A moment in time

(The lights come on abruptly, as AJ wakes up and realizes his circumstances)

AJ: What the…. Where am I ? Hellooooo !

(The lights turned a deep yellow, turning the room into a pit of gold, as he remained unshackled, terrified, in the bright room with 2 doors and no windows).

AJ: Hey ! Who’s doing that with the lights !?

(A phone dial pad appears as a hologram on the wall, it rang throughout the room as if connected to a Bluetooth speaker, AJ was very confused and extremely desperate to leave, so he answers the call with hopes of getting ANY information on his situation).

“Hello Aaron”. said the voice on the sending end of the call.

AJ: who’s this, and where the hell am I !

Voice: My name is irrelevant, just know I’m everything you wanna be and nothing that you understand.

AJ: Cool bro, can you buzz me the fuck out by any chance?

Voice: (brief sarcastic laughter) bless your soul, do you REALLY think you’re in control.. hmm?

AJ:I don’t even know where I am, so no dude clearly not.

Voice: precisely. Therefore your liberation from this is all dependent on your willingness to participate.

AJ: You’ve got some nerve actually thinking you can trap someone against their will and get them to participate in anything you’d want them to do, you CANNOT be serious.

Voice: Ohhh, but serious IS, what I am. However I am not a warden. this is not is an imprisonment Aaron, no no no… THIS is a CHOICE….

(The word “choice” echoed throughout the room sending chills up AJ’s spine, he began to look around feeling surrounded)

AJ: dude, what the hell do you want from me!?

Voice: Finally PROGRESS…

(The word “progress” echoed throughout the room as well, AJ was officially spooked, A spotlight began to shine in the middle of the golden room as a pedestal holding a box began to come up out of the floor)

AJ looked at one of the 2 doors in the room and thought to himself, I don’t know where it leads, but If I run through it I hope I can find an escape.

He abruptly dashed to the Blue door, Blue was his favorite color, he figured it would lead him to prosperity.

He opened the door and was face to face with the sky. Eye level with clouds, and In the distance a blimp floated by. Astonished, devastated, & dumbfounded, he slammed the door back shut, turned back into the golden room and sat by the hologram phone.

Voice: Did you like the view ?

AJ: (eyes closed speaking to himself in a terrified whisper) this isn’t real… this isn’t real… this isn’t real… this isn’t real…

AJ seemed to be having a meltdown. As the sweat poured, his hunger built, and his urges to urinate grew.. he began to sense this was more reality than he’d wanted it to be, and he may have to participate with this voice to escape.

Voice: your freedom isn’t far, if you want it, say you’ll participate.

AJ: (sounding mentally defeated) I’ll participate man… what is it, I’m ready to go home !

Voice: open the box on the pedestal in the middle of the golden room.

AJ: is something gonna jump out and kill me?

Voice: No silly, what fun would that be, your death wouldn’t pique my interest the way this would.

AJ: (Fearful but desperate, walks to the box and slowly pulled up the lid with the edge of his finger as he stood away with the other 99.6% of his body).

Inside the box laid the most diabolical creation known to man, seemingly formulated by none other than Lucifer himself, the contents of this container must have been packed by people wearing hazmat suits and crosses.

A butterfinger wrapped in black licorice dipped in caramel. With a cherry… that was on top, but fell off because it was disgusted.

AJ stares into the box stunned in utter silence, then faints.

(45 minutes later)

AJ: (holding his head picking himself up off the ground) why me, what did I do to deserve this?

Voice: does this sound familiar ? (Plays recording of AJ with his friends)

AJ in recording: “maaaan I can’t STAND nasty ass butterfingers! they stink, they look disgusting, when they break apart, the chocolate seems fake everything about it is just a FAIL ! ewww, I’d rather die than eat one !”

AJ: dude, how do you have a recording of me and my friends. What kind of creepy nonsense is this !? You’re a lunatic whoever you are.

Voice: I told you, I’m everything you wanna be, and nothing you understand. That’s besides the point. If you want to leave you have to not only eat your words, but you gotta eat that damn Butterfinger, the 8 minute timer starts now and after 8 minutes if that butterfinger AND CHERRY isn’t GONE, the golden room will be your home for eternity! Goodbye AJ !

(Hologram cellphone disappeared as 8 minutes on a timer replaced it, the voice was gone, it was now only AJ vs Himself, and that cancerous candy bar).

He had to be fast. the time dwindled as his options became less and less.

Eat the candy bar, or take the leap of faith out the blue door?

Eat the candy bar or starve to death from actually being hungry during all of this.

Eat the candy bar, or turn to a gold ball of bone dust trapped in a random room in the clouds?

AJ after sitting in utter shock for 7 minutes & 45 seconds raced to the center of the Golden room where he snatched the candy bar and ate it as he vomited his way to victory!

The golden room turned green… then pitch black… all of a sudden the room seemed to move at the speed of light, everything inside the room began to move slow and expand like rubber.

AJ woke up again after his golden flight and realized this time he was in his room, the gold lights were gone and everything was normal.

He chalked up the entire experience as a dream and figured he’d go have a smoke and think of what’s the most important thing he should try to take from it as mental growth.

The moment of “the voice” playing a recording of him speaking on his dislike of butterfingers was chilling.

It was a moment in time… where he displayed an immature, and outlandish display of his preference in candy by saying he’d rather die than eat a butterfinger, which clearly was not true. He ate his words and that candy, plus the cherry.

From that moment on AJ viewed his words as powerful and realized his words can be manifested into his reality whether he’s ready for it or not.

The doorbell rang, it was a package he’d ordered online, it was 2 weeks late so he put out the joint and rushed to the door.

AJ: thanks man but you know my package is about two weeks late now. This really set me back.

Delivery man: I apologize sir, we’ve been backed up with packages for this area and extremely short handed, we lost about 4 drivers this week alone.

AJ: it’s okay boss, I know it’s not your fault, I’m just in a bit of a bind now is all.

Delivery man: yeah sorry, this delivery stuff seems to be everything I want to do but nothing that I understand. (he walks back to his truck and pulls off)

AJ: (walking into the house about to open his mail, but suddenly pieces together what the delivery man just said).

“Everything I want to do, but nothing I understand” sounded awfully familiar to him.

He looked out the window, the delivery man was gone.