The Curse

'Am I dead?' was Jaden's realization.

"Perhaps, who knows?" a voice that sounded majestic had said. It sounded as though it were in a space no larger than a few square meters, yet one could sense that the voice traversed a great distance.

The voice was both close to Jaden and far away from him, and any human would be unable to describe where the voice was coming from.

'Wow, is this God's voice, or the one who shows the way to what some call paradise?' Jaden thought inwardly before responding.

"And you must be God, am I right?" He turned his head from left to right, his eyes dark like a detective searching for evidence.

Jaden's voice, compared to the voice that had just resounded, was infinitely inferior; it was like comparing a universe to a grain of sand. A vast difference.

'But there's one thing I don't understand; is this death?'

There was nothing around him, at least he couldn't see anything. His eyes wouldn't open, no matter how hard he tried. There was no sound; it was like an abyss. Staying in this place for too long could erode all rationality.

'I can't open my eyes... and I feel shivers, why?'

And at that moment, the answer to his question arrived.

"Hahahaha, God? Me? No! I believe that according to humans, I would be more like... shhp shcp..."

There were whispers, and the voice seemed to be contemplating. These whispers and contemplations gave the impression of someone who knew too much, as if they knew what they were looking for but found it mundane. At certain moments, the whispers sounded like words, but these words were inaudible, like someone talking but far away.

"Hey, God! Are you whispering, or am I hallucinating?" Jaden couldn't help but ask.

"I have your answer; I believe I am the devil." the voice that had been whispering earlier said. What confirmed that he didn't attach much importance to forgetting the word was the calmness with which his words came.

Normally, when you find something you've forgotten, you have that joy of having found it, verbally expressed with an elevated voice that often becomes an exclamation. However, the voice that had just spoken had none of that. It was serene; there was no urgency in it, and no one could imagine that he had forgotten the word for a moment.

"Devil?"

'it doesn't make sense, I can't die and come to see the devil...'

He had the right to be surprised; after all, who would go to hell after giving everything to secure a friend's body, after fighting for a noble cause?

'Maybe it's because... I killed those HOUMs?'

Killing is still killing, even though he believed he did it for a noble cause; he still ended a life. Monster or not, there was life in those HOUMs before he killed them. Even though they were monsters...

'Am I... a killer?'

He then folded his arms at chest level and lowered his head to see his palms. Unfortunately, his eyes were still closed, so he couldn't see anything.

'So there's really no difference?'

'We are all as bad for those HOUMs as they are for us.' His thoughts wandered, and after arriving at the conclusion that all lives were equal, he didn't feel any different from a teenager who had just killed a man.

Jaden's morale hit rock bottom. At first, he wanted to complain because he saw himself as a model teenager, one who had always done everything to please everyone, an example for his younger brother, a teenager whose parents were proud of him. But all these things seemed trivial compared to life.

'Is this the judgment day?' he couldn't help but wonder. 'Is each one their own judge? Rather efficient as an idea.' he added with a bitter smile as if conceding defeat. During all this time, he still had his palms turned towards himself.

Before he could continue lamenting his fate, the voice that claimed to be the devil spoke again, carrying with it all the sense of emptiness in that place.

"Young human, you are not yet dead."

The voice was no less calm than before; if anything, it was even calmer. How could one announce to a man who had been pierced through the stomach, who, after losing consciousness, found himself in a place where he couldn't open his eyes, that he wasn't dead, and be so calm about it?

But just before he could start asking a multitude of questions, suddenly, a kind of vision appeared to him for a brief moment. The vision was abrupt and short, but it looked so real that it seemed like he was actually experiencing the moment.

'What was that? An image? I'm on a stretcher, in a hospital?' It was like scenes from movies, where they would abruptly and rapidly show an injured person on a stretcher.

The vision showed him on a stretcher with doctors in green coats all around him, guiding him. He was apparently in front of a door that was probably the entrance to a hospital. Those guiding him seemed to be racing against time; in his vision, those carrying him were shouting things he couldn't hear.

He couldn't hear, not because he didn't understand, but rather because he didn't perceive any sound during this vision. Judging by his surroundings, it was evident that there was a lot of noise because everyone seemed to be on high alert.

"You won't die now, not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, nor the day after that. I think humans have a word for all of this; what is it again? Schp shc ch..."

The voice continued with its monologue-like speech, as if it were the only entity in existence, with its voice being all that mattered.

'Well, he is the king of hell after all, he has every right to be arrogant.' Jaden thought before adding, 'No, but he really whispers, this guy.'

"You're still whispering, devil?" Jaden couldn't help but ask.

"I'm not whispering, young human, and besides, the devil is not my name. It's, as you say, a figure of speech. Devil, demon, monster, these are names that humans attribute to the one who torments them. A human cannot name me, young human." The voice said calmly and seriously as if it was nothing more than a mere fact.

'Okay, I've learned one thing: the devil is not human.' Jaden thought.

'But it would still be better if I could open my eyes. I'm going to ask the devil how to do that.'

"Alright, I understand, but I..." Jaden started to say but it was that, he just started.

"I have the word, it's 'always'." the devil said, cutting Jaden off. As usual, there was no change in his voice, unlike that of his interlocutor.

If his eyes were not closed, he would have raised his eyebrows in irritation at being interrupted so abruptly by someone who had just remembered a word.

Jaden decided to hold his frustration and continued.

"No, in this context, it's more like 'never.' Tell me, is there a way to-"

"Yes, that's right, you will never die." the devil interjected again without waiting.

"Alright, I see, but... huh? What? I will what?" Eager to ask his question, Jaden had started speaking, but in the middle of his sentence, his brain had time to process what the devil had just asserted: 'he will never die.'

Even though it was just a stranger speaking, why did Jaden seem so astonished, so convinced? Well, it was the power of the voice. Just the way it resonated gave it a sense of grandeur that no one in this place could defy.

And there was that calmness, that air of 'nothing is too much for me' it exuded. It was as if his voice were absolute, as if everything he said had to come true. All these things were transmitted through the voice. The voice of a dictator.

It was at this moment that a vision similar to the one before resurfaced. There were still many men and women dressed in green jackets, and one of them even had a stethoscope.

'Another image of the hospital, what's this strange thing?' Jaden thought.

'And I still can't see anything.' not being able to see was really frustrating for Jaden. Before ending up in this place, he relied heavily on his senses, not just his sight, but all of his senses. He had them at a much higher level than normal.

However, here, all he could sense was the greatness of his interlocutor and a certain discomfort. It was as if he were in a place where he shouldn't be, and it made him uneasy. It was like being in the middle of an ocean, knowing all the dangers that lurked beneath the surface, while being unable to do anything but float.

"Listen to me, young human. You will never die unless one of my creations, a HOUM, kills you. And even in that case, you will only die for a few minutes, and five other people will die for you. It's quite generous, you know."

The devil paused for a moment before adding.

"Strangers will die for you, and among them, one of your loved ones—your family or friends."