Justine opened his bathroom door. Then he opened it to see if his bathroom was back. It was not. He closed the door. He opened the door. He continued this silly process for roughly ten minutes with a grip on the doorknob that was so strong that he would have ripped the thing out of the door had it not been strengthened to a point of near invincibility. By what? Obviously the same supernatural force that replaced his bathroom with a different plane of existence.

Finally after the door shenanigans, Justin's brain managed to get a grip on reality. Whatever was left of it anyway. He pried his hand off the doorknob and slumped to the floor. "What the hell? What the… hell." Did he accidentally overdose on his medication and that, that place was just a drug induced hallucination? "No, my meds are too expensive. I'd never take too many." Candid camera? "Nope. Nobody would waste that much money to recreate my apartment and kidnap me just for that."

Another five minutes past as Justin tried to come up with a proper explanation. "Yeah. I got nothing. This doesn't make any sense. But of course it doesn't. My bathroom's a forest." He chuckled at the sheer absurdity of that sentence. In fact it wasn't just absurd, it was downright insanity. "Wait, insanity! That's it. That's the answer. I've gone crazy." He sat down on the ugly blue carpet that some moron with no taste decided to give his apartment when it was built. It was probably one of the reasons why the rent had been cheap, that and the mold problem. The whole place smelled like vinegar for a month when he tried to get rid of it.

Justin pulled his knees toward himself as he sat and stared at his bathroom door. He had just wanted a hot shower for god's sake! A buzzing was heard from his bedroom, probably Cindy wanting to yell at him to get going or something stupid. Justin's lips curled into a grimace when he remembered yet another thing that the universe created to screw with him. Cindy Lemmings, ex girlfriend. Who in an awful twist of fate just so happened to become his boss a few days after he broke up with her and got the job at the coffee shop. Why he had dated her in the first place was beyond him. "Oh screw you Cindy, your bathroom is probably still in your house like it should be!"

Speaking of bathrooms. He needed to pee. Also what the hell is that thing at the top of the doorway? It looked like, well, a floating see through blue box with little numbers on it. Just large enough to be seen but not big enough to blare light in his face like a neon sign. Did he mention it was floating? Yeah, it was floating. Justin actually went up to the bathrooms doorway to look up at it. The thing was hovering roughly an inch from the wall. Seemingly held up by nothing but itself.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

45

That's what the little blue floating box said at the top of the doorway. "What does that even mean!?" A buzzing came from his bedroom again. Frowning, Justin begrudgingly walked away from the bathroom door and went to find his damn phone and change into something "presentable". He knew he was going to have to kiss some serious ass and even do unpaid overtime if he wanted Cindy to calm her mammeries and let him keep his job. A part of him doubted he would though, the woman was genuine sadist to her workers. Almost half of them had quit by the time a month had passed when she became the new boss. This meant longer hours and a spiteful increased workload for him of course.

A few minutes later he found it and changed into his work clothes. The khaki pants chafed something fierce but the pay made up for all that shit and more. It kept him alive after all. "Hooray for capitalism. Not. Lord almighty this sucks." The pull of routine started to push the insanity of what he saw to the back of his mind as he went to go and get his keys. "Where did I put them? Mmm. Right, kitchen counter." He caught a glimpse of the bathroom door again as he grabbed them off the counter. It was there, and the box was still floating. It was almost like it was mocking him with its supernatural floatiness that completely defied what he considered to be physics. At least his bathroom door was still normal with its old and peeling yellow paint that still smelled slightly of mildew. But that stupid floating box. What the hell was up with tha- "Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait wait hold on wait. Hold on a minute. The number changed."

If there was one thing in his life that gave him a small shred of pride, it was Justin's eyesight. Even as a child he could pick out details at very long distances. From birds flying high in the sky, totally uncaring of who or what they shit on, to the tiny individual hairs of his old pet cat. Of course that had made the other kids call him weird names and pick on him so he had pushed that pride deep down and pretended to be normal. But that wasn't important, what was is that despite being clear across the room and in that infuriating blue box, he saw that the number had went down.

40

"Oh man. Oh man oh no, it's a freaking timer! Or is it? Wait. It's not waiting, of course it isn't you idiot. But what does that mean? Is it a "You'll die if you don't go through before the timer is done" or is it the "Your bathroom comes back and the weird and possibly murderous alien forest is gone forever" kinda timer?"

39

God. Dammit. His phone buzzed again but Justin ignored it and kept staring at the timer in the floating blue box.