Chapter 2 - Continuation of a Dream

Gasp. Lunging off of the couch, I took a deep breath in and exhaled, placing a hand on my eye. My eye was there though. In shock I jumped up from the couch and realized my legs were perfectly fine. Was that a dream I thought, trying to dismiss the ultra realism that I could vividly remember. Everything felt so realistic, and the pain in the dream didn't even wake me up. I pushed away the chance it wasn't a dream and hoped for the best. I wasn't thirsty like I was in the dream and didn't really feel like leaving the safe comfort of the room, remembering the horrors of the darkness and still fresh fear from my dream.

I conclusively decided it was best to stay put till morning and then explain to the owner everything that had happened then. Huddling into the corner of the couch I took out my phone and found it still frozen on the alert screen like I had seen earlier. wait, that's weird. I only saw that after I was in the dream. Guessing it was down to luck that such a detail had stayed intact in both worlds, I huddled near to the light, hoping to retain whatever heat I could till the morning. Passing the time, listening to the patterns of the rain and distance of the storm through the thunder, I began to grow bored. After an hour I grew tired and started trying to keep my eyes open in fear of a monster that shouldn't exist. Shadows started playing tricks on my mind in the drowsy fog that was my consciousness. I saw people dancing across the walls. flashes of people like shapes made by the bed columns. Even a hand that slowly stretched from under the bed.

Keeping my eyes on the hand, something felt wrong. Where was the shadow coming from? It was too late to notice that it wasn't a shadow as a head popped out from under the bed and looked directly at me with two fully white pupils. All of a sudden the shadow pulled itself out from under the bed with its arms and left behind a viscous trail of an unknown black substance. All the while I was frozen in fear. Claws on it's hands gauged marks into the floor as it slowly edged towards me. It grabbed my leg and stretched its mouth wide open revealing layers of teeth, into an endless abyss that could eat forever. I began kicking my leg around aware of the shadow's intent but still unable to move in my frozen fear. The shadow opened and closed it's mouth as fast as a rabbit, chomping on the end of my leg as it decreased in length like a pencil in an electric sharpener. I thrashed about in an attempt to loosen the creatures grip however my right leg was halfway missing at this point and the pain had almost made me fall unconscious. That would have been nice.

Contrarily, I did not lose consciousness and instead experienced my lower torso being ripped apart as my intestines struggled away, free of my body, leaving blood staining the couch, my shirt and the shadow. Only when my heart had a ring of teeth surrounding it, did I die, screaming in pain, and coughing up blood from when my lungs had been pierced by the beast.

I awoke screaming to the lack of pain. My legs were flailing around and my torso fully intact, with intestines in the right place and all. I backed away from the bed on the opposite side of the wall. fully aware of what was under it. I attempted to get up but my legs tripped and I fell head first into the floor, looking directly under the bed. There was nothing there. Stumbling upwards holding onto the door handle as a prop, I needed to get out this place. There was nothing remotely safe about this place, and as far as I knew, my chances were better in the storm.

Leaving the room I remembered the horror that would await me if I went further left, or my current right, and decided to head back to the main entrance. The rain complimented my thoughts as I wondered what was happening and if I had truly died twice. Could that even be possible? I had heard of people awakening great powers before such as the ability to turn invisible or create water from thin air, but never come back from the dead. Furthermore, monsters hadn't existed in hundreds of years, when awakeners or people who used mana were much more common. Nothing made sense at this point in time, yet I distinctively remembered the fear and pain of the creatures killing me in the gruesome ways.

"Fuck this" I mouthed, and started sprinting full speed towards the entrance in the dark. A few hours ago I was scared of the dark, but now I was terrified of what could be in the dark. What felt like three minutes of full sprinting later and I arrived in the main entrance and found the pleasant surprise of a completely different room. Or not. The room was in fact the same, however the stairs were completely destroyed, the velvet carpet torn apart, and the main doors were completely flung open, barely hanging by their hinges. A ravaged pathway led down the opposite hallway, showing my terrible luck, working in my favour for once.

Not that it mattered though. I had learnt my lesson. Knowing the danger in the mansion, why not leave? I stepped out into the cold and humid air, readying myself for the storm. I could feel the incredible speed of the wind and put my hand out into the rain. The rain was so incredibly freezing that my hand stiffened up from just a few raindrops. Nonetheless, like hell I was staying in the mansion. Going back in briefly, I grabbed a piece of the torn velvet carpet, to use as an umbrella. I quickly put on my jumper and strolled into the rain with the carpet above my head.

My shoes squelched in the mud, as I treaded back towards the rusted gate. It made another horrible creaking sound, however this time I reacted to it looking around the mansion, hoping to see nothing. I saw nothing, yet in actuality, the place was so dark that even if there was something, I wouldn't know. I followed my original path backwards and was met by the trees that loomed high above my head yet again.

The temporary umbrella had lost it's usefulness with the icy water dripping through onto me. I shivered as a drop went down the back of my shirt and traced my spine. I decided I should head under the trees for more coverage from the rain but as I stepped into the forest, the atmosphere changed and the storm seemed to pause. Fog billowed out from the Horizon, as I stood petrified by the events around me. I couldn't see anything yet I knew that the woods were worse than the mansion in a split second. My mind roared at me to move, yet I physically couldn't. The minimal and slow movement my head allowed, revealed a huge swarm, of thousands of semi - human creatures, surrounding me. Yet they were not human. Their skin looked rotten and paler than a human's, and they held tools constructed of pure mana.

A terrifying beast capable of decimating countries when in huge flocks. A beast that I had learnt about in history. It was intelligent, and had physical capabilities many times greater than an average human. A zoblin, feared even when it was by itself. The flock rushed towards me at speeds that were difficult for my eyes to track. Many arrows of pure mana shot into my lungs, stomach, and thighs, yet before I died another painful and horrible death a zoblin spared me, with one quick slash across my neck from a shapeless stick of mana, imbued with lightning. My head fell to the floor and my heart stopped beating for the third time.