AlterNATE Reality

World of White Noise

Hi. I'm Nathan Smith. I'm twenty-eight years old and always had a passion for music that I never acted on.

I'd been working at this boring office for years. It was fine, brings in a steady reliable income, and I lived on my own. It's just...boring. I've always wanted to leave, but I'm not so sure if I should, or what I should do.

I'm not sure why you're still here listening, because this is just another story that isn't worth reading. At least, it was until I found an Exit. A way to get out of this office. Stick around, I'll tell you.

I was looking for an Exit and went for a walk through the building to take a break. My mind was running and I couldn't ignore this. It wasn't a want to leave, it was a need. I was just...not so sure.

I walked down the hall and found a door. Just a normal door. It felt like it was...calling me. Does that make sense? I ignored it.

The next day, I got that feeling again. I went through and nothing special happened. I just entered the stairwell.

I went down the stairs to the floor below, suddenly feeling...stronger. More powerful. Like I did something right. It was a good feeling. I didn't understand why it was such a good feeling. I suddenly ran down to the bottom floor and found a big door that leads outside the building.

Something told me it wouldn't lead me outside today.

I opened the door, flinching at the bright light. I walked through the door and found a big screen. Actually, a lot of little screens.

On it there was video after video, of...me.

I was usually singing in them, into a microphone and/or holding a guitar. There were some that had lyrics on them, and some were just of me talking.

'I don't remember making any of these videos,' I thought to myself.

"Where am I?"

A door opened and someone walked through.

He looked exactly like me. Brown eyes, neat black hair, wearing a black shirt, jeans...and a guitar.

"..." I looked at him, at the videos on the screen, and then back at him.

"Hi I'm NateWantsToBattle," he said like it was completely normal.

"...I'm Nathan Smith," I spoke hesitantly.

"I know," NateWantsToBattle told me.

"How?"

NateWantsToBattle turned to the screens behind me and got a remote out of his pocket. He pushed a button and one of the videos started playing audio, where I was playing music. NateWantsToBattle started fastforwarding through most of the video, stopping it when there was about half a minute left.

"Hi, I'm Nate Smith," Nate spoke in the video. "Thank you guys so much for watching this is my first parody and I'm pretty stoked on it. Uh, leave a comment down there if you enjoyed it and if you think I should do more of these. Give this video a thumbs up, add it to your Favourites, share it on Facebook, all that cool stuff, y-you know how it is. You know. Anyways thank you guys for watching and I will see you tomorrow. BUHY."

"That didn't answer my question," I spoke once the video ended.

"Well then maybe I can answer it," NateWantsToBattle said.

"Wh-"

"I'm you but from another universe. An alternate reality. A few years ago, five years ago now, I made a YouTube channel to post music on, mostly based around Pokémon. I kept uploading parodies of popular songs, and people liked them, so I made original songs based on games like Pokémon," he started another video. Misty you're gonna miss me when I'm gone, I'm gone forever the lyrics said.

"You never tried playing music for a job, because you thought it would fail. You never chased that dream. I did, in another reality. In my version, it succeeded," NateWantsToBattle told me, making sure there was a distinct difference between me and him.

"In some other universe, maybe a Nate tried, and failed. You want more out of your life, right?" Nate stopped speaking in a condescending tone.

"...yeah? It's too late th-"

"No it's not! It's not too late to try! I said that because I looked for a universe where I try and fail! I couldn't find it! Why not? Because that's you. There is no middle universe. Either yes or no. Succeed or fail," NateWantsToBattle yelled at me.

I stared at him in silence, shocked by that outburst.

"...but I already know I'm going to fail. If you succeeded..."

"I'd rather you tried and failed. Just do it as a hobby even...even if it fails. There's going to be someone who likes it, even if that's just you. Okay?" NateWantsToBattle offered his hand.

"...okay,' I shook his hand.

"I have a feeling it might not be," NateWantsToBattle mumbled as he left.

I ran all the way to my desk, excitedly writing down those lyrics from a few minutes ago. 'What lyrics would have come before that? It sounds good for part of a chorus.'

I got no actual work done. Though the work that I did get done didn't disappoint me very much.

Hopefully it wouldn't disappoint the people watching YouTube either.