Friday, arguably the most anticipated day of the week, was just around the corner. For many people, the thought of two days off brought a smile to their face at this time.
Henryk Zielczyk, an uncharismatic loner who spends his days playing video games and reading comics, keeping thoughts of his upcoming final exams in two years at the back of his mind, wasn't exempt from this rule. Although he wasn't smiling, he was very happy inside. Although in his case, he hated school for many reasons. So when the final bell rang, ending his ordeal, the boy on the last bench woke up from a nap.
Aware that his student had dozed off again during his lesson, the teacher shrugged and rubbed his tired forehead, wondering how much longer he had left until retirement and how much longer he had to endure this stupid generation before he could finally rest.
As always, when the final bell rang, Henryk was the last to leave the classroom, closing the door behind him with his tired body after a sleepless night spent playing God of War Ragnarok on PS4. While Henryk has already started saving up for a PS5 by doing various household chores like cooking and cleaning at home, at this rate, the PS6 will surely be out by then.
After a short walk along Mińsk Mazowiecki Street, the boy reached his destination: the local Żabka store.
[I have a long night ahead of me,] he thought, looking at the shelves of junk food. [The day has finally come when I will finish The Witcher on the 'Road to Doom' difficulty.]
Excited by this thought, he thanked the cashier, who seemed eager to give him the finger simply for taking a moment to hand her his purchases. Leaving the store, the boy stuffed a large bag of chips and a bottle of ice tea into his backpack and headed for the bus stop near the train station. After sitting at stop B1-B2, he began waiting for the bus to Jakubów.
There was no one else at the bus stop, which struck him as odd, considering it was 6 p.m., a time around November when most people were returning from school or work. But in the long run, Henryk didn't care, because it meant he could sit there in peace without worrying about anyone staring at his phone screen when he took it out of his backpack.
So he sat waiting for the bus when he heard numerous conversations and laughter behind him. They were familiar voices. They belonged to the four people in his class he hated the most. The black-haired boy at the head of the group was named Kazimierz Celnik, a typical athletic boy with a footballer's complex. At school, he was considered the ideal future man with a high IQ and a handsome face, his blue eyes only emphasizing this.
Kazimierz was nice to everyone in his class, except Henryk, of course, for some reason unknown to him. As the victim himself believed, Celnik simply didn't like his personality, but he didn't want to dwell on it too much. Unlike Zielczyk, Kazimierz trained from a young age to become a famous athlete, even joining a soccer club.
Henryk had been in his class for over two years and had observed dozens of girls crushing on him, and he was always close to his girlfriend, Laura Domińska, who was now walking hand in hand with him, talking to him with a radiant smile. With her piercing, menacing eyes, she always seemed capable of harassing and ruining lives behind the scenes without being noticed, so for this reason, no girl wanted to cross the path of the blonde girl, who was nicknamed "Cold Devil" behind her back.
The last members of Celnik's group were his close friends: The first one was over 190 cm tall and had a slightly grown beard. Most people consider him a muscle brain who gets angry easily, but in reality he was mostly calm.
The Celnik's second friend was a slim, bespectacled blond man with no visible muscles. Henryk seemed to be the least bothered by him.
Unfortunately, he knew that the entire group lived near Jakubów, which meant they were traveling on his bus.
When the customs officer and the other three reached the bus stop and saw Henryk, they stopped their conversations, and everyone except the blond man with glasses broke into their typical mischievous smiles. When Zielczyk saw them, he knew what was about to happen.
"Oh, please," began the Celnik. "Isn't that our favorite recluse, Zielczyk?"
Henryk had no regard for his opinion of him. He didn't even glance at him, just shoved his phone into his backpack and began looking around the bus. He wanted to get away from this bunch of idiots as quickly as possible.
This irritated Celnik. He wanted to say something, but his tall, slightly bearded friend placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, Kazik," he said. "There's no point in wasting your saliva on a social scumbag like him. For him, the worst thing is loneliness, which he himself asks for. People like him don't change."
Hearing this, Kazik took a deep breath and returned to his stupid smile.
"You know what, David?" he said. "You're right. It's not worth the effort."
The boy whom Celnik called Dawid after that conversation sat down next to Henryk as if he hadn't called him social trash a moment ago.
The remaining three decided not to sit. They preferred standing rather than sitting at the same desk as Henryk.
"Jesus Christ," Laura's impatient voice rang out. "How long are we going to wait for this stupid bus?"
Indeed. Henryk and the other three boys noticed that the bus was indeed a bit late.
"It's probably normal," said the blond man with glasses. "There must be traffic."
When he said this, as if on cue, everyone saw their bus coming around the corner towards them.
"Finally," Henryk thought to himself, "Perfect. When this gang comes in first, I'll come in after them and sit as far back as possible."
He thought it over, and so he intended. But before he could pay for the ticket, the driver refused to pay all five of them.
"You don't have to pay," he said briefly and firmly.
He was a man in his thirties with a bushy black mustache and a baseball cap that covered his eyes.
"But why?" Henryk asked, already holding a ten-zloty bill in his hand.
"It's free today," the man replied calmly, not looking at Henryk.
After this answer, Zielczyk stopped asking. It suited him, after all. Just as he was about to sit down, he noticed that there was no one else on the bus besides himself, the four others, and the driver.
They were traveling quite fast. About 100 km. A slight sense of anxiety coursed through Henryk's mind, as this wasn't the normal speed at which he usually drove home.
"That guy's going to kill us at some bend," he thought.
They were approaching Minstow when the driver suddenly stopped the bus with a screech of tires in the middle of the road.
"What happened?" Henryk thought, confused. "Is something wrong with the engine?"
The driver stood still for a few moments, but finally rose from his seat and stood between his seat and the bus exit. He glanced at Henryk for a split second, then his gaze landed on Kazik and the others.
"Is something wrong?" Dawid asked calmly.
A broad smile spread across the driver's face after this question, but it was so wide that Henryk thought of teeth from toothpaste commercials. The driver continued to grin, spreading his arms, and then uttered a sentence only Henryk could hear.
"I'm sorry, but for now, none of you will be coming home."
At the sound of that sentence, the entire bus began to glow. All the teenagers on the bus fell silent for a moment. Confusion and fear appeared on everyone's faces. Henryk instinctively covered his eyes with one hand and grabbed his black backpack with the other, wanting to get off the bus as quickly as possible. But before he could stand up, he felt as if something were glued to his seat. Suddenly, the light peaked, blinding everyone. Henryk felt his entire body begin to vibrate, and then he felt the light engulf him. Then he lost consciousness. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he had woken up in a parallel world.