As you can imagine, I was a very lonely guy. All in all, I was about average. I graduated high school on time, but I never really made any friends. After that, I tried going to college when I was about nineteen, but it didn't work out at all. I ended up dropping out before I was even halfway through. Since then, I'd just been at home, not doing much, letting days pass without really thinking about them.
Lately, my parents had been bothering me again about college.
"Son, you know you can't just stay like this," my dad said, standing near my door. "All my friends' sons already started going. You're twenty-one now. You need to at least try to figure something out."
"I know," I said. "Just give me some time. I just need to think about which one I'd even go to."
That wasn't true. I wasn't thinking about it at all.
You might be wondering why I didn't want to go back so badly. What was so wrong with it that I avoided it this much?
The truth was, college felt worse than high school. I couldn't make a single friend, no matter how hard I tried. I kept telling myself things would change, but instead my grades kept getting worse. Eventually, I stopped going to classes altogether. Staying in my room felt easier than dealing with any of it.
My dad sighed. "Just don't let this drag on again," he said. "I don't want us having the same talk every year."
"Yeah," I replied. "I get it. I'll figure it out."
It was already really late. I hadn't even noticed the time. At some point, I knocked something over in my room, and a few minutes later my dad came in, clearly irritated from being woken up. He talked for a while, but I was too tired to really listen. By the time he left, I felt completely drained.
I lay down on my bed, staring at the ceiling, and eventually closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I knew something was wrong.
I wasn't in my room anymore.
Everything around me was white. It wasn't empty exactly, just painfully bright, like someone had erased every other color. My eyes started to hurt, so I raised my hand a little to block the light.
That's when I felt it.
Someone was looking at me.
The feeling came from above. I slowly looked up and froze.
Floating there was an old woman. She looked more like a witch than anything else. Her skin was wrinkled, her hair thin and messy, and her smile was crooked. She looked she was from a fairy tale meant to scare kids into behaving.
I stepped back without thinking.
"Who are you?" I said. "Did you bring me here?"
She started laughing, loud and rough.
"Kidnap you?" she said between laughs. "That's really what you think happened?"
I stared at her, trying to decide if this was some kind of dream. When I moved again, I noticed something below her.
There were two other people.
A boy and a girl, both looking a older than me. They were standing there even though there didn't seem to be anything for them to stand on. They weren't confused like I was. They were staring straight at me, and there was nothing friendly in their expressions. It felt like they already hated me.
My chest felt tight. I looked back up at the witch.
"I don't care what this is," I said. "Just let me go home."
She tilted her head, like she was thinking it over.
"And if I told you that you'd just won something?" she asked. "Something people would do horrible things to get?"
"What are you talking about?"
"People have killed for far less," she said. "If they knew what I was about to offer you, some of them wouldn't hesitate."
I didn't like how calmly she said it, but curiosity still crept in.
"How did I even get picked?" I asked.
She shrugged. "I drew a name. The pool was a little over one hundred and twenty billion people."
That didn't sound right. "There aren't that many people alive."
She smiled at that. "I never said they had to be alive right now the past and also the present."
That made my stomach drop.
She looked at me again.
"Tell me something," she said. "When you saw me, why didn't you run?"
I thought about it for a second, but there wasn't a good answer. I just knew that running felt pointless.
She seemed satisfied with that.
Suddenly, the space around us shifted. A long table appeared, stretching farther than I could see. At the same time, I felt myself lift off the ground, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting across from her in a chair that didn't seem to be attached to anything. I grabbed the armrests without realizing I was doing it.
I then looked down again at the two people.
They were staring up at me with cold, empty eyes. It felt like they wanted to kill me right there, and somehow it truly felt like they could. My mind raced. I thought it was a coincidence. I tried to look away.
I couldn't.
I was locked in eye contact with them. Panic started to rise.
COME ON, LOOK AWAY. LOOK AWAY. THEY'RE DANGEROUS. I CAN FEEL IT IN EVERY CELL OF MY BODY. WHY CAN'T I LOOK AWAY?
Cold sweat ran down my back. I finally forced myself to turn away, breathing hard. The woman watched the whole thing like it was entertaining her, and then she burst out laughing.
"HAHAHAHA! Kid, are you really that scared?" she said. "Relax. They can't touch you here."
Her words didn't make me feel any better. I looked back at her.
"Then who are they?" I asked. "And who are you, really?"
She waved her hand dismissively. "I'm just an old lady who hands out rewards. Though I didn't expect someone this young to win."
She glanced downward again.
"And those two?" she continued. "They won before you did. In other universes."
"Universes?" I repeated.
"Other versions of reality," she said. "Different timelines. Every time a human life plays out, it branches. Some branches look almost the same. Some don't."
I looked at the two of them again. They weren't looking at me anymore. It seemed like they were discussing something between themselves, and I let out a sigh of relief.
"When someone new is chosen," she went on, "the winners whose lives ended up most similar get pulled here for a while. It doesn't matter where they're from. Only how close the outcome was."
"So they're… versions of me?" I asked.
"Not exactly," she said. "But close enough."
That answer didn't sit right with me.
"They've been summoned here before," she added. "Long before you." Without wasting a breath, she also said, "And you don't have to worry about staying in this space forever."
I hesitated. "You keep answering things before I ask."
She smiled slightly. "You wear your thoughts pretty openly."
I could say now that I was truly terrified of this woman. She'd been reading my mind this entire time. What the hell was she?
She straightened a little and looked directly at me.
"Now," she said, "don't you want to know what you've won?"
I met her gaze. The way she looked at me made it feel like she'd been waiting for this moment the entire time. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and let out a slow breath.
"…What is it?" I asked.
Her grin widened.
"Infinite wishes."
The words just hung there.
I didn't respond right away.
We looked into each other's eyes for a good three seconds. Then she said, "Well, I've delivered the news. I'm free forever in this universe."
She put her feet on the table and crossed them, her hat covering her face. Then she suddenly put up two fingers.
"There are two rules," she said. "One: you can't wish to harm anyone from our organization or any of my coworkers whatsoever. Two: you can't harm other alternate versions of yourself or their universes."
"Break either rule," she continued, "and every wish you've made will be taken and removed. After that, you'll be tortured for the rest of eternity."
She flicked her hat up again.
"There are a few other requirements to make a wish. Certain words need to be said, certain intent needs to be clear. Don't worry—we'll give you a new AI to help you."
The second she said that, I felt weird and dizzy.
Then I heard it.
"Wish system online. User 00000001, universe F1315. I'm your assigned assistant. I'll handle wish execution so you don't have to worry about the technical details."
I felt like I should've been shocked, but after everything I had already seen and heard, this was the least crazy part so far.
"So I just got extremely lucky?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "Now stop asking. Hopefully we don't have to see each other ever again. The amount of paperwork I'd have to do if you break the rules is annoying, so please don't."
I realized what she was doing. She was closing things up.
The dizziness hit again.
"PLEASE WAIT—I HAVE QUESTIO—"
Then suddenly, I was in my bed again.
I stood up instantly, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. I grabbed my phone. I had only been asleep for two hours. When my dad came to lecture me earlier, it was about four.
Now it was 6:24.
I didn't know if it was real or not, but I had to try.
I did the first thing that came to mind.
"I wish for a bottle of water."
A calm voice answered.
Wish heard.
Interpreting intent…
Executing.
Something solid formed in my hand.
I looked down.
A cold plastic bottle of water sat in my right hand.