Eliam’s eyes opened to the roof of his car, the white light still fresh in his mind. There was no pain or trauma from this death. He had simply ceased to be.

  He groaned as he picked himself off the seat. A few buzzes from his phone distracted him from the whole scene, and he half-heartedly checked it. He had a plethora of notifications from the social media app he posted on.

  While he had been working at the gas station, Eliam had gotten in the habit of posting his life there. He had seen a few other people get successful off it, but he really doubted the same would happen for him, at least until he checked the app.

  His latest video, a compilation of some gas station customer stories, had gotten a lot of engagement. He quickly opened up the app to see just how much.

  Upon doing so, he had to read the number at least five times to confirm it to himself. The number of views he had was in the hundreds of thousands. The app displayed that his follower count had gone from around one hundred to nearly one thousand in a single day.

  His entire body froze as he felt himself go into shock.

  Am I dreaming? Wait, of course not, I don’t dream anymore, only go off to that… world. Did I really gain that many followers?

  He opened up the comments to find many people finding his stories relatable or funny. Some people openly stated how they even felt bad about his situation. It felt unreal.

  Eliam quickly went to his contacts to call his brother, but stopped. He remembered that he couldn’t anymore. His parents had likely forced Max to block him.

  Eliam clenched his fists as he felt a few tears run down his face. He felt guilty for leaving him behind. Sure, it may have been the only thing he could do, but he still felt horrible. It wasn’t fair for Max.

  Eliam shook his head, trying to focus on the positives. With this many followers, he could start to make money from this. Finally, he was getting some sort of break.

  He kicked his car door open, eager to get his shift over with. As he neared the store, he noticed Josh had a line of customers. He opened up the back door and walked in, preparing himself to give Josh a hand. That was until he saw a familiar face, except he knew for a fact it wasn’t anyone he had seen in real life.

  In line was a purple-haired woman. She was dressed in rather formal business attire, but her attitude didn’t reflect such professional clothing. She looked bored, her shoes kicking at the floor.

  Sure, the clothing may have been somewhat strange, but that’s not what had gotten Eliam’s attention.

  It’s the woman from the cave outside the temple. She was the one with that Adrian dude. Is she like me?

  He was about to go up and confront her, but another thought crossed his mind.

  Wait, but wouldn’t it be stupid to reveal myself like that? What if I am not supposed to be in that world? What if she is with Quarlak? Sure, it may sound crazy, but all it takes is one mistake.

  Eliam wanted to go up and ask her, but instead, he quickly hid from view. He ignored the odd look he was getting from Josh and instead pretended to organize a shelf.

  The woman, noticing Josh’s look, glanced toward Eliam, but he was hidden from her view. Thankfully, she was unwilling to get out of line, so she didn’t investigate further.

  Soon enough, it was her turn, and she walked up to the register.

  “Just the chips and water, please,” she said.

  Josh nodded, scanned the items, and rang up her total. “Sorry for the wait, ma'am. It seems Eliam over there is busy doing nothing,”

  Josh was obviously glaring in Eliam’s direction, once again bringing the woman’s attention to him. He wanted to scream at Josh for doing so, but he knew that would only compromise him further. Instead, he called out.

  “Sorry, I’ll be there in a few moments. Some of the stuff here was really badly organized!” he called out.

  Josh rolled his eyes and finished his exchange with the woman. A few moments later, she walked out, and Eliam heard the sound of the door opening. He slumped over with a sigh and walked over to Josh. He glanced to his side out of habit and froze in horror.

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  The woman was standing right there, still in the store, and staring right at him. She narrowed her eyes and then shrugged. She walked out a few moments later, leaving Eliam looking like an idiot in the middle of the store.

  After a loud cough from Josh, Eliam finally went up to help him and cleared out the rest of the line in no time.

  Afterward, once the store was cleared, Josh gave Eliam a frown. “What’s up with ya, kid?”

  Eliam tried to laugh it off. “Ah, nothing, sorry, I was just… not trying to be seen…”

  Josh gave him an odd look. “By the woman?”

  “Uh… yeah, I guess.”

  Josh shrugged. “Whatever, kid, I won’t pry. Just don’t make it a habit of doing shit like that.

  Eliam quickly nodded, but stopped when he noticed a troubled expression on Josh’s face. It was different from before.

  “Listen, kid. I think it’s time ya get out of here and go do something with your life. You shouldn’t be here, rotting with me,” Josh said.

  Eliam froze. “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “I mean ya needa go live your life. I can’t keep ya trapped here,” Josh said.

  “But you’re not! This.. It’s…” Eliam stuttered.

  “A shit job and a shit life. Kid, my mind’s made up. You got another week, alright? After that, I expect you’ll get outta here.” Josh gave Eliam one last look and left before anything else could be said.

  Eliam stood there for a moment, shocked.

  So, I’m getting kicked out for my own sake? How the hell does that make any sense? Sure, I may be out in the middle of nowhere and be living a rather interesting life, but it’s kind of enjoyable.

  He spent the majority of his shift performing various tasks that Josh left for him. Whenever a customer came in, he made sure to go back to the register so that he could help them if he needed to.

  His night was going fine until a familiar face walked into the station. It was the old woman.

  As always, she started to rub her disgusting hands all over the various items in the store.

  Eliam made it a point to immediately walk up to her and say, “Excuse me, but I am going to have to ask you to leave.”

  She turned to him, her wily grin melting into something more akin to a frown. “Huh?”

  “You heard me. Get out,” Eliam growled.

  The woman started to convulse as she stood there, frozen. Eliam began to back up, but it was much too slowly.

  Suddenly, her hand slipped into her pocket, and she pulled out a sharp piece of glass. She became eerily silent as she began to stare at Eliam.

  He edged backward, toward the register, the danger of the situation making itself clear. Thankfully, she just stood there, her frown slowly morphing back into a haunting smile.

  “Why don’t you tell me…” she spoke. “What is a youngin like you doing out at this time of night?”

  “Working,” Eliam stuttered out. He was nearly at the panic button.

  She bent her head slightly, giving him an off-putting look. “Don’t you know it's dangerous for youngins like you at night?”

  Eliam slammed his hand down on the panic button, eliciting an alarm noise that quickly filled the store. Accompanying it were flashing red lights.

  The woman’s gaze turned cold as she took a step toward Eliam, glass shard in hand. “What did you do?”

  Shit! I wasn’t thinking! Of course, the alarm wouldn’t just teleport the police. It’s going to take time for them to get here!

  Eliam raised his hands as if to portray that he was no threat. “I don’t know! Maybe my boss was watching the cameras!”

  “You’re lying!” she screeched.

  The woman charged Eliam, and he knew he would have no choice. He would have to fight.

  The woman slashed at him, but all she hit was air. Eliam had sidestepped her attack almost immediately. He saw as her arm moved to slash again. Eliam dodged it before she could even fully start the attack.

  Seeing how vulnerable she was, he took advantage of this to charge her. He tackled her to the ground, and the knife went flying. As he did this, the woman began to scream, and the struggle started.

  She did everything from kicking, biting, and yelling, but Eliam never let go. Not until he saw Josh, along with a multitude of police, rush into the store. They apprehended the woman and tested her for an assortment of different drugs. She had traces of practically every hard drug in the book.

  Afterward, a news station came in and interviewed him. His story was crazy enough for the company to find value in telling it. When it was all said and done, Eliam wanted to do nothing more than go to sleep. However, before he could, Josh had a puzzled look on his face.

  It’s probably about him doubly not wanting me to stay. Honestly, after that, I’m not sure I can really disagree anymore. I could have died, and nobody would have known. This is real life. I don't have infinite lives here.

  “Eliam… how did you manage to fight like that?” Josh asked.

  Did he look at the camera footage? I didn’t even think of having to explain myself for something like that.

  “I dunno. I kind of just moved instinctively, kind of like fight or flight, you know?” he said.

  Josh nodded, but he clearly wasn’t buying Eliam’s explanation. He ended up motioning that Eliam was good to go, and Eliam wasn’t about to argue. He was exhausted.

  He jumped back into his car and allowed himself to drift off to sleep.