Crawling backward on all fours, Daichi hastily wiped the beads sweat pouring down his forehead.
His eyes never once left the nurse, tracking her every tiny motion with absolute focus.
After her initial attempt to touch him… which frankly meant to char him, she made no further movements. She simply returned to her statuesque act.
The same couldn't be said for the faceless patient. He took a weak step forward, then another, limping his way toward Daichi.
Looking at his strange, jerky movements, anyone else might have dismissed him as a clown. A person to laugh at or pity. But for Daichi, the man was a source of sheer terror.
'The nurse isn't normal even though she looks normal. Then what kind of monster is this already monstrous-looking fella?'
The answer? Daichi had zero interest in finding it. He drew several deep breaths, gathered whatever little courage remained, and forced himself to stand.
Then, without looking back, he ran. He didn't care if he ended up meeting the same people again. Right now, all he needed was distance.
But the once short corridor, Now had stretched into an infinite expanse. Even after five minutes of sprinting, the corner never appeared.
'Wait a minute… there is no end to begin with…'
As far as his eyes could see, there was no corner at all. Only the same repeating corridor, recurred endlessly like an optical illusion.
A cold draft pushed into his lungs, making him feel breathless. His stomach churned and his muscles pulled tight.
Daichi's energy plummeted from the running, and the sight of the endless corridor drained him further. His body couldn't see the 'reward' for his struggle, so psychologically, his mind shut down.
The moment he stopped to catch his breath and regain even a sliver of stamina, a hand slipped out from his right. A hand garbed in a blue patient robe. It clamped over the right side of his face and—
RIIIPPPP—!
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"
A gut wrenching, blood-curdling scream tore itself out of Daichi's throat. The entire right side of his face had been ripped free. Blood streamed ceaselessly from the torn wound, and loose flesh dangled like wet threads.
"Guhhh… Gaaahkkkk… Guhhhh…"
He couldn't speak. Only incoherent groans scraped from his throat. The pain was so overwhelming his brain practically shut off, yet the throbbing behind his eyes felt like his skull had split apart.
Dropping to his knees, he stared at the floor. The crystal-clear tiles reflected his torn face.
A massive chunk of the right side of his face was gouged out. Many pieces of flesh of his cheek dangled, swaying gently. Even his bones were visible.
Within the reflection, he saw the owner of the hand. The faceless patient. The man tilted his head while 'looking' down at him.
With no facial features, his emotions were impossible to read. But Daichi could swear there were no emotions in that man. As if he meant nothing. As if he wasn't worth even being acknowledged.
And that infuriated him. More than the attack itself. But before he could express a shred of that anger, if he even still could, the faceless patient moved again.
His right hand clamped onto Daichi's skull. Slowly, deliberately, the grip tightened.
"Aaahh… Aaaahhhhhhhhhh… AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Splurt—!
Like a balloon, Daichi's head burst open. Brain matter exploded through the skull and splattered across the walls and the patient's body. His eyes popped from their sockets and rolled across the floor. Blood sprayed like an unchecked fountain.
Standing over Daichi's 'corpse,' the faceless patient remained completely motionless.
Then, without warning, his body began to dissolve into a tar-like substance, engulfing the scattered remains of the 'corpse' piece by piece.
…
A jolt of electricity coursed through Daichi's body as his eyes shot open.
"Haaaahhhhh… Haaaaaahhhhh… Haaaaahhhh…"
He gasped, his mouth hanging wide open as he sucked in as much air as he could. His entire body was drenched in sweat, his clothes sticking messily to his skin.
But right now, that discomfort wasn't even on his radar. He had something much bigger to worry about.
"What kind of dream was that? And why was it so realistic? As far as I know, you're not supposed to feel pain in dreams. Then why?!"
"Yes, it's possible. Rare, sure. But possible."
Daichi winced and turned toward the voice. It was Ryuga, sitting on his hospital bed.
His chest rose and fell with uneven rhythm, each breath visibly strained. He was using the bed frame to keep himself upright, clearly still unable to stand properly.
"You're finally awake…"
The concern Daichi felt earlier vanished under the weight of that vivid dream. He felt… numb. Numb to emotions, numb to pain, numb to everything. Maybe that dream had hit harder than he'd realized.
'Wait. So the moment I ended Souta's call… that's when it started. No, I should first check my call history first.'
He checked, and sure enough, the log showed his conversation with Souta. Meaning the dream began right after the call ended.
"Hey, Ryuga. Is there some kind of way or disorder where a person just drops into a dream instantly? Like… suppose I'm talking to someone, I end the call, and boom! Dream starts!"
Ryuga's brows tightened, his expression thoughtful. "Well, yeah. There's a phenomenon called hypnagogic hallucination. Pretty common too. At least 70% of people experience it once in their lifetime."
Daichi didn't fully understand what that meant, but he was relieved to know he hadn't suddenly lost his mind. And because he didn't understand it properly, his curiosity only grew. He wanted to know what exactly had happened to him.
"Ahm, Ryuga. Can you explain it a bit more? This… hypnagogic hallucination. I wanna know. I think something like that happened to me."
Because of habit Ryuga tried to shrug, but immediately winced. He was clearly too hurt to even attempt it.
"Fuck… Ahmm… I can explain, but let me breathe first. Aahhh… So basically, hypnagogic hallucinations are vivid sensory experiences that happen when you're falling asleep. Seeing, hearing, feeling things that mix dream-like imagery with reality. They're usually harmless, can be scary. Some of its causes are sleep deprivation, narcolepsy, high stress, anxiety… Wait a minute? Awww, were you so stressed about me that you had a hypnagogic hallucination? Hahahahaha… that's gay."