Chapter twenty: the unwanted dreams
The white room or any parts of the painting space that was untouched by laws of time, was the perfect environment for Caelum.
Here, he didn't have to think about the passing hours at all.
Here He never got hungry, never felt physically tired and the only real drain came from his willpower, and even that, he could deal with it with a nice sleep.
Compared to the real world this place felt like the freedom he always wanted. He started spending more time in here than out there.
Caelum tapped his fingers against the long bronze table, exhaling. "Haa…" He scribbled something onto the notebook in front of him, his handwriting a little more rushed than usual. "From this last three days..i have been spending time here far more than i usually do…"
'Maybe I got too focused on completing the rules… but I do feel more enthusiastic here compared to the real world.'
"Uh." With another sigh, he set the notebook and pen aside, then reached for the quill.
"Alright. Let's wrap up the last part and get out of here."
He stood up from the chair, immediately willing himself out of the white room. His body vanished and instantly reappeared down in the small, ever-growing world he'd built.
The moment his feet touched the earth, he felt the gravity, weight and the rules of time pressing against his body again.
"Yeah… this feels exactly like the real world."
Everything from the way the wind moved to the warmth of the soil under his feet was spot on. The laws implemented through the world stabilizer—time, weather or the natural cycle, they were working perfectly.
Caelum could feel all of it was pressing down on him, just as it should.
A cool breeze rolled by and brushed over his skin. He shivered.
"Thought so," he muttered with a enlightened look on his face. "I should probably adjust it so the world's rules don't apply to me…"
He casually walked towards a nearby pond, raising the quill slowly as he approached the water's edge. The surface of the pond was still, reflecting the painted sky above.
'Beautiful, id say the only thing missing are the living creatures…' he paused for a second then, 'but before I jump into something unnatural, i should start with something natural.'
Focusing, he poured willpower into the quill and made a single, careful stroke in the air above the pond.
The air shimmered and twisted—
Quack!
A few ducks popped into existence and as soon as they did, they casually began gliding across the surface like they had always belonged there.
"Yeah… better to start with creatures that already exist in nature."
This was the final phase for a world to feel natural, populating the world with naturally found creatures.
He moved toward a nearby patch of flowers and raised the quill again. With another stroke, butterflies blinked into existence, fluttering through the air with delicate blue wings.
From there he started wandering, across open meadows, along the short rivers and through shallow forests.
It took quite a bit of time but, with every step, he used more of his willpower.
Manifesting small animals like birds, rabbits, fish, insects—anything he could think of that would exist naturally.
Caelum wanted to make the world to have all the natural animals required for the environment, before he moved to the unnatural.
By the time he was done, he was breathing heavily.
"This… should be enough, right?" he muttered, hands on his knees. "ugh, that took more than I thought. I didn't expect creating creatures with actual lifespans to hit this hard."
He had done testing by creating life before, but those had always been temporary shells with no lifespan for experiments. On the other hand these ones were different, They were alive by all logic.
After one last glance around the world he built with his own hands, Caelum willed himself back into the white room, then immediately pulled himself out of the painting world entirely.
He reappeared in his bedroom and rubbed his temples, dropping the quill onto the table without looking.
1 PM.
"Noon ha? At least I'm not late today."
Without bothering to change or even take off his shoes, he dropped straight onto the bed.
Best way to recover willpower has always been sleep, and it came almost instantly. His last thought before slipping away was simply the soft bed.
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The road was quiet that morning, lit by the soft golden light of early summer.
A younger Caelum walked along the sidewalk, with his hands in his pockets and a school bag that slung lazily over one shoulder.
Beside him bounced an overly energetic girl, humming a tune that had no rhythm and somehow matched her personality perfectly.
"Cael~" she suddenly chirped, turning her head to him with a smile. "You wanna watch fireflies tonight?"
"Yeah, sure sure," he mumbled, not bothering to look at her. For some reason, his mood was a little lighter than usual today.
The girl darted ahead, spinning around so she could face him, walking backward.
"Alright then," she grinned. "If you forget, I'm gonna beat you, thehehe~"
Caelum didn't stop walking and slipped past her side with a faint smile. "Ooo, I'm so scared, Aurey."
Aurey, still walking backward for a moment longer, rolled her eyes and sighed like a tired person. "You should take my words more seriously, you know."
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered with his eyes on the road ahead.
They both wore the same school uniform—dark jackets, white shirts slightly wrinkled, the kind of thing no one really bothered to fix anymore at the end of the year. As they neared the entrance of the school, Caelumu muttered a few words under his breath.
"I'll be finally free."
Aurey glanced at him but didn't say anything, she just stepped through the school gate with him at her side.
The school yard was loud with voices and emotions. Students milled about on the field, some laughing under the big tree while some were wiping away tears, some taking photos with juniors who clung to their sleeves like they'd disappear the moment they turned around.
"You know…" Aurey's voice turned softer. "I think you should be a little emotional. It's our last day in this place, after all."
Caelum gave a short laugh. "If anything, I'd like to forget every memory I have of this place—"
He stopped mid-sentence as Aurey threw him a sharp side-eye.
"Ahem. I mean, I'd like to forget everything about this school… minus you."
"That's better," she said, shaking her head with a small nod.
It really was the last day for them. After this they will graduate from the school and stop wearing the uniform.
Inside the main hall, hundreds of students sat in rows of chairs, fanning themselves with pamphlets or chatting nervously.
The school had strung up a wide banner near the stage that read "Graduation Ceremony - Farewell, Class of 2018" in faded gold letters.
Aurey took Caelum's hand without warning. "Come on, let's get a seat before the vultures snatch the good ones."
Caelum scanned the hall as he was dragged by aruey without complaint. They took their seats somewhere in the middle, Aurey set upright and alert while Caelum slouched halfway down the backrest.
Time went by as the ceremony was the usual blend of nostalgia and tedium, teachers gave speeches and some of them cried halfway through.
The principal droned on about "bright futures" and "new beginnings" as if he hadn't been saying the same thing for decades. Some students went up to share stories, mostly forgettable but a few were funny.
Aurey clapped the loudly when their class was called. Caelum clapped too, but mostly because he didn't want to look like a edgy teen by not clapping.
And then just like that, it was over for good.
The hall emptied out slowly. Some students hugged like they'd been lifelong friends, others drifted off alone.
Neither Caelum nor Aurey had anyone they needed to say proper goodbyes to, they had Classmates but not any real friends.
They stepped out of the hall and out of the school. When they reached the gate, Caelum briefly paused and glanced back.
"What?" Aurey teased with a smile. "Missing it already are we?"
He shook his head. "Nah. Just glad it's over."
The two of them kept walking along the familiar road they'd taken for years, shoulder to shoulder until they reached the intersection where their paths would split.
Aurey stopped and turned to him. "Cael, come near the bridge at 7, okay? Don't be late. The fireflies don't wait."
Caelum looked at her, a rare smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Fine, fine."
And with that, they walked their own separate paths home.
'fireflies hum?' caelum felt his mood lighten as he walked away home.
And that day he slept till midnight, missing his chance of seeing the fireflies and aruey.
Next day he went to her house in morning to apologise, only to find out aruey and her family left for a trip in early morning.
As time went by they never came back, their house was sold to another family and later Caelum found out they settled in America.
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Caelum's eyes snapped open.
His head was empty for a few seconds before he felt the sudden sharp throb behind his temples, he clutched his head and sat up, already fully awake.
"...These dreams again."
His voice was rough with sleep as he blinked toward the clock on the wall.
4:00 p.m.
"Dammit," he muttered, swinging his legs off the bed. "Why am I even seeing these dreams? Not like I'm sitting around reminiscing about the past." it wasn't his first time suddenly having a weird dream related to his past.
As He rubbed the back of his head he yawned, dragging his feet across the floor like a man waking from his grave.
Downstairs, he splashed cold water onto his face in the bathroom sink, He stared at his reflection for a moment then looked away.
Getting Back upstairs, he pulled open his closet and hesitated for a second, "what to wear..."
After a bit of debate inside his head, caelum changed into a deep blue shirt and crisp white pants. The combination looked oddly good, then grabbing his quill, he headed back down to the kitchen.
He poured himself a glass of water from the filter and took a long sip, then sat down at the table.
With a few deft strokes of the quill, he drew Chinese dumplings and a bowl of steaming soup, watching them materialize in full warmth and aroma. For caelum, eating all kinds of food from across the world has already become normal.
After finishing his food in silence, he stood up and stretched his back, then locked the front door behind him as he stepped out.
"The zoo should still be open at this hour..." he said aloud, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he began walking.
It wasn't a random visit or strolling out, he had a goal in mind. 'To build a world to perfection, there needs to be a food chain.'
caelum wanted to see real animals again to study their movements, the shape of their fur, the calm or chaos in their eyes. Maybe decide which species he'd recreate for his own painting world.
As he walked, his thoughts wandered even more.
'Normal animals should be enough for now.' he reasoned with himself. 'If I start drawing bizarre creatures without any planning, who knows what kind of chaos they could bring to the painting world....'
After he saw the disease, the black substance that clung to his heart through the use ofhis willpower. Caelum have been dead set on trying everything he can with the help of the quill, to somehow find a cure for himself.
The more his willpower grew, the more he experimented with the quill and more bizzare his ideas became. All he wanted now was to be free of any restrictions he had and cure himself.
Those thoughts had become his fuel.
He didn't care about going back to a regular life again. The only thing that mattered now was when he could achieve more breakthroughs on both his willpower and ideas.
As he passed the park lost in thought, a familiar voice pulled him back to the present.
"Oh hey, young man!"
Caelum turned his head and spotted the old man sitting on the same bench he had seen him on once before, but this time the old soul was feeding breadcrumbs to birds, wearing a contented smile like it had been carved into his face by time.
Caelum offered a polite nod. "Good evening, sir. How have you been?"
The old man chuckled, waving a wrinkled hand. "Haha~ At my age? I'm quite well."
And somehow, Caelum believed it. The old man wasn't faking it with how genuine his smile felt
Caelum looked at him for a moment longer.
'Seeing how happy this man is, even at this age... life's really unfair, huh?'
He didn't say it aloud. The thought sit quietly in his chest as he said goodbye and kept walking, the sun gently lowering behind the buildings, casting long shadows ahead of him.