Caleum stared from the magically materialized chair, to the faceless stranger stretching its arm in a leading gesture toward it.
'Honestly, what the hell?'
The stranger's face rippled in what appeared to be approval as Caleum sat down gingerly.
"What would you like to drink, child?"
"I'm go-"
"Come on, anything! Vanilla chai, Sprite, Apple juice, I can make all your favorites!"
Caleum's mind was seriously struggling to keep up with this overly eager entity.
"U-Uh, I'm not thirsty. And how do you-"
"Come, come! Don't be shy, pick one!"
"I-I'm not-"
"I'll just make you some seltzer then. Anyway, it's probably better for your heal-"
"SPRITE! I-I'll take the Sprite."
Caleum could swear the damn monster was smirking at him.
"Atta boy! One sprite coming up, oh! I'll make it taste like a McDonald's Sprite just for you."
With a small poof, a glass of a carbonated clear liquid formed in front of him. Caleum's gaze dragged from the glass to the stranger.
"H-How?"
The stranger tilted its head as if in thought.
"Well, to be honest I actually don't really know how they get that specific taste. The first time I tasted it I nearly created a black hole in Michigan! Hahaha!"
Ignoring the ludicrous comment that he hoped to all hell was a joke, Caleum corrected himself.
"N-No, I mean how are you doing all this? How is any of this possible? Was my coffee laced with something? Is this psychosis?"
The stranger laughed in amusement.
"So many questions. You are very much awake, my child. You and I are sitting in a separate dimension from your reality, true, but still very much real all the same. And no the coffee was fine, but you did request a concerning amount of sugar."
Caleum sat frozen for a bit before his mind caught onto a key sentence.
"Y-You said s-separate d-dimension? A-As if we aren't on Earth?"
Without waiting for an answer, Caleum jumped up from his chair and raced over to the open window. Seeing the sky still painted by a falling sunset, and the people in the street below, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
But before that relief could sink further, he noticed a pigeon flying right outside of his window. Now normally that wouldn't mean much. Except everything about it was wrong.
The bird was motionless, its wings still mid-beat as its form stayed locked in space. And now looking closer, the people below were also frozen in place.
The noise of the city was…gone. The world outside of his apartment was still, as if the very concept of life and motion had ceased.
Caleum retreated from the window, his face pale as he staggered back to his seat.
He collapsed into it as if he had lost all strength. Seeing the glass of sprite in front of him, he grabbed it like a man seeing water for the first time in months.
Downing it in seconds before releasing a loud belch.
The stranger's face scrunched up in what seemed like disapproval before waving its hand and refilling the glass.
"Honestly, I understand all of this is a lot to take in, but where are your manners? Tsk, tsk! Isabella taught you better than that."
Ignoring the magically refilling glass, Caleum's eyes narrowed sharply.
"How do you know that name?"
The stranger answered with a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well she is your mother after all. I know you, so it would track that I would know your family don't you think?"
"She is not my mother! I'm an orphan.."
Caleum's voice came out sharper than he intended. His hands rested on the table tensing slightly.
The stranger stayed silent for a moment, but its voice sounded again.
"Aren't you tired of this, Caleum?"
Caleum's heartbeat froze for the faintest of seconds. His gaze hardened slightly.
"What are you talking about?"
The stranger placed its leg back down and crossed the other one over it, leaning in at an angle above the table.
Not threatening. Not invasive.
But present.
"This performance. The act. The lie you have woven around yourself like armor…or maybe like a turtle shell."
Alright, now that kinda stung. Caleum's face twisted for a split second before he quickly tried to mask it.
But he knew it was pointless. He spoke again, trying to use volume to mask his unease.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Can you just tell me what you want!? I'd like to get back to my own dimension please."
The stranger continued as if it hadn't heard a word.
"It shows you know. In every smile. Every laugh. Every conversation. You kept it up well for a while, but the mask is starting to slip a little, day by day."
Caleum tried to cut in, his tone sharper, but with a hint of tension beneath it now.
"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about. There is no mask and I am not hiding anything. Now can we get this over with!?"
His words were once again ignored.
"But today, for the first time…it almost broke, didn't it."
The stranger's voice wasn't loud. It wasn't rushed. And yet the certainty within struck Caleum that much harder.
"It felt good didn't it Caleum."
Caleum's body trembled as his eyes went wide.
"That brush with death. The thrill afterward…you were in ecstasy. You felt truly alive for the first time in your monotonous life."
Caleum's face twisted as he opened his mouth to refute him. To deny his ridiculous statement.
His throat moved. The words formed in his mind. And yet the apartment remained silent. The dripping of the faucet now punctuating the stranger's accusation.
The stranger's head tilted to the opposite side.
"We both know I'm right, child. There is no need to lie. Not here. Not to me. You have been suppressing yourself for a long time now. You always knew didn't you? That you never fit in with those around you. With society. With this world."
A sudden warm shudder tore its way through Caleum. His breathing became rasps as his vision narrowed.
"You felt that those around you were insignificant. Soft. Weak. Like children, going through life playing with toys or seeing who could piss the farthest. You found them disgusting didn't you?"
Caleum's breathing halted, shaking his head with what he thought was firmness.
"You saw their goals, their dreams, and accomplishments as pointless and paltry."
He shook his head again, the strength behind it weakening considerably.
"You don't hate them. No, hate is too strong a word. Too grand an emotion to waste on them."
Caleum's breath caught his lips twitching upward without him even realizing.
"You feel nothing toward them. Nothing at all, except for pity and apathy."
The stranger didn't speak further. It didn't need to anymore.
The distorted smile on Caleum's face was all the answer he needed.
It leaned back and observed Caleum, neither saying a single word. Both understanding the same thing.
There were no more masks. No more hiding.
No going back.
"I am here to give you an opportunity, my lost child. A chance to be…more. A chance to obtain everything you could ever desire."
Caleum's eyes narrowed, but within them a light they had never held before was overcoming the shadow.
The silence held for a long time. So long it seemed as if even time within the room had frozen.
The stranger wasn't in a rush. Its posture was still just as relaxed as when it had first appeared. It wasn't confidence, no.
It wasn't something as simple as certainty either. It was…inevitability.
And as if making true its words, Caleum spoke.
"...You said you were my genie right?"
The stranger finally showcased a state other than leisure. Its body froze for a moment, a moment that faded just as quickly as it came.
And for the first time since this bizarre encounter started, Caleum could say for sure. It was smiling at him.
"Haha, I like the way you think Cal! Alright, I will make a special exception for you. The first human in a very, very long time to catch my eye."
Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed drastically. The walls were violently ripped away, the view of New York from his window faded like a mirage.
They stood in a vast dark expanse, a black hole rotated slowly beneath their feet in the silence of the void.
But neither of them seemed to care. Their gazes still locked together, an aura of manic glee surrounding them.
"Well then…tell me child. What are your three wishes?"
Caleum faltered. His head lowered to stare at the abyss below. His mind filling with wishes both grand and nonsensical.
But his thoughts were interrupted once more.
"The truth Cal. No more masks. No more lies."
In that moment, Caleum's mind, which had been bottled by crazy dreams and fantasies, cleared in a way it never had been before.
He lifted his head to face the entity before him. And then he spoke the three wishes that would define everything he was.
"I want to be able to grow without limit. Without restriction. Endlessly."
The entity's form began to shift, the outline of its featureless face beginning to gain definition.
"Done."
"I want to be a master, no…a God of martial arts. Every form. Every combination. Every technique…I want it all."
The entity's face grew a nose, a mouth sporting a wicked grin, and an ear on either side of its head.
"Done."
This time Caleum paused. It wasn't uncertainty, no, this was different.
It was purer.
Something held in the deepest part of his heart.
"I–I want a world just for me. A world where I can sit and relax. A world where my family can return to. Where we can live."
His voice came out a little hoarse, but the strength behind it seemed to detonate in the void.
The entity had now grown hair on its brows and head. His face wasn't overly handsome, but carried the sort of rugged charm a father might have. If not for the two empty sockets where its eyes should be, he would be quite the looker.
"...Done. Well then, child. You have made your wishes. It is time to go."
Caleum took a deep breath. Trying to fill himself with a false sense of security.
"H-How does this work?"
The entity smiled, the empty eye sockets working hard to make the image as eerie as possible.
Caleum had only blinked once, when the entity appeared right in front of him. He wanted to yelp and jump back, but his body didn't respond.
Just as he was wondering what was happening, a searing, white-hot pain erupted from his chest.
"AGHHHHHHH!"
The entity stared pitifully at the kitchen knife piercing Caleum's chest.
"Sorry kid. I wish there was an easier way to do this, but some rules have to be followed. When you wake up you'll thank me!"
Caleum's throat filled with blood as he tried to curse. His mind a canvas of agony and fear.
As his body began to sink, the entity walked over to his crumbled, bleeding form.
Caleum's rasps and whimpers slowed as he focused his dimming eyes on it.
The entity's eyes had grown back, but calling them eyes was a description that did them no justice.
Now, within the previously empty sockets were two suns. One flickered and pulsed in black flame, the other burned steadily in a sacred white light.
"No need to fear, child. The pain will cease soon. I have high hopes for you Caleum. Live this life well, and put on a good show."
As if the laws of the universe began to function again, Caleum's body was violently sucked into the swirling black hole beneath.
But the entity's final words still reached him even as his vision grew dark.
"The Absolute welcomes you…to Elysium."