Investing in My Crippled Wife: Every Return Makes Me Stronger

They stepped out of the testing room, walking down a series of long corridors that led deeper into the subterranean levels of the facility. As they descended, the architecture shifted, the standard white walls giving way to heavy, dark alloy panels.

Soren adjusted his collar, the anticipation gnawing at him until he finally broke the quiet. ”What kind of beast is kept down here exactly, sir?”

President Marron looked over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. ”Do you know about the Kalmira’s Nightmare incident from three years ago?”

”Kalmira’s Nightmare?” Soren blinked, searching his memories before shaking his head. ”No, I haven’t heard about it. I only moved to this city recently, so my knowledge of its local history is a bit lacking.”

”It’s alright.” Marron nodded, accepting the explanation without surprise. ”After all, it is not a piece of history we actively advertise to newcomers.”

”If you don’t mind me asking, sir,” Soren said, keeping his tone polite but curious, ”what exactly happened during that time?”

Marron slowed his pace slightly, his expression growing distant as the memories resurfaced.

”While the incident itself didn’t result in a long list of casualties, it was certainly befitting its name. It was a literal nightmare.”

He paused for a moment, the steady thud of their boots against the floor filling the brief silence before he continued.

”It began without warning, right in the dead of night,” Marron said, his voice dropping to a low, solemn register. ”About three years ago, an unknown entity managed to slip past our perimeter without triggering a single warning, leaving our alarms and defense systems completely blind. Everything seemed perfectly peaceful on the surface. But the next morning, a strange wave of exhaustion hit Kalmira. Over half the population woke up profoundly shaken, plagued by vivid, terrifying dreams.”

Soren frowned, trying to picture its scale. ”A shared dream?”

”More like a targeted assault on the psyche,” Marron replied, a faint grimace tightening his features. ”People were reliving their worst fears, deepest griefs, and darkest anxieties in agonizing detail. At first, we classified it as a localized psychological anomaly or some form of mass panic event because we simply lacked the data. But then the nightmares continued to plague the city for a few weeks straight. It got to the point where people were genuinely terrified to fall asleep, and the Bureau was absolutely swamped with frantic complaints and public appeals for help. Yet, despite all our efforts, we still couldn’t figure out the root of the problem. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the nightmares came to a complete stop.”

”Huh?” Soren glanced between them. ”They just vanished?”

”They did,” Elenaria picked up the narrative, her tone shifting to a darker, more reflective note. ”At first, everyone was too hesitant to trust the sudden quiet. But sheer exhaustion eventually won, and people finally slept without incident. Days passed without a single bad dream. The city began to breathe again, people relaxed, and eventually, everyone let their guard down. And...”

She paused, her eyes narrowing slightly as they neared the heavy security lifts at the end of the corridor.

”That is when the true crisis hit.”

”One morning, only a few high-ranking Awakened, including the President and I, managed to wake up. The rest of the citizens were entirely unresponsive, trapped completely inside their own minds.”

President Marron reached the terminal, pressing his palm to the scanner. The mechanism whirred quietly, and the heavy lift doors slid open with a soft hiss, revealing a functional, unadorned interior.

”When we rushed outside to investigate, we discovered a terrifying sight,” He said, his voice dropping as he stepped across the threshold. ”An almost invisible black dome had sealed off the entire area, completely blocking out the sunlight. It also exerted an overwhelming psychic pressure, causing everyone to remain imprisoned in their nightmares.”

He gestured for Soren and Elenaria to step into the lift.

”We had to find the entity sustaining the boundary and neutralize it before the victims suffered permanent brain damage,” Elenaria added, stepping inside alongside Soren. ”It took an incredibly grueling operation to locate the creature and break the spell, but the psychological toll it took on the city was immense.”

Soren stepped into the enclosure, a chill running down his spine as the heavy metal doors began to slide shut. ”So the entity we are about to meet... is the culprit behind that incident?”

”That’s right,” President Marron replied, the lift starting its smooth, rapid descent. ”We are about to meet the Kalmira’s Nightmare: Malakor, the Phantom Panther.”

Soren nodded, processing the name as the numbers on the digital display rapidly counted downward. After a moment of silence, a contradiction struck him. ”But why is it being kept here? If it caused a disaster of that scale, shouldn’t it be confined in a high-security prison or executed?”

”Well, there is a complicated story behind that decision,” Marron replied, looking at the closing numbers.

”As it turns out, the creature didn’t choose Kalmira by chance,” Elenaria explained, her arms crossing as she leaned against the lift wall. ”A notorious group of underground traffickers had stolen its younger kin. The beast tracked the thieves across the border, losing the scent right here in the city. Desperate to find them, it unleashed its domain to scan the minds of the population, searching for any memory or trace of the criminals.”

Soren looked at her, completely caught off guard. ”Huh? You mean it didn’t attack the city out of malice?”

”Probably,” Marron answered, the lift slowing down as it reached the absolute bottom of the facility. ”Long story short, our investigation eventually uncovered the truth. We captured the criminals, recovered its kin, and brought them all down here after reaching a mutual agreement. This containment was established as both a punishment for the chaos it caused, and a protective sanctuary to ensure they are never targeted again.”

Soren remained quiet, processing the scale of the revelation.

He had expected to face a bloodthirsty monster, only to find out the tragedy was born from a desperate rescue mission. The weight of the impending meeting settled heavily in his chest.

”Don’t be nervous, though,” Marron said, a faint smile finally breaking through his serious expression. ”It is not inherently malicious. As long as you treat it respectfully and show no fear, it won’t treat you poorly.”

”...Probably.”