Leon came out of the office and proceeded to the front door. A few of his coworkers tried to get his attention but he just ignored them, only pausing for a moment when seeing Julia. She also had her hand raised in an attempt to talk to him, her mouth agape but no words coming out.

Their interaction was short as Leon broke eye contact and continued walking to the door. Pushing it open, a cold night’s breeze greeted him. His eyes, at this point, had begun to water slightly as a thought occurred to him. ‘How am I supposed to tell them?’

A feeling of shame washed over him as he progressed toward his car. Negative thoughts began to plague his mind. ‘What about rent? What about Mia’s schooling? Food?’ The list continued on. Leon struggled to even insert his key into the car door to unlock it. His arm lacked any form of strength.

Finally getting the key in, he went to turn it when a sudden pain arose from his side. His line of sight shifted as his body fell over.

“Well, isn’t it the little hero?” A man said.

Forcing his body on its back as he rolled a bit, his eyes met with a man’s. Beside him stood the drunkard. They both looked extraordinarily menacing to the weak Leon.

“The boss didn’t like you interrupting his fun earlier. So… we decided to have some fun with you.” The man said as he gripped Leon by the collar and raised him up. Pushing his body against the car, the man noticed how the shabby-looking young man wasn’t resisting. The man backed up a bit as the drunk one stepped forward, pulling his head up by the hair.

Leon’s eyes were empty. Nothing was truly processing in his mind. Self pity was one emotion he felt, but another lingered. An irritability, one that couldn’t help but make him think that this whole situation was painfully cliché. Of course, this emotion subside quickly just as his spontaneous irritation earlier that got him into this mess to begin with.

‘I failed,’ he thought, giving into his darker subconscious. He had struggled to even land this job. To find another was out of the question. Mrs. Nora had already been helping them where she could. Without an income, there wasn’t much they could do. What was worse was that the moment he got hit, he knew what it meant. There was no way they wouldn’t target him, or worse… Mia.

The men continued to beat him, punching and kicking… one after another. The sounds of bruising and cracks echoed. His glasses broke partially, worsening his already fading vision. Eventually, they realized that there was little to no reaction. It was like hitting a mannequin. “Hey boss, what do we do now?”

The son, now known as Mr. Avalon stopped smiling as he also began to notice a lack of screaming or begging. Walking forward, he grabbed Leon and began to hit him as well. Bruises appeared all over his visible body, but nothing came out but small grunts. Blood dripped from his lips and nose, but it all lacked this sort of ‘entertainment’ that the Avalon fellow seemed to crave.

Pulling his arm back once more, the man just glanced at the dead-eyed man. “Boring.”

With one last forceful punch, Leon fell to the ground feeling his broken glasses fly off. The man that remained standing cleaned his hands off and began to walk away. That was the last thing Leon saw as his vision faded to black.

‘I’m a pretty shitty older brother.’

-----------------

“Hey Leo” a small girl whispered out from underneath her blanket.

“Leooooo!” she repeated.

Turning to face her, Leon was seen sitting on the end of her bed. Leon forced a smile as he looked at her. ‘You look just like mom’ he thought. Her long brown hair was accompanied by her olive-green irises. A slightly chubby face without a blemish in sight facing right back at him.

Mia caught onto his constant looking. She was confused but didn’t bother asking.

“When are mom and dad coming home?” She asked.

Leon kept up his smiling face, although it wavered at the question. He reached out for her hand and held it for a while.

“Mom and dad had to go away for a while so it’s going to be just you and me for a bit.”

The little girl questioned him, not quite convinced at the excuse. Leon went on to fabricate a story about a sudden business trip that, if successful, they’d be able to move into a mansion with tons of pets.

The idea of it wasn’t convincing her still but the thought of such a thing made her young mind excited, acting as a distraction. Leon built off of this and talked about all the good things.

“Since it’s just us, we can jump on the sofa or order pizza every day. I promise to not tell them.” He smiled at her once more and laughed with her about the proposition.

Mia’s mind bounced around everywhere as they thought of all the fun things they could do that their mom wouldn’t let them do.

“I’m still enforcing bedtime!” Leon shouted as he tickled her, resulting in outbursts of laughing fits. It was hard to stay miserable in her presence.

Leon eventually tucked her in and went to plug in her nightlight. At the doorway, he hovered his hand over the light switch. ‘I’ll make sure she’ll grow up into a fine woman… for both of you.’

Glancing at his little sister, who was clearly not sleeping as she stared at him with only her eyes above the blanket, he smiled one last time. “Love you” and turned off the lights.

Walking down the hallway, Leon suddenly heard tons of mumbling sounds coming from his room. He could see light escaping through the bottom of his bedroom door. The closer he got, the clearer the noises were. They resembled… voices? Pushing the door open, his vision blurred and the sudden feeling of falling overtook him.

“Leon!”

‘What’s that sound?’

“Can you hear me?”

The voice sounded familiar. Tensing up his body, he tried to regain control through the freefall. His eyes felt clamped shut, but he forced it open. Slowly, a light came back into vision but… everything above him was white.

“Did I die?” he stiffly worded out.

Tilting his head to the side, he saw Julia and Drake’s faces. It was the only thing familiar to him immediately. The rest of the room was filled with many people. Perhaps around a thousand people if he were to guess. The room itself was… odd to say the least.

Pushing himself up, he realized that his hand had touched some grass. Sounds of water entered his ear. Leon would have assumed he was outside if it weren’t for the entirely white ceiling. It looked like they were in a miniature valley, with mountainous walls all around and a small waterfall and pond behind.

“Where are we?” he asked, turning back to the familiar faces.

They both shrugged, explaining that about thirty minutes after he left, their vision suddenly went white, and they appeared there. There wasn’t much to explain as they were both equally confused.

“What happened to you man? You were blacked out when we found you?” Drake asked as they all realized the discussion had come to a pause.

At this question, Leon began frantically patting himself down. “Huh?” He gasped lowly.

‘There’s no pain…’

“I…” he spoke but quickly spotted someone with his eyes.

A man with slicked-back hair stood about fifty feet from them in the crowd of people. ‘Avalon…’

Drake and Julia both looked where his head pointed. Upon seeing him, they both looked back, realizing what likely happened. No words were spoken about the event itself. “I’m… I’m just surprised I’m not hurt at all.” Leon spoke, breaking the silence.

Those injuries were bound to have lasted days or even weeks. Leon could have sworn he heard a rib or something crack. ‘Wait… where are my glasses?’ He hastily searched the ground and found nothing. While searching, a revelation hit him. ‘Could I always see that far away?’

“My vision… I can see” Leon let out.

The other two were momentarily confused until Julia spoke up.

“Now that you mention it, you don’t have any glasses on right now.” She said as she lost herself in thought.

Drake added on, “actually, now that you bring it up… I used to have a messed-up hip joint that used to hurt when walking but now it’s just… gone. Poof! Like it never existed. ”

‘So, we all got healed and put in top condition or something and are now stuck in this weird valley?’ Leon thought as he touched his face. It was now that he even noticed that he couldn’t feel any acne. His face felt incredibly smooth.

“What the hell is going on he-” he voiced but was instantly interrupted by a sudden overwhelming presence. It felt like his whole body wouldn’t move but his brain was screaming danger. Soon after, the pressure died down and a voice boomed.

“Welcome residents of galaxy 10578356. Your galaxy is now undergoing the 57th universal evolution. As such, you all shall be prepared for the coming changes in your world. Many paths are now open to you that you all will understand in due time.”

Confusion set in the room… valley?… anyway, everyone was confused. Murmurs flowed throughout as people tried to comprehend this disembodied voice’s meaning. Giving no more time to think, the voice carried on.

“If you would all kindly think of the words ‘status window’ or anything of similar meaning or connotation.”

Many thought the phrase in a questioning manner and many yelps and confused noises were voiced out from the crowd. Of course, Leon did the same. ‘Status window’

He just sat there quietly, staring ahead of him. ‘What the fuck is this?’