In your Dreams, END

I had no idea what the illusions were saying to her, but whatever it was, she listened.

"STOP!" She shouted.

"Rasha!" I yelled. I knew it was too late already. I'd seen it so many times already. Yorrick had hurt enough. I didn't need that again.

While I couldn't hear what was going on, I could hear one thing. Rasha was yelping in pain. Not grunts, or yells. No, she was close to tears.

"RASHA! Snap out of it, babe!" I tried to reach for her, but phased right through her, as she yelped out in pain.

"Rasha?" I tried again. No success.

"RASHA?" I tried one more time. Each time I did, scraping for the now scraping, yelping girl, again and again, she did nothing but fade further.

I hadn't had a clue how it happened, but I was alone.

"No tears, no tears, no tears, in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out, you know this is one, two, three..." I started counting, making sure that I stayed focused on the task at hand. There was one man who would undo this.

I was sure of it.

It was time.

I walked past the illusions of my mom and dad, and into the Cathedral.

As I pushed past the doors, I whispered to myself.

"Soon," I said. "Soon, I'll be back for you."

The sounds of screaming and tears were all I had in response before the Cathedral was all I could focus on.

"Alright, man, in and out... yeah. There you are. There's the soul." I muttered to myself.

My sword was in one hand. My shield, the other.

I would end this nightmare. And it's King.

I put on a mask and moved forwards. Despite everything, I was still me.

I processed through the hall. Not a single monster was in sight. I tried to sense anything at all through the training I'd been given by my masters back at the Academy, but nothing came up. Except for him.

The King Of Nightmares lived up to his rep, certainly. A flowing cape so illusory that where the space around it started and it ended was almost impossible to find. His physical features constantly shifted, as he grew hair in random places, would look like he was changing body shape constantly, and he constantly changed in size. However, as all of it seemed to constantly ebb and flow with the river of consciousness, one thing remained the same.

He had a shit-eating grin on.

"Finally!" A cry of pure joy erupted through the chamber, as the King spoke for the first time in a century. "Someone brings me my Dinner!" he smiled. "Oh, dear Hero. You have made such a mistake coming here. Oh, how much of a mistake you've made!" he howled with laughter.

I summoned up as much courage as I could muster. I put away the thoughts of everything else. I discarded mom. I discarded Yorrick. I discarded Lou, Lucy, Jake, and all my loved ones who I hadn't quite saved back then. And the fires. And the pain. And the experiments. And the trials. And everything else. It would all go away now. The King required a killer. I was to let the axe fall.

"Y-Y-You um, uh will be vanquished once and for all, you evil tyrant!" I shouted. "You've ruined enough lives already!"

I charged, unleashing the arts I had practiced with the sword and shield. I summoned the courage to enhance my weapons. I used the extension on my sword that Lucy had added, as I turned it into a whip blade, reaching dozens of feet out. Each time I thought I hit, the King teleported away, laughing to himself. He had to run out of them eventually. I knew it. Every dodge was causing him to do something, at least. It meant he could be hurt.

"You want to know something, little boy?" I blocked a fireball with my shield, before snapping my whip sword again. I hit a pillar as he teleported away, right above his throne.

SNAP

SNAP

SNAP

"YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY DO ANYTHING!" He cackled, as he teleported around the room. He snapped another fireball my way. This one got close. I finally had to dodge on my own, darting out of the way. "You can't win! I have the lives of all your precious people at my fingertips!"

He cackled some more, before launching into another barrage of teleports and fireballs.

"Now! Freeze!" he waved his hands.

I froze. Physically, in place, unable to move. My shield fell from my hands, though the fingers were still meant to be gripping the handle, and my whip sword fell limp.

"How does it feel? To think, and yet, not act on that thought?" The King of Nightmares smiled. "To be powerless?"

I stayed in place, unable to respond.

"I know, I know. You're courageous. Strong. But everyone has a weakness. Everyone has at least one, you child. How about I draw it out of you?"

He approached me, and with one of my awful nails, tapped my forehead.

I collapsed in an instant.

***

Getting your memories scrounged is a weird feeling. I wanted to say it felt something to get personally violated, but at the end of the day, that's exactly what it was.

I felt violated.

Every inch of my soul wanted me to rebel against this insider, to tell them to leave.

Every part of my life force was custom-made to keep this monster out.

All the fires, when I was little. The "cost for those without money" according to the government. Going hungry because we needed another war. Finally learning why Mom and Dad had retired from the adventuring business. Meeting Yorrick, and later on in my life, Rasha. Getting whipped by the teachers. Seeing others get the same punishment, and trying to lash out against them. Seeing those who we all loved to get kidnapped, tortured against their will, murdered, all in the name of taking one man down. Seeing Rasha screaming for people to get off her, feeling her pain myself when a Link Emotions spell was cast after I'd been beaten up.

I didn't want to live for myself anymore.

But that wasn't my job. My job was never to live for myself. When I was little, I collected berries and fruits for my grandparents because they would get hurt out in the wild. I took lashings meant for Rasha because she got enough of them already. I took the hits for Yorrick because he couldn't.

I was a Shield. If a shield breaks, you get another one.

I would not break.

I came to on a couch, in a small, velvet room, with a shaggy carpet on the ground, wearing comfy pajamas. There was a dim yellow light above me and the man across from me carried a clipboard. He had a fluffy blue sweatshirt on and some baggy sweatpants for bottoms. He was wearing white flip-flops.

"Wha..." I started.

"Before anything." the man said. "I'm still The King Of Nightmares."

That got my attention.

"But we are not fighting, got it?"

The instant he said it, I almost felt relieved. I was gonna die to that man.

The King of Nightmares sighed. "Listen, usually, when I go into people's minds, I find something relatively healthy. Some fears I can exploit, but there's some good stuff, too," he stated. He got up from his chair and looked me dead in the eyes.

"You just need therapy. Like, holy shit man, you got a complex," he said.

I just took it in for a minute. I looked at him. He didn't seem like he was faking it. His face seemed truly heartbroken as if he'd just figured out about orphan-crushing factories or something. A man who just realized he didn't know what he was going up against.

"As do I," he added.

"Huh?" I asked. "Listen, I've known I've needed therapy for a long time, but..."

"I'm a man who uses mystical magic and his half-god heritage to call himself the King Of Nightmares and try to take over kingdoms by toying with their psyche so much that everyone there goes insane. I'm fucked."

I just sat there. I didn't really want to think about anything at the moment.

The King Of Nightmares sighed. "My real name is Phillip Brooks. I'm 35 and used to live in Harghorough, south of Pillsburg. You?"

I decided to give it a shot. "Jonathan Ophelia. Troubador City."

"Oh, a city boy, huh? What was life like there?"

I gulped. "It was alright, I guess. Nobody really talked to me much, outside of Yorrick. I was mostly mocked because I moved there after living a while in the Borderlands. I'm happier that I won't have to go there when I go back. I failed, after all. I'm broken pieces at this point."

"You sure you don't want a hug?" he asked me. He got down on the shag carpet.

In front of the actual, legitimate King of Nightmares, I decided to be honest.

"Will you tell?"

"I'm a licensed therapist. If I told anyone, I'd lose my license." he pointed towards something on the wall. It was a medical license.

I gave a gulp.

"So, you want a hug?"

"Please?"

I leaped into the arms of the man who had just tried to kill me, and for a good long while, all I did was cry.

All I did was cry.

I felt one crack open.

I felt another crack.

The splinter grew into a cut.

The cut grew into a problem.

That problem soon grew again.

The shield on the back cracked.

I sobbed, wailed, and screamed about how I just wanted everything to stop. I wanted my mom and dad to forget me. I wanted Lucy to stop making things for me. I wanted to stop making jokes with Jake. I wanted to stop playing Wordle alongside Lou. I wanted Rasha to find someone who wouldn't just protect her. Someone who could actually compliment her, move alongside her, not just act as a wall preventing her from moving forwards. I wanted Yorrick to leave, and find someone who cared about him and who loved him. Someone who wouldn't get asked out by the one girl who he had been crushing on since childhood.

I wanted to be able to drop my shield for once.

So, even if it was just for them, I cried. I cried hard. I cried my heart out. Because when it was over, I wasn't sure if I would even care anymore.

I felt one last sob come out, and a couple of hics, as I looked at poor Phillip, and his now-soaked shirt.

"Sorry." I got out, before burying my head in his shoulder.

"No, no, it's fine. I've got plenty of shirts," he said, shifting his shirt to a nice polo, to a long-sleeve tee, and finally back to another sweatshirt, this one with a family crest on it.

"So, you ready?" he said. "Your friends are waiting for you."

'My-huh? Wha?" I asked.

"Everyone who got lost in my castle is out by the moat with the one armored girl," he explained. "I've talked with all of them too. They know what's going on."

"They know wha- huh? You TOLD them?" I said. "But the confidentiality!"

"Oh, that? No no no, nothing here is being told to anyone. I explained what was going on in the cathedral and that you had successfully defeated me. That was all. I let them all go. Heck, when I said who I actually was and what I did, lots of them actually talked with me. They've all got sessions set up for later this month. All completely free, of course."

"Wait, you're gonna-

"What? You killed the King Of Nightmares. You didn't kill Phillip Brooks. I'm not gonna attempt to drive a kingdom mad anymore. Just help some people out." he smiled. "And for you guys? Completely free." he smiled.

His image started getting fuzzy, as the room around me changed. Slowly, the castle moat was coming back into the light, though the castle itself was gone. Just a lone, broken-down cathedral.

"Come see me! Troubador City, 44th street, and Ingrain Street!" he shouted, as he started to fade.

"I will!" I yelled back.

As he finally faded away, I looked for my friends. After turning around, I saw them, busy giggling about something with the moat.

"Hey, you bitches!" I shouted, waving.

"JOHNNY!!!!" They all yelled. They all darted towards me at Mach speeds, as I got barraged in hugs- and Rasha's kisses- so fast I could barely comprehend them. It was all I ever needed.

"So, ready to head back?" I smiled.

"Oh, fuck this place!" Lou shouted.

"Yeah, FUCK this place!" the rest all agreed.

Although it took a bit for us to get out of the dogpile that had formed, we eventually got our stuff- which had been conveniently left by the moat's bank- and headed back home.

Where someone new would be waiting for us, every step of the way.

*****

THE END