Dream Walker✔️

1.1

He wasn't real. He couldn't hurt me. Shade was a figure of my imagination, nothing more. Tomorrow, my eighteenth birthday would come and go, and none of Shade's threats would come to pass. There was absolutely nothing to worry about.

I was an intelligent, logical person, but the dual hearts drumming in my chest made it impossible to calm down. Doctors said I was lucky to be alive with a mutation like that. I just wished I could shut one of them off and replace it with something more useful, like the part of my brain that was supposed to make nice, happy dreams.

"To coin a phrase from this human generation, happiness is overrated."

I flinched but kept my eyes scrunched closed. Two days of chugging coffee obviously hadn't been enough to keep me up for long, but there still wasn't anything he could do to me. No matter what he said, he couldn't lay a finger on me.

"Don't be so sure." A cold finger brushed my forehead. "You have yet to inherit your full powers. You are vulnerable."

"You aren't real." As soon as the words passed my lips, I silently cursed myself. There was no reasoning with my own subconscious. I would only drive myself mad trying.

He sighed—a long, soft sound that chilled the air. "Believe me, child, I have tried my best to resolve this issue peacefully, but I'm afraid you've left me no choice. If you refuse to acknowledge my existence, I suppose I must find a way to prove it to you in the physical realm. However, for now, let us begin tonight's lesson."

The air warmed. Blades of grass tickled my palms, and the sweet scent of wildflowers filled my nostrils. He'd conjured the 'teaching field' as he called it. I'd spent many a night in this field, learning nonsense mythology that didn't align with any real world legends. For years, I listened to him speak in his human guise without any clue that he would one day become my worst nightmare.

"I would hardly consider myself a marewalker," he said with a scoff.

I wished he would disappear and leave me to dream in peace. What was the point of being a lucid dreamer if I couldn't even make my nightmares disappear?

"You may be a lucid dreamer, but this is my dreamscape. Now, either open your eyes and pay attention, or we'll have to skip to the practical portion of the lesson."

I opened my eyes. As much as I wanted to avoid looking at the six-legged eyeless scorpion centaur in front of me, pretending to pay attention was preferable to his practical exercises. Shuddering at the thought, I resolved to focus only on a loose rivet near the top of his lectern that wiggled when he pounded his claws on it.

"Today, we will learn about interdimensional portals. It's only fitting that we learn about this today, as the only semi-stable specimen in existence has opened on our doorstep. I'd advise you to stay out of the woods until it closes in a few hours—unless, of course, you feel like getting frostbite would be a pleasurable way to spend your afternoon."

He rapped his knife-like finger claws on the lectern. "Eyes up front, Miss Ortiz."

Looking up at him, I tried not to wince. Apparently I didn't succeed, because he scowled. Without eyes, the expression merely wrinkled his flattened nose and twisted his mouth, but it was unnerving nonetheless.

He scoffed. "My kind has been enriching yours with knowledge for generations, and I intend to continue doing so if you would keep your insulting thoughts to yourself."

As he droned on, I tried to keep my mind blank. It was a fruitless exercise with him standing right in front of me. I wished I hadn't fallen asleep in the first place, but it had been only a matter of time before I passed out. Coffee couldn't keep the nightmares at bay forever.