Seraphiel sat still atop his bed. The door was locked, the air was thick, and every blink flushed an airy weight over him making sleep almost inevitable. The realisation however that Hiro’s corpse was blue and bloodied under his bed made the air smell sickly and rotten. Seraphiel palms his face with both his hands and forces himself to hyperventilate to try and stay awake.

  I shouldn’t have brought Hiro along, this is bad, what have i done? How can i face Madarame and the others?

  Seraphiel beats himself up. Sitting in his room like this seemed like begging to succumb to sleep, he made a choice. Seraphiel stumbled off of his bed and unlocked the door. He kicked it open to try and increase his blood flow.

  I’ll kill him.

  He runs out of the lodgings, running throw the trees and shrubbery, he steps on fruits which make him slip slightly. He runs fast and far, he runs so far he has reached another set of rooms. A door is slightly ajar and sounds or crunching and heavy breathing pour out. Seraphiel peeks inside, “Mr X” is eating 2 people at once. Another 2 mangled half eaten bodies are splayed out beside him. It was hard to tell but their skin on their lips seemed a tint of purply blue. Mr X is looking, head turned to the crack in the door he makes eye contact with Seraphiel. He chews from left to right in a grinding motion and looks wide eyed at him. He turns his head back to his prey and continues chewing. He bites the back of the neck lifting the body up, he pushes it down with his hand and pulls his neck back as the stretchy, gelatine like skin is pulled and tears like peeling an orange.

  Seraphiel opens the door. He wastes no time and tries to shoot out his wings, he tries to fire the hairs through this man. But he cannot move, he can watch and look around but his lower body is too drained. He tries tensing his fist but it feels like a dream, he can’t even tense enough to hold onto a stick let alone strike this monstrous man. Seraphiel strains internally trying to do anything at all. But to no avail.

  His body will only allow him to leave and not proceed forward at all any further.

  Gwyn awakens, she shoots up out of bed drenched with sweat. She pats herself and checks her teeth making sure she was for certain awake. “It’s real, the hypothesis is real, his power extends to his own knowledge and beliefs. That means, perhaps i can…” she runs out, making sure to cover her mouth with a scarf to stop inhalation of the gasses as much as possible. She runs towards Seraphiel’s room.

  The door is wide open. “Shit shit shit.” She looks inside, empty she checks under the beds and finds Hiro’s body, it had not yet been devoured nor noticed by Mr X. She pulls out from her bag a pencil and parchment paper. As fast as possible yet missing no details she sketches Hiro, but without the wounds and blood. She draws him taller, more mature and athletic.

  Seraphiel stumbles back into the room. He is instantly met by the sight of Gwyn creating an exaggerated portrait of Hiro’s corpse which she had dragged out by the leg from under the bed. She looks back. “Wait, give me a second please.” Seraphiel obliges and stands perturbed. “I told you did i not? To wait here? Can you truly not follow a simple instruction, that is all that i have asked of you.” She does not look up from her drawing.

  ”I went to find him, i want to kill him before falling asleep but i couldn’t move. It was like a paralysis overcame me and i could only turn in the opposite direction.”

  Gwyn turns to him, “Mr X is strong, but not especially strong when in the waking world, that’s why he would rather not fight without the element of surprise, even weak old madam Looney. In the dreamscape, he can control what manifest but cannot necessarily control you”.

  “What does that mean?”

  ”He cannot inflict for instance a wound or suborn you into suicide, however indirectly his perception of you can change, for instance, if he thinks you have no teeth, you will manifest with no teeth. On the contrary, he can control his own self perception. He can give himself dozens of wings and manipulate his form in this scape, to his own knowledge. If we are to kill him, it must be inside that dreamscape. However, he can only see madam Looney, the frail noble woman, you would be destroyed in a heartbeat.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  ”So what can i do?”

  ”We need Mr X to believe you are Seraphiel or that Hiro is Hiro he cannot see you so shouting out ‘I am seraphiel’ wont convince him to change his perception and even if he did he would imagine something other than you as he has not seen you. Do you understand?”

  ”I guess.” If i tear this card, will Sol arrive? Will Sol’s dreamscape construction be convincing enough to murder Mr X? He is tall and muscular even if Mr X does not believe he has powers will the face value physicality be enough? No i won’t tear it.

  Seraphiel asks, “How can we make him see or believe we are strong in this dream?”

  Gwyn rips the sketch off of the parchment. It shows Hiro, the same boy but older, “This is Hiro.” She pauses. “This visual is a grown up, more intimidating version of Hiro, he is here to look for his wife Lucy. Are you following? We are creating a reality which is believable.”

  ”Is a drawing enough?”

  Gwyn rips off some of Hiro’s golden hair, she dunks the ends in blood and sticks it to the parchment.

  “All who attended this event are Cairneach nobles, pale, black haired. This portrait along with the story creates the perception of a man from Seriol arriving. Who is looking for his wife, the newly deceased Lucy. The tuft of golden hair can only come from someone from Seriol.”

  Atop the portrait, it was labelled, “My loving Lucy, keep this portrait of me and i shall keep yours. We will live forever in each other’s hearts. May my very flesh and blood seal our matrimony.” An excuse for the portraits existence.

  Gwyn tucks the corpse under the bed. She takes the portrait, and walks out of the room. She places it on the grassy ground just in front of the door outside and stepped on it and kicked dirt on it trying to mimic age. She picks it back up and brushes the dirt off.

  “But what about me?” Seraphiel says, “he still doesn’t know who i am yet”.

  ”He doesn’t need to, Hiro is enough, i will allow you to observe though. Wait here for ten minutes, and then and only then, you can sleep, be sure to tell whoever visits you in your dreams that you are with me okay?”

  “Okay, i swear this time i will listen.”

  “i hope so.”

  Gwyn leaves and takes the portrait along with her. She returns to the tables where Mev sits reading a book, she leans on her palm and looks bored.

  “Excuse me Miss.” Gwyn calls out.

  Mr X watches from the tree tops.

  ”What is it Gwyn?”

  ”I found this portrait, It belonged to Lucy.” She pulls out the dirty portrait. “Can you please give this back to her if you see her? I don't want her to go without this.”

  Mev eyes it and flicks the hair.

  “..Okay, that is fine. Il be sure to return it to her.”

  ”Thank you miss.” Gwyn walks back to her lodgings while Mev watches her figure grow smaller and smaller until it's gone.

  ”Have a look at this.” Mev launches the portrait in the air, Mr X grabs it and Holds it high to his head.

  Man i really hope Seraphiel is actually going to listen for once, that’ll be something.

  The Sphinx bites. “If you trust a fool who has failed you twice in hardly a few hours, then your undoing is deserved.”

  Gwyn ignores it and continues on ahead. She prayed silently in her head, she had only inferred specifics of the rules from the molar incident, she couldn’t be certain it would work.

  Gwyn gets into bed 586 seconds had passed since she left Seraphiel, she waited 14 seconds and then succumbed to sleep. She exhaled deeply as her spine was engulfed in warm syrupy air.

  Seraphiel sits up.

  Knock. Knock.

  ”Miss Looney?”

  it’s Gwyn.

  ”You idiot i told you not to sleep yet, wake up, let me in, we were supposed to team up. It’s my turn to sleep.”

  …

  ”Gwyn?” Seraphiel replies.

  “Thank god, you're awake. Let me in its dark, quickly.”

  ”But Gwyn, you’re already here?” Seraphiel fakes a conversation. He whispers to no one. “Who’s that? Its someone pretending to be you I think? Gwyn? where have you gone?”

  in Hiro’s bed, Gwyn had appeared from under the once flat sheets, “I hear that too, Looney. Who’s outside.”

  It worked, our dreams have converged on the same location, we inhabit the same world, he did it right thank god.

  The voice on the other side changed into an unknown female voice.

  “Just kidding, it’s me, Lucy.” She lets out a forced laugh. “Did i scare you? Im sorry but can you please let me in?”

  Gwyn smiles.

  “Lucy? Thank heavens you’re alright, where were you?”

  “I fell asleep in the foliage, haha- i know it was against the rules, sorry!”

  ”That’s fine” she brushes it off quickly. “But anyways I have great news!”

  ”What is it?”

  ”Hiro is here! He is here to get you! Look im going to open the door- Where did he go-“

  The portrait form of Hiro crawls out from under the bed. He was taller, the same Hiro anyone could recognise but more mature. He was clearly athletic and had a deep set expression.

  ”What were you doing under there?” Gwyn laughs.

  The figure does not speak, he merely smiles.

  Gwyn smiles back. “Finally Lucy, we are free of this weird place, I don't care about the leader anymore, i just wanna go.”

  ”Me too.” Lucy replies. “Can you let me in? I wanna see Hiro, i miss him.” The handle turns.

  “Oh yeah sure, he said he’ll use his Revenant pact, Dracula, to fly us out.”

  The handle stopped moving.

  Hiro’s skin turned vascular, his complexion haggard and pale. His fingers and limbs grew slightly.

  Gwyn runs to the door she unlocks it and swings it wide open.