Aubrie was lying on the floor, curled into a tight ball. She’d been trying to sleep. She was overwhelmed by exhaustion and yet, sleep was cruelly eluding her. It had been doing so for hours. No matter how she tossed and turned, no sleep came, a sort of alertness preventing her from rest.

At least the rhythm of the rails was soothing.

She didn’t know for how long she was lying on the floor, but it had been long enough for whatever that glitched thing was to leave her alone. When it had attacked, when she’d reached out her arms, some kind of forcefield had sprung forth from her fingertips and had since surrounded her, protecting her from any other unnatural threats. It looked like an impossibly large soap bubble but was thankfully not anywhere near as fragile.

And then she’d collapsed, too tired to run. And cruelly, no sleep came.

Someone was knocking on her forcefield. She felt the vibrations spread like ripples across the shield. Someone was speaking, but their words just sounded mumbled and distant. Her face scrunched up, as she tried to listen to the individual words. It was a male voice, she would guess adolescent at youngest. The knocking started again and this time she could hear every single knock.

“…-lo? Hello? Wake up, c’mon, you can’t sleep here!”

She opened her eyes. Her head was throbbing, her body was heavy, and she just wanted to lie down again. In spite of all this, she forced herself to sit up. Across from her was a boy in red, knocking at her forcefield. He didn’t look like a monster, but then, neither had the glitched boy at first.

This boy’s clothes were odd. He wore almost exclusively red: red trousers, red braces, red gloves, a long red jacket with the sleeves rolled up. Even his shoes were red. The only piece of clothing that wasn’t red, was the white t-shirt he wore.

“Who are you?” Aubrie asked and was it just her, or did her voice not entirely sound like her own? Like there was some kind of echo…? Distortion…?

“The Red Gent!” the boy replied, grinning and… She looked at his face. He wore a red domino mask, sure, but even if he wore a full mask, she’d recognize that mop of hair anywhere. She’d only seen it on one person before.

“Geno?” she asked.

“Ha- um, what? No! I’m the Red Gent! I mean, what’s a geno?” Geno stuttered. She unsteadily got to her feet. Her guard dropped, the forcefield popping like a bubble. He immediately made his way over to her. “So, um, what’s your name? Because we’ve never met…”

“I sat next to you yesterday. Or… I think it was yesterday…” she muttered. “Geno,” she said firmly. His eyes widened, then he pouted.

“Fine, fine, yeah, I’m Geno,” the Red Gent admitted.

“You should consider wearing a hat,” she told him, as he helped steady her. A hat would probably help disguise him better than just the domino mask. He seemed to ignore her comment, asking, “Can you walk?”

“I…”

“Here.” He pressed an energy drink into her hands. She didn’t question it, downing it instantly. The drink had that artificial bubble-gum taste she hated, but somehow it didn’t seem nearly as unpleasant as she remembered. Once she’d finished, she realized everything had come back into focus. The headache cleared a little, back to more tolerable levels.

“Feel better now?” he asked. Even his voice sounded clearer.

“Thank you…” Her voice had returned to normal too. “You’re really Geno?” she asked, looking him over. He lit up, thinking maybe she wasn’t certain after all, but then she tilted her head, and he realized it was incredulity and not uncertainty.

“Ha, yeah…” he reluctantly admitted. Then he beamed at her. “And now you know my secret identity!”

“Secret identity?”

“You’ve gotta’ve heard of the Red Gent, gallant hero of Soporifick? I’ve been rescuing folks lost in here for months now,” he boasted proudly.

“Sopor- hey, ok, can we… Can we slow down for a moment? With all of this,” she stuttered. His enthusiasm seemed a bit much to her and she was having trouble understanding anything around her, everything only coming through in waves.

She held her head, trying to focus. He looked at her sympathetically.

“This place has a way of clawing at your brain. Makes you feel real tired. The quicker we get out of here, the better,” he said in a soothing tone. “Energy drinks help, but only a little. And you’ll feel really rough after you leave. Go straight to sleep ‘n everything.”

“You came here for me?” she asked.

“Um… kinda,” he replied. “Not really. I didn’t have any missing reports, so I was just doing patrol, you know, checking the hotspots.”

“I don’t understand,” she told him.

“You know what, let’s discuss this after we leave Soporifick,” he decided.

“Yes, please,” she agreed. He took her hand in his.

“Hold on tight,” he told her, as the world around them vanished in a swirl of bright colours.

— 📀 —

He led her out of a mirror then took her home. Aubrie barely remembered anything between him finding her in Soporifick and her waking up in her bed. When she blearily woke up, dawn had begun, the sky coloured in pinks and oranges. She tried to go back to sleep but found herself unable to do so. She groggily slipped out of bed and began dragging herself to where the coffee brewer was.

“Good morning!” Geno greeted and she slammed her bedroom door shut. She heard Geno’s surprised, muffled yelp through the closed door. After a pause, she threw on her bathrobe and slowly opened the door again, peeking out. From her armchair, Geno was smiling at her sheepishly. “Mornin’,” he repeated.

“What are you doing here?” she asked suspiciously.

“I wanted to talk to you about last night?” he answered. “Also… You live kinda far from where I live… So… Thought it’d be better if I crashed here. I did ask,” he told her.

She noticed Geno had a blanket covering him, the blanket she usually stored in her bedroom wardrobe. The most likely explanation was that she had given it to him. And she would have only given it to him if he was – with her permission – going to crash at her place. So he probably wasn’t lying.

Why was she even questioning him? He’d saved her life. At the very least, he deserved some credibility.

“Um,” Geno stuttered. “So. D’you sleep well?”

She sat down at her coffee table. “I think so. I’m, uh… If I’m honest, I thought everything was a dream, until I saw you in that get-up.” Aside from the mask and gloves, he was still wearing his red clothes. Geno shrugged.

“Not surprising. From what I’ve heard, most survivors of Soporifick think their experience was just a dream,” Geno replied. “It’s gotten to the point that some people are now trying to figure out what the Red Gent in dreams symbolizes.” He sniggered at that.

“Are you going to be ok, travelling around the city like that?” she asked, motioning at his odd clothes. While nothing outlandish, it was strange enough to attract weirdos.

“Not gonna travel around like this. Got a spare change in here,” Geno replied, nudging his discarded rucksack with his foot. It tipped over, no longer leaning against the armchair. She hadn’t noticed him carrying a bag in Soporifick. “I have the ability to teleport wherever in Soporifick,” he explained, answering her unspoken question. “I store my bag somewhere safe before going on patrol.”

She frowned. There it was again, Soporifick. Whatever had happened was too bizarre to deal with before six in the morning. She let out a deep breath.

“I’m going to brew some coffee,” she told him. “How about you get cleaned up and we chat about… Soporifick afterwards?”

“Sounds great,” Geno replied, grinning. When she looked at him a little confused by his enthusiasm, he explained, “You’re gonna be the first person I can talk to about Soporifick. It’s kind of a big deal.”

She could only smile tiredly in response.

“I’ll get that pot brewing then.”

— 📀 —

After both had gotten dressed, they had moved to the kitchen area, sitting around the small kitchen table. Aubrie had prepared coffee, toast and yoghurt for breakfast, which Geno was grateful for, based on how he was tucking in.

Aubrie sipped at her coffee, considering him. Her instincts had marked him as dangerous, but he professed to saving lives from a surreal alternate world as a hobby. And while the hobby seemed rather dangerous, Geno himself was decidedly not.

“What’s Soporifick?” she asked.

“It’s where we were last night,” Geno answered between bites. “From what I figure, it’s like some kinda parallel reality, maybe a mass-dream of man made real.”

“Mmh…” In other words, he didn’t know either. “And those creatures…?”

“Andahts,” Geno answered.

“Andahts?”

“I dunno, it’s what they’re called,” Geno replied, shrugging. “Pretty sure they’re thoughts of masses made real. You know, urban myths that kinda stopped being myths.”

“How do you know the andahts aren’t the reason the urban myths exist?” she asked.

“That’s-” Geno cut himself off and realized he couldn’t answer. “I can with confidence say, it is definitely the way I said it.”

“I see.” She paused. “Something grabbed me and pulled me through the mirror,” she told him.

“The Monster in the Mirror,” Geno sagely said. “It’s an andaht that looks for people that are still at work after working hours. It only comes out at night and it’s harmless, except the part where it abandons you in Soporifick to die. I guess you were at work?”

She nodded. “Yes, the Paracosmic Café.”

“Shouldn’t have been there,” Geno clucked. “Although, you were mostly just unlucky, since no one knows when it will strike. If it always grabbed an unsuspecting employee returning to work after hours, it would have stopped being a myth.”

“Unlucky, huh…” she murmured. “I met White Noise in there. And some kind of glitched man…”

“Really? Lucky!” Geno exclaimed. “White Noise is super difficult for a normie to escape. And you ran into Glitched Lover. He’s really persistent. How did you…” he trailed off, then snapped his fingers. “Right, you’re not a normie.”

“I’m not?” she asked.

“Have you forgotten your forcefield? You have powers, like me!”

Aubrie looked at her hands and tried to imagine a bubble appearing like in Soporifick. Nothing happened.

“The powers are limited to Soporifick,” Geno reminded her. “I can teleport. Apparently you can make forcefields. Which is cool. You’re the first person I’ve come across to also have powers, you know.”

“Right… So Soporifick is a parallel reality connected to ours. People fall into Soporifick because of andahts and you… For whatever reason, you have powers, and have been rescuing people from Soporifick?”

“You got it,” he replied. He leaned over the table. “And I’d love it if you were to help me.”

“What?”

“You can make forcefields! It means rescuing victims from andahts way easier, you know?”

“H-how often do people fall into Soporifick?” she asked.

“About once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less,” Geno replied with a shrug. “It varies.”

“Right… Um, so what’s with the whole Red Gent thing?”

“Obviously, that’s to hide my identity. Being a superhero and all, it’s a requirement,” Geno replied.

“A superhero,” she repeated.

“Yep,” Geno replied much too happily. “I have powers, I have a secret identity, I’m a loner, it all fits. I’m a superhero. And I’d love a sidekick.”

Aubrie covered her mouth and didn’t know what to say.

“Or- or partners, we can be partners,” he quickly amended.

“I need time to think,” she told him.

He became pensive. “Ok… Sure, I get it. But maybe you still wanna snoop around Soporifick before deciding? You might have a better opinion, if you don’t just view it as the stuff of nightmares.”

“Yeah, ok…” she hesitantly agreed. “I’ll consider it. But I have other questions. For starters – you’re a minor like me, right?”

“Hey, I'm almost eighteen!"

"Yeah. So still a minor."

Geno sighed, slumping in his chair. "Yeah? What of it?” he grumpily asked.

“Aren’t your parents worried about you?” she asked. “I mean, not just about Soporifick, but… You’ve been out all night on a school night.”

“Aw, you don’t need to worry about me,” Geno replied. “I live with my brother, so it’s all cool. I’ve told him I’ve run away.”

She stared at him incredulously. He told his brother what?

“I don’t really have friends, so he wouldn’t believe me if I said I was staying with someone,” Geno explained. “But we fight all the time, so claiming I’ve run away is more believable. He thinks I’m dumb enough to do something stupid like that anyway.”

She rested her head in her hand. “I can’t decide if you’re audacious or self-aware”

He smiled. “I like to think I’m both.” He paused and looked at her seriously. “Are you going to tell others about this? About Soporifick and all?”

She looked at him a little dumbstruck.

“Am I going to tell others about a magical alternate world where I have superpowers, which exist there, but not here?” she asked. When he looked at her expectantly, she realized he didn’t hear the rhetoric in her question. “No. I’m not telling anyone.”

“Great! Then you’ll be my secret keeper, right?” he asked. He was trusting her an awful lot, wasn’t he? Maybe he was just lonely. He did say he didn’t really have much in the way of friends.

“Sure, Geno. I’ll be your secret keeper,” she promised, smiling into her coffee. Geno Keyes was definitely not just ok in her books. Not at all.