Nightmare Realm Summoner

Aaron didn't get to evade the world for long. The blissful darkness was ripped away like a blanket and he felt his back stiffen as consciousness involuntarily returned to him. Wet grass pressed up against his cheek and he could still taste blood in his mouth.

For one brief instant, the fog covering his mind prevented him from remembering what was going on.

Then the world snapped, a rubber band returning to its natural state and bringing all his memories back with it. He drew in a stiff breath and jerked upright. Pain pierced into him from a long line across his back — where the monster had cut him.

Wait. Why is there pain?

Pain meant he was alive.

Pain meant that the angel of death hadn't killed him. And if he wasn't dead, there was still a chance. The cards in his hand hadn't all been dealt. And, so long as the game was still running, he still had cards to play.

He shoved himself upright with a groan. Then he froze. Standing before him were two women and a guy somewhere around his age. There was no sign of the terrifying angel that had killed the mantis.

"Yo," one of the girls said, raising a black-nailed hand in greeting. "You doing okay there, bud?"

And, despite everything that had happened, everything that he had seen up until this point, the first thought that passed through Aaron's mind was a simple one.

Where's she getting that much black makeup in the middle of an apocalypse?

"It's a Native. Why are wasting time here," the other woman asked. She held a white staff in her stand with the reverence of a priest clutching a child. There was more than a note of derision in her tone. Aaron's befuddlement evaporated in an instant. He'd met people like her before. They were always the worst customers at the restaurant. The ones that thought they were somehow entitled to be assholes to the waitstaff because they had twenty bucks to spend on take-out. She thought less of him than a bug.

"I don't recall ever having to ask you about what I choose to do. Should I have sought permission first?" the guy asked sardonically.

The girl with the staff paled and shook her head firmly. "No. Of course not. Ignore me."

"Ignore her," the woman in makeup said, crouching beside Aaron. "I'm Claire. What's your name? Did you get hit in the head? Can you speak?"

"Yes," Aaron said. His mouth felt thick and gummy, and he stumbled over his words as they left his mouth. "Wait. No. Yes, I can speak. No, I didn't get hit in the head. My name is Aaron. Did you see the… monster? Where did it go? Is it hiding somewhere?"

"The one that killed the bug?" She nodded to the guy beside her. "You don't have to worry about that one. It belongs to Alex."

"Belongs?" Aaron repeated, swallowing heavily. "You can control something like that?"

"It's part of my class," Alex said, which really didn't explain much at all. He held a hand out to Aaron. "I don't mean to rush you after that, but—"

"Shit!" Aaron exclaimed, bolting upright. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the burning pain in his back. "Abby!"

"Who?" Claire asked, holding a hand out to steady Aaron.

He staggered past it in his haste to turn back to the forest. It wasn't even like he could do anything to help her. Her arm had gotten cut off and her leg was impaled. There was nothing he could do to fix a wound like that, but he couldn't just leave her there.

I haven't been out for long. It's only been a few minutes at most. She could still be alive. If we get her back to the town and the others that came with her, maybe someone can heal her!

"Someone from my camp," Aaron said urgently. "She got really badly wounded. She needs help before she bleeds out!"

He scrambled into the forest without waiting for a response. It wasn't exactly the most polite thing he could do, but he wasn't about to waste time trying to explain what had happened when every single second could matter.

Aaron shoved through thick foliage as fast as he could as he retraced his steps. He hadn't exactly memorized the layout of the forest, but his flight from the mantis had left quite a trail of destruction in the greenery.

To his surprise, he heard other footfalls around him. Alex and the others were easily keeping up with him, even though they'd had to have started several seconds after he had.

"We aren't doctors, but maybe we could take a look. I can work with blood a bit," Claire said as she slipped between two trees, barely even making a sound. "The System is pretty good at people stitched together so long as they aren't completely eviscerated, though."

That sounds like its coming from experience.

"If you can do anything, I'll owe you a second one," Aaron replied, his breath catching in his chest. His heart was already beating in overtime, having remembered that it had been slacking off for a bit too long.

His heart rose up into his throat as they ran. It was already hard enough to breathe, but more than a small part of him didn't want to see the scene he knew they were approaching. So much had already been lost since the apocalypse.

Aaron wasn't sure if he could lose something else.

How do I explain to May that yet another person is gone? How many people are going to die before this is over?

The treeline came to an end as they arrived in a clearing where the mantis had first made itself known.

Aaron skidded to a halt. His eyes went wide.

A large patch of blood darkened the dirt where Abby had laid, but she was not in it. The blue-skinned demon had, in spite of her immense wounds, moved. She leaned against a tree near the edge of the clearing, clutching her severed arm with one hand as she pressed it to the stump of her shoulder.

It was clear that her body could barely support her own weight. Blood soaked into her pant leg where her thigh had been punctured. She swayed like a leaf in the wind. But, judging by the trail of blood across the ground, step by step, she'd been dragging herself in the direction that Aaron had gone.

There was a brief instant as she stared at Aaron. Her lips parted in disbelief — even in the face of her wounds, her eyes were completely lucid.

"Aaron?" Abby asked in awe. "Are you okay? What happened to the…"

Then she spotted the strange group that had saved him. Her eyes went even wider and the sentence died on her lips. Her grip on her severed arm slipped. It remained by her side for a moment before falling away with a wet squelch and thumping to the ground.

"Whoa," Claire said. "Be careful with that!"

She blurred, and a small pang of pain pierced into Aaron's skull as his brain tried to keep track of her. Claire arrived at Abby's side in what must have been less than a second… but moving like that should have been impossible.

The girl grabbed the arm from the ground and brushed its bleeding stump off without so much as flinching at the gruesome scene. She held it out.

Abby took it from her with a weak hand. "I… what's going on? Who are you?"

"Passersby," Alex said.

The third woman said nothing. She seemed more interested in the white staff she held than the scene playing out before her.

"Are you going to stick that back on properly?" Claire asked, nodding to Abby's severed arm. "You've got something hiding your status, but if you got injured that badly by the mantis, your healing factor isn't going to be strong enough to fix a missing arm."

"I… I already tried," Abby stammered. "I'm too weak right now. It won't stay."

"Let me help," Claire said, grabbing the woman and pressing the arm to her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed in concentration and the tip of her tongue poked out between her lips. "Don't mess with your magic, please. It's interfering. Just relax."

"You… how did you get here? Why are you here?" Abby asked, staring at them in confusion.

"Thank you," the woman with the staff spoke up, her eyes as sharp as daggers. "The phrase you are looking for is thank you."

Abby swallowed. "Sorry. I… I'm out of it. You saved Aaron, right? There's no way he could have beaten that monster. It was way too powerful for this area. I owe you all a great deal of thanks. I'm sorry I don't have any way to pay it back."

"Stop moving," Claire said. "I'm pretty sure I can get your arm back on you if your body stops fighting me. And Orchid, stop being stiff. What's gotten into you?"

"She should be more than capable of healing from such a simple wound," Orchid replied sharply. "What manner of pathetic Outworlder can't re-attach an arm?"

What is she talking about?

Abby let out a hiss of pain. Aaron took a step forward, then stopped himself. He didn't have the slightest idea of what was happening. His head was still a blur of confused thoughts, but it was clear that Claire was trying to help. The best thing he could do is stay out of their way.

"There," Claire said. "Don't try to move it for a few hours, but that should hold."

"I… you actually fixed it?" Abby blinked in surprise. "That's incredible. Are you a healer?"

"No, but you might want to go find one if you can," Claire said. "Your body is bleeding nasty to work with. I don't mean that as an insult. It put up a real fight against my power for no reason."

"What are you even doing in a place like this?" Orchid asked, tilting her head to the side. "This area is too weak for an Outworlder to be wasting time here. Is there something you're hiding — wait a minute."

Orchid's eyes narrowed.

Shame covered Abby's features and she averted her gaze.

"There's nothing here, I swear on my life. Please leave the people alone. They don't know."

"What's going on?" Aaron asked. He didn't like the look in Orchid's eyes one bit. "What do we not know?"

"You're an Oathbreaker," Orchid said, her voice flat. "That's why your healing properties are so weak. I've always wondered what manner of coward abandons their family."

Abby's shoulders hunched even further. Her good hand clenched at her side and she swallowed heavily. "There weren't supposed to be any other Outworlders here. Please. Don't tell anyone I'm here."

"That's enough," Alex snapped. "Orchid, you're out of line."

Orchid stiffened as if he'd physically struck her. Whoever Alex was, he almost seemed like he was the woman's boss.

Does Orchid somehow know Abby? Actually, I don't care. The apocalypse isn't an excuse to start acting like an asshole… and what the hell is an Outworlder?

"I'm sorry," Orchid said. "My emotions got the better of me. Only the lowest of the low allow their Mind Palaces to be shattered. Becoming an Oathbreaker and spitting on the sacrifices their family made to send her here... it is the vilest of actions that an Outworlder can take."

"We had no choice," Abby whispered, her voice barely even audible. "This world is insane. It's not like it was supposed to be. We had to run."

"We?" Orchid asked, her eyes widening. "How many Oathbreakers are here?"

Abby shrunk down even further.

Aaron opened his mouth. Then Claire was beside him, her hand on his shoulder. He nearly yelped in surprise.

"Give her a moment," Claire whispered with an easygoing smile. "Orchid is difficult, but we're not here to cause you trouble. Alex and I are considerably less prickly than she is."

"That isn't hard," Aaron muttered under his breath. "Abby was just almost dead! Give her a break! Thanks for healing her, though."

"No problem," Claire replied with a grin.

"It's a village of us," Abby said finally. "We joined up with some natives."

"There's an entire village of traitors?" Orchid shook her head in disbelief. "I — oh, fuck it. Relax. I'm not going to report you. I have better things to do. But you couldn't have thought you could hide forever. We're only a short distance from Valley Ford."

"Thank you. We didn't. Just… for a little," Abby whispered. "We just want to survive and stay away from the thick of things. Our group doesn't have any desires for power. Our only desire is to live."

"We won't be saying anything," Alex promised. "But I fear I may come bearing bad news."

"What? What is it?" Abby asked.

"If you were hoping on staying out of the way, this might not be the best location." Alex scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "There's a Region Boss in this area, and it's waking up as we speak."

Aaron didn't have the slightest idea what that meant, but Abby clearly did.

Her face went as pale as that of a ghost.

"Oh, shit."