Lazlo and Brixen were not like humans. They had no tangible bodies or worldly occupations. They were composed of dark matter, a substance that escaped human senses and hid from plain sight, existing in the shadows of reality. Their forms were abstract, like blurry outlines that flickered between the visible and the invisible, reflecting flashes in some spectrum of light that no human eye could perceive.

To humanity, so primitive and ignorant of the structure of the universe, they were simply ghosts. And to be like Lazlo and Brixen, the Earth was just a big playground. And human beings, simple and empty, were considered almost as important as an insect.

The life of Lazlo and Brixen was one of perpetual leisure. These beings, who lived between the fourth and fifth dimensions, had no need to eat, sleep or work. Their existence was reduced to observing, to floating through space and time, to laughing at human clumsiness.

Beings from the fourth and fifth dimensions could embody themselves to be seen by humans. And when they did, they could be perceived as ghostly figures or as ordinary humans, depending on their own will. It was known throughout the galaxies of the universe that any being could project itself into the lower dimensions, so ethereal entities could embody themselves depending on the context.

To these fourth- and fifth-dimensional beings, who belonged to the different castes of ethereals, humans were fascinating and predictable creatures, full of repressed desires, hidden frustrations, and emotions bubbling just beneath the surface.

Lazlo and Brixen, friends since time immemorial, belonged to the ancient Yaksha caste who, to avoid eternal boredom, entertained themselves by manipulating humans as if they were pieces in a great strategy game.

Lazlo was a cunning, devious creature who to exploit the small, repressed desires liked that people tried to hide. He loved to take a fleeting thought, an almost forgotten longing, and turn it into an all-consuming obsession. His style was subtle, almost poetic, like a whisper in the mind that made people believe that all their bad decisions were their own ideas. “Do you really need to go on that diet?” he would murmur in his victim’s head, and he would smile as he watched them give in to temptation. His delight lay in the elegance of his manipulations, in how he could convince people that their most destructive impulses were rational.

Brixen, on the other hand, was direct, sarcastic, and loved to sow chaos. He didn’t have Lazlo’s patience for delicate mind games; he preferred to provoke dramatic and explosive situations. His fun was in pushing people just as they were on the edge of the cliff, giving them that little nudge that set off a series of disasters. “What if you make a bold decision today?” he would insinuate into the mind of someone who had endured the same boring routine for years. And then he would sit back and enjoy the show as it all fell apart. To Brixen, human life was a tragicomedy that needed more drama to be truly entertaining.

They were both artists of temptation. They had honed their skills at implanting thoughts and ideas into human minds undetected, triggering emotions that pulsed through the subconscious of their victims. Like shadows, they glided through the streets, sneaking into offices, homes, bars, and parks, always looking for new targets they could make dance to their capricious whims. While humans believed they were making free choices, Lazlo and Brixen pulled the invisible strings that controlled the subconscious, all the while laughing silently as they watched the tragedies they themselves had brought about unfold.

One beautiful summer night, bored with their empty, routine lives, Lazlo and Brixen were floating above a fully illuminated human city, watching the little figures coming and going. They stared intently at these pathetic, comical beings as if they were looking at an anthill.

-”This is getting boring,” Brixen said, stretching out like an ink blot across the sky. “We always end up with the same story: people falling into temptation, ruining their lives, and regretting it later. We need something different, something more fun.”

Lazlo smirked as his dark figure flickered in the gloom. “A bet, perhaps?” he said playfully. “You pick one, I’ll pick the other. Let’s see who can get their ‘target’ to do the most clever and entertaining blunder in ... let’s say thirty days.”

Brixen leaned forward, as if sensing an exciting idea in the air. “I like it. But no cheap tricks. These should be complex situations, full of nuances. The more ridiculous and outrageous, the better. Who wins? The one who causes the most suffering?”

-”No, no, no”- Lazlo answers with a touch of sophistication in his voice -”Suffering is just one part. Creativity counts. Elegance, surprise. It should be something that makes us laugh and cry at the same time.”- Brixen gave a dark chuckle. “Perfect. Then the bet is made.”

And so, the game began once again for the friends. Lazlo and Brixen split up, each looking for a new ‘ target ‘. After observing several humans, snooping through their thoughts and rummaging through their emotions, he settled on Laura, an empowered and beautiful woman who seemed to have everything under control on the surface, but who hid a weariness and boredom that he could barely bear. For Brixen, the victim would be Carlos, a dark office worker with a life so routine that he had forgotten his last smiles of joy long ago.

The two friends from the Yaksha caste prepared to start their fun, with the promise that this time it would not be just a game of temptations. They had to achieve a masterpiece of manipulation, which would leave terrible marks on humans. Both were determined to win.

Lazlo decided that his game with Laura would be a masterpiece of seduction and that it would exploit her secret desire to stand out. The woman had spent years of her life being the responsible, efficient, and almost invisible person that everyone expected her to be. She followed a predictable routine that took her to work, home, cooking, sleeping, and repeating her activities in a terrifyingly routine rhythm. She always dressed in comfortable, discreet clothes, and had learned not to stand out so as not to attract attention. However, Lazlo had seen within her a small spark of dissatisfaction, a barely perceptible desire to break the rules and stand out, to achieve something that made her feel different.

Lazlo crept into her mind like a gentle breeze, whispering ideas that blended with her own thoughts. “What would be wrong with someone noticing you, with you standing out for your differences?” For days he planted seemingly harmless ideas as Laura strolled through the mall or surfed the internet, coming across little phrases that pushed her to fantasize about a more colorful and glamorous life. “Why can’t you treat yourself? After all, you work hard ... You deserve something special.” Slowly, the ideas began to grow and, like a seed, took root in her mind. Lazlo encouraged Laura to look at shop windows with luxurious and extravagant clothes, shiny dresses and jewelry she would never have considered wearing before.

Laura began to feel tempted. She told herself it was just curiosity, but soon she found excuses to go back to the mall. One day, while standing in front of a mirror in a fancy store, she tried on a gold dress that clung to her body and called attention for its ostentation and sensuality. It didn’t fit at all with her usual style, but there was something about the image that reflected back to her that she liked. It was as if, for an instant, she was someone else, someone bolder and more provocative, a woman who wasn’t afraid of being seen. “Just this once,” she said to herself, as she swiped her credit card to buy it, ignoring the twinge of guilt that a part of her brain was trying to reveal. Lazlo smiled, knowing that the first step towards temptation had been taken.

Meanwhile, Brixen was busy with Carlos, but his approach was far less gentle than Lazlo’s. Carlos was a man trapped in the monotony of a job he hated, leading a life that seemed to have no way out. His frustration grew with each passing day, and Brixen could feel that pent-up energy building up, waiting to be released. Unlike his friend Lazlo, Brixen liked to make things explode all at once. He knew that he didn’t need to convince Carlos with soft words; he just needed to push him into a situation that would lead him to act on full impulse.

-”What would you do if you could experience something exciting, just once?”- she whispered in his ear, as Carlos sat at his desk staring at the same screen he had seen for years. While attending boring meetings and in the midst of endless commutes, Brixen planted fleeting images in his mind: a vision of adventure, the feeling of risk, the taste of forbidden desire. Soon, those images begin to take a more defined form: the image of Veronica, his boss’s wife, with whom he often exchanged glances at company meetings. Stolen glances filled with a repressed latent tension.

Brixen intensified the temptation, pushing Carlos to make impulsive decisions. “Just an innocent chat,” Carlos thought when he approached Veronica during a corporate event. “Nothing wrong with a simple conversation.” But Brixen made sure the chat flowed into something more. He slipped into his victim’s mind that this might be his only chance to feel alive, to do something off-script. Carlos began to let himself go, initiating a series of furtive encounters with Veronica that became increasingly risky. Brixen’s whispers encouraged him to take bigger risks. “What’s life without a little danger? What’s love if it doesn’t feel forbidden?”

For Lazlo and Brixen, this was just the beginning. The two invisible beings watched from the shadows as Laura and Carlos became more and more entangled in their own decisions, knowing that they only needed to keep up the pressure to see their lives begin to fall apart. For them, it was an exquisite game, a chess game in which humans were the pieces and they were the strategists. What they didn’t know was that they weren’t the only players in that game, and that someone else had begun to pull the strings on the board without them suspecting it.

Lazlo and Brixen floated in the gloom of the city, invisible to everyone but themselves. They came to the edge of a tall building, staring into the windows of apartments, offices and shops, as if they were television screens tuned to different channels showing the human drama.

Lazlo laughed mockingly – “Look at that, Brixen. Laura is about to open another letter from the bank. How many times have they warned her to stop buying unnecessary things? And yet, there she is ... one bill after another. The poor thing can barely keep calm.” –

Brixen laughed in tune with his friend - “Ah, it’s glorious! Do you realize that just a month ago, she was the most restrained of all? The typical ‘responsible person’ who never went over budget. And now, look at her. All thanks to you, friend. What did you tell her? That life was too short to save?” -

Lazlo replied, “Something along those lines. I just needed to plant the idea that she was missing out on everything. And it worked like a charm! Every time she tried on a dress, I could feel her convincing herself that this was what would give her the thrill she was looking for. And now ... she has more clothes in her closet than there are days in the month to wear them.” He laughed in satisfaction.

Brixen spluttered heartily – “Ha! And meanwhile, Carlos ... oh, Carlos. He never imagined that his monotonous life would take such an exciting turn. Look how he gets nervous every time someone mentions his boss. It’s like he expects someone to find out at any moment. But still ... he can’t resist.”

Both beings looked towards a brightly lit office in the center of the city. Carlos was sitting at his desk, sweating as he checked his phone, worried about a text he just got from Veronica.

Lazlo sighed in delight - “Ah ... the sweet sound of panic. It’s like music to my ears. You know, we could sell tickets to this. ‘Watch a man ruin his life in real time!’ “ -

Brixen smiled deeply, “Yes, but the best part of all is how easy it was. I just had to remind him that he was stuck in a rut, and he did the rest. He threw himself into Veronica’s arms as if it were the adventure he’d been waiting for his whole life. And now ... he’s caught in his own web. Secret messages, sneaky dates, lies. Who needs soap operas when you can see this?”

Lazlo said –”Well, we can’t forget about the other little details. See that guy waiting outside Carlos’s office? He’s a private investigator his boss hired. And here’s the best part: he didn’t even have to suspect Carlos, but Veronica. Everything is going to collapse like a house of cards in a hurricane. What a great ending to the plot!”- Brixen couldn’t help but laugh – “Amazing! And here I thought some humans were good at planning. But look how they trip over their own feet, again and again. They don’t need a push, just a little whisper here and there, and boom! They’re lost.” –

Lazlo leaned forward, watching as Laura took another call from the debt collector. She stared at the phone, too anxious to answer.

-”What I love is that it all seems so ... mundane. What could be more ordinary than debt? But that little detail is eating away at her entire life. Her marriage is in jeopardy, she’s had constant arguments with her husband about her spending, and to top it off, she’s starting to lie to cover it up. All for dresses she didn’t even want in the first place. Art, pure art!” Lazlo shook his head in delight.

Brixen said thoughtfully –”Hard to know who will fall first. Say. Carlos is playing with fire, but Laura ... she is one step away from breaking down. Maybe she will reach the point of breaking first. But you know what ... why choose? We can enjoy both at the same time.” –