Dream or manipulation?

Fern Village

Eliz had a dream.

In this dream, she saw her thirteen-year-old self again, sitting at dinner with her family. Her hated brother sat across from her, and young Eliz tried to ignore him while struggling with the fried cauliflower she didn't like at the time. Oddly enough, as Eliz got older, she started to like it. After all, even palates can change over time.

Eliz wondered why she was dreaming about this and couldn't think of a reason why she actually knew it was a dream.

Her father was a stocky man, overweight, with a bald head and a short beard. He worked as a construction manager and did quite well. Eliz had an average relationship with her father; he was somewhat impersonal with his children, but he always at least did his duty, earning money to support the family even if he wasn't emotionally involved.

The mother was a tall brown-redheaded beauty who was a full-time mother and still managed to work from home as an administrative technician. Who says pretty women aren't smart? Mother graduated from a mechanical engineering school. Unfortunately, she got pregnant very young, and instead of building a career, she built a family.

Eliz once wondered how someone like her father could have married a beauty like her mother. Her mother laughed and said her father was handsome when he was young. Eliz had seen pictures of them in their youth. She definitely had a different impression.

Her older brother was 14 at this time. The difference in their ages was only 14 months, so the age difference wasn't that big, and maybe that was what caused their fight. Two teenagers in one family and even in one room is a recipe for murder. Eliz's brother was in a fast growth spurt and was already almost two heads taller than Eliz. His hair was cut in a hedgehog style, and it was trendy at the time to wear pants basically below the butt, and his underpants were visible. The infamous sagging style.

Eliz watched this strange scene and didn't understand why she was dreaming about it.

"What's going to happen to Patricia? Aren't we going to wait for her?" Young Eliz asked as she slid the fried cauliflower across her plate, considering whether to put it in her mouth or not.

"Forget that weirdo," George said, throwing his head towards the closed door.

Young Eliz averted her gaze and didn't answer her brother. She was too afraid of him at the time.

"Just leave her alone. I saved her food; she'll take it when she's hungry," his mother replied, and his father made no comment, just stared at the morning newspaper and read the sports section.

Eliz didn't understand what they were talking about. What Patricia?

She looked towards the closed door and frowned. This was weird. She was definitely sure there was no one in her family with that name. Eliz left the dining room, her younger self, and made her way to the door. As she approached them, the surroundings darkened, and the only thing that remained the same was the door. Eliz was sure it was the door to the closet.

As she approached the door, she heard muffled crying.

However, Eliz didn't let that stop her and grabbed the doorknob, which she pushed and stepped inside quickly. She wanted to know who was trying to mess with her memory. "Are you Patricia?" She asked sternly, staring at the figure crouching in the corner. The room wasn't a closet, but it looked like a cold prison cell. The walls, floor, and ceiling were grey stone, dirty and damp. There wasn't even a small window in the room, yet there was enough light to see the figure in the corner.

"Huuu... huuu...." The woman was crying, and her back was turned to Eliz. She wore a dirty, old purple ball gown and had long, messy black hair. Eliz narrowed her eyes at her. The appearance, even from behind, was too striking not to know who she was. Eliz was sure it was the original Elizabeth. But wasn't she supposed to be dead? Or is this one of those notorious situations where the original owner of the body lives in the subconscious?

"Huuu.... huuu..." The crying continued. Eliz wasn't scared and didn't get discouraged. She didn't believe that anything could happen to her in her own dream, so she went forward. "Patricia? Are you Patricia? Or should I call you Elizabeth Von Roseblood?" She asked.

The woman fell silent and stopped crying. Eliz stood a few feet away and stared at her. "It's not fair..." The woman Eliz thought was the original Elizabeth spoke. "It's not fair..." She repeated.

Eliz sighed. "Life isn't fair."

"Why... why did this happen... why..." Elizabeth moaned, and Eliz rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably.

What was she supposed to do with her? Should she try to comfort her with some words? Promise revenge? Reassure her that she would live a good life? Uh... that last one she wasn't so sure she could fulfill.

"Look. I know it's hard, but..." Eliz started to come up with some nonsensical sentence to comfort Elizabeth's soul, but it cut her off.

"Why are you alive?"

"Huh?" Eliz fell silent, wondering if she had heard correctly. "What did you say?"

"Why are you alive? Why are you still alive? It's not fair... it's not fair... Why me and not you? Why aren't you dead like me?" Elizabeth started to speak, her voice sounding more angry and accusatory than sad.

"Isn't it a little early for me to die? What are you trying to do? To curse me?" Eliz fumed. What the hell?

Elizabeth suddenly stood up. "Why are you alive? You're supposed to die. Just like me. Just like all of us. There's no way out of this. You can never win. You think you're the only one who tried?" Elizabeth started to turn, and Eliz backed away in surprise.

Elizabeth was indeed dead. What stared back at her was nothing but the remains of a corpse. A bleached skeleton dressed in a ball gown and black hair that held in pieces of skin that somehow hadn't fallen off yet, and a pair of purple lights peering at her from the emptiness of her eye sockets.

"Shit!" Eliz cursed in fright.

Elizabeth held out a bony hand with a finger pointed at Eliz, as if accusing her. "You left the script. That was your greatest strength. You're supposed to be dead. You're supposed to be dead! Why aren't you!"

Eliz had to take a breath to calm her heart. Elizabeth is just an ordinary skeleton! Why would she be so scared of her? She'd seen dead ones before, and that was a worse sight. "What do I know? I just do what I think is best. The script sucks! If I stick to it, wouldn't it always end the same way? My death? Why the hell would I do that? Just because I have advantages? I just grabbed what I could and went somewhere else. Fuck the author!" Eliz didn't like having to justify her choice.

"You're gonna fail," Elizabeth replied. "There's no escape."

Eliz snorted. "We'll see about that."

"Arrogant. Learn from your predecessors." Elizabeth moved toward Eliz.

Eliz hesitated. Predecessors?

As Elizabeth moved towards Eliz, more skeletons began to appear around her. All of them looked identical to Elizabeth, but the voices they spoke with sounded different, and there was a slightly different vibe coming from them as well. By now Eliz had gotten scared and started backing away as more and more of them appeared until they filled the room and cornered Eliz. "I'm Karen. I am Vivaan. Deirdre. Anna. Zuna. Kaori. Ruoxi..." Eliz heard the many names the skeletal Elizabeth said, pressing in on her.

"We all failed. And you won't be the last," Elizabeth said, staring at her from so close that the purple glow of her eyes stung.

Eliz gritted her teeth. She was scared; one skeleton was fine, but now she had an army standing against her. But they weren't touching or attacking her, just intimidating. When Eliz realized this, she suppressed her fear and pushed out her anger. She pushed herself off the wall and rammed her shoulder into Elizabeth, giving her a forehead punch. It hurt, but Eliz didn't care.

Elizabeth rolled backward in surprise, taking several of her skeletal duplicates with her.

Eliz took up a fighting stance and raised her clenched fists. "SO FUCKING WHAT!?" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

The skeletons stopped and glared at her. "If I die, I die, but it'll be on my fucking terms! And I'm not going down without a fight! I'll kick, bite, claw, and swear all the way down to hell and kick the ass of any fiend who tries to mess with me there! I refused to be a victim long ago... I won't be one again."

Eliz sighed heavily and stared at the skeletons, who returned her gaze, and there was a moment of heavy silence. Gradually, they began to disappear until only one Elizabeth remained.

"Very well," Elizabeth replied, and Eliz thought her voice sounded a little different.

"What? Hey!" Eliz held out her hand, but the last Elizabeth disappeared as well.

"Ugh!" There was a surprised male sound, and Eliz felt her hand bump into something. She opened her eyes abruptly and found herself lying in the loft on the bed with her arm stretched out in front of her. Squatting next to her was Alarr, who was holding his mouth and nose with both hands.

Eliz blinked and lowered her hand, rolling onto her side and looking at the squatting Alarr in confusion. "What are you doing?" She asked.

Alarr turned and glared at her angrily, not breaking his hold on her nose to say anything.

"You hit him, my lady. Right on the nose," Alobela replied helpfully, appearing on the other side of the bed.

Eliz blinked. "Oh. Sorry."

***** 

Alarr exchanged watches with Raiana after three hours of sleep, got out of bed, and walked over to the window. Holm had the first watch, so they had a chance to get enough rest. Alarr watched the silent and dark village, not hearing a monster and wondering if it was resting as well, but the people and monsters of Rank 5 had a completely different stamina than those on Rank 3 or lower.

He didn't like the situation they were in. How much chance was there that they would run into a Rank 5 monster so close to a major city? Besides, this monster had taken over the entire village instead of destroying it. It was incomprehensible to Alarr, but things had been looking strange overall since he started working for Lady Elizabeth.

She certainly exceeded his expectations. She did strange things, made strange decisions, was intelligent and quite versatile, and most importantly, unpredictable. He could see why the contract was so advantageous to them. She knew in advance that they would encounter unexpected things. But to meet a 5 Rank monster right after they headed out of town? Isn't that a bit much?

Alarr spotted a shadow moving across the rooftops of the houses. Alarr was immediately on guard even though he knew who it was. The shadow landed in front of the inn and slipped inside.

Soon Fraril came out into the shrubbery, looked around, and saw that everyone was asleep except Alarr. So he made his way over to him. Alarr turned away and looked out the window again. "Any news?" He asked the old wolf.

Alarr was rather wary of this man; after all, he was a syndicate boss and from what he could see, a capable assassin. A bit of an odd profession for a wolf; they tended to be fighters, but Alarr wasn't someone to condemn anyone for that. What worried him were the hidden intentions of the cunning dog.

"The monster doesn't move in any systematic way. It moves randomly. It looks like it's looking for something. Apparently, the monster can also see all the people under the illusion without any problems," Fraril shared his findings.

"There also seems to be another force operating here. Just a suspicion," he added, and Alarr looked at him. "Why do you have that impression?" He asked.

"The house where I was hiding and making observations suddenly collapsed on its own. Yet the house was stable enough before, and I made no unnecessary movements. It seems to me that someone deliberately made it fall to prevent me from observing," Fraril tilted his head as if he too were looking out the window.

"Just go to another house," Alarr was a little doubtful.

"Yes. But in the meantime, the monster changed direction and raced in my direction. I just assumed the monster was about to do something I shouldn't have seen or was approaching some important place," Fraril explained why he had his doubts.

Alarr frowned and thought about it. "So you think someone is behind this incident?"

"I don't believe in coincidences," Fraril shrugged.

Alarr nodded in agreement. "Neither do I." The sky began to lighten as the sun was about to rise.

Alarr was silent for a moment. "We may have to change our plans because of that."

Fraril chuckled. "It's possible. Depends on what Lady Elizabeth wants to do," he agreed.

The corner of Alarr's mouth twitched, and he sat up a little, looking back to the bed where his mistress slept. "True. I can't predict what she might want to do in the end."

"Then let's be surprised. That's half the fun of following her," Fraril said and went to bed himself. He wasn't so young anymore, and running around at night was tiring on his old bones.

Alarr turned away and stood in silence for some time when a sound caught his attention. He looked towards Lady Elizabeth's bed. She had begun to sleep restlessly, tossing and turning, occasionally jerking her hand and mumbling something.

After a moment's hesitation, Alarr left his place by the window and came closer. He could see a frown on Lady Elizabeth's face and a bit of sweat on her brow. She was probably having a bad dream. Alarr had some sympathy for that. Elizabeth might be strange and much braver, but she was still a young aristocrat who had to deal with two crises in quick succession. That it would cause her to have difficult dreams was understandable.

Alarr smiled a little again, for it seemed to him that Lady Elizabeth seemed combative even in the night. He got the impression that she was probably kicking every monster that confronted her. He looked back and saw that the sunlight had already kissed the rooftops of the village, so he bent down to his lady and was about to wake her up. Just then, her hand shot forward and hit him squarely on the nose with the palm of her hand.

Allar's eyes flashed before his eyes; he made a short painful sound and squatted down on the ground while holding his sore nose. He could smell blood in his mouth. He couldn't believe she had hit him!

"What are you doing?" He heard Lady Elizabeth's voice and looked back at her. She had rolled onto her side on the bed, looking messy, disheveled, and confused. She looked at him questioningly with violet eyes, and Alarr had to hold back a curse. He knew she hadn't done it on purpose, but why did she have to look so confused!

Alobela appeared on the other side of the bed, looking down at Alarr with a calm look, but Alarr could hear her inner thoughts. "That's what you get for sneaking up on a young lady when she's asleep." But instead, she said what had happened.

"You hit him, my lady. Right on the nose," she replied.

Eliz blinked again. "Oh. Sorry." She apologized.

Alarr closed his eyes and said nothing. He straightened up and sidled back to the window. He must have thought of the poor man who would end up as her husband. Wouldn't they accuse her of abusing her husband?