The price of ignorance

After talking about our next moves, we decided to turn in for the night. Everyone drifted off to sleep before me, but it was a different story for my case. I was afraid of what I would see when I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see the spirits of the innocents I killed, but I’m a human being who needed rest. Eventually my body gave in to sleep, as I entered the dreamscape I was surprised when I saw my surroundings. I was sitting at a dining room table, the sun was peering through the curtains, and the smell of toast entered my nostrils. I noticed I was wearing red pjs, well I guess this is pleasant.

“I might as well enjoy my breakfast.”

I picked up my spoon and shoved it into the bowl in front of me, as I placed the spoon in my mouth I realized there was nothing there. I could’ve sworn I had toast and oatmeal in front of me before. Where on earth did it-

“Of course this was your doing.”

Across from me was my original self, she wore a white version of my pjs. In front of her was a balanced breakfast: cereal, toast, eggs and bacon. I started salivating as I saw her breakfast, upon seeing my face she grabbed her bowl and pulled it away.

“Nope, this is mine.”

“Bulls***, share some corn flakes with me.”

“This is only for good girls, here you can eat these.”

I heard something fill my bowl, I sighed as I went in for round two. I brought my spoon to my mouth and stopped.

“Wow, I didn’t know eyeballs were on the menu.”

In my bowl were several eyeballs, they all stared at me. Ophelia paid me in mind, she kept munching on cornflakes while watching the TV propped on the counter. On the TV was an old cartoon, with a pink cat trying to kill a bunch of dogs. I decided to address her again.

“Earth to prim and proper, I think I deserve some actual food.”

“Oh, so the eyeballs aren’t good enough. How about these then?”

I heard the bowl change again, I already knew her game at this point. I decided to look down this time, what awaited me was a bowl of ears. Severed and bloody goblin ears. I glared at the wench again, her focus was on the TV. I turned to look at it only to break into a cold sweat, the cartoon now showed me wearing cat ears. I was killing dog eared goblins in a toon like fashion. Crushed by an anvil, thrown in a paper shredder, placed into an oven and turned into a cake. I grew tired of her jeers and threw the bowl at the TV. The TV sparked from its cracked screen, Ophelia finally looked back and glared at me.

“Why must you be so destructive?”

“Screw You! I get it alright I messed up this time, but-”

“But what?”

Ophelia stared at me, her expression like a mother scolding her naive child. I didn’t want to answer, but I didn’t want to appear weak either. I forced the words out of my mouth, even though I knew they were wrong.

“What was I supposed to do? They were goblins, and I was scared. Everyone knows that goblins-”

“Tell me, since when were goblins evil?”

“Everyone knows goblins are evil, their some of the most wicked creatures in games and-”

I stopped myself there, I realized it the moment I said it. Goblins are evil creatures and games and anime, but have they ever been evil in this world? I began holding my head, I frantically searched my memory for a life line. What I found was nothing, goblins were never said to be horrible and malevolent creatures in this world.

“Goblins, a distant relative of the grass fae, usually born from swamps or marshlands. Their moral compass is the same as humans, although they can be tricksters at times.”

I looked at Ophelia after she said that, her eyes harbored disappointment. Then she propped her head up with her hands and looked directly at me.

“Tell me faker, are werewolves good are bad?”

“Werewolves are evil-”

“Werewolves are a type of beastmen, often placed in the halfblood category. So is that another misconception you were given?”

I thought about all the werewolf horror movies my mind stored away, and realized I forgot about this world’s werewolves.

“What about the Night Elves?”

“Night Elves are good-”

“The Night Elf race are seen as a heretical group that consort with demons. It’s been declared that any who accompany Night Elves will be deemed enemies of mankind.”

I buried my head with my hands, God what’s happened to me? It’s like I wasn’t even born in this world. Seeing me like this, Ophelia sighed and addressed what we now know.

“When you were given that alien wisdom, you lost some of the knowledge you learned from this world. Since you also forgot learning about this, that means your memory was tampered with too. Although, that still doesn’t excuse your actions.”

I looked at her, my eyes starting to fill with tears.

“Please just stop…”

“I won’t stop, you can’t blame your faulty memory for the guilt you feel now. You could’ve studied up on goblins to make sure the information you thought you knew was correct. You could’ve played the situation by ear and actually talked to the goblins before committing those atrocities. Instead, you chose to feel strong by slaughtering countless innocents. You should feel ashamed.”

I started sobbing realizing I had no out, I tried reaching Ophelia hoping she’d be my guide through this.

“Don’t touch me!”

I pulled my hand back and started trembling, Ophelia looked at me with disgust. I thought she was disgusted with what I did, but then she added something.

“Listen to me, I’ll only say this once. I’m disappointed at you and not angry, I apologized for my outburst just now. However, it seems you forgot something important.”

Ophelia raised her glass cup and I noticed something, my cup had fruit punch in it. Her’s had milk, she opened her mouth and told me the reason.

“I hate the color red, it appears you forgot why. Even then you call yourself ‘Opal’ you forgot why we hate the color red.”

Eh, Opal? What does my name have to do with any of this? I tried to peer into my mind to see if I could find out the significance behind the name Opal. All I found was nothing, I looked at Ophelia to see if she could offer any wisdom. What I saw was her holding a picture frame, while a tear crept down her face. As soon as she noticed my gaze, she sent the picture frame away and spoke to me with a somber tone.

“Listen, right now I have no control over your thoughts and actions, all I can do is ask that you try to do the right thing. With that, I leave you here with your thoughts.”

Ophelia began fading away, with a blink of my eye I found myself in a bathroom. I looked in the mirror and found myself in my barbarian outfit, covered in the same blood I had before. I touched the mirror and looked at my trembling hands, I formed a fist and realized what this was for.

“Only I can clean up my act, at least you were nice enough to leave a bath for me.”

I threw off the rags and jumped into the warm water. I'm surprised that Ophelia showed me this kindness. Then again, she hates the color red. I sat there in that tub, washing off the blood plastered to my skin and thinking about how to clean up my act.