A Midnight Mind

Chapter 26: Being That Guy

When the dust from the two fading projections disappeared completely, Ethan fell to his knees.

"What did you do?" Kara whispered.

"I... stopped him," said Ethan.

"You faded Neil!"

"He was strangling to death." Ethan spoke evenly while staring at the empty space on the floor where Neil and the dream man were standing moments ago. "He could have been killed. I... I couldn't hit the dream man. I just couldn't..."

He took a deep breath and looked at Kara. Her eyes were wide, wet, angry.

"He'll be okay," said Ethan. "Eventually."

Kara shook her head.

"You asshole. You have no idea what you're doing. Neil should have never let you have a fadeblade."
"And what the hell were you doing, Kara?" Ethan spat. She recoiled, taking a step back. "We would have been fine if you hadn't--"

"Oof," said Violet, stumbling sideways into her door frame. She looked the archway up and down before saying, "What happened to my door? And why are you guys shouting?"

"Ethan faded Neil," said Kara, voice dripping with venom.

"Who?"

Ethan and Kara looked at her. Then Kara said, "I don't have time for this," and disappeared.

"Good talk," muttered Ethan.

With Neil gone, Ethan didn't know what to do next. He was pretty sure the dream man wouldn't bother them again, but he didn't know if there were any more nightmares to worry about. Violet stumbled into her room, shaken up and with a minor cut on her ear, but otherwise fine.

Fading Neil without her witnessing it made her completely forget who Neil Edwards was, and fading the dream man made her forget about him, too. With so many blanks in her memory, she couldn't recall how and why she ended up in this Worldmind place at all.

With nothing else to do, Ethan rubbed his head and explained, from the beginning, who the dream man was, and what they were doing in the Worldmind. Strangely, she remembered the dream man only after fifteen or so minutes, but she couldn't be convinced that she had known this Neil person for years. She even had trouble remembering many of the Worldmind concepts that had previously been explained to her, probably because Neil was the one who taught her.

Over an hour passed before Ethan felt too tired to continue. It was late at night, and he wondered what his physical body was doing, given that it had been a good six or seven hours since he'd left it, standing in the middle of his bedroom.

But he couldn't just leave Violet stranded in the Worldmind. She would probably be pulled back into the real world in the morning by her parents or an alarm clock or something, but there was no telling whether or not there would be any more nightmare attacks.

Therefore, despite being exhausted, Ethan took the time to teach Violet how to retract her projection and return to the real world. It was a frustrating task, since Violet had forgotten so many essential concepts that Ethan had to re-explain. Any question that wasn't absolutely essential in helping her get back to her physical body was shot down, much to Violet's frustration.

"Just concentrate," Ethan said to her.

"I am."

"Open your eyes. It's easier that way."

Violet groaned, opening her eyes, fully aware that she had been told to do so three times already. They were each sitting on Violet's bedroom floor as Ethan coached her, to no avail.