Dungeon Item Shop: Chapter 1 (rewrite)*

“I hate myself.”

The girl lays in her bed, huddled tightly together into a ball, her hands fidgeting with a single coin that had been laying there. The drab curtains, drawn tightly shut over the windows, obscure the bright morning daylight, causing the room to be lost in a nigh-complete darkness; save for the blinking of a single red LED in the distant corner. The air in the room is stale, but cold. It was winter and her heater was off. But she wasn’t lying under the blankets, she was laying on top of them. It was uncomfortably cold for her, in just her pajamas, the pajamas that she had been wearing for the last sixteen hours. Add a day or two. That was okay though. She couldn’t explain why, but she wanted it to be uncomfortable. Somehow, the minor self-inflicted suffering made her feel.

Just feel. Not feel something better. Not something worse. Just something. Anything.

She closes her eyes, laying there for a time; numb, but not as numb as she had hoped to be. Until eventually, the all encompassing weight of sleep presses her conscious mind out and away into an ocean of nothingness, somewhere where even the feelings of the cold are lost in the depths as they sink down together and part ways.

There is a trickle of water in her dream, she fidgets, the sound makes her feel like she needs to use the bathroom. She opens her eyes.

Everything is white.

Her room is gone. Her bed is gone. There is only herself, standing in a giant, empty blank space. But the water, where is the sound coming from? She turns and sees it then, a fountain. A simple fountain like you’d see in any old park, stone-wrought and ornate, but covered in the kinds of esoteric decorations that you would find ‘neat’ but nothing more than that. It was a fountain like any other really. She walked towards it. As she moved though, she noticed that her body didn’t feel right. It was light and floaty, just like running in a dream.

In a dream? She looks at her hands. Oh. It’s just a dream.

Her body is gone, there is simply a vague, colorless blob in a roughly human shape where she should be. The only thing distinct left about her, is the single coin still held between her fingers. She looks at it and back to the fountain. Well… It seems like the obvious thing to do, right?

With a flick of her thumb, the coin flies through the air, flying just a bit too high and hitting the upper part of the fountain, before splashing down to sleep with all the rest of them, down below the surface.

Instantly, the white room vanishes and so does she. A woman’s voice rings out in her mind, clear like a spring brook.

“Hey, you there. Did you drop this diamond ring in my fountain?” it asks.

Huh?

She floats there and sees the image of a luxurious diamond-studded ring in her mind’s eye, a pale hand holding it out towards her. It must be worth a fortune, she thinks. More money than she had ever seen before. “Here, you can have it back,” says the voice and extends the hand further towards herself.

She floats there and looks at it, her heart beats a little faster and she feels the phantom sensation of her own hand rising up to take it, even if she doesn’t have a body anymore. She stops. The dreamy sensation of her arm moving like before made her think the strange thought, that this feeling, this floaty feeling of moving in a dream was the same as being underwater. This darkness, it isn’t a void or some light-less dream-scape. It was underwater. She shivered. The cold of her room, that had sank down together with her, reaching her here now. Its familiar bite brought clarity to her mind, it returned her truth to her senses. This ring was too nice for her to have. She didn’t deserve it.

“No, it’s not mine,” says the girl and lowers her hand.

The water stirs. The voice cries out, pleased. “Ahh! It’s been a while since I had someone honest here!” In contrast with its own excitement, it yawns, somewhat sleepily. “Let me reward you for your honesty, is there anything that you want?” asks the voice, drifting lazily around her shapeless body in a circle.

Anything? What did that mean? Anything? Like, literally anything? Well, what did it matter… It was just a dream. A strange dream that would make her have to run to the bathroom straight after she woke up, but a dream nonetheless. The girl floats there silently for a time.
“Can I have my coin back?” she asks.

“No,” says the voice clearly, now less sleepy, as if having been provoked. “You can wish for anything but that. No refunds.” 

“Oh…” she says, feeling her body-less self turn upside down, as she floats idly in the murk.

“Can you make me happy?”

“No. I can’t do that either,” says the voice of the water, fairly matter of factly.

“Huh? You said I could wish for anything and now there are two things you’re telling me I can’t wish for.”

The voice sighs. “Listen, happiness isn’t something I can make, you have to make it yourself. You have to work for it. Nothing from the outside can fix that fact of the universe. I’d say take a nap, but… hmm… of course my first donation in this long would end up being a tricky one… Uh…” the being thinks.

It was strange, hearing an omnipresent spiritual being say ‘hmm’ and ‘uh’, the girl felt resignation inside. Not even her dreams could be exciting anymore. She just wanted to go back to that dark-place between wakefulness and sleep. To that empty where she wasn’t there anymore. That was a dark wish, now that she thought about it. But it was her true wish. That would be nice. She would like that actually, a lot. The girl opened her mouth.

“Can yo-“

“Ah! I got it!” interrupts the voice. “You want your money back and you want to be happy, huh? Well, have I got a deal for you! Are you ready?”

The girl floated, not even agitated at being interrupted. “I.. Uh.. I guess?”

“You want to earn happiness, right?” asks the voice.

“Yeah…” she responds, with some uncertainty.

“Then it’s settled. Good luck!”

“Huh, wai-!”

There is a loud click in the water, as if someone had snapped their fingers and everything vanishes in an instant once more, as her soul is hurtled into the darkness; spiraling towards some place far off and away from her old life. The drone of rushing water roars all around her, intermingling with a tiny jingle that never seems to leave her ears; the sound of a fistful of clinking coins.

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Dungeon Item Shop was a story I had that only survived 3 chapters before I put it on hiatus, because I couldn't get into the writing. It felt janky and really, really bad. But something has clicked and I think I figured it out. So I'm rewriting it as of now =)