I awoke, again, to a face inches away from my own. But this time, it wasn't a morgue monster's. It was a normal teenage girl. She had straight black hair that dangled before me. Her complexion was pale, but to my relief, she didn't have purple veins mapping her pretty face. Oh how fucking glad I was, to have finally woken up from that crazy dream-slash-nightmare. I'm home, normal world. I've missed you so much.

“Oh. He's awake.” The girl said, her tone was as stale as raw pasta.

“Uhhhh... Hi?”

“... ”

She got up and flew out the door, completely ignoring me. I take it she's not too friendly. Oh well, her mother must've taught her not to talk to strangers.

I bolted up and checked my arm double time. A second passed. Two. Three. I felt stupid for doing so.

My forearm was normal, no burns, no black blood, no bones protruding out. I chuckled. Of course, why would there be?

Only a true idiot confuses dream for reality.

Right, it was a dream, I told myself, though why is it that the room I was in seemed to disagree?

---

“No, that can't be right...”

Reality was crumbling apart bit by bit as my eyes traveled around the room. The walls were somber, made of black stone bricks. Just like the chamber. Bookshelves lined up on one corner, filled with books that came in all shapes and sizes, while a tea table became the room's centerpiece. It was made of blanched wood, similar to the four chairs that surrounded it.

What's weird about a table set you ask? Well, nothing, really. But the fireplace on the wall gave reality some more popcorn. There was no firewood, or firedog, but hey, don't worry. It's still maintaining a pretty large fire.

Although the flames were um... Purple? Yeah, the flames were purple! But ironically true to logic, it gave off light of the same hue.

I got up from the bed and tip-toed my way closer to the fireplace, torturous curiosity fueling my every step. Halfway through, I remembered ‘Curiosity killed the cat.’ It's funny, because I'm just checking out a hearth with purple flames in it, what could go wrong?

When I reached it, I crouched down and stretched my cold palms out.

There was no heat.

“What the hell?”

If it's not producing heat then, isn't this completely useless? I complained inside, but my eyes were telling me ‘it wasn't so bad’ as they focused on the gentle swaying of the purple flames. Every now and then the flame shifts from purple to slight pink to white. I was going to touch the fire with my bare hands, but I instinctively stopped myself from doing such a risky stupid thing.

Oh yeah, come to think of it, you can actually make purple flames like this one. I don't know how, but I've read about it before in a thoroughly useless book that had nothing but trivially cool experiments.

You add stuff like salt and other chemicals with tongue-twister names, then you chant ‘Swiper go away’ three times. Oh? That's not it? Then is it ‘By the power of Greyskull’?

But in all seriousness, does that really make the fire ‘un-hot’...? And more than that, why would someone go through the trouble of mixing things just to create a vain fire?

While my head fooled around the stupid thoughts, the door opened.

It was the girl, and she was wearing a dark robe that looked strangely familiar.

“Look father,” Her index pointed at me. “He's already up.”

---

I stood up in a flash. The robe she was wearing made me remember the vivid dream I just had. Where my arm had been...

Suddenly the urge to relinquish what little I had left in my stomach swirled inside me, but I held it in. It wasn't the best time to be a pathetic wuss. Not in front of a girl anyway.

Another figure appeared behind the robed girl. A tall figure also wearing the same robe, but with a sword hanging on his side, and over-visible veins on his ghastly pale skin.

“It is good to see you're already up, Lord Alrion.” He said.

Oh hell naw...

“You're... You're real?”

They both tilted their heads.

“Of course I am, my lord.”

“But then that would mean—”

All of it was real. All that happened, wasn't just a lucid nightmare. But how can that be?

“Wait wait wait, that's not possible, right? I mean look at this!

I still have both my arms! No human being could have recovered from that burn as if nothing happened right?!”

They didn't say anything and just looked at each other. The weird thing was that they looked more confused than I was. Finally, the man spoke.

“It's because you're not a human, Lord Alrion.”

What?

“Even though you definitely don't look like it, you're the primordial God of Darkness. The only being born from pure Aster, Alrion.” The girl supplemented. “You're not a human, not even an Asterian.”

“Okay, okay wait.

I don't know what you guys are talking about, and I couldn't care less about the flavor of meth you guys are taking, but please stop it with this eight-grader delusional crap. I'm a human, okay? I don't look like anything but a human. Just hours ago I was still attending college!”

“Then how do you explain your regeneration?” The girl retorted. “You have said it yourself. No human can regrow a limb. Humans are such frail creatures, they can't even survive an arrow on the head, let alone a wave of Arkos that can harm an immortal.”

“Laianne.” The man glared at him.

“No, father. Let me finish.” The girl stood defiant. “Or would you rather continue worshipping a God that is trapped in the delusion that he's a lowly human?”

He shut up like an obedient kid. Funny, since the girl calls him father.

“Actually, I'm amazed why a being as high as you keeps on insisting that you're a human being.”

“That's because I am.” I shot her a death glare.

“Or are you?” She returned the favor. “You wouldn't know. You have been dead for two-hundred years, and you're living now because my father here performed a high resurrection spell to bring your soul back from the abyss of afterlife.”

She took a break and sat at one of the chairs surrounding the round tea table.

“Want to sit down?” She asked.

“No.”

“Suit yourself.” She sighed. “Let's continue on, you claim that you've lived your life as a human, and that we're fooling you, but if you stop for a moment and think, isn't there a big chance that the reverse is true?”

“Huh?”

What was she saying?

She turned to her father with a fed-up expression. “Father, it seems like ‘Lord Alrion’ here hit his head hard during the attack. His brain is now nowhere to be seen.” She said, with a derisive mocking glare to match.

Ugh, what a bitch. I glinted back at her.

Her snide behavior earned her a glare from her father.

“As I was saying, while your soul was drifting along the abyss, what did you think your mind was doing for two-hundred years?”

“How should I know?”

“It dreamt of life. It craved the sense of being alive again, so it imagined life.” She puffed what little chest she had proudly. “Take my word for it. Even though I haven't experienced death yet, I have mastered the arts of necromancy.”

Migraine just attacked me after hearing a complicated explanation, and before I knew it I was already sitting on the chair opposite to hers.

“So you're saying that my life simply didn't exist, and it was just me dreaming while dead?”

“In shorter words, yes.”

“Hoo boy...”

My hands were stacked on my chest, trying to calm the storm of palpitation inside.

“Another thing to help you understand.” She put up her index. “The language. It seems like you haven't noticed yet, but we're talking in ancient Asterian script.”

“Eh?”

“Mhm.” She nodded.

She was right. I had been too rattled to notice, but I wasn't speaking in English. It sounded more like Greek, or Latin. A thread of foreign syllables.

“No way...”

“Yes way.” She chuckled. “Listen, you're speaking fluently too, despite your claims to being a human. Want to know why, ‘Lord Alrion’?”

“... Why?”

“Because you invented this language yourself.”

If I wasn't sitting I would have fallen on my knees. She had hammered the last nail of the coffin. Her argument was flawless, it left no holes to be poked. Of course, it was hard to accept—the fact that everyone, my parents, my classmates and my siblings, were all part of my imagination, but what was I to do?

“I can see you're still reluctant.”

“No I... All of this is just so hard to swallow in one gulp.”

“I see.” She stood up, uninterested. “Don't feel too sad in finding out that you're not human.”

“And why is that?”

“Because a human just tried to kill you.”

What...?

She smiled, mischievous. “Oh, father, the intruder's execution will begin soon, yes?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Nothing, I just thought it would help Lord Alrion feel better if he sees the face of the vile human that attacked him. That way, he wouldn't feel so thrilled about humans anymore.”

“Hmm...” The man held his chin. “A sound idea, Laianne. Lord Alrion, can I ask you to follow me to the plaza later? ”

“Well...”

Let's see, I don't know where the hell I am, moreover, I don't even know fully who or what I am! And besides, that Laianne just said that the one who attacked me was a human. There's no harm in seeing my assailant get executed. I just have to make sure to cover my eyes when the guillotine drops.

“I, I will go. Do I even have anything better to do?”

“Wise choice, Lord Alrion” Laianne smiled. She opened the door, but then looked back to her father.

“Then father, I shall go study in the library.” She said and finally made her exit.

But before the door closed, her head protruded out.

“Oh and also.” She added. “From our conversation, I think the dark lord doesn't have his memories of this world, I don't know if it's a side effect of staying dead for too long. So, I think it'd be best father if you show him places he had been to before, it might help.”

The door closed. She was gone for good. I sighed in relief, something about her ticks me off. Maybe because she's sarcastic towards me, I don't know. Just then, the door opened, as if mocking me. Laianne's face was peeking through the gap.

“Please remember, Lord Alrion.”

“What now?”

“Only a true idiot confuses dream for reality.” She let out an impish giggle and closed the door, again, for the hundredth time.

What the hell? That was a quote I made! Not only was she sarcastic, she was also a quote-stealing witch! God, I so fucking hate her.

“Eherm. Lord Alrion, shall we get going?”

“O-oh, yeah.”