Another one! Thank you so much for the people who have stayed and read it. I may be putting this story on other platforms as well.
This one is going to be a short chapter for today. Enjoyyy!
I woke up, disoriented and questioning my reality.
"Wait... Am I awake? Didn't I just have a dream? Was that real?.…..Either way, I'm not about to let some 'were-boy' kill me or anything like that... Wait... That means..." I realized, looking around at my surroundings. I found myself leaning against a wall, sitting down. To my left was a familiar door, ahead of me lay a staircase, to the right of the staircase was a couch, and a TV was bolted to the wall.
"My childhood home?" I whispered. "This is a memory. I had fallen asleep a few hours after the news. I didn't have the energy to go to the couch or my room."
I got up, my knees wobbly at first. As I looked around, I considered which direction to go when I started hearing faint whispers. The voices were too soft to make out any words.
To hear them better, I followed the faint voices, walking up the stairs to stay closer to them.
Just as I reached the top step, the whispers abruptly ceased.
Before I could attempt to locate the source of the voices, a scream echoed from the first door on my left. Something inside appeared to be trapped, twisting the doorknob and banging against the door violently. I slowly approached the door, hesitantly gripping the doorknob and attempting to turn it, but it wouldn't budge all the way. It was as if it were locked from both sides. Frightened and bewildered, I stepped back from the door, a growing sense of unease taking hold.
"Damn it. Every time I have a dream, I fall prey to it. Why does my mind have to make it so agonizingly real?" I muttered, gradually realizing it was a nightmare. Despite my numerous encounters with these terrors, I had never managed to experience lucid dreaming before. Perhaps this was my opportunity. I somehow wrestled control away from my subconscious mind and seized command of my dream body. I crossed my arms, staring down the Nogitsune.
"What in the hell? Stop invading my mind! I don't understand your method, but if you persist, I'll find a way to erase you," I declared with a confidence I didn't truly feel, my heart threatening to burst from my chest at any moment.
"Actually," he retorted, closing the gap until he stood a mere foot away from me. "There's only one path for you to awaken, and that's by winning the game. Once you achieve that, you can spend the rest of your existence futilely scouring through pointless books in a vain attempt to obliterate me."
"I have to play some absurd game? And why me? I was Stiles' roommate for just a day. Couldn't you have chosen someone else?" I questioned as the Nogitsune slammed his fist into the wall. I instinctively flinched away and turned towards the stairs, ready to bolt if necessary. Enraged, he began to inch closer, and I stumbled backward, losing my footing and tumbling down the stairs. As I fell, I felt something shift, and when I looked up, I found myself trapped in a dark labyrinth with bricked walls.
"Is this where it begins? Can he just change the rules at any time? He's in my head, after all," I thought to myself, turning around to discover a dead end. I sighed and made a choice.