I looked up at the sun and immediately regretted it, it was torrid, I could practically feel the photons burning into my poor pupils. I looked around for a bit. I was back at my parent's house, but it wasn't as shabby. It had bright, tall grass decorated with little tiny flowers ranging from yellow to purple. Not the sad dead lawn I see everytime I drive by their house. Well.. I'M not the one driving since sadly I don't have a car. At least not anymore. You know what I mean though. I went to move my hair out of my eyes; as I touched it, it felt and looked much different to me. My hair wasn't as long and luscious. To be honest, I probably looked homeless–Also my ends aren't the color I always dye it as. Which is weird since I never forget to redye it.

I felt a shadow staring at me through my peripheral vision. When I looked to my side, I saw my best friend, Freddy, or ex-best friend sitting with his knees facing his face on a red lawn chair. Yknow those chairs that fold in on themselves? Strange, he looks younger than I remembered, a little too young. His hair isn't as curly, and he still had his braces. He hated his braces. What was even more abnormal was that he was smiling,why? It was anomalous to see him that happy. It's like he's 10 again.

   His smile grew wider as he said, "Hey Phil, can you promise me something?" It was like someone rewounded his vocal cords.

    "Well.. it depends"

     "Can we be best friends forever?"

      I looked down, thought for a moment because forever is a long time. Suddenly, I had a massive wave of deja vu. This feels so familiar as if it's already happened before—or maybe it has happened before and I just don't remember it clearly. Could have also been another one of those stupid dreams and I just woke up. I bring my attention back up to Freddie whose smile is still as big as ever, his arms are wrapped around his legs as he waits for me to answer. If i'm not sleeping, I might as well react better than I did in my dream because damn was that a really crummy dream. With a small smile on my face I hesitantly nod.

Then I woke up.

Chapter 1: 

I looked to my right to see Freddy except it wasn't him. He looked a lot older, taller too, before he was the same height as Stuart (Stuart is my best friend but everyone calls him stubby since he's so short), his hair was more curly than straight, and this time he looked annoyed, not happy. He sighs in discontent and starts babbling about museums. To be honest, I stopped listening after a while. 

My head turned towards the room, it looked like an office. There were rows of desks, all filled with stacked pieces of papers and little vanity mirrors. In one of them was a little kid, probably no more than 8, sitting next to me on the floor. He had short brown hair, and with silly bangs that covered his eyes. He smiled awkwardly and waved for a few seconds then I blinked and poof he was gone. I imagine he's an adventurer who lives inside mirrors, and teleports between them to find the perfect one. That one was no good, I thought as I sat up, still hearing the faint distorted voice of freddy in my head and turned the mirror backwards.

  Another sigh comes from Freddy as he realizes I'm not listening. Suddenly,  the door flings open with a loud BANG. I jumped up, startled at the sudden noise. If I wasn't already awake I am now. We both shot a look towards the door, there was no one. I looked down and saw stubby wearing a black sonic shirt. Really? At his grown age? He puffed his chest out and looked at us determined. He ran towards us, the sound of wood at his feet, tripped on nothing, and proceeded to punch me as hard as he could in the stomach.

"You twit, you promised to meet me at the new museum today, you said ¨Dont worry ill be there Friday, no problem.", and look where you're at!" he said, ignoring my pained groans as I wrapped my arms around my stomach and dropped to the floor. 

I turned my head to Stubby, still on the floor. "The what? I don't remember anything about museums.”

"How could you forget? We were planning this for so long!" Tapping his foot on the wooden floor.

"..Well, I guess we still go right?? Look, I'll make it up to you or something!" I slowly sat on the floor, waving my hands around.

He moved his hand towards his chin tapping on it with his index finger, pondering "We could go right now before they close—but let's be quick, don't worry about Freddy by the way he can come too."  and just as quickly as he entered he ran towards the door with Freddy quickly following him, skipping and waving his hands in excitement.

I stood there for a few seconds, staring at them running through the halls like 3rd graders. I looked back towards the coach, and there were silver keys attached to a keychain of a short yellow bean with blue overalls.  I Looked back at them then back at the picture then at the keys before finally realizing they probably are out the building already. 

 "Wait! Let me get my keys first!" I shouted, scrambling to catch up with them as my voice echoed through the halls.

All the excitement from Freddy´s face was replaced with a grimace, the light in his eyes was gone, and I swear I saw his face turn to stone for 0.2 seconds.

"Isn't it great?" Stuart said in a proud voice, he turned towards us with a smile on his face. "What do you guys think?"

"It's the saddest excuse for a museum I've ever seen."

"Cmon, lower your standards guys!"  Stuart shouted in a disappointed tone.

"I got kicked in the stomach for this—I mean, I get that everything doesn't have to be some fancy schmancy five star building but really?"

I looked back at the run-down museum, it was painted in this weird yellowish white, the cracked windows looked like they were about to shatter, from inside we can see much of the tile floors were cracked or missing,  the museum pieces that we could see were either damaged or missing entire pieces of themselves, and I bet 5 dollars that dust and debris is going to be coating almost every surface of that entire building. The street we were on wasn't any better either. As we walked inside I felt a drop of water land on my head, looking up I saw the entire ceiling was replaced with old leaking pipes,—oh and there was no check-in either which seemed to bother Freddy the most.

"Hey,are you sure this is the place?" Freddie pointed down, probably internally wishing that somehow we were at the wrong place. 

"I'm one hundred percent sure"

Then I spent what felt like an eternity looking around (which probably was only 30 minutes or so) and  stuart awing at all the displays.  I felt bored and snuck sneakily from Stuart and Freddy, or maybe they noticed and they just didn't care. I heard the gravel-like sound of the floor as I walked through the hallways of the building, stopping to look at a statue of some sort.  I leaned in to look at my reflection, but instead was met with a sniffling little kid with short hair. This time he looked slightly older, and looked like he just stopped crying as his eyes and nose were red. What are you crying for? He pointed towards the end of the hall, signaling me to follow him. I walked towards the door, and entered the room I was met with another room, then another, and another then my walking turned to jogging which turned to running as I felt like I was being followed, and after what felt like a hundred rooms, I stopped. This room was different, although it was as barren as the rooms before it, it had a door with a gold door knob.  

The door glowed in blue, and I'm not saying it figuratively or anything I mean it's literally glowing. I inched towards the door, grabbing the gold doorknob, and ever so slowly opening the door- there was a shout behind me, it was freddy. Then the door flung open, paint stripped from the walls, and the damaged flooring completely shattered like crackers. As I was pulled towards the room, the world went dark.

Air was being pushed against me with the force strong enough to break bones. I snapped my eyes open and only saw two dark figures fall out from a closing portal. Then I realize it, I'm falling. I'm falling. Oh, oh no. I'm going to die now right? This must be how I die.  I can already see my life flashing before my eyes. So I  slowly close my eyes waiting for my demise ....—Wait no, I can't die, if I die right now then there's no story, and who wants an ending where the main character just suddenly dies midway? Or worse the story just suddenly stops!

—to be continued