The woman's eyes swept the room, landing on the dark smear of blood across the floor. Her face twisted instantly, a storm of disgust and anger flashing across her features.
"If you're going to try killing yourself, at least don't do it in my house," she snapped, her tone icy.
[What an ugly woman…] Nedo thought, entirely unfazed.
He pulled a stack of bills from his pocket. "Here. This is what you need."
She snatched the money with a sharp nod. "Good. Remember what I said," she warned, voice slicing through the air like a blade.
Later, Nedo wandered into the hospital for a checkup. Doctors assured him everything was fine—no physical harm, nothing life-threatening. But it didn't matter. Life and death were meaningless to him. What he craved was something far heavier: an answer to the question that had haunted him endlessly.
Why even exist?
His phone buzzed relentlessly—calls, messages, notifications—but he ignored every one. The noise of the world couldn't pierce the silence he carried inside.
He found a quiet coffee shop and sat, steaming cup in hand, letting the world fade into background noise. Thoughts swirled like smoke around a fire, bitter and aimless.
When he finally left, he walked to the beach. Empty. Silent. The ocean stretched endlessly, indifferent. He raised his voice, screaming into the void:
"Fucking all of you! You damn idiots!"
For a brief moment, a hollow relief settled over him… until a soft, lilting chuckle drifted down from above.
"You're a funny guy," a voice said.
Nedo's gaze lifted. On a hill overlooking him, a girl stood. Beautiful. Around his age. Her presence was almost… unreal.
[Dammit… the hill again. But her beauty won't affect me.] Nedo thought, and he ignored her, staring straight ahead.
His phone buzzed again—a notification from his favorite game. A faint, almost imperceptible smile flickered across his face. He settled under the shade of a tree, opening the app. For a little while, pixels and gameplay replaced everything else. The chaos, the world's stupidity, the unbearable weight of existence—it all melted into nothingness.
The girl stepped closer. "Hey…" she tried again, voice soft, coaxing.
He didn't answer.
She leaned slightly, glancing at his phone, but her words didn't reach him. A sudden, sharp pulse of pain shot through his head, so intense it made his vision shatter.
The world around him crumbled, reality peeling away like old wallpaper.
When his eyes opened again, everything had changed.
Something impossible stood before him.
A demon. But not the grotesque horror of legend—its face was unnervingly human, too perfect, too real. A cruel smile spread across its lips.
"Now I have an interesting friend in this lonely world," it said, voice smooth and dangerous.
"That's not fun," Nedo replied, flat, detached.
"Oh, don't be like that, my dear friend," the demon purred, stepping closer, the shadows around it twisting like living things. "I'll make you regret ever saying that to me."