I held my bleeding arm, crouching out of sight as quietly as possible as I peeked out into the dark rocky passageway with a sharp eye, my body tense. My breaths came out slowly and carefully.

I had no idea whether I would even survive this. But despite my fear, I kept quiet and made as little movement as possible.

The wait felt excruciating. Every second felt like an eternity. Every breath I took could have been my last.

And then… it came. The thing I had been waiting for.

Four pairs of giant green arachnid legs, each standing at about triple my own height, all connected to a green furry torso of the beast.

I kept waiting, my muscles tensing more and more with each passing second as sweat poured over me.

The creature prowled, searching for its prey, its legs clicking on the rocks, its many eyes looking around… And then it reached a certain spot, stopped, and crouched, inspecting something on the ground. When it brought up one of its legs to poke it, I knew the distraction had worked.

“Now!” I yelled.

The beast immediately reacted to the sound and whipped around, scanning its surroundings for the source, but it didn’t matter. Responding to my command, the entire cavern reverberated with the rough sound of stone grinding against stone. Just as the monster finally spotted me, my vision shook as a deafening crash slammed into my senses and –

…

I woke up in cold sweat with a gasp.

My breaths came out as heavy heaving while I stared at the ceiling, my vision blurry, my body shaking with fear and anxiety that I still vividly felt.

My hand promptly snapped up to hold my injured arm and –

I belatedly realized that I was in my bedroom, safe and uninjured, and not in some dark cavern hunted by a massive arachnid monster while at my wit’s end.

I forced myself to slowly calm down, closed my eyes, and repeatedly clenched and unclenched my hands.

“What… the… fuck…” I gasped out.

A dream.

One that felt way too real. Just like the other one from before. The one where we fought the octopus boss monster in the game game world together.

But this one… This one was way too different. Way more vehement. It had almost given me a panic attack with how intense the residual feelings were.

What in the world even was that?

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“... From Casey’s novel…?” I muttered to myself, my wide eyes still fixed to the ceiling.

That had to be it. I couldn’t recall any monsters like that in RLO and from what I remembered from the bits Casey had told us about her novel, giant green spiders in caverns sounded plausible.

I breathed out a slow sigh as I finally got my breathing under control.

No doubt, this dream was the same as the first one… But what did that mean? What exactly were those dreams? I still didn’t know. My first guess had been a precognitive dream, but the first dream never happened. Not yet, anyway.

Maybe having the dreams prevented them from happening? Or were they both still going to happen?

I groaned as I rubbed my eyes.

Also, last time, I’d had the dream one night after first opening the portal. This time, it had been the same night. Was there a reason for it? Something had changed? Had my… powers – whatever they might be – developed since last week?

Either way, that dream had been terrifying. I wasn’t even sure why exactly… other than the giant arachnid planning on making me its dinner, obviously. No, it felt like there was more to it. Like I didn’t have all the context. Like I began reading a book from a random point in the middle.

I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and checked the time to find that it was right about the time to wake up. Well, I wasn’t planning on going to sleep again after that anyway.

With my mind still wandering, I got changed, went to the bathroom to take care of my morning hygiene, and said good morning to Mom as she made some breakfast.

That dream… I had clearly not been alone there. Whoever I had shouted at had been coordinating with me. What exactly they did, I had no clue. It was very loud and shook the whole cavern though.

Maybe Casey had used some big magic spell like in the other dream? Or maybe Frank had rolled a boulder on top of the spider thing? Hmm, it sounded plausible, considering all the stone grinding sounds.

What bothered me the most was the end of that dream, however. Similarly to the last dream, it had ended just as my senses got overwhelmed by something. In the first dream, it had been the light from Casey’s spell, in this one, the loud crashing sound.

I frowned as an uncomfortable thought crossed my mind.

Maybe they’d both ended with me getting knocked out or… dying, even. Were the dreams meant to be my forewarning to avoid these scenarios…?

No, that didn’t seem right. That would mean that the first dream had ended with Casey shooting me in the back in the middle of a boss fight, and she wouldn’t do that… Unless her magic just went out of control or something…?

Ugh, why did my mind automatically gravitate toward the worst-case scenarios? I really ought to stop being so depressing in the morning. I blame being stuck in this crappy form.

Alright, something positive. Maybe the dreams were supposed to guide me. Telling me that despite how scary or insane both situations might have seemed, I would be alright in the end and I shouldn’t try to avoid them.

No, that didn’t sound right either… Because I didn’t know whether I would be alright afterward since both dreams ended at the most crucial moments.

I sighed to myself.

Only to realize that my mom had sighed in unison with me.

I looked up, once again feeling guilty about forgetting to tell her that I had gone to Casey’s place.

“Mom? Are you okay…?”

“Hmm? Ah, I’m fine, honey, my head just hurts a little.”

“Again…? You keep saying that lately. Shouldn’t you go to the doctor at this point?”

She shook her head.

“I can’t afford to right now. I still have to finish the project at work before the deadline.”

My lips thinned and I once again wanted to lace her drink with a healing potion. I now knew that RLO had been a hundred percent fictional universe, after all… But thinking about it, that didn’t really change much, did it? I still had no clue what mixing coffee and a healing potion would result in.

Mom sighed.

“If I finish the project and I still feel unwell, I’ll go visit a doctor, how about that?” She gave me a tired smile.

I kept myself from grimacing and simply nodded.

“Alright. I hope it’s nothing serious.”