Chapter 1: The Ecstasy of the Void
The last thing I remember wasn't the cold grip of death; it was the rhythmic, desperate, and utterly wet sounds of flesh hitting flesh. The kitchen was hot, the air thick with the scent of roasted garlic and the underlying, sharp musk of illicit sweat. I had my neighbor's wife, Elena, pinned against her granite kitchen counter. Her back was arched at an impossible angle, her fingers clawing at the smooth stone as she tried to stifle her screams.
Outside, the world was a ticking time bomb. I could hear the rhythmic clack-clack-clack of her husband's work boots on the concrete driveway. He was early. The adrenaline of the risk—the sheer, heart-pounding terror of being caught—was a drug more potent than anything I'd ever snorted or swallowed. It made every nerve ending in my body scream with a hyper-sensitivity that was almost painful.
Elena's eyes were blown wide, fixed on the kitchen door. "Julian... he's... he's right there..." she whimpered, but she didn't push me away. Instead, she wrapped her legs tighter around my waist, pulling me into her with a frantic, suicidal greed.
I was right on the edge, pouring every ounce of my life force into her, when my heart gave a final, violent thud. It felt like an iron fist had clenched inside my chest and twisted. The world didn't fade; it shattered into a blinding, incandescent white.
I didn't wake up in a sterile hospital room smelling of bleach. I woke up in a void. There was no floor, no ceiling, just an endless expanse of grey mist that felt like cold silk against my skin.
"Quite the exit, Julian," a smooth, mocking voice rang out, echoing as if from a thousand miles away and right next to my ear at the same time.
I spun around, my nakedness feeling strangely irrelevant in this place. Standing a few paces away was a man who looked like the devil's favorite lawyer. He wore a black suit that seemed to absorb the light, a silk tie the color of fresh arterial blood, and a pair of polished shoes that reflected the nothingness around us. His eyes held an amused glint, the look of a man watching a particularly entertaining insect.
"You have a singular talent for taking things that don't belong to you," he said, pacing a slow circle around me. "The neighbor's wife, the company's funds, the trust of every 'friend' you've ever had. You're a predator of the mundane, Julian."
"Where am I?" I rasped, my voice sounding thin.
"In the waiting room of the damned," he replied with a sharp grin. "But you're in luck. The world I'm sending you to is full of 'noble' men, 'virtuous' knights, and 'faithful' wives who pray to gods of light. It's painfully boring. It lacks... spice. I want you to go down there, build a sanctuary for the shadows, and remind them what true, filthy desire feels like. I want you to be the itch they can't scratch, the sin they can't confess."
He snapped his fingers, and a massive, ornate slot machine materialized out of the mist. It was fashioned from dark wood and gold, decorated with carvings of writhing bodies and weeping eyes.
"Every Great Master needs a tool," the God remarked. "Pull the lever. Let's see what the fates have in store for a man of your... tastes."
I stepped forward, my hand trembling slightly. I still felt the phantom heat of Elena's skin, the ghost of her heartbeat against my chest. I pulled the heavy brass lever. The reels spun with a sound like grinding teeth.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The symbols aligned. A rod entwined with silver serpents and topped with a glowing, pulsing amethyst.
[Item Obtained: Wife-Stealing Rod]
"A predatory tool for a man who knows exactly what he wants," the God laughed, the sound booming like thunder. "It doesn't just dominate, Julian. It resonates. It finds the cracks in a woman's vows and turns them into canyons. It takes the love she has for another and curdles it into a dark, obsessive hunger for you."
He waved his hand, and the void began to dissolve. The grey mist turned into a rushing torrent of color and sound.
"Go, Julian. Turn their holy kingdom into your personal harem. Make them scream your name in the cathedrals of their gods."
The last thing I saw was his predatory smile before the floor fell away and I plummeted into the light.