The Nightmare Beckons

“Tonight?” I exclaimed. “Like today, tonight?

“Yes," the cat replied. "In approximately four hours."

“Why didn’t you say so sooner! We’ve got no time to lose. Hang on, Backpack Cat!”

I picked up my heels and ran as fast as I could down the mountain without losing my footing. It took all my focus to stay upright as I essentially slid down the muddy path.

“I don’t get it, Gordon,” I said between breaths, “if everyone outside the city is going to die when the dream cycle ends, Fraysser doesn’t have to find Esther to fulfill his promise. He must be out of his mind!"

"We had an excursion into the observatory two weeks ago to collect the final fragment of the key needed to open the temple door," the cat said. "While this fragment was located the closest to our home, it was also the most difficult to obtain, hence our recent efforts to obtain it."

I steadied myself as I nearly wiped out on a particularly muddy patch and rolled down the last hundred meters of the mountain. Gordon meowed loudly in fright, leaving my right ear ringing in pain.

“She sacrificed herself,” I said, gritting my teeth.

Gordon’s voice dropped to a whisper, almost as if he was ashamed of what had to say.

“We did secure the fragment in the end," he said, "but only at the cost of Esther’s life."

So that's why Fraysser was hell-bent on returning for Esther; he must have felt guilty about her death. I didn’t blame him for wanting to fulfill a friend’s dying wish. Still, risking the lives of everyone else in order to fulfill a that wish wasn’t something I could commend, especially when the cost to save him and the others had been so high.

I caught myself.

Hadn’t my own decision to avenge Eleanor dragged Priscilla into this nightmare with me?

“You’re certain that this death pushed Esther to become a monster?” I asked. "There's a chance she could still be human."

I could feel Gordon’s gaze piercing the back of my neck.

"Esther warned us not to return for her," he said. "And I never took her to be a fatalist.”

I took the cold tone of his voice as a sign that he did not want to pursue the subject any further.

I continued down the mountain a little more carefully after that, swapping between a slow jog and a gallop to keep my balance.

After about a minute of slipping and sliding down the mud path, we pulled up to a wide, stone bridge as we reached the bottom of the mountain. I felt an immense sense of relief as I stepped onto solid ground for the first time since we had left the lodge.

However, my newfound peace was soon shattered by a deafening roar suddenly filled the air like a crowd in a football stadium packed to capacity. I actually plugged my ears with my fingers, that’s how loud it was. It reminded me of the roaring noise I heard behind the temple doors, only it was about ten times louder.

As I searched the area for the origin of the noise, Gordon tapped my right shoulder. He pointed over the right side of the bridge.

Beneath our feet, only about a hundred feet away, was what I could only describe as a massive whirlpool that stretched for miles and miles across. It was essentially an entire ocean of muddy water spinning clockwise at breakneck speeds.

As I stared deep into the endless spinning vortex, mesmerized by the sheer scope of it, I noticed that there were hundreds of sharp, jagged pillars, each about the size of a football field. The ivory pillars were arrayed in concentric circles around the rim of the whirlpool, unfazed by the torrents rushing past them at breathtaking speeds.

"Wait, are those teeth?" I said.

Terror filled my heart as I realized that I was staring into the maw of a creature larger than the observatory built precariously above it. Could it see us, hear us, or even smell us? Was it even alive? The longer I stared into the gaping mouth of the monster, the deeper my fear became.

“Careful, friend,” the cat on my back said, snapping me out of my stupor. “More than a few have lost their minds gazing into that abyss."

“Yeah, no kidding,” I stammered. “That ugly thing looks like it could eat the entire world.”

"Be mindful of your words," the cat warned. "We may be mere gnats in Charybdis’s eyes, but I do not want to do anything to anger it.”

"There's no way he can hear us from here," I said.

The cat shrugged.

"There are always exceptions to the laws of physics down here in the nightmare," he said. "Charybdis may very well be able to hear us without ears."

I glanced back down the vortex despite Gordon's warning. True to his words, Charybdis's gaping maw seemed to draw me, my curiosity overwhelming my fear of what lay down below. I tried to look away, but a voice began to whisper inside my right ear.

I can turn back the clock.

The hairs on my neck stood up on edge.

I can restore to you everything that was stolen from you.

The voice did not belong to Iris, nor did it seem to belong to any human. It was deep and gravely, soothing, yet soulless. But that was not the reason I was frightened.

I can help you turn back time in the outside world.

The voice had spoken to a very specific desire of mine, one I had seldom shared with anyone. I knew that turning back time was impossible; I have tried many times with the Mocles Saber's time dilation. Still, I wanted to hear what the monster had to say.

What must I do? I asked the voice.

Before the voice could respond, someone placed a hand firmly on my left shoulder.

I looked up in alarm.

Priscilla was staring at me, her wing fully extended behind like the Jolly Roger. The wing shimmered with intense iridescent light, illuminating the dark bridge with blessed sight. A red ring of light encircled her right iris, indicating she had used her pain magic to bring me back from the brink of insanity.

I was certain she was going to berate me for wasting precious time, but there was only a look of deep concern on her face.

"What did it promise you?" she asked.

I bit my lip.

"My heart's desire," I replied.

She gave my shoulder a tight squeeze before releasing her hand walking toward the observatory entrance.

"Listen to the cat when he tells you not to do something, alright?" she said. "There's a reason I keep him around."

Gordon purred from inside the backpack but said nothing.

I stuffed my hands into my coat pockets, embarrassed I had made another blunder. I didn't think that looking into the mouth of a monster would be so dangerous. Now that I thought about, the voice's offer was absolutely ridiculous. Turning back time in the real world was about as feasible as reaching absolute zero or reaching the speed of light. One could hope to get close but surpassing those limits was something even magic could not do.

Yet a part of me wanted to hear the rest of what the voice had to say if only to see what crazy idea it had in mind.

I hastily crossed the stone bridge.

This time, I kept my eyes glued to my feet.