THE HIDDEN SQUARE
Long before I reached it, I could already hear the noise. I found myself wondering whether the man at its center had been born with iron vocal cords. "Come to me—all of you! Without me, you will never find happiness! You may possess everything, yet without happiness you possess nothing. No joy. No fulfillment. No peace. Without it, you have already lost the entire world!"
The uproar was deafening. The square itself lay hidden behind a ring of old buildings, yet every arcade leading toward it overflowed with people. Endless streams of them poured in from every direction. I won't even try to describe what was happening at the entrances. The shouting. The pushing. Sharp elbows driving into ribs. Threats. Fights. Had there not been grim-faced guards throwing troublemakers aside without hesitation, the crowd would probably have torn itself apart. So I joined the line. If anyone tells you chaos cannot become organized, they have never stood in a place like that. This wasn't disorder. It was something far worse. One man brandished bundles of money. Another flaunted political influence. One relied on brute strength, another on powerful friends. One feigned madness, another pitied himself loudly enough for everyone to hear. Another one cursed, prayed, laughed like a lunatic. No one actually knew what waited inside the Hidden square. The rumor was simple enough: somewhere within, eternal happiness awaited whoever reached it. Perhaps that alone explained the endless procession of people.
I was there out of curiosity. I'd already seen enough of life to suspect the whole tale was absurd.
Weeks passed before I finally reached the gate. What happened during those weeks cannot truly be described. No one would believe it. Sometimes I caught myself wondering whether human dignity had quietly disappeared from the world while nobody was paying attention. "Do you have anything with you?" The voice exploded beside me. A towering man blocked the entrance. His face was covered with angry boils. His was more creature than human. Only his eyes still carried the faintest reminder that he might once have belonged to our species. "No," I answered. "What exactly are you looking for?" He leaned closer. "Watch your mouth." The words came like a growl. Then an enormous hand slammed into my shoulder, driving me into a narrow arcade stretching so far ahead that the darkness swallowed its end. The screams intensified. Instinctively I covered my ears. I looked around. Was I truly the only one disturbed by the shrieking? The only one who could still hear the crying beneath it? A heartbeat later my feet vanished from beneath me.
I crashed onto square floor. Ancient floor. Worn smooth by centuries. For a while I lay there, sprawled on my back like an overturned beetle at the very edge of the Hidden square.Instinctively I shielded my eyes. The sunlight—if it truly was the Sun—burned with an intensity I had never known. It was brighter, harsher, almost merciless. When my vision began to clear, I realized I was no longer alone. Figures surrounded me. They stood in a circle, staring. At first they were little more than silhouettes washed in blinding light. Then their voices reached me, sharp, piercing, demanding: "Who are you?" "Do you know the Keeper?" "I was here first!" "Stop pretending and answer!" Their words struck like needles. The more awareness returned to me, the more vicious their voices became. Slowly, I lowered my hands from my face. One face came into focus. Then another. Then dozens. My stomach lurched. I turned away and retched. Their skin was covered with festering sores. Lips split open and caked with blood. Arms and legs twisted into grotesque shapes, as though their bones had long ago surrendered to some invisible force. Dear God... Where have I come?
Before I could gather myself, that familiar voice rolled across the square once more. Warm. Persuasive. Almost loving. Yet omehow more terrifying than any scream: "Come to me, all of you! Without me, you will never find happiness! You may possess everything, yet without happiness you possess nothing. No joy. No fulfillment. No peace. Without it, you have already lost the whole world!" I pushed myself to my feet. Without another thought I shoved one man aside. Kicked another out of my way. A third reached for me—I struck his arm aside and forced my way through the crowd. I only wanted out. But...Out where? People. Nothing but people. An endless sea of them. Only then did I look back. The square was fed by nine great arcades, each opening onto it from a different direction. Each glowed with its own distinct color. Above every arch was an unfamiliar symbol carved into the stone. I had neither the desire nor the courage to stop and decipher them. Encircling the square stood strange old houses. Every window stood open. Figures leaned from them. I searched for a word...
The ground beneath my feet sloped downward. At first almost imperceptibly. Then more steeply. Then suddenly... it dropped. The entire square was shaped like a vast stone funnel. People weren't walking toward its center. They were sliding. Falling. Tumbling helplessly downward. Some desperately clawed at the pavement. Others clung to one another, only to drag each other even faster toward the middle. No one escaped the pull. At the very center stood a massive stone altar. And behind it... I still struggle to describe what I saw. It had... nine legs, nine arms, nine eyes and nine teeth. Nothing more. Nothing less. For one impossible moment I wondered whether I was the only person seeing its true form. "Come to me, all of you! Without me, you will never find happiness! You may possess everything, yet without happiness you possess nothing. No joy. No fulfillment. No peace. Without it, you have already lost the entire world!" Its voice echoed endlessly across the stone walls.
Upon the altar lay nine heavy lids. People whispered that beneath only one of them rested the Stone of Happiness. Whoever uncovered it would be granted everlasting bliss. So they believed. That was enough. The slope drew people relentlessly toward the altar. The nearer they came, the steeper the descent became. Many lost their footing long before reaching it, smashing against the massive slab of stone with sickening force. Some never managed to touch a single lid. The moment they struck the altar, they slipped through a gaping opening beneath it and vanished into darkness. No one ever climbed back out. The sound that rose from below... I would not wish it upon another living soul. Only now, beneath the merciless brilliance of the light, did I finally notice what littered the magnificent cobblestones of the square. Banknotes. Millions of them. Bricks of gold. Share certificates. Jewels. Contracts. Titles. Deeds. JUST A MESS!
I looked back toward the arcades. There was no returning that way. The human tide pouring into the square had become an nbroken wall of bodies. No one could force a passage through it. Then my gaze wandered upward. The windows. The figures leaning from them. Now I saw them clearly. Some spat upon the crowd below. Others hurled foul refuse into the sea of people. Still others relieved themselves openly, laughing as the filth rained down. Dear God... Could no one else see what was happening?
There was only one way out.I knew it before my mind dared admit it. I sprang toward one of the old houses and caught the stone frame of an open window. My fingers found the upper ledge. I pulled myself onto the narrow sill. For a moment I waited. Listening. Watching. Calculating. Below me the crowd had become so dense that it no longer resembled people. It looked like a living surface. A single breathing organism. There was no space between them. No room to fall. Only then did I jump. I landed on shoulders. Then heads. The mass beneath me held. I began to run. I no longer cared if I tore someone's ear away. Or crushed another's hand beneath my boot. The slope grew steeper beneath the shifting sea of bodies. I ran faster. Faster than I believed possible. If I stumbled even once... With one final leap I reached the altar. Faces twisted upward in fury. I kicked them away. Stamped on grasping fingers. Then I turned to the nine stone lids. Without hesitation I began hurling them aside. One. Another. A third. Each crashed across the altar like thunder. The crowd gasped. Then... everything stopped - no screaming, no pushing, no hatred. Silence. Absolute silence.
The chosen stone lay beneath the last remaining lid. Of course it did. Without wasting another heartbeat, I snatched the stone from its resting place and turned back the way I had come. Silence still ruled the square. Not a soul moved. The countless faces remained frozen, their empty eyes fixed upon me. Halfway across the altar I felt them. Behind me. The slow, dreadful reach of those nine arms. Not touching me. Not yet. But close enough for my skin to crawl. And those eyes... Nine unblinking eyes burning into my back. I refused to look. I would not give them that. The stone pulsed in my hand. It shone with a strange white radiance, so brilliant that I could no longer tell whether it illuminated the square—or blinded everyone within it. Its heat bit into my palm. Still I held it. I leapt from the altar onto the motionless heads beneath me. No one resisted. No one reached for me. The crowd simply parted before me as if trapped inside some terrible enchantment. The stone burned hotter. Its light began to fade. Just a little. People were waking. I threw myself into the nearest arcade. Darkness swallowed me at once. The passage seemed impossibly long. Longer than before. Perhaps it had always been this way. Perhaps fear had stretched it into infinity.
I ran. My lungs burned. Sweat poured into my eyes. Every breath scraped my throat raw. The stone scorched my hand until I could scarcely feel my fingers. Its light dimmed with every stride. Then - light. Not the blinding brilliance of the square. Real daylight. Soft. Living. I burst from the arcade and collapsed onto open ground. I have never understood how the people outside learned of my escape.
Yet they had. When I raised my head, they were already there. A vast circle enclosed me on every side. The circle tightened. The air seemed to vanish. I was spinning around. Once. Twice. Again. My arm shot upward. With all the strength I had left, I hurled the Stone of Happiness back toward the hidden square. It soared high above the ancient rooftops. Above the weathered tenements. Above the walls that had concealed the square from the world.
I watched it vanish into the distance. Only then did I collapse. The pressure eased. The people seemed to lose what little reason they had left. Without a word, they began climbing. Walls. Window frames. Cornices. Balconies. Anything that promised even the smallest advantage. Millions of them clawed their way upward over the old buildings, scrambling after the Stone of Happiness. This... This was my fault. I should never have entered that square. Not out of curiosity. Not for any reason. My body shook. I was drenched in sweat. Every muscle ached. For a long while I remained where I had fallen, breathing in ragged gasps. Eventually... I stood. Slowly. Carefully. For the first time since entering the square, I drew a full breath. The air felt different. Lighter. I rubbed my eyes. The harsh brilliance that had blinded me was gone.
The daylight had softened. The world had regained its outlines. I could finally see. Really see. Then I looked down. At the ground beneath my feet. And I froze. Stones. Countless stones. They covered the earth in every direction. Thousands. Millions. Perhaps infinitely more. Every one of them identical to the Stone of Happiness. At last... I could see. Clearly. I walked on. After a few steps I gave one of the stones a gentle kick. It stung a little. Old wounds always do. But I kept walking. I always do. I never remain. Never. There is still too much left to tell this world.
