The Holder of Restlessness

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or hospital you can get yourself to. Approach the front desk, and ask the attendant if they know where you may find "The Holder of Restlessness". They will turn to you, with a dazed look on their face. They are searching you. If you have not already obtained Object 96, the Pillow of Rest, he will refuse you, saying that he is too tired. Do not push him if he says this. He is on your side and doing this for your protection. If you have the pillow, he will stand, as if in anguish, and lead you to an elevator with buttons labeling thirty floors, even if the building was not that tall.

Whenever he exits the elevator, follow him, but do not be surprised if when you enter a floor, it is no longer a floor. This realm rests beyond any that you have traveled in. Most believe that it exists and feeds upon your own imagination. Some have seen a desert, some the bottom of the ocean, some say it is a city devoid of all life, and still some have said that it takes the form of the deepest dimensions of hell. This is the dream, and nothing here can harm you with physicality, but it can with ease tear your mind asunder. It will tempt you as the attendant leads you through the different floors, it will show you things you want, your carnal desires, your deepest passions. Do not be tempted to meld into the dream. If you should, your way will be lost and the dream will shatter, twist into your strangest nightmares, more terrible than any you might have encountered before. It will meld you into the dream, and leave your mind broken, and leave you a blithering mess. Thirteen times, into thirteen worlds, you must walk through, but you must follow the attendant, else you will be lost in the listless dream for the rest of eternity.

If you make it to floor fourteen, the attendant will speak to you that he cannot enter this floor, and that you must go alone. As soon as the doors part, he will vanish, as well as the elevator. All accounts of this place are that you will be standing in the middle of a church hospital. Far in front of you will be seated a hunched and cloaked figure. Walk toward them. With each step, waves of exhaustion will wash over you as if you were traveling a hundred miles. There will be beds to either side of you. Some occupied by tossing and turning, strap-bound men. Their eyes forced open by strange dividing machinations, and covered in horrid injures, burns, boils, and terrible bloody wounds. Occasionally, there will be an empty cot along the ward, and it will seem to be the most inviting sight to end your weariness. It will not, resting traps you in the dream, and you become like the wounded men, tortured for all existence, unable to ever rest again.

If you reach the figure, they will gesture across the table at an empty chair. Sit. At this point, if you had not already attained the Pillow of Rest, you would have fallen asleep, and fallen prey to the dream. And it would be a far more terrible nightmare than the listless dream world you've already passed through. Your own imagination will conjure your darkest fears to prey on you for the entirety of existence.

The seated figure will look up and remove their cowl and a layer of tattered bandages. It will be an older version of you, but it will be hazy. This is an indication of how much hold the dream has over you. Do not fear it. If you fear the dream, you give it power. And your doppelganger will become younger and more defined, until eventually, it seems like looking through a mirror. As they are an old person, they will speak to you, of things you've already done, and then of things you're going to do. They will speak of terrible truths about yourself, things you may not even know and you do not want to hear. This is another form of the dream. Do not cover your ears, or try to block them out, for you will be ripped from the chair, and forced into the dream. You must interrupt them, shouting if necessary, and ask, "How can they be put to rest?"

He will recount the history of the Objects that have been lost, their violent and bloody past. How the Objects were twisted and formed. It will be gruesome to hear, and the dream-like state will conjure up vivid mental pictures. It will seem like an age passes for every word that they speak, and all the while you will feel more and more like falling asleep where you sit. Eventually, they will stop, and say, "You look tired. Here." They will produce a tin cup out of one of the drawers, and pour a dark liquid into it from a hip flask. Drink. You will feel revitalized. Free of the weight of the dream. The next time you blink, you will find yourself on the steps where you entered. You will be holding the cup.

The tin cup is Object 418 of 2538. You can never stray from the path you are now on, be it straight as an arrow, or as meandering as a river, They will find you.