LICHT WAS ALIVE. I was so relieved, my legs felt like they might give out at any moment. He's alive! But trepidation came over me, knowing that he might not be in the best condition. We had to find him before it was too late. Ray walked in, his hands on his hips.

"Why are you two huddling in there? I told you to call me when you found something."

"We found a file of everything we've been looking for," Subaru smiled triumphantly (though it was a subtle thing, not yet a grin).

"Yeah, everything we need to know about the orphanage is here." I handed over the folder and Ray took it quietly.

Subaru and I looked at each other, waiting as Ray skimmed through the files. "This is..!" His eyes ran rapidly through each page until he stopped and leaned back. "So... all our assumptions have finally been given proof."

"Yes, we were right about most things," said Subaru.

Ray gritted his teeth. "This is the cause of everything that's happened to us. How could they even approve such a research proposal?"

"Ray..." I breathed sympathetically. The evidence lied thick in his hands, and yet, it felt as if none of those pages held the answer to that question.

"There's something we call ethics. This isn't even debatable. They clearly treated us like animals."

Subaru didn't say anything, but he looked upset. Does he feel the same? Ray glimpsed at the files, a picture of Silas.

"Nobody's happy about this, old man," Ray hissed out a frustrated groan.

"It's no use complaining. He's dead," uttered Subaru.

"Yeah, and we're out here, dying."

I bit my lip at Ray's dark words. I know it's wrong, and I can't speak for everyone. But... the only thing Silas Ackerman did wrong was thinking he knew best. "Let's look on the bright side. At least we're far from where we started."

"You're quite the optimist," Ray said gently.

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked, not that I'd ever call myself an optimist. Truth be told, I was running on the hope that Licht could be saved; knowing he was alive was the fuel I needed, the breakthrough that made it all feel like it meant something.

Ray finally chuckled, and Subaru answered for him. "Nah, it's part of your charm. Even in a desperate situation like this, it's refreshing to hear something like that."

"How is that charming?" I frowned. "Aren't you supposed to look for the silver lining in everything?"

Ray set a hand on my head, tousling my hair. "A lot of people can say that, but they're not as convincing."

Is he saying that I am? I couldn't help but smile. That's good to know. "Ray, Licht is alive somewhere. We need to find him."

"Yeah, finding Licht is our top priority now." Ray looked at me, and then flipped through the pages again haphazardly. "The experiment is no longer a mystery. Now, about Licht... Do you have any clues as to where he could be?"

I hummed in thought. Come on, memories...

Subaru said, "I would say a hospital, but considering the circumstances, that doesn't seem likely."

"Yeah, no normal hospital is going to take in someone who's in a coma from some crazy experiment," added Ray. "Which means he's probably somewhere in this orphanage."

I thought back to the room where we'd first met Licht in the nightmare world. If I remembered correctly, there was a door at the back of the records room leading to another room. I realised that given our current location, the room where we'd found Licht should have been right around here. But all I saw in front of me was plaster, with no door in sight. Something was strange about this wall.

I carefully rapped my knuckles against the wall; the areas where the door should have been seemed to make a different sound. "I knew it. It's hollow on the other side. There must be a room!"

"Huh. A hidden door," Ray leaned in from behind me. "Now that I think about it, this is where Licht was in the nightmare world." Before I could consider his proximity, Ray stepped back to give the wall a kick, and the secret door opened with ease.

"Father must have made modifications after the fact," noted Subaru. "Guess there's something really important back here."

Something important. That something must be... I felt my heart jumping in anticipation. Licht. We couldn't be wrong about this. I tried to take a step, hoping to find who I was looking for, when a familiar scent hit my nostrils. This was the room we'd found Licht in - the only difference was that, this time, there were medical supplies and equipment lying around.

"It smells like a hospital in here," muttered Ray, as we looked around. Medical journals and various smaller apparatuses rested upon the shelves, and larger pieces of equipment I didn't know the names of were spaced across the floor.

"Guys," breathed Subaru, and we followed his gaze.

At the corner of the room was an occupied bed - a human sized hump wrapped in white sheets. "Is that... Licht?"

We drew closer to see a young man with dark hair and pale skin. There were numerous tubes attached to his body, his face half-covered with an oxygen mask. It's you! A surge of emotion came over me as I soaked him in. Finally, we found you! The corners of my eyes started to burn, and I gripped the bed frame to keep myself from falling. I endeavoured to reach out to him, but Subaru intercepted my wrist.

"Careful." He let go, and I held my hands together close to my heart, feeling its ache as I watched Licht's chest rise and fall with each breath.

Ray focussed on the wires attached to Licht's body. "He's been kept alive all these years."

"Do you think he's okay?" I asked desperately.

"Well, his heart rate is normal." Ray looked at us from over his shoulder. "His breathing is regular, too." He then proceeded to check the other machines, clicking on screens to see if there was something else they could tell him. I'd never been so relieved that Ray knew how to deal with these things. "Hmm, this is really strange."

"What is it?" asked Subaru, and we leaned closer.

"The recent records show some heightened activity. I'll have to access older data from the EEG to compare if his brainwaves have been this active."

"EEG?" I queried.

"Electroencephalogram," Ray replied coolly. That was a big word, but it rolled out of his mouth like his own name.

Ray pressed a button, and the machine started to hum softly. Not a second later, some paper started printing. We could see the lines on the page clearly skipping above and below the margin. It didn't take an expert to know what that meant.

"He might've been asleep all this time, but his mind's been awake," said Ray. "In fact, he might actually be listening to us now."

We all took a moment to look at Licht. My head sank; he was in peaceful slumber, but who knew how much pressure his body and mind had been under all those years?

"Go ahead." Ah... Ray put his hands in his pockets and nodded his head to the side as if telling me to go to Licht. "I think he'd appreciate some comfort right now."

I chuckled, if only to stop myself from crying, and then leaned closer to the bed. "Hey..." I reached out, taking Licht's hand. He's warm. He looked like he was going to wake up any minute, but he was trapped and alone in the nightmare. The thought of it made me feel bitterly helpless, and I gripped Licht's hand tighter to help fight back my tears. "We're here, Licht. I'm here."

I called out to him, but there was only silence. It wasn't like I was hoping for a reply; I was just glad that we'd found him. You've been fighting for your life here this whole time.

Subaru spoke up, "Is there any chance of him becoming conscious?"

"I can't say, but we can try waking him up." Ray went over to the bed and took out his flashlight. There was a beam of light as Ray clicked it on, and then used it to examine Licht's eyes. "Nystagmus. His oculomotor nerve is damaged. This could be an aneurysm."

My eyes widened. "No... What should we do?" I squeezed Licht's hand. What should we do? I repeated mentally, for him, as if he could tell me.

"Subaru, try to press a pen on his big toe." Ray tossed a pen and Subaru caught it perfectly. "Give it some pressure. We need to find out if he'll respond to pain."

Subaru nodded, poking into Licht's skin, careful not to cause any real damage. We waited in a beat of silence. There's nothing.

"He's unresponsive, Ziya..." Ray trailed off sadly, before clearing the lump in his throat. "As you can see, he's currently vegetative. Medically, there's nothing we can do for him."

"But..." Nothing we can do? I felt like my world had suddenly gone dark. Had all this been for nothing?

"Our one and only hope is to end the nightmare as soon as possible. If that world disappears, Licht's consciousness will be forced to come back to ours," declared Ray. "In theory."

"You're probably right. We can't give up yet, Ziya. Licht is still here, alive and breathing. Now all I have to do is accept my memories, and we're good," Subaru encouraged, a bright smile slowly forming on his face. "I'll do my best."

"Subaru, Ray..." Admittedly, I was terrified, but... I'm so glad to have you two. "You're right. We've still got hope." I sucked in a breath. "Let's make a future where we can wake up in this world again with smiles on our faces!"

"Atta girl! That's the spirit!" chuckled Ray, and I felt a little better, however short-lived. "But this isn't good. Silas was the one looking after him, right? That means that he was left here alone after Silas died." He began to look around the room in search of something.

"What's up, Ray?" I asked, hoping to help. "Do you need something?"

"Yeah, I -" he opened a lower cabinet, but paused to look at me. Oh... His eyes are so focussed... on me? "I need an IV bag," he said finally. Then, Ray's eyes went to the IV drip.

Following his gaze, I saw that the bag of fluids was empty. "Oh, I'll help."

"I'll go check on that side," added Subaru.

Subaru and I moved out, and I found myself going to the nearest thing to me - the fridge. It was huge and rusty in some spots, but surprisingly, I opened it without difficulty. Okay, it's gotta be here somewhere. Inside the fridge were heavy bags filled with dark, reddish fluid. I took a pack in my hands, feeling the almost gelatinous liquid move around in its plastic container.

"Is this blood?" I felt bile rising up to my throat. I've seen more horrible things, but I don't think I'll ever get used to it.

"You okay, Ziya?" I heard Ray ask.

"Yeah..." I licked my dry lips, putting the blood bag back where I'd found it. Oh, that's... The next shelf seemed to be stacked with bags containing clear fluids. I took one and read the label carefully to make sure. "Saline solution, yes!" I smiled, immediately holding up the bag. "Ray, here's -" I called out to him as I turned around, but my breath caught in my throat as I looked at him.

"Hmm?" Ray hummed in question, but he was not looking at me. He focussed on his wristwatch, the time ticking away as he ran his thumb against the IV drop controls.

Ray stood tall, looking professional. A stethoscope hung over his neck, and he bobbed his head up and down to check the conditions with care. He's like a real doctor. I couldn't help but find myself attracted to his intense gaze. I bet he'd look good in a lab coat...

"Did you find it?" he slowly turned to me, eyes as soft as his smile.

"Yeah, here." I rushed over to hand him the bag, and he took it gently.

Ray checked the contents of the pouch, and then looked at me. "Nice work, Ziya." His smile, the fact that he was praising me... it all made me happy. Ah? Suddenly, I felt his hand run through my hair. "Thanks. Now help me out here. I need you to hold his hand."

"Okay!" I nodded determinedly as I did what he asked. Ray will make a good doctor.

"There." Ray stepped back after hooking the bag over Licht's IV stand.

"Thank you, Ray."

"No problem. Someone has to do it," he smiled briefly, but it was replaced by sorrow. "It's not like he can take care of himself. Still, being in a coma for thirteen years..." Ray turned to look at Licht, his eyes downcast with what looked like pity. "Judging from the state he's in, he's probably been left like this for about a week."

"A whole week?!" I cried. The thought of it sent chills down my spine, if we'd have been even one day later, he might not have made it.

"Which means Silas was killed around that time. And it's also when we started having these nightmares."

Subaru chimed in. "Us getting pulled into these nightmares might be the result of Licht unconsciously calling out for help. If we hadn't come, Licht would've died for sure." I'm so glad we could save him. Subaru held out a leather journal. "I found this while we were looking for the IV bags. It's Silas Ackerman's diary."

Ray and I gasped, and I asked about it immediately. "What does it say?"

"The first few notes were about his research plans. There were some names of other people involved, but I don't think that's any concern to us now."

We flipped through the pages, skimming through the writings carefully. This spans thirteen years or so. Ray said the other faces and names weren't relevant, but I couldn't help but wonder where they were now, if they were continuing this work.

"Wait, stop there." I felt a hand over my own, abruptly stopping me from turning another page. Ray helped me hold the book in place, and I felt him peer in closer from over my shoulder. "After the incident, I found myself at a loss. Do I grieve for my son, or do I grieve for myself?" he read, and then leaned back and folded his arms. "Let's start here."

"Okay." My eyes travelled from the paragraph. "How has it come to this? Licht, your father is a wanted man. I'm terribly sorry for putting your life and your friends' lives at risk. The governor has judged this experiment to be a failure, and I..." I trailed off, biting my lip.

Subaru stepped beside me and finished the sentence, "I am to pay for my sins."

"So, the government came after him," sighed Ray.

"It feels like he was more of a scapegoat."

"A scapegoat?" I enquired.

Subaru nodded, flipping a page. "The experiment was partly funded by the government. But it looks like they put the blame solely on Silas Ackerman."

"So, they washed their hands of the whole thing, huh?" Ray scoffed, "How typical."

"But... if he died recently," I started, "then that means he's been avoiding the institution for this long?"

"Right? That's almost impressive," he said.

I looked down at the page again. "His alpha waves have been greatly erratic, seemingly stemming from nightmares during REM sleep. Could it be that the subjects' stress and trauma contributed to this? What if the bad memories that I hoped to eliminate in these five children made their way into Licht's healthy mind? I have polluted my own son's memories to the point that he can no longer be woken up. I'm sorry, my son. Please forgive me." My head snapped up, looking back at Licht. "He's been trapped in our bad memories. But Licht didn't have any memory of our traumatic experiences... or anything at all, for that matter. The monster didn't appear when Licht got his memories back; I wonder if that has anything to do with it?"

Subaru frowned in thought. "The monster is a manifestation of our trauma, which would mean Licht has no relation to it because he has no trauma. That's why the monster didn't appear."

"I see... So, he's in the nightmare world even though he has nothing to do with it?" I'm getting confused. This is really hard to wrap my head around.

Ray hummed and explained, "We can't conclude that Licht has nothing to do with the monster." Subaru and I both looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Licht had anything but a traumatic childhood and was raised by loving parents. But as this diary states, his memories fused with the trauma because of the experiment. Just like Ziya said earlier, he's been trapped in our bad memories," Ray sighed, and Subaru acknowledged this with a nod.

There's way too much going on here! I'm so confused. At this point, I wasn't sure if I was just too slow to catch on or if Ray and Subaru were just too sharp. How did any of this have anything to do with Licht or the monster being in the nightmare world?

"Let's lay out and organise what we know again." Subaru seemed to notice me struggling with comprehending the situation. "Ziya, do you remember the purpose of the experiment?"

"The experiment was to remove bad memories and fill the void with Licht's pleasant ones, right?"

"Right, but instead, Licht was the one that lost his memories. His mind ended up becoming the void."

"Right," I mumbled. "And then our memories flowed into that void."

"Exactly. The results of the experiment were the exact opposite of what they were supposed to be."

It hard enough to remember my own past, but to think Licht is carrying around the memories of five people... That must be so awful. "But Licht didn't have any memories when we met him."

"We can thank the monster for that," Ray said with more than a hint of irony. "Five people's worth of traumatic experiences was more than Licht could handle. So, they were separated."

"How so?"

"It's a unique situation, but you could say it's similar to dissociative identity disorder."

"Dissociative what?"

"Dissociative identity disorder. The symptoms are commonly referred to as dual or multiple personalities. That sound more familiar?"

There's the doctor-in-training. His analogies are so medical, technical... "That's when there are multiple consciences in a single person's brain, right? So, Licht..?"

"Let's imagine that the nightmare world is Licht's brain." Ray took out a pen and drew a sloppy circle on the dusty floor. Subaru and I squatted down and stared at his questionable drawing. I'm guessing the circle is supposed to be Licht's brain. "Licht couldn't handle five people's worth of trauma and separated the memories from his consciousness." Ray drew a crack in the circle. Whoa.

"I see," said Subaru. "So, the Licht in the nightmare world and the monster are two separate "personalities" within his brain."

"Yeah. Though Licht is likely the primary identity while the monster is a hostile, alternative one."

"I get it!" I huffed. "I think I finally understand. So, what we're doing by recovering our memories is removing the alternative identity."

Ray smiled, "Yeah, something like that."

"Thanks for helping me sort that all out." I felt breathless even though they had done most of the explaining.

Ray gave me a gentle pat on the head before standing up. "Night-time already," he noted. "I'm gonna go look through more of the documents."

Ray headed back over to the records room. Guess I better do my part, too. Just as I was about to walk through the door, I felt Subaru grab onto my sleeve. I turned to see him looking at me, his brows furrowed with unease. Subaru was the only one who hadn't regained his memories, he must have been anxious. I couldn't even imagine what kind of horrible past he might've had. That past of his could really change our future.

Subaru's eyes grew wide, as if he had just realised he was holding onto me, and his cheeks went a little red. "Um..." He averted his gaze. "Could you stay with me? Just for a little bit? Being with you is... really relaxing."

This is the first time Subaru's asked me for a favour like this. That alone brought joy to my heart. I sat back down next to Subaru and nestled close to him, leaning against his shoulder. I could feel the tension leave his body. Being together like this reminds me of when we were kids. Back then, I remembered looking through a book about insects. We had read through it so many times that I could probably remember what was on every page of it. On one page, there was a beautiful butterfly, and we'd always hoped we could see it in real life one day. Now that I think about it, Subaru wasn't afraid of bees back then like he is now.

"Hehe..."

"Something funny?" Subaru shifted slightly.

"No, no, it's nothing. Just reminiscing," I said. "You probably don't remember, but we used to sit side by side like this and read books on bugs." I snuggled up to him, laid my head on his shoulder, as Subaru wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close. I can feel my heart flutter, but at the same time, I feel so calm.

"I'm sure we were really happy back then. Doing things with you sounds like fun."

"Yup, we had lots of fun. There's a lot of stuff you'll be so happy to remember!" I giggled. "You were a really cute kid. You had a genuine sparkle in your eyes when you were reading through those books."

"And let me guess, you were staring at me the whole time?" Subaru said jokingly.

"Hehe. I guess you can see right through me. I really loved seeing you with that magical look in your eye." I looked over at Subaru, our gazes meeting, and I felt my heart skip a beat. He'd been joyfully looking at me as I talked - looking at me with those two beautiful eyes of his, and it's breath-taking. I've never seen his smile look so warm. If only he could always smile like this.

Slowly, Subaru moved his face towards mine. Enchanted, I closed my eyes and accepted his kiss. "Ziya..." his raspy voice brought life to this stark room. So warm... "I really like you, Ziya."

"Subaru..."

We found ourselves kissing once more, and his warmth flowed into me. I wish we could stay like this forever. I couldn't resist, moreover, I didn't want to. And I hoped, I prayed, that now he could find the courage to accept his memories, because I had this dreadful feeling that he wasn't ready. Not that I blamed him.

None could face the darkness alone.

After a while, Subaru pulled away reluctantly. I thought I'd be the one to calm his nerves, but I feel like he's helped me more than I've helped him. He'd always had a mysterious quality to him, often unreadable, but I hope that my presence had had the same effect on him.

I reached out with my hand and touched his rosy cheek. "Subaru, no matter what kinds of hardships await us, please don't forget that I'll always be by your side," I promised. "Whether you think back to our cosy memories from childhood or the kiss we just shared... Please remember that I'm with you all the way. I know you'll be able to overcome your past." After all, you overcome all of it as a child. I remember you smiling beside me.

Subaru took my hand from his cheek and gave it a kiss. "Thank you. With your help, I've made up my mind," he told me. "I want to be strong so that I can protect you. Accepting my past is part of that. Besides..." his smile faded out. "I've got a pretty good idea of what happened in my past already."

"Wait, you mean you've already got your memories back?"

"I don't need them back to figure it out. It's easy. My eye's the cause of it all," he said, and his brow twitched slightly. "My parents abandoned me because of this eye. That's all there is to it."

"But -!"

"It's fine. My eye makes people uncomfortable. I get it. It'll take more than that to hurt me. I'm used to it, anyways. I'm used to it, so I know I can accept it."

"Subaru, no, that's -" Ray entered the room, interrupting our conversation. Subaru seemed unfazed as he shuffled away from me.

The darkness inside him might have been a lot worse than I'd thought. His heart was twisted and torn because of the people around him, so he sheltered himself up. Was there anything I could do to mend that heart of his?

"It's nearly ten," Ray proclaimed, sitting down across from us.

As I reached for Subaru's hand, my vision started to blur, I heard the bells. Subaru was the last one. This would be the final nightmare. I felt myself fall, and the last thing I saw before hitting the floor was him. No matter what awaits us... please let there be a happy ending to it all.