A Different Universe

During.

August 19th, 1997 (11:45 pm) Phoenix, Michigan

   Allin shook me awake " Barren, hey, wanna go to Bill's Barrel?" I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Sure, you already woke me up... it wouldn't make sense to say no." I had a little bit of an attitude, but who wouldn't? It's was probably midnight by now!

   "Then get up, it closes at midnight and it's already......." Allin glanced at his watch ." 11:47! Come on we gotta go!" Allin made an attempt to drag me to my feet. We both slipped on our sneakers, threw on our jackets, and neglected the fact that we still had pj's on. Allin turned around, "You ready?"

   I nodded and we left. We both leapt onto our bikes and rode into the dark abyss of night. Allin knew the surrounding land around my neighborhood better than me so he lead the way, "It's two minutes away and I'm sure if we beg enough he'll let us stay a little bit longer." I protested "It looks pretty remote, are you sure there's legit anything down this road? And if there is then I doubt it's even in business." I could tell I was getting on Allin's nerves, "Can't you just shut up and trust me?" Even though I did trust him,  if you had seen the type of road we were riding on you'd say I had a point. He was guiding me on a dirt road sweltering with nothing but trees, it looked more like somewhere to hide a dead body, NOT to start a successful business.

   Suddenly, my thoughts got interrupted by a powerful gust of wind thrusting against both of us onto the freezing cold dirt. Luckily, my upper body was thrown into the grass, but Allin wasn't as lucky..

He was laying in the middle of the road......

    "allin? Allin?? ALLIN!" I was horrified, my ma was going to kill me. "Calm down, I'm not dead......yet" My nerves calmed knowing that Allin was by the least partially okay. I helped him up, we figured we could set our bikes down and walk the rest of the way since the store wasn't too much farther, our conversation mostly contained a discussion on how much money we had and making the best sense of what we could get.

   Allin looked at his watch as we walked in the store, "11:49, we gotta hurry." We sped past the clerk in the storage room and continued to sneak into the aisle, I peered at the scarily unhealthy snacks and grabbed a couple bags.

    "OoOoOh, shhhhhhhhiii-!" It came from the storage room.. Allin and I ran to the storage room doorway. Micheal, the clerk, was gone. Allin turned to me in shock, "He disappeared out of thin air!" I glared at Allin in dissatisfaction "Do you really think I'd fall for such a stupid prank? " He looked at me in confusion, as if he didn't know what I was talking about. I took a deep breath rolled my eyes, "whatever." I set down my drink and started to walk out the store, and stopped to turn at the door to see if Allin was going to keep up his act. Instead I see him leaning over the counter and looking around. "Micheallll, you can stop nowww, we didn't fall for your stupid prankkk. And plus we gotta hurry up and get outta here, it's getting late. I know you wanna go home too, man. " but the only thing that he got back was, silence.. "Huh, i guess Micheal's really playing into it." I peered into the storage room to get a look too, nothing.. just boxes, cleaning supplies, and a tilted ladder. "We should probably leave bro, something about this whole thing is throwing me off.." I turned to Allin with an annoyed look, "Jesus Allin give it UP already- I already said i didn't fall for it, stop trying to drag it." He looked at me dazed, "but- i-" Before he could get out whatever lame excuse he was going to try to say, I turned away from him and slid the rest of my snacks  on the counter and walked out. I heard him sigh and dump what he was planning to buy on the counter. Then I heard him run up from behind me, 

   "Y'know Bowser I'm still starstruck about how you did it, how in the hell did you and Micheal get somewhere for him to hide so quickly?" What does he mean "Me and Micheal"?? First he pulls this lame ass prank at midnight, when I COULD'VE BEEN SLEEPING RIGHT NOW? THEN, when his prank goes to shit he tries to pin it on me? Allin man be fucking for real. With all the thoughts scrambling in my head all I can muster up to say is "What." I swear I can't even look at Allin. "You could see the whole storage room from the counter, and the glass window panes wouldn't help much in his case. You and Micheal definitely baffled me with this one, because I wouldn't be able to pull a prank like that. I just don't understand why you're pretending it wasn't you who was playing the prank... you almost got me honestly. With the way you were acting it kinda did make me think I did do it for a sec." he chuckled and kicked a rock into the distance. "Maybe you have more in store.. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out, yea?" Allin joked. I was absolutely in awe. Why was Allin trying to mind-fuck me like this? 

   We walked backed to our bikes and started our ride back home. My eyes were fixed on Allin's tires, watching the swift motion of his bike and copying his every move. For one in the morning it was pretty bright. Was it even 1am? I had lost track of time because of Allin's dumb prank. I look over to Allin to scorn him about how his prank wasting so much time might get us in serious trouble. But I could tell he was focused on something, he wasn't humming anymore. So, I looked up.... and I saw this huge, beautiful ball of light. I tried to fix my eyes back on Allin's tires, so I knew that I was going the right way. But I couldn't stop staring at it, and I felt weird. Like as if the light was giving me this unusual feeling, but my eyes we're starting to water, I was confused, curious, and scared all at the same time.