Falling Curtains

(A/N: I rewrote this chapter a little bit in order to make it more understandable. I did this because I thought it was a little lacking originally, and I also plan on releasing a chapter either today or tomorrow.

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(Omniscient POV)

Blake Aurum.

A recently turned twenty year old man who flunked out of college due to a mixture of anxiety, stress, and his painfully antagonistic attitude. Currently the man in question could be spotted sitting in a rented flat he is currently staying in with the money from his part-time job.

The flat itself was nothing special, completely ordinary, if not a little below average. Cranky, boisterous neighbors who decided to loudly discuss both their marital problems and financial issues loud enough for their less than pleased neighbors to hear on a regular basis.

The thin walls that sound pierced effortlessly were dyed a somewhat pleasant looking shade of light blue that was reminiscent of the sky. The only visible blemish being the small holes or cracks running through the drywalls in some of the corners.

The ceiling was painted a dark grey with a currently active ceiling fan mounted in the center of the furniture-less room.

The fan spun and spun, sending soft wind currents throughout the room. As it spun it creaked and shifted as if it would fall at any moment due to its old and frail design.

Laying under said ceiling fan in a sleeping bag was a black haired, brown eyed man with dark circles bordering under his eyes. His dull, uninterested eyes scanned the room before he heaved a heavy sigh of exhaustion.

This man was the one named Blake Aurum, officially a recent drop-out.

"What did I do to end up like this. Maybe if I studied harder, if I 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 harder.. I'm so..." He trailed off as a sudden wave of tiredness washed over him causing him to abruptly stop his train of thought. His eyelids fluttered before the ultimately shut and he drifted off into what could be perceived as a peaceful sleep.

However, his sleep would be anything but peaceful. You see, when the landlord of an average apartment complex decides to ignore the safety regulations and cut costs in order to save money issues are abound to spring up like weeds in an overgrown garden.

So when the person in the room above decides to order a new couch and re-arrange his living room the already weak integrity of Agni's roof struggled to uphold itself.

*𝘚𝘕𝘈𝘗*

With a sharp crack, a large tear began to slowly form across the grey ceiling. The rupture in the ceiling slowly spread like a snake before stopping suddenly, seemingly as if the ceiling would collapse at any second despite the obvious signs.

The large tear running through the drywall ceiling slowly crawled over to the middle of the room, directly next to the ceiling fan previously mentioned. The ceiling fan spun and spun, creating sounds that would remind someone of a dying car.

*𝘊𝘙𝘈𝘊𝘒*

With one last disturbingly unpleasant noise, the ceiling caved in. In an explosion of dust and small flying bits of drywall. Blake Aurum was crushed under the weight of both the ceiling and varying arrangements of furniture from the floor above him.

And so, on July 21nd, Blake Aurum died from a sick mixture of suffocation and blunt force trauma. His family and the few friends he had mourned as he descended into the cycle of reincarnation.

...

(3rd POV [Blake])

Dark.

Very, very dark. Blakes surroundings were stained a deep black with no visible source of light. No.. that was wrong. It was more like the surroundings was absent of even the smallest trails of light.

His breathing (?) hastened as he looked at his abyssal surroundings. An overwhelming sense of panic flooded his brain as he attempted to scream.

As he attempted to open my mouth in order to speak nothing happened. His body felt constrained, like he was wearing a straight jacket and coated in viscous slime restricting any movement he could attempt to make.

'Hell, even though I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed I can tell I'm in a pretty deep pile of shit.' His thoughts raced as he came up with three conclusions of his predicament.

One, he was kidnapped and was currently being held in by some very questionable tactics.

Two, as unlikely and horrid as it sounds in his head, he's in a comatose state. However this could be countered since coma patients are generally not aware or conscious at ALL during their period of comatose and only react due to their bodies reflexes. Something he learned from a med-school friend.

Three, he is just dreaming. Which is most likely the best conclusion as he would MUCH prefer it over the first two.

"He he he, humans really do think of some of the craziest things in unknown situations don't they?" A childish voice pierced the darkness around me.

If he could've, he most likely would have screamed before running away heroically.. very heroically and not at all cowardly.

"𝒮𝒽𝓊𝓈𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇, 𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝐼𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝓊𝓅𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓇𝒶𝓁 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒸𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓊𝓃𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑒. 𝒟𝒾𝓈𝓉𝓊𝓇𝒷𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓁'𝓈 𝓃𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓇𝒶𝓁 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓇𝑒𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝑔𝑜 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇." A stronger, more elegant voice spoke with grand poise.

'So my kidnappers are insane or I'm having the freakiest dream... wonderful.' Blake thought as he brushed off the nonsense they were speaking.

"But brrrother! Life in this stupid dimension is sooo booorrring! Can't we influence a few souls into making our lives a little more entertaining! I mean who else is going to stop us? The few others left of our species?" The younger voice began to spout even more nonsense that Blake either couldn't believe or understand.

The elegant voice stayed quiet for a moment as the younger, more childish voice began to speak again. "Heck! Even then they are doing what I want to do with this soul! So why do you keep restricting ME!" He screamed.

'Are they ignoring me? As soon as I get out of this fucking slime tank I'll tear both of your chuuni asses to shreds for disturbing my peaceful dreams you HEAR ME!" Blake yelled as the two beings continued their conversation unperturbed by his yells.

"𝒮𝑜𝓊𝓁𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇. 𝐼𝒻 𝐼 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓅𝒶𝓉𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓁𝓁 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒𝒹, 𝓎𝑒𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝒹, 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒾𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓈𝑒𝒹. 𝒞𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇, 𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓊𝓅𝓉𝑒𝒹." The elegant voice spoke somberly.

The younger voice stayed eerily quiet as Blake kept attempting to move his body, yet it was fruitless.

"...ok," The younger voice finally said with a large amount of hesitance.

"𝒢𝑜𝑜𝒹... 𝐼'𝓂 𝑔𝓁𝒶𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒸𝒽𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇. 𝐹𝑜𝓇 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊." The elegant voice said before Blake heard soft footsteps fading away.

...

"...I'm sorry brother, but while I enjoy sitting here in the sprawling wastes between worlds it can get quite boring. Maybe one day... you'll realize I'm doing this to make you happy." The younger voice said seriously unlike the previous childish attitude they displayed.

'Can this dream end already? I want a peaceful rest god damnit!' Blake internally yelled as a small chuckle echoed through the dark area.

"Dream? I suppose that's what you think of the bizarre situation you find yourself in. It is honestly quite a feat for you to be able to still form conscious thoughts, I would've thought your memories would've already been erased by now." The younger voice spoke to Blake.

'God can this guy leave me alone already?' Blake thought impatiently as he waited for this 'dumbass dream' to come to a close.

"Wow~ that was rather rude of you. To try to deflect the attention of a Higher Being is close to suicide. If I was a little more ill-tempered..." The childish voice shifted as it turned into a ear-piercing snarl, "You'd die."

Feeling his entire body quake from his voice alone made Blake shiver in terror. He finally realized something as he felt his very 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 quiver. This wasn't a dream, this was real.

However, armed with the knowledge of this being REAL, his mind decided it was a great idea to FURTHER antagonize the 'Higher Being' in front of me. As any barbarian, foul-mouthed, idiotic person would do. So before he could stop himself from further worsening the being infront of him's opinion of him, Blake spoke.

'S-sounds like something an edgy teen would say when a school bully jeers at him on a school bus..'

Silence. Dreadful silence filled the air like stale cobwebs. And let me tell you, cobwebs fucking suck. They're sticky, make you skin crawl once you accidently walk through one, and are a surefire way to get bitten by a creepy spider.

...

...

"HAHAHAHAHA! THE AUDACITY ON MORTALS NOWADAYS! HAHAHAHAHA!" The childish voice laughed with glee as Blake felt his stomach twist into knots.

After a few moments of continuous, raucous laughter the voice devolved into light fits of giggles.

"hehehe... ha. You know what, I like you. At first I was doing this to see a 𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 of entertainment after eons. Maybe fry your soul into an unwilling servant... but now, I'm going to cut you a bargain of the century." The younger voice said as I finally saw his figure.

His body looked like it had the consistency of water as it flowed freely and wriggled upon movement. His eyes were like orbs of raw rubies boring into his own set of brown eyes. His figure was horrifying to put it lightly, it felt like Blake was staring at a being far above his ability to comprehend fully.

However, before Blake's mind could fall into a limbo of madness fueled by the person in front of him, his form shifted.

"Ah, I forgot about that. My apologies." The figure said as he changed into a bright red orb that hovered a few feet into the air, "My names is &^*!&$, or more commonly known as Anklam a Higher Being."

'I'm not going to lie.. that form is a lot more mind-numbingly painful to look at... not that I minded the other form Mr. Higher Being that can read my mind and most likely erase my existence with a blink.' Blake added the second part hastily.

"Hmm.. not wrong, not wrong." Anklam said thoughtfully, "Now onto business."

Wasting no times after his words, a piece of paper appeared in front of Blake as he could feel the previous restraint on my body fade. He looked down at my hands as a feeling of wrongness invaded his body.

Finally locking his gaze onto his hand, he did the only intelligibly thing, "AHHH! WHY THE FUCK IS MY HAND TRANSPARENT!" Blake screamed as he waved his hand around in panic.

After a few moments of running around like a headless chicken, he finally began to calm down from his initial panic.

The mentioned appendage was colored an ethereal blue and very.. very see-through. Very different from the pale skin he was so very used to seeing.

"Duh. You're body died and only your soul remains in the aftermath of your mortal coil. Now, you can either shut up and read the paper I set in front of you. Or I leave you here for your memories to be erased by the Lake of Genesis and you enter the normal reincarnation cycle." Anklam said a little to cheerfully for Blake's tastes.

"Show me the damn contract already." I said grumpily as I grabbed the finely decorated sheet of paper in front of me.

[Contract with a Higher Being]

[Terms and Conditions:

1. Lower Being must provide entertainment occasionally for the Higher Being by completing Tasks.

2. Lower Being has the right to refuse tasks in exchange for losing the benefits the Lower Being would have gained from the Task. EX of rewards: Increased attributes, items, materials, companions (magic beasts), and abilities.

3. Higher Being has the right to order Lower Being into doing one task, no exceptions, per interdimensional year (36,500 days in mortal time). Although the task has to have at minimum a 8.77% chance of success.

4. Higher Being must provide protection against other Higher Beings that attempt to eliminate the Lower Being he contracted with.

5. If the Lower Being is spotted signing a contract with a separate Higher Being his soul will be eradicated from the PLOT and TIME before being resurrected and having the same process repeat for eternity.

6. The Higher Being and Lower Being can not cause each other any sort of physical harm.

7. The Higher Being has full control over everything the Lower Being owns. This causation orginates from the BENEFITS the Higher Being supplies to the Lower Being, making an endless cycle of -------- ---- --- - - -... - ...-. Species changes might also cause biological malfunction and its side affects include, but are not limited to; erectile dysfunction, infertility, loss of brain function, irrational burning in the spinal chord, and derealization.]

[Employee Benefits:]

[As a employee under a Higher Being, you are given a certain options for improvements upon your current body, home, occupation, and innate ability.

Fill in the following:

(Species Change: ______)

(Home Change: ______)

(Occupation Choice: ______)

(Innate Ability Choice: _______)

After filling in your choices, please return to the Higher Being you are making a contract with and have him sign his approval.

NOTE: Everything in this contract is enforced by the WILL and can only be changed by the approval of both parties, or if the Lower Being eclipses the Higher Being in power and succeeds in becoming EQUAL.]

Blake scanned the contract as his brow heavily furrowed upon reading the seventh term. 'Why is it blanked out? Is it in Morse Code or something?' He thought before he ruled out the last thought.

Making up his mind he sucked in a cold breath through his nostrils Blake opened his mouth to speak, "I REFUSE!"

"Hoh?" Anklam asked as his face contorted slightly.

...

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(A/N: Still don't know most of the features of this writing format so it might change slightly in the future. Also, this chapter was kind of short [only 2000 words] and I will most likely make the other chapters longer. Ciao.)