The First Ballad- Dear Death

After the entire chaotic episode, I was standing back at the beach.

'Is this like my dream terminal or something? Did I earn any points? Can I buy spells to upgrade my armor?' I pondered on how my dreams seemed more like being stuck in a video game.

The burning ship was gone, instead, I saw the narrator sitting cross-legged, dazed in some thought while staring at the ocean.

'Would he be surprised if I sneak up on him?' I thought.

"No, I won't be surprised. I told you I can read your thoughts, this is your subconscious world, here I can read your every movement," he spoke bored.

'Hmph', I walked up to him and asked if I had passed the first trial or not.

"... I don't know, it's not up to me to decide, I am a mere narrator after all."

"Are you saying that there is someone else that is making the decisions?"

He nodded his head in agreement. His green eyes were still fixed on the ocean ahead.

"Who might that be?" I tried getting an answer out of him.

"Well, some call them angels..."

"ANGELS? Am I dead? Am I in the afterlife?!" I was flustered. I stood in front of him so that he could pay attention to me. "Alright Mister, you have some explaining to do, what exactly is going on?"

He rested his face on his hand and spoke slowly," For starters, you are not dead."

"Oh Thank God!"

"You are stuck in the REM stage of your dreams."

'This little piece of ..'

"Or rather dreaming is similar to being in a coma. Your soul has left the body to be in the dream realm. Of course, if you take longer to finish your trials your physical body will eventually die."

"And I can't escape because of these damn trials?"

"Correct"

"Why am I taking the trials in the first place?"

"..." he paused and his eyes met mine at last. "As the first ballad said, you are the Appointed one"

"Oh yeah, what does that mean, appointed by whom? To do what exactly?"

"Every human being dreams at night when they sleep. Yet most of them do not remember dreaming when they wake up. But you were born of the very few who could enter the dream world and retain the memories of this place in great detail. Simply put, no matter how hard we try, we cannot erase the events that take place here."

"Um, is that like a special skill or something? Isn't that extra mental baggage that I have to carry?"

"You have been appointed, as you are one of few who actually can carry this mental baggage. Or at least that's what we thought before you came waddling back in here. You are the only person who can repress your memories, that or you're probably under hypnosis", he scoffed at how ludicrous the entire idea was.

"I don't really understand what the point of all this is. Wouldn't it be better to just get stuck in a video game, at least I could've maxed out my armor or something when being hit by an explosion" I frowned at him for not explaining anything clearly before?

"I still don't understand what the 'trial' is or what I am doing here in the first place."

"You will understand soon enough," he got up from where he was sitting and I noticed that he was wearing black robes and white gloves.

"Do all narrators wear clothes like butlers? Or is this your style?"

He shot an agonizing look at me and took steps forward till his face was inches away from mine. Surprised, I froze in place. He leaned his face near me and tilted his head in front of my ear and whispered, "You are the last person who should be asking that".

The world seemed to have stopped while he slightly bit my ear lobe, such that a drop of blood appeared. He nibbed it and slowly backed off saying, "You are so mean to me Mary, this was payback".

I was still frozen in place, baffled by what unexpected things happened all of a sudden.

"Okay then don't just stand there, the next trial is about to start, so pick a door," he said.

I lifted my head to see that I was now in a corridor of sorts, with unnumbered rooms.

The doors were of three colors. Red, Blue, Black. So sticking with my guts, I finally decided to pick a blue door. Hopefully, this would bring me luck. I closed my eyes and quickly entered the room, and the narrator's voice could be heard.

"The Second Trial has just begun"