Dream Eater

Published to Reddit January 2021

Dreter, or the Dream Eater, had been in my life for a long time. I remember the day I created him. With some hope and a little bit of magic that was never meant to be mine, to begin with.

I was so young and yet had lived so much. A mere 14 years of age. Too young to be tampering with things beyond people's twice my age capabilities. But I just wanted to escape the terrors that refused to let me sleep. And Dreter, he allowed a reprieve from the endless torment.

The book had been found by accident like it was meant for my hands and my eyes. Tucked back behind an old dumpster behind the school. How it got there or why it was there, I'll never know. But with tired eyes, experiencing waking dreams, it's covered called to me.

A teal cover, shined with a gloss that had patches lost from time scattered throughout it. It had a cloud with a circle encasing it emboldened on the front in gold and it was wrapped loosely with a red ribbon that seemed to serve as a bookmark when it wasn't encasing the tome. Something called to me and beckoned me to it. I willingly went too, without much more thought than a feeling in my gut that this would solve my problems. And I was so very tired.

I took it quickly and tucked it into my book bag before I went home. Where the screaming and drunken rages screamed and howled through the panel door that served as my only protection. But their shouting and bickering were nothing compared to the monsters in my head.

I had opened the cover and inside were words of a creature that would feast on the dreams of mortals. In my slumber-deprived state, as war raged behind a tiny door, it seemed like such a simple answer. Seemed.

I spoke the words slowly from the book, such a rookie mistake as any blonde cheerleader in a horror flick would tell you from beyond the grave. But I did it and Dreter appeared before me.

I stared up through the purple bags that ladened by eyes in rings from night after night of no sleep, no rest. And he was beautiful.

He wore a long dark cape that turned into a long tunic of gold and silver. small splashes of teal here and there like on the book. He had sharp but elegant features and towered over me as I crouched on the ground. His skin was pure white and so was his hair, with dark pure black eyes that looked upon me with a strange mixture of disgust and pity.

He spoke in a deep and hollow voice, detached, bored. "What do you want mortal female?" He asked as though I was nothing more than a bothersome pest and he was debating the pest poison for my removal.

My voice shook with the traces of youth and fear but the steady beat of conviction "Can you take my dreams away?" I breathed out as best I could.

He answered with a roll of his eyes to my bedroom ceiling "Yes. What will you offer?"

My bright eyes snapped up to his, confused "Offer? Aren't my dreams the offering?"

"No." was all his distant voice had to say.

I thought for a long moment, a long time. I was so tired. So sleepy and he had what I needed. The screaming outside my door seemed so far away and I spoke softly, lost.

"You can have whatever you want, just take the dreams away." I pleaded and pressed my lips and eyes together. Tears rolled down my face in desperation.

"I will see you in 20 years then." And he was gone.

I felt tired, so tired all of a sudden, and the book slipped from my hands before I slumped on the floor and rested peacefully for the first time in my life. No dreams came. Only the distant glimmers of gold and silver before the darkness came and peace with it.

It was like this for the next 20 years. Peaceful dreams. I left my family home for a better life and made more. By my 34th birthday, I had adjusted to life outside the hellscape and forgotten, nearly, about the bargain I made for dreamless nights in exchange for something never specified. Sometimes I thought I imagined it. But on my birthday, he came to prove me wrong.

My dreams were nothing but blackness, a void I slipped into and woke from as easily as the dawn came. But in my slumber for the first time in 20 years, the flash of silver and gold stopped to turn on me.

His voice was as hollow and dark as I remember. My dream self materialized and I felt real as his form came into focus and he walked through the darkness toward me.

"It is time." is all he said to me.

I stared and my voice shook as it faintly echoed in the dreamscape. "Time... For what? What do you want Dreter?" I asked as I took breaths I didn't need in this place.

He cocked a pale brow at me and his next words seemed like he'd been caught off guard.

Hallow and dark, but laced with a faint curiosity "Dreter?"

I laughed softly "It's what I used to say when I was younger... before I forgot." I felt a sense of guilt for forgetting what he did for me nightly. "I'd wake up and say "Thanks, Dreter." It was short for "dream eater"

He made a soft scoffing noise that sounded vaguely amused. He muttered something about mortals being foolish. Then said in a more clear, deep tone.

"Your price human, you must pay it now." He said in a bored fashion that brought back memories of the young me on the floor in an old paneled room with stained carpet and so tired my eyes felt like they may bleed.

I was her again, for a moment, that scared and tired little girl. But at the same time, I wasn't. I was an accomplished woman, a happy woman, who had done something with the 20 years he'd given me.

My voice shook but I straightened my back, keeping my eyes on him and focused as I set my resolution on my face.

"Fine. Collect whatever you want. That's what I said right? That you could have whatever you wanted?" I felt like breathing harder but somehow I realized I didn't really need to.

He paused and slowly looked from something off in the distance to me and his blacked-out eyes pierced through me. But I kept my pale gaze on his dark one.

"You... merely accept this? Not knowing what I will collect... Your life, your mind, your spirit? You do not ask and simply... give?" He sounded mildly surprised again, a curious note in his hollow voice.

I shrugged and answered easily "We make our own beds, don't we?" I smiled a little bit on one side at him "Seems beneath us when it's time to lie down. You gave me 20 years of peace, I lived well. Thank you. Collect." I opened my arms a little "I always knew, deep down I'd have to pay, even if I did forget." I laughed again and looked away at the black void of the ground before back into the void of his eyes that widened at my response. I was ready though, for what may come.

He stared for what felt like an eternity at me, his eyes boring into mine, and yet I felt no fear, only resolution that it was time for me to pay the price for my wonderful life, however short it had ended up. He finally spoke, softer, less hollow.

"Come, Charine," he said my name for the first time and it sounded like bells. In an instant, he was before me and his hand, long and elegant offered like I was a lady.

I stared at his hand and slowly slipped my hand in his and as I did I felt my soul leave my worldly body and I knew that whoever I was was gone.

"Where are we going Dreter?" I asked as we moved through the darkness, toward a light far off.

All he said before the bright light hit me and bliss touched my soul was, "To show them, Charine... That your kind is worth saving."