"Mom! Dad!"
A young boy screamed due to his nightmare.
Waking up, he found himself in an all-encompassing room of pure white.
He thought to himself, 'am I still dreaming?'
He must be. Otherwise, how could he explain his current situation.
"Is this one of those dreams within dreams?" He quietly muttered.
Soon, people started appearing out of thin air. They seemed to be children as well.
No, not just people, but bizarre-looking creatures as well.
"Oh yeah, this is definitely a dream, right?" He anxiously muttered.
He, who should have been a middle-aged man, got too drunk whilst drinking with friends.
The last thing he remembered was getting knocked out by the sheer amount of alcohol he drank.
But now, he was in a child's body. How did he know? Because the first thing he realized was how small his hands were.
If he wasn't in a dream, then what the hell could explain this?
Not to mention, all the children that appeared around him, as well as the alien-like beings. How could this not be a dream?
The children were asleep like he was prior, but now they were waking up as well.
He could hear their confused voices and remarks.
"Huh?"
"Where am I?"
"Aaaaah!"
"Is this a dream?"
That last comment particularly sounded odd.
'Weird, why would someone in my own dream be asking if they were in a dream as well? Surely that'll just wake me up,' he thought.
What was even weirder was the monstrous beings being able to speak like normal humans as well.
"Yo, what the heck?"
"Ugghh, my head hurts...."
"Where am I?"
"Am I dreaming?"
Hearing that one line again made him think, 'again? And this time, it's being said by a 2-meter-tall blue humanoid creature with four arms and 2 grasshopper-shaped legs. They oddly have cute cat-like faces, is my sub-conscious telling me something in this dream?'
However weird this dream was, he needed to wake up. There was no telling what his current state was like in the waking world.
After all, he did just pass out in the middle of his friends birthday party. It was a once-in-a-year event for his friend, so he did not want to ruin it.
So, he pinched himself.
"Huh?"
Realising it did not work, he pinched himself yet again. Now, way much harder.
"Ow?"
A fellow child next to him saw his antics and asked him, "why are you pinching yourself twice? This ain't a dream, I've tried even biting my own finger. It hurts, so this is not a dream. My name's Alicia, by the way."
Hearing that, he responded, "really? In my whole 46 years of living, I've always thought that it was for waking yourself up. There are easier ways to tell that you're dreaming after all. And my name is Lucky."
The two shook hands.
But then, two other children joined in on the conversation.
"Wait, 46? Aren't you a kid? No way, did we all get turned into kids?"
"Huh? You're not a kid? I thought I was the only one who got turned into a kid."
From what they've said, they seemed to be adults turned into kids as well.
"What's both of your names?" Asked Lucky.
"I'm Yu," said the first kid. She had black hair, and seemed to be of East-Asian descent.
The second kid hesitated, but then spilled his name, "My name's Leo."
The four children huddled up like they were in a pre-game meeting.
"So this really isn't a dream?" Asked Lucky.
"No, and I'm worried about what might be happening," said Alicia.
"Are we like, dead?" Asked Leo.
The black-haired girl, Yu, responded dejectedly, "maybe, maybe....."
Hearing this, all four of them sighed. Though each sigh were of different emotions.
'Great, my life full of regrets and failures has ended if that's true,' thought Lucky in relief.
The only reason he barely clung to life was due to his cowardice. But that cowardice was also what led to his regrets and failures.
'If this is truly the afterlife, then I don't wish for heaven or hell. I just wish to be reincarnated and start over,' he wishfully hoped.
Suddenly, the air around him and the other children rippled.
As if an explosion had happened, all the children and monsters were flung tothe white floor.
And yet, none of them were hurt.
As if the explosive force that flung them were gentle winds.
The cause of this, was a being made of pure light. It was shaped like a person, but the lack of anatomical detail made it look like it was a balloon.
The human-shaped balloon of light then spoke.
[Hello.]
Lucky confirmed himself in his thoughts, 'yep, it seems like this is the afterlife.'
But the next sentence the god-like being uttered baffled everyone.
[Welcome to my school project!]
'What the fuck?'
Those 3 words were what the majority of the people there, including Lucky, thought of after hearing that.
Then, the being clapped its anatomically cartoonish balloon hands.
*CLAP*
[I've made it so that none of you can talk. Now, listen to what I'll say and engrave it to your minds forever.]
[You are currently participating in my final project before I graduate. Graduate what? Well, school of course.]
[Do you think I'm your god? Nope, I'm just one of many beings in a higher plane universe trying their best to graduate and enter society.]
[This isn't the afterlife. It's not a heaven nor is it a hell. This is a private space given by the academy for my studies.]
[Now, I won't answer any of your questions, and I will only be telling you what you're doing.]
[If you look around you, you can see familiar and unfamiliar creatures.]
[The familiar ones are, of course, beings of the same sentient species as you. The others are from the same and/or different planets of the same and/or different galaxies. The reason why you can understand me and each other is due to an auto-translation feature of this space as well.]
[My graduation project is an experiment. An experiment that you will all participate in. For you, it will last for tens, hundreds, thousands, and maybe even millions of years.]
[But for me, it'll be in a blip.]