The shrill sound of the alarm clock pierced my skull much earlier than usual. You might think that I hit the snooze button, but I did not. I do not hit snooze, I am not that guy, I am the guy who gets things done. Like every morning, I got up without hesitation, made my bed, had a black cup of coffee no sugar, took a four-minute-and thirty-second-long ice-cold shower and visualised my day. This day was important. I was about to see my hero. Grandpa is the greatest ever, no doubt. As a little boy I remember his eyes, the kindness beaming out of them. He always had time to listen to me, no matter how insignificant it was. He would always keep his promises and never let me down. People would look up to him because he treated everyone with respect. He just lit up a room when entering without taking the shine away from anyone inside. I was heartbroken when he was taken to the hospital with cardiac failure, but I vowed that I would visit him every single Saturday. That day was a sacred Saturday. The hospital looked just like always from the outside. However, I noticed a tiny store to the right of the main building. I do not remember ever seeing it before that Saturday. It was unassuming, minimalistic, just a dark glass wall and a perfectly squared sign with rounded edges. I could not tell you if it was blue, red or rainbow coloured. To this day I am not sure about it. Was it a gift shop? Probably, but something drew me in. I was a little early anyway so why not kill a couple of minutes and browse for a bit. The store was completely empty, no customers, no staff, no shelves. The only things inside were large, black rectangles, which looked somewhat like televisions. What was this store selling? I walked up to the first rectangle and it illuminated at once. "Hi there are you looking for a new job, I have the perfect match for you, have a look at this job description" said a dashingly handsome man with a wide smile in a perfect suit. I was not really looking for a job. I liked my job, but the man just kept showing me job after job after job. Maybe I should consider changing? An old woman appeared on the TV, she told me about 'the time she had failed math class three times, how she still managed to study creative arts and had an incredibly successful start-up making jumpers out of organic sustainable cucumbers'. www.cucumberjumper.com. I listened to many more start-up failures and successes and was asked my an young, brunette lady whether I would consider to apply for an 'Online Master Degree in Machine Learning from the University of Austin Texas starting from only $199 per month'. What a strange place. I moved towards the next rectangle which was even weirder. In it I could see my family, smiling at me. I saw friends from high school getting married in Barbados. I even saw my second cousin's former roommate's friend traveling to Thailand and riding an elephant. I am not going to lie, I liked it. I saw all these familiar people in amongst weirdly familiar things like a 'new shampoo for men who love ice-cold showers' or a 'visualisation journal to become the productive self you have always dreamed of'. Odd, but I was too taken to leave. The next rectangle was hard to describe. It was full of birds with faces of famous people, I am pretty sure I even spotted the president, faces of strangers, faces of friends. The birds were just fighting, screaming at each other. It was carnage. I had no idea what they were fighting about, and I am pretty sure they did not know either. I stood there, probably much longer than I should have. Like a car crash, you do not want to look but you can't look away. There were more rectangles and I browsed all of them. One was showing ridiculously happy people on holiday and recommending 'organic mushroom coffee for the best start to the day' another just played 'kittens getting surprised and baby panda sneezes' on loop (which was surprisingly adorable). I kept watching, just one more time. Time did not exist in this store or at least I had no awareness for it. The last thing I saw was a mirror next to the exit. It was not vertically mounted like mirrors usually are but seemed to look down on me from an angle. I looked up and what I saw shocked me to my core. I saw nothing. It was completely empty. I opened the door, closing my eyes, ready to step into the sunlight but as walked out there was only darkness. Sheer panic grabbed me, this was impossible, this was insane. How could it be night already? Grandpa! I started running towards the hospital, banging my hands against window, until a young nurse opened the glass door. "Young man, the emergency room is on the west wing, let me take you there immediately" she said with urgency in her voice. "No, no, I don't need that, I am here to visit my grandpa", I replied breathlessly. "Ah of course, you are Mister Hurley's grandson, aren't you? I hate to tell you this, but he never woke up from his afternoon nap today. I am so so sorry" the nurse said. Everything went dark around me, I just heard a high, shrill sound as I fell to the sterilised floor. I wanted to cry; my whole body was shaking. I could not feel my tears. Why? I was crying, I was sobbing. My hands slowly moved towards my eyeballs but there was nothing. I had sold them.