That was "Easy"?

"It's time! It's time!"

An energetic voice rang out through the house, followed by loud footsteps as a little girl ran down the stairs. Seriously, I keep telling her not to do that. One day she's gonna hurt herself.

Hearing my little sister coming, I immediately closed my eyes, laying sprawled across the couch. Making sure to take up all of the space on it, and pretending to be asleep.

The footsteps became louder as she entered the living room, and stopped in front of the couch.

"C'mon! Wake up! My show is on right now!"

I let out a fake sleepy mumble, turning over to face away from her, and began snoring.

"C'mooooooon!" my little sister shook my back, trying to make me wake up. "You know The Owl House is on at this time! It's the new season!"

I stretched and pretended to yawn as if just now waking up. Opening my eyes I saw a familiar face. My 8-year old sister giving me an adorable glare. "Oh, Isabelle, what're you doing here?"

"SCOOCH OVER!" Isabelle didn't bother playing along with my act, immediately hopping on the couch and clicking the remote to change the channel.

As The Owl House came on, she let out a disappointed groan. "You made me miss the theme song..."

"Ah, sorry." I reached out, gently ruffling her long brown hair. "I might've taken my joke a tad too far." Leaning back on the couch, I quietly watched the show with her.

To be honest, this show really isn't my cup of tea. A lot of the time, the dialogue and problems are really just minor things that aren't very exciting. When the action does happen, the MC usually wins or escapes in unrealistic ways. There ARE some impressive moments in the show, I'll admit that. Lilith's battle with Eda was rather exciting, even for me.

"Look! Look! It's him!" Isabelle tugged on my sleeve, pointing at the screen. Lilith and Luz had just found the human who knew magic they were looking for. And not long after, he ended up betraying them, causing Lilith to be attacked.

"Saw that coming a mile away..." I quietly muttered under my breath.

That's another issue with the show, the male characters often tend to be either evil, feminine, or incompetent. Sometimes a combination of all three.

'Well Aiden.' You might be saying to yourselves. 'If you don't like this show, why are you watching it?'

"What the heck?" I raised my voice, leaning forward. "Why did he do that? He's a human like Luz right?" I asked turning to my sister. "Do you think he's working with the emperor?"

"He probably is!" Isabelle yelled, pounding the couch cushion she was sitting on, making a light 'Poumf' sound.

It's because of my sister. I don't like this show, but she does. With a single mom working to take care of two kids, she's busy or sleeping a lot of the time. And I can't blame her. So it's up to me to fill that family gap, by interacting with my sister and her interests so she grows up happy and normal. That's part of a big brother's duty.

*************************

"Alright, alright, up the stairs you go."

After the episodes ended, I shooed Isabelle back up to her room to finish her schoolwork.

"I still need to finish mine actually..." Glancing at the clock, it was nearly 8 PM and it had already gotten a bit dark.

Outside the window, the full moon hung in the sky, illuminating the night. "Huh...was it always that bright?" Shaking my head, I grabbed the remote, turning off the TV, and closing the curtains. Even after the curtains were closed, I could still faintly see the light of the moon behind them. Weird.

Tossing the remote back onto the couch, I made my way up to stairs, quietly tiptoeing so my sister wouldn't hear me. As I got to the top of the stairs, I silently walked down the hallway until I reached the door to my sister's room.

"Yep, I knew it..."

From the other side of the door I could hear my sister giggling and bouncing on the bed, probably still excited from the episodes she watched. Reaching up, I knocked on her door. There was a small 'Eeep!' that came from the other side, and fumbling sounds as I could hear her scurrying out of bed, and into her desk.

"I-I'm working on my homework!" she called out from her room.

I laughed, shaking my head. "Alright, just making sure..."

*************************

As I finally finished my work, I yawned, setting down the last assignment sheet in a neat pile. "To be honest, I probably should've worked on this much earlier..." By now nearly four hours had passed, and it had gotten incredibly late.

Another unstoppable yawn forced its way out of my mouth, as the drowsiness starting to take ahold of me. Turning off the lamp, I was surprised to see a bright light still present. This light came streaking through my window, seeming to come from outside from the moon. The moon had become even more radiant since I last saw it. Its light nearly as bright as the sun, causing me to squint.

"What the hell...I must seriously be tired. Probably just seeing things right now..."

Even after closing the curtains, its light was still easily seen. As if a dozen night lights had been plugged in near the window. I did my best to ignore it, climbing into bed and facing the other way. With one last yawn, the last thing I saw was the digital clock beside my bed shifting to midnight before falling asleep.

*************************

"..."

"..."

"..."

As my eyes opened, I found myself in a dark space. Empty blackness as far as I could see. But it was strange. Even though there was no light around me, I could see still myself perfectly but only my body. Turning my hand back and forth, I watched it move, before putting it down.

Feeling something cold and hard under my feet. I couldn't see what it was, but it was probably the ground. Carefully touching the ground ahead of me with my feet, I gingerly fumbled my way forward in the dark.

"Ah!"

All of the sudden a huge screen appeared in front of me out of nowhere in this empty void.

THE OWL HOUSE

Above it were those words, as random scenes from that show flashed across the screen, changing every couple of seconds. Next to it was a large switch the size of a cup.

"Ahhhh...so this is just some bizarre dream."

Yeah, that makes sense. The weirdly bright moon, the eternal darkness here, and now a giant Owl Show TV screen. I must've fallen asleep on the couch after watching it with my sis.

"But it's weird, I could've sworn, I did those assignments. Did I really just dream of spending hours on my work..."

I shook my head clearing those thoughts, and stepping forward to the screen. Since this is a dream, that means there's nothing to fear. Even in this weird dark world, nothing could hurt me. As I stood in front of the screen, the random images from the show continued to flash by every so often.

"Okay, so what's this." Turning my head to the large switch nearby, I studied the thing, reading the words above it.

DEFAULT DIFFICULTY: EASY

"Hah." I let out a snort, crossing my arms. "That sounds about accurate for the show." I leaned forward towards the device. "Hmmm..."

Grabbing onto the switch, I flipped it down.

DEFAULT DIFFICULTY: NORMAL

"Oh, so I can move it." The screen had stopped filtering through random scenes and now only showed a single line.

EPISODE 1:

Below it was the play ▶ symbol.

"Play huh?" I looked around at my surroundings. Other than the screen, the empty darkness still remained. "Well, I'm certainly not going anywhere. Might as well entertain myself until this dream ends." Grabbing the switch, I flipped it down once more.

DEFAULT DIFFICULTY: HARD

"Haha, a hard difficulty huh? That would be fun to see."

Shaking my head, I flipped the switch back up, deciding to settle on "NORMAL" instead before pushing play.

As soon as I did, the screen lit up, beginning to play Episode 1.

*************************

"FOOLISH CHILD! I could swallow you whole!" A giant snake stood in front of a girl with a spellcaster's robe.

"Do not underestimate me Vildersnake! For I am the good witch Azura! Warrior of peace!" The girl dramatically posed, before aiming her staff like a rocket launcher. "Now eat this sucka!"

"NO! MY ONLY WEAKNESS! DYING!"

That part managed to get a chuckle out of me. "So far the show seems to be the same." However what happened next was decidedly different...

"And that's the end." Luz smiled, seemingly pleased with herself over the story she told.

"Young lady are you even taking this seriously?" The girl's mother looked at her with a worried expression.

Luz looked visibly confused. "I...am being serious about my book report."

"Your 'Book Report' is why you're in this trouble in the first place." The principal narrowed his eyes at the girl, his expression grim. "And you brought THIS dangerous creature into my office?" the man said, gesturing to the snake in Luz's hand.

"Huh? Oh, Leonard? He wouldn't harm a fly! Don't worry about him."

Immediately afterward there were screams from behind them as students ran in terror, with snakes clinging to their bodies. Principal Hal glanced at the door to the hall, before back at Luz, waiting for an explanation.

"Oh, I mean, Leonard IS harmless, but his siblings like to play a LITTLE rough..." the girl said, smiling and shaking her head, and if this was all silly.

"Enough!" The man pounded his desk, drawing the attention of Luz and her mom back to him. "One week suspension. And a 500-word written apology to EVERY member of the drama team."

"Suspension?! One Week?! I-isn't that a little harsh?" Luz's eyes widened.

"With students and faculty being attacked by wild animals, you're lucky this isn't expulsion. Or that we stopped you before you used those fireworks."

"Actually, snakes are better classified as reptiles, so-"

"Luz!" Luz's mother interrupted her with an exasperated expression before turning back to the principal. "I am so sorry Mr. Hal..."

The woman walked up to her daughter. "Mijo, I'm glad you're able to express your creativity, but you've always worried me."

"W-what do you mean mom?"

"I've always known you were...unique, but you lack common sense mijo. I was willing to try and ignore it, even if it got you into a little mischief. But I can't ignore it when it puts you and others in danger."

The woman bit her lip and continued, pulling out a pamphlet titled 'Reality Check Summer Camp'. "I had been putting this off for awhile because I thought you'd eventually grow out of this phase. But now you leave me no choice."

*************************

I continued to watch in amusement as the events continued.

"But I don't like any of that stuff. I like editing anime clips to music, and reading fantasy books with convoluted backstories."

"Mija, my sweet, you don't always get to do what you want. You think life is tough now? Wait till you get a job."

"Hahahaha!" I couldn't help but laugh. "Maybe this dream isn't so bad after all..."

Soon enough, an owl stole Luz's book, and led her to an abandoned house when.

ERROR!

All of the sudden the video stopped, and the screen turned red.

TIMELINE NO LONGER SUITABLE!

"Wha?" I took a step back as ominous words drifted onto the screen.

CALCULATING ODDS OF PRIMARY HOST "LUZ" ON NORMAL DIFFICULTY!

CALCULATING...

02.14% SURVIVAL RATE

FINDING ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION

"I don't like the sound of that..."

As I slowly backed away, a giant red eye appeared on the monitor.

SOLUTION FOUND

"Oh no..." I turned around, immediately trying to run away.

"Ack!"

But before I got very far, several red tentacles, grabbed onto my limbs forcefully dragging me back.

"AH! NO NO NO NO! I WANT TO WAKE UP THIS INSTA-!"

I couldn't even finish my sentence before being dragged into the monitor.