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Ori woke up after yet another nightmare in a cold sweat. He sat up in his bed, eyes darting across the room and hyperventilating. "What? Hello?" "Ori?" Graecie said in a worried voice while coming up the stairs. "Oeca? W- Where's Oeca where's Oeca where's-" Ori said before being cut off by Graecie. "Hey, hey, hey, you were just asleep, what's going on?" she asked him. "Hey" he said, followed by "H- how long- how long was I asleep for?" "I mean, not too long." she said. "What happened? Are you alright?" "I'm fine, I just- I had a bad dream." they responded. "Do you wanna talk about it?" Graecie asked. "Maybe I should." he said. "Recently, I've been having.. illusions? I'm- I'm not really sure how to explain it. Hallucinations? Both visible and audible. And- and now they're infesting my dreams. I haven't been able to sleep much." He paused for a moment before continuing. "And everytime I go to sleep, I see Oeca. I've been having hallucinations of him standing in spots he shouldn't be, like on top of the wall, in the water beside that huge skeleton thing." "Hey, it's alright, you'll be fine." Graecie says, "We should get going, the meeting will probably start soon." With that, they leave to go to the meeting area.
While they were walking, he thought about the nightmare. He was in a cave-like room. Through blurred vision, they could see Oeca standing by a lectern with a book on it. Behind Oeca was an orange wall with 'Kill Ori?' written in what seemed to be blood. Panicking a bit, he said, "Oeca, what are you doing here?" His voice was distorted for some odd reason. There was a moment of silence before Ori spoke again. "Hey, answer me." Oeca slowly turned to look at Ori. He took note of the blood on Oeca's right glove and his two red eyes. "Good morning, Ori." That was the moment he woke up.
They make it over to the general area of the meeting place. There was still a little while until the meeting would start, so Ori and Graecie were sitting on the ground, side by side, talking to each other. Every once and a while, someone would come over and say hi to them, but they never stuck around for a full conversation.
Except for Oeca.
"Sup" he said while sitting down in front of them. "Hi Oeca" Graecie intoned. "Hey Oeca, how are you?" Ori said, trying to forget the nightmares and hallucinations he's had about Oeca. "I'm doing good, how about you?" Oeca asked them. "I'm good, thanks." Ori said. "I'm doing pretty well!" said Graecie.
They talked for a bit before Oeca asked, "Hey Ori, can I talk to you? Alone?" "Umm, sure." Ori said while standing up. "Graecie, I'll be back soon." Oeca stood up and led them into the woods. He brought them to a semi-clear part of the woods that was in the middle of his and Sillvia and Guts' houses. "Why did you take us all the way out here?" Ori asked."Oh Ori." Oeca laughs, "You are so gullible." Ori was confused until he saw the wooden club in Oeca's hand. They had no time to react before they were hit over the head, causing him to pass out.
⊱ ──── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ──── ⊰
He woke up in a cave-like place, just like in their dream. He saw Oeca looking at the wall with 'Kill Ori?' written into it. "Oeca? What are we doing here? W- where are we?" Ori said in a panicked voice. Oeca turned around to look at Ori and said, "Good morning, Ori." Oeca started to walk towards Ori, dagger in hand. "You know, you made my job very easy. I guess Graecie isn't the gullible one." The closer Oeca got, the more panicked Ori became. 'Is he seriously going to kill me? Is this some sick prank?' he thought.
Oeca stopped walking when he was about a foot away from Ori. He made a deep cut in Ori's left cheek, causing Ori to yelp out of surprise. Blood quickly started pouring out of the cut before he covered it with their hand, which got covered in blood in a matter of seconds. He could feel the warm blood seeping through his fingers. This caused Oeca to laugh. "I'm sorry Ori, I have to do this." Oeca said with zero sympathy in his voice. He then plunged the dagger into Ori's stomach.
There was darkness.
Everything was silent.
Ori woke up.