Annoying like a Curse

Joshua snorted, a bitter smile playing on his lips. "Understand? Lukas is not a being you understand. He is a curse. A wound that never heals. But I knew he would resurface one day."

Aurora stepped forward hesitantly. "Mr. Steinborn, we must find him. Our son... Max. He is in danger."

Joshua straightened up as far as he could, his pale eyes boring into hers. "Your son? Interesting." He studied Aurora and Schäfer as if searching for something, something he didn't want to say.

"Lukas," he continued finally, "is no ordinary adversary. He is a shadow, a parasite that clings to humanity. You want to know what he is? A curse, born of an ancient power we can never fully comprehend. And now it has bared its claws again."

Aurora swallowed hard. "That doesn't help us. We need to know how to stop him."

Joshua tapped his cane on the floor, the echo echoing through the hallway. "Stop it? You don't understand. You can't stop a curse. You can only survive it. If Lukas has Max, then he's already part of his game. And I'm telling you now: He'll take everything you hold dear before he disappears."

Schäfer clenched his fists, his voice hard. "We can't just stand by and watch him destroy everything. We have to do something."

Joshua smiled wearily. "Of course you will. You'll fight, like everyone else before you. But know one thing, Schäfer: You're not just fighting Lukas. You're fighting what he represents. And you'll pay a high price for that."

Aurora closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that gathered in the corners of her eyes. "This is our son. We can't give up on him."

Joshua nodded slowly, his gaze softening. "I'll do what I can. But the truth is... Lukas has already drawn you into the game. Now you must decide how far you're willing to go."

With these words, Joshua turned away, his cane echoing through the hallway with every step. "Lead me to where it all began. Perhaps there we'll find the answers you seek."

Aurora and Schäfer exchanged a look, full of desperation and determination. Without another word, they followed the old man, ready to face the unspeakable horror that awaited them.

Joshua paused, slowly turning to Aurora and Schäfer, his eyes flashing with a realization that cut like a knife. He leaned heavily on his cane, a faint, almost triumphant smile playing on his lips.

"Your timeline has been destroyed, hasn't it?" His voice was calm, but each word seemed to pierce through her entirety. "You are strangers here. Stranded, trying to prevent a catastrophe that happened long ago."

Aurora took a step back, surprised by his precision. Schäfer gritted his teeth, about to retort, but Joshua raised a bony hand.

"Don't worry," he continued, his gaze darting between them like a sharp dagger. "I've seen this before. Time may age us, but it doesn't erase the scars. Nor does it erase the stench of despair you carry with you."

Aurora opened her mouth, then closed it again before whispering uncertainly, "How... how do you know?"

Joshua laughed softly, a harsh, dry sound like sandpaper. "Because time itself is a curse, my dear. It drags us in circles, forcing us to make the same mistakes over and over again. And those who try to fight it pay the ultimate price."

He paused, staring at the ground for a moment, before murmuring, "Sometimes the only way forward is the one that leaves everything behind. And yet we always return. Like moths to a flame."

Schäfer took a step forward, his voice sharp. "Stop with these riddles, old man. If you know what's going on, then speak plainly. We don't have time!"

Joshua raised his eyes, a faint smile on his lips. "Time? You have more time than you think. That's the trick with it: It makes us think it's scarce until it crushes us. But fine, Inspector. Speak plainly."

He stepped closer, studying Schäfer and Aurora intently. "You're here because Lukas wants you here. Everything you think you know, everything you've done so far—it was his plan. Your little Max? Just another piece in a game that began centuries ago."

Aurora gasped, her hands clenched into fists. "That's not true. Max is our son. This has nothing to do with... with that monster!"

Joshua inclined his head, almost sympathetically. "Your son, yes. But Lukas isn't a monster. He's something worse. A mirror. He shows us what we fear most—ourselves."

Schäfer growled, "What the hell does that mean?"

Joshua turned away, gazing into the distance, as if speaking to the shadows. "It means, Inspector, that Lukas isn't simply a curse. He's a memory. A scar in time that never heals."

He turned back, his face harder now. "You want to stop him? Fine. But understand one thing: You can't change the past. You can only decide how much of yourself you're willing to lose."

Aurora felt her knees go weak, her voice a whisper. "And what are we supposed to do now?"

Joshua smiled bitterly, his eyes heavy with unspoken truth. "You will fight. Because you have no other choice. But remember: The only war time never loses is the one against hope."

With these words, he turned and slowly continued down the corridor. Each step of his cane echoed like the chime of a clock, and his last words hung in the air like a dark promise:

"Let's return to the beginning. Perhaps we'll find the end there."

Joshua Alexander Steinborn spoke slowly and deliberately as he moved through the room with his cane in hand. His gaze wandered to a dusty, old clock on the wall that had long since stopped working. "Time," he murmured softly, "time is like a puzzle. If you put one piece in too early or too late, the whole picture loses its meaning."

He ran his fingers along the edge of an old wooden chair, which bore deep scratch marks. It looked as if someone had tried to hold on to it—or tear themselves away from it. "I always believed the darkness could set us free," he said almost casually before turning to Aurora. "But sometimes... we create monsters without realizing it."

Joshua stopped in front of a small glass case containing seemingly random old relics: a knife with a broken blade, a child's drawing of a dark figure with wide-open eyes, and a broken pocket watch, its face frozen at midnight. He ran his finger over the glass. "Sometimes the darkness doesn't want to destroy us," he whispered. "Sometimes it just wants to see us."

Aurora shook her head, unable to interpret the hints. "What's all this about? Are you trying to scare us?"

Joshua turned slowly to her, his face suddenly filled with a deep sadness. "Fear?" He gave a short, bitter laugh. "No. Fear is merely the shadow cast by truth. And sometimes, Ms. Stein, we ourselves are the source of that shadow."

Schäfer gasped. "Stop with these riddles, old man! If you know something, then tell me!"

Joshua raised his head, his gaze seeming to pass through Schäfer, as if he saw something the others couldn't perceive. "Have you ever considered, Inspector, why a curse seeks a host? Why it must bind itself to something or someone?"

Schäfer shook his head, his face red with anger. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Joshua shrugged, as if the question barely interested him. "Sometimes," he said thoughtfully, "it's not the curse that seeks a host. Sometimes it's the host that creates the curse."

Aurora stared at him, her voice barely above a whisper. "What... what do you mean?"

Joshua turned away again, looking at the display case of relics. His fingers unconsciously traced a pattern in the dust that, upon closer inspection, looked like a circle with a dot in the center. "Most people," he began quietly, "think we can defeat evil by ignoring it. But evil... it comes from within. It grows when we try to push it away."

He stopped, placed his hand on the child's drawing, and spoke more to himself than to the others: "Sometimes I wonder if we even deserve to fight the darkness. Or if it's simply who we really are."

Aurora noticed that the fingerprints on the glass of the display case resembled the outline of a figure—a small, gaunt figure that seemed to be standing in some kind of cage. She felt an eerie sensation, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Listen," Schäfer began again, this time in a sharper tone. "If you know something, then finally speak plainly!"

Joshua turned around, and for a brief moment his face seemed older, more marked—as if he'd been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Straight talk," he repeated slowly. "Straight talk is only for those who are ready to hear it. And you two..." He paused, his gaze burning into their faces. "...may not be yet."

He turned and left the room, his cane clacking softly on the tiled floor. But before he left, he threw over his shoulder: "They say we create our own demons. But what if it's the demons who create us?"

Aurora and Schäfer watched him go, speechless, the words circling in their heads like an unsolvable riddle. Aurora was sure she'd seen the child's drawing in the display case before—but where? And why did Joshua's voice feel as if it had been with her all her life?

The cold night air hit them in the face as they walked from the hospital toward the old house. Their footsteps echoed on the empty asphalt, while silence fell between them. Aurora pulled her coat tighter around her and cast a questioning glance at Schäfer.

"Why this house of all places?" she finally asked, her voice quiet in the cold.

"Because I found the book there," Schäfer answered curtly. "It was already a mystery back then. Everything related to Lukas seems to lead back to..." He paused as Joshua suddenly stopped and stared into the darkness with a thoughtful look.

"It's more than just a mystery," Joshua said slowly. "You could say it's a scar of reality."

Aurora frowned. "What does that mean?"

Joshua turned to them, his face almost ghostly in the moonlight. "Some things should rest. You've become too deeply entangled in the roots of the past. And now you have to live with the consequences."

Schäfer glared at him. "Will you finally stop speaking in riddles? If you know more, then spit it out."

Joshua grinned faintly, as if he had achieved some kind of inner triumph. But he said nothing more, simply walking on until they finally stood in front of the weathered front door of the old house.

"Here we are," Schäfer murmured as he opened the door. Inside, it was even colder than outside, and the smell of mildew and dust hung heavy in the air. On the table in the living room lay the book that Schäfer knew all too well.

"This is it," he said, his voice almost reverent. "The book. It's dangerous and—above all—impossible to open."

Joshua looked at the book with an indefinable expression as Schäfer continued. "You need fire to even open it. And even then—what's written inside is incomprehensible. It's a language that not even the best experts could decipher."

"Oh, really?" Joshua stepped closer and held out his hand.

"Wait!" Schäfer raised his hand in warning. "It doesn't work like that! I've tried it myself, believe me. Only with—"

But before he could finish the sentence, Joshua placed his hand on the book. A faint crackling sound filled the air, and the pages began to open as if by magic. Schäfer's eyes widened, while Aurora stood speechless.

"How... did you do that?" stammered Schäfer, visibly irritated.

Joshua ignored him and began reading the book. His eyes calmly glided over the strange characters, as if the language were second nature to him.

"Incomprehensible, you said?" Joshua murmured without looking up.

Schäfer clenched his fists, shock written all over his face. "What the hell are you really?"

Joshua paused, turned the page, and spoke quietly, more to himself: "I wish I'd never had Lukas..." But the sentence trailed off, and he let the words hang in the air. Aurora and Schäfer looked at each other, both sensing that Joshua knew more than he was letting on—much more. But before either of them could say anything, Joshua closed the book with a dull thud and looked back at them with an expression that showed neither joy nor regret.

Joshua sighed and closed the book. "What you see is not just a book. It tells a story that reaches far into the past." He looked deeply at Inspector Schäfer and Aurora, as if he wanted to transfer something to them. "The God of Light and the God of Balance once created life and magic, two gifts meant to make life on this world more beautiful. But the God of Darkness and Evil had no access to this creative power. His power lay in destruction, not creation."

He put the book down and walked more slowly, as if searching for the right words. "He knew he couldn't possess the power of creation. Therefore, he had to find another way. He entered the dreams of a human, a mage who was exceptionally strong in magic but weak in spirit. This mage was susceptible to his dark influences."

"The god of darkness revealed himself to the mage as a beautiful angel and promised him that he was chosen to accomplish great things. He taught him the darkness and showed him how to control it. But when the god disappeared, he left the mage with only a broken soul. The darkness had taken over him, and the first curse was born. A curse that poisoned life and magic."

Joshua paused briefly and looked deep into the eyes of the two. "And that curse changed life and the world. The first of its kind, corrupting everything it touched."

Joshua carefully placed the book on the table, his fingers gliding over the old, yellowed cover, as if he hadn't yet fully grasped its weighty contents. With a deep, thoughtful gaze, he then began to speak:

"When the God of Light and the God of Balance decided to create the concept of magic and life, they simultaneously gave the God of Evil the opportunity to create a new concept. A concept that, in its purest form, would be the basis for all the destruction and darkness in the world—the concept of curses."

He looked at Schäfer, who was still staring at him with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Joshua continued as if floating in another world, the words flowing to him as if from a distant time.

"Through the concept of curses, many curses arose, each with its own destructive power. But among them was one of the most powerful—the curse that possessed Lukas. This curse wasn't just powerful; it was a part of the concept itself. The curses could only exist in the world as long as life and magic existed. And that meant he was immortal as long as the concept of life and magic continued to exist."

Joshua paused to make sure his words were understood. "Lukas, this curse could only be truly destroyed by the extinction of life and magic itself. But there is more. The God of Evil created this concept not just out of a desire for destruction, but out of a need to corrupt creation. The curse that possessed Lukas is just one of many, yet it is among the more powerful because it exists through the concept itself."

Aurora looked at Joshua with a mixture of concern and confusion. "And how can you kill these concepts?" she asked, her voice sounding almost hopeless.

Inspector Schäfer took a step closer and repeated the question, as if hoping for a different answer. "Yes, how can we do that? How do we destroy these concepts?"

Joshua sighed deeply and shook his head slowly. "It's not possible," he said, the weight of the words weighing on him, as if he had known this truth long ago. "The concept of life is too strong. To destroy it, you would have to wipe out all life in the entire multiverse. Everything that lives—every animal, every human, every plant, every form of life. But even then... that wouldn't be enough."

He let the words hang in the air for a moment to emphasize the magnitude of the consequences before continuing. "And the concept of magic is equally indestructible. To eliminate it, you would have to wipe out every form of magic in the multiverse. Everything related to magic—every magical being, every spell, every artifact. But even then... it wouldn't do any good."

He looked them both in the eye as he explained the next, crucial point. "Because these concepts have long since become independent. They no longer depend on life or magic. They exist for themselves, without needing each other. The curse that Lukas bears no longer needs life or magic. It has detached itself from both and lives in its own form of existence."

Joshua took a deep breath, his voice trailing off as he continued. "To destroy this curse, we would have to destroy every single curse in the entire multiverse. And that is simply impossible. Because each curse has its own existence and is interwoven with the concepts. Trying to eliminate them all would require an effort that would destroy the entire universe. A battle no one can win."

He looked at Aurora and Schäfer, his expression hardened. "This is the reality we are dealing with. Lukas... or rather, the curse that controls him, is unstoppable."

Joshua looked at her seriously as he continued. "The concept of life, the concept of magic, the concept of curses—they are more than just abstract ideas. They are all-encompassing. They can see everything within their realm. The concept of life can see everything where there is life; it senses every spark of life throughout the multiverse. The concept of magic is the same—it sees everything related to magic, in every corner of the universe. And the concept of curses, that is the most terrifying of all. It sees everything related to curses."

He paused briefly, as if searching for the right words to convey the magnitude of this truth. "The curse that possessed Lukas is only a tiny part of a much larger, more powerful web. But it will never come here to fight a curse, not for something so small. The concept of the curse sees everything the curses see—but that's not the same as intervening. There's no way to bring the concept here for you, no spell, no summoning. It won't come."

He looked into the faces of Aurora and Inspector Schäfer. "Even if you want to take on the concept of curses themselves—and I doubt it will even come here for you—it must always be connected to the curse itself. But even then, the curse won't help you if it's Lukas's curse. This curse is too powerful, too deeply embedded in this unimaginable web of magic, life, and curses. No effort on your part will be enough to summon the concept for you."

Joshua looked at her with an almost sad expression, as if he wished there were a way out. "It's simply not possible. The curse will always be there as long as the multiverse exists. The concept of curses can see everything the curses see, but you'll never be able to force it to come to you."

Joshua crossed his arms and took a step back as the tension between them became palpable. His eyes fixed on Schäfer and Aurora, but he said nothing until he finally spoke, quietly and without haste.

"The concepts are deeply rooted in the fabric of the universe," he began, bluntly. "You can't change it. The curse that has afflicted Lukas is one of the most powerful. And the only way to defeat it is to reach the concept of curses."

He paused to watch the confusion reflected on Aurora and Schäfer's faces.

"The multiverse is infinite. Infinite universes, infinite possibilities, and every curse is part of it. These curses, created by a concept so entrenched that it cannot be influenced by any single universe. You can't simply stop it by fighting the curses or their source. It's like a wheel that turns. And every time you attack a curse, it only makes room for more. You're too entrenched in this system."

He raised his hand as if to reassure her, but his words sounded more like an irrefutable truth.

"There's no magic formula, no incantation that will help you here. There's no way to lure him out, not really. The next time Lukas appears, just tell him to come. You'll have a tiny, tiny chance—maybe 0.000001 percent—that the concept of curses will respond to you. But even then, if it does, there's no guarantee he'll be interested in you. You must be aware that it doesn't depend on you, but on infinity itself. The curses are another dimension of the universe, and they can't be influenced like humans can."

Joshua took another step back, his demeanor remaining calm and almost indifferent as he continued: "He will either ignore you, like many others, or he will dismiss you as inferior. That is not in your hands, not in mine, and certainly not in the hands of the gods you might think have the answers. They know more, yes, but they also know they can't change anything. You can give him a sign, perhaps, but expect nothing."

He looked at the book still on the table, then back at the two of them. "This is reality, as it is. But I can't promise you anything. You will either find a way or fail, just like everyone else. And while I can't help you, I know one thing: you will never truly know how deep this curse runs."