"So what?" Zachary was past the point of disbelief and into the point of questioning, "You're telling me I can escape reality and just live happily in that fantasy?"
This man, creature, or whatever being he was called had done the impossible. But because of that, Zachary had more of a reason now to be wary of that creature. If such fantasy as magical worlds existed, then there were still a lot of things to be questioned before one could just throw themselves into it recklessly.
"Escape reality? Yes. But live happily in fantasy? I never said that fantasy is always as bright as it seems," said the Hanged Man, "But fear not, it is certainly brighter than whatever you're living in now. Furthermore, you have the gift of enlightenment. You have my word."
"That's the problem," Zachary expressed his worry, "Your words are too vague to be trusted. And what the hell is this enlight—"
Before he could finish his words, he heard two knocks coming from the door. This time, it wasn't a hallucination, as the Hanged Man heard it too and turned toward the door — or perhaps it was for that matter.
The fact was, there was someone about to enter the room, and, illusion or not, the Hanged Man was still right here, hanging from the ceiling like nothing's wrong.
"(G-Get outta here… Hide somewhere.)"
Zachary wanted to hide this mysterious creature. It wasn't for the creature's safety, it was to prevent frightening whoever was going to enter. He might have accepted the Hanged Man's existence, even though he still struggles to comprehend him in his entirety, but who knew how others were going to take it? It wasn't every day that one could easily spot a two-meter-tall humanoid tree creature hanging from the ceiling like it was nothing.
Despite his pleas, the Hanged Man did not move.
And it was already too late, the door had opened.
「Shit!」
Standing in the doorway was his doctor along with three men dressed in what seemed like military suits, there was no doubt they were part of the watchmen.
"Ah, I see you're wide awake now, Mr. Ashworth," the doctor chuckled, "I tried stopping by half an hour ago but you were deep in sleep."
「Must have been when I was pretending to.」
"Well, anyway," the doctor stepped aside to let the other three men walk into the room, "These gentlemen are from the military police."
"Good Evening," one of the men grabbed a seat and sat next to his bed, "It's good to see your recovery is going well, Mr. Ashworth. We are currently investigating the accident and hope that you could answer some of our concerned questions — if that's not a bother to you, of course."
"Uh…," Zachary looked at all the men in the room before eying the Hanged Man a look of astonishment, who was hanging from the ceiling just right beside him, clearly visible to everyone. Yet barely anyone paid heed to him as if he wasn't there. "Okay?"
「They can't see him?」
"Heh, I told you, only those who are enlightened can see me," the Hanged Man laughed. His laugh was something maniacal, befitting of a twisted villain, and completely contradicting his elegant speech.
The man asking him questions cleared his throat, "This is just basic protocol, I'm going to ask you some very basic questions. So just go along with it, even if they're a little absurd."
"O-Of course," Zachary was somewhat worried, especially by the smile that was still persisting on the Hanged Man's wooden face.
"Great!" The man adjusted the chair to sit more comfortably and then pulled out a notebook, "First off, are you fully aware of your rights?"
"(I guess…) Y-Yes!"
"Alright then. What's your full name?"
"N-Name?!" He was confused before he remembered the man telling him to just answer the questions, "Oh, Zachary "Edward" Ashworth…"
The man wrote something in the notebook, "Age?"
"Turned eighteen last July."
"Where do you go for school?"
"Everille."
"Did you or did you not jump willingly in front of the truck?"
"Huh?!" Zachary was baffled for a moment. The way that question was structured seemed to indicate that they were suspecting him of suicide. Even then, the watchmen shouldn't be the ones asking these questions. "N-No, I did not!"
"Did not what?"
He sighed, "I did not jump willingly in front of the truck."
"What were you doing there in the afternoon of the twenty-second of September?"
「What?! Shouldn't this have come before the other question?」
"..." Zachary did not know how to answer. He didn't know how the "protocol" went but they seemed to delve into very personal questions. "I was—"
Just as he was about to answer, he noticed the Hanged Man in the corner of his eye. He had moved his location and was now hanging from the ceiling between the other two men. At first, he was making a mockery out of them since they couldn't see him — surprisingly carefree for a creature like him — but now he was looking at Zachary with his eyes wide open, shaking his head in dismay.
"Don't tell them…," said the Hanged Man.
Zachary ignored him, "I was at the convention hall."
"I see…," the man proceeded to write down something in his notebook again, "Any hobbies?"
He looked at the Hanged Man, and once again, he was shaking his head, urging him to deny their questions.
"I… I like to write… to write stories." He chuckled.
"Interesting…," the man wrote in the notebook, "You recently submitted this short story to the Melanvale Writing Contest. Its contents were… interesting, to say the least. Care to shed some light?"
At this moment, Zachary came to understand the Hanged Man's warnings. Something was off about them, and whenever something was off…
「It's that hanged bastard's doing, isn't it?」
"Don't focus such a gaze upon me. I am not involved with any of this." The Hanged Man replied as if he had read his thoughts when in reality, he noticed his frustration and figured it out.
Zachary was surprised. If this wasn't the work of the Hanged Man, then these watchmen were acting out on their own accord. But why, of all things, would they be interested in his short story? It was just a story written by a kid for a contest. He couldn't even remember what he had written from how quickly he finished it.
"Well," the man was aware of Zachary's lack of answers, "Perhaps I could remind you. You mentioned something called "Elysium's Gate," ring any bell?"
"Don't tell them!" The Hanged Man said.
"I… I have no idea what you're talking about." He tried to answer, "That wasn't me."
That was the truth, for the most part. He did not remember writing anything that the man had mentioned.
But the man didn't believe him, "Are you sure about that? Your name is listed as the author, you know that, right?"
「Shit!」
Panic was plastered all over Zachary's face, both from knowing that he was lying and from the fact he still had no idea what the man was talking about. However, in the watchmen's eyes, this was the face of a culprit caught in his transparent lie.
"Back into a corner, eh," the Hanged Man sighed, "Well, I've got just the solution for you, my dear writer."
He cracked his fingers before floating back near Zachary.
Out of nowhere, vines crawled in from the window wrapped around a pen and an old parchment paper through them. The Hanged Man cleared his throat, before itching the vines closer to Zachary for him to see.
"Under the pledge of a thousand lords of the night," he snapped a finger, "Do you, dear writer, given the circumstance of your current predicament and other queries, accept the authorization of this contract?"
「What?!」
Trying not to garner much attention to the people around him, Zachary eyed the Hanged Man a quick look of confusion. Between the watchmen's absurd claims about his novel (a kid's short story, no less) and the Hanged Man's bizarre string of words dumped together on him like an awful shanty by a drunk in a pub, his mind was in a state of chaos. If he were pushed some more to the brink, he could most likely end up doing something that wasn't in his favor.
"Approve the contract with me, and I will personally rid you of these delusional buffoons in mere seconds. It's as easy as that."
「What even is this contract?」
All of a sudden, the man got off the chair and slammed his fist into Zachary's bed. "Listen here, you little shit!" the man's tone had completely shifted.
Following that action, the other two men walked to the door and escorted the doctor away, who was in clear shock upon seeing the man's abrupt reaction. Assuming that the doctor had any authority, he would have cleared these men out immediately for disturbing his patient, but when did anyone have authority here?
"I won't let you get out of this god damned hospital bed until you answer my questions. Do I make myself clear?" The man's eyes were entirely bloodshot, it was as if he had turned into a completely different person.
"...I…," Zachary didn't know what to say. He was running out of options, and none of them provided him with a clear answer.
"We don't have the luxury of time here," the Hanged Man commented with a still smile on his face. "They'll take you in, you know, whether you tell them the truth or not. But then again, the only truth is not the only truth. They'll make whatever sob tale fits their incentives."
The man grabbed onto Zachary's chin, a little lower, and he could possibly choke him, "My patience is running thin, and so is theirs."
「What the hell is happening to me?」
"Don't you see?" The Hanged Man sneered, "You're just a stepping stone to them, a triviality, an error they wish to correct. Such is this world you tried to reject, but you can run away from it no longer."
「Who are these guys? Why is this happening to me? Why is it only me? Am I not supposed to just live and have what I want? This all has to be a joke, right? Just a bad dream in my delusional mind. I've read so many of these stories I've dropped myself into one, yeah, that's it. It's just a story in my dream.」
"You don't start talking, and the accident will start having severe side effects," the man tightened his grip around Zachary's neck.
「But I-I don't want any part in this, I-I never wanted any of anything. But nothing's been going right for me ever… I was the one who dragged myself into this, ever since the accident. If I just didn't get myself in it… I would've been fine. I wouldn't be imagining this monstrosity of a man, these guys wouldn't be here.」
"..."
「That's right! I have no place in this world anymore. I'm nothing special, after all.」
"Do you cloud your own mind as a pastime?" The Hanged Man spoke, disappointed by Zachary's thoughts, "Excuse my intrusion, but do you berate yourself so much for no reason just to live? Or is it because they told you?"
"Wha…?!"
"You know what I'm talking about. Men like them, families like yours… and a girl like the one outside, shaping your heart into whatever they desire, tricking you into thinking you don't have one. They force their problems onto you and make you fail just to feel better about themselves."
"What are you trying to imply?"
"Who the hell is he talking to?" The other men started to notice.
"See, I told you the boy was insane," another one of the men said, "You saw what he wrote, Adam, so stop wasting time and get it over with."
"You know what I mean," said the Hanged Man, "You let them all guide you by their whims with no regard to you, and yet you're still kind to them. These men beating you for their own satisfaction, only to get a promotion out of it. Your family deeming you as an outcast and mentally unstable just to ignore their own dysfunction. That girl dragging along with her schemes, giving you false hope, only to torture you with her victory just to feel much better about herself."
"That's not true…"
"And let's not forget the biggest contributor," the Hanged Man snickered, "Your dear old father… left his young boy all alone just because he didn't want him to be special. He could not stand the succession of a boy who would show him all his failures. He feared your potential so much he was willing to give up his life on it and show you just so you would fear the thought of ever reaching it. Didn't you ever find it a little odd how you, a child, were the first one to discover—"
"No!!!"
"Come on now," the Hanged Man tried to elaborate, "You're smarter than this. Don't feign ignorance in front of me. After all, all that I know about you was just gathered from your own mind right now. You're a young man with great ambition, or have you forgotten what you've longed for as a child?"
Zachary's eyes widened.
"No… that can't be…"
「That's right…」
It was a dream, the longest dream.