Nightmare Game
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 5
Ethan knew he’d been paralyzed for twelve years, even if he couldn’t remember a single thing from back then.
He had no recollection of his parents, or his friends, or even how the paralysis had happened in the first place.
Modern medicine hadn’t offered any solid answers. They’d poked and prodded every inch of him, from his body and brain to his organs, blood, nerves, and bones, running tests on just about everything imaginable. Yet nothing turned up, no cause at all, and all his vitals came back perfectly normal.
For a while, the doctors suspected he was faking it, but after some careful observation, they dropped that theory.
No healthy person could stay perfectly still like that, twenty-four hours a day, not even tilting their neck a fraction, no matter how hard they tried to hold the pose.
In the end, they chalked it up to a psychological condition, figuring his subconscious had convinced him he was paralyzed.
Ethan didn’t buy into that idea himself. Still, with his memories wiped clean, he couldn’t rule out that some buried trauma from his past had left him like this.
The only family he had left was his grandfather, who stopped by the hospital room every single day to look after him.
His grandfather, Brandon Walker, was a wiry man with a slight hunch to his shoulders. Age had slowed him down, leaving his legs unsteady, and the wrinkles on his face were impossible to miss. He wasn’t the booming, vigorous type anymore.
But he had a warm smile and an unshakable optimism about him. For twelve straight years, he’d cared for Ethan without fail, never once letting the paralysis wear him down or make him quit.
Ethan had asked him about the family once or twice, but his grandfather had been vague, saying only that Grandma had passed away long ago and that his parents were working overseas, too tied up to come back.
Ethan didn’t really believe that line. What kind of parents wouldn’t even show their face after their son had been paralyzed for twelve years, unless they just plain didn’t care?
Whatever the truth was, it wasn’t anything good, but Ethan had been smart enough not to push for more details.
Looking back on it now, though.
If the lost memories and the paralysis both stemmed from some kind of mysterious force.
If that same eerie event on his body was the key that had unlocked twelve years of the same recurring dream.
If it all boiled down to steering him toward this bizarre place.
Then what exactly was the shadowy force pulling the strings behind it all?
Ethan’s expression shifted as the thoughts raced through his mind, but right now, it was all just speculation, nothing concrete.
Some of those hunches wouldn’t pan out until after tonight anyway. If this really was just a dream, there had to be a way to snap out of it.
Maybe even by falling asleep again and waking up back in the real world.
But first, there were a few things he needed to clarify with this group.
“By the way,” Ethan asked casually, “have any of you had dreams like this before?”
They all shook their heads. Dreams were slippery things in people’s memories to begin with, and most folks couldn’t even say for sure if they’d dreamed at all once they woke up.
It made sense to Ethan. After all, these people all had real jobs and lives, nothing out of the ordinary like his own situation.
Assuming, of course, they weren’t lying.
The group headed up to the second floor, where Butler was already waiting in the hallway for them.
“There are five rooms on each side,” he said. “You can pick any except the ones at the very end, those will be your guest quarters.” He pointed to the numbers above the doors. “To make things easier for our guests, we’ve labeled them 201 through 208. The guest who came up earlier has already taken 204.”
“What are the end rooms for?” Ethan asked.
“The one on the left is the master’s room, and the one on the right is the mistress’s.”