Zalan gripped the armrests of the chair tightly as he stared at the door in front of him. The rational part of his mind knew that something was wrong. He shouldn’t be at the hospital. But his heart was running on all cylinders, crashing against his chest and desperately seeking an explanation. He didn’t understand what was going on, and his thoughts were shrouded like he was desperately sleepy.

“Hello!” Zalan screamed to the empty corridors of the hospital. There were no doctors, nurses, or patients milling about. Just him and the door. “Where are…” he was reaching for names of people in his mind, maybe friends. But they wouldn’t come to mind. There was only one thing that mattered right now. It was across from him. Waiting. He had to open the door and visit his mom.

He stood up shakily, his body feeling like it was an enormous task simply to stand up. He reached his jittering hand out and swallowed hard as it made contact with the cold doorknob. He stood frozen for a moment. His mind was flailing between wanting and not wanting to go inside. He twisted slowly and pushed the door open. It creaked, gradually revealing the room beyond it.

“Mom?” Zalan asked hopeful as he stepped inside.

The room was dark, the day overcast out the window and the privacy blinds drawn in front of the single hospital bed in the room. He still couldn’t see his mother. Zalan approached the bed much faster, his heart rate skyrocketing in fear and apprehension. He desperately wanted to see his mom’s face. It would help him so much just to see her, even if she was asleep. He threw the curtains open and gasped in rage and fear.

The bed was empty.

“Mom?” Zalan asked, turning himself around and looking around the room for her. “Mom!” he escalated. The room was brightening itself up, the dull ambience of the hospital transitioning to blinding.

“Mom! I visited! Where are you?” Zalan begged as he had to shield his eyes from the searing hot-white color enveloping his vision.

When his vision cleared, Zalan saw Gorb kneeling over, panting heavily in front of the monsters that were now dead at his feet. Zalan looked around himself and saw that his companions, similar to himself, were sprawled out on the floor as though they had been struck down. Zalan looked vacantly at Gorb, his heart still pounding away unceasingly in his chest. His thoughts were messy. He had a massive headache and his body felt like it had just run miles on end.

“Where’s Mom? She was supposed to be… What happened?” Zalan asked, sitting himself up and blinking past the lightheadedness that immediately came over him. “Where am I? Where’s the hospital?”

Gorb looked over at him, trying to get a hold of his breathing. The bruise on his eye was gone and the expression on his face was distraught.

“Fran? Are you okay?” Gorb asked, his voice caught in his throat.

“I am alive?” Fran asked. Zalan saw wet streaks on her cheeks. She had been crying. Looking around at the others around him, they had all been crying. Except for him. Yelsa laid on the ground, wiping her eyes furiously as she sat herself up.

“What just happened? Why would I jump again!?” she demanded, looking around the room for answers.

“They were Melders,” Fran replied as the thought came to mind. “I had heard of them before, but had never seen them in person. I had no idea that they looked so grotesque. My God, that was terrible.”

“What do you mean?” Zalan asked sternly, not following anyone’s comments. “Where’s my mom? This time, I went to visit, but she wasn’t…”

It had taken a while, but Zalan was finally piecing together the fact he was still in what he called the dream world. The stone floor was a part of the Castle of Docrun and those surrounding him were his friends. But he was just in the hospital!

“Zalan? Are you all right? I saw you… dying,” Rep asked, sitting himself up and rubbing his puffy eyes.

“I think I’m fine,” Zalan said, feeling his body for wounds. His ribs were still sore to the touch. “I was at a hospital, trying to visit Mom.”

“Visions?” Yelsa asked Fran. “They could not have been visions. It was too real. I… No, it was far too real,” Yelsa said.

“Melders feed off of regrets. They bring out some of your worst lamentations and consume your life energy as you are enveloped in the nightmare,” Fran said.

Zalan felt the pang of truth in his chest at the mention of regrets. As soon as she made it clear, it was so obvious. He had never been to the hospital. He deeply regretted never having gone to visit his mother. And the exhaustion he felt down to his bones was likely the result of the Melders feeding on their energies.

“Did you defeat them?” Fran asked Gorb.

Gorb nodded sullenly, helping Fran to her feet and placing his arms around her in a brotherly embrace.

“A bad vision, I take it? Did you see yourself disgraced too?” Fran asked, returning the hug.

“I saw you,” Gorb said. “With all your power and might, you wanted to take on the strongest monsters. Recklessly so. And you died trying.”

“Oh, Gorb,” Fran leaned back and looked at him, a small, comforting smile at her lips. “That is your fear? That would be such a blessing. To fight to the end. Trying! That sounds like a fitting end for me. What part of that would you regret?”

“I encouraged Mother and Father to send you to the guild with me. Had I never talked them into it, you would be safe at home,” Gorb said.

“I would be driven insane, smiling cordially to every suitor with half a Level to his name trying to give me a life I did not want. This is the life I want. I have already decided that I want to kill a Storm Elemental before I die. Show the world that Elementals are, in fact, as vulnerable as any other monster. I would not mind if I died to its lightning. So long as I died trying,” Fran replied confidently.

Gorb’s lip was trembling, not wanting to accept Fran’s goals being so antithetical to his own.

“What did you see?” Gorb asked, finally releasing her from the tight hug.

“I witnessed my own passing with nothing of note. A husk of an existence with nothing to offer. A life of disgrace and apathy to every ongoing around me. I cannot pass from this life without challenging something great. Otherwise, I will have never done enough. What is it you are always saying? We are going to God…” Fran said, trying to place a phrase.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“To God we belong, and to Him we shall return,” Gorb replied confidently.

“Exactly! All of us who are living will taste death. I just hope to make my time here worthwhile,” Fran said.

Zalan felt like he was witnessing an intimate moment he wasn’t supposed to see between the siblings, but they clearly didn’t mind speaking so candidly. It made Zalan wonder about the mentions of Yelsa and Rep’s visions. He looked at Yelsa who was still calming herself down, breathing deeply to control herself while popping knuckles.

“You said… You jumped again? Morloch was in your vision,” Zalan determined as he ran back Yelsa’s comments.

“Please do not make me relive it again,” Yelsa pleaded, before adding in a tiny voice, “but yes.”

“Why were you mentioning your mother?” Rep asked. “Did you see her in your vision?”

“Why would you see my death in your vision?” Zalan asked, avoiding the question. “What would that have to do with you?”

Rep’s eyes widened and he bit the inside of his lip.

“If you died, it means I failed,” Rep said.

“You just met me,” Zalan said. “It’s only been what… like a week? I don’t see why that would be such an extreme regret.”

Rep looked up with a half smile.

“Do not think I did not notice your dodging of my question. I may give you a more clear answer once you give me any answer at all,” Rep answered.

Zalan opened his mouth to counter, but nothing came. He didn’t want to talk about the hospital or his mom. Rep’s half smile grew to a full smile when he saw that he defeated Zalan with the small challenge.

“Gorb, if you had a vision, how did you defeat the Melders? How did you avoid falling under their trance?” Yelsa asked as she looked over the six newly-dead Melders and their uncanny forms.

“As you saw from the couple of arrows you fired earlier, they do not possess much strength. However, I watched as you all collapsed one-by-one after yelling in the presence of the Melders. Something about the sounds we create activates their powers. I attacked with a gale of Elemental Air. I remained silent, but even the sound of the wind I produced was enough to put me under their spell. Fortunately, my attack was enough to kill a single Melder, causing me to gain a Level and kill the rest,” Gorb replied.

Zalan wondered if Gorb’s stoic nature was the reason they survived at all. He once again registered the fact that the bruise on Gorb’s eye was gone and understood. The bright white energy that took over his vision was likely the result of the explosion of light from Gorb gaining a Level. Even knowing it was a vision, he still had a hard time pushing it out of his mind. It was too real. And how would Melder’s know to create a vision of a hospital? They must have rooted in his mind enough to find something terrible to dangle in front of his psyche.

“Are there any more up there?” Yelsa asked, picking up her bow from the floor and placing an arrow in place.

“Can we rest, first, before continuing to charge forward? I cannot be the only one at the brink of exhaustion,” Rep said.

The others agreed, sitting down and resting themselves against the stone walls of the castle. Zalan noted that there were no crickets on this end of the hall and he wondered whether they couldn’t make it this far or if the Melders also fed off of the bugs. Did crickets have regrets? Gorb took watch, keeping a close eye at the top of the stairs for any more Melders since he had been recently rejuvenated by gaining a Level.

As they rested, Yelsa threw a few furtive glances Zalan’s way. He didn’t think much of it, especially when his own vision made him feel like he needed to constantly look at things to affirm he was not in another nightmare.

“Zalan,” Yelsa said in a measured tone.

“Yeah?” Zalan replied.

“I apologize for earlier,” Yelsa said, sounding as though it was difficult to express her remorse.

“I, as well,” Fran said in quick agreement.

Zalan looked between them for a few moments, trying to catch up with their secret messaging.

“What?” Zalan asked.

“We were overly eager to know about your experience with the Mind of Madness. It must have been awful. We should not have tried to make you relive those emotions,” Yelsa said, Fran nodding in agreement.

“Oh, uhhh,” Zalan shrugged in embarrassment. “It’s fine. I get why you would be curious. Now you have a better idea of what it was like.”

Fran and Yelsa nodded, appreciating his quickness to forgive. Zalan saw a lingering question in Yelsa’s eyes and felt compelled to share just a bit more.

“The Mind of Madness was worse. A lot worse,” Zalan assured them.

This time, Fran, Yelsa, Rep and Gorb all nodded in appreciation. He answered their untold question without them having to feel guilty in asking.

After about an hour of rest, the travelers stood and prepared themselves to continue forward.

“I have not seen any evidence of additional Melders,” Gorb reported.

“That does not mean that they are not in hiding,” Rep reminded.

“Zap the ceiling, Zalan,” Fran suggested. “It will bring out any stragglers.”

“What if there are an overwhelming number of stragglers?” Rep asked. “Just a few were almost enough to kill us all.”

“Yelsa will act fast and take them down. And we will prevent them from drawing too close,” Fran gestured to herself and Gorb self-assuredly. “We can be quiet, and shake awake those that fall under the trance.”

“I would prefer we came up with a more thoughtful approach,” Rep said.

“I will leave it up to Zalan,” Fran offered. “His quest brought us here, after all.”

Rep nodded reluctantly.

Zalan’s eyebrows drew close in confusion, not sure whether he would prefer another way. It might take a while to find an alternate set of stairs in another, safer room. That thought alone was enough to make the decision for him. After the vision, there was nothing more he wanted to do than wake up from the dream world. He simply hated being here, at the whims of his subconscious mind in his sleep. If he wandered around long enough, he might be caught with visions that would be too much for him to handle.

He raised his hand at the high ceiling and fired a spark of lightning. The lightning flashed, but didn’t make it all the way up, much less at a level that would be seen by any Melders atop the stairs. Embarrassed, Zalan tried again with a larger bolt. It also didn’t reach over the edge of the stairs. Zalan looked down at his hands, then up to his companions.

“I guess I never tested how far my power could go. It’s too far, whatever the height of the ceiling is. We could always just walk up the stairs quietly,” Zalan shrugged.

“That would risk us being unable to flee the room if we are outmatched,” Gorb shook his head.

“I will fire an arrow at the ceiling,” Yelsa suggested.

“I wanted you to have an arrow in place for whatever came over the side,” Fran replied.

“We could always find another way up,” Rep encouraged.

The others looked at him for a moment, then turned their eyes to Yelsa.

“Just fire an arrow,” Fran threw her hand up dismissively.

“Right,” Yelsa pulled her bowstring and pointed above.

“Wait, let’s think about—”

Yelsa fired the arrow and it made a thunk as it hit the ceiling. Gorb blew the falling projectile out of the way, and Yelsa nocked another arrow as fast as she could. The companions waited for a few bated breaths, then released their tensions.

“That was easy enough,” Yelsa said, lowering her bow.

“That is exactly what you said before we were swarmed and on the brink of death,” Rep noted.

“That was before we knew there were Melders in this castle. We are much more prepared now!” Fran said confidently.

“Yeah, that was probably the worst thing we’ll find in here,” Zalan said, taking the lead up the stairs to Fran’s surprise.

He was ready to get out of this world as soon as he could.