Alex often thought about how empty his life was.
He was a completely ordinary person. He had ordinary parents, lived in an ordinary apartment, and went to an ordinary school.
There was nothing special about him. Maybe because of that, he, as a child, spent every day, every hour of his life watching TV and reading books. His own life was completely unremarkable, so he became obsessed with the fantastical worlds and stories found in fiction.
He had many dreams and obsessions. Sometimes he would sit on the bench before the staircase leading to his school. The windows that were already lit, dissolving the dark haze of the early winter morning and showing that classes were about to begin. However, Alex paid no attention to it. He remained still, lost in his fantasies. It always took him time and great effort to break free of them and finally head to school, back to the ordinary life around him.
Eventually, Alex grew up. He went to university, earned a degree, and found himself a boring job.
After finishing his shift, Alex always went to the same bus stop. There, he would begin daydreaming once again. He could have spent his whole life lost in his dreams.
The fate, however, had other plans for him.
Just like always, Alex was waiting for the bus while being engrossed in his thoughts. A thick layer of snow covered the world around him, but he saw none of that. He was imagining a giant, overgrown robot lying at the edge of a faraway universe.
Suddenly, the robot opened its eyes. They blazed with a blinding yellow light.
The bus drove across the ice and slipped onto the sidewalk.
Alex jumped. The bus's lights were shining mere centimeters from his face.
Alex heard an angry scream. No one was hurt; however, people were furious. The driver got off the bus and tried to apologize to everyone and to him, but Alex could not hear him.
He silently boarded the bus. Upon reaching his residential area, Alex passed by a recently opened grocery store and headed toward the entrance of his flat.
After stepping into his flat, Alex switched on the light and suddenly froze in the middle of the hallway.
A fantasy was burning inside his mind; what if the bus had actually hit him and, like in many similar stories, sent him to another world?
Suddenly, Alex bit his lip; he bit it so hard that it began to bleed.
A tingle of fear crept over his back when he realized that, for a moment, he had almost wished for the bus to hit him.
Alex squatted down and stayed like that, motionless, for a couple of minutes, his jacket and boots covered in melting snow. Then an old dog walked out of his closet and began licking his cheeks.
Alex winced and petted it. His dog was an old mongrel with a long nose and excited, lively eyes.
Soon after, Alex went to the kitchen, and the crackling of a frying pan broke the silence of his flat.
The following night was sleepless.
It was still dark outside when Alex woke up, sighed, and went out to walk his dog. In the parking lot he saw people scraping snow and ice off their cars. Alex watched them absentmindedly while walking between a playground and a construction site. All the while, he kept checking the time on his phone, as he didn't want to be late for the bus.
At last, he tugged the dog's leash. It was time to go home. The dog did not move. Alex sighed and stepped closer. Michael (that was the dog's name) was persistently sniffing a snow-covered metallic plate.
What is that? Some trash from the construction site?
Suddenly, Alex remembered how, as a child, he would sometimes pick up peculiar and shiny pebbles, hoping that one of them might turn out to be a magical treasure that would take him to another world. Of course, he could not collect them all, so he constantly wrestled with the thought that he might have already missed his chance to become a hero.
Alex smiled bitterly and reached for the metallic plate.
His fingers went through.
Alex froze.
The excited dog sat on the ground.
Somewhere in the parking lot, an alarm went off.
Alex paid it no mind.
He was staring at his fingers as they sank into the plate, as if it were a pond of liquid silver. He pushed them further, and his whole hand vanished beneath the silvery surface.
As if beyond it lay another world.