“All I’m saying is that he’s an arsehole!”

At a small pub in Northern Ireland, two men were standing, each holding a pint. They both looked quite drunk already, swaying side to side as the Irish band Greywind was performing on a small makeshift stage. They were performing their song Desolate as the pub packed full of Irish men and women danced or sung along.

“I told you to quit months ago! Why don’t you ever listen to me?” The other man shouted.

They both laughed and drank their pints, chugging them down very quickly.

They made their way to the bar, two more pints already poured and slid to them as the bartender took their empty glasses, quickly cleaning them to use for more people.

“But I need the money man! I gotta live my life!” The first one shouted.

“You’re Aiden fooking Cullen! You are the smartest man in this entire bloody country!” The man shouted.

Aiden laughed.

“Just cause I got good grades doesn’t make me smart!” Aiden shouted.

They both laughed and drank more, the music blasting out and filling the pub.

Both men were smiling wide, having the time of their lives drinking and enjoying the music and people around them.

Aiden suddenly woke up face down on the ground, his eyes slowly opening to see nothing but an endless desert of sand.

He grabbed his head, slowly pushing himself up onto his knees, struggling to open his eyes due to the bright sun beating down. He yawned and rubbed his eyes aggressively.

He sat up on his knees, looking forward at a city in front of him. At the edge of a city was a large sign towering over him as he looked up through squinted eyes.

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas Nevada.

“What the…” Aiden started to say.

The other man he was with was sleeping in his bed, late at night when his phone began to ring. He groaned, slowly sitting up and answering it without checking to see who it was.

“Hello?” He said with a tired, dry voice.

“Lorcan! What the **** happened? Why am I in Las Vegas?” Aiden shouted, covering his eyes from the bright sun.

Lorcan’s eyes finally opened as he looked very confused.

“Las Vegas? The fook are you talking about? I dropped you off at your place two hours ago.” He said.

“Bullshit. I’m in Vegas!” Aiden screamed.

“Lorcan rubbed his eyes and moved to sit on the edge of his bed, his feet touching the floor as he leaned forward.

“So I dropped some random person off at your home while you went to the airport, got on a flight to Las Vegas, got there in apparently two hours, and don’t remember it?” Lorcan asked.

“I mean I’ve done crazier shit while drunk.” Aiden replied.

“I mean I know that but even then, that’s pretty unbelievable.” Lorcan said.

“Well then tell me what the fook happened?” Aiden shouted.

He held his phone up, taking a selfie of the sign and himself holding up a thumbs up and smiling, then sent it to Lorcan while still on the call.

Lorcan’s phone vibrated, holding the phone out to see the picture.

“Well shit…” Lorcan said.

“That’s what I said!” Aiden screamed.

“Alright, what’s the last thing you remember?” Lorcan asked.

He got up from his bed, heading out of his bedroom and to the kitchen of his very small cottage home that sat in a very small village.

“Um…complaining about my boss.” Aiden said.

“Alright, that was about ten at night.” Lorcan said, opening his refrigerator to grab a bottle of water.

“How the fook do you know that?” Aiden asked.

“It takes a lot to get me that drunk. I can usually remember everything.” Lorcan replied, drinking some of the water.

“Yeah usually I am too. I don’t know what I drank.” Aiden said as he paced around in the sand.

“Are there other people there?” Lorcan asked.

Aiden looked around the mostly quiet city.

“Nah, just a few cars driving by. Seems like this place is quiet during the day.” Aiden said.

“Well, see what you can find and do. I gotta work in a few hours so I’m gonna try and get some sleep.” Lorcan replied.

“You’re going to hang up on me after I wake up in a random city?” Aiden asked loudly.

Lorcan drank some more water for a few seconds.

“Exactly.”

Lorcan hung up the phone as Aiden sighed, throwing his head back and lowering the phone.

“Well, this will be fun.” Aiden said to himself, walking down the sidewalk and looking at all of the buildings. Hundreds of casinos, hotels, and restaurants all over. There were people sleeping in alleyways, under bridges, really anywhere that they could.

Aiden found a clothing store that was open, looking down at his white tank top and jeans that were very dirty and messy.

“Alright…let’s see what I can get.” He whispered to himself.

He went inside, the store full of every type of clothing. A section for leather jackets, another for jeans, another for graphic t-shirts, boots and shoes, socks, everything he could need. Aiden nodded and shrugged, grabbing a random pair of jeans, a random shirt, a random pair of boots, and a random jacket.

He took them to the front desk and placed them down, a young man who looked like he was in high school sighing, clearly tired.

“How much for these?” Aiden asked.

The young boy slowly grabbed each item, scanning them one by one. He looked hungover, his eyes surrounded by dark circles.

“That’ll be Three Hundred Dollars.” He said, yawning.

Aiden looked at the kid shocked.

“For this? Damn.”

Aiden pulled out his wallet, only having Pounds in cash. He pulled out his credit card, shutting his eyes.

“I really hope this works.” He said softly as he handed the card to the kid.

He didn’t look at it at all before he swiped it.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Before the kid could even finish, Aiden grabbed the clothes and ran out of the store.

The worker didn’t do anything but keep the card, putting it down and yawning again.

“I don’t get paid enough for this.” He said softly.

Aiden ran out of the store and took off down the empty sidewalk, looking back expecting to see somebody chasing him. But he stopped once he realized he was running from nothing. He stood still and kept staring back.

“Huh…interesting.” He said before he began to walk peacefully.

He was looking for somewhere to change into the clothing, but as he walked he began to see people slowly moving around like zombies wearing little if any clothing. Homeless people wearing shirts without pants, pants without shirts, or even just stained underwear.

Aiden shrugged, stopping on the sidewalk and stripping out of his old clothes and changing into his new ones.

“Alright, I could get used to this place.”

Once the sun set, Las Vegas became a very busy utopia of sin and temptation. Hookers lined the streets. Drug dealers walked around openly flaunting their supply. Pimps in wild and outlandish clothing walking with multiple girls on each arm.

Aiden was making his way through the crowded sidewalk, looking for something to do. He stopped outside of a casino, shrugging and making his way inside.

A large man dressed in all black stopped him, looking him up and down.

“Excuse me sir, I’m going to have to search you.” He said.

Aiden shrugged and took off his jacket, holding his arms out.

The bouncer began to pat him down rather softly.

Aiden looked confused before the man motioned for him through.

Aiden shrugged and walked on into the casino, looking around at the massive room filled with hundreds if not thousands of tables and machines. Hundreds of people at every spot. But as soon as Aiden’s eyes came across the bar, he immediately began to walk with purpose.

He passed by dozens of people, some dressed in expensive suits and dresses while others were in thick sweatshirts and sweatpants.

Aiden sat at a barstool, looking at the multiple bartenders all rapidly making drink after drink after drink. One came up to him with a smile, a middle aged man with a good amount of stubble covering his chin and jawline.

“What can I get you sir?” He asked.

“A pint.” Aiden said, looking into his wallet for some money.

“A pint of what?” The bartender asked.

Aiden lifted his head and stared at the man dumbfounded.

“A…a pint.” Aiden repeated.

“We don’t do that. If you would like a bottle, a cocktail, or something like that…”

“Just…Guinness. However much you will give me at once.” Aiden interrupted.

The bartender seemed annoyed but shrugged, reaching into one of a dozen small fridges and drawers, pulling out four beer bottles at once.

“Here you go sir.” He said.

“Yeah whatever.” Aiden replied before taking the bottles, chugging them quickly one by one.

The bartender didn’t seem bothered and just walked back to make more drinks.

Aiden finished the four bottles in less than a minute, groaning and looking around.

“I wonder if I can get some money…” He whispered to himself, barely seeming affected at all by the alcohol.

He made his way over, walking as if completely sober to an atm machine. He tapped on the buttons, figuring out that it had a conversion feature.

“Well…that’s really handy.” He said.

He inserted all of the Pounds he had, getting back American Dollars. He then took the money over to the human teller, getting a bucket of tokens with a smile.

Aiden smiled and wandered around, not really knowing how to play any of the games.

He stopped at a roulette wheel, sitting down and yawning.

“Hello sir, know how to play?” The operator asked, a old man wearing a very nice tuxedo.

“Nope.”

Aiden suddenly put the entire bucket of tokens onto black 23.

The operator shrugged, not caring.

All of the other people around the table laughed, placing their tokens almost exclusively on red.

The operator spun the wheel and tossed in the ball as Aiden wasn’t even paying attention. He looked around the rest of the casino, admiring the fancy ceiling and tall pillars all over. He turned back just as the ball landed right in black 23.

All of the other people looked shocked as the operator looked surprised, but shrugged.

“You must have good luck sir.”

The operator pushed all of the tokens to Aiden, who laughed.

“Cool. Thanks.”

He took them and threw them into the bucket, walking away as all of the people shared short glances to each other.

Aiden wandered off to a slot machine, sitting down once again. He wasn’t sure how it worked, but threw a token in and pulled the lever. It immediately hit jackpot, a loud buzzer going off as tokens began to spill out.

“Neat.” He said, not even bothering to pick most of them up. He threw a handful into the bucket before wandering off again, other people there quickly running to scoop up as much as they could.

Aiden walked over to a another table, sitting down.

He was suddenly passed a card.

“Um…hit me…” He said.

They passed another card.

“Alright, stop…or whatever.” Aiden said, rubbing his eyes.

He realized he forgot to put any tokens in, so he put the bucket again.

The other players went all in, all of them flipping over.

Eighteen.

Nineteen.

Aiden flipped over to show Twenty One.

All of the players shouted in annoyance as Aiden scrapped up the other tokens.

But before he could get up, he felt strong and stiff hands on each of his shoulders.

“We’ll need you to come with us.” One said.

Aiden looked at the two large men dressed in suits.

“What’s happening?” He asked.

“Just come with us.”

One forcefully stood Aiden up and lead him out of the casino while the other grabbed the overflowing bucket.

“Where we are going lads?” Aiden asked.

The two men were silent as they forced him through the crowded casino, taking him to a private elevator as two more men in suits stood guard, not letting anyone else into the small metal box that struggled to hold the three of the men.

“Where we going?” Aiden asked.

“To the boss…now shut up.” One of the men said.

Aiden shrugged, staring forward at the blank metal wall of the elevator.

The three men were in complete silence.

Nothing.

No sound at all.

Aiden began to softly pat his thighs as he looked around.

“You should put some elevator music in here.” He said.

Neither of the two men responded.

Aiden kept looking around, starting to hum A Pub With No Beer by The Dubliners.

He continued to hum until the elevator dinged, the doors sliding open as the two men suddenly shoved Aiden forward.

He almost fell over but caught himself, walking forward while looking around the very nice if mob-like office.

He looked forward at a large circle table, a circle chandelier that was the same size just above it. The rest of the room was mostly dark despite the walls being nothing but windows.

On the other side of the table, a large black chair that resembled a throne slowly spun around to a very evil looking man dressed in a sharp tuxedo. Each finger was covered in multiple rings, shades covered his eyes, and multiple necklaces dangled from his neck. He smirked with three different golden teeth as Aiden looked around.

“Alright…this is like…overly evil. Did you get a degree in exaggeration?” Aiden asked.

The man reached up to remove his sunglasses, revealing multiple scars covering his face.

“Yeah, that sort of tracks.” Aiden said as he looked up at the high, dark ceiling.

“Who are you?” The man asked with a very thick Italian accent and deep voice.

“Oh Italian too. Yeah this is just cliche all around.” Aiden said.

The man squinted more.

“Well, the name is Aiden. Aiden Cullen. Born and raised in Kesh, Northern Ireland. Currently…”

Aiden stopped as his eyes went up as he was thinking.

“Thirty-One years of age. Graduated top of my class at University of…”

“Stop. Just…stop. I don’t care.” The man interrupted, slowly getting to his feet and adjusting his suit.

“Well, you asked who I was. So I was…” Aiden started.

“What I meant…was why are you winning at everything? That’s not how this is supposed to work.” The man said as he walked slowly around the circle table.

“Aren’t casinos supposed to let people win and make money?” Aiden asked.

“Maybe in your inbred village, but not here.” The man said.

Aiden frowned.

“Why does everyone think we’re inbred?” Aiden whispered to himself.

“Here, we are supposed to be making the money. Sure we’ll let you win a little bit here and there, but only so that you lose it to us later. Now, I will let you keep the money that you brought in…but everything else will be returned to us. Understood?” He asked, now standing right in front of Aiden while rubbing his fingers together.

Aiden thought about it before pointing at the man, who looked confused.

“Counter offer.” Aiden said.

The man looked at his two guards, clearly confused and unsure of what to think.

“You can have all of my money. But you cover my bar tab.” Aiden said.

The man had the face of consideration as he thought it over.

“Alright, you will have your tab covered tonight. But no more gambling, understood?” The man asked as he held his hand out.

Aiden shrugged and shook it firmly.

“Sounds good. Now can these men take me back down. I’m too sober for my liking.” He replied.

The man looked at his guards, nodding his head towards the elevator before the two men grabbed Aiden and forced him over.

“Enjoy yourself Aiden…but not too much.” The man said as he walked back to his chair.

“Eh, we’ll see what happens.” Aiden shouted back as he entered the elevator.

Aiden was back sitting at the bar, dozens of empty bottles and glasses around him. The bartender he first had looked unhappy while the two guards stood behind Aiden.

“This wasn’t one of his better decisions.” The bartender said to the guards.

They both shrugged as Aiden chugged down another bottle of random beer, every bottle and glass from a different drink.

He slammed it down and laughed, clearly drunk beyond compare.

“Alright…that one is pretty up there.”

Aiden began to write down on a piece of paper, making a ranking system of every drink he had.

“Alright…what’s next?” Aiden asked.

The bartender sighed.

As Aiden looked forward, his eyes subtly squinted as he looked around.

“Hello?” Aiden asked.

The bartender and the guards looked at each…

“Hey.” Aiden interrupted.

“Who are you?” Aiden stood up, stumbling around while gripping the bar.

“It’s not very nice to watch somebody without his knowledge.” Aiden said.

As he was…

Aiden suddenly reached out, gripping the sentence that was being written. He looked at it, a line of words that he observed.

“What the ****?” He asked.

He continued to reach out, pulling more and more sentences from nothingness.

The bartender and guards were looking at each other confused.

Aiden reached out and took a sentence, tapping on it.

The guards, dressed in nice suits, were now suddenly wearing nothing but underwear. They both jumped and covered themselves as Aiden laughed.

“Oh, this is fun.”

He then pulled out the pencil he was using to rank the drinks, writing out in front of him.

Out of thin air, two attractive women suddenly appeared in nothing but skimpy show girl outfits, rubbing his body all over.

Aiden giggled and was excited.

“Alright…I don’t know what’s going on…or whoever you are writing this or reading this…but you might want to leave before this gets very explicit.”

He was going to kiss one of the girls when he suddenly felt a bottle shatter over the back of his head.

He fell forward, his head bleeding as he groaned.

“Hey! I didn’t write that!” Aiden shouted.

The two guards, wearing nothing but underwear, each held bottles as they grabbed Aiden.

Aiden broke free, stumbling over to the bar and chugging a bottle of fireball.

“I need to get drunk before…” Aiden muttered before his eyes suddenly began to glow red and orange.

He turned and threw his hand out, a fireball suddenly shooting out and hitting one of the guards, severely burning his exposed torso as he screamed and fell to the floor.

Aiden looked on shocked, looking down at his hand as another fireball formed.

All of the guests began to run out while screaming, the other guard shouting for more.

More guards began to run to the bar as Aiden looked around.

“Interesting.”

Aiden looked at the bar and pointed at a bottle.

“Everclear. I wanna see what that does.”

The bartender looked afraid, but handed him the bottle.

Aiden popped the top off and began to chug it, turning invisible as he did.

The guards were all quickly looking around, hoping to see something move or shift.

“Where did he go?” One guard asked.

“I don’t know!” Another shouted.

At the bar, a bottle of Snow beer, a brand from China.

One guard noticed it and ran over as the top popped off and the liquid disappeared into thin air.

“I found…”

Aiden reappeared, but suddenly a explosion of snow and ice went flying out from the bar, sending the guards flying out. The entire casino was suddenly a winter wonderland, multiple feet of snow covering all of the machines and tables.

Aiden looked around as he finished the beer, not feeling cold at all despite being surrounded by snow and ice.

The bartender was crouched down, completely covered in snow while shivering.

“Sorry about that buddy.” Aiden walked over and began to brush all of the snow off of him while taking another beer.

“Amber ale? Wonder what this one will do.” He said as he drank it.

One of the guards emerged from the snow, trying to run towards Aiden through the multiple feet high pile.

Aiden turned to him and held his hand out, a blast of amber suddenly shooting out before it engulfed the man, like a fossil that was unable to move.

“Neat. Alright, I really need to…”

Aiden was suddenly teleported back to his village. Looking around as the sun began to rise.

“What in the hell?” He asked, still holding the bottle of amber ale.

He was still covered in snow, brushing it off as Lorcan was walking by, stopping when he saw Aiden. He froze and looked over the man.

“What…I…I’m not even going to ask what the fook this is all about.” Lorcan said, brushing more snow off of Aiden.

Aiden finished the beer and looked at it.

“Where did you get that? We don’t have that here. Why are you covered in snow? What are those clothes? I have so many questions.” Lorcan said.

“Vegas. No idea. Vegas clothes.” Aiden replied, throwing the beer to the side of the street without caring.

Lorcan shook his head in disbelief.

“I…whatever. We can discuss this later. I gotta get to work.” Lorcan said.

“Oh, can you tell him I quit? I don’t feel like going all the way up there just for that.” Aiden said.

Lorcan continued to look confused and struggling to comprehend whatever was going on.

“Um…yeah fine whatever. Just…I don’t know.”

Lorcan began to march back down the street as Aiden stood around, brushing off the last bit of snow before calmly heading home.

“You know, I think I understand what’s going on. The teleportation thing though seems like a weird cop out. I mean fireball letting me shoot fireballs? That’s pretty obvious. Same with the snow one. But like…you gotta come up with something more original right?” Aiden said as he looked around.

He looked straight ahead, staring at the person watching him. Staring at him through the alternate reality.

The person reading his story.

Aiden shrugged.

“Hope you enjoy it. It seems like it’s only going to get more wild from here.”