As he slept the darkness of the room was disturbed by a glow from the old leather-bound book, as though it were irradiated. It glowed brighter and brighter until the whole room was lit by its flickering bluish hue. Then it flipped open, the pages fluttering back and forth like they were caught in a high wind. As Brian and all the others slept peacefully that night the world began to shift around them. For Brian hadn’t found that book in the library after all. It had found him.

From the moment Brian began to creep towards awareness following morning, he knew that something was wrong. The pile of dirty underwear that had been pressed up against him was gone. As he swept his hand back and forth across the bed he found nothing impeding it. What was more, the sheets felt different. Rather than the course inexpensive sheets he’d bought for his dorm bed he now felt soft, cozy flannel under his hand.

Opening is eyes Brian found himself staring up at a familiar and yet incredibly strange sight. It was the ceiling of his bedroom, but not his dorm bedroom. No, it was the ceiling of his bedroom back at home… and a dozen years ago. The white ceiling was covered in glow in the dark star and moon stickers just as it had been when he was a kid. By the time he was ten he’d had his dad take them off because he was getting to be too big for silly little kid stickers. Yet there they were, perfectly intact.

Looking down the covers at the end of his bed Brian saw that a whole lot more than the ceiling was different. He wasn’t in his dorm room anymore, that much was for sure. It was his bedroom, just as he remembered it from long ago. The walls were painted a light sky-blue hue. The TV and Playstation 3 that should have been at the end of his bed were missing, replaced by a big plastic toy chest. A big poster showing the constellations covered one section of wall and pictures of planes and trains, his elementary school obsession, covered another.

Sitting up in bed Brian’s hand brushed against something firm to the right of his head. It was a scruffy brown teddy bear, missing an eye and with a few little rips. He knew instantly that this was Buddy, his favourite stuffed animal from his childhood. He’d thrown poor Buddy away when he was seven and had regretted it bitterly for a year afterwards at least. For a moment Brian felt a pang of deep guilt for throwing away his best childhood friend and on impulse he grabbed the teddy tight and cuddled him tight in his arms, feeling the bear’s soft material with his hands and almost muttering an apology to the long lost old friend out loud. Hugging the teddy filled him with a sense of peace and safety such as he hadn’t felt in years. It was like the bear was protecting him somehow, like nothing could hurt him as long as Buddy was here in his arms, soft fur nuzzling his cheek.

Recovering his wits Brian realised he needed to focus on what was happening to him. Putting Buddy aside, though careful to make sure he was seated comfortably against the pillow, Brian looked more closely at his room and saw that it wasn’t exactly as he remembered it after all.