Maxi found himself in the familiar black void, an endless abyss stretching infinitely in all directions. He shook his head, exhaling sharply before breaking into a run. He sprinted for what felt like an eternity, his feet making no sound against the nonexistent ground. No matter how far he ran, the darkness remained the same—an infinite nothingness.
Then, like always, he saw it.
A single spotlight pierced through the void, illuminating an old, prestigious coffee table. Atop it lay the book—his book. The one he could never reach.
His sprint slowed to a walk as frustration settled deep in his chest. He already knew how this would end. No matter what he did, the book would always remain just out of reach. But, as the years passed, he had been getting closer. Slowly. Painfully. At this rate, he estimated that by the time he was ten years old, he would finally be able to touch it. And there was nothing he could do to speed up the process.
Knowing this, Maxi continued forward.
Then, like always, the shadows came.
Dark hands emerged from the void, clawing at his limbs. Maxi remained calm, his mind sharp as he pushed through. Step by step, he forced himself forward, but each movement became heavier, harder. More hands reached for him. One wrapped around his ankle. Then another gripped his wrist. He gritted his teeth, fighting against them, but before he could resist any further—
A final shadow hand seized him.
With a force beyond his control, he was yanked into the abyss.
Then, he woke up.
Maxi found himself lying in bed, his breath steady but his heart pounding. The cold air of his room settled against his skin, but it was the sensation of soft fabric that caught his attention. He looked down and realized—he was wearing pajamas.
Not just any pajamas.
They were covered in tiny stars.
Maxi stared for a moment, then shook his head in disappointment. He had made almost no progress with that stupid book, and the realization gnawed at him. But, despite his frustration, something strange happened.
A smile tugged at the edges of his lips.
As much as he hated to admit it, the pajamas were... comforting. Annoyingly so. They made it harder to dwell on his failures, replacing that bitter feeling with something warm and familiar.
Then, another thought crept into his mind.
Who had changed him into these?
The most obvious answer was his mother. Maxi sighed, his smile growing slightly at the thought. But then, other possibilities surfaced—Angelina, perhaps?
No. He shoved those thoughts into the deepest corners of his mind, refusing to entertain them.
He turned his attention to his bedside table, where six books rested neatly. The one he had been reading before had a red bookmark peeking out from its pages.
Maxi's smile widened.
He reached for the book, flipping it open to where he had left off. As he read, thoughts of the king's demands, of the impossible choices he had to make, began to surface. But they didn't last.
The book absorbed him completely.
Like a repellent against unwanted thoughts, its words dragged him into another world—another dimension. He drank in every sentence, every description, like a vampire starved for blood.
He couldn't get enough.
He read until the first light of dawn seeped through his window.
A knock at his door echoed through the room, but Maxi ignored it.
Then another.
And another—until the knocking grew so loud that it finally snapped him out of his book-induced heaven.
Maxi sighed, muttering under his breath, "Gosh dang it, and I was getting to the good part."
He pushed up his glasses, ruffled his hair into something semi-presentable, and then called out—
"Come in."