Jealousy

A cold and empty void was all there was, when it began. Black space, devoid of colour or warmth. When the change came, it began with a mysterious whisper, an eerie howl that sounded from afar, echoing through the darkness. The sound grew, and swelled, taking on a melody, a beautiful, simple lilt that repeated endlessly. This musical entity had no name, no identity or solid body. But from its beauty was born a nebulous cloud of emotion; Happiness.

Happiness filled the empty void of the dark, listening to the sonorous music that birthed it, feeding on the melody, the rhythm and beat. The misty emotion matured into a healthy, colourful fog of yellow light, swirling, pulsing and flowing along to the music. Warmth developed within the veil and soon the coldness of the outside void was replaced by a soft, fuzzy feeling of warm comfort. The cloud grew, and thickened with Joy and Pleasure, Energy and Excitement. It got so big, so strong that within its body, Happiness knew little sprites danced through the fog.

Nymph-like spirits twirled and leaped through the smokey interior of their world, knowing nothing but the Happiness that they sprung from. They came in all sizes and shapes, bouncing and wagging about, spinning with one another in circles. Green and Blue, Red and Gold they explored all colours, transforming to the notes of the music that carried them on and on in their endless cavorting.

As the music continued it's heedless rhapsody and Happiness continued to expand through the darkness of the void, the sprites found that their world was taking on more definite shape and detail. What was once an amorphous, yellow nebula no longer felt so evenly spread. Thicker concentrations of golden-yellow Joy and Pleasure swirled, accumulating greater mass, looming over lighter, airy fields of weaker Happiness. Sprites danced within these growths, occupying the spaces, leaving those without to flit through the diluted mist, seeking more of the emotion.

From without the concentrations, one hungry sprite danced and sang, running mostly on Energy and Excitement, appreciating what Joy and Pleasure it could find. When it suddenly came upon the greatest concentration of Happiness throughout the void, it was in awe. This mass of all the elements shone with a glorious, golden power that stunned the hungry sprite. And within this cloud-within-a-cloud, danced a pair of loving nymphs, hugging, kissing, laughing and playing inside their bubble of sheer ecstasy.

The hungry sprite could not find any Happiness to compare with the explosion of Joy and Pleasure, Energy and Excitement found in that central blob and with a terrible, shuddering convulsion of realization, the starved, minor deity knew an alien feeling; Jealousy was born.

Spoiled, rotten, putrid envy coursed through the sprite's form and stained the mist around it. As it stared up at the golden glow of the massive pillar of Happiness before it, the sprite could only feel its new emotion growing stronger. The warmth that filled the cloud of Happiness now began to feel constricting on the jealous sprite. It choked and gagged on the luke-warm air around it. The music still played on around it, but now it felt different. For the jealous sprite it sounded taunting and sordid. The sprite knew distaste for the first time, not only with the object of its jealousy but with its own envious feeling as well. Desperate to move away from its new green existence the spirit embraced another new feeling, the distaste for the others as well as itself, and Depression was born.

Now depressed, the sprite transformed from green to blue, a deep, dark shade that almost appeared as a hole in the gigantic cloud of Happiness that surrounded it, a little void in the mist. It sulked and sobbed, drenched in tearful sorrow as the spirits all around it continued to dance and play. The heat that had comforted its body began to dissipate, seeping out of its body, leaving it cold and lonely. The music went on, now beautiful, but tragic to the sad sprite's ears. Within their shining globe of concentrated Happiness, the spirit couple danced on and all around them countless other sprites laughed and danced, jumped and sang. The lone, sad sprite went unnoticed, ignored. It felt pain within its form, an aching sensation that drove it beyond sadness to something new, something different from Depression. 'What could be worse than Depression?' the sprite thought. It focused on the pain, the frustration, the Anger.

Blood Red, dripping with fury, burning like an angry star within the soft yellow cosmos around it, the spirit raged in fire of its own making. Now some of the sprites nearby recognized this new, different emotion and wilted in its presence. Fleeing away, the yellow light of Happiness scattered from the red glow of the Angry sprite. Once cold and shivering, the spirit felt hot now, not a comfortable warmth like that of the Happy fog, but a maddening inferno of painful heat. The music had grown fierce and wild, taking on an attitude of violent passion that stirred the Angry spirit. Energized by something other than Happiness, the sprite knew a purpose other than to dance and sing, run and play. It focused on the source of all its terrible changes. Every horrifying revelation it had suffered had come from a single original source. That golden ball of light at the center of everything. And those happy, oblivious lover sprites within.

Pushing through other oblivious sprites of Happiness, the Angry spirit burned its way across the cloud of Happiness, shoved right into the bubble of golden Joy, Pleasure, Energy and Excitement, and attacked the sprite that had triggered the jealousy, the depression and the furious rage. The happy sprite knew nothing of these ugly emotions and was too stunned to react. It was torn apart in second by the furious violence of the Angry spirit.

The shock of the attack rippled through the entire cloud of Happiness. The music stopped and a heavy silence fell over the sprites as their world of yellow Joy, Pleasure, Energy and Excitement began to fade away, fall apart. In the long, empty silence, as the colour and emotions began to fade, a flashing pattern of red and blue lights shone from the far corners of the empty void. Cold, hard feelings came in to take charge. Authority, Judgment and Punishment took hold of the Angry spirit and it felt helpless in the arms of these strong, foreign Gods. It knew yet another emotion as they carried it away into the darkness; Fear.

A loud smack brought Henry back to reality. He jerked up at the sound, pulling his eyes away from his computer screen. Frank Neimen was looming over his desk, glaring down at him. “Henry, I read yer first draft of the raver murder trial. It's a buncha nonesense! I don't know if yer tryin' ta be funny, or just piss me off, but ya better write up a proper report before I can you fer good! Hear me?”

Henry frowned and nodded. His own creative writing did not suit his career as a reporter on the Crime Beat at the Daily News. It was bothersome that he could not put his own ideas into his reports, but there was absolutely no room for it. Every once in a while he just had an explosion of repressed creativity and accidentally turned it in as a draft to his editor.

Oh well, back to work:

Several witnesses saw murder committed first-hand at the underground nightclub, “The Cavern” the morning of August 4th around 3 A.M. These witnesses, including the girlfriend of the victim - actress and alternative model Natasha Vixen - were stunned and confused to see a member of the audience push through the crowd of dancers, climb onto the stage and attack DJ Wolfy, striking him repeatedly with both fists until the victim was dead.

The defendant claimed to be suffering from temporary insanity, induced by a number of different controlled substances and hallucinogenic drugs taken prior to the rave that night. Several doctors and admitted users of the drugs in question were sworn in and testified. They all confirmed that none of the chemicals found in the defendant's system were known to cause negative feelings of any kind and certainly were not consistent with violent crime.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">During his time on the stand, being cross-examined by the prosecution, the defendant admitted to having feelings of jealousy towards the DJ, whose girlfriend he coveted. He also vehemently accused the victim of playing music that manipulated his feelings during the course of the rave, while he was under the influence of drugs.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The defendant accused of the brutal murder of DJ Wolfy was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison without parole.