Eliam waited hours for the dream to end. He wasn’t positive about how long since there was no clock, but he knew that it must have been at least that. Still, nothing changed except his desire for food and water. He wasn’t even sure if it was supposed to be possible to feel such in dreams.

  Eliam stood up, abruptly, stretching out the bandages on his knee. He groaned in pain while wondering why the hell they were still there. Weren’t dreams supposed to take creative liberties? Why was he injured just like he was in the real world?

  He shook his head as he walked straight down the canyon as he did when he first got here. He still wasn’t keen on going back into that dungeon, but he was going to dehydrate. He was already becoming increasingly thirsty, and he knew that he would not be able to go very long without water. Considering how many times he had already died, he figured that he would also be able to die from a lack of water.

  Once again, he entered the small cave that opened up to reveal the grand cathedral. Seeing it again made Eliam curious as to why the place was so hidden. Did the creator not want people to see the amazing work they had produced?

  Eliam took a moment to revel in its beauty before going back inside. It was the same as the first time he had seen it. Still, it was almost even more impressive. The art was immaculately detailed and had a lot of work put into it. At the end of the building was the mural of that battle akin to heroes fighting off the great evil.

  Eliam glanced at the entrance to the basement and sighed. He didn’t want to go back down there. The horrifying images of bones scraping out of the ground caused him to shudder. Instead, he decided to check out the second floor once again. Perhaps he had missed something the first time he had gone up.

  Eliam carefully walked up to the second floor. Various artwork and statues came into view. None of them seemed too special, at least until he observed them up close. There were four paintings, each depicting different people holding familiar weapons.

  Immediately, Eliam could tell they were the same people he had seen in the mural below. He carefully observed each painting, stunned at how detailed they were.

  One displayed a gruff man, shielded with a heavy armor set. He was holding a large blade that was impossibly black. It almost seemed to be absorbing the light around it.

  The next was a red-haired woman in what Eliam could only describe as witch garbs. She held a dazzling staff in her hands while maintaining a confident smile.

  The next painting displayed something rather interesting. A blonde-haired woman in a cloak was shown, a small scowl playing on her lips. She was holding a bow and had a quiver of arrows strung around her shoulder. What made this picture special was her ears. They weren’t round like they should have been. They were rather pointy.

  Eliam shook his head, wondering why he would have been dreaming this. He soon groaned as he realized he probably shouldn’t have been dreaming any of this at all. The more time he spent in this place, the more it felt oddly real.

  The final painting was of a young man dressed in deep blue armor. He had a positive aura about him, one that the painter had done a very good job showing. His smile was radiant, kind, and above all, happy. The man had been a good person.

  Eliam walked a little closer to the painting, his thoughts running fast. He could only imagine what it felt like to be someone like that. To be successful, accomplished, and most of all, happy.

  Eliam carefully inspected everything else on the second floor, but there wasn’t much to it. The main display was the paintings and everything else was less interesting.

  He sighed, preparing to go back down to the first floor. It was then that a strange flash of light caught his eyes from one of the paintings. Specifically, it had been from the one of that oddly bright man.

  He walked back up to it and took a long look. Everything looked completely normal, yet he knew that nothing in this painting would have caused that flash. Eliam pressed his face against the wall the painting was hung on and looked from there. The area in which the man held the sword was lifted, every so slightly.

  Eliam quickly ran his hands along the painting until the feeling of cool metal brushed under them. He located the specific location and pressed down. A small clinking noise could be heard before a large rumbling sounded.

  The wall behind the painting moved open, revealing a hallway that led into darkness. Eliam froze, wary of going down such paths. He remembered all too well what had happened each of the other times he had chosen curiosity.

  Yet, a glance at the accursed basement caused him to clench his fists and walk inside. He could feel himself running out of energy.

  Eliam slowly walked down the hallway, studying the detailed architecture that went into designing it. Unlike when he had gone into the basement, the overall feeling of the cathedral remained.

  Finally, he entered a small, circular room. At the center was a casket. The bottom was a deep blue which slowly faded into something of a delicate white. It was almost like one of the glaciers he had seen in a video.

  Eliam approached the casket and paused. Should he really be doing this? Wasn’t this some kind of form of grave robbing?

  He shook his head and continued to push the top off. Whatever was inside here was his only clue to what this place was.

  After significant effort, the top crashed to the ground, revealing a skeleton covered in deep blue armor. It was the same armor that had been shown in the painting of the man.

  Eliam gasped as he realized what this was. Could this place be built for this man? He wasn’t positive, but it kind of seemed to make sense. This was some hero’s final resting place, hidden away from the world to protect it.

  Eliam glanced back at the armor and hesitated. He knew it was wrong, but if this truly was worn by that man, then it must have been powerful. Conveniently, the thought of this whole thing being a dream hopped into his mind. If that were the case, then it wouldn’t matter what he had done.

  Eliam smirked as he grabbed the armor and tore it off the skeleton's body. The set encompassed four pieces. A helmet, a chest plate, leggings, and boots. Each held the same deep blue shine and resembled some sort of futuristic samurai style.

  He picked up the helmet and pressed it onto his head. As he did, a wave of strength surged into him. He felt his body grow nimbler, faster, sharper. Another force that was oddly unfamiliar strengthened as well. He felt a smile playing at his lips as he fumbled with the next piece, readying himself to put it on.

  Suddenly, Eliam felt his body lose strength, and he collapsed onto the floor. He tried to scream but felt nothing come out as blood started leaking from every crevice of his body. He clawed at his head to take off the helmet, but his arms were sapped of their strength. He couldn’t move.

  For the next few minutes, Eliam struggled on the ground like a dying bug. The pain was immense, but soon, even that went away. He was cold and tired. The helmet slipped off his head as his life drained fully. He was dead.

  ***

  Eliam awoke in a flash, a layer of sweat sticking to his face. He froze for a few moments before pressing his face to his hands. He held back tears as he recalled the immense pain he had just gone through. He didn’t want to go back to that hellhole ever again. He was done. Everything in that place wanted to kill him, and in incredibly painful ways at that.

  He rubbed his eyes, trying to prevent more tears from coming down his face. In the end, it was just a dream. At least, he kept telling himself that. What else would he call it?

  Eliam pulled out his phone and pulled up some random video to keep his mind from wandering. He needed to relax. He took a deep breath as he clicked on the first thing that seemed entertaining. He tried to focus on it, but his mind kept dragging him back to that dream.

  Why did he remember it so well? The pain, the scenery, the images were all so real. It wasn’t like anything he had ever experienced before.

  He shook his head, a fresh wave of tears rolling down his face. The deaths he had gone through had been so real. He felt like he had actually died.

  Laughter rang out from his video, bringing it back to his attention. He needed to relax. He was spiraling.

  A couple of deep breaths later, Eliam brought logic back to his mind. It had just been a dream. Sure, it may have seemed real, but it wasn’t. It simply wasn’t possible for it to have been anything else.

  He nodded, having finally convinced himself to relax. Eliam took one last deep breath and focused on his video. He had slept for a while, but there was still plenty of time to relax before his next shift. He figured he would watch a couple of videos and then experiment with some social media platforms.

  Eliam knew it was possible to make money from them, and he wanted to try. He had nothing better to do anyway.

  Hours passed, and soon, it was time for him to start his next shift. Eliam greeted Josh, who gave him a quick nod and left a few moments later.

  This time, Josh had left him a small list of things that needed to be done around the station. There wasn’t much instruction, but they weren’t really hard tasks. It was mostly just cleaning or stocking items.

  The added tasks allowed for the night to go by quickly, and soon Josh was back. He waved Eliam off, and like that, Eliam ended up back in his car. He was lying on his back, attempting to go to sleep. However, each time he managed to close his eyes, the view of the canyon filled them, and he immediately fully woke up. He was terrified of going back there.

  He spent hours like this, struggling to go to sleep. Eventually, he sat back up and resorted to watching random videos on his phone. Time continued to pass, and eventually, the time came for his next shift.

  Eliam groaned as he dragged himself out of his car and into the gas station. Josh gave him a strange look.

  “You don’t look all too good,” he said.

  Eliam glanced at him. “I know. I’ll be fine.”

  Before Josh could leave, Eliam asked, “Could I have an energy drink? You can take it out of my pay or something.”

  Josh rubbed his temple. “Yeah, go for it… Are ya sure you’re okay?”

  “Thanks… and uh, yeah. I’m good. Just didn’t get too much sleep, that’s all.” Eliam moved for the energy drink as if it were his life essence.

  Josh chuckled, “Yeah, them night shifts can be rough. I’ll see ya later, kid.”

  Eliam nodded as Josh gave him one last look and left. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to make it the whole night.

  A few hours went by, and Eliam started to really struggle with staying awake. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the fear of the dreams he had been experiencing. Otherwise, he was positive that he would have fallen asleep by now.

  A couple of customers had pointed his fatigue out to him. Some were more worried way while others just wanted to make small talk. Eliam struggled through each conversation until, finally, he spotted Josh coming in.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  He gave him a nod and zombie-walked to his car. As soon as his back touched the car seat, not even his fear could prevent him from falling asleep.

  ***

  Eliam wanted to scream as he awoke not in his car but in the same canyon that had been torturing him for over half a week. Why was he back? Why did his body demand that his consciousness keep returning to this place?

  He kicked the hard floor in anger, immediately regretting that decision when a flood of pain filled his foot. Everything here wanted to hurt him.

  He groaned as he looked around at the familiar three routes he could take. He stormed off toward the cathedral, knowing that it was the only place he could go to that wouldn’t have him dead in moments.

  He went inside and immediately back up to the second floor. He pulled himself over the railing that prevented people from falling and jumped over. In mere moments, he split his head against the floor and died.

  ***

  Eliam awoke back in his car, a wild smile on his face. Sure, he may have died, but it was in an infinitely better way than what he had experienced before. It was painless and quick, too. If this shitty dream was going to plague him then he would just end it as fast as possible each time.

  He smirked as he prepared to film another video for his socials. So far, he has gotten a few hundred views on each one he has done. It wasn’t enough to earn him any money, but one day, maybe he would get there.

  After creating a decent backstock, the time came for his next shift. He walked back into the gas station, waved goodbye, and got to work.

  A few hours into his shift, a gray-haired woman stumbled inside. Eliam carefully observed her as she walked around, rubbing her hands all over everything. Eventually, she took notice of him and smiled a little too widely.

  “I didn’t see you there, boy. What is a youngin like you doing out at this time of night?” she asked.

  Eliam frowned as he considered his options. It was unlikely that the old woman could hurt him, although he was still rather unsettled by the whole thing.

  “Just working,” he replied.

  “Oh, sweety, you can tell me more than that? Can’t you?” The woman grinned.

  Eliam ignored her and asked, “Can I get you anything?”

  The woman growled, unhappy that she did not receive any answer. “No.” She took a step closer to Eliam, causing him to run his hands across the panic button. He didn’t want to have to use it, but he would if necessary.

  Thankfully, the woman hissed at him one last time and left, marking the end of the encounter. A few hours later, Josh returned, but Eliam didn’t bother mentioning what happened. Ultimately, nobody was hurt, and the woman was probably just mentally ill. Eliam made some small talk with Josh and went to bed.

  ***

  This way, a month had gone by with Eliam working at the gas station. Each time he dreamt, he faithfully executed himself by jumping off the second floor of the cathedral. Besides that, his time at the gas station had gone well. There hadn’t been another odd situation like the one he had encountered previously.

  He yawned as Josh walked in, marking the end of his shift. He handed Eliam an envelope, which was full of money. It's Eliam’s earnings.

  “I’m glad ya here, kid, but how long do ya plan on keeping this up?” Josh asked.

  Eliam gave him a puzzling look. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, ya young and have a life ahead of you. There’s no point in wasting it here,” Josh said.

  Eliam smiled. “I’m not wasting anything. You’ve been good to me. I don’t plan on staying here forever, but I think I’m satisfied for the time being.”

  Josh sighed but ultimately accepted Eliam’s response. “Whatever, kid, go get some sleep.”

  Eliam nodded and waved goodbye. As he was walking to his car, he felt a buzz in his pocket. He pulled his phone out to his screen flashing about a call.

  The person trying to do so was his brother, Max. Eliam’s body tightened as he considered hanging up. He was just about to when he remembered how abruptly he had left. He sighed and answered.

  “Eliam… Is that you?” a small voice asked.

  “Yeah… It’s me, Max,” Eliam whispered.

  A pause took hold of the conversation as both sides considered what to say.

  “I’m sorry,” Max said.

  “Don’t be,” Eliam responded. “It’s not your fault.”

  “I knew it was wrong… but it made me happy that you might have been staying,” Max admitted. “But I should have known it would have never worked out.”

  Eliam narrowed his eyes, a few tears falling from them. “Yeah… there was just no way I could have stayed there any longer.”

  Again, nobody spoke for a few moments. This time, Eliam could hear a few sobs in the background of the call.

  “Are you going to come back?” Max asked, trying to disguise his crying with stoicism.

  Eliam stood there, tears draining off his face. He clenched his fists as his voice cracked. “I… I don’t know, Max.”

  Another few seconds of silence passed, and Eliam felt his heart jump to his throat.

  “O…Ok, I understand…” Max said.

  A storm of noises sounded from Eliam’s phone as he frowned.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” a scream emanated.

  Eliam’s eyes widened as a multitude of screams clashed together, distorting the audio on his side. His face morphed into anger as he heard his brother screaming in the mix. A few moments later, the call ended with a beep, and Eliam was stuck standing there, speechless.

  He stood there for minutes, his mind completely blank. He seemed incapable of thinking; all he could focus on was his anger. His parents must have been stopping Max from contacting him. That’s why he had barely just called now!

  Suddenly, Eliam let out a scream of rage as his feelings overwhelmed him. He threw open his car door and started screaming into his seat. He slammed his fists into his seat and wrestled with the headrest. Finally, after nearly an hour of rage, his energy diminished, and he crashed against the backseats.

  He was still angry. He wanted to do something, but there was nothing. His parents would probably not welcome him back, and it’s not like he could take Max away from them.

  He growled as he felt his rage coming back to him. A wave of fatigue washed over him as he tried to get back up. He tried to fight it, but it was all too strong. Moments later, he fell asleep.

  ***

  Once again, he awakened not in his car but in the hot canyon. Eliam growled as he jumped to his feet and stormed off to the cathedral. He shot up the stairs and grabbed hold of the railing. He was practically over before he paused.

  When he looked down, he could see the entrance to the basement. In his heart was a desperate anger that wanted to be unleashed on something. He wanted a fight.

  He pulled himself back behind the rails and walked down toward the basement. He was still apprehensive about going down there. Logically, it would be incredibly stupid, but he wasn’t feeling very logical right now. He just wanted to beat something to pieces.

  He stormed down the very stairs he had when he first started having this dream. He knew he wasn’t very different from a month ago, but he felt as if he was.

  As soon as he crossed into the dungeon part of the basement, he felt the ground shake beneath him. Moments later, a hand shot out, aiming to grab his ankle. He hopped out of the way and watched as the skeleton hastily pulled itself out of the ground.

  They eyed each other for a few seconds before the skeleton launched itself at him. In a flash, it was right over him, a red light glowing from its eyes.

  Eliam stumbled backward, barely dodging the rapid sword swing that would have decapitated him. A wave of anger washed over him as he thought how unfair all of this was.

  With a loud roar, Eliam took the skeleton off guard by charging at it ferociously. It waved around its sword as if to dissuade him, but Eliam didn’t care. Despite the sword cutting into his arm, he tackled the skeleton to the ground and started to pummel it with his fists.

  After a few swings or so, a red bar appeared above the skeleton’s body, seemingly displaying its health. He had only done a tenth of its HP.

  Eliam growled, accepting the impossible challenge. The skeleton finally managed to kick him off, causing him to slide further into the dungeon. Three more pairs of hands shot out of the ground and Eliam knew that he was screwed.

  He glanced toward the exit and made a beeline toward it. The skeleton noticed this and tried to stop him by standing guard over it.

  As soon as Eliam neared, the skeleton waved its sword around wildly. Eliam dodged each strike and jumped back into the shady hall before the dungeon. The skeleton turned to chase him.

  Eliam groaned as it easily entered the hall. He was really hoping it wouldn’t be able to.

  He dashed backward, multiple skeletons now coming after him. He sprinted up the stairs and back into the main room of the cathedral. He could hear the rattling of the bones coming after him. At this point, it was looking like he was going to be dead no matter what he did. He couldn’t run forever, and even if he could, he didn’t have enough space to.

  Still, he didn’t plan on just giving up. A crazy plan entered his head, and he knew that it would be his only shot at survival.

  He dashed out of the cathedral and back into the canyon where he would always start. As soon as he could, Eliam took a sharp left into the room with that bronze statue. By then, the skeletons were starting to gain on him. He was also running out of the energy to keep going.

  Eliam threw himself into the chest room, immediately attracting the bronze statue’s attention. It pointed its sword at Eliam, but this time, four more skeletons joined the mix.

  Eliam threw himself to the ground as the bronze statue clinked toward them. He sighed in relief as it ignored him and went for the skeletons instead.

  That relief quickly began to dissipate as it started to decimate them. One of the skeletons tried to block, but the statue broke through its sword and split its entire body in half. The other three were unlikely to have a better time.

  As Eliam attempted to crawl out of the small cave, one of the skeletons was launched at him by the statue. Its impact caused him to lose his breath for a moment and gasp for air. The skeleton was still alive, but its body had been torn about by the blade. The HP bar above was incredibly slim. Still, it grabbed onto him tightly and attempted to swing at him with its broken arm.

  Eliam tried to pull it off but failed. He glanced back at the massacre the bronze statue was causing and decided to just leave. As soon as he fully exited, he began to slam the skeleton hanging onto him onto the ground. It was rather maniac, but Eliam didn’t know how else to kill it.

  After doing this three times, the light in the skeleton's eyes died down, and it fell apart. Eliam stood up, gasping for air as numbers appeared in front of his face.

  “What the…” He gaped.

  A +800 printed itself over his vision as his eyes widened. Complimenting was a bell sound followed by the words “Level Up”. Suddenly, a whole interface appeared in front of him.

  There were a plethora of different numbers, words, and bars representing different things.

  Stat points available: 3

  Eliam Edward

  Level: 4

  HP: 70/100

  MP: 50/50

  Life: 10

  Mind: 10

  Endurance: 10

  Strength: 3

  Dexterity: 3

  Intelligence: 3

  Three bars showed in the bottom left of his vision, one reflecting his HP, another his MP, and the last his stamina. There was another at the top left, which reflected something called his essence. Also in the top left was his level, which was shown to be four. The essence bar near it was around two-thirds full.

  Below that was something talking about stat points to allocate. Currently, he had three points he could assign. He glanced at the options before him, taking them all in. This was all just like some sort of video game.

  Suddenly, a loud clinking noise started toward him. It seemed that the bronze statue had already finished with the skeletons and was coming for him next. He quickly glanced back toward his status and hesitated. He wasn’t sure what to do. If he died now, would he lose all of his progress? Would he lose stat points or leveling?

  The clinking grew louder, and Eliam knew that death was inevitable. He glanced at the dexterity stat, and an idea popped into his head. Maybe, if he were faster, he could get away.

  He plugged all three points into it and turned to run. By then, the bronze statue was nearing in on him at a rapid pace, one that he would not normally be able to beat.

  Eliam smirked the other way. Unfortunately, as he ran, he realized very quickly that he wasn’t going any faster. The statue quickly caught up to him and grabbed hold of his head. Eliam screamed as the statue tightened its hold tremendously. Moments later, a loud pop occurred, and Eliam’s skull bent into itself.

  ***

  He awoke back in his car with a gasp, clutching his head. Dying never got any easier, especially with the stupid dream that found unique ways for him to experience it each time. Still, this time, he had a tight smile on his face. While the pain of his last death was still fresh on his mind, the status screen he had discovered was as well. Finally, he had found another clue as to what the hell was going on and how he could solve it.