Nightmare Realm Summoner

Aaron dumped the pile of corpses out of his Spatial Ring and onto the ground before Mite.

The younger man’s eyebrows lifted slightly at the size of the pile, which lifted well past both of them. He glanced from it to Aaron.

“Whoa,” Mite said. “I — err… that’s a lot of bodies. You getting enough rest, man? You just dropped off a load equally as big yesterday. You don’t want to—”

“I’m fine,” Aaron said flatly. He flexed the fingers on his left hand slightly. They were moving again. That was good. He’d lost control of them after an Ent had nearly torn his left hand off about an hour ago. The Ent in question was now at the bottom of the pile. “Just make sure Rhyss knows how many I left.”

“Right,” Mite said. “Yeah.”

“Great,” Aaron said. There wasn’t a scrap of emotion in his voice as he turned on his heel. “Thanks.”

“Hold on,” Mite said, jogging after Aaron. He caught him by the shoulder. “Wait up a second.”

“What?” Aaron looked back at him.

“Are… you okay, man?” Mite asked, the words clearly unnatural to him. “I mean. May too. I heard what happened. I don’t want to push too far or anything. I know it isn’t my place. But—”

“I’m fine,” Aaron said. “Thank you for asking. And May… she’s asleep. Orchid says she’s safe. But her body isn’t strong enough to heal quickly from the wounds she took. They were poisoned.”

“Oh,” Mite said. He paused uncomfortably for a moment. “I… damn. That really sucks.”

“Yeah,” Aaron said. “It does.”

“Will she be fine? After she wakes up?”

“She’ll be alive,” Aaron replied. “Beyond that, I don’t know. She lost an eye. Orchid doesn’t think she’ll be able to get it back. The rot made her body heal wrong. But she might be able to get an item to fix it in the future. It won’t be forever. Nothing is impossible with the System, right?”

Mite swallowed. “Shit, man. I’m sorry. I — look. This isn’t really something I’m good at. That’s not your problem. But I’m not trying to be an asshole or rude or anything. I don’t know how to handle this. But I’m sorry. May is cool. She’s strong, too. She’ll get through this. Probably better than anyone else would be able to.”

“Yeah,” Aaron said. “I know. But I appreciate the thoughts.”

He gave Mite a sharp nod. Then he turned and headed back in the direction of Orchid’s house. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Abby talking with a few of the other townsfolk. She paused to glance at him as he passed them by, her eyes flicking back to the mite and the giant pile of monster bodies beside him. A moment of hesitation gripped her as if she wanted to say something.

Aaron didn’t stop walking.

He could feel gazes boring into his back. His hands clenched slightly as he found his jaw tightening. Everyone was suddenly walking on eggshells around him. Aaron hadn’t even been the one that had gotten hurt. He was fine. There was nothing wrong with him.

Drawing up to Orchid’s door, he pushed it open and stepped inside.

“I’m back,” Aaron said, pulling the door shut behind him with a thud. “Is May...”

He finished turning toward the bed at the back of the cabin. The rest of his sentence died on his lips. Orchid in a chair sat alongside May — who was sitting straight up.

She was awake.

“May!” Aaron exclaimed, nearly tripping over himself. “When— are you—”

“An hour or so ago,” Orchid said, turning to Aaron and raising a hand. “Slow down. Not the time to overwhelm her with questions. She still needs to rest.”

“Yeah. Right. Of course,” Aaron said, forcing his mouth shut. Then it opened again of its own volition. “Are you…”

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“I’m fine,” May said. She touched the poultice covering her eye with a slight wince that she did a very good job of trying to cover up. “It’s not too bad, right? I look cool.”

Aaron’s eyes prickled. He let out a snort to try and cover the tightness he felt in his chest. “Yeah. Real cool. Like a badass warrior.”

“That’s because I am one,” May said. Her remaining eye narrowed slightly. “I almost got it, you know. It was this close.”

“Too close,” Aaron said sharply. He regretted his words almost instantly, but May didn’t seem bothered by them.

“Yeah,” May said matter-of-factly. She rubbed the back of her head and gave him a small, sheepish smile. “I fucked up, huh?”

“Language,” Aaron said, almost instinctively.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment.

Then they burst into laughter.

The mere idea of giving the slightest shit about the way they spoke when May had literally come an inch away from death was so ludicrous that all the tension and fear that had been squeezing Aaron’s chest for the past few days forced its way free in hysterical, chest-aching laughter.

They laughed until there were tears streaming down their cheeks and they could barely breath, and then they laughed a few seconds longer. It was quite some time before either of them managed to straighten up. Every time they tried, the laughter just started back up again.

Orchid watched on in a very strange mixture of abject befuddlement and understanding.

“I… I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything,” Aaron said as he finally wrested control of his voice back from his subconscious. He wiped the tears from his face with the back of his sleeve. “I should have been there.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” May said. “You aren’t my bodyguard. I just screwed up. That’s it.”

“There’s no that’s it about any of this,” Aaron said. “You almost died, May.”

“I know,” May said. “But I didn’t. This is how you get stronger. If you were watching over me constantly—”

“I know this,” Aaron snapped. He ground his teeth. “Orchid reminded me already. And I know that’s how things are. That’s how this fucking world works now. But that isn’t what I meant. I couldn’t do anything at all. When Orchid brought you back… even since then, I couldn’t do anything. I almost got in the way of Orchid saving you.”

“What, did you think you could try to gamble my injury away?” May asked with a snicker. “Why do you think you have the job to be able to do anything? I mean… like, you’re my brother. Not my dad.”

Aaron grimaced. “I… yeah. I know. But—”

“And you kind of suck,” May added. She snickered at the expression on Aaron’s face. “Not in only bad ways. But I’ve seen you fall down a flight of stairs because you were too excited that girl you liked texted you back. In our own house, by the way.”

“We agreed that we wouldn’t talk about that,” Aaron said, his cheeks reddening slightly. “You promised.”

“Oops,” May said. “But you get the idea.”

“I really don’t.”

May frowned. “You’re going to make me say this? Really?”

“I don’t know what it is you’re saying. I’m lame? I know that.”

“No,” May said with a sigh. She winced slightly at the sudden movement. Then she pointed at Aaron. “Do you remember my American History project?”

Aaron blinked. “Your what?”

“The one from last year,” May said with a groan. “Come on. The one you helped me build.”

“The one to build a Mission House out of paper mache?” Aaron stared at her. “I remember you spent like… way too much time making it. What does that have to do with anything?”

“You remember what dad did when Mrs. Lake accidentally pushed it off the table, then refused to grade it because the project was damaged?”

“I remember.” Aaron shook his head. “God, she was a terrible teacher. Dad ripped her a new one.”

“Yeah,” May said. “But you helped me glue it back together.”

“He’s the reason you didn’t fail the class, though,” Alex said. “If he didn’t yell at her—”

“I know that,” May said. She groaned. “What I’m trying to say is that I cared about the stupid house. I spent a lot of effort on it. Dad saved me from flunking, but I kept that house on my nightstand until the Apocalypse blew everything up.”

“I…” Aaron trailed off. “Oh.”

“You’re you,” May said. She thrust a finger toward him. “My brother. Not Dad. And I don’t want you to be Dad. He’s dead, and I don’t need a shitty replacement. You can’t baby me over everything. I’ll probably get hurt again. So just help me put it back together, okay?”

Aaron swallowed. His hands tightened at his sides. “Yeah. I’ll do my best.”

“Thanks,” May said. She grinned. “Can you leave now? Orchid needs to change the dressing, and I really don’t want you watching. It’s awkward.”

Aaron let out a choked laugh. He rose to his feet. “Okay. Talk soon, yeah?”

May nodded. “Yeah.”

Aaron gave a small nod to Orchid. He knew he probably should have said more, but he couldn’t quite find any words in him that could make it past his clenched throat. Aaron stepped out of the room and closed the door carefully behind him.

He stood there for a second, lips pressed together, hands clenched.

Then he let out a slow breath. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a gold coin and letting it roll across his knuckles. Aaron watched it drift back and forth for a few seconds. He let his gaze drift upward, into the cloudy sky. Looming overhead was a massive bone tower.

The Forsaken Grounds.

Aaron stood there for a second longer. His eyes narrowed. He put the coin back into his pocket.

This world wasn’t one where dreams could get you anywhere. No matter what one wanted to do, whether it was to protect or destroy… they needed power to do it.

And Aaron couldn’t let himself be weak any longer.

He set off toward the base of the tower.