Liam woke up.
The stone below him was cold. As he got up, he began to look around with his hand on his head.
He was going to one of his college classes, the last memory he had was of opening the door to the lecture hall.
Around him stretched stone pathways. There was no longer that he was tall and did not seem very deep. They surrounded him like the outline of a square.
There were paths that were perinuclear, intersecting every thirty or so feet.
At every intersection there was a large stone building with a wooden door. There was a path around the buildings, allowing one to walk around if they wished.
Looking up and down Liam saw that the pattern of stone bridges and intersections repeated up and down as far as he could see.
"Come to your senses, have you?" a man asked.
Looking down the path in front of him, Liam saw a man sitting down with a stick in his hand holding it above an imaginary campfire.
"Who are, what is," Liam asked.
"It looks like you're not completely all there yet," the man said with a laugh, "Let me fill you in while you get your bearings, welcome to the Infinite Labyrinth," he said opening his arms wide.
"Infinite?" Liam mumbled.
"That's right!" the man said, "No matter how far you go, you'll never find an end, don't bother about going up and down, it's not worth the risk," he mentioned.
"What about those little houses?" Liam asked pointing to the stone structures.
"Those? Those aren't houses, those are worlds," the man answered pointing to the door behind him.
"Like planets?" Liam asked.
"Not exactly, more like universes," the man replied.
"What do you mean universe?" Liam questioned.
"Every story ever written! Past, present and future!" the man explained.
"What about the door behind you?" Liam said pointing behind the man.
"Something about ninjas and chakra, wasn't what I'm looking for so I didn't stick around too long," the man explained.
'Naruto?' Liam thought.
"Then what are you looking for?" Liam asked.
"What we're all looking for, home," the man answered.
"By we you mean?" Liam asked.
"Yes, there are more of us," the man replied.
"What about the door behind me?" Liam asked.
"Don't know, that one's up next," the man said.
"Mind if I take this one?" Liam asked.
"Sure, but I'm coming just to take a look," the man answered standing up.
"Sound good to me," Liam said, turning around.
Walking towards the room (Well the universe) Liam's hand shook as he reached for the doorknob.
What would be behind this, he wondered.
"What are you waiting for?" the man behind Liam asked.
"Nothing," Liam responded.
Steeling himself, Liam grasped the handle and opened the door.
The other side was something that he had never seen before. It was like a kid's drawing; it was the inside of a house that seemed to be drawn with colored pencils. Liam looked out the window, and saw trees that looked exactly the same, and the sun was a yellow circle with lines coming out of it.
The man sighed.
"Another world down, another place not home," he murmured, "Welp goodbye" he said going out the door.
"Wait!" Liam called out, "Is there anything else you can tell me about this place?" he asked.
"Well, two things, time works wrong, and any door will take you back" the man said.
"What do those things mean?" Liam asked.
"You'll know, I did," he said before leaving shutting the door behind him.
As the door shut Liam got to see the backside of the door, which was also a children's drawing.
Walking back to the door, Liam grabbed what looked to be like the handle and opened it up again.
He was greeted by familiar stone paths that reached forward, but there was no man. Liam wasn't sure if the man was gone, or if the door was in another place.
Liam then closed the door and began to look around the colored pencil made world.
"Hello new neighbor!" a man said.
The man didn't look human, his head shifted sizes, his arms constantly changed length, and his legs didn't quite reach the floor causing him to hover slightly over it.
"Do you want food?" the man then asked.
If Liam were in the man's position, the first thing he would be asking is 'Why are you in my house?' but he supposed that others may have come through the same door.
"Sure?" Liam hesitantly said.
"Great, come!" he said turning around and walking (Floating? Levitating?) to what Liam would guess is the kitchen.
'He's talking strangely, I wonder why' Liam wondered in his mind.
As he followed the color pencil made man, Liam was worried he was going to fall through the floor. It didn't look too safe, or complete.
The kitchen was close to the front of the door, at least he thought. This place was twisting around him walls stretching up and down, they closed in on Liam before moving back out.
However, he was invited to eat so Liam put off the odd walls.
"You brought new guest?" a lady asked from the kitchen.
"Yes! New guest," the man replied.
"Oh!" the lady exclaimed, "Bring new guest to eat!" she said.
The lady was remarkably similar to the man, with the difference being that the lady had longer hair.
"New guest!" a young kid said from upstairs.
A kid looking the same as the lady, just shorter, came down from the stairs. There was one other difference, she was simply better drawn.
The man sat down with the kid following close behind sitting down as well. With Liam following suit.
"Here food!" the lady said bringing the three plates with food on them.
On the plates was the form of food, but the color was off, and it was another thing that seemed to be made from color pencil drawings.
"Thank you, but I'm not hungry," Liam said trying to be polite.
"Is fine," the lady said before starting to eat the food.
"Have you seen superheroes around?" the man asked.
"Oh, I have!" the woman said with a smile.
Liam wasn't sure what to say, he remembered that he was told that this world was a story. He wasn't sure the lore of this world, or what the lore of the world would be, this was probably made by a kid after all.
The three-color pencil dawn people quickly finished their food. Liam wasn't sure where the food went.
"Come! I need to show you favorite tree!" the kid said getting up from her chair and pointing at Liam.
"Let's go then," Liam said getting off of his chair.
Curiosity filled Liam's mind. What tree? What's going to happen when he steps outside? He had to know.
Following the kid outside to look at the tree with the kid. Stepping outside wasn't too different from inside.
The tree that the kid wanted to show to Liam was the same as the other trees that Liam could see, except that it had a massive dent in it.
"Thor hammer hit tree!" the kid said proudly, "Special tree," she explained.
"Oh, how interesting," Liam said looking at the tree.
'Thor? Can't be from Norse Mythology, maybe from Marvel' Liam thought looking at the dent in the tree.
"Ok! Inside," the kid said before running back inside.
"Kids got a lot of energy," Liam mumbled heading back into the house.
But something was different as he entered.
The lines that made up the house got wigglier. Straight lines began to become curved, before bouncing back to being straight.
Liam could see the kid standing in the kitchen.
Coming up behind her, Liam went to see what she was looking at.
Dust, it wasn't like the rest of the surroundings, it wasn't even drawn. it was just dust. And it was sitting where the man and woman were sitting.
"My parents," the kid began to say, "Are superhero!" she said proudly throwing her hands up, "They flew out leaving ash behind!" she explained to herself.
It was then that Liam realized that he was in the story of a kid in the Marvel universe, a kid whose parents just got dusted.
"How cool, how cool!" the kid rapidly said.
The house and everything around it began to destabilize.
Knowing that he couldn't stay here, Liam ran to the door trying to get out.
The door was warping and moving about, before anything else could happen, Liam ripped open the door.
Though, right as he did, his legs tripped on something, causing him to tumble through the door and onto the cold stone he woke up on.
Liam looked back at the door he just fell through and saw that it closed on its own. Nothing from the other side had affected the door on the side he was on now.
He laid down, a backpack tangled around his legs. And the one thing he wanted was to go home.
Yet, that was not a place he knew how to get to.