He ran up the stairs and turned the sharp corner, sprinting down the hallway. Stopping at the door, he read the name sign next to the bell.

  

  Ashton Garling

  Scrambling to get a hold of the keys that he hasn't felt between his fingers for far, far too long, he tried to push them into the lock.

  Holding his breath, he turned the key and could feel the door slowly opening up. The narrow hallway of a tiny, one-bedroom apartment appeared in front of him. Almost scared, as if worried all of this could get taken away from him, he rushed inside and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him as fast as he physically could.

  "It's... It's really still here..." Ashton whispered, not daring to speak louder in case he were to wake himself up from this wonderful dream. Carefully, he crept forward into the living room.

  He looked at the television on the wall, the large, cozy-looking couch and the slight mess strewn about in here. Ashton walked over to the kitchen, and looked into the sink.

  In there was a small steak defrosting. The ice had barely even started melting. Ashton had put it in there back then - no, this morning, just before leaving his apartment. It was meant to be a treat for... for something. It had been so long that he couldn't even remember what that was.

  "Hah... hahaha..." a laugh forced itself out of Ashton's mouth as tears welled up in his eyes, "I'm back... I'm finally, finally back..."

  A weird mixture of emotions came over his body that he simply couldn't contain anymore. And the one that was currently forcing its way to the front was a quite powerful one - excitement.

  Ashton ripped open the fridge door and stared inside. It wasn't the most well-stocked, but it seemed to have the essentials from what he remembered. Some veggies, packs of deli meat, some cheese... of course, condiments like mayonnaise or mustard... There was a pack of leftover takeout food at the top of the fridge, five absolutely perfect beer cans, and some milk in the fridge door.

  Of course, he ripped everything he could out of there, just throwing it onto the counter. Even if his mind didn't remember, his body clearly did, and allowed him to quickly find everything else he needed. Sliced bread, a bag of chips, bags of cereal, and of course some plates, bowls, and knives.

  The first thing Ashton did was throw some meat and cheese onto a bunch of slices of bread and top them with the condiments. As he assembled the pile of sandwiches, as many as he could make with the ingredients he had, Ashton shoveled the cold, leftover takeout into his mouth. Before even finishing chewing, Ashton prepared himself a bowl of cereal, and with the sandwiches, cereal, chips and beer in hand walked over to the couch.

  He dropped everything down onto the small table, and plopped onto the couch. For a moment, he was stunned at how comfortable it was, but that didn't last long. His body told him he wasn't hungry, but somehow, Ashton was practically famished.

  Without a moment's hesitation, he wolfed down one of the sandwiches, chased it with some spoonfuls of cereal, and just chewed that mass until he could swallow. He couldn’t even remember the last time he was allowed to eat his fill. Or well, eat at all, really. He continued until half the food was gone, at which point, Ashton's mind slowed down enough to remember that the remote existed. He hadn't watched TV in so long.

  He just flipped around the different channels for a while, not even listening to what they were saying. In the end, the channel Ashton settled on was just some kind of random sitcom. It took him a moment to make the connection, but soon Ashton realized that it was a show he used to watch all the time. He couldn't remember literally any of the plot points, but it was calming all the same.

  He continued stuffing himself with all the food that he had prepared until his stomach felt like it was about to burst.

  "Hah... when's the last time I've felt like this...?" a gleeful smile appeared on his face, "And I can eat like this every-"

  And of course, just as fast as it appeared, his smile disappeared as he could feel his stomach gurgling and something pushing up his esophagus. Instinctively, Ashton jumped up and ran down the hallway into the bathroom, dropping down in front of the toilet before emptying himself of at least half the food that he had just eaten.

  "Urgh... Right, there's a reason why you're not supposed to eat that much at once," Ashton stood up and flushed, looking down at his shirt. He was a complete mess.

  Without hesitation, he stripped out of his clothes and just threw them on the ground, and then stepped into the shower. It had been so long since he properly cleaned himself.

  As the shower turned on and a flood of cold water poured down on him, Ashton flinched for a moment, but soon relaxed as the water turned warmer and simply more pleasant. For a while, he just stood there, taking it in. He scrubbed himself down as hard as he could, and once the hot water ran cold once again, he stepped back out.

  The mirror was fogged up completely. Ashton hadn't looked at himself yet. He didn't dare. But now, he wiped away the layer of condensation, and finally saw himself. He looked so... young. Weak. Looking down at his body, he was just... flubby. No scars, no calluses on his hands. Ashton's flesh didn't show the things that he had gone through.

  This wasn't his body... not anymore. The years of dirt and grime he expected to be washed from him in the shower were never there in the first place. Ashton could start over. He could forget all of that. He could just be a normal person again! He could-

  Ashton's thoughts were interrupted by the startling sound of his phone ringing. He looked at the bathroom door confused, and stepped back into the living room where his phone was. The screen was lit up, showing the name 'Sam'.

  Without hesitation, he grabbed the phone and answered, but before he could say anything, the man on the other side of the phone yelled in anger.

  "You fucking asshole! I'm going to strangle you, seriously!" the man yelled out so loudly that Ashton had to pull the phone away from his ear, "What the fuck were you thinking?

  Ashton's eyes widened - this voice. It'd been so long since he heard this voice.

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  "Sam! Holy shit, I'm so happy to hear from you!" Ashton responded excitedly, but Sam just stayed silent for a few moments.

  "What the- man, what's going on?" Sam groaned and waited for a few moments. Ashton had the exact image in his mind. Sam, sitting on his desk chair, pushing up his glasses while massaging the bridge of his nose. Getting Sam angry was a scary idea - he was more than a head taller than Ashton, and when he wasn't working, he was working out. He just tended to have a pretty intimidating air around him.

  "Where the hell were you? I was worried because you didn't show up, I literally called you like 10 times already," Sam pointed out, and Ashton quickly looked at the phone screen. He could see the notification of '10 missed calls' at the top of the screen.

  Though, there was something more important, "What did I not show up for?"

  Sam was silent for a few moments again before continuing, "You high or something? Ash, You fucking begged me to get you a job interview for weeks, and then I finally ask my boss and pull a favor, and you just don't even show! Do you know how bad that made me look?"

  Though it was nothing but a vague memory, Ashton remembered inklings of what Sam was talking about, "Right... sorry about that."

  "No excuses? Seriously?"

  "Yeah, no excuses. I messed up. Sorry."

  With clear surprise and confusion in his voice, Sam let out a loud groan, "Man, what the hell, can't even get mad at you when you get like that," he sighed, clearly trying to figure out what was going on, "So what is it, why didn't you come? You're not... actually high, right?"

  "Not that I know," Ashton shrugged, walking into his bedroom. He opened up his closet and picked out a few clothes to change into after properly drying off. Though, everything that he was seeing seemed so impractical and hard to move in. He didn't like that.

  "Okay? Again, why didn't you show? Why're you dodging the question?"

  The reason why Ashton was 'dodging the question' was very simple. Sam would never believe him if he actually told the truth. Hell, he himself wanted it to be false or some kind of fucked up hallucination.

  "I just... I don't know. I was on the way, but I really don't have an excuse for you. Maybe I was scared that I wouldn't get the job," he replied. And maybe that wasn't totally wrong. So much had happened since then, but Ashton could remember himself just loitering around the nearby corner store instead of heading out to the interview. He didn't remember the details, but he figured he was close enough. But Sam was once again surprised by the honesty.

  "Listen, man... I get it, you've had a lot of terrible luck career-wise, but you're a fucking amazing programmer. Better than me, that's for sure."

  Right, that's what Ashton was doing back then. Programming. Some kind of software engineering, specifically.

  And Sam was an early and high-up employee of a startup that now skyrocketed to success, and Ashton, unable to hold onto a job for too long, kept asking his best friend to help him out. And now, he didn't even show up.

  "... I've been pretty selfish, haven't I? I'm sorry."

  Awkwardly, Sam let out a long sigh, "You're freaking me out, dude. This ain't like you. But... thanks," Ashton could practically hear the smile on Sam's face, "I'll come up with some kind of excuse for you. If you're lucky, and I mean l-u-c-k-y, then I might be able to getcha another interview. But if you don't show up this time, you're fucked, alright?"

  Ashton was stunned, unsure what to say. He appreciated it, he genuinely did, but... he didn't remember what his job actually was. What he even had to do. He hadn't even thought about code in... well, forever. Sure, he might be able to get back into it if he actually sat down in front of a computer again and tried it out, but if he took a job at Sam's company now? That would just mess everything up. And Ashton wouldn't do that to his best friend.

  "... Thanks, but I think I need to take some time away from the tech world. I'll try to get a job down at the convenience store by the corner, they're basically always hiring anyway," Ashton said. He was standing right in front of the 'Hiring' sign when he 'returned' earlier, so that fact was engraved in his mind.

  "Uh... if you say so. But if not right now, then I'm not sure if I can get you another interview. Like, I can tell my boss that some emergency came up, but I can't then say, 'so let's move it to half a year from now', y'know?"

  "It's alright. I think I just need some time to... I don't know... actually live a little," Ashton looked out of the window. The bright sky, the warm sun. Everything was just so much brighter and more colorful than he remembered it being, "I'm ready to live for myself again."

  And as if the world wanted to emphasize Ashton's dedication, everything began to shake. An earthquake like none that had ever been seen around these parts. Dust and small pieces of plaster crumbled down from the ceiling as long cracks began to spread throughout.

  "Shit! Ash, are you okay? Take cover somewhere, and-" Sam's voice was hard to hear, as he was clearly busy moving somewhere safer as well.

  The earthquake continued on and on, for a whole minute. By the time it was over, the emergency sirens were already blasting outside, and the emergency broadcast system on Ashton and Sam's phones soon followed suit, blaring their screams into their ears. Ashton dismissed it, and before he could ask, Sam already did so himself.

  "A major earthquake, I guess. Are you in your apartment? Just get out of the building for now, there might be another one comin'," Sam said, but Ashton was just stunned for a moment.

  Something was happening. The TV was crackling in a weird way, like something was interfering with the signal. Sam's voice was becoming distorted as well.

  Ashton had a bad, bad premonition. He hoped he was wrong, but if he wasn't, then he had to warn Sam.

  "If- If the messages show up, be careful! Take shelter, lock the doors, get away from windows and stay quiet until you get a grasp on the situation! Get yourself some weapons! Knives, clubs, fuck, even grab a chair or something, that should be enough for the initial ones," Ashton started pacing around his apartment, lowering the blinds on all his windows and double-checking that his door was locked.

  Sam seemed confused, "What are you...bout? What me...ges?"

  "Just trust me! Trust me! Get weapons! Anything at all to defend yourself! You have to defend yourself! Always complete the quests! I know you’re strong enough to do it! I’ll get to you before the third quest, I promise! Just survive until then!"

  "Quests? What are you-"

  The call finally cut out, as the signal disappeared from Ashton's phone. The way things were looking right now, he was probably right. That tended to interfere with mundane signals like these if they weren't tuned to its natural frequency, which earth's phones definitely weren't.

  Of course, Ashton hoped that he was wrong. That he didn't have to go through all of this again. That this was just a mistake, but no. It didn't take long until the irrefutable proof came along.

  And Ashton stared at it with a fury like none other.

  [Congratulations! Your world [G-37815], henceforth referred to as [Earth], has been chosen to advance to the next step of civilization by the Interdimensional Council!]

  [To assist you with your transition, the Council has offered you an opportunity!]

  [The [Tutorial] has begun!]

  "Again..? I just escaped from it, and now I've got to deal with it again?" he stared at the message windows floating in front of his eyes as the system began to initialize. He could feel those disgusting tendrils clinging to the inside of his veins again, "I just escaped... I'm not going to let you fucking slaughter me in this world, too."