Arc 0: Prelude 11 - A Hanging Dream

dream /driːm/

an aspiration; goal; aim.

“The right thing…,” Zachary uttered.

It had been an hour since anyone entered his room, so there was only him and his thoughts alone in the room.

He remembered the time when he thought he could change, the time that he defied his thoughts and decided to go back to Lauren. He could do nothing but chuckle at how naive he was.

There was no right or wrong, that much was true, but only in a world that was completely free. However, in the reality he was living in, right and wrong were determined by the people that think they can govern their beliefs onto the world to satisfy themselves.

His mother might have been right, but who was to say she wasn’t? She might have been simply projecting her own fears onto him.

Zachary sat with his torso upright on the hospital bed in the room alone. There was no one in sight and the door was closed. However, it didn’t bother him somehow, and he was bothered by the fact that he wasn’t bothered.

He placed both his palms on his face and deeply sighed. He had grown tired of thinking altogether.

*tick* *tick*

A strange knock came from the window. He looked over to it in surprise to find that it was closed shut and with no one in sight. Perhaps it was a tree branch, the trees were pretty close to the window, almost blocking the warm light of the sunset.

With nothing to think about and nothing to do, he turned his head back to his front and simply just sat there. His eyes were completely devoid of emotion and full of melancholy as if he wasn’t quite conscious of the reality around him.

*tick* *tick*

That knock came again.

Moving to the corner of his eyes, he noticed a tree branch hanging down from the tree and was near the glass window. It seemed like the wind pushed it back and forth, so it was indeed a tree.

「Just my luck…」

If the wind persisted and the branch continued to knock like that, he might not be able to sleep soundly come night.

Looking back to his front, he gazed deeply into the wall with dazed eyes.

He felt his head slowly tilt downwards as if something was pushing it to drop. Following that movement, his eyelids grew heavier.

He shut his eyes…

...but then he rolled it back up again.

And so began the spiral of him fighting against sleep and his own mind. It was strange. He desired no sleep, yet his body acted like it was tired. Maybe sleep was what was best at the moment. If it could ease his thoughts, perhaps even erase them, then it wasn’t so bad.

Once again, the darkness of his eyelids covered his sight…

...and once again, he opened them…

The same empty scenery of the wall existed.

He closed his eyes. He opened his eyes. He closed his eyes—

“...!”

And then he sprung his eyes wide open with fright.

The scenery was different.

A figure was floating right in front of the wall.

It hid in the shadows, only remaining as a silhouette to the eyes. The wind blew from the side, pouring leaves into the room and that was when Zachary noticed that the window had opened. With another gush of the wind, more leaves flew and made way for the light to be directed at the shadows, revealing the figure in all its glory.

It took on the shape of a human, but it was neither human nor other. A force of nature would be a befitting name for it. It was terrifyingly tall, maybe two meters or more. It looked as if it was made out of natural wood, or as if a human shape was carved out of a tree and this was the result. From the elbows to the spine, to the knees, and to the ankles, there were vines crawling all over it. Strangely colored leaves covered most of its body as if it served as its clothes or armor, there were even leaves on top of its head acting as hair. As for the face, its eyes were open, there were five of them — almost lining up with those of an insect — but there was nothing within them but a red plate of wood, otherwise no one would have thought it had eyes. It was clear from the shape and certain facial features — if one could call it that — that the being was a male, or rather took on masculine form.

It seemed to be suspended in space but a large vine hung the creature from its leg.

“—”

Zachary stared at the being with his mouth agape and his eyes deep in shock.

He blinked once, twice, thrice, but to no avail, the being was still there. It wasn’t a statue, it was moving, breathing like an actual living being. If he could laugh, he would, but this was not a laughing matter in the least.

「I’ve gone mental!」

“You’ve endured quite the endeavor.” The being spoke.

It had a deep and masculine voice, equally complimenting its appearance. The voice and the manner of speaking were somewhat elegant and refined, not something one would expect from such a creature.

Zachary looked down and held his hands against his head, “I’ve finally done it… I’ve finally hit rock-bottom.”

“Why, what is a phoenix but ashes reborn?” The being spoke again.

“Are you the grim reaper?” He scoffed, “Here to correct my death?”

“Perhaps I am, perhaps I am not. Who is to say the only truth is the only truth?”

This must have been an illusion, there was no other way about it. It was an illusion in his mind, just like the door that moved. Somehow, it bore the look of a demonic creature yet spoke with a refined tone and sophisticated words. If that was not something straight out of Zachary’s deranged mind, then he did not know what was.

Still, a question lingered in his mind, “The hell… the hell are you?”

Although it was hanging from that vine upside down, it lowered, or in this case, raised its torso and moved its arm across its stomach as if it was kneeling in respect. “I am but a figment born from imagination, from the same myths and rumors I bestow upon this world as truth. That is forever the irony of our being as Strange Men.”

「A figment of imagination…」

Those words felt like the confirmation he needed but didn’t desire.

“So you’re just a hallucination from my mind. I really am going crazy.”

“Perhaps you see it as crazy, but I…,” the being spoke before it floated across the room and got slightly closer to Zachary, “I believe the right term is… enlightened! Only the enlightened, those with a vivid imagination, can see a being such as I. For I am as real as fairy tales can get it. And you, Zachary Ashworth, have vastly piqued my interest.”

“That’s really not helping my case at all.” He tried to move away and avoid the being, but with the sorry state of his legs, he could only go so far. He closed his eyes and kept mumbling to himself. “(None of this is real. None of this is real. None of this is real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real.)”

The being reached out its hands and lowered one of its vines to touch Zachary’s face. “Is this not real enough for you?”

Not much of a surprise, Zachary felt the vine’s thorny strand slither across his face. It was eerie and too close for comfort, causing him to shiver. He tried his best to deny the being’s existence, even going as far as believing the touch was just being simulated from his mind.

“How…? What?” He couldn’t find the words.

“Have you not questioned yourself recently?” The being started, “Do you not feel anything odd going on within your life? Or something new? Things changing? People changing? And yet you, somehow, remain an unmoving cog in the machine of life. Do you not find it bizarre?”

The first thing that came to Zachary’s mind when he heard the word “bizarre” was the sudden surge of high spirits across town. But it didn’t stop there, he thought some more of what occurred during the past weeks. The mother that killed her own children, the rumored suicides, the sudden absence of students and teachers from the school, their return, and how some parts in the gloomy town turned to festivity. All of these occurrences happened out of nowhere and yet no one batted an eye to them, because why would they? They were just under the same influence of those enchanted rumors.

This could even mean that the appearance of Hye-mi Myung, his favorite author and idol, and the whole event to do with the writing competition was mere forgery among these events. After all, why would someone like Myung come to this secluded town of all places? But there was still another question on his mind, another doubt that he wouldn’t dare get out.

「Could she be also… no, don’t think about it.」

Could all of this have been the workings of that being?

Zachary grit his teeth, he did not want to face this truth, this reality that was swarming with fantasy worse than what a reality should be.

“If you’re not…,” he didn’t want to say it, but he had to, “If you’re not in my mind, then what are you?”

The being narrowed its eyes in disappointment. “My my, am I still puzzling even after all this time? I’m devastated, my dear writer. Mere scandalmongers recognize me from the figure alone, yet you still fail to open your eyes to me. But alas, I shall keep my identity a mystery no longer.” It moved away from Zachary and near the window where its vines outreached, it stood with the warm twilight illuminating behind it, giving it a mystical aura, “A wish for faint light. A wish for greater blight. By the by, do you crave desire?”

「Where did I hear these words…?!」

Zachary widened his eyes when he came to the realization.

“Should you dream of an elusive age, my dear writer, then I, the Hanged Man, will be at your utmost service.”

The Hanged Man, the creature that granted wishes in Zachary’s old story. That was the identity of the being before him. The words that spoke of him were torn straight out of the paper and turned into reality.

「This is a joke, right?」

△▼△▼△▼△▼△

“You know, you can only play pretend for so long…,” said the Hanged Man.

Several hours have passed since Zachary’s world had turned upside down. It was already nearing midnight. He would try to think of it as a dream and head back to sleep. He would close his eyes and attempt to do anything that would blow that creature away, but the Hanged Man was still there.

“Gh…,” Zachary sprung himself up and sat upright to face the Hanged Man, “So you’re from my story and—”

“Tsk tsk, you see, my dear writer, that is where you are wrong. I’m not from your story,” the Hanged Man explained, “You simply allowed me to take part in yours, just like everyone else who once wrote about me. I’ve existed for over five hundred years.”

“Five hundred years?! Where the hell are you from?”

“Why, I came from the distant land of Neverland, what else?”

“Neverland?!” He raised an eyebrow.

As if the Hanged Man’s presence wasn’t odd enough, now he was claiming to be from a mystical land, and not just any land, it was one that was brought about from pure imagination and dreams. There was no such place as a Neverland. It was only a myth stuck in fairy tales that did not exist. And yet… the creature that identified himself as the Hanged Man was right before him.

“I suppose your ignorance is… predictable,” the Hanged Man chuckled, “Neverland is the world that bridges your reality with our fables. It’s a world where the written words are enchanted, where writers like you can blossom and cultivate our fantasies into something more. Imagine a world where your ink is the root of reality. You can write anything and everything on anything anywhere at any time. A world filled with writers and authors of all kinds with the sole purpose of bettering the world with their magic.”

The way everything was said and phrased made it sound insane and delusional, but they were coming from a man formed out of wood and leaves instead of normal skin, a man who was hanging from the ceiling at all times, no less.

Somehow, it all piqued Zachary’s interest. He was willing to indulge in this fantasy a little further, even if he was losing his mind or lost in a dream. There was, however, a question that was still on his mind.

“Writers like me? Authors?!”

“Precisely!” The Hanged Man clapped his hands together before pointing out another thing, “But not any author, just those enlightened with the gift of great imagination. They wield their tools with great power to cast their magic and enchanted words everywhere.”

“And I… I am one?!”

“Why else can you see me?”

“Oh, I don’t know, perhaps I’m out of my goddamn mind.”

As much as Zachary would like to believe the creature’s words — anyone would love a little fantasy in their life — as much as his thoughts were warning him of falling down to this insanity.

“Still close-minded, I see,” the Hanged Man inched closer to Zachary and placed the tip of his finger on his forehead, “How about a short trip to the beyond?”

With one touch from the Hanged Man’s fingertips, Zachary suddenly felt himself being pushed away at an incredible speed as if something was pulling him from the back through a portal. The scenery before him changed a thousand times as if he was on a trip through the boundless space of the universe. He couldn’t keep up with the rush, the flickering lights almost blinded him, and yet he was still conscious. Somehow, the Hanged Man was still right in front of him with his finger on his forehead.

And then… darkness.

△▼△▼△▼△▼△

When he opened his eyes, Zachary was met with an overtop scenery of a large city at night.

The city’s architecture was odd, fantastical — straight out of the impossibilities of imagination. It was warmly lit by a thousand lights across its streets and buildings, giving it a tinge of gold that would sparkle the onlookers no matter where they went. There was this touch of antiquity to it, as if it was a place locked in time and yet still progressed further than ever before. Buildings were structured in a compound form, coating it with what seemed to be a Victorian ornament.

It was an unbelievable and mesmerizing sight.

Zachary could not believe his eyes, but this was only in the beginning.

A moment later, something flew past Zachary and almost knocked him away. It was a carriage, several of them, running, or in this case, flying with giant birds at the helm. However, this wasn’t all. Following those carriages, were a ton of winged mythical creatures that the words could not describe. Each one varied in size and shape, some looked humanoid, some were just right out of someone’s fever dream.

Right after them, a human passed by Zachary, who seemed to be hovering on top of gold clouds and dust that dictated his flight like there was no problem.

All of these people, airborne vehicles, and creatures were all flying towards the city.

「Flying?!」

That was when reality hit Zachary.

By some miracle or another, he was floating in the air across the city. He immediately turned his head upwards to be met by the Hanged Man who was carrying him through the whole trip.

Zachary felt a shortness of breath as he panicked, “Why are we in the air?!!!”

“Why, to get the best view, what else,” the Hanged Man replied.

They had to shout to be able to hear one another among the noise, be it the noise of the wind rushing against them, the loud cheers of the crowd down in the city, or the cries of the creatures that flew by and the flutter of their wings that made waves in the air.

“What is this place?!” Zachary narrowed his eyes as he struggled to see from the gushes of wind.

“I told you, didn’t I?” The Hanged Man laughed, “Neverland. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“G-Get me down, I suffer from air-sickness.”

“My dear writer, you were doing just fine a few moments ago. Just forget everything and admire the scenery.”

“I said, let me down!!!”

“Oh well, as you wish.”

True to his exact words, the Hanged Man let go of his arms, setting him loose in the air and leaving him to fall down to the ground.

When Zachary realized what had happened to him, he was already screaming at the top of his lungs from panic. The wind rushed against his body even harder than before from how fast he was falling. He could see the grounds of the city inching closer and closer. Blinded by fear, he immediately closed his eyes to ready himself for impact.

But… the impact never came.

Opening his eyes once again, he found himself back in the air above the city. Looking up, he saw the Hanged Man looking at him with a smug smile on his face.

“You said “let me down,” so I let you down, as simple as that.” The Hanged Man offered his excuse.

“Not in a goddamn literal sense!”

As they were much closer to the city now, they were able to get a better look at it. An endless amount of people filled the concrete streets, making no path for vehicles to pass. They seemed to be celebrating something from how loud their cheers were and how boisterous they all were.

However, these people weren’t just humans. There were other kinds that were never before seen in reality, and only in fiction. Some were like the humanoid flying creatures. Some seemed to be humans with certain animal features. Others were really just sentient animals. Even elves, with their well-known pointed ears, existed, and dwarfs that were shorter than by a magnificent length.

Despite that difference in race, they all danced in unison.

「They look so happy.」

It felt as if he was pulled out of reality from that little monotonous hospital room and thrown into the bright festivity of a medieval fantasy novel.

“Wait…”

「Bright?!」

Zachary widened his eyes.

The world before him, all of it, was all bright and colorful. Not a single object or place was covered in that colorless shade he was forced to always see. This could never be real, he thought. Even in his wildest dreams, he couldn’t imagine a real color within them. And yet this one, this world presented itself to him with all its shine and glory. It was amazing.

“This is…”

But before he could utter another word, the world turned dark once again.

“...!”

As the curtains of his eyelids lifted, Zachary found himself back at the hospital bed in the same colorless room. For a moment, he thought that all of that was simply a dream, that he had awoken from a long dream. But then there he was: the Hanged Man, dangling from the ceiling in front of him as he had been for the past hours.

「B-But that world…」

“It wasn’t real?!” He looked at the Hanged Man with a sorrowful expression.

“What? You really expected me to fly without my vines?” The Hanged Man moved along with his vines next to him, “But to answer your question, yes and no. That was a scene out of my own memory and experiences. What you saw was a festival held in the very mystical land of Neverland.”

“Gah…!”

Zachary rubbed his hands against his head. His thoughts were in complete disarray. That colorful world seemed so real, and yet it wasn’t. Or perhaps it was, according to the Hanged Man’s words. But was the Hanged Man ever really real? These were the types of questions riddling his mind.

So this was either of two things, all of it was real, or he had fallen asleep and delved deep into the depths of his dreams.

“By the Thousand Lords of the Night, you are a tough nut crack,” the Hanged Man placed his hand on his face and then let one of his vines scratch his head for him as if he was in deep thought about another solution. And indeed, he found a solution, “Perhaps this ought to convince you enough.”

He calmly lowered down a few of his vines onto the bed before moving over and removing the blanket entirely off Zachary.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

He felt a strange intent from the Hanged Man, but he couldn’t move.

The Hanged Man then proceeded to lower more vines onto Zachary’s legs, which were both encased in large casts to cover the injuries he had received — despite him losing the nerves and the overall feeling of his legs. The vines slowly crawled across his legs and attempted to entangle themselves before they were wrapped entirely around both legs with force. Yet still, Zachary could feel nothing.

And then…

“There was once a young man…,” the Hanged Man began chanting, “Broken without repair, he sought to empty his mind of despair. A life of silence and solitude was all that he desired. But come the night of the moon, and soon the light of the evergreen will avert the terrible fate, for another tale awaited at the end of the gate.”

Just as the words of the chant said over and over, the vines surrounding Zachary’s legs began to glow, and with them, his legs shone as well. It was a sight not for the words to describe — and not for the eyes either, Zachary felt a burning sensation in his eyes as the light came through before he shut them completely.

Despite feeling nothing in his legs a few seconds ago, Zachary felt a strange relief, as if his legs had been trapped under something for so long, and only now, were they starting to be released from the tension.

“...!”

The fact that he was able to somewhat feel his legs and not react to them came as a surprise to him. He still had his eyes closed to avert his gaze from the light, so he had no idea what was going on. Each second that passed gave him a sense of alleviation as if the casts in his legs were being slowly unwrapped.

“Now, try it,” the Hanged Man spoke.

After opening his eyes, Zachary noticed that everything stayed relatively the same. His legs were still wrapped in the casts. The Hanged Man was still in his place. There was no light. For something as grand as healing someone’s broken body part, he expected to see and feel something more than this.

“Nothing’s chang—”

But then Zachary felt his legs actually move when he tried to. When he came to, he saw his legs were tilted to the right, where he had intended to move them.

「That’s impossible!」

A look of utter disbelief was plastered on his face almost immediately.

He wanted to move his legs to the left, they moved to the left. He wanted to move them to the right again, they moved to the right again. He wanted to move them upwards, they moved upwards.

Even now the weight of the cast felt heavier in his leg. He could feel the cast wrapped around his legs.

But most importantly of all, he could feel his legs.

“I… I-I don’t understand,” he looked at the Hanged Man with his mouth agape.

Seeing him finally believing in his magic, the Hanged Man only smiled and breathed out a sigh of satisfaction.

A being, out of tales of old, had healed his broken legs. This was no illusion. It wasn’t something that his mind could easily come up with, it wasn’t just a feeling or sense anymore.

It was a miracle, one that only belonged to the age of miracles and fairy tales.

△▼△▼△▼△▼△

“So what?” Zachary was past the point of disbelief and into the point of questioning, “You’re telling me I can escape reality and just live happily in that fantasy?”

This man, creature, or whatever being he was called had done the impossible. But because of that, Zachary had more of a reason now to be wary of that creature. If such fantasy as magical worlds existed, then there were still a lot of things to be questioned before one could just throw themselves into it recklessly.

“Escape reality? Yes. But live happily in fantasy? I never said that fantasy is always as bright as it seems,” said the Hanged Man, “But fear not, it is certainly brighter than whatever you’re living in now. Furthermore, you have the gift of enlightenment. You have my word.”

“That's the problem,” Zachary expressed his worry, “Your words are too vague to be trusted. And what the hell is this enlight—”

Before he could finish his words, he heard two knocks coming from the door. This time, it wasn’t a hallucination, as the Hanged Man heard it too and turned toward the door — or perhaps it was for that matter.

The fact was, there was someone about to enter the room, and, illusion or not, the Hanged Man was still right here, hanging from the ceiling like nothing’s wrong.

“(G-Get outta here… Hide somewhere.)”

Zachary wanted to hide this mysterious creature. It wasn’t for the creature’s safety, it was to prevent frightening whoever was going to enter. He might have accepted the Hanged Man’s existence, even though he still struggles to comprehend him in his entirety, but who knew how others were going to take it? It wasn’t every day that one could easily spot a two-meter-tall humanoid tree creature hanging from the ceiling like it was nothing.

Despite his pleas, the Hanged Man did not move.

And it was already too late, the door had opened.

「Shit!」

Standing in the doorway was his doctor along with three men dressed in what seemed like military suits, there was no doubt they were part of the watchmen.

“Ah, I see you’re wide awake now, Mr. Ashworth,” the doctor chuckled, “I tried stopping by half an hour ago but you were deep in sleep.”

「Must have been when I was pretending to.」

“Well, anyway,” the doctor stepped aside to let the other three men walk into the room, “These gentlemen are from the military police.”

“Good Evening,” one of the men grabbed a seat and sat next to his bed, “It’s good to see your recovery is going well, Mr. Ashworth. We are currently investigating the accident and hope that you could answer some of our concerned questions — if that’s not a bother to you, of course.”

“Uh…,” Zachary looked at all the men in the room before eying the Hanged Man a look of astonishment, who was hanging from the ceiling just right beside him, clearly visible to everyone. Yet barely anyone paid heed to him as if he wasn’t there. “Okay?”

「They can’t see him?」

“Heh, I told you, only those who are enlightened can see me,” the Hanged Man laughed. His laugh was something maniacal, befitting of a twisted villain, and completely contradicting his elegant speech.

The man asking him questions cleared his throat, “This is just basic protocol, I’m going to ask you some very basic questions. So just go along with it, even if they’re a little absurd.”

“O-Of course,” Zachary was somewhat worried, especially by the smile that was still persisting on the Hanged Man’s wooden face.

“Great!” The man adjusted the chair to sit more comfortably and then pulled out a notebook, “First off, are you fully aware of your rights?”

“(I guess…) Y-Yes!”

“Alright then. What’s your full name?”

“N-Name?!” He was confused before he remembered the man telling him to just answer the questions, “Oh, Zachary “Edward” Ashworth…”

The man wrote something in the notebook, “Age?”

“Turned eighteen last July.”

“Where do you go for school?”

“Everille.”

“Did you or did you not jump willingly in front of the truck?”

“Huh?!” Zachary was baffled for a moment. The way that question was structured seemed to indicate that they were suspecting him of suicide. Even then, the watchmen shouldn’t be the ones asking these questions. “N-No, I did not!”

“Did not what?”

He sighed, “I did not jump willingly in front of the truck.”

“What were you doing there in the afternoon of the twenty-second of September?”

「What?! Shouldn’t this have come before the other question?」

“...” Zachary did not know how to answer. He didn’t know how the “protocol” went but they seemed to delve into very personal questions. “I was—”

Just as he was about to answer, he noticed the Hanged Man in the corner of his eye. He had moved his location and was now hanging from the ceiling between the other two men. At first, he was making a mockery out of them since they couldn’t see him — surprisingly carefree for a creature like him — but now he was looking at Zachary with his eyes wide open, shaking his head in dismay.

“Don’t tell them…,” said the Hanged Man.

Zachary ignored him, “I was at the convention hall.”

“I see…,” the man proceeded to write down something in his notebook again, “Any hobbies?”

He looked at the Hanged Man, and once again, he was shaking his head, urging him to deny their questions.

“I… I like to write… to write stories.” He chuckled.

“Interesting…,” the man wrote in the notebook, “You recently submitted this short story to the Melanvale Writing Contest. Its contents were… interesting, to say the least. Care to shed some light?”

At this moment, Zachary came to understand the Hanged Man’s warnings. Something was off about them, and whenever something was off…

「It’s that hanged bastard’s doing, isn’t it?」

“Don’t focus such a gaze upon me. I am not involved with any of this.” The Hanged Man replied as if he had read his thoughts when in reality, he noticed his frustration and figured it out.

Zachary was surprised. If this wasn’t the work of the Hanged Man, then these watchmen were acting out on their own accord. But why, of all things, would they be interested in his short story? It was just a story written by a kid for a contest. He couldn’t even remember what he had written from how quickly he finished it.

“Well,” the man was aware of Zachary’s lack of answers, “Perhaps I could remind you. You mentioned something called “Elysium’s Gate,” ring any bell?”

“Don’t tell them!” The Hanged Man said.

“I… I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He tried to answer, “That wasn’t me.”

That was the truth, for the most part. He did not remember writing anything that the man had mentioned.

But the man didn’t believe him, “Are you sure about that? Your name is listed as the author, you know that, right?”

「Shit!」

Panic was plastered all over Zachary’s face, both from knowing that he was lying and from the fact he still had no idea what the man was talking about. However, in the watchmen’s eyes, this was the face of a culprit caught in his transparent lie.

“Back into a corner, eh,” the Hanged Man sighed, “Well, I’ve got just the solution for you, my dear writer.”

He cracked his fingers before floating back near Zachary.

Out of nowhere, vines crawled in from the window wrapped around a pen and an old parchment paper through them. The Hanged Man cleared his throat, before itching the vines closer to Zachary for him to see.

“Under the pledge of a thousand lords of the night,” he snapped a finger, “Do you, dear writer, given the circumstance of your current predicament and other queries, accept the authorization of this contract?”

「What?!」

Trying not to garner much attention to the people around him, Zachary eyed the Hanged Man a quick look of confusion. Between the watchmen’s absurd claims about his novel (a kid’s short story, no less) and the Hanged Man’s bizarre string of words dumped together on him like an awful shanty by a drunk in a pub, his mind was in a state of chaos. If he were pushed some more to the brink, he could most likely end up doing something that wasn’t in his favor.

“Approve the contract with me, and I will personally rid you of these delusional buffoons in mere seconds. It's as easy as that.”

「What even is this contract?」

All of a sudden, the man got off the chair and slammed his fist into Zachary’s bed. “Listen here, you little shit!” the man’s tone had completely shifted.

Following that action, the other two men walked to the door and escorted the doctor away, who was in clear shock upon seeing the man’s abrupt reaction. Assuming that the doctor had any authority, he would have cleared these men out immediately for disturbing his patient, but when did anyone have authority here?

“I won’t let you get out of this god damned hospital bed until you answer my questions. Do I make myself clear?” The man’s eyes were entirely bloodshot, it was as if he had turned into a completely different person.

“...I…,” Zachary didn’t know what to say. He was running out of options, and none of them provided him with a clear answer.

“We don’t have the luxury of time here,” the Hanged Man commented with a still smile on his face. “They’ll take you in, you know, whether you tell them the truth or not. But then again, the only truth is not the only truth. They’ll make whatever sob tale fits their incentives.”

The man grabbed onto Zachary’s chin, a little lower, and he could possibly choke him, “My patience is running thin, and so is theirs.”

「What the hell is happening to me?」

“Don’t you see?” The Hanged Man sneered, “You’re just a stepping stone to them, a triviality, an error they wish to correct. Such is this world you tried to reject, but you can run away from it no longer.”

「Who are these guys? Why is this happening to me? Why is it only me? Am I not supposed to just live and have what I want? This all has to be a joke, right? Just a bad dream in my delusional mind. I’ve read so many of these stories I’ve dropped myself into one, yeah, that’s it. It’s just a story in my dream.」

“You don’t start talking, and the accident will start having severe side effects,” the man tightened his grip around Zachary’s neck.

「But I-I don’t want any part in this, I-I never wanted any of anything. But nothing’s been going right for me ever… I was the one who dragged myself into this, ever since the accident. If I just didn’t get myself in it… I would’ve been fine. I wouldn’t be imagining this monstrosity of a man, these guys wouldn’t be here.」

“...”

「That’s right! I have no place in this world anymore. I’m nothing special, after all.」

“Do you cloud your own mind as a pastime?” The Hanged Man spoke, disappointed by Zachary’s thoughts, “Excuse my intrusion, but do you berate yourself so much for no reason just to live? Or is it because they told you?”

“Wha…?!”

“You know what I’m talking about. Men like them, families like yours… and a girl like the one outside, shaping your heart into whatever they desire, tricking you into thinking you don’t have one. They force their problems onto you and make you fail just to feel better about themselves.”

“What are you trying to imply?”

“Who the hell is he talking to?” The other men started to notice.

“See, I told you the boy was insane,” another one of the men said, “You saw what he wrote, Adam, so stop wasting time and get it over with.”

“You know what I mean,” said the Hanged Man, “You let them all guide you by their whims with no regard to you, and yet you’re still kind to them. These men beating you for their own satisfaction, only to get a promotion out of it. Your family deeming you as an outcast and mentally unstable just to ignore their own dysfunction. That girl dragging along with her schemes, giving you false hope, only to torture you with her victory just to feel much better about herself.”

“That’s not true…”

“And let’s not forget the biggest contributor,” the Hanged Man snickered, “Your dear old father… left his young boy all alone just because he didn’t want him to be special. He could not stand the succession of a boy who would show him all his failures. He feared your potential so much he was willing to give up his life on it and show you just so you would fear the thought of ever reaching it. Didn’t you ever find it a little odd how you, a child, were the first one to discover—”

“No!!!”

“Come on now,” the Hanged Man tried to elaborate, “You’re smarter than this. Don’t feign ignorance in front of me. After all, all that I know about you was just gathered from your own mind right now. You’re a young man with great ambition, or have you forgotten what you’ve longed for as a child?”

Zachary’s eyes widened.

“No… that can’t be…”

「That’s right…」

It was a dream, the longest dream.