Thanks for the reviews again! I'm so happy you like this story :D This chapter starts with a dream sequence, enjoy! ;)

CHAPTER 5
The Man of Your Dreams and the Name of Your Fears

He was walking away! That person was walking away from him, leaving him all alone in the endless darkness.

Confusion.

Cold.

Loneliness.

Fear.

Why was he walking away? Merlin tried to run and catch up to him, but their distance remained the same. Impossible. The person was slowly disappearing in the darkness swimming around them.

Who was he?

Blond hair, broad shoulders and a red cloak tied around his neck. Merlin felt... a connection, just like when he was holding the ring. He felt connected to a part of his broken mind, but it was so hard to reach! He could almost see it – he saw the person after all, but he was still walking away!

"No! Wait!" He cried. Why was he crying again? Why did everything make him cry?

All he knew in that moment was that he needed to reach that person. If not to ask his name, then to at least look at his face. Maybe his memories were coming back to him in a dream or something. Maybe this was what he was supposed to do...

And so he started running. He ran and ran and it looked as if the person was always just out of reach. Too far away, in front of him, almost lost in the dark. But Merlin didn't give up. Even when he saw light on the other side and the person was walking towards it.

That was when the distance between them finally started getting smaller and Merlin sped up. That man. Who was he?

"Hey!" Merlin called. He was almost out of breath, but he kept running."Who are you?" He called as he finally reached him. The person stopped and Merlin hesitantly reached his hand to the man's shoulder.

Then he finally touched him and turned him around, only to find-

No face. The person had no face. No eyes, no mouth or nose, nothing. Merlin's eyes widened and the person suddenly disappeared right in front of him and the light started surrounding him. He turned to the source of it and shielded his eyes, but the light was too bright...

Merlin woke up with his heart pounding in his chest and his head spinning. He immediately sat up and almost forgot about his broken arm when he wanted to hang his head into his hands. What was that dream about? What was that supposed to mean?

The man he was running after... who was he? He was sure he knew the answer. It was hidden somewhere in his mind, just waiting for him to rediscover it.

But Merlin wanted to know who that man was right now! When he was running after him, when he saw his short blonde hair and the red cloak... it was as if he was running towards everything that he ever held dear. To the most important person in the universe. To someone who meant so much to him that he could never hope to describe it with only words.

Which was why not knowing who he was, not knowing what his face looked like or his voice sounded like, hurt him so much.

That's why he closed his eyes and rubbed them with the back of his healthy hand, trying to forget about that dream. If he couldn't find out who that person was, not in the real world nor in the dream one, it was no use to him. He needed real clues. Even though he feared them.

He yawned again and looked at the clock on the empty table – 3:15am. He didn't sleep long then.

Merlin slowly got out of bed and left the room, finding the door to his own room closed. He crossed the hall and silently opened it, peeking inside. And then he smiled. Agatha was lying on the floor with her head on the edge of the bed, sleeping between books that were covering the carpet around the shelves.

She really wanted to help him. And she was curious, he could see that. Maybe he was a mystery to everyone.

He opened the door completely and slipped inside, slowly making his way to the other side of the room – to the shelves. She went through almost all of his books. And he didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, he had no idea if some of the books held dark secrets or if they were just what they were – books.

But the books downstairs were ordinary books, like Harry Potter or The Song of Ice And Fire series. On the other hand, these were books in his room. What secrets did they hide? Or more importantly, was one of them his own diary?

Merlin yawned again as he tried to wake up his eyes by blinking a few times. He walked over to Agatha's still asleep form and looked down at the mess she's made. There were several books lying around on the floor, some were opened, some were closed, and there were a few old photos from some kind of a photo album maybe.

When Merlin wanted to ignore the photos and wake Agatha up, he realized she was holding something loosely in her hand. Merlin leaned closer and gently unclasped her fingers to get it and look at it. It was her notepad. Has she made more notes?

He opened it and frowned as his eyes skimmed over the paper.

Books about the king Arthur and everything to do with the legends, probably just a fan...

words and sentences crossed out and corrected in the books

some pictures have comments about what's wrong with them

old photos and ID cards – same face and name

merlin

hollow book with a key, probably from the door

Merlin frowned and then raised his eyebrow. What was that supposed to mean? Why were there crossed out words and sentences in his books about the Arthurian legends? How could he have corrected them when no one actually knew if Arthur existed?

And what was it about the photos and ID cards? Same face and name? And why was there a note saying only merlin in Ag's notepad?

Too many questions.

Merlin closed his eyes and rubbed them with his fingers. He shouldn't have read it, shouldn't be thinking about it right now – he won't be able to fall asleep now, his mind will be too busy trying to figure out what did it all mean.

He sighed and put the notepad back on the floor. Refusing to look at the pictures and books, he gently shook Agatha's shoulder.

"Ag?" He mumbled, still a little bit sleepy. She moaned quietly and smacked her lips in her sleep, but didn't wake up. Merlin shook her shoulder a little bit more until she finally started moving. She looked up at him and smiled slightly.

"Merlin?" She mumbled and Merlin immediately frowned because Merlin wasn't his name, was it? He didn't know if his name was really Marvin, but he was sure it wasn't Merlin because Merlin was that old wizard from the legends. Although it sounded somehow familiar when she called him that name...

He cleared his throat and decided to ignore that too. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

She nodded sleepily and accepted his help so she could stand up. Then she looked around the room and her eyes widened when she saw the books and photos on the floor. She looked up at him and all of a sudden wasn't sleepy anymore. "There's something I need to tell you, I think I might have finally figured out who you are!"

"Right." Merlin smiled nervously. "You can tell me all about it tomorrow, I'd like to get a few more hours of sleep and so should you. Now, come on."

She kept staring into his eyes and even though he felt a little bit uncomfortable, he didn't look away. It was as if she was scanning his face, deciding whether he just didn't want to talk about it or whether he really wanted to sleep. Then she nodded and her eyes dropped down on the bed. She picked a pen that was lying there and shrugging, put it down on the floor next to her notepad.

"Alright, let's get some sleep." She smiled. "Can I-"

"Yeah, take my bed." Merlin nodded as he went back to the door and yawned. "We can talk about everything tomorrow, but for now... good night."

"Good night." She smiled as she sat down on the bed, already pulling back the covers.

Merlin went back to the empty room. He still didn't know whom was the room supposed to belong to, or whether he would dream about that person again... or if the person from his dream was the owner of this empty room. But he decided that this, just like the books and old photos, could wait until the next day.

With that, he laid back down to the bed and closed his eyes, fearing he might dream about the handsome blonde man again and yet wishing he would.

xoXÖXox

Agatha was the first to wake up in the morning. Although she didn't go to sleep exactly early, Merlin stayed in bed past ten o'clock and she woke up... well, at ten.

It wasn't one of the easiest morning either. Right when she stretched her back and, still with her eyes closed, threw her legs over the edge of the bed, she almost stepped on the photos and books that were still lying on the floor.

She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times to clear her vision as she slowly looked down. Her notepad and pen were lying there and she could well remember how Marvin- Merlin, found her in his room asleep. Why was he awake anyway? It was around three in the morning...

Agatha sighed and stood up, sitting back on the floor and opening her notepad. She really needed to figure out what Merlin used to be and what he has done in the past. If he really was the great warlock of legends, he must have had magic, right? And... oh god, if he really was him, then he must have been over a thousand years old! It made sense now, that he lived alone and didn't talk to anyone.

If she had a life like that, she would get lonely though. She needed social life, she couldn't even imagine how hard it had to be for Merlin to live without that because everyone he'd known has died already.

Still, it was all very interesting. And mysterious.

She reached for the pen on the floor and picked it up, turning to the page with a single note in her notepad.

An immortal character – what would it be like for the character if he/she found out he/she was immortal? How would she/he react?

A little smile appeared on her lips as she read the note again. She needed to think about more writing exercises like that... or find some new ones online.

Ag closed her eyes for a moment and then sighed again, carefully stepping in between the books and photos on the floor to get to the door. Damn, she made a mess of Merlin's room. And just as she was looking over that mess around her, her eyes wandered to the locked door.

No other door led to it, and it was on the same spot as the locked room downstairs. What secrets could a room like that possibly hold? More books? Secret diaries? Was Merlin a writer too?

She decided not to worry about that in the end and turned to open the door. Once she was in the hall, she carefully cracked the other room's door and peeked inside to look at Merlin – who was still asleep in his bed. She looked down at her wristwatch that she forgot to take off, and decided to let Merlin get more sleep.

Who knew what he was dreaming about. She remembered those moments when she was young and was having a nice dream about her high school crush, when suddenly her alarm went off and her mum walked in, completely ruining the entire dream.

Note to the notepad: Write a scene where character is having a nice dream when another character wakes him up. What is the 1st character's reaction?

She smiled as she closed the door to the empty room where Merlin was sleeping in, and wrote the note down to her notepad. Then she finally entered the bathroom and brushed her teeth.

Ten minutes later, she was sitting at the table in the living room downstairs, having just made herself a nice hot cup of coffee. She slurped a bit because it was still too hot to drink, and then she looked out of the window at the table in the garden, putting the mug back down on the table.

The sun was shining and she hasn't been watching the weather reports lately, but she hoped the clear blue sky was an indication of a nice day. It was Sunday after all, and it was raining two days ago... and she didn't have an umbrella.

She left it in her friend's house in Glastonbury, as most of her things before she had to... shit. It was Sunday, which meant the next day would be Monday. And that meant that she had to get back to work! She's been in Glastonbury for over a week now, and she promised her boss she'd be back by Friday... which was two days ago! She really hoped he wouldn't be mad at her, she completely forgot about it after the accident.

But he would understand, Jack was a good guy. She's been working for him for over a year now, ever since she'd dropped out of college. (It really wasn't a place for her...)

Agatha looked at her wristwatch again and decided Merlin's had enough sleep already. And just as she was standing up from the table, she heard him going down the stairs.

"Good morning," she smiled up at him and kid you not, he almost fell down from the stairs.

"You scared me!" He complained, but smiled soon after. When he was finally on the solid floor, he added, "good morning," and went into the kitchen to look for something to eat.

"You want coffee?" Agatha asked as he bent down to the mini fridge. "I made some..."

"Dunno if I drink it." Merlin shrugged.

Agatha narrowed her eyes. "Then maybe you should try and remember. I don't know anyone who doesn't like coffee." She smirked when he sighed and looked up at her.

"I bet at least 70% of children don't like it."

She laughed and went over to the kettle full of leftover hot water. She made Merlin coffee just like she liked it and handed him the mug, which he accepted with a grateful (and still tired) smile.

They went back to the living room and sat down on the sofa in front of the table. And then Agatha got an idea. She was almost certain that Marvin was actually the real Merlin, all the evidence suggested it although she did admit it sounded ridiculous. But, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, right?

And so she decided to make a little plan. Once Merlin stopped listening to her or wasn't paying attention to her, she'd call him, but by his real name. Merlin. And if he reacted, that would be the final proof!

"Have you slept well?" Merlin asked, slurping his own coffee. She blinked, having been lost in her mind for a moment, and then she smiled at him.

"Sure, after you found me at least."

Merlin nodded as he laughed a bit. "You should have seen yourself, just lying there, half on the bed and half on the floor, surrounded by books. Must have been hard reading."

She wanted to punch him in the arm at that moment, she really did, but damn it his arm was broken. So she settled for, "shut up."

And Merlin smirked.

"Of course the reading was hard." She added then. "I found very interesting things in your books."

"Care to share?" He looked up at her, this time looking genuinely interested. "I saw some of your notes before I woke you up in the night."

"Yeah," she nodded, already opening her notepad and putting it down on the little table in front of them. "First of all, literally every book in there is somehow related to the king Arthur legends, the holy grail, Merlin," she purposely stressed the word, but not enough for still-waking-up Merlin to notice, "and Guinevere and the knights, and... well, you get the point." After he nodded, she continued. "But the thing is... almost every paragraph or a page has some correction in it, made by you."

"For example?" Merlin asked, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Um... yeah, there was this picture of how people think king Arthur might have looked like if he had existed, and in the picture he had brown hair and eyes, and next to him was Merlin who looked very old."

"What was the correction?"

"You wrote there that Arthur's hair was blonde, and his eyes were – and I quote – crystal blue." She noticed Merlin blushed a little, but she didn't pay attention to it. "And now the most interesting thing is that you said Merlin was the same age as Arthur although almost every legend nowadays describes Merlin as an old man and that he was old even by the time Arthur was born."

"But how would I know that?" Merlin asked, swallowing down. He probably thought he wouldn't like the answer. Which was why Agatha sighed and said:

"I have no idea." She looked down at her notepad again and smirked slightly. "Psychic maybe?"

Merlin chuckled, but soon the humour left him again as he looked out of the door at the garden and frowned. What was he thinking about?

And this was the opportunity Agatha has been waiting for. Merlin/Marvin was lost in his thoughts, looking into his garden, and not really paying attention to his surroundings besides the coffee mug in his hand. If she called him Merlin, what would he do? Would he just hum in response to let her know he heard her, or would he start frowning in confusion?

"Merlin?" She said out loud, and to her surprise, his reaction was just as she expected it. Merlin hummed and looked at her with a question in his eyes, waiting for her to say whatever she wanted to tell him. But she just smiled and her eyes sparkled with excitement. Merlin didn't even realize she just called him by his real name!

"You know I called you Merlin... do you?" She asked with a smile still present on her lips. Merlin frowned, then his eyes widened with confusion and then the confusion turned into horror.

"You... you don't think that... that I-"

"Yes." Agatha was already nodding. "I think you're the real Merlin from the legends."

TBC

I was home alone today and was supposed to study and I did literally nothing all day XD omg I'm so productive on weekends :D Well, at least I proofread this chapter, I hope you liked it! (And sorry for the delayed Merlin's reaction, the chapter was too long already so you can keep looking forward to it, it's in the next chapter) ;)