Dithering
A certain boy's ears perked up after hearing the train arrive. With it's doors opening, an alarm signal was heard so that people are notified. He quickly stepped forward on the train, not missing his chance because of some other people pushing to get in behind him. He hated crowded cities, crowded stations, crowded parties. He hated crowds. He was afraid of crowds because of his failures. He failed his ordinary level exams, his advanced level exams after his parents spent so much money on tutoring him.
He hated himself because he was like this. After all... he had no chance of coming back, his parents hated him probably, they always forced him on his grades and threatened him. And yet, he loved them to death still and didn't want to abandon them, or vice versa.
He ran away even after he loved them. His sanity was depleting by the second, he was truly moved by darkness.
The alarm was heard again as he snapped back to reality and got out of the train to his destination. His home. Home... a place where you can be safe, or at least that's what the boy thought.
Opening the locked door, he entered his home and placed his bag on the table next to his door and sliding down the door after closing it. He was tired. He always asked himself. 'When did my life go so... downhill?' He thought about it day and night to no answer, because he was a joke. That is what he thought.
Closing his eyes while laid back on the door, he passed out...
Welcome to the Grimoire World...
The Grimoire World, a magical world that is accessed by certain humans through dreams, the boy had achieved access to this world the moment he felt despair for the first time. Soon this world began to grow on him, but he didn't mind that. Perhaps this world was the reason his life had decided to go downhill. After all, he slept out most of his free days.
You may think that this world is a safe haven, but it is not. At least not in the real world. Since you are in a constant state of dreams, our brain can hardly rest. Meaning you would wake up tired and always in a sluggish state in the real world. And there are many, many other downsides to having access to this world. The worst one is, you have no control of wanting to go in or having a good night's rest. It was a curse and a blessing.
Slowly getting up from where the boy last left off, he extended his arm out, moving his fingers in a circular motion. He drew a rune, a specific rune. As he had completed it, a green light emerged from it, the light wasn't like sunlight, moonlight or electrically generated light. It was different. This was the unseen world and it's wonders. Finding other humans in this world was extremely rare. To the point where after all these years, the boy did not find a trace of any other human.
What did this world look like? It was a giant library, sometimes the boy felt that this huge library was endless, as he'd never found an end to it, like an impossible maze. The bookshelves' outlines were of gold and the shelves were made of otherworldly wood. It was beautiful. The bookshelves were filled with magical books called Grimoires, hence the name: Grimoire World. Funny enough, that name sank in and made sense only a couple of days ago.
This world's ceiling was beautiful, it was made of the same otherworldly wood, but it was not dark as it was lit by star-like lights. No building in the modern world can come close to its beauty. The floor was covered with red and blue carpets, decorated with fine lines of gold and silver.
Whoever walked here would feel like a king, the richest person in the world.
The green light then formed the outlines of a body and suddenly the light faded after twirling in front of the body. It revealed a beautiful young man in delightful green clothing. Under that was his white skin tainted with touches of darkness. Two bone-like horns rose over his messy green, tipped-black hair. All his glory that invited any person before him to kneel, hid a tail that ended with a leaf-like spade behind him. Between the yellow textures on his shoulders, an emerald jewel buried within a golden carcass. He resembled a noble of the medieval era, surrounded with a mysterious aura.
He opened his mouth slightly as he spoke. "Hey Koata, back here again? To this cursed world." He asked with a small smile as the boy, named Koata looked at him with a stoic expression and replied, "It's not like I can control it, plus I didn't even mean to come here. My body just gave out."
The young man who was still smiling at Koata suddenly had a gloomy expression. "Koata, you do know the after effects of this, correct? You are getting sluggish in the real world, and now that you're suddenly giving out the moment you close your eyes, you might get trapped in here forever due to your physical body starting to give out." The young man informed, with a serious expression on his face.
Koata looked away with a visible expression of worry on his face. "I'm aware of that... I must not lose to the hypnotizing look of this world. It's a dirty world on the inside because of this curse. Once a person is fully trapped, they'll never come back again." Koata was aware of the dangers of this world, but he was not sure how he would stop interfering with it, or even leaving it when needed. He can only get out of the world when he wakes up in real time, he does not have a choice regarding the matter as he is powerless when it comes to forcing himself to wake up.
If it was the first year of him staying, then he could force himself to leave on choice. Now he is not able to because of his body's state. Koata then looked back at his companion and eye contacted him. "I'm sorry, I know I must not panic but it's difficult." Koata said with a faltering smile.
"No need to apologize, my friend." The 'Green Demon' smiled again and extended his arm. "Wanna go to Corlac? We can sit down there and eat something, maybe that will ease your mind a little." The Demon offered, as Koata grabbed his hand. "You bet, Viridis!" Koata smiled, the food of this world was lovely beyond belief. Not even the greatest chefs on Earth could make food that rivals it.
The reason why Devils can enter the library is because they are the creatures with the highest level of intelligence in the Underworld. The grimoire world is a world linked between the Underworld - that is mostly a spiritual world - and the Materialistic world. Then Humans should be able to enter too, right? The answer to that is No. Humans are not allowed to enter any world that is not a material or physical world. Their place is on Earth or the Planets. They cannot enter the Underworld. Currently, it is unknown why some Humans have the ability to enter this world. Devils have the ability to enter the physical world but lose most of their strength.
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After having walked through the hallways of this giant dimension, Koata and Viridis had finally reached the famous restaurant, Corlac. This world isn't just full of bookshelves however. It contains many other places like restaurants, or house districts. Usually people who inhabit them are the caretakers of this place, employees and it is said that people who are trapped here also live in those homes, but the source of that is unknown.
They opened the doors to the restaurant which was quiet today. After entering the two picked a spot with two chairs and one table. Sitting down, two magical books with runes surrounding them suddenly rose up from the table and each book opened in front of the two customers. This was this world's version of menus. Koata saw many things inside of the book, the usual. Then he ordered his favorite meal. "One kid's mea-" Koata was suddenly cut off. "Two tofu teaks." Viridis cut Koata off and ordered. He then looked at Koata with a disappointed look.
"You're 16 now, when will you stop being a child, man." He told Koata, as Koata fired back almost instantly. "You moron! The kid's meal for burgers is the tastiest there is!" Koata argued, readying himself for all the possible outcomes of this debate. Viridis calmly replied. "You say that, yet you have never tried anything else." That was it. Koata suddenly choked on his saliva as the argument had been ended in an instant. "I- I did not expect that one." Koata truthfully said.
The books then lit up and flew over to the cashier table, showing the cashier what his recent customers had just ordered. The menus here work in a numeric system, which means if a person ordered last, his order will come last. And if a person ordered first, his order will come first. It's a fair system so that no one would start a fight. Order mistakes do happen though but everyone here are mortals, and mistakes do happen from Demons and Humans.
After having chats here and there, a waitress came up to the both of them. A beautiful young woman with black hair that has blue tips at the bottom. She was wearing a blue dress that looked like a maid's attire. It was designed with gold, just like the grimoire world's carpets. Her eyes were crystal blue like, increasing her beauty even more. With a necklace that wrapped around her neck. Similarly to Viridis, she had a blue gem on her chest. Instead of having two horns, she has a long horn sticking out from her forehead on the right; it had a light blue glow and it's intensity wasn't much, soft like moonlight.
In reality, Demons have very frightening appearances, but in this world, it's part of the dress code to morph into good-looking Humanoids. Even Viridis' true form is unknown to Koata, because Humans are not able to see Demons in their true forms, Humans cannot see them normally too actually. Demons can see Humans, but not vice versa. If a Demon wanted to be seen in the real world, they have the ability to show themselves, but morphed into something that isn't their true forms.
She gave out the orders and placed them on the table, smiling and wishing them a good meal. Koata simply looked at her and thanked her, smiling. He then picked up his fork and knife, cutting open the tofu steak with excitement visible in his eyes. "Are you ready for the first ever meal that isn't a kid's meal?" Viridis questioned, amused with Koata's actions. "Man, shut your mouth, I know you're making fun of me" Koata shot as he put the steak piece in his mouth. Viridis simply laughed as he ate his own stake.
Echoes could be heard outside the restaurant across the ginormous library from Koata's scream on how delicious the food was. Viridis was confused on how he could have such energy. Ironic. They both finished their meals with Koata walking outside the restaurant with no stress or worry on his face. Then after a nice, calm walk. Koata fell to the ground. "Ah, it seems like my physical body is waking up." Viridis looked at him and nodded, grabbing his now limp body off the floor and placing it on the ground, safely. "See you later, friend."
Back to the Modern World...
Koata's eyes slightly twitched as he could see the light of his house's ceiling shining down on him. He woke up. He stretched and yawn as he felt his nose was heavy, wiping it, Koata realized his nose was leaking blood. "Not good." He got up, rushing to the bathroom in order to stop the bleeding. After he was done, he washed his face and brushed his teeth. It was obvious that it was night-time by now, he spent nearly 4 hours in the grimoire world after arriving to his house at 5:00 PM.
He then chuckled, knowing no-one was waiting for him home anyways. "What do we have for dinner?" He asked himself, mentally sighing. Food in the grimoire world does not affect the real world's body. A human body is a physical body, his spiritual consciousness alone cannot satisfy his belly.
Koata walked to the kitchen and little did he know what was about to transpire. As he neared the kitchen door, he saw a small light coming from the kitchen? Koata recalled turning off the lights before going out. Suddenly, the faint light disappeared and then reappeared. Koata decided to enter the kitchen to see what has been going on...
And there he saw it, his fridge was being opened and closed repeatedly by someone. It just kept opening and closing. Koata then looked at the person's eyes as they looked back at his, but did not stop opening and closing the fridge. They had the most innocent look on their face ever.
Open.
"..."
Close.
"..."
Open.
"..."
Close.
"..."
Ope-
"ARE YOU A MORON!?" Koata screamed, as he began panting. It was the same waitress from earlier in the grimoire world. 'Why is she here?' He thought. 'But most importantly!'.
"Hey..." Koata said, in a calm tone. calm... malicious calm. "What do you think you're doing to my only friend?" His tone was now threatening, filled with killer intent. It screamed terror. The next hour was spent with frying pans being thrown around the house as he tried to catch her and beat her down. However, it soon died down as a multitude of slams was hard on his door. His neighbors weren't happy.
The whole kitchen was a mess. He should learn to keep his cool sometimes. Suddenly, he felt tired as a headache started pounding in his head, causing him to grab his head in pain. "O-ow. Its the pain again. Damn it." Koata groaned as he fell to the ground.
"Are you okay, Human?" The blue dressed Devil from earlier asked.
"Shut your mouth, why are you even here?" Koata asked, but what was replied was sure to interest him even with his killer headache. "I heard the rumors of a human that found his way to the grimoire World and simply acted as a waitress in that bar. The results were spectacular, I can't believe I found a human who found his way into the grimoire world. It's been at the very least 10 or so years since the last." She said, smirking. Satisfied with her achievement.
"..." Koata decided not to say anything despite being shocked. A Devil had finally noticed he was a human. After all his lies, to act like a Devil. She had finally found him. But even so, that didn't explain why she was here. "I'll ask again, why are you here?" Koata asked sharply, knowing fully well he'd lose in a fight. She chuckled as she looked at him, smiling slightly. If there is anything he learned the hard way, it is to not trust devils. At all. Even if it is good, bad or neutral.
Devils have no principles.
"One thing."
"Hm?" Koata looked up, feeling his headache's pain fade away as he stood up and eyed the Devil. "What thing?" He asked calmly but with some malice in it.
"A contract."
To Be Continued
Hey so, welcome to this original story I'm making. I suddenly woke up one day and thought "Let's put my story writing skills to its maximum power." and this is my current output. First time writing since: A Calamitous Halloween.
I'm not satisfied with the ending but then again, this is the first time I did a cliffhanger, ever. I've just been bullshitting my way through this story and everyone says the story is good from the drafts. I'll be honest, I have no idea what I am doing but when asked something I instantly do somehow. Might make a prologue but thanks to all my friends on helping me make this story :).
And thank you all too for reading! -Yhariel
Oh and another thing. Please point out the typos and criticize if you wish! Thanks.