Luke rose slowly, knees brushing against the damp grass as he stared at the gold coin glowing faintly in his palm. The light wasn't bright—more like a pulse, a heartbeat of its own—yet it was enough to unsettle him.
He turned it over between his fingers, half expecting it to cool, dim, or crumble into dust. But it remained solid. Warm. Alive.
He swallowed.
Should he throw it away and try to clear his head, just like he'd planned?
Or… should he take it home and figure out what it really was?
He kept on thinking.
Just an hour ago, all he had wanted was a quiet walk to untangle the mess in his life. Losing his job had left him spiraling—his thoughts loud, his future uncertain. He had hoped the fresh air would help him think, maybe even find a sliver of direction.
Instead, he found this.
Luke rubbed his thumb across the coin's surface. The glow flared slightly at his touch, sending a faint tingle up his arm. His breath hitched. That wasn't normal. Coins didn't glow. They didn't react. They didn't look back at you.
He glanced around the empty clearing as though expecting someone—anything—to step out of the shadows and claim it. But the trees stood silent, the air still.
"This is ridiculous," he muttered. "It's just… a coin."
But even as he said it, he knew it wasn't true.
He closed his fist slowly. The warmth spread up to his wrist. His heart pounded with the weight of the decision—two paths, both uncertain, both impossible to ignore.
Throw it away…
Or take it home.
And neither choice felt safe anymore.
Luke tightened his fingers around the coin.
"Fine," he whispered to no one but himself. "You're coming with me."
The warmth pulsed again, almost like a response.
He slipped the coin into his jacket pocket, half expecting it to burn through the fabric or start humming like something out of a bad sci-fi movie. Instead, the glow dimmed, contained, as if hiding itself. That somehow made him even more uneasy.
The walk home felt longer than usual. Every rustle in the bushes made him jump, every distant car horn snapped his focus back to the weight in his pocket. He kept brushing his hand against it to make sure it was still there—and still real.
When he finally reached his apartment building, he hesitated at the door. The place already felt too small, too cluttered with reminders of interviews gone wrong and bills piling up on the counter, especially his rent. Bringing something strange into that already fragile space felt dangerous.
But not bringing it in felt worse.
Inside, he locked the door behind him—twice—and set the coin gently on the kitchen table. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the glow returned, soft and steady, illuminating the scratched wood beneath it.
Luke sat down across from it, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
"Okay," he said, voice low, "what are you?"
The coin didn't move. But the air felt different now—charged, expectant. Like the room itself was holding its breath.
Luke reached out. His fingertips hovered above the warm metal.
The glow brightened.
The coin blazed—far brighter than it ever had before. The instant Luke's fingers brushed its surface, a violent surge of light erupted outward, consuming the entire ring in a roaring flood of brilliance. Shadows were ripped away. The air itself seemed to tremble.
Luke didn't even have time to cry out.
In a single, shattering flash, the world collapsed.
When the light finally died, he stood alone in an endless field drenched in darkness. Above him stretched a vast sky littered with stars, cold and ancient.
A chill wind swept through the grass, brushing against him like the whisper of something unseen.
Just seconds ago, when he touched the coin, it had been high noon—sun blazing, heat beating down. And now… night. A different place. A different world.
The silence pressed in, heavy and unreal.
Nothing about this was natural.
A sudden whirl of colors swallowed Luke as the world twisted around him. The ground fell away, replaced by a sky that shimmered in impossible hues, and strange floating islands drifted lazily in the distance. He landed with a soft thud on a carpet of iridescent moss, heart racing.
Before him stood a woman, tall and commanding, her presence was impossible to ignore.
Her curves were accentuated by a flowing robe that seemed to shift with the colors of the realm, reflecting the light in ways that made her seem part of the world itself. Her eyes, golden and unblinking, fixed on him with a mixture of curiosity and amusement.
"Welcome," she said, her voice echoing as if the air itself had learned to speak. "You've crossed into a place few mortals ever see. Tell me… what is it you seek here?"
Luke swallowed hard, unsure whether fear or awe dominated his thoughts.
Although he was the one who had taken the coin home without knowing what it was—or what it could do—his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
Who would have guessed that he would be transported to another realm?
Luke was baffled. Had he really been whisked away to another world, or had he merely passed out and was experiencing a vivid, strange dream? It didn't feel entirely unreal.
After all, he had always had a particular fondness for tall, curvaceous beauties, often imagining having one—or even two—for himself. But in reality, such fantasies had never materialized.
Now, standing in a place that felt simultaneously alien and mesmerizing, Luke wondered whether this realm might just turn those long-held daydreams into something tangible—or plunge him into challenges far beyond anything he had ever imagined.
"What is it I seek?"
Luke swallowed. His throat felt dry, and the darkness around them pulsed like it was breathing. "I—I don't know," he said. "I don't even know what here is… or how I came to be here."
She stepped closer, and he caught the faint scent of something like wild jasmine. It calmed him and frightened him at the same time.