Lost in Dream Woods, Part 1

"It's time for you to sleep," Castelilise whispered in Felix's ear. "And to start this challenge. Whatever happens, I'll be there to meet you when you wake up."

Casteilise tucked Felix into bed like a mother putting a child to bed. She could tell it felt weird to him, given she had just gotten done fucking his brains out for hours on end, and bringing him into a free use relationship, but she figured this moment of intimacy was important. He was going to have some rather dark dreams today, what with where the challenge was and all. Despite starting to feel dry, the nereid managed to stay with him until he fell asleep. It was then that she ran to a canal, and then swam back to her bedroom. The nereid had already checked with the demon, who had told her that because this was a challenge day, they were going to wait until next week for her to try to sleep with Felix. It made sense to not try to put Felix's body into a strange sleep environment on his second day, She would dry out and quite possibly die in that case after all, so even those this was an important rule, Harem Hotel was willing to budge on it.

Her own trip to bed was uneventful. A quick swim and she was already back in her home underwater, a location that was as close to a cozy cave as could be had in a bunker. She curled up underwater, and drifted off to the sounds of the water all around her...

Cammy went in shortly after Castelilise left. She hadn't loved what the nereid had done with Felix that day, but she at least given him the chance to back out, at least on paper. In practice he didn't have a choice because of how Vizrokoth had setup the rules, and they both knew that. Still, the illusion of consent was an improvement over how Janessa had treated Felix. Checking on her boyfriend, other than some light bruising that was already healing, he was fine. The demon had done an excellent job of molding his body for the kind of extended sexual activity he was expected to perform by the women around him.

Once she had done all she could to check him, Cammy got into bed with Felix, and brought him into her embrace. She thought about how she was about to betray his trust in a way she hadn't before, but that she would need to do in order to protect him in the long run. VP was hard to acquire once one graduated after all, and she didn't want to think about what someone like Z could do if she got the wish. Despite all the stress, it didn't take long for her to drift off to sleep once she had her boyfriend in her arms, sleeping beside her...

"What do you want?" Noah asked when Kei Winters and Jamina came to meet him in his room. "You should be getting ready for the challenge, not talking to a slime girl."

"That's what this is about," Kei Winters said. "The upcoming challenge is about cooperation, and also finding our way through an ever changing environment. I think you could be great at both, and we both wanted to get on your good side before the challenge started."

That made the slime girl pause. Noah wasn't sure what she thought of either Kei Winters or Jamina, at this point anyway. She hadn't cared for the math teacher in her life as a human, even though unlike her peers, she was able to pass the teacher's class without too much difficulty. As for Kei Winters, she had nothing to go off other than that Cammy didn't trust her, that Jamina insisted she was a sexual predator, and that she was a creation of the demon in more ways than one. But what did this mean for the others?

"I just wanted to say that you were one of my best students in life," Jamina started off on a suspiciously ass kissing note, but the former math teacher managed to recover from there. "It's just unfortunate that I didn't realize until the situation we've all been placed in that your success had nothing to do with me, and it was only your immense talent for the topic that let you thrive in my class. I understand you lead study groups?"

"Yeah, I lead study groups," Noah said. "I wouldn't say I was much of a teacher but..."

"You were though, because you helped kids get through topics that their teachers often failed them at," Jamina continued, almost tearing up talking about it. "In a lot of ways, you were a better teacher than me, even if the only thing you were teaching them was how to study."

That was a shocking admission from Jamina. Noah had never heard a teacher basically say they were terrible before, and even in the **** situation they were in, it was still a surprise. Even if it was for manipulation, such an admission was still quite brave, and was unimaginable coming from someone who until recently defined themselves so much by their teaching ability. It either showed how **** the situation was, how much Jamina had lost her former self over the course of her stay, or both.

"As for me," Kei Winters took the moment to explain herself. "You've probably heard a lot about me, and most of it is true. I am an artificial creation of the demon that controls our lives, my memories are fake, and those same memories paint me as a..."

"... Sexual predator," Jamina finished for her, "but one that in this situation is helpful. You saw herself how good she is at teaching math, and I assure she is quite versed in the topic as well.

"Okay okay," Noah said, hoping to calm them down. "I have to get ready for bed, and you guys need to as well. Once we're in the dream, I'm going to see if I can't get Felix back quickly. Especially as he won't have the person he has trusted most up to this point to aid him anymore..."

Felix awoke in a dark, strange forest with a dense fog that made it difficult to see much more than a foot or so. type of place that he had seen in horror movies, games, and books, but not quite ever in his dreams. But then he had never had a dream with such crystal clear clarity as this one. If he hadn't been told this challenge was in a dream world, he wouldn't have believed it.

"Felix," Cammy whispered behind him. "We got to go."

Before Felix could ask where they were going, or why, Cammy grabbed him, and lead him through the woods. He couldn't figure out where they were going, and whenever he tried to ask a question, another strange sight would interrupt him. Trees with the occasional arm mixed in with their branches, paper notes all over the places, either taped or nailed to whatever surface was available, and, if he stared too long in any direction, figures in the fog. These sights prevented him from continuing the discussion, and soon, he was holding on tight to Cammy, as he hoped she would lead him out of these nightmare woods.

"Felix, forgive me," Cammy said while shoving him into a clearing. "I have to protect you..."

When Felix turned to ask her about it, Cammy was gone. Looking around the clearing he was in only brought more questions. The fog had thinned out some, but a thick mist hung on the ground, obscuring whatever the forest floor was. However, there was a patch of flowers that from afar looked normal, but as he looked closer at them, they were also off. Some had teeth mixed in with their petals, others had what were almost certainly pussy lips in between the petals, and even the most normal looking flowers looked off. It was more like the idea of a rose or flower than an actual flower, as if it lacked critical details.

"Enjoying my realm?" A melodic, feminine voice asked. "Your host has given me hosting duties for the night, as a way to make up for some... scheduling difficulties they've had.

At first, Felix just closed his eyes, and tried to will himself awake. He wasn't ready to meet yet another supernatural being, much less one that inhabited a world of dreams. Heck, was she even real? Or was she just another illusion like the ones that had filled his ears from the last challenge?

"I assure I'm very real Felix," the melodic voice continued. "Although, I have been trapped in the realm of dreams for a long time. But enough of that, why don't you face me, because I assure you that lucid dreaming will not get you out of my realm."

Facing the inevitable, Felix turned and saw... an unbelievably gorgeous Arabic woman. Except that wasn't quite true, as her legs ended in smoke, and her eyes, while not burning like Vizrokoth's did, had a glow to them. This was in addition to a body that was for all intents and purposes impossible, as she had the kind of hourglass shape that didn't exist outside of hentai, or fan art. Massive perky breasts, wide hips, a big butt, and a very thin waist, combined together to enforce that this woman wasn't part of reality. He could see all of that because she only wore a thin robe that hugged her body, and otherwise seemed designed to flow dramatically in the wind with her silky black hair.

"You can call me Zaynab, and we have a lot to talk about Felix..."

Vizrokoth was, all in all, pleased with how this challenge was getting started. The demon had to put it together quickly once Paisley explained to her that she wouldn't be able to get away with another emergency date, and because of that, she had decided to exploit a little known rule. In the situation that a round's date and a challenge overlapped, the challenge could be held in another realm, so as to smooth out the schedule, and ensure a contestant got a full date. Paisley not only agreed to the plan, but also found a host between seasons and whom was willing to help out. It of course helped that the other option for Zaynab was to stayed imprisoned until her next season, but still.

That was why Vizrokoth was now asleep, and greeting her contestants in a dream realm controlled by Zaynab. "Greetings, I hope you all got to sleep well tonight."

The group was mostly antsy from their surroundings, and wanted to get to it. Most of them had, after all, purchased a briefing on the upcoming challenge, and were anxious to get to it. However, that wasn't the case with Castelilise, and the audience hadn't heard a full explanation yet of what the challenge entailed. All of them were standing outside the forest that would make up the competition, and next to an ever burning fire that was billowing red smoke. That was a very important detail for what was coming up, to say the least.

"I can tell many of you want to get started, so I'll be brief," Vizrokoth explained while pacing around the group. "You are to find Felix in this ever changing forest as a team. Once you have found Felix, you will need to, as a group, bring him all the way out of the woods, and back here. Scoring in both of these sections is based on how much you helped the broader group, and how much you helped find Felix. This is a test of intellect, and teamwork, the latter of which this group will need to better serve your dear master. Any questions?"

Most of the group was far too antsy to get started to ask much of anything, but Noah managed to ask a very important question indeed. "Why do I look like my old self in high school?"

"Simple," Vizrokoth replied, "In this forest of dreams, it is your perception of yourself that dominates, not your actual form. This place tests perception versus reality ruthlessly, and the issues caused by that clash will be a significant part of what you will be evaluated on in these woods..."

Felix explained to Zaynab everything that had happened to him of the course of the last couple of weeks. Being trapped in a bunker, the unique rules around touching him, Austin's elimination, and so on. She didn't interrupt, and over time, it felt like he was talking to himself more than her. However, once he finished his explanation of everything that had happened to him, she asked him a question he didn't expect.

"Who were you before the bunker Felix?" Zaynab asked. "I know you were having a rough time of it in high school, and for that matter, that your reality has been tampered by Cammy's victory. However, I know almost nothing about your home life other than... oh yes, that you were haunted by a man you never met."

Behind her, Felix saw Austin White. Except it wasn't really Austin White, but instead a ghostly figure who looked like him wearing a business suit. The figure stalked around Felix and Zaynab at a distance, unnoticed until she pointed him out to Felix. Austin White wasn't a man Felix had seen in person until the bunker, and yet, he knew exactly who he was because of the impact of his actions on Felix's home life.

"You've never said your mother's name while you have been at Harem Hotel," Zaynab declared this fact to him. "Are you afraid to utter her name, especially since learning from the demon that names can have power?"

"... Yes," Felix replied after gathering himself, "I won't say my mother's name because even though I'm sure the demon knows it, something about it just... feels wrong to say."

"Perhaps it's an extension of how guilty you feel about your inability to live up to your mother's expectations," Zaynab said. "Or at least what you perceive those expectations to be. Otherwise, you haven't brought up your father while you've been at Harem Hotel a single time. Why is that?"

"He's not important," Felix said off handily. "Unless Vizrokoth is going to drag him here and turn him into a woman, but if I can manage to ensure nobody else gets eliminated, it won't come up."

"We'll get back to your phrasing with the word manage later," Zaynab said like someone conducting a performance review. "But your father presumably affects who you are, and for that matter, why you were chosen to be the master in a season of Harem Hotel. Yet you've never discussed him with anyone, and while nobody asks you about him, it seems odd he doesn't come up in say, the context of Austin White. So tell me about your father Felix."

All the while, the ghost of Austin White continued to circle them. Felix knew where Austin White truly was, and that he wasn't dead, or if he had, not in the place they were in. But still, this illusion bothered him. "Why is the illusion of Austin here with us?"

"Interesting you assert so strongly that he's an illusion," Zaynab said. "But well, he's just reflecting the way you viewed him Felix. As a presence in your life that wasn't technically in it, and yet still haunted every single one of your waking days. It's a shame Cammy's version of reality couldn't eliminate him, but perhaps that was a bridge too far given it would make it confusing how he was ever part of your season in the first place. Regardless, Felix, tell me about your father."

It took a bit for Felix to gather himself for this portion of the conversation. Zagnab was rather patient for someone who, in theory, had a time limit from the people sent to rescue Felix, but perhaps she knew that was going to take awhile. All the while, the illusion of Austin White continued to circle around the discussion, continuing to distract him from what needed to be said.

"My father can be a bit of a jerk," Felix said. "He gets on my case about school shit, and whenever I prove to him it isn't my fault... he doesn't take it well. I'll grant that he at least has the good sense to not go on about his authority, unlike Smith, and he isn't abusive or anything, it's just...

"... he isn't enough." Zaynab finished for him. "Wasn't enough to prevent you from ending up here. You don't say his name, which I take as another sign of you trying to protect him. Do you not respect your father because he failed to protect your mother from Austin White?"

"No, that wouldn't be fair-" Felix tried to say.

"Ah ah, we're not talking about what's logical or rational, we're talking about how you feel," Zaynab said. "After all, we're in a dream, and in a dream, your emotions are much more important than logic. That's why Austin White continues to circle, which is that despite that he has been punished, his impact on your life is still felt in your memories. I wonder what would have to happen for that to change?"

That caused Felix to pace around in front of Zaynab until he came up with an answer. Such was his mixture of irritation, frustration, fear, and a bundle of other messy emotions that he was able to forget the strange environment he was in for a time. That came crashing down though when he almost stepped on a flower before he heard it hiss at him.

"Do watch where you're going Felix," Zaynab said, amused. "Only your harem can get you out of here, and let me tell you that getting lost in these woods is not an experience I'd recommend. Especially not someone as unskilled as you."

After he collected himself, Felix managed to muster a response. "Maybe on some level I do blame my dad, but even I'm smart enough to know that isn't wise. As for Austin White... every time I think of his punishment, I'm both happy that it happened to him, disturbed that I enjoyed him receiving such a horrific fate, and am angry that my mother is never going to get the closure I did. He molested my mother after all, not me. I think with time his presence will leave my life."

"Felix, that's not really true," Zaynab said. "Mostly because you're not grappling with another reason that Austin hovers around in your life. A reason you haven't considered nearly enough, despite how much has been revealed to you about your fantasies."

Felix could tell where this was going, and wanted to derail you. "No, I'm not attracted to men, and especially not to-"

"I never said you were," Zaynab cut him off. "Here, let me make this easier for you."

In a flash, Austin White was replaced Kei Winters. Except this one had glowing red eyes, and was wearing business casual clothes. Felix didn't dare to say a word, as there was nothing he could say that would do well versus the implicit comparison Zaynab was making.

"I'm not critiquing you for a double standard Felix," Zaynab said. "What I am saying is that I think, on some level, you were jealous of your mother's position, but were so disgusted with yourself that you buried the idea, and that self hatred made you **** to live up to expectations that you knew were impossible to fill. As for your father..."

Zaynab suddenly teleported right in front of Felix, and grabbed him. "I think the men in your life, whether they are present directly or indirectly, have been massive failures. Blaming you things that aren't your fault, getting mad when they are called out on it, and refusing to help you when you most need it. I notice how the one contestant you most strenuously say doesn't deserve to be here is Hailey, and how you forgive women for things that you don't forgive men for. It isn't a simple double standard, but rather that I think you want a strong, assertive woman to just somehow fix all the problems in your life. Luckily for you, you're on Harem Hotel, where fantasies come true..."