I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

A Horrifying Nightmare

Silence ensued between them. The only noises that can be heard are the sounds of critters in the night. Abigail sighs in a very tired manner. “If you don’t want to speak, I’ll sleep now.” She said as she slowly closed her eyes. As she was halfway through, her eyes suddenly opens on their own. In front of her was the fog that she saw earlier. It was quite a jumpscare for her with the sudden opening of her eyes and the figure she’s expecting in front of her. She grabs onto her bag and robe while the other hand is touching the pendant of her necklace. “Don’t scare me like that—” Her mouth was covered with fog in a shape of a hand. “Don’t be loud.” He lets her go as stands in front of her. Abigail looks at him with a bit of fear lingering in the back of her mind. She gulps and fixed her position on the ground. She slowly stands while looking at him, “What do you need, again?”

“Where’s the map?” He asked her as it made the witch confused. “What map? The map we are using to travel?” He nods, “Give me that map.” She raises her eyebrow, “Can you just grab it from Keeana? Besides, what do you need with the map? I supposed the great and powerful Dark Wizard doesn’t need directions for his travels and stalking.”

“It’s not for me, Abigail. I can’t just snatch that thing from her at all.” Abigail rolls her eyes, “How? You’re like powerful. Besides, aren’t we ‘enemies’? I don’t have any sane reason that I think could excuse me for helping you. What’s with the sudden change of attitude? Aren’t you mysterious, powerful, and seems undefeatable being? What does this mysterious, great, and powerful Dark Wizard need help to a wimp, weak, and newly added witch in this simulated world?” He turns his head to her, silence ensued between them. He sighs, “You’re right. You shouldn’t be helping me yet. They might get a clue to fix the problem they are having right now. I’ll just help myself to get that map.” He faces her as he slowly fades into the wind, “Don’t trust anyone here from now on. Don’t just befriend the next stranger that you will meet. They are going to do everything they can to fix the problem. They can’t fix it. They can’t win again.” Abigail was getting more confused with every word that slips in his mouth. “I know you don’t trust me because I impose a negative attitude and intentions on you. Just know they are watching.”

After that, silence ensued around her. The sound of critters dominated the environment. She slowly slides to the ground and sits under her tree. “That damn wizard really doesn’t want me to sleep at all.” She started to think about what he said again. She snaps back into reality as she heard someone behind her. “I thought you are enemies with the dark wizard? It seems you are having a friendly chat earlier, rather than something sinister.” She looks where the voice came from. It was Winsel, he wasn’t still asleep. “What? What are you talking about?”

He snickers, “Don’t act innocent on me. I heard everything.” Abigail’s eyes widen, “What!?” He holds his laugh as he shakes his head, “Well, not all. That man always likes to murmur. Is it really the Dark Wizard?” She nods, “He always comes in a form of fog. I have never seen him once.” He crosses his arms as he sits beside her. “Neither do us. He always does that. Sometimes, he will turn into an animal with black skin. That’s the tricky part of fighting him sometimes. Because he can summon those animals. Also, it seems he surrounded you two with a fog. I guess the man demands privacy.” She shrugs, “He always does that. I guess it’s something that can trap you in with him.” “That’s the word that I am looking for.” She looks at him, “What did you hear?”

“Well, to be honest, you’re the one who I can mostly hear. I can hear you savagely mocking him. And, with that, I heard you said that he needs something from you?” Abigail sighs, she was about to say something as she saw something on the side of her eyes. She saw in her peripherals the fog figure again, indicating the Dark Wizard is watching her right now. She was confused about it. He was just there, staring at her. She feels like if she says something, something will happen very bad to her. She clears her throat and gulps, “He’s just mocking me also. I am sure he’s just joking when he said to me that he needs me to help him take over the world.” Winsel looks at her, he was rather very serious about it. “Villains sometimes don’t joke about taking over the world. Even you are enemies, he might be pertaining about something with those words. I wouldn’t be surprised that you will be on his side one day. He has his ways and he’s eager when he likes something. Just like Tabitha.”

She looks at him with a tilt on her head, “Tabitha?” He sighs, “Did someone already told you why Catrina is acting so differently from her attitude before?” She nods, “Someone did but they really didn’t continue it.” He rubs his hand to warm himself on this cold night, “Tabitha is Catrina’s friend, a best friend even. They were like the closest to each other. Even closer than the bond me and Edsel share. They are inseparable. One will be so worried if one of them was gone. Their friendship was just something you wish for yourself badly.” Abigail continues listening as she started returning her things back to her bag. “One day, suddenly, Tabitha was gone. She just vanished like a bubble. Catrina almost fainted when we told it to her. We searched and searched for days for her. Then, she came back with him.”

“The Dark Wizard?” He nods, “She just appeared to us one day with him by her side. She said that she came back to us because they need our help. She said it can’t be done without a collective of people doing it.” Abigail raises her eyebrow, “What do you mean?” He sighs, “I really don’t remember why we tried to help her. Something in my memory tells me that we said yes to it, whatever it is. Then, there are some of these fever dream-ish things that happened. It was really surreal. It was like a heavenly feeling for me.” He ruffles his hair in frustration, “I really can’t explain that to you. I don’t know why. All of us can’t remember nor if they remember something, it was vague. They said it was a surreal memory as well as if it was just a memory of a dream. It was the hindrance to why we can’t explain to ourselves what happened to Tabitha. But, I feel to myself, she’s somewhere else. She can’t be dead.”

“What’s the last thing you remembered about her?” Winsel thinks for a moment, “It was this moment where something is happening to her. Like, she was vanishing slowly. I can literally hear our cries in my head. That’s all I can remember. I don’t even know how we got into that situation.” Abigail looks at him, “That’s a bit strange. Do you think the Dark Wizard has something to do with it?”

“The only thing we believe is he just trapped us before. The good news is that we survived, the bad news is Tabitha is gone now. That’s why Catrina was eager to even lay a blade on him in the dining room before. She thinks that he did the incident in that very room.” He stands and looks down at her, “Don’t let her caught you doing that, whatever it is. She will dismiss you as an enemy. I think she’s fine with him mocking you in some ways, but she will never be fine when she knows that you are going to take his side. If these sentences aren’t still persuading you not to befriend him, it’s all up to you, Crocus. It’s all up to you. Just know that we are trustworthy, we aren’t going to betray you, never.”

He leaves her with another thing to think about tonight. She sighs as she leans on the trunk of the tree. Her mind is brimming with thoughts and questions about the things that happened and she learned tonight. She didn’t even know what time she drifted into unconsciousness. She just knew she fell asleep, thankfully. The lingering tiredness of just walking and sometimes running helped her getting her sleep. She’s mentally tired as well.

As she slowly drifted to sleep, she slowly drifted into her dream world as well. All of it was just completely fine, it’s still weird as ever and totally random. Although, all of this suddenly shifted into something she never expected would happen to her.

An amalgamation of darkness appeared before her. It wasn’t like the Dark Wizard’s fog. It was something much more sinister and something that would be a nightmare of her life. In front of her was just a disfigured figure of a person. Just like how she witnessed Keeana earlier, it was glitchy. It’s much worse since most of its body is teleporting everywhere, misplacing itself. There were just a few textures that she notice that’s glitching because this human figure has only three noticeable features on its horrifying body. An eye that seems just a white circle with some melted black goo covering most of it, some sort of blonde streak on its hair, and lastly but definitely not the least, the creepy grin that has some of the melted black goo hiding some parts of it as well.

Abigail was never terrified like this before. The creature before her is a literal monster, deprived of any good body nor body parts. It was like something that she can see when all of the dolls she had before when she was a child would look like if they came to life and take revenge for what she have done to them. She has seen video games with the same inky amalgamation of characters but she has never seen one this terrifying, especially it’s real and it’s in front of her.

She looks around as she just noticed the surroundings, it was just like the small forest they are spending the night on but it was a glitchy mess. The texture of the trees isn’t in their proper order, some don’t even have proper textures. There are also parts of them jittering around and teleporting in their figure, just like the human figure in front of her. She looks at herself, she seems fine. But, she believes she will not after this creature has interacted with her. She looks back where she saw the terrifying piece of a nightmare. Her heart dropped when she saw nothing in front of her. Instead of being relieved, her fear boosted into the roof. Her heart starts pounding hard as she looks around. As she turns her sight back ahead of her, it was there. It glitched into existence. She flinched in shock as the horrifying figure appeared before her again. And, it’s getting worse.

“Y-your name…” It muttered under its glitchy voice. She didn’t answer it, she was too afraid to even open her mouth. “Answer…” It continued and Abigail refuses. Suddenly, its grin that was just teleporting all over its body became more prominent and wider. “If you don’t answer…” Suddenly, it teleported in front of her, inching its face to hers. “I will not hesitate to go and find it myself.” It giggled sinisterly and horrifyingly. Abigail was torn. The threat made her more afraid than it should be. “ANSWER—”

It suddenly screams. It was terrorizing as Abigail covers her ears. As the ear scratching sound ended, she opens her eyes. In front of her, it was an individual she didn’t expect to see. “Dark Wizard?”