He looked at him with mockery, contempt, and pity. No one seemed willing to approach him. Luckily: satisfied with his performance, Sunny returned to the deserted corner of the room. He felt that, in any case, people didn't want to bother him.
Still, weren't their reactions a bit exaggerated? It wasn't like he had a contagious disease. Well, except for the Spell. But that wasn't really an illness—something everyone present should already know.
Finally, he separated himself from the crowd and reached the corner. For some reason, the Sleepers didn't want to come near: at that moment, there was only one girl quietly sitting on the bench. Sunny looked at her and felt puzzled.
The quiet girl was delicate, modest, and very beautiful. Her clothes were neat and tidy. Not very expensive, but tasteful. With her pale blonde hair, big blue eyes, and exquisite face, she looked like a beautiful porcelain doll; however, she appeared neglected—her hair was messy, her expression vacant, and her eyes red as if she had cried before coming.
It was a depressing sight. Additionally, something was off about her. Sunny frowned, trying to understand exactly what was bothering him about the girl. After a while, he realized that her empty, expressionless gaze reminded him of the Mountain King.
Surprised, Sunny understood that the girl was blind. It took him a couple of seconds to recover.
"What a pity!"
I would cry too and look like that knowing I'm truly doomed; I really feel sorry for that girl, Sunny thought.
The girl wouldn't have survived the First Nightmare if she had been blind before entering the Spell. Which meant she lost her sight as a result of the Evaluation. It was her Defect.
Suddenly, Sunny felt a lot of apprehension. A cold sensation ran through his chest.
And here I was thinking my Defect was bad.
Regardless of the Aspect Skill the blind girl might have received in exchange for her sight, it was practically a death sentence. A blind person had no chance of surviving in the Dream Realm, at least not with a latent core. In a sense, the girl was already dead.
She was practically a walking corpse.
Extremely disturbed, Sunny turned around and observed the crowd of Sleepers. Now he understood why people tried to avoid that corner: the girl was surrounded by an invisible but almost tangible aura of death.
Sleepers weren't usually very superstitious, but anyone would feel uneasy in her company.
XXX
A bit discouraged, he carefully sat at the opposite end of the bench.
The lecture went on as usual.
XXX
Early in the morning, Sunny freshened up in his private bathroom and, brimming with energy, hurried to breakfast in a good mood.
The cafeteria was a bit crowded. After filling his plate with all kinds of delicacies, he immediately realized that the only place to sit was near the blind girl from yesterday. Her table was empty since no one wanted to be near her.
Sunny grimaced. It seemed they were both doomed to be outcasts together for the remaining four weeks. He also felt uncomfortable in the company of someone who was practically dead, but he didn't have many options.
Losing his good mood, he sat at the girl's table. She looked perhaps even worse than yesterday; her gaze was vacant, she was blind of course, but even blind people have some spark of life in their eyes. After that, he tried to pretend she didn't exist and focused on his food.
Or at least he tried. He started to get tense; the situation was too uncomfortable for him.
The girl played with her food, without appetite, just stirring it with her spoon. Her hand trembled, and she began to sob.
Sunny cursed internally, Why did I have to be in this situation? He looked up to see if there were still free tables. He wanted to get out of this situation; he knew it was heartless. But hadn't the Nightmare Spell itself branded him a traitor? Unfortunately, his evaluation had been negative.
With no other choice, Sunny had to ease the situation, but quickly found that he didn't know what to say. Communication had never been his strong point. He forced himself to say something.
"Hey... are you okay?"
Are you okay? Obviously not, idiot, she looks like a lost soul. He really wasn't eloquent.
The girl startled, apparently unaware they were sitting together. Embarrassment hit her, and a blush appeared on her doll-like face. She hesitated before speaking.
"Sorry, I didn't notice you, I didn't mean to bother you…" She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her clothes and straightened up. "My name is Cassie, nice to meet you," she introduced herself in a friendly tone, forcing a smile. "What's your name?"
"My name is Sunless. I know, my mother had the soul of a poet. You can call me Sunny."
"Oh, nice to meet you, Sunny. You can call me Cassie if you want."
After introducing themselves, they fell into silence—very awkward, at least for Sunny. He had started the conversation and felt pressured to keep it going.
"So, sorry if I bother you, Cassie, but why were you crying?"
Cassie's smile faltered, and the slight brightness she had gained while talking faded. She took a moment before answering.
"Well, it's several things. I haven't talked much about this with anyone, only as much as necessary…" Her voice faded even more as she spoke.
The girl fell silent again. Sunny thought she wouldn't say more. He could imagine what she was going through, and asking too much might overwhelm her. But having gotten involved with Cassie, his curiosity was piqued.
"I think I could tell you. Maybe it's time to let it out. Would you be willing to listen?" The mask she had put on completely fell away, revealing her true mood. She sounded desolate; her expression became even darker.
Sunny didn't really want to get involved with her, just like all the other Sleepers in the room, but he had been the one to start this, plus his curiosity was stronger. Maybe deep down, there was a hint of sympathy for his unfortunate new acquaintance. "I suppose I could."
"Could we go somewhere else then?"
Looking at the tray full of food and the room's clock, he realized he wouldn't have time to eat and talk with Cassie; he would be late for his first class. Sighing inwardly, he decided to finish what he had started.
"Sure, do you know any particular place?"
"I don't know much around here. I think going to my room would be fine." Sunny didn't know if the girl was too trusting or just desperate to share her anguish with someone, but he didn't mind the invitation.
Shaking off his thoughts, Sunny agreed and got up to follow her. Cassie called him.
"Sunny… uh, sorry, maybe you already noticed, but I'm blind. So could you help me walk?"
Again, Sunny sighed inwardly, took her hand, and helped her up. They went down the hall, and after they left, the dining hall began to make a fuss around a screen, but he didn't pay much attention. They walked holding hands, earning curious looks, some of envy, others of pity. It was common for kids like them to accept death as their fate and try to find comfort. That wasn't Sunny's case.
Arriving at the room, Cassie invited him in. The room was basically the same as his, except with her personal belongings.
He sat on the bed next to Cassie, sharing the space in silence.
She spoke first: "Well, I don't really know how to start…" Cassie still hadn't let go of his hand, tensing so that her grip tightened.
"I… after finishing my nightmare, I acquired my defect—I became blind." Every word she spoke was difficult to pronounce; there was great melancholy in her voice. "For a Sleeper like me, that's a sentence. I'm going to die, and I can't do anything by myself to avoid it."
The more she spoke, the more her voice broke; tears welled at the corners of her eyes.
"And you know? That's not even the worst news. If it were just that, at least I would have the comfort of spending my last days trying hard to at least not die as soon as I arrive." Sunny listened attentively. Cassie was already openly crying; the pressure on his hand intensified. To be honest, it hurt. He was feeling the grip of a Sleeper, but he tried not to flinch.
"When I woke up, I found out that near where I live, a nightmare gate opened, and my parents died." The last thing she said was with a completely broken voice; tears fell like a waterfall from her eyes, and her nose was dripping.
"Why bother trying? What's the point of trying to survive? If I live and come back, there will be nothing waiting for me. I have nothing to hold onto. I'm alone, and everyone seems to accept that I'm a living dead, a burden!" Unconsciously, she had raised her voice more than necessary, taking deep breaths.
Her shoulders trembled, her body shook. She hadn't looked at him once during the conversation, but now she was searching for where she thought her face was. "Tell me, Sunny, what should I do? I'm very scared. I don't want to die, but I also don't want to live this sentence."
"Live," her Defect forced him to answer the question before he even thought of a better reply. But at least he already knew what to say, essentially. After all, not long ago, he had been in a somewhat similar situation, though not the same.
Cassie looked at him expectantly; her blue eyes searched for his answer.
He inhaled before speaking: "I was in a position similar to yours, you know? I… I'm from the outskirts."
Cassie's eyes opened wide in surprise, and she asked, "Are you really from the outskirts?"
"Yes." He paused before continuing. "In my family, we were poor but not destitute. My father worked on one of the many maintenance teams responsible for the city's outer barriers. My mother worked in an underground factory that produced air filtration systems. Together…"
The girl looked at him attentively, expectantly.
He looked away, feeling somewhat shocked by what he was saying, and took another breath. "Shortly after my sister was born, my father died in a work accident. Three years later, my mother got sick and eventually died. My sister and I were taken to a public daycare. My sister was adopted quickly—she was very small and cute. After that, I went from orphanage to orphanage. My life was bitter, so naively I thought her life was the same. That's why I became obsessed with the idea of finding her. I had the fantasy of saving her and protecting her. Becoming a family again."
Sunny grimaced.
"So I saved money. A street kid doesn't earn much, but still, I saved everything I could."
A somber expression appeared on his face.
"Even when I had almost nothing to eat, I kept saving the pathetic amount of credits I earned doing all kinds of horrible jobs. And after four or five years like that, when I was almost seventeen, I finally had enough to hire a private investigator."
His services weren't cheap, but I trusted him. Or at least him. So I gave him all my money and told him to find my sister. And you know what? He did. One day, about a month after closing the deal, he gave me a paper with an address written on it. So I went.
Sunny hesitated before continuing, looking into space, but Cassie's voice pulled him out of his trance.
"And what happened?" Her eyes, which had earlier looked at him with a longing for salvation, now conveyed empathy and care.
Sunny rubbed his face, looked at her, and said:
The house was in a very nice neighborhood. In fact, they had the whole house to themselves. Only one family living there—can you imagine? Well, I guess you can.
"Well, I guess so. Anyway… there was even grass. And a window… a big window that lit up the outside. Watching them through that window was almost like watching a TV show."
Sunny remembered the splendor, his own amazement, and tried to smile. However, he couldn't.
"I watched their family for a while. They had parents who loved them and treated them well."
Sunny didn't continue immediately. Instead, he recalled how he stood there, watching those happy people. How he looked down at his own fragile body, his dirty and ragged clothes, the bruises on his bloody knuckles. And he realized how completely out of place he was in that picture.
"Sunny?" Apparently, he had been thinking too much. He decided to continue:
"So I did the only unselfish thing I've done in my life. I turned around and left. Do you know why?"
The girl squeezed his hand carefully now; he didn't know when she had loosened her grip. "Tell me, I want to know."
"Because even someone like me was able to realize that the person I wanted to save didn't need saving." Sunny inhaled and exhaled deeply, then noticed a couple of tears falling from his eyes, which he quickly wiped away. "Shortly after, I showed symptoms of the Nightmare Spell."
"What I want to say is that I understand your situation and how it can tear away your will to live. So if I can give you some advice, it's don't resign yourself to dying like an insect. It's coming from a miserable guy—at least try to annoy the world by doing so. It feels great," he said the last part, letting out a small laugh. "I'm still without purpose, but I want to live because I want to. And I hope you find your reason and stop looking so pitiful with that depressive appearance of yours." He laughed openly at the end.
"Then, Cassie, what are you going to do now?" They looked at each other in silence.
She spoke, "I don't know yet, but you made me think… Thank you, Sunny, this has helped me a lot. At least I feel lighter, but I think for now… I'll try to keep going." She laughed at the end.
Sunny laughed too and realized something. "You know? I was only supposed to help you vent or something, but I think this was therapeutic for me too. It's very ironic."
She smiled and squeezed his hand; then she also realized that since they left the cafeteria, she had never let go of his hand, something Sunny had already accepted. She blushed and finally let go.
Noticing this, Sunny laughed. Suddenly he remembered he had to attend his first class.
"Well, are you going to any class? I think I'm going to be late for mine."
"I didn't enroll in any class. I didn't want to be a burden to anyone, nor did I really want to. But I think now I've changed my mind." Cassie, even if only a little, recovered a very important sparkle in her eyes.
Sunny hesitated about what he was going to say. He was surprised by himself, by his attitude. "Do you want to join my class? It's Wilderness Survival class, if you want, of course."
She hesitated for a moment, but finally said:
"I guess I could go. Will you take me?" A genuine smile appeared on her face.