An Excerpt from a Deceased Street Cleaner's Journal.

[Interrogate]

(Just one of my small solo writings, in case people wanted to see my writing style.)

"I had the strangest dream last night... I think it was a dream anyway, it's getting harder and harder to tell anymore, especially when they feel as real as this one did.

I was on my way home from cleaning the streets like any other night when a strong wind started to whip up, bringing a blizzard with it. This is odd, for it is the middle of the harvest season. When I got to my door, or what I thought was my door, I went in and was met by a group in a Tavern/Inn. There were many people there, some looked normal, some looked different.There were a few who looked decrepit and rotting while still alive, there were some with pointy ears, there was a Centaur even. The centaur's name was... I don't remember now, how odd... He was one of the employees of the inn though. The owner of the inn told me the rules when I entered. As long as the 'reality storm' out side was raging, I was allowed to stay for free, including the food. The only payment needed was one story. For some reason, the centaur always bowed down to me... like he knew my past even before I told them my story. And she always called me lord, that brought a chill down my spine every time she said it. I sat down at a table for a hot meal, there was six or seven people at the table.

There was a woman, she was almost as beautiful as... no, I promised myself I would never mention her name again... but she was the second most beautiful woman I had ever met. She had wings, translucent with a hint of blue in them, and she was very kind. She called herself a Faye, and she told a story of travel with a mage while they were on an important mission for her people. They had many travels, during that mission, but they had split up when he felt she no longer needed his help. I had thought I saw a small tear roll down her cheek when she ended her story, though I don't know if it was because she missed him, or if something worse may have befallen him.  I had meant to ask, but never had the opportunity to do so.  I was certain that, for a brief moment, I thought I had seen the tear turn into a gem stone.

The next to tell a story was a human male, who carried around what he called a gun or firearm. He told us that he didn't remember to much of his past, and was greatly confused about how he got here to begin with, but he did have a story. He shared tale of a great hunting expedition he was on recently, there was a group of seven including him, all good at separate parts of the hunt. They were searching for a creature he called a Clock Tower Manager who had apparently been running rampant in Al De Baran, where ever that is. They had been asked by the town militia to take out the, I think he called it a construct, what ever that is. According to the young man, he and his companions had a hard time fighting it, but in the end was victorious with only a few scrapes and maybe a broken rib or two.

The next was another human, older then the first though, claimed he was with the military and had no clue how he got here. His story was a little harder to follow then the other two. He spoke of many alternate universes, and that he had never came to a place like this before. Said he was unable to leave in his normal means of leaving universes, which the owner only gave a light chuckle while refilling our cups. He then told us of a world he had visited and had a friend or two from, where his friend was an insane scientist trying to destroy his arch-nemesis. A robot, much like the hunter's construct, by the name of 'Mega Man' who always stopped his friends attempts at world domination. I couldn't help it, and it slipped out to tell his friend that ruling the world isn't all it's cracked up to be. That was a mistake because it became my turn to share a story, and I told them the only story I could...

I started by telling them this was a story from a lifetime ago. I gave them my real name, not the name I go by now. I told them of my upbringing, how I was the son of the leader of a great nation. How I watched my father murdered in front of me, and of my ascension to the throne. How growing into my role as leader I had sent a messenger to one of my enemies with a message of peace, just to have the corpse returned to me with a letter saying they refused. I went into detail of how I was able to rile up some of my fathers closest friends, gaining them as allies in the invasion. I spoke to them of how we had taken first them, then the other enemy nations. By then I had taken one third of the world under my rule, and that the adviser of one of the nations I had conquered requested that he be in my service now, and how later I would learn of the mistake that was to accept. I told them of how my fathers friends gave into my demands of ruling their nations as well, the idea that my new adviser had given me. One of the weaker nations offered peace in the form of a merging of our nations, how my beautiful bride was the next in line for their thrown, and how the union gave me their kingdom to rule as well.  I went in depth of her beauty, her long golden hair, her skin the color of honeysuckle.  How she had rivaled the beauty of her ancestor who had a caused a great war with her own beauty. I conveyed how praises of my generosity and kindness could be heard throughout my nation, even when I was disguised as a beggar to see how the nation was doing from outside the palace walls.

I explained to them that I had succeeded in controlling over two thirds of the world before I learned just where my adviser's loyalty had actually lied from the beginning of his employ. I told them of the night it had all gone wrong, of the night me and my wife had planned to again try to conceive an heir for our kingdom. I had not known that my adviser had made her barren from a potion he brewed at her request to keep her beautiful for as long as she drank it, or that he was plotting my downfall from the beginning. I had come home from a night of conferencing with my highest ranking general, as well as my head of the treasury and others of my other high ranking officials, and how I had found her in our bed with another man.  She freaked out when she saw me, sawing she didn't know where she was or what was going on.  Like a fool, I believed what I saw instead of what she said, and after she was banished, my adviser claimed this was not the first time she had done this or that such noises were heard from our bedroom while I was gone.  He insisted he thought I had just returned early all those times before.  At the end of my story a man at the table who refused to take off his armor, even when food and drink was offered, asked me how I learned that she hadn't actually cheated on me.  I said to him that I saw my adviser once more a few months after I lost my kingdom, and he was still bragging about how he had drugged her, causing her to see my visage on the others face.

I explained that because I was crushed by what I thought was my wife cheating on me, I fell into a slump. I didn't want to deal with anything else, and as a result, my nation suffered for it.  A resistance had risen up over time as daily life became harder and harder as the months wore on, and one day they began to march to my castle with weapons. I shared with those at the table that while I had still trusted him, I did have a few secrets from my adviser.  After the resistance had broken through my gate on their way to kill me, I slipped out through a secret passage my father had showed me once while I was growing up. I went on to tell them all of how I hid for a almost a year, letting memory of me slip from my people's minds, then I entered the world again as a simple beggar with nothing to his name.

After my story, I was feeling fatigued so I excused myself and left, leaving to rest in one of the rooms upstairs.  I awoke what I think was a few hours later to find myself still in the inn. Another day went by before the storm had died down, I had heard many other tales, one about what walking the afterlife was like even.  I decided to leave, nothing else keeping me here.  I got up and left through the front door, and after going through the door, I had found the inside of my shack on the opposite side.  Exhausted, I looked behind me to find the street I now cleaned on my way home, the street I used to own.  I closed my door behind me, letting the night air help me relax a little, and proceeded to fall quickly to sleep on my bed.