The Quest Across Two Realms

The Party

The party was in full swing, and everyone seemed to be having a great time but Soren was seated on the plush red-coloured sofa. He didn’t enjoy party life but since this was his birthday party, he had to endure the pain and torture of partying or as he would call it, the “self-inflicted pain of human interaction”, he was an introvert but that’s what made Soren, well, Soren.

Soren had just turned 18, he was a reserved one, but even so he constantly felt the weight of being his parents' only son and the silent but ever-present pressure to succeed that came with it. He didn’t appreciate society's views on what made someone quote "important" or "unimportant." To most people, being important meant having wealth and influence. But Soren believed real worth came from quietly contributing to the world without seeking recognition. To him, true heroes worked in the shadows, while everyone else was just pretending, or as he would call them - “posers”. He’d often dream of being a superhero or any hero of any kind, he wanted to make a difference but didn’t want the fame that came with it. “Oh well, there’s no harm in dreaming”, he would often say to himself at the end of one of his daydreaming sessions. 

Soren sat on a red sofa, observing the partygoers with a mixture of fascination and discomfort. The loud music and constant movement of the people in the house were a bit overwhelming, but he could handle it. I used the term “humans” for a reason because apparently, it wasn't only humans that existed as beings with higher intelligence. In Soren’s world, there existed beings that resembled humans but were not. For now, they shall remain nameless and be referred to as the “skinwalkers”. 

The party dragged on for about 45 minutes, during which Soren mostly daydreamed. Suddenly, his best friend Orion approached him.

"Soren!" Orion exclaimed. "Why are you sitting here all alone? It's your 18th birthday, man! Get up and join the fun."

"You should know me by now," Soren replied with a half-smile. "I'm not really into this scene. People creep me out. I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for my mom organizing this whole thing for me." 

"I know you don’t like people that much, but come on, at least talk to some of the girls in our class who decided to grace you with their presence," Orion said, his tone suggesting the girls were of royal origins.

Soren gave Orion a look that suggested he wanted to shove a spoon down his throat to shut him up, but he couldn't do that—it was against the law. After a lot of incessant persuasion from Orion, Soren decided it wouldn't hurt to try something new. After all, it was his birthday, and he was at an actual party, something he once said he'd rather die than attend. Yet here he was, still breathing, so he figured he must be a zombie or something.

Orion pulled Soren to his feet and dragged him to "socialize" (another word Soren despised) with some of his peers. Approaching a group of girls deep in conversation, Orion said, "Soren here is a sad, lonely Homosapien who needs some kind of spark in his gloom-filled life. Mind if we join in on your conversation?" 

At that moment, Soren was reminded of the age-old question that had plagued him and given him sleepless nights for the past year and a half: Why am I friends with this human? What sin did I commit in my past life or lives to deserve such a punishment? 

Soren, on the brink of committing murder, took a deep breath, looked at the girls with a nervous gaze and a sheepish smile, cleared his throat, and said the funniest and wittiest thing he could think of that wouldn’t make him seem like a weirdo, even though, who are we kidding, he’s more weird than peanut butter on a pickle sandwich. “I see we’re all alive, that’s, umm… nice.” He chuckled, trying to imply that he made a joke, but the way he said it and the expression on his face told the girls one thing and one thing only: “He’s a serial killer.”

Orion, desperate to save the conversation from becoming an awkward staring contest, chimed in, “Soren loves reading fantasy books. He often imagines himself as a superhero in a perfect utopia, with the occasional villain trying to destroy the world.” Orion wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to say to a group of people of the opposite gender whom he was trying to impress for the sake of his friend Soren. They might start to think that Soren is a grown-up baby who’s antisocial because he lives in a fantasy world in his head and believe me, that is exactly what they thought! It was safe to say that at this point the old wise saying was true, “The friend of a thief is also a thief,” but in this case, the friend of a weirdo is also a weirdo. Orion just realized that he had also begun losing his social skills, thanks to his beloved friend Soren, who still at this time, wanted to choke him for dragging him into this mess.

One of the girls, Mandy, (which is probably the only normal name you will see in this story) responded to Orion with a smile, “Well that’s lovely, I'm also a fan of fiction as well, I believe that the genre broadens your imagination but also gives you a quirky perspective on the world, plus who wouldn't want to read about a brave protagonist who saves the world from an evil super villain or something.” 

"Alas! A ray of hope shines forth from this inflammable conversation that could probably result in the arrest of anyone at this point, either on the charge of being too awkward or actual murder. Orion gave Soren a nudge, suggesting he wanted him to respond to Mandy's remark. 

“Yeah! That's right, I like worlds that don't have normal humans… kinda. I mean, not that I don't like normal humans, I just don't like being around a lot of them… at the same time. If you get what I mean?” 

Mandy did understand what he meant, but the other girls in the group quickly shifted their perception of Soren from being just a serial killer to a pedophilic serial killer, given the fact that He liked cliché comic book fantasy. 

At this point, Orion had had enough of the awkward situation that felt like it was killing him slowly. He decided to end the interaction by quickly chipping in what he thought was a brilliant idea. “Orion has to go speak to other guests, but it was nice talking to you guys,” he announced. Mandy and the other girls waved, Soren nodded, and Orion dragged him away like an eagle snatching up its prey.

When they were a considerable distance from the group, Soren punched Orion in the shoulder and shot him a look that suggested he might want to do more than just punch him. 

“Now, before you kill me, at least look at the bright side—you interacted with your own kind,” Orion said.

“And how did that go?” Soren snarled.

“Rather decent, I'd say. At least nobody puked or, even better, called the cops.”

Soren glared at Orion with a face that clearly communicated a stern warning. Orion quickly conceded and apologized before things got any uglier. It wasn't that Orion was scared of Soren, he just believed being the bigger man and apologizing satisfied his ego in a way that scratched an itch inside his brain.

Soren sighed in a way that suggested he was tired of the events happening around him, he was. He walked over to the red sofa he had previously been seated on and retreated into his wild imagination to escape the reality he knew. He welcomed his world rather than the one he knew and reveled in its existence for the remainder of the party.