The Only Game In Town [Adventure]

Theo wasn't quite sure why he enjoyed pacing while teaching the children. It was just asking Fate to make him fall. Even the kindest of children feel the need to push the boundaries and are willing to trip poor blind men like Theo as they are pacing back and forth.

He was listening to one child speak. His name was Ferdinand, and he was trying to tell a story he had made up.

"And then I shot lightning bolts from my fingers and slayed the evil little sister for her unrighteous acts." Uproarious applause filled the room as the children cried out for Ferdinand's amazing deeds.

Theo was less impressed than they were. Ferdinand had been working hard on his story and Theo didn't want to crush him too badly, but still, he had to help them. Wasn't that the goal of a teacher?

"Good job. But I admit that it was a bit… jarring to immediately switch from a story where your sister stole your toys into one where you smote her using lightning powers." Theo could just imagine the little kid's puffed up chest slowly deflating as he heard Theo's criticism.

Theo heard a sniffle from the front of the room. Theo tried to move, but he had paced his way to the back of the classroom. He had placed Ferdinand directly on his exit path and there was no escape.

A wail erupted from the child as he cried. Theo cringed back, hitting his stick on the ground as he tried to get away from the ridiculous child. Really, who would cry after getting some well-earned criticism.

"Can you please stop? Ferdinand, I'm just trying to help you with your storytelling, don't you want to improve?" Theo inched closer to the boy, hoping to get past him and then let the class out for recess to avoid this confrontation.

"You hate my story!" Ferdinand wailed unintelligibly. And in a rush of movement, he bowled Theo over by crashing directly into his legs.

Theo cried out as he crashed into the ground. Embarrassment and a twinge of pain rushed through Theo as lay was splayed out on the floor. He heard giggles coming from the rest of the class.

Oh, they thought this was funny? He would show them something funny.

Theo could feel the heat of rage building in his chest, just when he was about to start screaming at the children, he felt an adult hand grasp his own. It was not one of the sniveling brats, it was Terry.

Terry had given him this chance, and he did feel the positive effects on his mental state. Having goals and tasks made him feel more in control of his life and the misery he had subjected himself to.

Her reassuring hand kept him from exploding but he heard a chorus of chattering teeth from the children in the room. Maybe he had put the fear of the gods into them with his threatening posture and demeanor.

"Go outside and play." Terry's voice was calm and secure as the children all had cheered and whooped for extra play time.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Terry asked Theo.

"Not really. I just try to help them and all they hear is that I am not completely supportive of their hard work." Theo started standing up. He pushed Terry off as he did so; he wanted to be able to do it all on his own.

"They just want your support right now. They're struggling and young; they don't understand other people's good intentions. You must let them teach themselves." Theo got to his feet while he listened to Terry. He felt strong today, stronger than he had in a while. Despite how much he hated the constant roughhousing from the children, it had forced him to gain back the muscle mass he had lost during his moths of inactivity.

Theo didn't respond, he let the words wash over him as he let a small sense of pride well up for his minor feat of standing up. It was small, but it was his.

"Now, you are going to take the rest of the day off. Find something to do that has nothing to do with stories or children." Terry dismissed Theo from the school and pushed him out the door.

Thankfully, weeks of walking around this small town had made him familiar with the streets. He knew the small divots that would make him stumble and the mucky bits of road that made Theo's boots smell of manure.

He used his stick to check for danger and obstacles. And let the cool summer breeze hit his face.

Maybe he just needed a break from the children, but maybe today was just a beautiful day. Oh, how he wished he could see the sun in the sky, but the breeze was quite nice as well.

Theo walked to the center of town on his way back to Joy's parents' house. There was usually some hustle and bustle happening in the center of town. Today there were some priests shouting at the top of their lungs.

"The gods will help you and all your descendants. Please, pray to Kindness and find good fortune for the rest of time. In these times of hatred, we need a little Kindness!"

On the other side, there was a very different group of priests.

"Freedom, we offer you freedom. We poor humans have been trapped in this plane of existence to be the gods' toys. But we will have it no more. Our king needs your mind, body, and spirit to help free us from our eternal bondage. Come to the capitol to free us."

Theo recalled Joy's ramblings during their journey to this village. He had claimed that David was eating people and using their souls as some sort of power source to help him become a god.

Theo was unimpressed by both sides. Who really wanted kindness? What had kindness ever done for anyone?

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A rough hand grasped Theo's shoulder as he tried to walk through the crowd.

"Why don't you come with us? The king will free you from the pain the gods have caused you. Your eyes must hurt, but the king can save you. We know the gods have hurt you, but mankind will save you."

Theo chortled and shook the priest's hand off him.

"Yes, it does hurt. But it wasn't the gods who took my eyes. It was mankind."

He sauntered off in peace, none of the other screaming fools in the central square bothering him in his self-imposed loneliness.

He walked through the door of Joy's parents' home; he told Joy's mother that he had a hard day and then went into his room and cried.

Theo was tired and couldn't bring himself to care. He curled up in a ball on his bed and just hoped that it would all go away someday soon. He missed Lillian and he missed his eyes. Why couldn't the world just go back a few short months, back to when everything was okay?

But the world kept turning and it never stopped. Theo was miserable and alone and planned to stay that way.

___

Lillian had been enjoying destroying the dream realm. There was something very cathartic about ripping people out of the giant stone edifices and then sending some monster to break the stone structure into a million-billion pieces.

She had yet to free anyone that she knew yet. She had been doing this for quite a while now and had only freed a couple thousand strangers. She was annoyed since she had jumped into two different people's dreams that she personally knew at the very beginning of her journey here in this realm, but now she was incapable of seeing even an acquaintance.

But she didn't let that discourage her as she went about wreaking havoc in this world. She hoped that what she was doing was disrupting the system, but she worried that it was all meaningless in the face of an eternal being like Dream.

There was nothing she could do except continue down this path.

Lillian and Goo faced a new edifice. There was nothing different about this one, it was like all the others. But Lillian had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was something spooky about it. However, Lillian had never felt more confident. With her extensive free time, she had become a master of the dream realm in her own way. Her will had been sharpened into a fine-tuned weapon, and she was prepared for anything her enemies could throw against her. So, without hesitation, Lillian walked into the massive stone structure.

The dream was one filled with chaos. There was a dance floor, and a massive conga line of idiots were dancing around to the sounds of percussive music. The room was filled with lights that strobed in different colors quickly. The air was rank with sweat and body odor.

Goo said, "peeyew" as he appeared next to her in the dream.

Lillian agreed with him. It was not a pleasant space to be in, and her head hurt already from the flashing lights. But more importantly, she couldn't tell who the dreamer was.

For her plans to work she had to find the dreamer and pull them out. Normally, it was incredibly easy to tell who the main character of the dream was. But here, no one was special or distinguishable from the crowd.

Lillian's dream life was spared by pure chance. She turned her gaze to the floor of the environment and saw the ground was littered with stuff. Scraps of paper, glowing sticks, and pens were rolling around on the floor. In hopes of finding a clue Lillian bent down to rummage through the random assortment of items on the ground.

A whoosh passed over Lillian's head and she saw a winged form pass over the space where her head had just been.

Susan was here.

Lillian whipped her head around to try and get a better view of her nemesis. The demon was a pair of feathery wings surrounded by hundreds of eyeballs. Lillian knew that the natural laws of the world were different in the dream realm, but it was still a shock to see such forms.

Lillian's greatest enemy was in this specific dream and now she was coming to destroy Lillian.

But Lillian was not so helpless in the dreams anymore. She didn't need to rely on the people in the physical world to heal her body of all the damage it sustained during her fights with Susan. Now, she could battle Susan on her own terms.

"Get back, Goo." Lillian said as she stepped towards the writhing mass of eyes and wings. She was going to kick this creature's ass.

"Little whelp. What do you think you can do to me?" Susan's voice was like thousands of knives clashing together, but Lillian was undeterred.

In her mind, Lillian envisioned herself as a monster of inane proportions. Her arms grew to the size of tree trunks and her legs grew talons to latch onto the floor. Her mouth grew sharp teeth and her eyes slitted vertically.

She was a giant lizard monster, and she looked down upon Susan with disdain.

Lillian was the strongest monster around and refused to be pushed around by a floating piece of trash.

With a roar Lillian swung her arm in a great arc that collided with Susan. The being of the dream realm was sent careening off into the wall where it bounced as if the wall was a trampoline.

The creature accelerated through the air and collided with Lillian's massive form, tearing into her scale like defenses as if they were butter. Lillian's enlarged nostrils tested the air for a moment. No, Susan did not tear through her defenses as if they were butter, Lillian's defenses had quite literally turned to butter beneath Susan's attack.

What was happening?

Susan had never been this overwhelming before in her dreams. Now she was unstoppable. With a flick of her mental will, Lillian reverted to her regular self and kicked Susan away. Lillian had a few scratches on her side but was left relatively unscathed by her mistake during the fight.

"Why are you so much stronger?" Lillian asked. She used the most powerful technique in her arsenal, making the bad guy monologue.

"Before now, you were still a member of the dream realm. But Dream themselves has issued a decree that you are fair game. No longer will I be holding back against you because of your privileges, now you will know the fear of the nightmare." With a hiss Susan's form shifted into a tentacled monster that was larger than Lillian had been in her lizard form.

All Lillian could see was fleshy tentacles grabbing at the dancers on the floor and bringing them inside of the writhing mass.

She didn't know what to do. On one hand, she was happy that her actions had seemed to be making Dream nervous, but she had grown lackadaisical. She had assumed that Goo was the baseline for the monsters and dreamers in this realm and she was seeing that her old nemesis far outstripped Goo in power.

Lillian turned to Goo and asked, "how do I beat them?"

The small man just smiled at her and shook his head. "Sometimes there is a solution. Something so clever that you cannot help but win the fight." Goo started growing larger, "but this is not one of those times. You have been beaten, Lillian. Run while you still can, I will hold Susan off for as long as possible."

Goo's massive hands collided with a spare tentacle and was blown apart by the force of the strike. His body quivered, but he looked unflinchingly at his fate.

"Beat Dream. They have trapped us here for an eternity and will not let us go. I long for oblivion or for justice. Lillian, keep getting more powerful and kick its ass." Goo bravely rushed into Susan's waiting tentacles.

Lillian turned away and fled. She cried one single tear and then jumped through the tiny object as her escape route from the dream. Once she had left the giant stone edifice, she cried a few more tears for the stupid little man that she had found in her mother's dream and had taught her so much about this world. Maybe he had been small and weak, but he was not meaningless. Lillian would not let him be meaningless.

A massive pair of wings unfurled from Lillian's back as she took to the skies and started running. Already she could hear the groaning sounds of the nightmares and dreamers chasing her through this world.

She would get stronger. And she would destroy them all. Lillian vowed this to herself as she escaped.

Lillian couldn't wake from the nightmare, but soon it would not be her nightmare any longer.