It's hard not being able to sleep. Being stuck alone with your thoughts. The more you try and focus on a single thought the more awake you become. Eventually, you won’t even notice it, but you will be asleep, and the dreams seem so real.

When you do not have classical training in something and are asked to compete against others one would be prone to overthinking. When you are in an unfamiliar bed it usually impedes the ability to sleep. When you cannot sleep your mind wanders. When it wanders you can get ideas in your head. When you think of the same things most nights they begin to bleed into your dreams.

These were the exact set of variables that allowed Jude to dream of victory. As if he could train in his sleep; he was able to invent new moves, combos, counteracts, and strategies by dreaming. Unfortunately, they came at the cost of having a bad night’s sleep. Sleep deprivation isn’t harmful in small doses. It left him sluggish and a bit slower mentally. All he would need would a bit of exercise before his match.

Once he awoke, and went to the toilet, Jude grabbed his phone and wrote down what he had dreamed of. It was not necessarily that he was a visual learner and needed to have something to read. It was just he was forgetful of major details in dreams after a few hours of being awake. Luckily, he had a folder of ideas he had from dreams, most of them were silly or impossible.

By the time he was dressed and had packed his fighting costume his group chat had sparked to life. They had planned to spend today as they had before, exploring the town before heading over to the coliseum for the matches. Kuna and Damian were still offline but Rin and Jack were up and about, so was AJ but he had plans for the day. Rin apparently was in the lounge waiting for them.

Upon arrival it was immediately obvious Rin was not in a fit state to be up about. His head was being held up by his hand, fingers splayed balancing his forehead and slipping into hair; hair that was usually well groomed but seemed to have been done in a rush. Hanging off his ears and lazily flopping in front of his eyes were sunglasses.

The man, if he was in a state to be called that, was bundled in a big winter coat and fur lined hood. Keeping him nice and warm all whilst being expensive enough that it made him afraid to throw up and get sick all over it.

All of this made Jude smile. Sure, they were friends and Rin was in a vulnerable state but that made the malicious side of the teenager eke out. Scuttling over like the gremlin he had become, he spoke without losing a smile, all his tiredness melted away in moments.

“Good morning sunshine! Did you have a good night?”

The lapis eyes shot back from above the glasses. Hatred wasn’t the word to describe it. Rin waved his other hand in Jude’s direction.

“It was good.”

“Just good? You seem a little hungover for just good.”

“It the York Uni girls. You should have seen it. They convinced at least someone from each of the unis to come out. Well probably about five or six from each. We filled up the club. But I do think that they made a point of finding the most expensive club, I spent over a hundred pounds yesterday. Robbed I tell you. Robbed.” His voice was gravely and horse, a side effect of all that alcohol.

“Did you, you know?” Jude shot a knowing look at Rin. To which he was answered with a smile. “Nice!” Jude shouted and held up his hand for a high five.

“Jude. What makes you think I’m in a high five mood?”

It was about when Rin finished his sentence that Jack and Damian appeared. Without communication or hesitation Jack joined Jude in turning into a gremlin. However, Damian was just as fragile as Rin and far more dishevelled.

After annoying their victim, the three set off to spend their day about town.

Jack was practically jumping up and down. “Ooh ooh. What about Kuna?”

“He’s still offline. I assume he’s still asleep. We’ll go get him if he’s not up after we eat lunch.” Jude said.

“But first can we get Mr. Cool over here get a big breakfast?” Jack threw his arms over Rin and Jude’s shoulders.

“I swear one day I’m gonna kill you.” Rin mumbled

“Not if I beat you to it.” Damian replied.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

They wriggled out of Jack’s hold. “Let’s get some scran.” Rin said as he headed towards the pub.

Spending the rest of the morning on the town Jack was energetic and excited about everything he saw. Jude kept managing to find interesting little shops. Whilst the fresh, frozen air managed to wake Rin and Damian up somewhat. By the second hour they were out Kuna had awoken and planned to meet the boys for lunch, turns out he had just woken up to his alarm and then immediately fell back asleep.

After lunch the boys headed over to the coliseum, for the day’s festivities.

The first match was Nerissa’s. When they arrived, she had already headed to the entrance for contestants. Jude put his stuff down and went to go find her.

“Nerissa!” Jude shouted catching up to his teammate. He slowed down to that jog where your arms go floppy until he came to a full stop.

Stood at the gate, mentally preparing herself the imposing figure turned round to Jude. “What?” she snapped.

“I have a plan for you.” As he was catching his breath from his little jog, she grabbed his face by the cheeks.

“Jude. I do not want to hear your plan. You make plans for people like you, people who cannot fight. I can think by myself, I can fight by myself. Now if you make it through your rounds and we fight in the semi-final and are a good boy and let me beat you as much as I want, then when we get home, I might reward you.” She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Nod if you understand.” She commanded before moving her arm and making him nod.

She freed the young man from her grasp as the portcullis raised for her to enter the arena. Jude watched her leave, speechless. He was angry at himself, he wanted to help but he had lost her respect, and it was his fault for what he did at the end of the first test.

She did not tell him that whilst she was pissed about the incident, she was actually surprised at his fight with Jarvis. Well not too surprised, he was taught by her after all. But she now placed a pressure on herself to be even more spectacular than his fight. Yes, what she had done before had been a flawless expression of martial arts and showmanship, but her own achievements never filled her like proving she was better than someone else did.

Here Nerissa stood; the undisputed queen of this tournament’s first round. The untouchable Nerissa. And here she stood facing Billie Shaw – the woman accused of rigging her last match. Of course, if she had rigged it, she was in for a world of pain. What was that move Jude had used on Jarvis? Could Nerissa steal that with her smoke? Well, she definitely wanted to try.

“Fight”

Nerissa’s 50m sprint time: 6.8 seconds

Time for Billie to say “Stop”: 1 second.

Once the word was spoken Nerissa halted. Her body just... stopped.

Her brain worked. She could understand what was happening to her. But she was numb. Everything disappeared, her heart still beat but she could not feel it. She was breathing but not of her own volition. A prison of a body, a jailor made of the woman in front of her, and a prisoner of her own making.

The crowd released a hush murmur. It was a repeat of the previous match. The rigged claim had seemed realistic, but no one would pull the exact same stunt two times in a row. And with Nerissa’s near unanimous praise people were hard pressed to understand why she wasn’t attacking.

All whilst Nerissa was stood there frozen. She had not made it to her opponent, only about halfway through her run. And there she stayed for a moment. But a moment was too long.

When one begins to panic seconds can feel like minutes and those minutes giveaway to moments. A moment feels like eternity. Eternity in a fleeting breath whilst unable to move. At least sleep paralysis can be rationalised, this was torture refined.

Nerissa barely could focus on the words that she heard next. “Exit the arena.” Before she knew it, she had lost. No muscle listened to her. But once she regained control it took all her composer to not run and murder the one who did this too her. Instead she kept walking back into the waiting tunnel.

In times of great distress there are three options that are possible. No one is there for you. The wrong person is there. Or the right person is there. Luckily for Nerissa was there; Amelia.

“Ris!” she shouted stood there, concern plastered on her face and kindness swirling in her eyes.

Nerissa punched the stone wall as hard as she could. She managed to dent the wall but at the cost of a dislocated knuckle. Blood almost immediately began to flow out of her hand.

Amelia grabbed her working hand and pulled her over to the bench. They sat for a minute in silence.

“I... I don’t know what happened. I felt this thing. It hit me. Not actually but in my head. I knew I could not do anything. Even if I was free. I could not.” Her hands were shaking in front of her.

“You were afraid Ris. Being scared is okay.”

“But I felt wrong. I didn’t have control over me. I felt so wrong.” She began to hug herself to make sure she could feel it.

“You were forced to do something against your will and couldn’t stop it. You lost your autonomy. It is a valid reason to be scared.”

“I was scared. So scared. I haven’t ... I don’t ...” before she could say anything else Amelia held her. Bringing Nerissa’s head to her chest and holding her.

“You don’t have to say anything else. Just try and get yourself calm.”

Nerissa would think that this situation was embarrassing and a moment of weakness in time she came to learn about how much she learnt about herself that day. Amelia taught her it was okay to be afraid, she taught herself that fear was something to overcome; she overcame any challenge the same way by becoming better than it.

After twenty minutes Nerissa had calmed herself down. Amelia took her for some cake in a local cafe and then they went back to the hotel and Nerissa and her just talked for hours, even feeling comfortable enough to let Delish and Camellia join them later on. She also learnt that day why friends, especially good friends, were important.