the door opened, he was greeted with the fresh autumn breeze flooding his nostrils, immediately causing a smile to be strewn across his smooth face. On the other side of the door was a pretty large garden with a huge tree planted in its middle. Across the ground under the large tree lay a bunch of yellow and orange leaves, the types that crackle and break apart when stepped on.

"Ahhh, Autumn." Alaric commented, taking in the whole experience and view in front of him.

After a moment of pause to take in the change in atmosphere, he kept walking, following the gravel path that led towards a road.

Looking back, he saw the apartment complex he'd walked away from; it was big and colored beige, completely ruining the beautiful autumn feel and replacing it with an industrial one.

"Such a shame ruining such beautiful nature." He commented as he turned around and kept walking along the road.

Along the way, he saw more and more apartment complexes, shops, grocery stores, and everything one could see in a city.

"As soon as I get my degree, I'm leaving this city and moving to the forest; I don't know how long I could bare seeing such ruined nature." He commented along with a sigh of sadness.

Eventually, after walking for around 20 minutes, he'd reached his destination, Dile University. Alaric stood in front of the massive stairs leading up to an even bigger building, admiring the beauty that the architects had created.

The stairs were vast, probably around 40 meters wide and approximately 100 steps tall. Above the stairs, 3 sets of Torii's were placed, bringing together the entire project.

The building itself was a massive wide Japanese temple, probably close to a few hundred meters in width and maybe 50 or so meters tall. At the temple entrance was a giant Torii, maybe twice the size of the other Torii's, placed above the stairs, bringing together the majestic feeling of the building.

The university isn't located in Japan but was made by a Japanese Architect that used his love for Japanese culture to create the biggest temple in the world.

'Thank god I managed to get into this university; it's probably close to being the best university in the world.' Alaric thought to himself.

Alaric is studying astrophysics as he hopes to continue his passion for space. From an early age, Alaric has had an interest in space, and its functions, even though his parents had never had any interest for it whatsoever. Clearly, it wasn't inherited.

He carried on climbing the stairs till he reached the top; however, when Alaric reached the summit, he realized something weird, there was no one.

Not a single person was atop the stairs, he then turned around and looked back down the stairs, and there wasn't a single soul to be found.

"Wait, have I not seen a single person?" He blurted out in complete shock.

'Is it the weekend? No, that still wouldn't make sense. I walked on the roads of a city for 20 minutes and didn't see a single soul. Something's wrong; let me go look inside and see if anyone is there.' Alaric thought as he turned around again and started jogging towards the university's entrance.

As expected, there was no one.

'What the hell is happening.' he thought, extremely weirded out.

'Let me check my phone; maybe there's some celebration I didn't know about.' He thought and picked up his phone. However, as he looked at the phone screen, he saw something that completely shocked him. 'No data? I'm in the middle of a city! How is that possible?!' he thought, thoroughly creeped out.

'Maybe if I climb to the top of the building, I'll be able to see someone.' He thought, slightly panicked.

Reaching the top of the stairs, he was completely winded, 'Fuck I should've done more cardio.' He thought to himself.

After a moment of recollecting himself and getting his breathing in check, he twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door. On the other side of the door was a pretty big outside area, used by students as a place to study, eat or hang out. However, Alaric had no such plans as he ran to the edge of the outside area and leaned out over the fence.

"There's... no one." he said, looking out over the massive city below him.

At that moment, he suddenly heard a loud voice.

"Oh, I seemed to have missed one." The cold, masculine voice commented.

Alaric immediately looked up and saw a massive human-shaped creature floating above him; it was at least a few hundred meters in height.

"What are you?" Alaric exclaimed in total shock.

"That is unimportant for you to know, you'll be dead soon anyway." The giant said as he reached toward Alaric with his massive hands.

'What the fuck is happening??' Alaric thought as he saw the massive hand reaching toward him.

Realizing he couldn't escape, he shut his eyes and waited for the impending doom coming his way. However, after a while, nothing happened, no feeling of being crushed, no sounds of bones cracking, nothing.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally mustered up enough courage to open his eyes. Opening them, he saw nothing but white, he turned around, and it was the same.

"Where am I?" Alaric said, completely disoriented.

An old man then appeared out of thin air and said, "In another dimension."