We were in my black dome. The nun was still screaming, and the tentacles she produced—I think thirty-two of them—were still thrashing about. The tentacles weren’t actually originating from her feet. It looked like they were springing out ten feet away from the woman. One lashed out toward me like a whip.

“Oh, here we go.”

I braced for impact. The tentacle grew three sizes right before striking me, and I shuddered.

“MMMGRH—“

It slammed me to the side and into the wall of my dome. I hit that wall with my back, and white cracks propagated from the point of impact.

Blood trickled out of my mouth, and it felt like I was drowning. My ribs on my right side—they were definitely broken. Could I even stand? My hip was pulverized, and I couldn’t feel my right leg too.

“Of course I can,” I whispered to myself. I planted my right hand on the dirt and poured all my strength into it until I was able to lift myself up.

The nun was still screaming. She didn’t notice I was on my feet yet, so that was nice.

“I need to make contact with you.”

I started limping toward her. A few seconds later, my body realigned itself enough for me to start sprinting toward her. There was a gap between tentacles—that was the one I would jump through. Another tentacle came from my side. I ducked and slid for a few moments before hopping back onto my feet.

“I can do this!”

The gap was right there—I just needed to get in!

I leaped, and I was sure I made it—my head and shoulders had successfully crossed, but then, suddenly, I felt an incredible pressure on both sides of my abdomen. Blood surged out from my mouth as I lost feeling in my legs. I looked down the extent of my body and saw that the two tentacles had clamped on my body like a pair of sliding doors. I put my hands on the tentacles to try to push myself through—

“Huh? What the—the tentacles are actually her?”

Confused by the feedback, I was caught by surprise when I fell to the ground. It felt like everything was pouring out of me now. My upper body was on fire too—I wanted to rip my skin off and pour ice on my chest.

I realized it. It was clear—she had bisected me. I was half a body lying on the black substance that had spread out from her feet. But, here, in this pitiful state, my mind was fixed on something else. I planted my hand on the black.

“This is you too,” I whispered as I glared at the crying woman. “Ahh—Beautiful.” I was enamored for a slight moment with the vision of the true person before me and shook my head. “Come on, not the time, idiot.”

I looked at her again. I could see it. She was hurt. Patches of her outfit seemed to be soaked, and the lantern hanging about her head was flickering. Above all else, I knew she was afraid. I was pretty sure she wasn’t acting maliciously. This was someone in reaction.

“What happened to you?”

She kept wailing, her head cocked back and tentacles squirming out of her.

“Whoever you are—wherever you came from—I’ll save you—GUH!”

A tentacle came and hoisted me into the air by my neck. I yelled as it flung me up. My neck—she definitely snapped it. I looked down and saw another tentacle’s tip coming for me.

“I’m going to be skewered.”

I gritted my teeth. The tentacle entered my body through my exposed intestines, and it tore upward, tearing apart my lungs. Blood surged from my every orifice. It reached my neck—it was going to obliterate my—

...

...

...

...

“Damn it.”

It was always hard to stay conscious after losing my head. I opened my eyes as my body started forming out of thin air. The woman was still screaming down below. Meanwhile, I was a disembodied neck-and-head floating about five feet from her. I imagined myself moving my hand toward her, and my arms started forming in response. I sucked in air and resolved to go back into the fray.

“You’re not getting rid of me!” I yelled.

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Another tentacle came at me from the side, and I struck out with my almost formed arm.

“I’m your nightmare now!”

My arm returned but not in the form of a human arm—no, it was an arm with a giant mouth full of sharp, black teeth in the place of a hand. Using that mouth, I bit through the oncoming tentacle, leaving one piece writhing on the ground and the base recoiling.

Her scream erupted. It was so loud it was bursting my eardrums and throwing me off balance.

“Nightmares never die!!!” I roared back.

My ears reformed into giant, and black plugged ears. Meanwhile, the tentacles frantically swiped at me. They were intent on keeping me away from her. My other hand transformed into a mouth that matched the other. Using those mouths, I bit through the tentacles as they came.

I had limits, though.

The tentacles ripped me apart and threw my body around in different directions. I was pretty pathetic, in all honestly. Even so—

“This isn’t how you stop a nightmare, ma’am.”

I, as just a torso and a head, floated in the air as my body reformed out of black mist. Black wings spread out from behind my back. Then, instead of reclaiming my lower half, black tentacles poured out from my waist. Gurgles came from down there moments before a giant mouth with angler fish-like teeth emerged from the tentacles... I was a human man with mouths for hands, had black wings, and had a giant mouth and tentacles for a lower body.

“Erk—“ I almost gagged. Looking down at her, my thoughts slipped out. “So a fear of teeth? Or maybe a fear of being eaten? This is your nightmare?”

I looked at myself one more time.

“Yeah, I’m practically a torso glued to a giant mouth.” I shuddered and shook my head before descending toward the woman. “How much more nightmarish will you make me, ma’am?”

I tried to smile, but nope. Couldn’t do it. I was creeped out too.

The tentacles sunk into the black floor in an instant and just as quickly shot out from the space immediately around her. My giant mouth opened wide and clamped down on four tentacles as my hand-mouths chomped two more tentacles. This, of course, left well over 20 tentacles and those leftovers took turns slapping me around. Five slaps later, I chomped an incoming one with my right hand, but another tentacle uppercut me. My giant mouth bit another two as the teeth in my proper mouth grew to resemble an angler fish’s teeth, too.

A tentacle slapped me on the right side of my torso and sent me flying toward the ground, where two more tentacles shot toward me. My wings got between me and the oncoming tentacles. A grotesque squish came from my wings the moment the tentacles made contact... You guessed it—two giant mouths opened on the exterior of my wings and ate the tips of the tentacles.

I unfurled my wings as a second set grew from my lower back. Razor-like teeth then grew from the edges of all four.

“God, is this a phobia or a fetish?” I inwardly castigated myself for making light of her. “Okay, sorry.”

The nun—she screamed louder. It was loud enough that I could hear it through plugged ears. She was going mad, even. She was clawing at her face and spilling black blood as she wailed. Each time she reached the bottom of her face, she’d run her bloodied fingers back up to her hairline and drag them back down. All the while, her tentacles squirmed around her—those things weren’t approaching me carelessly anymore. The ones that had been made into a snack had already retreated too.

“You’re panicking...” I said to her. “In that state, you won’t figure out the easiest way to escape this nightmare.”

She let out the loudest wail as soon as I slid toward her. The skin covering her mouth hole stretched more. She was looking more and more like a wailing zombie.

A tentacle lashed out at me, and I devoured it. My left hand gurgled and pulsated. With a disgusting squelch, a black sword drenched in green slime and covered in runes extended from my left mouth-hand. Black teeth grew out from the edge of the blade, and a revolting odor reached my nostrils.

“There’s no end to this nightmare, it seems!”

I slid toward her, propelled by the many tentacles that made my lower body. My giant waist-mouth was ready to eat, as were the other hands. Tentacles lashed out, and I cut them with the new sword—they couldn’t stop me now.

“Do you know how nightmares work?” I asked the wailing woman, mere inches from her face. The remaining tentacles were like lightning—that’s how fast they were when they all impaled me.

How many holes did I have in my body? Maybe eight fist-sized holes. Even so, I looked at the woman.

“How do you stop a nightmare? You lose to the nightmare and wake-up up with all your rational senses re-activated. The second way to stop a nightmare is to exhaust yourself into a deeper sleep, thereby retreating...” Revolting, stomach-churning sounds came from the spots the tentacles punched through. In the next moment, black blood streamed from the tentacles like they were sprinklers. Every bold tentacle shrank back, each missing half of its mass, and each with the signs of having been bitten.

I, panting, landed. There were many mouths on my body now. “Oh... The tentacles are a little different from you. This is their fear too... Weird. I’m interested in what relationship you have with these tentacles, ma’am.”

For the first time, the tentacles wrapped around her and pulled her back. There were only four tentacles out now. The others had receded back into the black substance covering the floor. They were probably going to grow back without my helping them. The question was really whether they were brave enough to strike me. The four that were left were trembling.

I pointed the sword at them. “See, that’s the thing. One doesn’t beat a nightmare. No. If one can turn a bad dream into a good one by vanquishing a scary monster—nah, that’s just an interesting dream.” I smiled at her as two mouths formed on either side of my own. “No, a nightmare, in essence, can never be beaten. One can only try to escape it. That’s what makes them terrifying.”

Her wail weakened as she started to gasp for air more and more.

“No, this isn’t going to end until you fall into a dreamless sleep or you reclaim your senses enough to wake up.” I dashed toward her. “Don’t worry. I’ll be your monster all the way to the end.”

I got past her and slashed her right down the middle.

“Don’t worry—”

Her two halves fell to the ground. Her wail was still coming out despite that.

“—nightmares can’t hurt you after all.”

One blink later, and her two halves were back together. “We can only terrorize you. So come back and let me terrorize you into submission.”

I brandished the sword, cut the remaining tentacles, and ran it through where I thought her heart would be. Squelching sounds came from her chest as the teeth wriggled and scraped her bones.

“How much longer are you going to dream, ma’am?”