Hero's Bane

Chapter 15: It'll Never Be Enough

Nigel watched as Steve grimaced and clutched at his chest and head, it worried him to see the man suddenly ill after he had awoken with such vitality. "Steven, is everything alright? You look under the weather? Should we turn back? I mean we can push the trip off until you are feeling better or maybe even tomorrow?" The old man walked over to the miner and placed a hand on his back as he gave him a worried look.

Why was he feeling this pain? Why was everything becoming so hard to see? It made no sense, unless maybe he was becoming ill of something.. "No, I've just got a headache and I think a heartburn or something, you shouldn't worry too much about me. I'll be fine." He tried to reassure as he winced through gritted teeth and squinted eyes as he placed a hand over his chest.

Nigel rubbed his hands in slow circles over the miner's shoulder and shook his head. "You look awfully pale right now, of course I'm worried."

The sharp pains that he had dreamed of had then come to him, all of it. Steve loudly groaned and scraped at his ribcage as his breaths steepened. "Why is this happening?" He asked with a pined tone as he rubbed his aching head then moved downwards until he was on his knees. Was it Herobrine? His heart raced from fear of the thought of the powerful presence being nearby, somehow assaulting him without actually being up close and that was when the pain intensified.

"Steven?"

He moved his head up but couldn't see all that well, it was too blurry; everything was. Even the old man was becoming hard to see and he wasn't but only a foot away. Steve squinted to look for that cyan shirt and those piercing eyes but he couldn't find anything of the sort, but it just had to be 'him' causing all of this. He struggled to keep himself from falling forward when the stabbing pains grew sharper, Nigel had caught him and helped him stay in a upright position.

"Why is what happening?" Nigel quickly looked up and scanned through the pine woods, it was hard to see anything amiss but a few chickens pecking at the ground a few yards away.

"Is Herobrine... a-around?" The miner hissed out in agony, clutching his side.

"Not that I could tell, perhaps we should head back and rest up, this adventure can wait."

"No!" Steve yelled and forced himself up onto his feet though they felt numb, he begin to fight through the growing tenderness. "I'll b- be fine." He attempted to clear his mind since the more he had thought about the dream the more painful everything got. So he imagined a large stone structure that would be the fortress in his imagination, he continued to focus on what it could possibly look like. Almost immediately after changing his focus his vision cleared and the pain was slowly beginning to fade. "I- I feel fine ... now?" He muttered and then took a deep breath as he lifted his head and gaze, he then blinked again and again and then sighed in respite.

"What was that all about?" The elderly man asked with a curious look.

"I'm not sure." Steve rubbed at his scalp once more. "I think I was reliving the pain I felt in the dream I had last night or something; I guess?"

"Ohhhhh." Nigel brought his hand to rest under his chin as he pondered. "I think I know what this is about. Don't think too much about the attacks you've had in your dreams, I have before and had suffered sort of the same pains from said dreams. Herobrine has mastered the art of replicating reality in the nightmare realm; so well that your imaginings seem very real and lifelike if you believe in it strong enough."

"I know that. I've had several dreams and thought that it was all real because I actually could feel and sense everything around me. The wet drops of water, the cold air, the sickly flesh of mobs and even the pain."

"But- in the same manner he has also trained your brain into unconsciously believing in the attacks so that just by thinking on the nightmares makes your mind re-experience the same traumas and pains which your body feels because the human mind is that much of a dangerous tool, and this is while conscious and fully aware of being awake at that. Same goes for being asleep and experiencing it too. Come to think of it; if Hero had wished it, he could make you kill yourself and you wouldn't even know that it was you who did it. If the mind is truly open and you are believing that you are really getting hurt then your own body can make itself hurt, hard to believe I know but it is very possible here." He nodded.