Silence.
The darkness consumes me. An infinite void—no pain, no sound, no time.
So, this is what comes after? Absolute nothingness?
There is no light at the end of the tunnel. No angels singing. Not even the fires of hell to consume me. Just… the end.
My consciousness dissolves, like black ink in dark water. I don’t feel my body. I don’t hear my breath. There is no need for air, for a heartbeat, for existence.
But then…
A spark.
A glimmer cuts through the darkness. Small at first, pulsing softly like a distant flame. It grows. It strengthens. The void around me bends, as if that light were an anomaly within absolute nothingness.
And suddenly…
I open my eyes.
I don’t know where I am. There is no ground. No sky. Just a vacuum without beginning or end.
And right in front of me, floating as if it doesn’t belong to this world, is a ring.
Golden and radiant, glowing with a cold, hypnotic light. No inscriptions, no markings—just a perfect circle, slowly spinning in the air, as if waiting for something… or someone.
My body reacts before my mind.
My hand moves, fingers reaching toward it. My heart—if I still have one—races. Something is wrong. Deeply wrong. But at the same time, I feel a call, an inexplicable need to touch it.
My fingers get closer.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
And then… the hand appears.
From the darkness surrounding me, it materializes.
Long claws, skin black as coal, veins pulsing beneath its grotesque surface. A hand that does not belong to this world, exuding a malevolent presence—something ancient and primal.
It grabs my wrist with crushing force.
A shock of ice courses through my body—if I even have one. I try to pull away, but it’s useless. The being holding me is stronger, and before I can react…
It takes the ring.
And with a brutal motion, it slides it onto my finger.
A scream is trapped in my throat. Something rips through my soul from the inside out. A searing pain, like burning iron piercing flesh.
My vision warps. My body—if it’s still mine—convulses. The ring glows with a sickly light, and then…
Darkness.
Once again, absolute nothingness.
But this time, I know I am not alone.
My eyes close against my will.
The darkness pulls me back.
The ring tightens around my finger, as if fusing into my flesh. I can’t move it. I can’t take it off. My body trembles, and then…
I hear it.
A voice.
It is not an ordinary sound. It does not come from the space around me, nor from my own mind. It is something deeper, more primal. A vibration that echoes within my bones, whispering in a language I do not know, yet understand with terrifying clarity.
“For his sake, we interfere.”
My breath falters—if I am even breathing. The words pierce through me like invisible blades, resonating within me like an immutable decree.
For his sake?
Who are they?
I try to open my eyes. To fight against this force that holds me. But I can’t. My senses dissolve, my consciousness fragments, and all that remains is that voice, repeating, lower, deeper… until silence swallows me whole.
And then, without warning…
I wake up.
Sunlight streams through the window.
The wind blows gently.
I’m lying in a bed… but not mine.
The ceiling is different. The walls are different. The texture of the sheets, the scent of the air…
My heart pounds.
My eyes scan the room until I notice something.
My hands.
They are not the same. The skin is smoother, younger. My fingers lack the calluses from work, the marks of time. My arms are smaller, weaker.
I leap up and run to a mirror in the corner of the room.
The reflection stares back at me.
And what I see makes me hold my breath.
It’s me.
But I am a child.
The same child I was so many years ago.
The same hair, the same round face.
The same empty gaze.
But there is something different.
Something on my finger.
The ring.
It’s still there.
Glowing.
Pulsing.
And in that instant, I understand.
I came back.
