Nightmare Game
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 104
Clara left, and that night, Ethan returned to the Manor in his dreams.
The five animals were absent. Instead, a familiar figure greeted him.
The white Spider.
“It’s really you,” Ethan said.
His mind drifted to twelve years ago. Strangers had visited the Manor, and the animals sent him outside to play.
Among them, a woman stood out, out of place, watching him with complex emotions—sorrow, reluctance, helplessness.
She approached, patted his head, and whispered, “Live well.”
He never saw her or the others again, the memory fading until Dreamplay brought her back.
At first, he thought it was just a resemblance, but her presence in the Manor confirmed it.
She explained everything—her refusal of the animals’ plan years ago, her change of heart, and her wish to join as the sixth animal.
Now, Ethan would learn from her.
Over the next few nights, he trained alone with her, mastering Trapping and Insight.
He also mulled over whose Blessing to choose for Abyss Prison.
After much thought, he picked the Fox’s.
This Dreamplay was trickier, with threats from monsters and human deceit.
Clara had warned him about Julian, who wielded Bat and Lion Blessings, plus an unknown third.
The Fox’s cunning felt like the edge he’d need.
Not, of course, because the Fox had pestered him, alternating between sweet-talking and playfully shaking his head to pick her first.
Time slipped by.
The end of the month arrived. Ethan lay in bed, the ticking clock lulling him into sleep.
He entered the Dreamplay.
He’d expected a foggy clearing, like before, but the scene stunned him.
He stood with others in the ocean’s depths, an invisible barrier shielding them from the water.
The light was dim, shapes barely visible—human silhouettes, fish, or something else, gliding past.
The seafloor was a void, swallowing all detail.
This was unlike any Dreamplay he’d known.
His body could move, but the barrier’s strange force kept him rooted.
What now? He glanced at the shadowed figures, all equally stuck.
Relief flickered; he wasn’t alone in this.
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