In the beginning, there was a handsome and powerful dark being floating in the void. This awesome and awe-inspiring being was clearly not boasting of its awesomeness and taking the narrator's seat when he wasn't looking, it definitely wasn't doing that….
In a world much like our own,one of many in fact, the void was vast and in it existed countless realities, some never to collide, parallel, men worshiped as gods, gods treated as men, worlds with genders inverted, where humans spoke backwards, worlds where people could fly and tear the earth asunder and even ones where there were no humans at all. The world is truly bizarre beyond all measure and understanding.
In that vast emptiness, of the countless worlds that could be selected, endless candidates and yet only one will be selected a lonehuman male who could be considered blessed, athletic, tall, smart, and good looking, his family was also rather well off, and with him being the only child, he had all and anything he desired, well, almost anything.
***
I can't say I remember exactly when it started. Still, at some point, I had normalized it, staring out as a streaking shadow in a corner, an occasional misheard name; the strangeness only grew, and now, eventually, it was this.
He never did more than stand there originally didn't talk, move or do anything of the sort, just a hazy figure standing in the background, no one else could see it, and it didn't intefere with me, very easy to ignore, that was at least until it started talking.
"I've told you plenty you aren't insane, so can you at least hear me out for a minute?" The entity that only I could hear and see kept prattling on about how this was some great opportunity and how I needed to read some brochure it pulled out of its ass or something.
"I did not pull it out of my ass, you vulgar creature, it was from a –" –Regardless, this infuriating imp-like nuisance had followed me for a large part of my daily life, never shutting up and never missing the opportunity to preach to me about going to another world.
It was like those pushy cult members who were determined to rope you into their nonsense at all costs, but at the very least, some of them had the decency not to follow you into the bathroom, honestly, even if you're some kind of schizophrenic ghost, respect the bathroom.
"Oh come now, it was literally only one time" i didn't reply, it seemed capable of reading my thoughts so most times i didn't deign it necessary to explicitly reply, especially since it seemed to be searching for some sort of verbal confirmation from me.
I have also been having nightmares recently, about falling from a really high place while crying and mumbling some incomprehensible nonsense, yeah i think i first started to notice the shadow getting bigger around this point as well, perhaps that was a warning sign?
I tried seeing a therapist and even tried drugs, but the bastard just stayed there. I could almost swear the effort amuses him somewhat well, not that I have any idea what he's thinking.
"You can always ask". It lay on a park bench with a pack of potato chips in its hands and one of its legs angled, "want some? They're onion flavoured."
"No," the ghost shrugged.
"More for me then," it began to greedily inhale the potato chips like it was a starving chipmunk. This nonsense had been my daily life for a while; it may never be a dull moment, but honestly, I might prefer that, eternal peace and quiet.
"Oh dear i wouldn't recommend it, it gets ugly really quickly." Nobody asked you, shadow soldier number ninety-nine.
"I take offence to being number ninety-nine." I shrug at the apparition who angrily disappears in a puff of smoke, but I'll get over it soon and find something else to nag me about later when it finds free time, which is all the time.
I shook my head and sighed 'I would have read fewer comics if I knew this would happen, maybe he would have gotten bored and gone away to bother some other unsuspecting kid" I took a seat on my nice soft bed and scrolled on my phone for a bit to see if there was anything interesting online before tossing it asideand flopping down on my pillow, getting ready to sleep, but I forgot one thing: I hadn't turned off the light. "Man, I hate this."
I would perform my daily ritual of brushing, screen time, and then straight to bed, and of course, without faithfully forgetting to turn off the damn light, I could get up instead of complaining, but I'm feeling particularly lazy today, so I'll procrastinate.
"Want me to help?" I chuckle but nod my head anyway and lie back down. What were the chances that this apparition of mine with a leaky faucet for a mouth could actually turn off the light, zero to none, I would dare say, so I decided to humour him.
"Sure, go ahead, and turn on the air conditioner as well". There was an awkward silence after that, before a short and simple reply came back, accompanied by the sound of my light switch being flipped and my heart entering my throat.
"Okay". Cold sweat started to form on my body; even if I had ten lives, I don't think they would be enough to satisfy the number of heart attacks I was about to have.
"Oh, now you want to have a heart attack?" The entity's voice was tinged with exasperation, and though I didn't turn my head, I could feel it looking at me strangely while inching ever closer to my bed. "You can't seriously tell me this is all it takes to have you face me seriously".
I didn't respond, but I could feel it frown. Is that even the correct way to describe it? The entity's body was neither bulky nor too slim; its head was blurred out, looking like smeared oil on glass, constantly shifting. It wore a casual long-sleeve shirt with long denim trousers that covered most of its body from sight, its body stank of moldy wood and gasoline to the point that it was actually dizzying.
"What are you?" I felt the entire house rattle, the entity's face pushed close to mine with that same smeared look, and the sound of bell chimes as the light-filled mouth of the entity grinned.
"Do you really want to know?" I slowly nodded in agreement.
" About time, I thought you would never ask". The blinding light from its mouth filled the room in its entirety, showing me things I was never meant to see and infusing me with things i was never meant to know in an instant, and yet within that same time frame, the memories had been stripped away, popped like soap bubbles, crumpled, and burned to ash.
My mind slowly returned to me, and I lay slack jawed on a pristine marble floor that oddly resembled sheets of paper, the distant sound of scribbling, typing, tapping,pages being flipped and torn lay in the background as though my every thought were being recorded as soon as they occurred.
Before me sat an entity no larger thanan eight year old sitting on a giant throne that would be more than enough to serve as their bed with swinging black pendulums the size of human heads, attached to nothing, simply going back and forth beside the massive throne.
I looked around speechless, my mind had yet to fully process everything that i was currently seeing and experiencing, as my mind had paused.
[Lucian Grey] A mighty voice rang through the entirety of my being , jolting my senses awake and calling my focus to the being who now towered over me in its intimidating chair, with its head resting in its palm, propped up by its elbows.
[Mortal Lucian Grey, You are deceased]I was in shock, but more importantly, I felt wrong, I felt outraged.
"Did you kill me?". I asked, to which the large figure only responded with silence, "You killed me! My life, everything, you took it from me!". My hysteria grew, and the volume of my tantrum only increased. I was about to shout once more when I felt something press down on me.
It contained no malice, no pain; it was simply force, domination, and primal fear that demanded obedience. The very existence that represented me was being pressed down like I was nothing more than a trivial annoyance; it simply continued speaking.
[Mortal Lucian Grey, rejoice, you have been selected to serve a higher purpose.]It feels like my brain is bubbling with every word, and my brain is turning to nothing but foam, but I was still angry.
"My life–". I rose to my feet, but a wave of pressure knocked me down, causing my head to collide with the floor as I was forced to my knees.
[An illusion meant to entertain you in your afterlife, shall I reveal how you truly lived?].
I could not even be offered time to resist; the memories were forced into my mind like a flood. A flood filled with both physical and psychological pain, I felt like screaming, no I was very sure I did, but I had no voice, my life… was worthless.
I was well below average in looks, athletics, and schoolwork. All I had were comics, yes, that was all I was good at, being a day dreaming nerd with no other sense of reality, but was that it? Was i killed merely because I was someone nobody would miss? Was that it?.
***
This is going poorly. When I pulled this boy's soul from that silly soulscape dreamland, I never expected such a strong reaction, normally once you show a soul its original life it stabilizes, but from the looks of things, this one is breaking down.
Well, perhaps it would have been less of a shock if I hadn't shadowed him for so long, not that there's really a difference. I need a soul's consent to summon them here, and since I missed the actual death window, I had to improvise. 'Everything has a reason, I suppose.'
The pressure and coercion are just a means to force him to stabilize, although ironically, I am not doing this to be particularly benevolent. Boredom can be quite a potent poison, to the point even watching this mortal soul extinguish itself in madness is more entertaining.
Some deities had long gone mad, indulging in perverse luxuries, creating entire universes to satisfy their lust and twisted delusions, unlike those fools i have yet to completely go mad and have no plans to watch my ever precious sanity slip away from me.
I wave my hand and stabilize his soul, bind his body to prevent any strange movements and dull his thoughts somewhat. "Lucian Grey, you will be sent to another world." This was the mainstream means by which higher beings entertained themselves now, occasionally tossing mortals into different dimensions while they sat back and looked at their screens.
"Your journey will be filled with hardship". A new wave of boredom had hit. Almost all these people sent to another world always thrived to a rather irritating degree. I personally have grown very weary of it and don't see why I can't do something about it.
It was time for fresh blood, fresh sweat , tears, and I was the hunter, butcher, and chef who would deliver this wonderful and tasty dish, imagining the journey itself already excites me, but I must control myself lest I make a mistake and ruin my own plans before they begin.
"Receive my decree."
***
[I curse you and your bloodkin, you shall never enjoy the providence of your new world]
My eyes widened, a curse? On me? On my kin ? For what? For existing? Why, why would they do this?
The gears in my head spun trying to find an answer, as they felt far more sluggish than usual, my eyes caught sight of what looked like a large crystal screen on the thrones armrest, occasionally flashing an image or some bright light.
My mouth was bitter. Is this all entertainment? Am I being dragged from my paradise to be thrown into some unknown hell for amusement? A way to simply pass the time ? Me? Is that what I'm worth?
A searing pain started spreading through my back, and I had to grit my teeth not to scream. I had something to say of my own: "I… curse you". My statement appeared to have garnered a reaction from the sadistic deity as it stared at me with curiosity.
[You curse me?]
Through gritted teeth, I clear my throat, "I curse you to live in fear, to count your days and check every shadow". I sucked in air and forced myself to my feet. "I curse you to know that I will come to claim the life you took from me.
The room started to shake, the sky cracked and the stars in the endless sky started to flicker, the pendalums and all other phenomena halted save for the clacking and scribbling sounds that seemed to eternally echo in the distance, just enough to be heard but not enough to tell its location.
The source of this disaster I was facing was very easy to identify in contrast. The answer? This monster was laughing; the reverberations of its bellows were what had caused the entire space to tremble, extinguish stars, and fracture space.
Soon, the entity stopped laughing and bent over in its throne, its size seeming to stretch as its body became massive, the deity's head easily dwarfing my body as though I were a matchstick, its colossal eye filled with a river of murky colours all mixed together as black sludge gazed at me in bemusement.
[You are welcome to try]
The pain intensified as it felt like my skin was being torn off and sewn back on, like my ribcage was being tapped and counted from the inside. I could feel all my soft insides twist and churn as I squirmed in pain on the floor. 'He must suffer for this.
[May your journey be as miserable as it is entertaining, Lucian Grey]
With that, my vision faded, and all I saw was darkness.
***
"To think that a mortal would actually threaten me," I smiled, glancing at the liquified essence soul in a bubble and smirked, "yes, this is exactly what I have been looking for." I glance around at my disheveled space and snap my fingers, fixing everything in place as it once was.
"There was so much fuss I didn't even tell him where he would be going." I shrug and flick the essence sphere towards a small golden sphere. "It doesn't matter, I suppose," I smile. "Now then, is everyone ready for a good show?"
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.