CHAPTER 56: LOOP OF NIGHTMARE

Viviane lay in her own pool of blood, her body weakened, her wounds refusing to close. Sanguine Veins had drained her too much.

Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling as the scene shifted again. The broken nightmare faded back into the familiar room, where she and her sister waited for lunch.

It wasn’t the first time she had been trapped inside the Labyrinth of Dream, but she had never felt this desperate.

The rules here were cruel but simple: answer the monster’s question, or obey its demands, and the trial would end.

But every answer was wrong. Every effort is meaningless.

This time, all she needed was to kill the monster. In this scenario, she could touch it, unlike some where she couldn’t. But her strength was gone. Every ability sealed, save her cursed regeneration.

This place was a punishment. A cruel reflection of its creator. Just like Isolde.

That monster was right. A vampire’s evolution mirrored its master.

A minute later, her father’s and sister’s screams tore through the walls, but Viviane didn’t flinch. Her body had died countless times today, but so had her heart.

"You failed. You can’t save them."

The monster loomed over her, its voice cutting through the air. "You will be punished."

Viviane didn’t move. Didn’t resist.

That was the point. This punishment wasn’t about pain. It was about breaking her. Mocking her helplessness. Because what she has done means nothing, she couldn’t save anyone or stop this tragic loop.

It was a way for her mother to insult how useless she was. Grinding away her sanity until there was nothing left.

She wondered, faintly, how she had survived this long without Seamus at her side. What was he doing now?

Was he thinking of her? No... the pain in his eyes had been real.

He would never forgive her. But just one time, she wanted to see her beloved, to hear his voice.

The monster’s hand reached down to crush her. Viviane’s fingers slipped into her pocket. She pulled out a hidden shard of glass and slashed it arm.

The thing shrieked, the sound drilling into her skull, but she didn’t stop. She stabbed herself, breaking the script, forcing a fracture in the nightmare.

The monster’s other hand struck her, throwing her small body through a wall. She crashed into another space, half-broken but alive.

Darkness closed in. That was her chance.

Viviane staggered to her feet and ran, faster than she thought she could. She didn’t stop until she found a door.

She slipped through, slammed it behind her, and pressed her back against the wood. Her chest heaved, every breath scraping.

The monster slammed into the door from the other side. "Viviane! Let me in! You naughty child!"

The pounding rattled the hinges. She shoved a cupboard against the door, her hands shaking.

"Stop! Stop it, you bitch!" Viviane screamed, covering her ears.

The banging grew louder, heavier, until the cupboard toppled over. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying it wouldn’t break through.

Then silence.

When she opened her eyes, the door was gone.

"Viviane! Please—help me! Viviane!"

Her blood froze. A cold sweat ran down her spine.

She turned slowly. Her only friend lay strapped to an operating table, wrists and ankles bound, her face twisted in terror. She screamed, thrashing helplessly.

A cold hand rested on Viviane’s shoulder. A voice whispered in her ear.

"Help me teach her a lesson, Viviane. She betrayed our House."

Viviane’s head turned stiffly. Isolde stood behind her, dressed in a hospital gown, her eyes sharp with madness.

"NO! I WILL NOT DO IT!"

***

Seamus sat on the edge of the nursery, watching his mother die again and again.

Blood seeped from seven stab wounds across his body: each one cruelly precise, meant not to kill but to keep him suffering.

"Fuck you, Isolde!" he murmured.

His vision blurred, skin paling with every drop lost, yet his gaze stayed locked on her.

His mother cradled his infant self, rocking and humming as though the nightmare were nothing more than a lullaby.

Seamus wanted to give up, he couldn’t see his mother being killed over and over again.

He knew all of this might not be real, that maybe his mother wasn’t killed that way. But the moment he asked about the Labyrinth of Dream to the system. It answer makes him even more desperate.

[All things that happen in the Labyrinth of Dream come from a dream that is strongly tied to one’s subconscious and memories.]

[Making the probability of things happening here was something that happened before but a forgotten or traumatic experience that one always remembers.]

His whole body shook when he knew this.

"No... I need to meet Viviane and get the hell out of here!" Seamus growled, forcing himself upright.

His legs trembled under his weight, blood spilling fresh from his abdomen.

Seven times he’d endured this trial. Seven different answers and all of them wrong.

Each loop left him with more scraps of mystery: a business card with an unfamiliar name, a family portrait of his, a list of names where one leapt out David Starling, the chef he worked for at the diner.

None of it made sense.

He had guessed vampires as the killers, since they’d been hunting him from the start. Wrong.

He had guessed vampire hunters, since light flooded through the window to expose the murderer and they were all fine. Wrong.

He had even blurted out the name on the card: Damien. Wrong again.

And every time, his mother screamed. The intruders shouted. The scene replayed.

Now, Alice reached for something in her pocket. Seamus dropped into a crouch, eyes narrowing. A glint of metal. Silver?

The gunshot cracked. Alice’s body jolted. She collapsed.

Seamus’s own body trembled with her fall, as if the bond between them bled through the nightmare itself.

He clenched his jaw, refusing to break. He forced his eyes back to the detail. Not just silver, a dagger. The handle gleamed, marked with a serpent’s coil.

A viper.

His eyes snapped toward the men. "The answer... It’s Velstrath, isn’t it?"