Chapter 13 - Nightmare Sequence

Darkness.

Everything around was a void of darkness.

And then...

[You Have Died]

{You have intentionally taken your life, therefore Exclusive Skill: , will not be activated}

{Exclusive Skill: has been initiated}

[Nightmare will now commence]

... New life sprang forth.

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I rose from my place in the dark room, my mind a foggy mess, and my thoughts nonexistent.

I could only feel my primal desires surfacing as I took forward steps.

My breathing was ragged, and it felt forced and unnatural. Everything around closed in on me, yet felt far away.

This didn't feel like reality.

It felt like a dream.

In this dream, I was still stuck in the room—still trapped in the space where I was abandoned.

Yet, for some reason, none of that mattered to me.

I marched towards the locked door of the room, twisting the knob despite it being inevitably locked.

It wasn't.

Creaking sounds escaped the door as it parted, allowing me to leave the room that tormented me.

It didn't come as a surprise to me, though.

After all, this was just a dream.

I walked past the open door, ignoring the warping and congealing details around me. I ignored the grandeur of the room, my focus specifically being on a single door.

I approached the door in silence, twisting the knob and gaining access to it's inner region.

It was at that time that I saw my goal.

"Haa..." Misty breaths escaped my lips as my bulging eyes witnessed all five friends sleeping together in the same room.

My thoughts were a mess, but I could hear a couple of noises echo from the very depths of my mind.

'... KILL YOU ALL!'

'... SLEEPING SO PEACEFULLY...'

'... MONSTERS!'

'... I HATE YOU!'

I took a step forward and watched how peacefully they enjoyed their night.

I watched empty packs of snacks litter the floor, and I saw bottles of soda all around me.

It seemed they had really eaten to their fill before crashing to the night.

"Haa..."

HOW DARE THEY?

'... WAS STARVING, YOU KNOW? STARVING ENDLESSLY...'

While I was spending those days in stark darkness and pure hunger, these people were having the time of their lives, weren't they?

They had fun, didn't they?

At the moment, I no longer felt the pangs of hunger, nor the fear that crept up on me.in the darkness.

This was a dream, after all.

I walked closer to the group, drawing my attention closer to the bed.

While there were five in the room, they all slept in scattered locations.

One used the duvet to sleep, while two others lay on a spare mattress. That left two people on the bed.

Jake... and LISA!

My eyes turned bloodshot, glowing red in the darkness as I stared at the two of them.

"Haaa..."

These bastards. They were monsters beyond even the Demons that prowled the night.

They deserved to die!

'Let's start with you... BITCH!' I moved my hands, drawing them closer to her succulent neck.

They seemed so clear and pure. What would happen if they became sullied with my dark, dirty, grimy hands?

'Hehe... hehehe....heheheheheehehee...'

Placing my hands gently on her throat, I began to squeeze them tighter.

'Die.'

Tighter, pressing upon her skin.

'DIE!'

Digging deep and crushing the pure beauty that remained there.

'DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!'

I could hear her choking already. Her Caucasian skin now displayed red hints of red, and her reddened face brought me even greater delight.

'THIS IS WHAT YOU DESERVE!'

That's right.

'YOU DESERVE TO DIE!'

Even after I saved her life, took her in, shared my meals with her, told her my secrets, and even thought of her as a friend.

'YOU LIED TO ME!'

She betrayed me. She made me suffer for so long.

'YOU SELFISH BITCH!'

After choking and choking, Lisa finally drifted into unconsciousness, only perhaps a little step away from death.

If I kept this up, only a few seconds more would lead to her demise.

But then... then...

'Y-you... you selfish bitch...'

The images of her smile, and how she laughed, and how she cried, and how we both talked... all of them began to flash in my head.

'You... you...'

I loosened my hands and stumbled a few steps backwards.

More images flashed. Her cold stoic eyes, and her completely heartless action. The words she spoke to me the last time I saw her echoed in my heart.

'... I can't...'

My eyes no longer displayed murderous rage. No.

The blurry vision I had was only evident of one thing.

"Hicc... hicc..."

Bitter tears fell from my eyes as I was assailed by pure sadness.

'Why would you do that to me? I... I trusted you...'

Why would anyone do something like this to anyone?

I didn't deserve something like that! I just... I just wanted to survive.

What was so wrong with that?!

She was clearly in the wrong. She deserved to die.

Both she and Jake, and all of her friends who agreed to do something so horrendous.

They all deserved to die painful and brutal deaths.

But—

'I can't do it...'

My body weakly gave in to my hesitation. In the end .. I couldn't just kill someone.

Despite all my rage and fury—all my pain and regrets—when it came down to it, taking a life even in my dreams, I couldn't do it.

'I... I don't want to kill anyone.'

Hanging my head in shame, staring at Jake and Lisa, and all her other friends one final time, I grinded my teeth and clenched my fist.

'I don't want to become a monster.'

And then, I walked away.

I left their room, not caring enough to close the door.

My blurry vision and lackluster steps took me to the entrance of my suite.

Whether it was locked or not didn't matter.

I just wanted out.

I opened the door, and it responded. In a dream, anything was possible.

I didn't bother looking back any longer. I didn't even care to think or wonder about where I would be going.

I just wanted out.

I exited the suite not caring about it as I left the door open and continued my aimless journey. I walked down the empty hallway, my vision fixated at the very front.

However, after taking a couple of steps forward, I noticed I wasn't alone any longer.

Demons.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Five Demons approached, all growling and glaring in their monstrous forms. I watched them, not ceasing in advancing.

For some reason, they didn't feel scary to me. They didn't even feel real.

This was just a dream, after all.

I walked past the Demons, and they walked past me. None of us cared much for the other, so we ignored one another as I made my way down the stairs to reach the ground floor so I could exit the place.

I didn't care about staying in this place any longer. There was sonly one thing I desired.

I just wanted out.

I exited the hotel.

I walked down the Demon infested street, sometimes encountering a few strange creatures. But, even when I did, we ignored each other, and I went my way.

I didn't know how or why, but I found myself right in front of the drugstore I usually visited back when the world was sane.

It was open, and it was empty.

I walked in, shut the door, and covered the blinds. I pulled down the metal shutters, separating the pharmacy from the outside, and found myself all alone, surrounded my nothing but the drugs and structures around me.

It was at that time that my eyes moved to something in the corner.

It was a Vending Machine.

'Ah...'

That's right, I remembered it well. There was a Vending Machine here, wasn't there?

It held snacks and drinks. Mostly fast food, which was a strange thing for a drugstore to have.

The owner did say they were healthy snacks. Rather than junk food and fatty foods, healthier meals were placed there, and instead of carbonated drinks, it had juice.

A Vending Machine full of these snacks in this drugstore meant there were even more.of the goods in the store out back.

However, none of those thoughts were relevant to me at this point.

All that mattered was that I was out of the room. I was out of the hotel.

I wasn't going to be hungry, or scared, or in despair any longer.

Right now... I was safe.

"Food."

I went to the vending machine, opened it up and had my fill.

"Water." I sought after the sparkling water and juices that stood before me and drank till I was satisfied.

"More food." I ate a lot more.

"More water." I satisfied my aching throat.

On and on, I continued this monotonous process.

I didn't know why I felt so relieved and so happy. None of these things mattered anyway.

In the end, this was all just a dream.

And so, I shut my eyes in this blissful illusion, having a full belly and an ecstatic feeling coursing through me.

This euphoria... if only it were real.

{Penalty fee has been collected due to the use of Exclusive Skill: }

[You will wake up soon]

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[A/N]

Thanks for reading!

I imagine you all have thoughts regarding the actions of the MC. I'd advice you to be chill about it. Give character progression time…