For the whole duration of my human life, I’ve loved dragons. For me, they were the most beautiful creatures never to exist, a monument to what God’s creation could have achieved, if only gave the world to reptiles in place of primates. As a kid, I devoured any dragon book I could find and would always beg my parents for dragon plushies when they took me to stores. At night, I had several stuffed dragons guarding my innocent slumber.

Once I got into adulthood, things changed little. I became a professional writer, and my genre was fantasy. In every book I planned, I always thrived to put as many dragons as possible, something that caused me some interesting discussions with my editor. A pair of time, under his recommendation, I had to replace dragons with something else, or I would become ‘too repetitive’ for the market; it hurt while I edited the text document files and deleted those dragons from their world. Every dragon I created, for me, is a companion. My house was filled with any sort of dragon memorabilia, and I still had the same stuffed dragons I had when I was a kid. There was no better way of sleeping than having them next to me, and when opening my eyes and waking up, they were the first thing I saw: it was the closest I could get to sleeping next to a real live dragon.

As I kept living, technology progressed, and so did my possibilities of continuing my obsession. It was, most of all, the internet that enhanced them. I could now search for every dragon related in a handful of seconds: books, images, info...and sounds. Yes, sounds. It was the latter who changed me forever.

* * *

It happened in the early 2010s, and I had just bought my first smartphone; a small gift to myself after having a very successful release that month. Switching from my old Nokia to that big touch screen felt incredible. I could install applications and browse the internet just like on a computer. I spent the whole day exploring all the amazing things I could do with that prodigy, lying in my bed, surrounded by my little dragon friends. At one point, I opened one of the pre-installed apps: it was YouTube. As I looked at the search bar, I didn’t lose any time and searched ‘dragons’. I looked at the results. The third one immediately caught my attention.

“Sleeping Next To A Dragon And Hear The Heartbeat | Dragon Ambience” ?

I pressed my button on it. The video playing showed nothing except a sleeping dragon, but from the phone’s speakers was coming a low, constant noise, very similar to a breath.

It’s a dragon breathing in its sleep!

I smiled content. Now I could enhance even further my simulation of sleeping with a dragon. I knew what I wanted to do next. I gave a look at the video’s length: eight hours. Perfect length. I took my favorite dragon plushie, put myself under the sheets and closed my eyes, keeping my phone next to me, which kept playing for me the sound of a sleeping dragon.

When I woke up, the phone’s battery was at five percent, but it had been fully worth it. I had never had such a pleasant sleep. The background noise of a breathing dragon stimulated my brain, which produced vivid dreams of me living in a cave, hugging a huge, gentle dragon and feeling his breath on my skin. It was now time to prepare myself for the new day’s writing: I took my new phone and with regret closed the YouTube application.

But the dragon sound didn’t stop.

Confused, I reopened the app. YouTube’s main homepage appeared, clearly showing the video was not in reproduction. I tried to make another video start, but while it played regularly, I could still hear in the background the sleeping dragon’s breath.

Wait. What is that IT guys say, when machines don’t work? Right! Have you tried turning it off and on again?

I long pressed the power button. Everything on the screen faded out, replaced by an animation of the manufacturer’s logo, then a black screen and the logo reappeared. But during this whole time, the sound of the dragon didn’t cease, even for those short moments when the phone was turned off.

What the…?

I spent maybe one hour trying any solution I could come up with, in vain. The dragon kept breathing inside my new phone, no matter what. Taking out the SIM, putting the phone upside down, making a call: none of these actions worked. I had to bring it to a service center. After only one day!

As I prepared myself, I turned the volume off, and the sound continued. Whatever problem this phone had, it was very weird. I put it inside its original box before leaving my house, directed to the place where I originally bought it.

Once there, I was welcomed by a young boy who had to be in his twenties. “Good morning sir, how can I help you?”

“Good morning. Yesterday I bought a phone here in your center. I was watching a YouTube video on it, but when I closed the app, it kept playing that video’s sound forever. Even after restarting it, it never ceases. I even turned the volume off. I can’t make it stop. Could you fix it?”

“Hmm. Do you have your phone with you?”

“Yes.” I extracted the box from my bag and opened it up. The low breath of the dragon surrounded the store.

“Can you hear it?”

“Hem, no, sir.”

“What?” I instinctively exclaimed. “Try putting the speakers on your ear?”

The clerk did so. “I can’t hear anything.”

“How...but it’s been the whole morning!”

“I don’t know what to say, sir.”

I remained frozen. I could hear it loudly, and the phone was just between me and the clerk. What was happening?

“Can’t you really fix it?” I asked, desperate?

“Not...not when it doesn’t seem to have any apparent problems, sir.” The clerk was now slightly moving his hips, like if he couldn’t wait to leave me alone.

I stood there, in silence. Then I remembered I had brought with me my receipt.

“Can I at least give it back?”

“If you have the receipt, we can give you a voucher of the same value.”

“I do.”

I gave them the phone back, and with the voucher they gave me I bought a different model from a different producer. At home, I reinstalled everything back and spent the rest of the day doing my writer job. I finished later than usual due to my morning being spent inside that store. When it was time to sleep, I opened the YouTube app and put the dragon video, certain that it was the first phone’s fault, whatever that clerk could say.

However, the next day, the same problem appeared. The dragon didn’t stop breathing from the phone speakers.

I don’t believe it!

This time, I didn’t lose time and prepared myself instantly to go back to the store. But once there, the clerk kept saying he didn’t hear anything.

“What do you mean?” I shouted, angry. “It’s the second time already I get this problem! I can hear it clearly!”

“Sir, please, none of us is hearing anything from our phone,” he replied with a slightly scared tone.

“Fine, I’ll get a third one! I brought the receipt again.”

“We can replace merch only one time, sir.”

It was there when something happened. As the rage within my mind escalated, my mouth opened up. What came from it wasn’t words; it wasn’t a scream, either.

It was a roar.

An animal roar, which sounded a lot like a tiger...or a dragon.

I covered my mouth with my hands. I felt no more angry, but scared. That sound couldn’t have been produced by a human throat.

“I must ask you to leave,” the clerk said.

Without saying anything, I left, leaving the phone there.

* * *

With regret, the following days I re-adapted myself to using my old Nokia. After discovering the world of smartphones, it felt so clunky and weird. Sleeping with that YouTube video next to me had given me such wonderful dragon dreams, that my nights didn’t feel as restoring as they used to be.

I could have just played that dragon video from my computer, but it wasn’t as comfortable as with a phone. I owned a desktop, and it was on the other side of the room; the amount of volume to hear it well would have awakened my neighbors. In any case, even if I had my computer next to my bed, I wouldn’t dare: what if that video infected my computer too with that absurd bug? I could renounce a smartphone for now, but my computer was essential for my job.

The following days, though, I felt...strange. The roar my vocal cords produced was only the beginning. One day, I roared at my editor at the phone. It was a normal conversation, where we were just discussing royalties, when suddenly, instead of replying to something I didn’t agree, I made that animalistic sound. I rapidly transformed it into a cough, but for the rest of the conversation, I held a hand on my throat, and blabbed more and more. When I closed the phone, I lay in bed exhausted. Another time, I was cooking a steak for dinner; I eat some meat once a week, never more than that. However, the sole view of that raw steak caused me a hunger I had never felt before. I put it on the pan, but I couldn’t wait: I ate it before it was fully cooked. The raw taste felt new, but at the same time good, in fact it was better. I didn’t even eat it with a fork and a knife: I ate it with my bare hands, munching avidly on that meat in its primitive state. When all the meat was inside my stomach, I looked at my hands, dirty with meat chunks, oil and blood. I refused to believe I had just done it.

What’s happening to me?

I looked at my dragon memorabilia. It wasn’t difficult: every corner of my house had one. Was I starting to behave like one of them? Had my passion started to become some kind of mental illness? Maybe it was just stress, I told myself. I should have called my editor again and told him I needed a long break. Yes, that was the most logical explanation. I proceeded to the bathroom, to wash my hands…

Release me.

It was a voice, inside my head. Its tone was low and rough, like a growl. But the fact is, it didn’t feel like a thought of mine. It felt like someone else’s. I stopped walking just before entering the toilet.

Who are you? I tried to think.

I didn’t get any answer.

Yes, I told myself, I really need a vacation.

* * *

My editor was very comprehensive. He told me I wasn’t the first writer in burnout he had dealt with, and wished me a good holiday. Not wanting to stress me further, instead of booking everything by myself, I went to a holiday agency and paid for a full package. Destination: Naxos, in Greece.

While packing my bags, initially I didn’t put any of my dragons, an absolute novelty for me. However, soon the sense of guilt hit me and I put just one, the oldest plushie I have ever had. In any case, I was determined not to take him out of the bag for the whole journey.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Naxos was enchanting. I stayed in a hotel on the sea, white with blue windows, just as the rest of the buildings. The sea was crystal clear. I must have taken uncountable photos of sunsets over the water. And the food! I ate so much tzatziki and souvlaki that I still had their taste in my mouth at night.

Speaking of which, the night was not as pleasant. I felt so restless. At first, I thought it was because I didn’t have my dragons with me. That was what brought me to surrender and take out my plushie after just two days out of three weeks. However, that turned out not to be the problem. Despite holding tight my dragon in my arms, I could barely sleep. And I couldn’t understand why. I was on a heavenly island, I spent my days walking around beaches and enchanting villages, I was supposed to be tired and satisfied. Instead, my eyes refused to close. My mind was a buzz of indefinite thoughts, that only after a while began getting a shape.

It was obvious. Everything had begun after listening to that dragon video. It had broken something inside my mind, and now I couldn’t stay in peace. I needed to listen to it again. I coveted those vivid dreams with dragons, which I could get only by listening to that dragon breath. But how could I do it there? I had only my flip phone: it couldn’t connect to the internet properly. I would have had to buy a smartphone there, and if something went wrong once home, I’d have had to get back here to replace it. I had to resist.

But after one week, I was more tired and stressful than before this vacation. My roars had resumed. I couldn’t enjoy anymore the souvlaki and instead begged for more raw meat. Also, I realized my breath was now sounding like a growl. Like the growl from that damn video. Worst, during another restless night, that voice in my head returned.

Release me.

“Who are you?” I shouted out of frustration. No answer.

The next day, I was basically a zombie. I walked in the streets of the island’s capital, to nowhere in particular. I had no more force to enjoy the beautiful scenery around me. Inside me was only exhaustion and hunger for raw meat, again. And that terrible voice talked again to my brain; always the same two words: Release me.

I couldn’t hold it any longer. I looked for the first electronic store I could find.

* * *

I got back in my hotel room holding my third new smartphone in my hands. I opened the box filled with anxiety, desperate to hear that lullaby again and have, finally, a sweet dragon slumber. I didn’t even lose time configuring it: I directly opened the YouTube app and searched for the video. But there was no internet. I couldn’t use my SIM, my plan only covered my country.

I shouted out of frustration, and once again, from my mouth came that dreadful roar. I ran to the reception, and almost in tears, asked if it was possible to access the internet.

“Yes sir, here is the wi-fi password,” the woman at the reception told me.

“The...what?”

“I’ll show you,” she said, and illustrated me the steps to let me get into the internet without a SIM card.

“Thank...you,” I said feebly. Without waiting for anything else, I fled back to my room and in a feverish, delirious state, I collapsed on the bed with the phone in my hands, searched for the video, and pressed play.

I instantly felt better. Grabbing my stuffed dragon in my arms, listening to the low, calm breath of the dragon from the speakers, for the first time in weeks I closed my eyes. Other wonderful dreams followed, and in these dreams I was next to a dragon, lying against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, paying attention to his hoarse, pleasant breath. I didn’t see where I and the dragon were, but it didn’t matter: the dragon’s presence made that undefined location better than one thousand Greek islands.

When I woke up, I felt refreshed. I felt like I was reborn. I listened to my breath, and to my incredulity, it sounded just like the dragon’s. But inside me, there was no more space for fear: that kind of breath now felt right, as if it was just natural that I’d breathe like that.

I took the phone. The video was still playing. With trembling hands, I closed the application.

The sound didn’t stop.

I didn’t even care. In fact, I wouldn’t even dare go back to the store and ask them to have it repaired or replaced. I would just keep that phone inside the box, and open it back at night.

The next day, I felt so full of energy. I could walk through the entirety of the beach in front of the hotel and never get tired. I swam in the sea, played volleyball with some vacationers I met there, and when evening came, I could have still had a walk. All because of that video. That scared me. Was I going to be forever dependent on it? What if I lost that phone, if that video got deleted by its uploader? And who did upload it? So many questions were in my head, that even though I felt physically better, mentally I was more anxious than ever. Then, in the middle of my reasoning, just as I crossed the hotel’s entrance, the voice returned.

Release me. Release me whole!

I stopped. It took all my mental capacity not to shout at it again. Not only had it been stronger, but it had also added a new word.

Once in my room, I attempted to call it back. I removed every other thought, concentrated on my new breath, begged the voice out loud. After two hours, it returned.

Release me whole! Let me out!

“That’s all you have to say?” I shouted. “Who are you? What are you doing inside myself?”

Release me!

“Grrraaaaaaawwwwwwrrrrrrrr!” I shouted.

Ironically, my stomach growled at that moment. Thankfully, it was a normal stomach noise. I went down the hotel’s restaurant, ordering the rarest steak I could find on the menu. Painfully, I resisted the urge to eat it with my bare hands. Worse, when I was done, I wasn’t satisfied yet. I ordered a second one.

I got to bed with a stomach full of raw meat, taking out the smartphone out of its box. The sound of the breathing dragon filled my ears, and as I hugged my stuffed dragon, I thought no more.

Again, I dreamed of the same dragon. My head was always against his chest, enjoying the noise of his respiratory system against my hearing. But this time, there was a variation.

The dragon spoke.

“Release me.”

I pulled my head away from his chest.

“Y...you…”

“Release me,” the dragon repeated, “Release me!”

“What do you mean?” I replied. “Is that...you? The voice in my head?”

“Yes.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Release me.”

“Explain me!” I cried to him. “You want to be free? Just that? Get out of my head then!”

“I can’t,” he replied.

“Why?”

“Because you are me.”

“What?” I stared at him in disbelief. Nothing that dragon was saying made sense to me.

“You are not human,” he replied.

“Of course I am human!”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No.”

I stood in silence. That conversation was already stupid enough without turning it into a verbal ping-pong match.

“What do you me to do? Tell me!”

“Hear me breathe.”

“Uh?”

“Hear me breathe. When you sleep.”

“You mean...the video? The video in my phone?”

“Yes.”

“But I do it already!”

“Not enough. Do it more.”

I put my hands on my head. Do it more...what did he want? Was I supposed to listen to that video all day long? Bring that possessed phone with me everywhere I went? Most of all, what did he expect to happen, if I followed his order?

“You release me,” he answered.

“What! Does! That! Mean!” I screamed, stomping my foot. “What will it happen when I release you!” My hand was closed in a fist. I was almost ready to give a well-deserved fist to that dragon’s chest. In my story, dragons weren’t always good and amazing, but they were still always wise and intelligent. Now I was talking to a dragon, even if just in my dreams, and he could barely say two or three words in the same line. And he kept saying the same stuff!

“You will be like me. No more human. More happy.”

Finally, I realized what he meant. My new acquired taste for raw meat, the new sound of my breath, my roars, my weird problem with smartphones...it all became clear.

“You mean...I’ll become a dragon?”

The dragon didn’t reply, but neither did he counter my statement. I took his reaction as a yes.

I knew I was supposed to be interested, if not ecstatic. I had given all my life to dragons, hadn’t I? But the truth was I wanted to befriend a dragon, not be a dragon. Despite everything, I still liked being a human, which let me do things like writing my stories and visiting nice places like Naxos. Also, if being a dragon meant having his same intellect…

“I’m not going to.”

The dragon growled. “You will.”

“I don’t want!”

“You’ll be sad.”

“I was fine before you entered my mind!”

“You are me. I was always in you.”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The dragon snapped his snout close to me, making me retreat. His head was bigger than my whole body...it may have been just a dream, but an angry dragon coming at you was still a dreadful view.

“You can resist not long. You will see it.”

With that, I woke up. The noise of the dragon breath kept playing through the speakers of the phone.

* * *

Determined not to give in to the monster inside my head, I put the phone back in its box, covered its speakers with a tape and didn’t take it out for the rest of my vacation.

The last day, I felt a strange urge to explore the island’s heights. I had come there mainly for the beaches, and couldn’t care about the mountains behind. One could say I had just visited everything in there, that I went there out of boredom. But that isn’t what I was feeling. Rather, it was a second mind that begged me to go there, and I knew who it was. For the first time, I contemplated the possibility of having a mental illness. A multiple personality disorder, something like that. But that didn’t explain things like eating raw meat or roaring. Once I read about clinical lycanthropy, but how many mind problems could I have? Those were my thoughts as I climbed Mount Zas, Naxos’ highest point. As I looked at the rocky panorama, the dragon spoke again.

No prey.

Thank goodness, at that moment there weren’t tourist around. I could use my voice.

“This island is too small to have prey,” I told him. “If you want me to eat more raw meat, wait until I’m back town.”

Better prey east, the dragon replied. Taller mountains. More animals.

“I can’t go to Turkey goddamnit!”

Release me and you can fly.

“That’s not going to happen!”

It felt as if that dragon, that dragon that existed only inside my head, was ruining my life. Whatever illness I had, I needed to see a psychiatrist.

No psychiatrist. Hear breath.

“NEVER!”

My last shout echoed through the rocks of the whole island. I couldn’t take it anymore. I fell on my knees, and began crying. I wish I had never bought that first smartphone in first place. In fact, I wish I had never gotten into dragons. I just wanted to be left alone, to have my mind all by myself, to enjoy that beautiful Greek island and think of nothing but swimming and eating delicious Mediterranean food.

You are sad, the dragon piled on. You must become me.

“It’s YOU who makes me sad! I was fine!”

No.

“YES!”

No. You loved dragons. More than humans. This is because I am you.

“Wh…” He actually had a point. My interest in dragons...even my editor said he had never met anyone as obsessed as me, and he was specialized in fantasy.

Fine, I told myself. Maybe he was right. But I had a human life. I had family, friends, a job. I couldn’t just leave everything behind and disappear. I couldn’t make everyone I love think I’m dead.

Humans matter not. You are me.

“You are cruel!”

No, I am dragon.

I didn’t even know whether I had to laugh or not. In any case, I had no more the force nor the willpower to contrast him. I recognized my defeat.

“Very well. You won. What do I need to do? Just listen to that video at night?”

Hear breath here. When you become me, you can be not in human places.

“But tomorrow I got my plane back home!”

Humans matter not. Get here with phone. When you become me, fly east.

Right. I wouldn’t need planes anymore. There was no need to worry about the money I’d waste because I wouldn’t either need money.

“I am scared…”

Fear not. Follow real you.

“Alright. I’ll go back, take my phone and stay here.”

* * *

It was night. I was walking the same trail I had crossed that morning, using my smartphone as a torch. The sound of the breathing dragon filled my ears, playing in synchrony with my own breath. In my bag was my stuffed dragon and a bottle of water.

“Here?” I said out loud, hoping the dragon would answer me.

Yes.

I sat down against a rock and opened the bag, extracting my plushie. It was a night of full moon, and its light reflected on the peaks around me and the Aegean Sea, visible from the horizon. I put the phone as close as I could to my ears, then closed my eyes.

I saw the dragon again. His snout expressed something that wasn’t too dissimilar to a smile. I felt no emotion. All that remained in my head was a sense of having to do it. I would either get back my peace of mind or keep my life and solve my issues with a doctor. At worst, I wouldn’t feel anything anymore.

“It’s time,” the dragon pronounced.

“What comes next?”

“You will become me.” He opened his mouth. “Enter.”

“What...you want to eat me?”

“No. You will not go to stomach. You will merge with me.”

I hesitated. I had accepted to follow him, but the natural fear of being eaten was holding me. However, that was just a dream. A vivid one, where my mind could think rationally, but still a dream. My body wouldn’t get hurt for real.

“Do not be afraid,” he said.

Sighing, I climbed on, thankful that in dreams, I had no sense of smell.

* * *

Many seasons have passed. After that day, I moved to Turkey, in the Taurus Mountains. I haven’t had any contacts with my family, nor my editor, and certainly they have contacted the police repeatedly. Maybe, back home, my case has made the news. I have no way to check this out, though.

I haven’t written a single story since then. In fact, there are many human activities I haven’t done anymore. Neither have I heard the voice of the dragon, which is now my voice.

It is a beautiful night in the mountains. The sky is cloudless and the moon shines in its entireness. The stars shine too, like they never did in my original home. From the depths of the cave I am in, I can smell all the life these peaks are filled with. Human scent is very feeble, but all around me are foxes, wolves, eagles, jackals. No other predator can compete with me. Life is good.

I examine the smells coming, in search of prey that will sustain my new life. There is one north. I take flight.