Right when Caspian's laugh ended, the spell talked.
[Wake up, Moonlight Deliverer!]
[Wake up, Monarch of the Night!]
'Ugh, don't tell me i have to hear the spell call him too whenever i do something...'
While the Crimson place spun, Velpam's voice and laught was the last thing he heared before everything dissapeared.
"It appears like you have to, bad luck for you i guess. Hahaha..."
***
Caspian opened his eyes.
The first thing his eyes meet are the armored ceiling of the police station's vault hanging above him. Reminding him that his nightmare was over, and that he was now back at the waking world.
No wars beetween citadels, no monsters and no vampire lord wanting to conquer the land.
Home sweet home.
Not to mention how well he felt right now, all the stress in his body has gone, he could touch things normally, without cutting them by accident, and no one tells you how good it feels to have normal human teeth...normal? Caspian licked his upper teeth, feeling with his tongue the undeniable presence of sharp fangs, it weren't as big as that of a creature of the night, but they were vampiric indeed.
Caspian looked at the side of the bed, the man sitting on a cheap plastic chair llooked about forty, though Caspian knew better. Brown hair, a neatly groomed beard, and sharp amber eyes that missed nothing. He was wearing his uniform—dark blue fabric reinforced at the seams, silver epaulets on his shoulders, black leather boots polished to a mirror sheen.
On his left sleeve, his insignia gleamed.
Two stars.
Awakened.
Alexander's posture was tense, far more tense than usual. His shoulders were rigid, his hands clenched together as if bracing for bad news that had already arrived.
Caspian swallowed. His throat felt dry.
"Fa… Father…"His voice came out hoarse, unused. "I'm back."
Alexander reacted instantly.
He shot up from the chair like a coiled spring, instinct screaming danger before reason caught up. For a fraction of a second, Caspian saw his father as he truly was—a veteran Awakened, ready to kill a Nightmare Creature if his son had failed.
Then Alexander recognized him.
And all that tension shattered.
He pulled Caspian into a crushing embrace, arms locking around him and the bed in equal measure, with desperate strength.
"Oh—my boy" Alexander breathed, voice thick. "You're awake. You're finally awake."
Caspian stiffened in surprise.
Alexander pulled back just enough to look at him, hands gripping Caspian's shoulders.
"Do you have any idea what you put us through?" he scolded immediately, words tumbling out too fast. "Ten days, Caspian. Ten. Your mother barely slept. Your sister told everyone at school her brother was going to become a Sleeper, and when you didn't wake up—"
He huffed, rubbing his face.
"—they laughed at her. You owe her an apology."
Caspian smiled faintly.
"Yes, Father."
Alexander studied him more carefully now, eyes narrowing slightly.
"…You look different."
Caspian tilted his head. "Different bad, or—"
"Different suited" Alexander interrupted. "You grew into yourself." He snorted quietly. "Awakenings do that sometimes."
He stepped back, releasing him fully.
"Get cleaned up" Alexander said, taking out the restraining his son had. "You reek."
Caspian blinked. "I… what?"
"Not physically" Alexander clarified, grimacing. "Psychological bloodshed. Awakened can smell it. And yours is…" He waved a hand. "Stale. Thick. Like an old battlefield, we will have time to discuss what happened later."
Caspian winced.
"Yes, Father."
As he swung his legs off the bed, Alexander paused him with a hand on his shoulder.
"…Good work out there" he said quietly. "Sleeper Caspian."
The words struck deeper than any praise.
Sleeper.
A title.
Not just Caspian. Not just son.
He nodded, throat tight. "Thank you."
The shower was bliss.
Hot water poured down over him in steaming sheets, washing away the phantom chill of the river, the blood, the ash, the screams that still clung to him somewhere deep inside.
He cupped water in his hands, watching it pool between his palms.
On a whim—
He focused.
The water hardened instantly.
Not ice.
It looked crystalline, translucent and smooth, yet steam still curled faintly from its surface. Hot. Solid.
Caspian's eyes widened.
"…Nice."
He let it flow again. Then solidified only parts of it, creating tiny suspended crystals that glittered in the liquid like stars trapped in glass.
Control.
Precision.
Encouraged, he tried something else.
He focused on letting it go.
The water evaporated.
A small cloud of vapor formed above his hands, drifting up toward his face.
He coughed as it brushed his nose, laughing softly.
"Okay" he murmured. "That's… really cool."
His father's voice echoed faintly from outside.
"Your mother and sister are on their way!"
Caspian turned the water off, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around his waist. Before stepping out, he focused once more.
Every droplet clinging to his skin vanished in a soft hiss of vapor.
Dry.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
Paler skin. Sharper features. Red eyes that glimmered faintly in the light. A silvery streak cutting through his hair.
He smiled.
"I'm home."
Then—
Someone smiled back.
Not his reflection.
Velpam stood beside him in the mirror, arms crossed, crimson eyes gleaming with amusement.
"You look way too comfortable for a murderer."
Caspian spun around.
Seeing his own body looking back at him, he looked at the mirror again.
Velpam was also there.
"You fiend!" Caspian hissed at the reflection. "I thought you couldn't come out!"
Velpam waved a hand lazily, his fingers passing straight through the shower curtain.
"Oh, I'm not out" he said. "I'm just… projected. So we can chat."
Caspian clenched his jaw. "I'm not a murderer."
Velpam tilted his head. "Isn't that what murderers say?"
"The thing that killed those people in the Citadel wasn't me" Caspian insisted—though the words tasted hollow.
Velpam stepped closer in the reflection.
"Then what about the battle?" he asked softly. "You didn't hesitate when you tore that heart out. You didn't flinch."
Caspian looked away.
Velpam's hands settled on his shoulders.
"That wasn't a battle" Velpam whispered into his ear. "It was a hunt."
Caspian's breath hitched.
"And in case you failed to realize..." Velpam continued. "…the things you hunted...they were not beasts."
Caspian's reflection stared back at him, the monster inside almost showing up again.
"They were people."
The words echoed in his mind, shifting his eyes away of himself.
Velpam forced his head up somehow, making him look into the mirror.
"It's you." Velpam murmured. "You're the beast. Just think about what you did."
Caspian's chest tightened.
"It's utter madness."
Something snapped.
Caspian roared and slammed his fist into the mirror.
Glass exploded outward.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, blood streaking down in two thin lines.
Velpam's face fractured in the broken reflection.
Distorted.
Laughing.
And that laughter followed Caspian long after the mirror fell silent.