Asa grabs Kam’s hand. “Keep your eyes closed, ok.” Then, they are moving. Fast. Too fast. Kam can barely keep his legs moving. It’s more like Asa is dragging him. 

“Where are we going?” Kam asks.

“Somewhere more open,”

“But why?” Aren’t we inside somewhere. How is there a ‘more open.’

Asa laughs nervously. His voice is soft. It’s like he’s about to tell Kam a secret or they are about to pinky promise. “Do you trust me?” He’s concerned. That much is obvious to Kam, but since when was Asa concerned about anything?

Images and memories  flash in Kam’s head. Asa has always lived life as if he was in a daze. He was voted most likely to be a stoner in his future, and he always had a natural feeling of being relaxed and high despite never touching a drug in his life. But Kam’s memory was strong, even without dreaming.

Once, while climbing the big tree at their neighborhood park after elementary school, Asa fell. Kam always told him that he shouldn’t be climbing trees because he’ll get hurt, but when the time finally came, Kam ran over to his best friend full of worries. He’d hit his head. It was no time for petty I-told-you-so’s. When Kam arrived, Asa rolled over with a juvenile smile plastered on his face. “Look Kam, I didn’t know it could bend like that.” Kam fussed over Asa until Asa’s parents arrived to scold him and take him to the hospital. It was one of the few times Kam ever saw Asa’s parents. But, when it came to Kam, Asa would always protect him. Asa was there to defend him from bullies who would pull Kam’s chair from under him because of his frequent narcosis. Asa was the one who pulled Kam away from fussy girls who swarmed Kam when Kam came out. 

Kam answers Asa without any doubt. “Yes. Of course I trust you.”

Kam can feel Asa’s smile through the quick tight squeeze of his hand. “We’re almost there.”

The air changes around them. The boy’s steps echo and there’s even a slight breeze. When Asa tells Kam to open his eyes, he is shocked at the space before him. It is shaped like a massive, open dome. At the center is a monolith that seems to illuminate the blank space around them. Tall, grand entryways surround the area.

A chill runs up Kam’s spine. He knows this place. Kam can’t forget where he saw something like Asa….no, he can’t forget that he saw Asa here. Eating.

“This is your dream core,” Asa says. “All dreams lead to here eventually. 

A screech resounds from a distance. “That’s from where we were, isn’t it?” Kam asks. Asa nods. The chittering Kam heard before starts from the nearest corridor. It gets louder.

“Do you trust me?” Asa asks again.

“I already said yes, geez.” Kam retorts.

“Then close your eyes agai-”

“No.” Kam interrupts, crossing his arms. “Trust goes both ways, Asa. Whatever it is I’m….I’m going to see it. I believe in you.” Kam sounds sure, but his heart trembles. The chittering is closer. It’s like hearing a centipede run across a tile floor, but it’s the size of a dog. No. It’s bigger than a dog because it keeps getting louder. They keep getting closer. 

“Save the embarrassing lines for one of your stories.” Asa laughs, easing Kam slightly, but when he searches for reassurance in Asa’s eyes, something monstrous and wanting is there instead. 

Asa’s tone shifted. “They are what we call Nightmares.” Asa points in the direction they’d come from. “They want to corrupt and feast on the fear and anxiety in your head.”

“We?” Kam questioned. “Who is this ‘we’”

“Dream Eaters. I’m a Dream Eater.”

Kam feels the hairs on his arms rise in alert. “And what do Dream Eaters do?”

“We eat Nightmares.” Asa’s skin bristles, shifts, and bulges under his clothes. Something is trying to come out. Or something isn’t really a thing at all. It’s what Asa is under the disguise. “If you’re sure about me, then watch carefully.”

Kam gulps. Asa strips his top off and turns towards the now deafening sound of insect legs scurrying. Four holes on Asa’s back opens like a zipper accompanied by a sound like tearing paper. Hairs unfurl out of the openings, pushing the human skin inside. A tough carapace pushes out of Asa’s body, and then, legs. Four hairy, sharp, and angular legs shoot out of Asa’s mid-section. How they could even fit inside him, Kam does not know, but before Kam can process, he sees what can only be a Nightmare fill the entryway to his Dream Core. 

Asa goes on all eights and launches forward without looking back.