That night, as Fiona curled under the covers, a slight headache throbbed behind her eyes.
The dream started in the kitchen. The tile was spotless and there weren’t any dishes in the sink. The chrome of the faucet reflected light from the windows. It was midday in summer, and birds chirped outside. It was peaceful. Fiona rubbed her eyes and yawned. She opened the fridge to find it empty, and she opened the cabinets to find roaches.
With a yelp, she scurried back, away from the open cabinet. The roaches climbed over each other, a swarm of disgusting scuttling, and some eventually fell out of the cabinet into the sink. It was a waterfall of grossness. One landed on the spot of sunlight atop the faucet, and its brown body dulled the reflection of the sun’s rays.
“Ew!” Fiona fled the room, searching for bug spray or roach killer or else something that could get rid of the pest problem. “Ew, ew, ew!” She found herself in her bathroom, opening and closing the mirror cabinet that contained her medications. In that way of dreams where the illogical seems logical, she spun open her medication to find in there a beetle. It flew up out of the pill bottle and at Fiona’s face.
Screaming, Fiona dropped the pill bottle and ran out of the room. Her little pink prescription pills spilled out onto the tile. The beetle flew after her. Bugs. Of all things, bugs! She kept screaming.
Across the dreamscape, past the tetherknots, a woman with silvery mirrors for eyes, a rotting neck, and long, blonde hair turned to face Fiona’s tether. The woman grabbed hold and rode the tether straight into Fiona’s nightmare.
Fiona had found her way into the living room to perch on top of the couch, and the roaches and other bugs had found their way into the carpet below. The woman landed right on top of them, crunching a bunch underfoot.
“I am Akki,” said the woman. “Slayer of Nightmares.”
“Your neck,” said Fiona. “Oh my god, your neck!”
The bugs spanned the entirety of the floor now, and more layers revealed themselves out of crannies and nooks.
“I assume you fear insects,” said Akki.
“There’s so many! I can’t squish them all.”
“Have you tried fire?” asked Akki. The sword at her belt shook, and a sound like a bellow erupted from it.
“What the heck was that?!”
“A dragon, but not one to be feared. Shall I slay your nightmare?”
“If you can get me out of this then be my guest.”
“Be your… guest?”
“Get rid of them!”
“Very well.” Akki unsheathed her sword. It had a black blade and looked nothing like a dragon. “I shall enjoy this.”
A roar pierced the air. Its sheer volume scattered some of the bugs. They scuttled away from Akki’s feet.
Fiona shrunk down, grasping the top pillows at the back of the couch. She made a squealing noise that was very small at the back of her throat.
A bug crawled up the pillow toward her ear. She felt it in a phantom way before it entered for real, and then she bolted straight upright, trying to scratch it out of her ear. She could hear it and feel it simultaneously as it moved and maneuvered around her pinky finger, tapping at her eardrum. Panic and dread comingled, and more bugs found their way up her legs. Because it was a dream, she knew automatically they sought more places to enter her body.
Then Akki was there, swatting at them, but Fiona was too afraid, too focused on getting the one out of her ear, to see what else Akki was doing. Whatever it was, it did lessen the number of bugs, and it felt hot.
“Let me see your ear,” said Akki.
Fiona was too busy screaming to answer.
“Let me see,” said Akki. She grabbed Fiona’s arm and climbed up to the back of the couch herself, far more gracefully than Fiona had. “If I can see it, I can get it. Calm down.”
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“I can’t calm down! Get it out! Get it out get it out get it out!”
“It’s a beetle.” Akki yanked Fiona’s arm away from the ear and stared down the orifice. “My dragon’s method won’t work without hurting you, but maybe we can entice it out of there. What do beetles eat?”
“Are you shitting me right now?” Fiona’s mood flashed from terrified to furious. “How should I know what beetles eat?!”
“Apologies. It was only a suggestion.” Akki moved away from Fiona’s ear and with one sweeping motion performed a slash at the lower part of the couch, where so many of the bugs had gathered. Fire leapt from beside the blade and burned the bugs there to ashes.
No wonder she couldn’t use that method on Fiona’s ear. Sheesh!
“How about water,” said Akki. “Flush it out.”
“Water. The kitchen.” Fiona remembered what she’d forgotten. “The kitchen is where they’re coming from. A cabinet over the kitchen sink.”
“Then I’ll burn them away for you to gather water.”
“Don’t burn my house down.”
“I won’t.” Akki’s lips quirked up on one side, a slip that she found something humorous.
They ran to the kitchen.
The bugs followed.
Akki sheathed her sword and turned on the faucet. Something about her presence made the bugs there flee, but other than flashes of silvery reptilian flesh around Akki, there was no sign of why they fled.
“Your head.” Akki pointed to the running water.
Fiona dunked her head under there and tried not to feel the squirming of the beetle and the rush of water cleansing out her ear. She tried not to puke as the sensation of wet wriggling legs slipped out of her ear canal onto her cheek. Then she realized she had to puke anyways. She turned her head and emptied her stomach into the sink while Akki held her hair.
The beetle survived all this.
“Towels,” said Akki. Said, not asked. She somehow produced one from thin air and handed it to Fiona.
Fiona took it ungracefully and pat down her head. “Is it out?”
“Yes, it’s out.”
The sound of the rest of the bugs was deafening, and there seemed to be more of them every moment.
“But what about the rest of them? Where are they all coming from?”
“Seems the cabinet and the carpet,” said Akki.
“The kitchen was spotless at the start of this, and so was the rest of the house. I didn’t invite them in here. They invaded!”
“Tell me,” said Akki. “How is your health in the waking world?”
“The what?”
“I see.”
“You see what?”
“Are you healthy?”
Fiona paused.
Akki waited.
“No. No, I’m not healthy. I have an operation soon too.”
“Is it invasive?”
“Yes.”
“Then you may want to consider”—Akki gestured to the bugs— “postponing until this problem goes away.”
“What does that have to do with this?” Fiona crossed her arms.
“It’s a common nightmare to dream of insect invasions before one becomes ill.”
“But I was already ill.”
“Then this would complicate things, would it not?”
“Well yeah, but—”
“You said the operation is invasive.” Akki stomped on a few roaches that came too close. It was a precise movement, not one of anger or aggravation. “And these invaded your dreamscape. There might be a connection. Sometimes nightmares come as warnings. Warnings are best heeded in these circumstances.”
“And how would you know that?”
“I am also ill.” Akki pointed to her rotting neck.
Fiona swallowed.
The cluster of bugs on the floor twitched and switched directions, little hairy legs clambering over thoraces. Some buzzed, some clicked, some made noises with no equivalent in the waking world. All advanced toward Fiona.
Akki stepped in the way and unsheathed her sword. With one slash, she eliminated the first layer of advancing bugs. Fire spewed from beside the blade, and Fiona caught a glimpse of a dragon’s snout, open and directing the flames. It had enormous fangs.
“How do you know all this?” asked Fiona as she hoisted herself up on one knee on the countertop near the sink.
“It’s my job. I slay nightmares, which I did mention before. It seems clear to me you’re not lucid.”
“Lucid?”
“Aware that you’re dreaming.”
“Well you told me I was dreaming. Having a nightmare.”
“Does it feel like a nightmare anymore now?”
“Less so.”
“See.”
“See what?”
Akki got up onto the counter herself, much less clumsily than Fiona had. A spike of jealousy shot through Fiona, but she got over it quickly.
“See what?” Fiona repeated.
“The more lucid one is, the less fear a nightmare can induce.”
“So that’s why I’m less afraid now than before? I guess that makes sense. But you’ve also been beating back this swarm, which makes more sense about why I’d be less afraid.” Fiona felt herself turn red. “Thanks for that, by the way. I was freaking out.”
“As said before, it’s my job.”
Fiona still couldn’t understand how this Akki person could remain so poised under the circumstances, but she was glad for the help.
“You said nightmares serve as warnings sometimes?”
“Yes.”
“What does this one warn of?”
“Illness, sickness, deterioration. If you were already ill, the condition might worsen. This particular nightmare is sometimes a reminder to take care of oneself.”
“And other times?”
“Other times it speaks of anxiety.”
Fiona thought this over. “So if I wake up and take better care of myself, these dreams about bugs will go away?”
“Most likely, yes.”
“Is there a way you can wake me up?”
“Not until the nightmare is over.”
Somewhere in the waking world, an alarm clock went off.
“Ah,” said Akki in acknowledgement. “The dream will soon be over. Take care of your waking world self and these insects likely won’t bother you again.” She sheathed her sword and got off the counter, spun around and bowed at Fiona. “Well met, though I never got your name.”
“Fiona.”
“A good name.”
“I think my alarm is going off.”
“Time to wake up.”
Fiona awoke to a stomachache, a fever, and nausea. By some vague recollection of a dream she barely remembered, she decided she had no choice but to postpone the surgery. When it came time to go under the knife, she survived.