Will of a Prince

Chapter 206: Saying Goodbye to the Perfect World

Maria held on to Jacob’s face. Her hands felt soft and warm against his skin.

"What has gotten into you? Do we need to have Doc take a look at you?"

Jacob hesitated. His mind was battling with itself on what he wanted to do right now. However, after three moments, he made his decision. He lightly kissed Maria on her forehead and started walking towards the area he saw the skull figure.

"I love you. I promise I’ll be right back. I need to go check something out."

Before walking away, Jacob took one last look at his daughter. She was jumping up at Squabee who was holding a small present just out of her reach. Her laughter, her smile, her happiness, was everything to him. However, if these dreams continued to haunt him, there was no way he could give his family the happiness they deserved.

Therefore, he walked away.

He walked deep into the forest until the sounds of the party were nothing but soft whispers pressing against his ear. He looked around every tree, every bush, around every rock, but still couldn’t find strange figure anywhere.

He exhaled deeply and closed his eyes while he slouched himself down the trunk of a tree.

"I think I really am losing it. Maybe I should have Doc try to take a look at me."

He slowly opened his eyes back up.

The skull was now face to face with him. Jacob jumped to his feet and backed up. He held out his bandaged hand in front of himself to assess the threat of whatever this thing was. However, he couldn’t help but feel a strange connection with it.

"Hello?"

The skull was still silent. Its face still held the same expression of horror.

"What are you? Why are you here?"

Silence.

Jacob reached out and touched the skull with his hand. However, his hand seemed to pass straight through it like it was a ghost. Jacob had enough of whatever this thing was. He needed answers.

"SPEAK!!"

Suddenly, he felt a strange pull on his soul and the skulls face finally began to move.

"Leave here, Prince of Everything. Danger outside. Not much time."

Jacob’s eyes widened.

"What? Where am I? How do I leave?"

The skull appeared to struggle getting its last words out."

"Wake... up..."

Jacob’s eyes widened and his head began to sear with pain. The dream, the memories of who he really was, were all flooding back into his mind like a raging torrent. He yelped and fell to the ground while holding his head.

"Argh."

After three moments of struggling through the pain, he opened his eyes.

"I’m... where am I? Where’s Maria?"

He looked down at his right arm. Right where it always was, his dark mark with its ominous glow laid, patiently waiting for the end of the world. The runes in its mouth still turned slowly.

Jacob sat up and looked around. He whispered lightly to himself.

"Wake up..."

Looking through the thick brush of the forest, he could see the party. The world of peace he has always desired was staring at him in the face, yet he hesitated to walk back.

"A dream. This is my dream. But... it’s not real."

Jacob was staring at the most difficult decision in his entire life. He knew this was a dream, he knew that nothing here was real, but did he really have to leave this place? Everything he ever desired out of life was reflecting in his pupils. But staying here, leaving the real world behind, would all but doom his friends in the waking world.

Jacob pulled his own hair.

"This is too cruel. How can any sane person make a choice like this? Would I really be such a terrible person for staying?"

Jacob looked back at his family and friends. His heart ached watching them have so much fun.

"I-... can’t leave without saying goodbye. Yes... just one last goodbye and I will be ready to go back."

Jacob began walking back towards the group. The closer he walked, the warmer he felt. However, something strange began to occur around him. The forest seemed to curl and twist on itself as if it was beginning to collapse. His dream was beginning to fade.

"No... NO!"

He ran towards the pavilion as fast as he could. His world began to shake, the ground beneath him tore apart. In no time at all, Jacob jolted up from his sleeping spot in the woods.

His breathing was heavy and quick as he looked around at the fog. His baby dragon was biting the same hand that he had bandaged in the dream. Jacob picked it up and brought it to his face.

"Why would you do that?! Why?! I was only sleep for-"

Jacob stopped talking as he looked around himself. Dozens of corpses of powerful looking monsters littered the ground around them. Every single one had big claw marks and bites taken out of them. Looking back at the baby dragon, Jacob noticed how damaged the scales on its back were. Some of them were cracked while others were simply missing completely.

"... what the hell happened? How long was I asleep?"

Maria still laid against the tree in a deep slumber. Her face looked quiet and peaceful as she slept. Jacob walked up to her and laid his hands on her face. There were small scratches, but not enough damage to be worried.

Using his voice, he whispered into Maria’s ear a silent command.

"Wake up."

In mere moments, Maria blinked awake slowly. Her first words out of her mouth made Jacob sick to his stomach.

"...Jane?"

Jacob bit his tongue and held her shoulders.

"Maria, this forest is bewitched. We have to go."

He grabbed the baby dragon and rested its damaged body in her hands. Maria looked at the dragon in a daze.

"I was... dreaming?"

Jacob helped her stand up and began leading her deeper into the forest.

"We both were. The dragon protected us while we were out. We would not be alive without its help."

Maria finally seemed to come to her senses and stared down at the dragon. Seeing its poor state made Maria panic slightly.

"Jacob, its back!"

"I know. We just need to focus on getting somewhere safe so it can heal on its own properly."

As they waded through multiple trees, large rocks and small creeks, the image of Jacob’s daughter stuck to his mind like glue. Maria could tell he was thinking about something and prodded him with a question.

"Are you thinking about your dream too?"

Jacob hesitated.

"Maybe not the dream specifically, but someone in the dream."

Maria cleared her throat.

"Who are you thinking about?"

A brief silence washed over them. Jacob considered if telling her the truth would be weird or disrespectful, but he decided to tell her anyway.

"Our daughter."

Maria’s face turned a bright shade of red hearing his answer. Her face was a mix of shock and appreciation.

"Oh. I see."

An awkward silence fell over them, broken by Jacob as he spoke up.

"Can I ask you a strange question?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Is it a strange thing to miss someone who has never existed or doesn’t exist at all?"

Maria thought to herself for a moment.

"I don’t believe so. You really miss her that much?"

"It’s strange. I hardly knew anything about her. All I knew is that she was our daughter, yet that was enough for me to want to give her the entire world. Her face, her voice, and her name is still ingrained deep within my brain. I... miss her more than anything."

Maria continued getting flustered hearing Jacob’s kind words. A wide smile appeared on her face.

"I think I would be upset if you didn’t miss her."

"I have another question."

"What’s wrong?"

"Would it have been a bad choice to stay in such a dream? To be honest with you, it hurts me to admit, but I truly considered it. In my dream, I had everything I had ever wanted out of this life, but... it was all fake. Even so, it all felt so real. What if I had never woken up? Does that make me a bad person for at least considering leaving this world selfishly?"

A long pause followed this question. Maria also appeared to be stumped by this thought.

"I don’t think it would have made you a good person if you stayed, but people cannot judge you for making such an impossible choice. I mean, think about our specific circumstance with that choice: We could either dream the lives we’ve always wanted to live for all eternity, or come back to the real world where death and corruption are taking over our lives every waking second. To be honest with you, if others were in our situation, I would argue the majority would choose to stay in the dream, living happily ignorant in a make-believe world."

Jacob’s heart felt much more at ease hearing Maria’s words.

"Thank you. That makes me feel a lot better."

Not long after their conversation ended, Jacob and Maria had finally made it out of the forest. Laying beyond them was a yellow field of wheat stretching for miles.

And in the middle of the field, was the same dark rift that Maria and Jacob had been pulled into before. The same kind of rift that left the mark on their bodies.