Part Three

I was walking in an unknown place with nothing but green land. I can't tell how long, but it felt like an eternity.

At some point, I finally saw something far away. It looked like a castle. Our castle. I ran and ran and ran towards it, but it looked like the more I ran, the further away it became. I didn't know what was happening.

Suddenly the castle seemed to come towards me. So fast that I couldn't react. The moment where it would have hit me, I found myself inside the castle.

I woke up in a room that was supposed to be a royal chamber, but it didn't look like any room in our court. I looked around and saw myself in the mirror with the clothes and crown of a king.

Although everything that happened was so weird, I was surprisingly calm. To find out more, I went outside but couldn't find anything.

After some time, I started hearing voices and followed them. I found myself in front of a small door that didn't fit the architecture of the building.

Stepping into the room, the scenery changed again. The sun was shining bright, and there were so many people outside. I walked around the town, and it felt familiar even though I didn't know where I was.

From a distance, I heard someone calling for me. Without knowing why, I started feeling the urge to run toward that voice. I was sure I had heard it somewhere.

Finally reaching the voice, the lively town became silent, and only one man remained. The voice calling my name belonged to the man I had killed the other day. He stood there without doing anything but smiling.

I was relieved that he was alive. I asked him who he was and how he was still alive. I asked him what happened that day. But he just stood there. I started to get anxious. What was happening?

Taking the first step toward him, he finally spoke: "I am not alive Zane," "You killed me, remember?" … What? Without being able to react, he started repeating it again and again "You killed me. You killed me. You killed me, Zane. You did."

My head started to hurt. I fell to the ground with all the pain and told him to stop. "Stop. Please, Stop! Please! Please…." He didn't stop. I begged him. But he didn't stop. It even became louder and louder.

Everything around me started to disappear till I found myself in a black void without any sound. Although I couldn't see, feel, or do anything, it was better than being there.

I thought I could calm down. But the next moment, I found myself back at the place where I killed him, in that exact scene where I was holding my sword that pierced through his body.

I let out a scream and fell backward. This can't be happening. I panicked and started telling myself that this couldn't be real. It must be a dream. It had to.

And indeed, it was.

I woke up from that nightmare with a silent scream. My whole body was shaking and sweating. I took a deep breath and stood up to get a glass of water. After calming down enough, I tried to go back to sleep without even trying to understand what had happened in my dream.

In the morning, I wanted to ditch the training after what happened in the night, but today younglings from the academy were coming and would stay a month for a training camp.

I somehow managed to get ready and went to the training field. On my way, I encountered other soldiers who were carrying monsters somewhere. I asked them what was going on since something like this never happened.

They answered that the king ordered them to capture monsters alive after they appeared so suddenly. They wanted to see if they could find out anything useful by experimenting on them. The Monsters may have somehow managed to use magic or something similar.

Maybe that could have also triggered the visions I had in combination with my exhaustion, right? I looked one last time at the monsters and wanted to return when I suddenly heard something. Someone was calling for help.

I quickly turned in the direction of the voice and asked the soldiers if they heard that. But they didn't know what I meant. I heard it again. It was one of the monsters...

As I was about to lose myself in my thought, one of the soldiers asked me if everything was ok. I shook my head, trying to forget what just happened, and said yes. I walked away to the training grounds.

This was probably the aftermath of the nightmare. Nothing serious. Noting important.

We showed the students around, told them about basic stuff, and answered some questions. It was obvious that they were bored, so we started with the exciting part. To see what they were capable of, we made a match.

Each one of them chose an instructor to fight with and then fought. They seemed pretty promising, but at the same time, they had a long way ahead of them. It felt like we were playing with little children.

However, some of them were still amazing and seemed like they just needed help to find the way that fits them the best. And I think we did a good job there.

We repeated the match between the cadets and the instructors on the last day. Although none of them won again, they were able to put up a good fight. The last battle was me against the most promising one of them. He did well.

He was able to keep up with me. Of course, I didn't use all my strength, but it still was impressive. He could even dodge my attack that was meant to kill him. To be exact, the monster that wasn't there.

It happened again, but this time it was the other way round. While fighting with him for a moment, I saw a monster in front of me and instinctively attacked him, intending to kill him.

It seemed that no one noticed that I was aiming for his death. After what happened, I was scared. But instead of being nervous because I was about to kill someone, I was more afraid of the fact that I didn't feel anything.

When I saw the monster become human, it was devastating even though I just killed a monster. When I was about to kill an actual human, I felt nothing...

Why? I was going to kill a real human. A student I trained and knew. Someone I shared meals with and sparred with. I was scared.

Scared because I was not scared. Because it felt like something normal. As if he was an actual monster. Whenever I thought of that moment, I felt a cold distance toward the people.

As if it wasn't confusing enough with what happened before, this made everything worse.

That night I had a nightmare again. But it was different from the one before. It was a battle between humans and monsters. I was on the side of the monsters.

One by one, I killed the people of our kingdom ruthlessly and without mercy. One by one, I heard the screams and begging of the people. And every time someone died, I felt the distance growing more and more.

I felt nothing till the last five people remained. Cale, Amanda, Harry, Ethan, and Jack.

Those were the last people in front of me. At this moment, the cold distance I felt towards the people disappeared. Those were my family, friends, and lover.

I knew it was a dream, but I couldn't wake up and control my body as it walked toward them. I wanted to resist but wasn't able to stop. At some point, I was watching from the sides.

It felt like someone was telling me to shut up and watch. I started yelling at my cold self to stop. But he didn't. It was me against those six.

Ethan, Amanda, and Cale were in front of me, trying to stop me, telling me to stop, and begging me to stop. And so did I.

I didn't want to see this. I didn't want it to happen. I begged for whatever let this happen to stop. To wake me up. I hoped someone would be there to wake me up, but I still was there.

And then Amanda died.

I tried to run towards them, but it didn't work. All I could do was watch. It felt horrible.

And then Cale died.

I couldn't take this anymore. I wanted to go. I wanted it to stop. But nothing happened.

And then Ethan died.

I froze. Why was this happening? What did I do wrong? I wanted to help, but it didn't work. I tried to run towards them, but it didn't work. At least I wanted to look away, but it didn't work.

When I closed my eyes, they were open. When I looked away, they were in front of me. Nothing worked.

And then Harry died.

I fell to the ground Screaming. My head hurt again. My heart couldn't take this. Why must this feel so real… Was it real?

No. I tried to stay calm. It was a dream. It definitely was. But the more time went by, the less it felt like one.

And then Jack died.

But this time, I didn't watch it from a distance. He was standing right in front of me. He fell into my arms. I was holding the cold shell left of him in my arms… and woke up.

Again, it was in the middle of the night. But I didn't care about that. I went to the places of every one of them one by one, checking if everything was ok, and before they could ask me what was going on, I went to the other.

It felt ridiculous. It was obvious that it was just a dream. But I couldn't help but do this. Every time I was in front of the door, I was scared that the person wouldn't open the door.

The last one was Jack. But for him, I couldn't just knock on the door. And it was too bothersome to explain anything to the guards. I used the balcony.

Standing before the glass door, I saw him sleeping so soundly. I forgot for a moment why I was even there. Lightly knocking on the door, I woke him up.

I felt sad to wake him but wanted to be by his side so bad I had to. When he opened the door to the balcony, I immediately took him into my arms and kissed him.

I told him what had happened, and he laughed so gently at my actions afterward. After all, I broke into the prince's chamber because of that nightmare.

I couldn't help but laugh with him. It was the right decision to come here. This man knew how to comfort me. It felt like everything he does is just for me alone.

We spent the rest of the night together, sleeping on his bed. The next morning before anyone came inside, I returned to my room, leaving him sleeping with a kiss on his forehead.