Seraphiel and Hiro stare at her blankly, mouths agape.

  Had it worn off? Had he switched it off to spite us?

  ”What are you talking about?” Seraphiel grasps for a response.

  ”I can see through your illusion, Hiro and Seraphiel” Gwyn whispers these words to them and points to fingers from her eyes to them.

  “My turn.” She moves on fast to another topic. “Are you any good at riddles Seraphiel, you know Seraphiel, your name comes from the book of Enoch, it means seraph of God.” She digresses.

  “But erm anyway, back to the riddle, what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”

  ”How do you know who i am.” Seraphiel rudely ignores her riddle. It was hardly a question to her but to himself.

  “You’re gonna have to speak up.” She points to her missing ear.

  ”How d-“

  “WRONG!” She tosses the sludge at him.

  “What about you Hiro? You know Hiro, your name means abundance, kindness, or broad?”

  “Eeeerm, four, two, three?” He thinks looking down pensively holding his bottom lip. “Five!”

  Gwyn dashes her whole tray at him.

  Pained laughter spoils the mood. The strange man is laughing at the scene, pointing and holding his belly as he bellows. “Ha—Ha” each “ha” was followed by a long 3 second pause. He picks up a piece of sludge and throws it at the closest person next to him. This had riled him up further, he proceeded to stand up and bite the back of their head. His teeth made a cracking noise like he bit into a shell and they slowly sunk in after. No one flinched.

  Mev looked at him and looked back to the others.

  He moves his jaw left to right awkwardly trying to chew the scalp, hair, and bone he had just crunched out.

  The poor man places his hand on the back of his head, clearly in shock, he puts his hand into the wound and pulls it out, its drenched crimson red.

  “Ha—ha—ha” the same monotonous laugh rings over and over.

  "Alright everyone that's enough brunch, now its time for..." Mev looks at her watch and struggles to make something up. "A game. Yes, a game."

  A game? When are we going to meet their leader? Is this some sort of boy scouts outing.

  Mev walks to the centre of the area and makes an important announcement "This game will take place over the course of three days, and this game...." She wipes her foot against the floor trying to remove the blood spurting from the now deceased gentleman with a portion of himself missing."…Will be simple, it’s hide and seek! With a twist of course, you all here are going to be hiding for 3 days, you must rest in the lodgings provided for you, this may be at any time of your choosing but you must sleep. If you have not slept for at least an hour everyday for three days you will lose your chance to meet our leader."

  "I love games!" Gwyn turns to Hiro and Seraphiel. Hiro smiles and nods. Seraphiel can not believe what he is hearing.

  A game? With the sole twist being we have to sleep in designated lodgings?

  The strange man begins to clap like a seal and rocks up and down. "Mr X, will be seeking you out, don't let him catch you!" She points towards him with a sarcastic smile that did not reach her eyes. "You have an hour head start! Go on, shoo!"

  Mev forced everyone out shutting down questions and queries. "So". Gwyn says as if addressing something obvious. "I suppose il come along with you."

  "Ah no sorry" Seraphiel retorts with mock sensitivity. "We really don't think a group is a good idea, right Hiro?"

  "Why not, sounds fun" Hiro says completely disregarding what Seraphiel had to say. Gwyn interjects, "Yeah besides, I'm sure you wouldn't want me to blow your cover?"

  Though she doesn't actually have a way to prove it, the fact she can see through the illusion and even knows our names makes her a nuisance.

  "Okay" Seraphiel says calmly.

  "Okay?" Gwyn mimics

  "You can come along just, please don't weigh us down."

  "Good" She smiles from her eyes, "You guys are going to be devoured if you go without me!"

  The three of them head east running straight for about 23 minutes, they had 37 minutes until "Mr X" was going to seek them out and they hardly even knew what the point of the game was. Seraphiel crouches behind a rock, leaning on it he lets out a sigh, “what the hell is this place, wheres that fake King for gods sake. Im sick of stupid games.”

  “We just started though?” Hiro sounds confused.

  “Fake King? Seraphiel, Seraphiel, tch tch.” She waves her finger like she is telling a child off towards his eye. “Just because you aren’t the King doesn’t mean he stole it.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “He did steal it from me, you don’t even know what happened.”

  ”Hmm, nope, I know exactly what happened Seraphiel, and exactly what will happen if you don’t listen to what i have to say.”

  ”And that is?”

  ”Mr X, he is strange isn’t he?”

  ”I had a weird dream he was trying to communicate with me and i could hardly move” Hiro chimed in.

  “So did I.” Seraphiel replies.

  ”Why do you think that is?” Gwyn said as if asking another riddle.

  ”No more riddles please.” Hiro had had enough of them by this point.

  ”Okay Hiro, no more riddles, but don’t you find this sleep rule… peculiar?”

  “No not really I wasn’t listening.”

  ”…Ah. What about you Seraphiel.”

  “Yes it is strange, this whole thing is weird, stop with the riddles, what is it.”

  “No, no, I am asking the questions.” Gwyn thinks for a moment and formulates a game plan.

  “I am not entirely sure if my hypothesis is true, so for now we must simply hide and designate times to sleep. I will go first, Seraphiel second, Hiro last. I know it will be difficult but when you’re dreaming don’t open the door”.

  “Don't open the door when I'm dreaming? That wont happen don't worry, how sure are you of this hypothesis you aren’t willing to share?”

  “93 percent, and I'm asking the questions not you!”

  “93 percent isn’t enough?”

  ”would you rather wait a little while or risk the 7 percent?”

  Seraphiel takes a moment to evaluate.

  The dream I had with “Mr X” was similar to Hiro’s, there is a sleep rule in a game where Mr X is seeking us, this girl who can ostensibly see through illusions is telling me to not open a door in my dreams?….. Can Mr X manipulate dreams? Does he require an entry like a vampire? For what aim? Why not just attack us normally? What even is the nature of this ‘event’

  “What are we gonna eat? Three days is a long time if we have nothing to eat we will starve.” Hiro was concerned apparently with just the basics and nothing else about the situation.

  Gwyn smiles, “We wont be eating, the sleep-wake cycle being disrupted is our key. Plus, you’ve eaten already you’ll be okay for a little while longer.”

  The nature of this event was lost to all, even Gwyn wasn’t exactly sure what the point was, but this was certainly the King’s design and it absolutely served a purpose.

  ”Fine” he lets out a forced sigh and crosses his arms.

  The remaining time passes, 23 hours and 2 days remain. The air has become thick and syrupy, it smelt synthetic and herbal like melatonin.

  “Tengu.” Gwyn clicks her fingers, “How’s that sharpened perception?”

  Seraphiel is not phased by her knowledge any longer.

  “It’s fine, clearly not as impressive as yours.”

  Gwyn releases a white smile, “That's right! But any who, look over there” Seraphiel and Hiro turned their heads sluggishly towards the direction Gwyn suggested, a group of players were walking back to their lodging so soon.

  ”Their going back where they came, their going to sleep, see they don’t understand the rules like me!” She pointed to herself with her thumb. “Also, look there, they ate the fruits growing sporadically all about, you see, its a trick, the sharp spike in glucose followed by a crash made them sleepy so soon. This is why i said…..”

  She turns back to them.

  Hiro and Seraphiel have eaten a bunch of grapes and are getting comfortable on the ground. “We won’t sleep we’re just… relaxing”. Hiro whispers as they both yawn.

  Gwyn grabs them pulling them straight up and smacking them. “Wake up, you cant sleep here they will kill you”.

  “How will they know….” Hiro falls asleep.

  Hiro’s mind feels weird, he feels like he is falling in a calm tornado of thick air, the air was warm. He landed back where he was but Seraphiel and Gwyn were nowhere to be found. He sits up and scratches his hair. He feels breathing behind him, two large and lanky pairs of legs are looming behind his back.

  “lucy” ever so quietly he can hear it. Again, “lucy”. He loses the hold on his breath and his chest feels a sharp pang. Hiro scurries to his feet and throws a kick at the abnormally contorted neck of Mr X. It breaks his heel like smashing into metal, yet the flesh was soft, it sank into the fat. He only now noticed he was not Hiro, but he was Lucy, he inhabited the body of the illusion his strength, speed, skill, it was all gone. The poor form of the kick sent a sharp pain throw his femur. “Aaah” he cries out in a foreign feminine voice. The fear was unbearable, Mr X grabbed Lucy’s frail neck, lifting her up and shaking her head like a child with a snow globe.

  “Quick wake him up, do anything something” Seraphiel shouted out on the verge of tears. Hiro was covered in blood and bruises, he was dead too, just as Seraphiel was. His neck was being shaken left and right and hand prints were forming on his neck and body.

  “I don't know, I don't know.” They shake him, attack him, splash water on him. Nothing. The slow jittering of his neck persisted until his lip grew purple. Seraphiel stumbles backwards on all four. He looks up in disbelief at Gwyn. She is red and her eyes are darting across everywhere, “One simple instruction, a single instruction.”

  The illusion on Hiro’s corpse had been lifted, Lucy was gone and her place was taken by Hiro.

  “Is he dead? No he isn’t really? He cant die from a bad dream you should know that”. Seraphiel whines.

  “Pick him up. Please listen to a simple instruction before you end up like him. Bring him along with us, I am going to go to my bunker, you go to yours, leave his body there and don’t sleep, if you end up failing again then at least do not open the door. No, you must not sleep at all no matter what.”

  Gwyn walks back to where the lunch table was, they walked for a little while, Seraphiel was itching to cut down Mr X if he sees him in his wakeful state. But that was a gross misunderstanding, even a slight drowsiness is enough for some interference even in the real world.

  Hiro’s first dream was not a dream at all, he was affected in his wakeful state due to tiring himself out with exercise. Even fatigue at that level was enough to manipulate the strength of his muscles and cast a deeper drowsiness over him.

  Gwyn dropped Seraphiel and Hiro’s blue body off at their bunker, she ordered Seraphiel to hide the body, under the bed was the best bet. She also warned him once more to not succumb to sleep. She left him with a makeshift key to lock the door.

  Returning to her dingy bunk Gwyn locked her door and fell asleep. In an instant she exhaled and could feel her consciousness leaving and her head growing light. The air felt fuzzy.

  She awakens in the same room, the silence was palpable but it was soon broken by a tap.

  Tap. Tap. Tap

  It was Mev.

  “Gwyn, you’ve slept for three whole days Gwyn. That was not the rules of the game but oh well. Anyways, rejoice! Our leader is here and he wants to meet you.

  “Gwyn.”

  The handle started to shake violently, “Gwyn open the damn door Gwyn, don’t you dare leave our leader waiting for scum like you.”

  In truth Gwyn did indeed walk to the door, she intended to unlock it.

  The voice in her mind mocked her. “Are you about to fail so easily, have you really been tricked by basic mimicry? I ought to look for a better host”.

  Gwyn stopped, she thinks for a moment.

  “Sorry Mev, Its just, I’ve broken my last molar, my teeth were taken at random for my noble rite, my ear isn’t the only thing I'm missing, Im sorry its just I'm in severe pain can you give me a second?”

  “Okay, I'm sorry Gwyn, just please be quick”.

  Gwyn’s teeth were perfect, but after she uttered those words her teeth started to vanish, dozens of variations flashed in a second until there were no more molars, as if they never had been there at all.

  Her eyes widened.

  Could it be I was correct? This dream is built on his own knowledge? And that means…

  The voice of the Sphinx finished the sentence, “That knowledge can be engineered.”