I kept silent, yet the voice persisted, sharp with irritation.
"It truly is impressive how you manage to underestimate your own intelligence every single time."
A sigh followed, dripping with disdain.
"In your mortal life, you weren't nearly this pathetic."
I let out a hollow, bitter laugh. During my life, I had been nothing, just a nameless skeleton in worn robes, without family, without a place to belong.
The monks, the villagers, the wandering pilgrims… they all passed by me with the same dull indifference.
At best, they looked at me out of charity; at worst, they avoided me so as not to offend the Great Master.
I was merely the shadow that carried his tea, played Go at his leisure, swept the floors he never stepped on.
Pathetic was an understatement.
"Will you weep for your worthless existence next?"
The voice again sliced through, its sarcasm colder than any blade.
"Almost guessed," I muttered. "Why are you spying on my thoughts?"
"Why shouldn't I? I simply marvel at your expertise in the sacred art of Epic Fails."
There was something strangely familiar in his tone, or perhaps I imagined it.
Death twists the mind.
Or perhaps it was the curse binding me to this disembodied tormentor.
"And here I am, stuck babysitting the universe's most gifted fool," the voice lamented.
"Why did I even bother sending myself after you? I should never drink that much again…"
A dramatic sigh.
"I could be sipping longevity wine, watching empires rise and fall… but no. Instead, I have you now."
A howl followed, so unexpected it startled me.
I, who had always been worthless, now had a voice angrily insisting I wasn't worthless enough to justify his suffering.
Truly… bizarre.
"Utterly worthless fool!" the voice snapped.
"What's wrong with me?" I asked aloud, helpless and genuinely bewildered.
"Everything!"
His answer cracked like thunder.
"Your thought process, for example, it's a labyrinth designed by a tipsy dragon, all twists, no logic."
I sighed or felt that I should have sighed, though no breath moved in this place.
"So let me understand: I'm dead, trapped here with you, being scolded for my worthlessness and idiocy… and you want me to do what? Exactly what?"
A pause.
"What's the reason behind any of this rambling?"
A low hum. Almost thoughtful.
"Oh… so you want a reason?"
"Yes. Apparently there is one."
"Your stupidity," he said, in a tone almost fond, "is like a koi fish swimming upstream. Determined, clueless, and too stubborn to die."
"What do you mean?"
A beat.
A shift.
"You're cursed," the voice said at last.
A truth dropped like a stone into dark water.
"And that curse brought you here. And somehow… I'm cursed alongside you."
A strange companionship indeed… Me, a cursed fool with a life worth less than temple leftovers, and him—some loud, sarcastic… thing. Spirit? Demon? My own madness talking back?
Bound together by what?
Fate? Karma? SOMETHING I STEPPED ON WITHOUT NOTICING?!
My thoughts spiraled in every direction.
No, this wasn't destiny, destiny would have tripped on me and moved on.
This felt like some ancient disaster waking up after a million years just to say: "You! Yes, you! The useless one. Congratulations! You're involved now!"
Panic clawed up my throat.
Why was I here?
How was I here?
How did he get dragged in?!
What kind of curse pulls two idiots into the void?
My mind scrambled for logic, found none, and slipped into free-fall.
I didn't know where up was.
I didn't know where I was.
Lost.
Bound.
Dragged toward something that felt huge, old, and absolutely not good.
Heavens help me!
Ha! As if. What madness makes me ask such things? The heavens have never spared a glance for the likes of me. I'm a fool to hope otherwise.
*Thx for reading.