I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

Troubled Reality

The figure looks at her. It was the figure that she knows and she hopes that will be the only one who will terrorize her dreams. Even it’s a bit weird for her to think, she preferred the Dark Wizard to that glitchy amalgamation of horrors and terrors. She was even happy when she saw him. She knows she’s not safe with him, but compared to what she just saw earlier, she’s safer than ever. “Dark Wizard!” She said, rather and strangely happy. The fog figure faces her, “Wake up.” He said to her without even saying anything or commenting about her strange and quite wrongly placed happiness. “What?” She asked as the Dark Wizard turns his back. “Just wake up.”

“I am in a dream?” He groans, “Just wake up, goddamnit.” Abigail was even more confused, “Why do you need me to wake up!? Could you just explain what just happened? Because you can’t explain to me when I am already awake. You can’t interact with me when my companions are with me.” He turns his head to her, “Just wake up, don’t be stubborn.” Abigail groans, “Just have an explanation. I am here confused and all that stuff. What is that creepy thing that just appeared in front of me in my dream? What is that? And, why is it threatening me and asking me my name? And, why are you even here?” He turns to her, “Just wake up, Abigail. They can’t see us talking like this. They are already alerted to that corrupted character. Soon, they will be checking your file and you on their lookout. They can’t see me talking to you.”

“What are you saying? Do you know about what’s happening in this world? Do you know that I am just a trapped person here in real life? Are you one of the victims of The Gemini?” The Dark Wizard groans as he immediately approached her, “This is not the time for asking, Abigail.” He suddenly slapped her as she screams in pain.

It bounced back to reality as she screams to wake up. Her eyes opened wide as she saw her adventure companions in front of her. “Crocus, what happened to you?” Lavena cupped her cheek, it was visible to her face that she was worried for her. The ability takes a breathe and looks at them, they were all quite worried for her. “You just suddenly screamed your lungs out, what happened?” Edsel asked her as he offers her some water in his water skin. Abigail accepted it and takes some glugs out of it. She keeps breathing heavily as if she just came from running miles and miles. “Please, tell us what happened, we can’t read your mind,” Lavena said as she leans on the tree trunk and lets her lean on her. She caresses her hair and scratched her back to comfort her. “Is it the Dark Wizard again?” Crocus asked, “I thought the dreamcatcher works! Is it a defective one, Winsel?” She glares at him, “No!” He immediately disagrees, “I know when a dreamcatcher is already defective. Hers was new, the webs are still intact and the ring isn’t broken yet. Unless…”

He approached her, “Can I?” He asked as Abigail nods. She pulls the necklace out and shows it to them. Winsel holds it and takes a look at it carefully. He checked every string and every part of the ring if there’s any severe scratches or damage. His eyes widen a bit as he takes a sudden pause. Further tension was made as it fades away when he says these words, “It’s not defective nor damaged in any way. Although, if something bothered you in your dreams. I think I will question the effectiveness of this dreamcatcher.”

Abigail sighs, “I am afraid you need to question it.” All of them stopped with what they are doing and talking about. They all lend their ears to her. “Something bothered me in my dreams. It wasn’t the Dark Wizard, it was something much more horrifying and dreadful than him if I say so myself.” She takes a deep breath and exhales it to calm herself. “What is it that it’s much worse than the Dark Wizard himself?” Abigail sighs, “It was this amalgamation of black goo stuff and something I can’t explain to all of you.” Lavena rubs her shoulder, “It’s fine if you can’t, but can you at least describe more of it?” The witch gulps, “It has a humanoid figure but totally disfigured. Everything about it is just everywhere second after second. Sometimes, parts of its arms just jitter and teleport in or out of it. Tiny rectangle boxes sometimes move left or right or just teleport anywhere that they can. And… its face is the true nightmare. It only has one eye and it’s just a plain white circle with some melted gooey black mess that covers some of its parts. And, the smile, the grin, I can not forget that thing. It was a wide creepy smile with the same gooey black thing covering some parts of it. And, he just stared at me for a second. It was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. That was the most dreadful moment in the years I have been living.”

“Your description even sent chills on my spine. I feel like I will faint in my dream if I have ever seen that creature that just appeared in your own dream.” Keeana commented as she received a glare from Lavena. “What did he do to you? Why did you scream?” Abigail fixes herself as she wipes the imminent tear on her eye. “Well, it asked me my name. It was eager about it. It even threatened me that if I didn’t say it, it will find it themself. I don’t know how will the creature do it, but I know it’s something that will threaten my life or your lives, or both even!” Gallant holds his laugh but some giggle slipped through his mouth, “That man, woman, or whatever they identify themself with, will threaten you for a name? I mean, it’s terrifying but it’s so petty. Besides, why didn’t you just told them your name?”

“Don’t you realize how dangerous it is to even say your name to a creature that has no identification and has a disfigured body?” Abigail was shocked, Catrina spoke. It was not something typical for her to speak out about something, and she’s quite annoyed. “Whatever Crocus has witnessed and whoever creature she met, everything she does can be used against her. We don’t know what this being is. If that thing threatened her just for her name and name only, you know it’s something to be serious about. And, you should be serious about this, Gallant. This thing sounds like that BS corruption you guys are saying. You were afraid of it before in the dining area, and now you’re dismissing it as a joke?” She glares at Gallant who shuts himself up. “Do you think it was the same person that victimized Estelle before?” Catrina shrugs, “I don’t know. But, with the threats and how petty, according to Gallant, this thing is. You know it’s something to do with what’s happening around here. Besides, Estelle has that gooey and corrupted feel in her before. It’s not far-fetched that it’s the same person that haunted Crocus’ dream.” Catrina massages her temple, “I just need to knock Gallant in his senses because he thinks everything is a flippin’ joke.”

Lavena shushes them all, “There, there. There’s no need to fight here. We need to get together with what Crocus is going through right now. Catrina is right, Gallant. This is no joke. This thing is life-threatening or who knows what. If it can surpass the magic of Winsel’s dreamcatchers, it’s something to be afraid of. Even the Dark Wizard can’t.” She sighs, “Another problem.”

Abigail suddenly remembered again the appearance of the Dark Wizard himself in her very dream. He has admitted before that he can’t go in her dreams now the last time she was in the inn. That’s the reason he disturbed her sleep and talk to her. But, now, he just went it as nothing happened. He saved her from her doom, which raises another question in her mind. Does a great desire to do something push you through your limits and ignore all of the bounds and rules? She even question why he even bothered to save her. If they are really enemies, he should have let her die in her own sleep, peacefully. Instead, he breaks into whatever this dreamcatcher does and saved her from the impending doom that she’s in. She’s wondering why he needs her to wake up rather quickly. He’s still referring to “them”, “they”, whatever it is. All of those questions and more are rummaging her mind and she feels she’s going to faint anytime with mental overload.

“I think we need to go to a much safer place. Let’s eat our way to the town. Forests are not a good place for Crocus now, we declare that thing.” Lavena stands as they took all of their baggage that was sitting under the trees. “We also need to find anyone that could prevent this from happening again. Maybe someone knows about a thing with that corrupted creature that’s doing harm to us. At least a clue or something could help just to prevent all of this from happening again.” She faces them all, “It’s not that doubtful that they will target us next. We who isn’t all about this magic. I hope this dreamcatcher protects us and Crocus’ dreamcatcher is just defective as it is. Or else, we are on the edge of a cliff with nothing in hand to help us up when we are pushed.”

Edsel took out the fire as they grouped together, with Abigail in the middle to protect her again. With the horrifying creature proving to them it can affect them both in reality that they are in and their dreams, there’s no place to be safe in these lands. With the map in hand, Keeana leads them to their next destination. They eat on their way there with the foods they packed. They were glad that most of it were still good to eat. Although, they won’t be bothering to eat some of them since they are heading to the next safe village. It was almost a half-day walk towards it. They chose the right time to travel to this village because it will be another restless adventure for them.

As they see the walls and some roofs that sticks out above the wall, they started to walk faster to ease their travels. They start approaching the gates as they were welcomed even at a glance by the gate guards. They entered the wonderful village with some of the residents welcoming them. Abigail isn’t surprised by the recognition they are getting. The developers must have coded them to be this popular.

Because she was hidden away in the middle of them, she didn’t receive as many eyes looking at her like before in Halvvilla. Lavena asked one of the citizens if there’s an inn for them to stay in for the day. A woman gladly obliges and leads them into a cozy-looking inn.

As they entered, they scattered around the place. Lavena approached the counter lady. Abigail was just standing on a side as she suddenly was disturbed by someone. She looked at her right as she saw an old lady looking at her, “Wait, aren’t you a witch?” It said rather rudely. Abigail walks back as the lady kept approaching her. She looks at her carefully as she saw something that proves to her that she is. The necklaces she has in her neck, especially the pendant of her wand necklace. “A witch has entered our city!” It screamed as every staff in the inn panicked. The old lady runs outside, “There’s a witch in the inn, help!”