Was it a good idea to tell the truth? Lukas didn't know, but the words were coming out of his mouth and somehow, it felt so good to be able to say them out loud and having someone actually listen to them.
'I haven't said this to Chaerin, Stacy—not that I'd tell it to Theodore or Alexei, but… these people that I've grown to care about, I've kept these secrets from them but now I'm telling it all to these people that I've just met.' Lukas thought.
He couldn't believe it, but here they were, now in the open.
"Not so sure on what she's now?" Philip said, a look of disbelief on his face. "That isn't going to help any of us? Argh—what led to this change? Actually, how'd you even meet a Dream Eater? They were from the empire that existed in the Imago Desert which has been long gone—"
"Are the details really that important right now?" Anthony asked. "What you first said was important, Philip. Do you know what happened Lukas?"
"Well, that's…" Lukas hesitated. He wanted to tell the story right from the very beginning and maybe be able to explain himself properly.
"Lukas?" Matthew looked at him sincerely. "What happened?"
"I—I never really wanted to hurt anybody." Lukas started and then covered his face, trying to sigh. "I mean—that's like, nobody goes out of their way trying to hurt other people in this world right? It's just… sort of inevitable really? These kind of things happen. I'm no pacifist, and I don't claim to be but..."
"Hey, that's not really what we're after." Philip frowned.
"Lukas, you're kinda rambling." Anthony added.
"I'm sorry, it's just—ugh." Lukas lowered his hand from his face and looked at the two Vampires. Was it going to help him if he pretended that they were in their underwear?
"These human visualization of yours are completely disgusting." Drusilla muttered into his head.
"Um… I agree with what you said, Lukas." Matthew slowly said and cleared his throat. "I don't think we actively go our way to hurt other people."
"I don't know about the two of you, but clearly you guys haven't met enough people in the world yet, or are quite naive to think that way." Philip said.
"Yeah, I mean, there's the Argenti—well, er, nevermind." Anthony wanted to say something but then withdrew his statement as Matthew glanced at him.
"Alright, alright… we kind of already agreed that people don't go out of their way to do bad things… unless they really don't know what they're doing or are just I dunno, plain evil? I kinda don't want to point out that former Dream Eater right now, but I kinda feel like I have to do." Philip said. "Or, I don't know—plain psychopaths maybe?"
"Er, you're not really helping right now, Philip." Anthony coughed. "Let the guy talk and then we'll actually be able to understand what the heck is going on."
"Well, people do things when it's advantageous for them." Lukas said glancing in Philip's direction. "And I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong when you're trying to do something that benefits you, right? Even if it means that you'll have to step on the toes of other people—not that I recommend doing that, but sometimes it just happens you know?"
"What happened to the Dream Eater?" Matthew asked. He tried to listen and sympathize with Lukas for the other man to open but, but since it was taking awhile, he just decided to ask it plainly.
Lukas winced, but then sighed and took a deep breath.
"Well, the Imago Desert is an area before the Veiled Forest—it's something that we've traveled to before we got all the way here to Nyx. During one of our nights there, we were lured by Dream Eaters and… well, we were able to escape them. I managed to get ahold one of the prison chambers of a Dream Eater and her name was Rhea. At least that's what she introduced herself to be."
"Trying to be humble and not say you saved the lives of everyone there?" Drusilla said.
'You want some credit, don't you?' Lukas asked.
"Why would someone as esteemed as I am be in need of any honor from the likes of you?" Drusilla huffed haughtily. "On the contrary, it should be you who should offer me praises for intervening at that point in your dreams."
'I think I was able to handle it back then, though thanks for helping out.' Lukas thought, but then shook his head and focused back on the other Vampires.
"So… uh long story short. Dream Eaters are dangerous and can't be trusted. That's what I know about them, they might eat up your dreams, but if you let them feed for too long, they'll end up eating other important parts of you too—maybe you'll end up falling into a dream forever. A Dream Eater tried to do that to my girlfriend, but suffice to say… I got ahold of a Dream Eater and didn't release her."
"Then how is she now roaming around the physical world and turning Vampires into corpses right now?" Anthony asked.
"I was actually about to get into that, if you don't mind." Lukas coughed and glanced back into the forest. There was a crawl through his skin even though he was sure that they were safe.
…but that didn't really mean that he had the luxury of telling things at his own pace, did it?
"Let's just say that I ended up needing to free her for a certain reason." Lukas said.
"Free a Dream Eater? You just said that they're dangerous creatures, why would you suddenly go end up releasing one?" Anthony asked. "That doesn't make any sense to me—does it make sense to you, Matthew?"
Matthew frowned but then carefully looked at Lukas.
"You… you would only release it if you were trying to deal with an even bigger threat than that of the Dream Eater. Is that right, Lukas?"
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