Ch - 2 The TV Birdlime

As the absurdity of the situation dawned on him, Swayam jolted awake from his stupor and began to contemplate his next steps. He wondered nervously, If I retract my hand out of the television, will I be able to do this again? Or is this a one-time anomaly, an accidental discovery that might never repeat itself?

Lost in thought, his gaze shifted toward the TV screen. It was still playing Doraemon's 2005 series' one-hour special episode titled The Giant Dora-Raccoon at Midnight. If he remembered correctly, this episode featured the perfect solution to his current predicament.

Without wasting a moment, he hastily reached for his smartphone, fumbling slightly in his excitement. He connected the phone to his television to control the playback. The TV remote was nowhere within reach, and he didn't want to risk stepping away from the screen and losing whatever strange phenomenon he'd uncovered.

Once his smartphone was synced with the television, Swayam fast-forwarded the episode. His fingers trembled slightly as he carefully paused at the exact moment where Doraemon showed and introduced The TV Birdlime, a gadget that could be used to interact with and pull objects out of a television.

His hand was still submerged in the glowing screen. Gathering his resolve, he reached deeper and felt for the gadget in the paused frame. To his astonishment, he found it—his fingers closed around the TV Birdlime with an almost surreal ease. Slowly, but steadily, he managed to pull the gadget out of the television.

As soon as his hand and the TV Birdlime emerged, reality itself seemed to react. The lights in his room flickered violently, and the television screen began to glitch, its images distorting into pixelated chaos. A low hum filled the air as the disturbance grew in intensity. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the television powered off, plunging the room into silence.

Swayam stared at the blank screen, the gadget still firmly gripped in his hand. His mind raced, torn between disbelief and exhilaration. Before he could process what had just happened, his parents entered the room, their worried expressions breaking his reverie.

"What's going on in here?" his mother asked, her eyes darting between Swayam and the now-dark television. "The lights were flickering so much. Are you okay?"

Her voice softened slightly, but then her gaze fell on his hand. "And… what's that you're holding?"

Startled by her question, Swayam looked down at the object in his hand. It was unmistakably the TV Birdlime, the very gadget he'd just pulled out of the television. Its strange yet familiar design confirmed one undeniable truth: this wasn't a hallucination or a dream. It had all really happened.

His heart swelled with excitement, but as he looked back at his parents, their worried expressions brought him back to reality. Their concern for him tempered his thrill, and he decided it would be best to calm their nerves before letting his excitement get the better of him.

"Oh, this?" Swayam said with a forced casualness, holding up the gadget. "It's just… something I've been working on for a story. A prop."

His parents exchanged skeptical glances but said nothing further. But after telling him to go to sleep, they retreated to their own room.