“A boy was suffering from severe and constant night terrors that prevented him from sleeping.”
“His mother, worried that these night terrors would be the death of her son, took him to the doctor’s office. While there, he was prescribed pills that were supposed to quell the nightmares.”
“Once they got home, the boy went to bed and took the pill as the doctor ordered. When he went to sleep, he found that the horrors he saw while asleep hadn’t subsided.”
“In fact, they had only gotten even more severe, more vivid, more real.”
“The boy’s mind eventually snapped from the night terrors and could not distinguish nightmare from reality. One night while his mom was asleep, he smothered her with a pillow, thinking that she was some kind of monster.”
“She ended up becoming a part of his nightmares from then on, compounding his already fractured mind with further terrors.”
“You’ve experienced your fair share of night terrors, haven’t you, Mannfred? Your whole life, you’ve been dealing with them ever since you were conscious enough to experience the horrors of the lower levels.”
“However, instead of fighting against the nightmares like you claim, you became a part of them.”
“I heard of the methods you use to dispatch the scum down below. I heard how you display your victims’ bodies as a warning for outsiders to stay out. Those actions aren’t of a man that wants to rid Arcadia of nightmares.”
“They’re the actions of someone that has become a part of the problem.”
“If you truly cared about making the lower tiers safer for all, you would’ve helped the librarian before the shack was burned down with him in it. Instead, all you did was watch from afar as he burned alive, nailed to the walls.”
“As a result, he became part of the horror you experience on a daily basis. One that eats away at your broken mind knowing that you could’ve prevented had you acted before he perished.”
“I suffer with my nightmare too, Mannfred. I’m living through the nightmare of my home and family burning down every day.”
“However, unlike you, I haven’t become part of the nightmare that I vowed to destroy. Want to know why? All you have to do is give me a once over.”
“These bandages remind me to never become what I fight against. These bandages remind me that no matter how bad it gets, I cannot become a part of the problem.”
“I’m more than my desire to get revenge against those that turned me into what I am. I’m stronger than that. I’m not a psychopathic criminal that thinks killing everyone that looks at me funny will solve anything.”
“I’m a family man that just wants my wife and children to rest easy knowing that the men who hurt them are where they deserve to be.”
“Be careful when starting a fire in the darkness. You just might get burned.”