The following day,

Another sleepless night has come to pass, thought Nathan as he stared outside the window. The sun could be seen rising in the distance and so did the buzzing sounds of the waking city. He had borne witness of that moment quite a few times lately. Seeing how he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep anyway, he might as well enjoy another sunrise.

Different from the usual sunrises though, this time, he could feel an itching pain coming from his injured hand. He reluctantly retrieved his gaze from the morning sun and stared at the bloody bandages.

‘I should get it changed soon.’ Nathan sighed lightly, he had tried his best to treat the wound, but the cut turned out to be quite the deep one. Feeling distressed, he headed towards the toilet where he kept a small first aid kit. After removing the old bandages and spraying some antibacterial spray onto the new ones, he carefully wrapped them around the wound. It wasn’t anything special but if it saved him the visit to the hospital, he might as well try it.

Sighing in relief, Nathan fished the phone out of his pocket and quickly unlocked it. He had been searching the net all night long for a possible solution to his nightmarish troubles and he now had quite a few open links related to it.

‘That fuckin’ priest was a fraud,’ thought Nathan, as he recalled the previous day’s events.

While walking back from work, he had stumbled across a small stand selling holy beads. The shopkeeper introduced himself as Father Utravsky, a specialist in making precisely that, holy beads. Father Utravsky claimed the beads he made could not only keep the evil spirits away, but also assist with sleep deprivation.

Now, under normal circumstances, Nathan would have immediately realized something sounded fishy. However, having been mentally exhausted for the past few weeks, he succumbed to the man’s honey-dripping words and bought the beads.

They weren’t expensive, barely a fragment of what a single visit to the psychiatrist would have cost. But, they still took a few pennies out of his already thin wallet.

Staring at the ‘Holy Beads’ resting on top of the table, Nathan couldn’t help swearing inwardly. ‘You’d better not cross my path, Utravsky, or those beads are going up a place they shouldn’t be!’

“Sigh…” Letting out yet another long sigh, Nathan stuffed the phone back in his hoodie’s pocket and moved to make a simple breakfast. Scrambled eggs and salad accompanied by a warm cup of coffee was his go-to as of late, simple and fast.

Having had a good meal, Nathan quickly washed the dishes and moved to get ready for classes. Today was supposed to be a big day for sophomores in Oakwell Uni. Being a second-year student in the literature department, he was now eligible to select advanced courses to attend this year. He could finally pick a major to focus on, and Ms. Lexie’s psychology lessons appeared quite interesting to Nathan. Well, to most students actually, but that’s another story.

Under normal circumstances, Nathan would have been really excited to attend classes. It was something he had worked hard on for the greater part of his life and was looking forward to. Alas, the past few weeks had been a literal nightmare, sipping all of his energy away.

Once he was done brushing his teeth, Nathan put on a pair of clean jeans, picked up the backpack laying on the side of his bed, and tied up the lashes of his shoes before wearing the thick black coat he usually donned while outdoors. It was still early November and the temperature would only keep dropping from now on.

“I am off,” he whispered to no one in particular and then locked the apartment’s door before moving towards the elevator. His house was on the seventh floor after all, and it would be quite the pain taking the stairs. “Haah,” staring at the white mist coming off of his mouth, Nathan couldn’t help thinking ‘Fuck, it’s freezing out here... And it’s only November,’ as he tucked his pair of pale white hands inside his coat’s pockets.

‘Well, nothing I can do about it,’ and so, yet another day had officially begun for Nathan, a not-so-regular university student troubled by nightmares.

*Beep Beep*

“Your total will be 19 pounds and 52 pennies, please.” Nathan said, scanning the bottle of alcohol left on top of the counter by a man in his thirties. It was now well into the night and Nathan was working his night shift at the mini-market.

“Here you go, keep the change,” said the man in a raspy voice as he handed Nathan 2 paper bills. He then packed the bottles of booze into a plastic bag and made his way towards the exit. “Thank you very much! And have a nice night!” Nathan answered with a smile that would have looked good if not for the dark circles under his eyes.

‘How generous… Or was it out of pity?’ He wondered while staring at the ten-pound bills in his hands. The notes were paper-thin, colored in a lighter shade of grey, and lightly painted with black ink. The former Emperor’s solemn face could be observed in their middle as well as a serial number on the side.

Letting out a light sigh, Nathan opened the cash register and placed the notes inside. He then took the change out of the cashier and neatly placed it in his pocket. It wasn’t much, but something was better than nothing and Nathan wasn’t ready to complain about getting some pocket change.

‘Sigh, everything is expensive these days…’ He thought while contemplating this month’s bills. Nathan’s job at the mini-market paid 3 Vernalishee pounds per hour, he worked 4 hours a day from 8 to 12, six days a week, and whenever possible he did double shifts to cover up the missing day. In total, his monthly pay ranged from 300 to 360 Vernalishee pounds which were barely enough to keep him going on a month-to-month basis.

The clock on the wall opposite Nathan already pointed at eleven pm. Feeling tired from busying himself all day, Nathan fished the phone out of his jeans pocket. He still had a good forty-five minutes or so before he could take his leave and that was most likely the last customer of the day. A few of the tabs he had opened in the morning were still left untouched, and it was now the perfect time to go through them.

Time slowly ticked away and it was almost time for Nathan to close up shop. He was annoyed from having read through a bunch of useless threads that mainly focused on religious content but if there was even a sliver of a chance they could aid him in his current predicament, he had to check them.

With that in mind, Nathan sighed as he moved onto the next one. ‘Last one for today…’

The title read [How to solve nightmare troubles]. Quite straightforward, Nathan mused as he scrolled through the post. Unlike the rest of the posts, this one was divided into categories.

Starting from one-time nightmares and how to get over them, all the way to repeating nightmares. Nathan skipped to the part he felt was more relative to his situation and began reading.

“Different to continuous nightmares, nightmares that repeat themselves are way more dangerous. They can cause serious issues with sleep deprivation as well as mental fatigue. There are a few ways to deal with them, but we will be focusing on the simplest one.

Like most nightmares, the first thing you have to do is realize who you are. And in this case, similar to many others, the simplest way would be to prickle yourself with a needle. A jolt of pain inside the dream would be more than enough to bring you back to your senses.

Once you are aware of your existence again, you should be able to assess the situation. Depending on the situation, click one of the following links.”

There were three links under the thread. One stated ‘Freedom of Movement’, the other said ‘Semi-Paralyzed’ and the last one was ‘Fully Paralyzed’. Without much thinking, Nathan clicked the last one and was brought to a new web page. No sooner than he was brought to the new page, Nathan had a red vein popping on his forehead.

‘19 Vernalishee pounds and 99 pennies!’ He couldn’t help thinking as he shouted out loud. “That’s daylight robbery! Who would pay 20 pounds for some charlatan’s words!” It has to be said that this wasn’t too big of a cost for anyone but Nathan. He, who lived with no more than a few pounds a month to spare, felt it was way too expensive.

Even the beads he bought yesterday only cost 2 pounds! “Siiiigh…” Exhaling a mouthful of air that was larger than usual, Nathan turned his phone off and started packing things up. It was already 11:50 and he would still need about half an hour to reach home.

*Tap tap*

There it was once again. The familiar sound of footsteps always brings me back to my senses, as if to remind me I am not supposed to be here.

Opening my eyes, I find myself sitting on top of an ice-cold bench, hunching over my coat, a small street lamp providing what little light it can offer by my side, and finally, the houses… The houses that seem to stretch endlessly into the distance. All of this gives me a sense of deja vu. I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve been here before.

*Tap tap*

The sound of footsteps gets closer to where I lay and I couldn’t help getting nervous as I realize I can’t move. Paralyzed in my seat, I start panicking, I try to flail my arms and legs around but all I get from that is an ache coming from my left hand.

‘Wha…’ something inside me seems to have broken. I may still be paralyzed but now I know.

‘I am Nathan… Nathaniel Raycraft,’ and, as much as I hate that name, it is still part of who I am. I can’t deny it, but I am glad I remembered. However, that changes little to my current predicament. I am still paralyzed in my seat, unable to move as much as a single inch away from the monster coming my way.

And yet I can’t help but wonder. Why do I feel like laughing right now?

“Gasp! Ha… Ha. Haah…” Nathan’s bloody eyes opened as he jumped out of bed. Like any other time, his body was frozen solid as he stumbled across the room, searching for that whiskey bottle he had left on top of the table the previous day. This time though, he didn’t bother pouring it into the glass as he drunk a few mouthfuls straight out of the bottle. Puffing and huffing in the process.

A hideous grin was plastered on his face as the glint in his pitch-black eyes held a hint of madness in it. Feeling numb all over, Nathan moved towards the bathtub while undressing. He turned on the valve for hot water and showered for the greater part of fifteen minutes.

The nightmare this time was by far the worst one he had endured so far. Faint bruise marks in the shape of fingers had appeared around Nathan’s neckline, proof of things getting worse and yet, all that Nathan could think of was that last thread he had read during work.

“Aha… Ahaha!” He couldn’t help laughing out loud, the neighbors weren’t exactly happy about that, but there wasn’t much they could do about it other than curse a few times. It was still three in the morning after all...

“No, I had it all wrong... This guy is definitely not a charlatan,” he whispered before turning off the shower valve.