When Sofia remembered her dreams, she only remembered the nightmares, never pleasant dreams. In the last few months, she had a nightmare every night. There was no connection between the nightmares every nightmare was different. The only thing that repeated in the nightmares was that Sofia saw a man dressed in black and purple each time He was always there but she could never see his face.
Some nightmares were about natural disasters, some about running through the woods away from zombies, a lot of them were about parts of her body falling off and one of the most disturbing was the one where all her teeth fell out. Sofia also hated the ones where she was traped or tied down to a table and tortured. Each time she had that kind of nightmare she woke up all covered in sweat, breathing heavily.
Her boyfriend Aiden started to worry about her. It wasn’t normal for someone to have nightmares each day. When Sofia told him about her last nightmare, where Sofia was at her own funeral, burying her dead body and watching bugs and maggots eat her. Her dead body tried to scream, but couldn’t. Aiden decided that having such nightmares for months wasn’t normal, so he went to a store and bought a dream catcher. The woman selling them assured him that it will work and if it doesn’t that she’ll give him the money back.
Happy that he did something to help Sofia, Aiden came home and drilled a hole over Sofia’s side of the bed. He hanged the dream catcher and waited for Sofia to come home from work. After she came back, he immediately took her to the bedroom and, with a smile on his face, showed her the dream catcher.
“A dream catcher. Are you serious? You do know that they don’t work Aiden?” Sofia said.
“What’s the harm in trying it? Maybe it will help. You never know.” Aiden said. “Wouldn’t you like to sleep normally for a change?”
“Oh yes! I had enough of these nightmares.” Sofia said.
“Then wats the harm. Let’s try it. The lady at the shop told me that if it doesn’t work she’ll give me my money back.” Aiden said.
“Ok. I’ll try it.” Sofia said. “Now, let’s go eat. I’m starving.”
After dinner, they watched a movie and drank some beers to relax. Around midnight they went to sleep. Sofia lay down on her side of the bed and looked doubtfully toward the dream catcher. It looked like a normal circle, with strings imitating a spider’s web inside, decorated with beads and feathers. Sofia knew about dream catchers and she knew that it was just a marketing scam for superstitious people. But Aiden looked happy that he found a way to help her so she couldn’t break his heart. She decided to let it hang on the wall for a few days and let Aiden see that there was no point to them.
In the morning, Sofia woke up, rested and refreshed. She couldn’t remember her dreams, she couldn’t remember the nightmare. Sofia looked at the dreamcatcher and it seemed like half of one of the strings in the circle was glowing purple. Sofia woke up Aiden and hugged him telling him that she didn’t have a nightmare and pointing at the string in on the dream catcher. Aiden was happy that the dream catcher worked, but he couldn’t see the string glowing. Sofia gave it no more thought, she rushed out of bed happy and made breakfast.
After months of nightmares and sleepless nights, Sofia felt like a different person. Even people at work looked asked her what happened and gave her compliments that she looked better. Sofia still couldn’t believe that a simple thing like a dream catcher actually worked.
Next few months Sofia slept peacefully. She had more energy, her relationship with Aiden got better, they were doing so well that Sofia thought that he’ll propose to her soon, and she could concentrate more easily at work.
It seemed like without the nightmares she finally had a normal life. The only thing bothering her that each morning, when she woke up, another piece of the string in the circle of the dream catcher glowed purple. This morning almost all the strings were glowing purple.
Sofia asked Aiden where she bought the dream catcher and he gave her the address of the store. After work, she went to the store to talk to the person who sold the dream catcher to Aiden, to ask about the glowing strings. When she got there, an old woman was sitting at the counter so she headed towards her.
“Sorry, I don’t want to bother you, but I have some questions.” Sofia said.
“Yes, how can I help you?” The old woman said.
“My boyfriend bought a dream catcher from your store a few months back and there is a problem with it.” Sofia said.
“If it doesn’t work I’ll give you money back.” The old woman said.
“That’s not the problem. It works perfectly, but something’s wrong with it. Almost all of my strings in the circle are glowing purple.” Sofia said.
“If it’s working no money back.” The old woman said.
“I don’t want money. I want to know why the strings are glowing. What does it mean?” Sofia asked.
“You don’t want money. Then I tell you. Your nightmares are in the strings of the circle, but they only glow when something is trying to get them out.” The old woman said.
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“Get them out? What does that mean?” Sofia asked.
“You are possessed by a creature that causes and then feeds on your nightmares. They are in the dream catcher and he is trying to eat them, but can’t get them free, the dream catcher too strong.” The old woman explained.
“So what happens when all the strings glow?” Sofia asked.
“If the creature strong, the dream catcher loses its power.” The old woman said.
“So give me another dream catcher, a stronger one.” Sofia said.
“Won’t help. The dream catcher must be full so the other can take in the nightmares.” The old woman said.
“But if the one I have brakes, my nightmares will start again? So another one should start collecting them again, right?” Sofia asked.
“Won’t work.” The old woman said.
“Why? Are Dream catchers not built for that?” Sofia asked.
“Yes, But not if you have a creature eating your dreams.
“Then what do I do? How do I get rid of it?” Sofia asked.
“You must find out his true name. They can’t hear their true name. They hear that and they leave you alone.” The old woman said.
“How do I do that?” Sofia asked.
“You saw the creature in nightmares. Search for its name. I wish you luck.” The old woman said and left into the back room. Sofia left the store and headed home.
‘Learn his true name. How? I remember him from my nightmares, but it’s like trying to remember a lullaby my mother sang to me when I was a baby. The only detail I clearly remember is that he had a cane with a human skull, with black diamonds in the eye sockets, and black and purple clothes. I have my work cut out for me.’ Sofia thought on her way home.
It wasn’t easy to find any kind of information about creatures that had something to do with dreams. Most pages on the web just had articles about interpreting dreams and nightmares, so Sofia decided to go to the library. She asked about books on the topic of demons, spirits and evil creatures tied to dreams and the librarian brought her a dozen books. Sofia looked at the pile of books and started with the ones that had pictures.
That day Sofia read all the books with pictures and took the rest of the books home with her. At home, Sofia sat on her bed reading one of the books when she heard a noise behind her, she turned around and saw the dream catcher swinging on the wall. There were just one and a half strings empty, the rest of them were glowing purple. That made her worry so she started to read the books as fast as she could.
The next morning only one string was left empty, which meant that she only had two days to find out the real name of the creature feeding off her nightmares. The old woman in the shop told Sofia that the creature would continue to give her nightmares after it finishes feeding on the nightmares in the dream catcher. But if the dream catcher works, why didn’t the woman tell her that a new dream catcher wouldn’t work. Sofia had a bad feeling about the whole situation.
Sofia took two days off work to concentrate on finding the creature’s name. Aiden thought that she was overreacting, that this kind of creatures didn’t exist and that the glowing dream catcher was all in her mind. Sofia didn’t care what he thought, the bad feeling in her chest got worse with every passing hour when finally, in one of the books, she found a description of a nefarious spirit that causes and feeds of peoples nightmares.
The description matched the creature she saw in her dreams, the creature was tall and slender, had a cane with a human skull, with black diamonds in the eye sockets, had black and purple clothes and no one could see his face in the nightmare. She wrote down his name so she wouldn’t forget it and marked the page, in the book, with his description. That night Sofia went to sleep a little less afraid, but she could still feel the bad feeling in her chest.
The next day Sofia read the rest of the books, just in case that the creature she found wasn’t the only one with that description She saw that only one half of a string on the dream catcher was empty and the dream catcher swing a few times during the day. Thinking that a new dream catcher would work and that the old woman was just trying to scare her she went out, bought another one and put it on the night table beside her bed.
After Aiden came home from work, they had dinner and watched a movie. Everything was like any other night except that Sofia couldn’t fall asleep. She lay on her back looking at the dream catcher above her. It was glowing, pulsating and swinging from side to side a little. The bad feeling in her chest was so bad that it wouldn’t let her go to sleep. She turned to her left side and took the paper with the creature’s name on it, hoping that the name she found was the right one. At one point, she fell asleep.
Something woke Sofia up, it wasn’t a noise or a nightmare. She was laying on the bed and tried to get up. She couldn’t move, her body was paralyzed. She looked right at Aiden and saw him sleeping, snoring quietly. ‘Oh, no! The dream catcher!’’ Sofia thought and looked up. She saw the dream catcher with all the strings in the circle broken outwards. There was a purple stream of light flowing towards a dark corner of the room.
After the stream of light stopped, still paralyzed and laying on the bed, Sofia saw the creature walk out of the dark surrounded by purple light. It was the creature from her nightmares. Everything about the creature matched, the cane, the clothes and the lack of face, but in her nightmares, the creature didn’t glow purple. The tall and slender creature walked towards her slowly and stopped next to her side of the bed. It put its cane on the edge of the bed and towered over her looking straight into her face. Sofia could feel energy pulsating from the creature.
“You can’t do anything to me. I have another dream catcher and this one is stronger.” Sofia said and looked towards the nightstand.
The creature followed her gaze, tilted his head, saw the dream catcher and took it into its hands. After eating so many nightmares at once, the creature was so string hat it broke the dream catcher into small pieces. After seeing that Sofia tried to get control of her body, she started to move around on the bed as if she was trying to escape from the creature.
The creature turned its attention towards Sofia again and climbed onto the bed towering over Aiden. He lifted his left hand and he extended his index finger. Slowly he pressed his index finger on Aiden’s forehead and started to draw a symbol.
“No! Stop it! He has nothing to do with this!” Sofia yelled crying. She didn’t want Aiden to suffer as she suffered.
“Stop it Marebram!” Sofia yelled.
The creature stopped drawing the symbol on Aiden’s forehead, straightened up and looked at Sofia. He jumped towards her and grabbed her neck, strangling her.
“Stop it Marebram.” Sofia said quietly.
A mouth appeared on the creature’s face and it started to scream. Aiden woke up and saw the creature strangling Sofia disappear while screaming. Sofia was crying but there was a smile on her face. Aiden, confused, looked at Sofia who was just lying on the bed crying and smiling. She quietly said. “Eat that you bastard.”