Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-10319977-20141211171540/@comment-10319977-20141212124242

Here's the updated, expanded version. It's not completed, but it's a lot closer. Please feel free to critique the story/give grammatical advice.

There was a knock at the door of Joshua's new house that sent him running down the stairs in excitement. Looking out the peephole, he saw the same girl he'd seen walking up his driveway from his bedroom window only moments before. As he flung open the door almost violently in excitement, the look on the girl's face changed to an expression of shock and fear. He stared at her, not realizing that the overly excited expression on his face made him look like a madman. The girl opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey... uh..." She started, trailing off as she stared in concern at the almost panting boy in the doorway. "Are you alright?" she asked him, now with a hint of fear in her voice. "Y-yeah!" Josh stammered out, puzzled as to why she asked the question. "Okay..." she responded, unconvinced. "Well, uh... I'm Serah, and as cliche as it is, my mother sent me over here to borrow a couple cups of sugar." She expected a response, maybe some laughter, but the boy just stood there staring at her. Though it made her uncomfortable, she continued. "Do you have any?" she asked, half expecting him to lunge at her with a knife hidden behind his back. "Oh!" Josh responded, shaking his head at his own awkward behavior. "Of course. I'll get it for you right away!" He rushed off into the kitchen, almost breaking into a full sprint. This only made the girl more skeptical of his sanity.

Just as she was having second thoughts and turning to leave, he returned at the door with two plastic bags full of sugar. "Here ya go!" He smiled as he thrust the bags in her face. "Oh, and uh, it's not cliche since you're asking for two cups instead of one." he chuckled out, surprised when she didn't laugh back. She slowly took the bags, her eyes wide with what he could only presume was fear. He tried reexplaining. "Get it? One bag of sugar would be cliche since that's what it always is in the stories, and you asked for two!" He stared at her, waiting for a response. "That's the joke..." he spoke out softly, his heart sinking as she continued to stare in silence. "Okay! Well, I'm going to go now. It was nice meeting you." she blurted out before turning away, walking fast down the driveway clutching the two bags. "My name's Joshua!" he yelled out to her, not sure if she could hear him, or would even be interested in his name at this point.

Josh shut the door and rushed back upstairs to his bedroom. Looking out of his window, he saw just what he expected to see. The girl, Serah, had tossed the bags of into the nearest dumpster and was practically running back to her house next door. Josh turned away from the window and brought his palm up, slapping it against his face as he cursed aloud. "Damn it!" He gritted his teeth in frustration. "Why can't I just talk to people like a normal human being? It's no wonder why she thought I was nuts!" he thought to himself as he felt the familiar feeling of tears gathering in his eyes.

The sixteen year old hadn't been able to properly socialize with anybody for as long as he could remember, and it had done wonders to his psyche. As he sat on the edge of his bed, vision blurred by his tears, he thought of all the times he had tried to reach out to somebody, anybody, in hopes of making a new friend, only to be shut down or, in the best cases, ignored. He longed to be able to express himself, to be able to hold a conversation longer than 5 minutes with someone other than his parents. He thought about them, out celebrating their new house, enjoying their ten year anniversary at what was probably the fanciest restaurant in town.

"They'd be better off without me." he thought to himself as he stood up, droplets of water hitting the carpet around his feet. He turned towards his bookshelf and grabbed the first book he could find, flinging it behind him in a rage. It wasn't until he heard the "clink!" of the book hitting something behind him that he remembered what he had been doing before he saw Serah come up to his door. The entire encounter had taken his mind off of his new treasure.

He turned around to see the lamp, now knocked over and resting sideways on his desk. The moment he had laid eyes on it while exploring the attic of his new home, he knew it was special. "If not holding some sort of spiritual energy, it must at least have a lot of monetary value. Worst case, I can keep it as a replica of the Genie's lamp from Aladdin, since it looks so similar." he had thought to himself with a chuckle as he first inspected it. Upon looking at it now however, he wasn't so sure that it could make a fitting replica. It seemed much paler than he remembered, now almost snow white even in the dark room. Almost completely forgetting about the upsetting event that took place only moments ago, he walked over to his desk and picked the lamp up, placing it in it's proper upright position.

Josh sat at his desk for hours, rubbing the lamp on every possible spot, both with his hands and a variety of materials he thought might have some sort of spiritual energy, such as the old flannel shirt his grandfather had handed down to him before passing away, but it was all fruitless. The teenager sighed as he heard the engine of his parent's car pull up and into his driveway, disappointed in himself for making no progress after spending nearly all day experimenting with the lamp.

"Joshua, you home?" his father shouted loudly from downstairs as soon as he had entered the house. "Yeah! What do you want?" Josh shouted back, annoyed at his father's unending insistence on checking up on him far too frequently. "Get down here!" the man shouted back, his tone sounding a bit more authoritative now. Josh pulled himself out of the chair and rushed downstairs, eager to get whatever redundant conversation his father had in store for him out of the way so he could return to experimenting with the lamp.

"What is it?" Josh asked upon reaching the foot of the stairs. His father stared at him, placing his hands on his hips and tapping his foot. The look on his face said it all. "What did I do?" Josh asked, hoping the punishment for whatever he did wouldn't be too strict. His father spoke up. "You really don't know? Come on Joshua, stop playing dumb! You scared that poor girl next door half to death, and on her birthday no less! Her parent's called us about it in the middle of dinner. Now why on Earth would you do something like that?" he questioned. "D-dad it was an accident I swear! I didn't mean to!" Josh choked out, upset at having to relive the memory. Upon hearing his son's voice crack, Joshua's father's expression turned angrier. "Stop sniffling boy! You're not going to be able to pout your way out of this one. You're gonna have to find a way to patch things up with that girl and her family as soon as possible!"

Just then Joshua's mom came inside carrying a single shopping bag. The mist forming in Joshua's eyes ceased upon seeing it. "Hey, what did you get me?" he asked excitedly, trying to ignore his father's words. She rolled her eyes before responding. "I didn't get you any treats. I got you something better!" she responded with an over-exaggerated sense of confidence as she pulled out a duster from the bag. "This place needs to be dusted badly, so I'll expect you to start tomorrow. Got it? It's about time we start getting you caught up on all your chores." she stated firmly.

The false hope his mother had given him with her idea of a joke send Joshua over the edge. "Are you joking? We just got moved in here. Can't I relax for even a day without either of you bossing me around? I'm not your house maid you lazy pieces of-" Josh began to snap at his parents before his father cut him off. "Watch your mouth!" his dad barked out, face red with anger at both his son's laziness and disrespect. "You're gonna do what she says and that's that! No more complaints! When I was your age, I already had a job! Now all you 16 year-olds do is sit around all on your phones all day and then complain when you're asked to contribute to the world, even just a little bit! I know you're a sensitive kid Joshua, but there comes a time where you need to man up and stop acting like a spoiled brat!"

His father's shouts were too much for him. Shaking and staring at the ground with his hand clenched in a fist, Joshua quickly turned around and stormed upstairs to his room, slamming the door shut and locking it. He leaned with his back against the door, tears streaming down his face as he looked around the room, his chest heaving from his heavy breathing. He paced over to the desk, clutching the snow white lamp by it's handle, staring at it as he gritted his teeth, his face redder than it had been all day. In one swift motion, Josh spun around, chucking the lamp at the wall, and watching through watery eyes as it shattered into pieces. That's when he heard the voice.

"You're a sensitive young man, Joshua." The voice was deep and raspy, but the most concerning thing about it was where it came from. It seemed to be resonating from inside Joshua's own mind. At first Josh looked around the room, trying to find the source, refusing to believe that it was in fact inside of his head. He spoke out in response. "Who said that?" Joshua's voice was shaky, both due to his current level of anxiety as well as now worrying about whether or not he was developing schizophrenia.

"My name is Ciravu." the voice hissed from inside of his head. He clutched his ears trying to silence it, but to no avail. "Sir... ah...voo?" Josh sounded out the name before crying out. "W-what do you want from me?"

The voice inside of his head chuckled. "It's not about what I want, Joshua. It's about what you want. You summoned me here when you released me from my prison." stated Ciravu. "Your... prison?" questioned Josh, looking at the remains of the white lamp as they disintegrated in front of his eyes.

"Yes." the raspy voice said matter-of-factly. "I'm what you would call... a genie... of sorts. I'll grant you three wishes. However, there are a couple catches."

"What are they?" Josh replied reluctantly, still questioning his sanity as he stood in his room apparently talking a magical voice inside of his head. He wondered what his parents would think if they were to hear him talking to himself when they came upstairs for the night. His thoughts were cut off as the snake-like voice answered his question. "The first catch: There are two rules when it comes to what wishes you can choose. First rule: They cannot involve me. You do not control me. Got it?"

"Yes! Yes! I understand!" Josh shouted in response, desperate to drown out the voice.

"This is a favor done purely out of the kindness of my heart." The voice continued as it boomed with laughter inside of the teen's head, causing Josh to cry out in discomfort once more. Ciravu continued. "The second rule: They cannot involve time travel. This rule only exists as a precaution to prevent you, or anyone else I serve, from going back in time to prevent my birth."

"Your birth?" Josh choked out in response. Though he feared whatever had worked it's way inside of his head, if it really existed at all, he was genuinely curious as to how such a thing could be born into this world.

"Yes..." Ciravu hissed out softly. "It was nothing like traditional human birth by any means, if that's what you're thinking. I was created solely out of human desire. More specifically, envy. Thousands upon thousands of years of pent up emotion finally manifested itself into a form of energy. That energy is what has burrowed it's way into your mind at this point in time. That energy is what you released from the lamp, and now that energy is here to do what it was made to do: fulfill human desires."

The boy stared, wide eyed in shock as he listened intently. "So I'm not crazy?" he spoke out, hardly able to contain his joy.

"No. You show no signs of being delusional at this point in time. However, that can change, which brings me to the second catch: For each wish you make, I will initiate a test for you to prove whether or not you're worthy of getting your wish granted. The difficulty of the test will depend on the severity of the wish. For example, if you were to wish for a sandwich, I would ask you "To what food group does bread belong?"

"Since the wish was simple, so was the test." Josh thought to himself.

"Smart kid." Ciravu responded to Joshua's surprise.

"Wait, how'd you know what I was thinking?" Josh asked, but as soon as the words left his mouth he understood the stupidity of his own question.

"I don't need to hear your words, only your thoughts." Ciravu clarified. "I'm not a person. Think of me as... just another part of you."

"So I am talking to myself." Joshua joked dryly. The thought made Joshua's head spin before he shook his head clear and spoke up. "Alright, I know what I want for my first wish." he said with absolute certainty, surprising Ciravu with his sudden boldness.

"What is it?" the now intrigued voice hissed out.

"I..." Josh began to speak before stopping himself, realizing he didn't have to talk out loud anymore. He began talking to the voice with his thoughts instead. "I want to be accepted immediately and unconditionally by everyone."

"Ahh, acceptance. Great choice." Ciravu's voice whispered out with a genuine tone. "I wasn't wrong when I said you were one of the smart ones."

"Thanks, but... can it be done?" Josh questioned.

"Of course," stated Ciravu "if you pass the test." He hissed out the last word with a hint of glee in his tone.

Joshua's lips curled into a slight frown. "What is it? It can't be that hard. It's not like I asked for superpowers or something." he questioned silently, hoping to hear the voice ask him a simple "yes"or "no" question.

"Hmm." Ciravu hummed quizzically before erupting with a thunderous chuckle."I've got just the thing for you, my friend. In order to be granted true, unwithering acceptance from everyone you encounter in your lifetime, you must understand acceptance in it's entirity." The voice hissed out with glee as he took joy in the creative process of coming up with a test, before speaking up once more. "You must understand every level of acceptance possible, ranging from unconditional love to burning hatred. Then, and only then, will you understand and deserve the full potential of your wish."

The whole idea made Josh uneasy. "Burning hatred? What, are you going to have me take some sort of advanced, 100 page test on the human psyche?" he questioned, half joking but completely unsure of what to expect.

"No." Ciravu's voice boomed out. At this point Josh was wondering whether or not it was possible for the entity to cause him permanent hearing damage. Ciravu continued after a moment of what Josh assumed was a dramatic pause. "You're going to spend one week in an alternate dimension. You'll experience first hand what going through every level of acceptance feels like. At first, everyone will love you unconditionally. However, as the days go by, the level of acceptance people have for you will slowly but surely decline. Think of it as a very long, realistic dream."

"I'm not sure I want to go through with this." Josh thought with a sense of fear, knowing the last thing he'd want would be to become outcasted by quite literally everyone he met, even if it was only for a few days.

"It's too late." Ciravu's voice bommed, now louder than ever. "Your wish has already been made. The test will now commence!"

"NO!!!" Josh awoke with a scream, bolting upright in a bed. He was covered in a cold sweat as he panted nervously. He was really reconsidering his sanity now as his eyes darted around the room. It was... his room. "Was I dreaming?" he thought to himself. Then, remembering that demon could be listening in, he tried speaking to it again from inside his own mind. "Hello?" he questioned. There was silence. "Are you messing with me? This isn't funny!" he internally exclaimed, his agitated face turning a little red. When he didn't hear any response, he gave up on trying to cantact the mystical force. He wondered whether or not the being inside of his mind had ever really existed at all. "No..." he shook his head for doubting himself. "It had to be real. There's no way a dream could be that vivid." he thought out loud. "Then again, schizophrenia does seem like the more logical conclusion." he sighed out.

Looking over at his bedside clock, he saw it read "6:05 A.M." This confused Josh. "Six in the morning and I'm not tired? Maybe I just fell asleep early last night." He thought as he shrugged it off.

Walking out of his bedroom, he saw his parents were still sleeping in their room next door. However, he knew they'd be up shortly. Being early birds, they set their alarm clock for 6:30 even on the weekend. The thought of it gave him a headache.

After doing all of his usual morning routine, excluding breakfast since he was feeling a little nauseous after last nights events, Josh returned to his room. He looked at his desk, then at the spot where he'd thrown the lamp. There was nothing. With a sigh of disappointment, he plopped himself down on his bed. He was confused, pondering what was real and what wasn't when his vision fell upon his phone. He grabbed it off the nightstand and turned on the power, perplexed at how he went a whole day without using it.

That was when his mom knocked on the door. As Josh looked up from the phone, he saw her walking in while holding the duster she had tried giving him yesterday. Glancing at his clock, he was surprised to see half an hour had passed since he'd woken up. Josh spoke up in a pleading tone. "Listen, I'm sorry for throwing a tantrum last night, but I just don't feel like dusting right now."

He was surprised when he heard the soothing tone in his mother's voice. "It's okay honey. I actually came in here to tell you I'm sorry for last night as well. The joke was in bad taste. You don't have to dust anymore. Oh, and your father's sorry as well. He's downstares making you your favorite breakfast."

"French toast with bacon?" Josh questioned.

"Yes." replied his mother.

"Extra crispy?" Josh pressed further.

"Yes." his mother said with a giggle while reaching down to gently scratch his head.

Eyeing the duster still clutched in his mother's hand, Joshua's curiosity was peaked. "If I don't have to dust anymore, why'd you bring the duster?" he questioned.

"Oh! I just figured I'd dust the house, starting with your room while you're downstairs enjoying your breakfast." she replied back with a smile.

"Alright." Josh beamed back, smiling. "Thanks mom!" before pocketing his phone and rushing downstairs.

Immediately upon stepping onto the first floor, the teen could smell and even taste the intoxicating aroma of his favorite meat being fried up in a skillet. He heard it crackle as it cooked, causing his mouth to water. His dad must have heard him because he turned his head sideways, calling out to Josh with a chipper, and unusually upbeat tone. "Hey champ! Your mother and I are sorry about how we treated you last night. I thought it'd be a good idea to make you a well deserved breakfast in hopes you can forgive ous for our latest mistake!" Though his words would have been taken as sarcastic in any other context, his tone sounded completely genuine. This made Josh raise an eyebrow in disbelief. The man flipped the bacon onto a plate next to the already prepared French toast, seasoning it as he spoke up. "This is still your favorite, right?" he questioned curiously as he turned, setting the plate on the table in front of his wide eyed son.

"Yeah..." Josh said before looking up his dad. Though there was nothing sinister about the smiling man in front of him, or quite frankly anything that had happened since he'd woken up, Josh felt uneasy. The words of the faceless entity echoed through his mind. "You're going to spend one week in an alternate dimension... At first, everyone will love you unconditionally. However, as the days go by, the level of acceptance people have for you will slowly but surely decline."

While skeptical of how logical the idea of being taken to an alternate demension really was, Josh was still an open minded kid. With some internal debate, he decided to start testing his theory. "Hey, dad..." Josh quietly spoke up as he dined on his French toast. "Yes, son?" his father responded gleefully. Josh paused, working up the nerve to say what he had planned to. "Your cooking tastes like shit." the boy spat out with complete seriousness in his voice, knowing his father would normally never be okay with him swearing. If he really was in some kind of alternate demension, his father wouldn't bat an eyelash, he'd figured.

There was a moment of silence as his father stared into his coffee mug, swirling it around before speaking up in a hoarse voice. "I'm sorry Joshua. I really try to be the best parent I can be but it gets hard sometimes. I just want you to understand how much your mother and I love you. That'll never change." Looking over at his father, Josh could see that he had his head down in shame. Though the man looked to be in a relatively distraught state, his current level of sadness came no where close to the intense feeling of dread welling up inside of his son.

Joshua spoke in a shaky voice. "So you... love me... unconditionally?" he choked out, his head spinning as he fully realized what was going on.

"Yes, my son." His father responded back glumly. "Always."

The words bounced around in Joshua's mind as he contemplated what they meant. His rational side was screaming at him that any parent would unconditionally love their child. His gut, however, was telling him that the reaction, or lack thereof, that his father had to his cursing was proof enough that this wasn't real. Despite the food going down easy, Josh had a sudden urge to vomit as he ran upstairs to the bathroom and emptied his stomach into the toilet. He began to sob. "Oh no! Oh no, this can't be happening! How is this even possible?!" he cried. Suddenly he heard the door creak open and looked over to see his father standing in the doorway.

"Are you okay? Don't tell me my horrible cooking actually made you sick! I'm so sorry Joshua. Let me get you some medicine!" the man blurted out before rushing downstairs and quickly returning. "Here, take this." he cooed to his seemingly sick son as he held out the plastic bottle.

"No dad. No. I'm fine." Josh choked out between the chunks raising up in his throat. "I just need to lay down." he cried out weakly before taking his father's hand, thanking his him, whoever he was, as he helped Josh into his bed. Before Josh knew it, his vision faded to black.

He woke up with a start once more, this time wondering if he was back in the real world. Glancing at the clock, he saw it read "6:00 A.M." before he lept out of bed and sped into his parents room. He was convinced that he was still in the alternate universe but hoping that it wasn't the case.

He knew if what the genie had said was true and he was in fact still stuck in this foreign place, he would still be able to get away with just about anything since it was day 2. He stared at his parents's sleeping bodies as he contemplated what to do. Without hesitation, he grabbed the TV remote, raised the volume to one hundred percent, and plugged his ears as he watched the raw static emanating from the television startle them both awake.

Groggily, but in a hurry, his father reached his hand over to the remote and immediately shut the power off. He rubbed his tired eyes, trying to adjust them to the daylight as he barked out in anger. "What the hell are you doing?" However, as his vision adjusted to the room and his eyes fell upon Josh, his expression softened. He spoke out softly. "Listen buddy, you can't keep doing things like this. Yesterday you cursed at breakfast, and now you're just being obnoxious!" The man scratched his head as he reconsidered what he was saying. "Then again, maybe I'm being too harsh. You're just trying to have some fun pranking your parents, aren't you Joshua?"

Josh could only stare blankly at the figure sitting up in the bed in front of him. Joshua's jaw had dropped in an almost comedic fashion as he listened to his father's unrealistically upbeat, moodswing induced reasoning. He knew this man wasn't his father, at least not his real one.

That's when he heard a knock at the front door. Eager to get away from the strangeness that was occuring in his house, he rushed downstairs and flung open the door.

Standing in front of him was the girl from two days ago. His heart sank as he had feelings of deja-vu. All the emotion he had felt that day was circling it's way back to him when she spoke up. "Hey are you okay? I heard something loud coming from next door and wanted to come check up on you. It sounded like a T.V." she stated with concern in her tone.

"Yeah..." Josh spoke out quietly, trying his hardest not to make the same mistake as before. "It was a T.V. I was um... uh, the remote malfunctioned!" he blurted out. His face was turning red with embarassment, tears beginning to form in his eyes once more.

His negative thoughts were stopped dead in their tracks as he heard her speak up again. "I'm sorry about how I acted before, and I'm sorry if my parents caused any trouble. I was just..." she trailed off. Josh could tell she was deep in thought before she continued. "I was having a bad day. You see, it was my birthday and everything was going wrong. My little brother-" she explained as Josh unconsciously cut her off. "The sugar..." He said softly, turning his gaze from the ground up to meet hers. He realized he hadn't actually made eye contact with her since they met. Her eyes resembled saphires. They were dark, but had a shine, almost a twinkle, that drew him even further into her beauty. He continued. "It's a shame you threw those bags away."

Her eyes went wide with surprise as she responded. "How-"

"I saw you from my bedroom window." He cut interrupted her again as he pointed upstairs guiltily, turning his gaze away from her once more out of embarassment.

"Ah. I see." she said with a slight chuckle that surprised Josh, who had expected her to storm off again. She continued. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, we didn't have any sugar for the cake. My mom tried to make one without sugar. It was tragic." she joked with another dry chuckle, which got a laugh out of Josh. He blushed hoping the obnoxious sound of his laughter wouldn't turn her away. He stared at the ground for what must have been a minute, the feeling of dispair returning inside him as he waited for the awkward silence to end.

Reluctantly, he looked up with misty eyes, unsure of why she had become so quiet. He was greatly taken aback when he saw her covering her mouth with her hand, stifling her own laughter as she grinned. Upon their eyes meeting for the second time, she slowly lowered her hand from her mouth to speak again. "Your laugh... is so cute." she insisted as she continued smiling at him.

"Heh. Thanks." Josh responded back, unsure of how to follow up on her sudden compliment. "I like your eyes!" he blurted out.

"I like yours too." she said with a soft tone, her expression slowly changing from that of humor to something softer, though Josh couldn't figure out exactly what it was. She lowered her gaze to one of his hands, reaching out and grabbing it between hers. She held it gently as she spoke. "Um... you know how I ran off yesterday?"

"Yeah." Josh responded with a slight grimace due to the memory, though he was far too happy about a girl holding his hand to let it seriously bother him. She continued speaking, now with an embarassed tone. "Well, I was in such a hurry to be rude that I forgot to ask your name."

Josh smiled as he brought his other hand up to meet hers so that both of their hands were interlocked. "My name's Josh, Serah." he cooed out, feeling happier than he had in as long as he could remember.