“Ange, I brought Fin. Wake up.”

The two Hannas nudged at Ange’s body as the third led me by the hand.

“Hngh- Ange-” the vibrant red puddle she was crumpled in, the smell of iron, more pronounced than it seemed to be in real life, and most definitely the sight of the skull helm that was supposed to be unremovable next to her head; it was all gut-wrenching. She was skewered, the image painfully similar to my nightmare. Her bloodied face tore at my heart; the pain seemed unbearable. I crumpled to my knees and gently lifted her head onto my lap. Her head was covered in blood, but the part of her head that I hadn’t seen for twelve years, was different; there was no face. Instead it was a black smoky mass in the shape of a head.

“Is this because we’re in a dream?” I asked, cradling her head closely. I couldn’t believe I almost left her here by herself. “How could I even think to-” tears fell from my eyes as I choked on the disgust aimed at my foolishness.

“Fin,” Deleim called, “How is Ange?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ange is still alive,” the three Hannas said in eerie unison, all reaching out for Ange’s hand.

“Huh?” I couldn’t tell but somehow Hanna could? I looked up,“T-Teach,” I said, “I don’t know but Hanna says Ange is still alive, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t know, Teach!”

“Fin, get it together!” Deleim chastised me, like she always would. “That girl’s life is in your hands. Speak with Hanna! Hanna’s the only one that can help us now!”

“H-Hanna? Does she have healing powers or something?”

“Get it through your head, Fin. Nothing is ever that convenient.” Harsh words that I had to hear, that I always heard from Deleim. “We have to get Hanna to release everyone that is in the nightmare. Convince her, Fin. I’ll help as much as I can.”

I looked to the three Hannas who were just tugging at Ange’s arm as if she was trying to shake her awake.

Does she not understand what she’s done?!

My anger resurfaced.

This is all YOUR fault. Why did you drag us in here?!

“Hanna,” I spat, “Let us out of here. It might be the only way to save Ange.”

The Hannas looked up at me with their blank, sleepy stare and turned back to Ange to resume their prodding.

“H-Hey!” I barked, “Didn’t you hear me! Let us out of here! Let us wake up!”

“Fin, you idiot,” Deleim said below my yells.

“Can’t.” Hanna replied. “So Fin needs to save her.” She continued tugging at Ange.

“How?! I can’t! I don’t have that kind of power!”

“Ange said you were a hero. Ange said you were the greatest hero.”

“Huh?” I sat there, taken aback. “The greatest hero?”

Was that a joke?

“Ange said you could always help,” Hanna’s words didn’t serve the problem, instead only making my heart sink deeper into misery.

I looked down at Ange’s marred face, “H-How? How could you even think that Ange?” I asked the person that couldn’t reply. “I’m not a hero. If I was we wouldn’t be here. No, Ange. You’re the hero.” I brought my head down to hers, my tears falling onto her bloodstained face. She fought the Blood Claw alone. I had heard. I knew what she had done more-or-less. She had done more than I thought possible. And I knew; she did it to help me. Everything she did was always to help me. “You’re my hero, Ange!” I yelled between tears.

“Ange is the hero?” Hanna had looked up, though I hadn’t seen it. Those words caught her attention.

“Come on, Ange. Please. Please be like a hero and don’t give up. Open your eyes and say you’re still here. Say you survived barely, just like heroes do. Please.”

“Can you not save Ange, Fin?” Hanna’s question reached my consciousness. There was no detectable malice nor ridicule within it, yet-

What do you want me to do?! I’m just muscle! I can’t punch away injury.

I opened my eyes as I clutched Ange’s head. I could make out what should have been eyelids. For that brief moment I could see an imaginary image of Ange’s face, helm and all and her smile. That image led me to another scene preserved in my mind. The scene of Ange and Hanna playing, and then the scene of Ange and Hanna drifting away together.

Ange is a hero. She’ll definitely bring people to her side, just like heroes in the story would. Hanna cares about her. I’m sure Ange has already created her heroic miracle.

“Hanna,” I said, holding back new tears, “Please, let us out of this nightmare. You’re the only one that can do it. Please.”

The Blood Claw had most likely escaped. I knew that was possible. And I knew it was impossible for me to follow suit. The memories were hazy, but I knew that even at my strongest I failed. That’s why it had to be Hanna. Like Deleim said.

“I can’t.” Hanna replied without looking away.

“Why not?” This time I didn’t scream. This time my voice was restrained so as to prevent tears from pouring out. “Why Hanna? Don’t you care about Ange? She’s your friend, isn’t she? That’s why so many of you are here around her right?”

I wasn’t going to say I understood Hanna. I didn’t understand any of this. The only ones who could even begin to understand were on my lap and in another world.

I clutched my heart with imaginary hands, so that I could have the strength to utter it, “Hanna! That name Ange gave you! That was the name of her little sister!” An emotional appeal. I prayed it would give Hanna reason to emote something other than dull sleepiness. “That name of someone that was killed. She gave it to you! Without any regrets! The same person that took away that person from her is the one that did this to her. Do you understand, Hanna? Do you understand how terrible this all is?” Halfway through I had broken into tears once more.

“Uh-Uhuh.” Hanna struggled to say. Her head was down, the other two Hannas had disappeared. The ground around us- no the very existence of the space we were in shook.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I understand. I saw some of Ange’s dream.”

“Th-Then you’ll-”

“I can’t.” Hanna flung her head up, “I can’t, Fin!” She yelled, black tears falling from her eyes. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!” She yelled. “Invite people in, to protect the temple! Invite people in, to protect the temple! I can’t- Nothing but that!” she yelled; she was in more hysterics than I was. “But I don’t want Ange to die,” she wailed, “She’s my friend!”

The world around continued to shake, sometimes dimming sometimes violently jerking.

“H-Hey, Teach. Hanna says she can’t do it. She’s saying stuff about protecting the temple. She’s- She’s very upset about it.” It wasn’t like I couldn’t feel for her. Seeing a little girl cry wasn’t something I could be unmoved by. “She’s crying a lot.”

“No surprise there.” Deleim stoically reported.

“Huh?” Did she know? What was she getting at?

“Fin. The Gods are cruel. Nightmare wombs are like other sentients created during the waning centuries of the Age of Antiquity. They were created with functions. Protecting the temple; that’s the command the God that made her gave her. Could you defy a God, Fin?”

That question took aim directly at my actions. I understood. I understood the pressure. I understood it was perhaps more serious for Hanna.

“But still-” I changed the target of my talk to the crying girl, “Hanna. You can still protect the temple can’t you? We visited right?” I was grasping at straws hoping I could find some sort of loophole. “You can let us out now can’t you?”

“Bu-But then the temple will be destroyed.” Hanna muttered.

“Wha-Hey Teach! Hanna says she’s not letting us out because the temple would be destroyed or something?”

“Fin.” Deleim responded; her voice was cold. “I told you, the Gods are cruel.” My heart shuddered. Ange’s body seemed warm in comparison to how cold my own body became. Deleim took a breath in. “Fin, maintaining a subspace, even on the Plane of Dreams is no easy task. It’s very likely that what sustains the Nightmare Womb’s space, is the suffering of the people inside.”

“What.” My mind stopped working.

“The Nightmare Womb is recognized as a trap in our literature, Fin. A trap designed to prevent people from taking a treasure. Think about that, Fin. What good is a trap that isn’t fatal? What good is a trap you can easily walk away from? Fin, everyone in there, including everyone in the inn that’s asleep; you’re all in danger of having your minds used as power sources for some decrepit God’s poisoned wonderland.”

Wait, something doesn’t add up. Something’s bugging me.

“But Hanna was asleep when we found her,” I muttered to myself. “Hanna was asleep! For who knows how long? And the space is still here! How does that work?”

I knew there could be other answers. There might have been people here the day before. Or something like that, something that justified how she could keep the space alive. But Hanna, from the way Deleim was speaking, seemed to be a relic of the long gone age. How could she survive this long? I didn’t know of any setients that could pull that off.

“I have a theory.” I prayed Deleim had an idea along the lines of the ones I had. “Fin, I need you to ask Hanna if she dreams.”

“What.” Again. I wanted to turn off my mind. But I already understood.

My neck creaked like an old door slowly opening into a locked room with a child inside. I looked towards Hanna.

“Ha-Hanna. Do you dream?”

Hanna looked at me, blankly. “Whenever I go to sleep.”

My heart sank.

Is that why she doesn’t remember anything? Has she been sleeping this whole time?

The image of the Hanna outside the bulb, adult Hanna, came back to mind. She looked like she was sleeping. The Hannas here, the three of them; they weren’t real.

Are they dreams to-

My mind had scratched something it was too small to comprehend.

“The Gods are cruel.” Deleim’s motto once more came. “I suspect that the reason we didn’t know Nightmare Wombs were sentients was because of how they preserve themselves. Most likely, the Nightmare Wombs’ own nightmares sustain the space when they don’t have any visitors.”

“But. That’s unreasonable.” I looked towards Hanna once more. “Hanna, do your dreams hurt you?” She nodded. “Hanna, how long have you been dreaming?”

“Since the day I was told to invite people in.”

She said something so horrifying, so easily.

“Is there any way for you to have nice dreams? Dreams that don’t hurt you?”

I’m not sure when it happened, but I started to feel bad for Hanna’s existence. Maybe it was because I experienced how horrifying those dreams could be.

“I have nice dreams when the temple has visitors.”

“No way… Hey, Teach-”

“Did Hanna say she has nice dreams when there’s people in there?”

“How’d you know?”

“Seemed about right.”

I was dull. If it wasn’t for Ange’s body weighing down my heart, I may have just faded away.

“Hanna.” I had one more question. We followed Deleim’s line of thought. But mine weren’t answered. Maybe it was dumb but I- “Hanna, were there people in here- I mean, were you having a bad dream before Ange woke you up?”

“Yes.”

Hope.

“Ange saved me from a very long dream.”

There it is. There’s a way forward for us. Hanna was awake during a time when there was no one in here. Yet the temple didn’t disappear.

“Hanna. How long does it take for the temple to disappear when there’s no one in here?”

“I-I don’t know,” Hanna responded. “I start to feel bad, so I go to sleep.”

She feels bad? No. No. Nightmare Womb. The space is in her womb. If the space is in her body, and its destroyed-

I cursed this newfound hyperactive mind that was grasping at every straw- good and bad.

“Fin! What are you getting at?” Deleim yelled from outside; she might have had an inclination.

“Hanna,“I took Hanna’s hand. “I have an idea to save Ange. Will you hear it?

“Uhuh,” Hanna said with a nod.

“Our best shot of saving Ange is waking up-”

“But I can’t do tha-”

“Wait! Hear me out,” I shouted, trembling with anxiety myself. “Listen, you need to invite people in so you can protect the temple right?” Hanna nodded and I continued, “Then, here’s my suggestion. You let everyone in here wake up. And when you start to feel ill, when this place feels like it will crumble, you invite me in for the night. I’ll come in, and I’ll sustain this place. I’ll be the visitor.”

There was a lot I didn’t know.

I didn’t know how long it takes to stabilize the space. I didn’t know how often Hanna would feel ill. I didn’t know for how long she would sleep. Maybe there was a way I could make a contract to create some guarantees. Maybe Impeerio could help. Regardless it was a stab in the dark.

Hanna fell silent. She seemed to be thinking. I could see the gears turning. I was almost sure that she too was trying to find a way to make this work.

Come on. They didn’t say anything about letting people out right?

Having to come back to this nightmare again and again. Having to suffer it all over and over at a detail greater than real life itself. I’m sure it would drive me mad- I looked over at Ange- but I couldn’t back down.

I have to help Ange.

I focused on Hanna. It was all on her.

Come on. Come on. Hanna please. Please tell me it will work.

“Fin,” she began, looking at me blankly, “Promise. Promise you won’t leave me alone.”

“Huh? I could barely believe it.

“I don’t want to disappear,” she said. Her face began to contort until- “I have a friend.”

Between tears, she was smiling. I didn’t know what Ange did, but without a doubt, Ange did it. She created this change. She won over the Nightmare Womb. She won Hanna over enough that she wanted to somehow live.

I took her hand in mind, “I promise. You can drag me - and just me- back in here every night if it’s needed. Drag me in here and I’ll visit.” I strained a smile; my own heart was trembling in fear. Some part of me didn’t want to see the Blood Claw ever again, much less to see him near Deleim and Ange, even in a dream.

“I’ll be your visitor,” I declared, holding back tears provoked by both relief and terror. I’d see my mother, my friends, and the nightmare. How many times would I have to see it.

Don’t break. Save Ange.

“Okay.” Hanna closed her eyes and everything went dark once more.