บท 182: Caught
Derek got home after a long day of school.
School in the Dream Realm was held by volunteers who gave their life experiences to the young. It was a practice done every few days or so and lasted more than 6 hours.
Surprisingly, the children didn't hate it. They got to learn about a multitude of experiences and stories.
You could say Derek's life was good, but it wasn't.
Derek was one of the many born between a human from reality and someone born in the Dream Realm, one of the Dream Folk.
He loved his parents, originally.
As he got older, he began to overhear his father's gloomy conversations with friends. The contents of these conversations confused and broke Derek. With no explanations, he just couldn't understand why his father would say those things.
Derek's father would open up to his companions. Sometimes he would even cry and wallow in defeat. The parts Derek would overhear were about him and how his dad somehow failed him.
He would never hear anything too detailed, but that wasn't the same for his friends.
Everyone was a close-knit circle, Derek's father and friends all came from reality. It was only logical Derek was friends with the kids of his dad's friends.
It wasn't hard to believe one of them successfully crept up on the grown-ups and heard everything.
This was how Derek ultimately learned he would never be able to leave the Dream Realm. All because he was born in it.
He had always heard the stories of Reality in school, infinite lands with almost limitless abilities, much like the Dream Realm. Learning of this, he finally understood. Everything clicked.
For the first time, he felt trapped.
As the young boy he was, Derek also had a loose tongue. Soon, his words slipped and he innocently asked dear old dad why he couldn't go to Reality.
That was the day Derek watched his father break down. Tears streamed while the guilt-ridden father.
"Derek.....Derek....I'm sorry....its all my fault. I didn't know I swear!"
As his father went on, Derek's ears began to turn static and drown out everything.
The nightmare he was having finally came true. Instead of reassuring his son, the father broke, and in the end, so did his child.
His father continued justifying his guilt, "But you don't understand! I didn't want to die! I wanted to have a family, I wanted to live in peace! It's impossible out there....in that hellscape! I only found out the truth after you were born I swear! I didn't mean to take away your freedom, I didn't wish for you to get trapped here!"
Emotions were a fickle thing. Perhaps if his father didn't have such strong guilt, Derek wouldn't feel the way he felt. But he did.
A father locked his son in a cage, a world he could never escape. Yes, the Dream Realm was unique but it wasn't authentic. It was a mirror of reality in Derek's mind, it couldn't be the same value as the real thing.
The only reason he felt this way, was due to his father as well, ironic. His father's regret created his son's disgust
Ever since that day, Derek watched his father turn paler and paler. He knew it was his father's doing.
Dear old dad lost all hope, his guilt released. But he didn't feel any better, he could feel a piercing stare from his son day after day.
In truth, Derek didn't know how to feel, his friends all had different opinions on it and all of them were not as extreme as Derek's view.
He didn't hate his father, but he did learn to hate his mother who was what cursed him to this place.
There was so much built-up hatred brewing. But Derek would never get the opportunity to take it out on anyone, for his hatred was one day extinguished, but a new flame arose within.
...
The door to the Henderson house opened, Derek walked inside and closed the door behind him before his shoes magically removed themselves.
"How was school? Anything interesting?"
"Yeah! Dad, you had to see them! The teacher today was super tall and had no arms!" Even feeling as he did, Derek made sure to act normal for the most part.
Derek's dad chuckled, "Really? go on."
"Yeah, they had 4 big legs, and their head looked like one of those knight helmets! They even wrote on the board by summoning these weird thin arms that looked totally gross!"
"Haha, fascinating." Derek's father looked at his watch and saw the time, "Derek, go help your mother prepare dinner. We're having jaiv meat."
"Really! I thought you couldn't remember jaiv meat anymore?!"
"I went to a specialist for memory recovery. Now, go and help your mother."
With his father mentioning his mother, Derek frowned a little and replied unenthusiastically. Before his father could question him, three quick and heavy knocks came from the door.
Derek's father got up and headed to the door.
"Hello?"
A man in a tidy black military uniform was on the other side of the door.
From the slight angle Derek could see, he witnessed a person with deep emerald eyes and a silvery green half-moon on his forehead standing before his father.
"I'm an inquisitor from the Palace of Dreams."
"Inquisitor?"
Derek's father's face instantly turned sour. He then noticed Derek lurking behind him.
"Derek! Go help your mother this instant!"
"Yes, father!" The child scurried like a rat to the kitchen, leaving Cain to talk with Derek's father.
"Sir, I've just come because I was in the area and felt perturbed. You seem to not be in the highest of spirits."
"Hah...no I think I'm at my worst point."
Derek's father paused, he seemed, compelled to speak.
"I've finally told my son something I've been dreading. But after telling him I didn't feel better, I felt even worse. Now I even feel the hatred coming from him." Tears gathered and began to stream, "I failed him....and myself."
The man was easily influenced by Hope, telling Cain everything.
"I see....."
Cain narrowed his eyes and looked past the door, scanning the entire house.
'Two others, a woman and that child.....should be quick.'
Cain had long gotten used to what he had to do.
Summoning his bone-white sword, the father became increasingly worried.
"Sir?! What are you-!"
Cain plunged the sword deep into the man's chest.
With a twist blood seeped out and flooded the carpet, staining it deeply.
The commotion didn't go unnoticed, Derek's mother came over to check on her husband only to scream in horror.
"Mom, what is it....."
Derek entered the room only to see his mother on the floor screaming in horror. Looking over he saw a white bone coming out of his father's back and crimson blood soiling the carpet.
His father turned his head back, blood dripping from his mouth.
Derek met his father's eyes. All he saw was sorrow, all he saw was regret.
Cain pulled out his sword before swiftly removing the man's head from his shoulders. He silently watched it roll, stopping beside the child who stared at it with a blank face.
"Murderer! You monster! I'll kill you!"
The mother turned incorporeal, turning back into her original form.
She appeared as a vast cloud of lighting as she charged at the assailant.
'Murderer...'
Cain didn't seem to care, he raised his sword and swiped down. The strength of his move was so strong even the floor cracked.
'Weak.'
What now laid before him was a cloud leaking pink gas and sand.
In an instant, both of Derek's parents were killed.
Clutching his father's head, his tears turned his father's flesh pink, causing them to evaporate as if the tears were hotter than lava.
"Why....." Derek was drowning in his own tears, the pink smoke of his father sticking to his face.
Cain stood before the child, "Do you think I am a monster too?"
Derek's mind went blank.
But soon a sentence escaped, the words were filled with anger and wrath, "How about you see for yourself!" His words filled the world with imagination, and a mirror came into being.
Derek had once heard from one of the teachers at school, that mirrors were very dangerous.
It was why not many people owned them. The teacher even spoke about their own encounters with mirrors, telling the class it was anyone's worst enemy.
Cain looked at the mirror conjured by the boy of course. He saw himself, but the mirror reflected not his emotionless face, but a face filled with disappointment.
Before Cain's eyes, the boy disappeared.
He was left in the house but no one was there. He didn't even feel anyone outside the house.
'Strange.'
"Indeed, very."
Cain quipped around to see himself reflected. Only there was no mirror, the air itself seemed to reflect their figure.
Reality seemed to crack, even more so than it usually did in the land of Dreams.
"Who are you."
"Me? I am you. A better you I would say, one not as stupid as to think what you doing is right."
Cain stared at the creature reflecting in the mirror, he then raised his sword and attacked.
The mirror broke into shards and his face warped into one of victory.
"So full of yourself now? Well, at least you're not without emotions. That's good, we might be redeemed yet."
The world seemed to crack everywhere all at once, thousands of mirror-like shards appeared out of thin air like a web. In the mirrors, they reflected the same Cain, still showing disappointment.
Looking at himself Cain's emotions sparked, "And why should I believe you? What I'm doing is creating what I originally desired!"
"Tsk Tsk Tsk, no. We originally wanted to make Netherane a land of peace. But that ended when we realized it was impossible, along with us losing ourselves a bit.... and killing everyone." The mirror chuckled.
Everything rang again and again, Cain heard that same sentence over and over for almost 10 seconds.
Cain kept his straight face, "Liar, you're just some Nightmare. I'll let you know my goals never disappeared! I was only held back after learning there was another me, me which caused everything!"
All the mirrors laughed crazily in unison, holding their stomachs, "Just how far have you twisted your mind! Always blaming but never taking it!"
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