Dream Eater

The deadlines for my novels always stressed me out so I always turned to cigarettes during the day and the dreams of other people during the night. I started noticing my power when I was bored being hospitalized from a car accident two months ago. My strange ability kept me sane from reality.

The phone rang, shocking me out of a gaze. It took me a moment to register that the call had already gone to my voicemail. I looked at my phone and there was the name Cathy along with ten voice messages I didn’t even listen to. It was all Cathy saying that she needed my draft for the deadline in three days.

I tossed my phone on the pillow and put out my cigarette. I jumped on the bed letting out a deep sigh and rubbed my face. The stubble around my jaw line pricked against my rough hands. I just wanted to rip out all my responsibilities. The only time I never had something to do was when I was in a dream. This would be the right moment to go into someone else’s mind. I closed my eyes and drifted off.

My power kicked in and swirls of colors surrounded me, sucking me into another dimension. Invisible chains yanked at my limbs, tugging and ripping me apart. My body became the swirling vortex of colors. I sank deeper and deeper into nothingness until I suddenly landed in a snowy forest.

The soft, untouched snow nearly buried my feet. The forest had sparse, thin trees that were taller than mountains. The sky was a dull smoky grey like it was overcast day near the coast line. I touched a stray twig from a tree and it crumbled before I could even pinch it between my fingers. The long shadows cast by the trees were strange since there was no distinct source of light in this world. Small snowflakes danced gently to the ground with no wind to catch them in its breath.

This was different than my other adventures in people’s dreams. I wasn’t in a dream at all. All the other dreams I went into were mystical and had a certain sparkle to them. Most dreams had faceless people that I called Fillers. This landscape just felt so frigid that there was no way this was a dream. This was the first time I stumbled across a nightmare.

I wandered around curiously. Even with the chilly setting of the place, I felt the burning touch in my core. This feeling of the dangerous unknown was what I loved. The thought of even being in a nightmare for the first time thrilled me. I breathed in the cool air of my surroundings quickly, my heart pounding with anticipation.

“Why are you here?” a voice whispered near my ear. I whipped around quickly and saw a pale young woman dressed in a ragged white dress that was frayed on the ends showing her feet that seem to blend into the snow. Her hair was a mangy, pitched black that slightly covered her weary face that was filled with dread.

My throat went dry even if I tried swallowing. I couldn’t answer her. The young woman grabbed my arm in desperation. “You cannot be here. They will find you.”

“Who are they?” She didn’t even have to answer my question. Thousands of roars and screeches sounded around us. The wind announced its presence and cried through the trees and the once gentle snowflakes turned into sharp razors against my skin. I wasn’t even aware of the abrupt change of scenery.

Darkness surrounded my whole being, but there were strange dimly shaped colors littered across my view with hues of fluttering blues and a translucent deep red. I wasn’t even standing on anything but the same inky scene.

“Where am I?” My voice didn’t even reverberate in this strange world that seemed to be as vast as the universe. The deep red of the landscape suddenly became more prominent compared to the strange blue shapes.

“Who are you?” a familiar female voice boomed around me with a slight echo that my voice didn’t even have. “What’s going on? I knew therapy was a bad idea.”

“Therapy? Wait, I’m in your head?” I asked.

“So you’re the guy that was in my dream during my therapy session,” she said with more of a statement instead of a question.

“I’m not supposed to be here,” I boiled in fear, “I should have gone back into my body after you woke up.”

I tried to calm down my emotions, but frustration kept creeping back into me. I was stuck in this woman’s consciousness and I didn’t even know how to get out. My throat tightened even if I wanted to scream in this blotched covered darkness. Before I could say anything more I heard a television turn on.

"This just in, famous writer Ethan Brooks was found in his apartment in a coma by his editor, Cathy Morrison. Doctors have found no medical reason for this unusual incident. Police reports found no evidence of forced entry or illegal drugs. More information later at ten o’clock on ZW Channel 6. In other news...."

"That really sucks. Ethan Brooks is an amazing science fiction writer. Have you read any of his books?" she asked, oddly dismissing the fact that I was in her head.

"Of course I do. I write them." It comforted me that Cathy found my comatose body and was being taken care of, but I still didn’t feel too happy about being stuck in some woman’s consciousness.

“Really?! You’re writing is so-”

“Will you shut up?! I’m trying to figure out a way to get out.”

Even if I concentrated on getting back in my body, nothing happened. I was always still stuck in the dark canvas behind her eyelids. Just when I started to get fatigued from all the focus a glimmer of light sparked.

“Hey lady, I think I know how to get out of your head. You need to get back to sleep and dream.”

“My name is not Lady and since you’re in my head you might as well know my name. It’s Willow, by the way.”

I furrowed my brows, slightly amazed how Willow is still just disregarding our strange predicament so I decided to ask, “Why are you not freaking out?”

There was a moment of silence in her head. All I heard was the faint sound of cars driving by and the television. “Because this is the coolest thing that ever happened to me! There’s a voice in my head, that isn’t even mine! And you’re just in luck. I just refilled my prescription sleeping pills so you’ll be out of my head in no time.”

I rolled my eyes. Out of all the people in the world, I had to go into the mind of a woman that has problems sleeping. “Well then, why don’t you pop in those pills?”

“Doing that,” Willow paused, “now.”

A few moments passed and from the inside of her head I heard her light snores and all the strange blue and red shapes disappeared and I was surrounded by pure black, but no dream came up. I was grateful for no annoyance to bother me while I concentrated on getting out of her mind, but when a couple of hours went by and I was still stuck in empty darkness I started to panic.

“Hey! Lady! I mean, Willow! Wake up! This isn’t working!” I yelled, but she didn’t wake. “Of course she won’t wake up. She’s on sleeping pills. I’m so stupid. Of course,” I mumbled to myself and waited for full eight hours.

“You still in here?” I heard Willow’s voice in surround sound.

“Well, good morning Sleeping Beauty,” I sighed angrily. “I’m still here.”

“Well you woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” Willow turned on the lights.

I knew my patience was wearing down. “Not just the wrong side of the bed, the wrong body.”
“Then why didn’t it work?” Willow asked groggily.

I sighed again not knowing the answer. “I guess we should just wait it out then.”

“Hey, we got to fix this! I need to get back!” I yelled to her. The inkiness suddenly got brighter with red spots.

“And I need to go to my therapy session for my insomnia. If I can’t sleep without pills, then you might not be able to get out.”

I sighed knowing she was right. If the new assumptions were correct, I could get out and back in my body if Willow would have a dream. Willow made her way to the clinic of her therapist for her regular appointment.

As she sat down on the sofa her therapist asked “So Willow, how is your sleep going?”

“Don’t tell her about me,” I said to Willow distracting her.

“Yes, of course,” she said out loud. I knew that her therapist was giving her an odd look since Willow threw in a fake cough and continued, “Sleeping is going great, fantastic even. Why am I not having my nightmares, or dreaming at all?”

“You’re sounding like a nutcase,” I told her.

“Willow,” the therapist started, “Some nights you’ll dream, some nights you won’t. It is possible that the pills are preventing you from dreaming, but they are working since you are sleeping. You don’t look as tired as before. And if you do have those nightmares again I want you to accept it then control it. When you are able to control your nightmare, it won’t be a nightmare anymore.”

“So you’re saying if I sleep without the pills then it’s possible for me to dream again.” Willow didn’t wait for an answer and left her therapist.

Right when Willow passed the waiting room and receptionist desk, I heard the news on the television say my name again. “Yesterday, famous writer Ethan Brooks was found in a coma in his apartment. Doctors found that his body is shutting down rapidly for unknown reasons and is going to take off the life support. Fans have been protesting the decision outside of Saint Hospital which is causing problems for many other patients and employees…”

“I’m dying! This can’t be happening!” I yelled. “You have to get to the hospital!” Deadlines were never a friend of mine, but now my life is at stake and I might truly be dead if I don’t get my powers back.

“Why? You think if I touch your actual body you’ll poof right back in?”

“Hopefully it will work,” I sighed getting desperate.

Willow made her way into the hospital passing through the large crowd of my fans lying to the nurses saying the she was my niece. Inside the room, I heard Cathy my editor crying already saying her goodbyes to my comatose self.

Willow came closer to my body, but even if she touched my forehead nothing happened. I heard the sounds of the footsteps of the doctor as he came into the room to finally take me off life support. I could picture everything through the darkness behind Willow’s eyelids. The doctor’s hands slowly coming up to shut off all the equipment that tried to keep my body alive.

My breathing and heart rate slowed immensely until my body was perfectly still.

“Ethan, are you still in my head?”

There was a small silence. “I’m here.” Willow went back to her apartment defeated, thinking that the plan should have worked, but I was denied by my own body. We didn’t speak to each other the whole ride home.

“It’s your fault,” I said, irrational anger boiled inside me.

“What do you mean my fault? It’s yours! You are the one with the power!” Willow yelled out loud alone in her apartment.

“If you didn’t have to use sleeping pills then maybe I could have had the chance!”

“Do not put the blame on me! It’s your problem that you came into my mind.” I heard the sound of pills juggling inside of a bottle.

“Willow, do not take those,” I warned, but it was too late. I heard her gulp down her sleeping pills.

Instead of being alone in the darkness behind her eyelids, I was greeted with the brightness of her nightmare. The snow that fell became a blizzard and I was finally standing on the same snowy ground. The thin branches stood straight reaching up to the sky. The usual gray clouds were stormy black.

I covered my face from the frigid winds. The snowflakes were like swords against me, almost cutting my skin. Far away I saw a silhouette of a person walking slowly towards me. Before I knew it, Willow's dream-self appeared in front of me, her black hair tangled in the wind and her once ragged white dress became a thin silk fabric that went all the way down to the white snow.

"They will find you, intruder," her voice traveled like the winds. A piercing roar resonated everywhere from around me. The trees shook the snow from their branches and the ground trembled beneath me. Her nightmare was coming after me.

I tried gathering up the power within me to get out, but nothing happened. I was still stuck in Willow's nightmare. I could feel the pounding of my heart in my ears. I ran as fast as I could, but even the snow restrained me.

I could feel the darkness of her nightmare coming up from behind me. Another roar close behind me and my face was buried in the snow. I tried getting up, but something pushed me back and turned me around.

The beast had the form of a large wolf and stood on its hind legs. The sparse dark gray hair was in a disarray of spikes and covered with blood. Saliva dripped from the large teeth that grinned at me. The claws were long sharp blades. Its eyes were hallowed out and a strange thick amber liquid leaked out from them.

I turned my head away from the monster only to see a dozen more of them surrounding me growling, drooling, and itching for a taste of me. I shut my eyes tightly desperately needing to disappear from this nightmare.

The beast roared commanding all the others to join the feast and they all sprinted towards me. Their monstrous jaws opened widely and clamped onto my body and ripped out chunks of me.

Her mind was my funeral.