The antique shop stood in a narrow alley, tucked away from the vibrant pulse of Tokyo. Dust motes danced in the single shaft of light that pierced through the grimy window, illuminating shelves crammed with forgotten treasures.
Kenji, a young salaryman burdened by the weight of his monotonous life, often sought refuge within its shadowed aisles, hoping to discover some spark of meaning. One afternoon, while his fingers traced the spines of yellowed books, a gleam caught his eye.
Tucked away at the back of a shelf, almost hidden by a collection of tarnished silverware, sat a golden sphere. It was small, no larger than a baseball, and possessed a flawless, almost unnerving, luster.
Kenji reached out, his hand trembling slightly as he lifted it. The sphere felt warm to the touch, an inexplicable energy coursing through his fingers.
"Intrigued by that piece?" The shop owner, an old woman with eyes like polished stones, stood behind him, her voice raspy. Kenji nodded, unable to tear his eyes away.
She explained it was an old family heirloom, said to bring great fortune. A faint smile stretched her thin lips. "But it comes at a price."
He tried to laugh at the comment, but his voice caught in his throat. Kenji ignored her remark as foolish.
Kenji, filled with a sense of wonder he hadn't experienced in years, purchased the ball with a significant portion of his savings. That night, Kenji returned to his cramped apartment with the golden sphere carefully cradled in his hands.
His gaze lingered on its surface. The ball felt strangely comforting, the smooth warmth an anchor to something more than his dreary life.
A single desire, long dormant, welled within his heart; a wish to escape his unending cycle of toil and dissatisfaction. He looked at the orb.
"I wish," Kenji said, his voice barely more than a breath, "to find joy, to find meaning." He held his breath.
Nothing happened, the orb remained its flawless, radiant gold. Disappointed, he placed the sphere on his bedside table and drifted off to a restless sleep.
The next morning, Kenji awoke with a sensation of lightness. His walk to the train station was not as depressing.
He glanced up and realized he saw an elegant lady at a cafe, her beauty taking his breath away. Something changed, Kenji realized with a strange sensation of dread.
His heart felt fuller, richer somehow. For the first time in a long time, he genuinely felt something.
Kenji got home late from an overtime shift, ready to see the girl he had fallen so fast for, she brought an abundance of joy to his life, she was truly magical, and she brought out parts of Kenji he forgot were there. Then he glanced at the table where the golden orb sat the first time he went to sleep with it, except, it was different, the radiance, was there but it looked slightly tarnished.
It was the most minimal detail he had ever seen but he noticed it, nonetheless. As the days turned into weeks, Kenji's joy grew; with this beautiful new love interest he felt something that has always felt alien.
She became everything, the absolute epicenter of joy for Kenji. But Kenji still kept the ball.
He couldn't seem to shake it, it would give a very odd feeling anytime it would drift to his mind, a very unexplainable draw, something like a deep dread but somehow very pleasant all at the same time. Kenji would glance over at it now and then, it was very odd indeed.
But as Kenji's life brightened, other things began to wane. Kenji noticed his apartment felt quieter somehow, almost lifeless.
It was as though sound itself did not like to hang around anymore. Food he tried seemed flavorless; everything dull in taste, even the smell of fresh rain was not as good as it was the past month.
Yet still, his relationship kept going, he became more confident and a bit of a smooth talker which helped quite a bit. His senses, once so vibrant, dulled, and a veil began to pull across the world; not just food, and not just rain, it was EVERYTHING except her.
He'd bring it up and she just laughs it off saying how it's likely some weird change from over working so hard and the two kiss passionately; any and every thing to pull Kenji out of it. Then one evening, his reflection in a shop window made him freeze.
It seemed so distant, devoid of something. His reflection did not carry even half the personality that he knew he had.
He barely felt alive when looking into the mirror, his reflection. Kenji found it difficult to muster up feelings about it even, that he's so distant to his body's image now; he almost has no feeling towards himself.
A cold knot formed in his stomach, and he remembered the shopkeeper's ominous warning: "But it comes at a price." He rushed home.
He stared at the orb now sitting beside the bed as if watching a creature, as he grabbed it. He felt nothing, he didn't feel the normal unnerving comforting dread that would arise as he was close, but the sphere was still noticeably tarnished, even darker this time, like something has slowly leached the gold itself of some of its purity.
Panic surged as the true nature of his joy revealed itself to him, it wasn't pure. The sphere, in granting his desire, had been steadily siphoning off not just his senses, but his very essence.
As he walked over to his beautiful new love interest, his life's greatest joy, a heavy sensation fell, it's was different then the dull feeling before, this was an overwhelming dark presence, she no longer seemed human as before. The bright eyes that filled his vision a few minutes prior now seemed completely alien, cold, uncaring.
He did not understand, had he really been this delusional before? How had he ever loved her when he finally could see it now for what it was, truly nothing?
What is joy anymore, does that truly not matter either? This thing before him, looking and acting like his dream girl felt truly and deeply wrong.
The world felt wrong again too, maybe, it always has been. She smiled.
It was a predatory grin, not a sweet beam of loving light. "Is everything okay?" the entity asked, the sweet melodious tone was not that of human, nor like the light sweet tone he thought he heard just moments ago.
No, that tone did not ever exist; It never even had existed to be an illusion to break. He did not speak, nor did he need too, the entity tilted her head ever so slightly, studying Kenji's expressions like an object.
"I am growing rather bored, you know." she continued as if this whole time was to try and squeeze joy out of him. He wanted to ask a question, but when he tried, he had an alien thought.
This entity stole his thoughts; why did he feel a slight tinge of wanting to serve this horrible thing? A sinister voice echoed in his mind.
It wasn't the sound he's familiar with, it had always existed; a horrible presence that lay dormant behind everything he experienced. Kenji staggered, but when the entity went for a grab he could not even move.
No. Kenji saw something, in the entity, behind it.
Behind this illusion of his supposed 'joy,' this fake manifestation he loved; he saw the truth. It was an infinite darkness; not the one of space, this darkness knew of existence and of pain.
Kenji felt an awful sense of impending doom, like the world was just ending for only him as he watched his love grow in a horrible twisted shape that defied even the horrors of his worst imagination. It started to engulf his body like he was nothing.
It had won; the orb took everything, all of his essence, personality, his body's awareness and now the only thing that was his anymore, was the ability to witness, to truly understand his suffering and his mistake. He now was no more than an aware thought floating in this monster.
With that singular consciousness and clarity of mind, he finally knew. The world never was the place he perceived it, this monster used the orb as a tool, its own trap to lure people and make more slaves; more food.
It could even shift to make it like joy itself to try and hide, a fake smile made by hell; a horrible lie, always was, always will be. A cold awareness of the terrible void he was now inside finally cemented itself as true and forever.
The beast felt, and with all the suffering souls, his own screams bounced forever in this unholy place, as he finally understood that he only exists now as an eye for the monster to continue with its horrid game; always a hungry monster, never filled, forever wanting more. Kenji's only role was now to watch other fools take this wicked bargain that is joy for himself; to serve as nothing more than an everlasting torment as he'd watch their joy.
A prison that will always scream as it feels what is being done to them. As the monster turned around to return to it's shop, as it's skin began to mend, there was only Kenji watching as its body once again shapeshifted to an elderly woman.
No other sound existed in this dimension as it opened the door. As the door fully opened, Kenji was only aware of an eye witnessing a dark alley with some light peeking in, only one eye as that is all he is, forever only that, the monster, it has won.
Kenji is forever part of the void now. Forever watching this sick and twisted game be played.
Over and over and over again as long as it wants it too.