I had gotten too close to the fog, and it was like I had entered it, but not really. No, I looked around and saw that it was more like the fog had spread out and had its contents meld with the Inverse space. Right now, behind me was the rest of the Inverse, but before me was Elma. She was sitting on some forest floor, looking up at me. I could also see the boundaries of this space. It must only have been 10 feet in radius. The walls looked as if they had picturesque forest wallpaper draped over them, but also had the same fog-like qualities of the dreamer’s fog.

Elma reached for my hand, and I immediately backed away. Thank god.

“Hold on! Don’t touch me!”

She immediately pulled her hand back, terrified. I looked behind myself and confirmed it--+Nightmares ARE Fiction+ was still active. If she touched me, her nightmares would come out. And given what happened to the Parasite...

I turned to her and reassured her.

“Elma, everything’s okay. I’ve just got my power active, okay?”

“O-okay...”

After that, I got down to business, actually taking a knee to speak with her.

“Elma, listen to me; how are you feeling? Do you remember when you were out in front of the fountain?”

“The fountain...” she repeated. She touched her neck gently as she squinted. “I was--that’s right. I was in front of the fountain...” She suddenly started looking around. “I’m in a forest? But I don’t remember it--“

“Elma, stop!”

I stopped her from questioning her environment. When one starts questioning a dream, one might wake up. In Elma’s case--she could regain her senses long enough to ruin this dream.

“Elma, don’t think about that, please.”

Her eyes met mine, and she nodded. “I was in front of the fountain. I wasn’t feeling well. Oww.” She squeezed her neck. “My neck’s hurting... That’s right. My neck was hurting.”

“Your neck? Is that all?”

“No. It was strange.” Elma’s eyes darted around like she was looking for items she had dropped. “After you left, my neck was still hurting... A little bit later, I was feeling dizzy.” She squeezed her neck. “And my neck. It was so strange. I kept feeling like there were teeth in my neck, but that wasn’t possible. And then I started feeling hotter and hotter. I’m not sure how much time passed, but lying down didn’t help me. So I went outside--oww, why does my neck hurt so much?”

“Your neck... Does it feel like teeth are getting in there right now?”

“It does--“ She scrunched her face as she looked at something over my shoulder. “Fainn, what’s that door?”

My heart beat louder, and it felt like I hit my funny bone except my funny bone was my whole body.

“Door?” I asked as I looked over my shoulder. As soon as I saw it, I went cold. Elma detected the shift in my demeanor.

“Fainn, what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing. I’m just going to deal with--“

Elma let out a sharp scream, and I flung my gaze back toward her. She was looking to her right, pale and shaking. My gaze followed hers, and I saw a shadowy man step out from the woods. “H-Him!” she screamed. “He’s the one biting me--“

My head swiveled back to Elma immediately. “Hey, Elma, no! Stop, he’s not real--“

“My neck! It’s burning! It’s burning!” She fell backward and tried to drag herself away from the man. “He’s doing it!”

“Elma, stop!”

“Fainn! It’s him!”

Then, I heard a rattling from behind me. My neck creaked as time seemed to slow and my head turned.

The door--the knob on the black door was turning. I looked at the terrified Elma, then at the figure emerging from the forest. The whole dream was turning darker. The forest was turning darker, leaves were dying and the wind was chilling.

With the pain as the trigger, Elma’s dream was devolving into a natural nightmare.

“Damn it!” I yelled.

“Fainn!”

“Hold on, Elma!”

I had gotten up and ran toward the door, leaving Elma alone with the subject of her fear.

“Fainn, please don’t leave me!” she cried.

“It’s okay, Elma! I’ll be right back!”

I didn’t have time to apologize. That door--

“You can’t be opened!”

I invoked a certain nightmare and felt a blade cut through the muscle beneath the skin of my left arm. In my next step, a blade covered in teeth tore out of my left arm as I clenched my jaw and fought the pain of a dozen teeth shredding muscle tissue.

Roaring, I slashed at the door with a weapon crafted from Dorthaunzee’s nightmare. This was another aspect of my power--a nightmare’s echo. I could wield any nightmare I had previously parsed once more, though it would be a little weaker. This power was derived from the reality that people’s nightmares would still haunt me long after my power ended. It was the very small upside to the downside.

Using the toothy blade, I slashed at the door repeatedly.

“This door--NevER aGaIn!” I roared… I didn’t notice how distorted my voice was until later…

I cut the door over sixteen times until it was rubble and the floor. Behind me, Elma let out the loudest cry-turned-into-a-scream so far. I turned on my heels and sprinted back toward her.

“Elma! Don’t worry! I’m coming! I’m coming back!”

I jumped back into her dream and got between her, and the figure I could now see was a shadowy vampire. I had never attacked someone’s nightmare with another person’s nightmare, so there was no telling what would happen… With hope in my heart, I slashed the figure.

The sword tore through it and cut it down. It turned into shadows and sank into the floor.

“Whew,” I said, breathing out.

“Fainn!” Elma yelled, her voice drenched in relief.

“Elma, no!”

She had reached for me. That girl had found my hand and held on tight.

“Elma!”

Of all the things—she went and did the one thing she shouldn’t have.

“Noooo!” I roared.

+Nightmares ARE Fiction’s+ effects immediately struck me. My body twisted, and my bones extended against my will. My fingers tore skin as they stretched, and my mouth bled as new sets of teeth tore through my gums, and made my human teeth pop out like rockets. My ribs pierced my skin and my ears extended. Black nails ripped my nails off my fingers from beneath, snapping flesh one thread at a time.

A roar escaped me, as did bloody tears. And there before me, watching it all with her hand welded to mine, was a terrified Elma who had lost her voice. She watched in terrified silence as this body horror ravaged me.

“Elma,” I said, my voice garbled and deep. “Don’t be scar--“

She whipped her and away from me and used it to push against the ground. She dragged her rump across the ground, pushing herself further and further back. That whole way, with her eyes glued on me, she screamed.

“Nooooo!”

She screamed for me to come help her.

“Fainn! F-Fainn! Help! I need help!”

She screamed for me, thinking I had abandoned her.

“Fainn! Plelelease! Please, where are you? I’m scared! Fainn!”

She screamed for me, begging to not be left alone.

“Please don’t leave me alone, Fainn! I can’t—I can’t do this! Fainn!”

She begged for me to come back.

“Fainn, please come back!”

She apologized for not being enough.

“I’m sorry! Please don’t leave me! I’m sorry I got Dorthaunzee in trouble! I didn’t mean it, I swear! I’m sorry! I’m sorry I can’t eat your food! I’ll do better. I promise I won’t vomit it out anymore!"

She didn't even notice she was in a dream. She pulled a watermelon out of the ground and started eating while tears streamed from her eyes.

"See? I can do it too, Fainn! I can eat--I won't get anyone in trouble--BBgmmff--"

The watermelon came back out her mouth and she screamed.

"No, no, I didn't mean that! Please don't look!"

She clawed at it, hysterical and shoving it in her mouth. She didn't even notice it was rotting.

"I can do it, I can do it! I’ll be normal I swear! Please, please! I’m sorry I’m not good enough! Please don’t give up on me!”

She hobbled over and her forehead hit the ground slathered in rotten fruit as she hugged herself.

“Please… don’t leave me… Please, Fainn… please… I’ll be better… Please… I don’t want to go back.

My heart couldn’t take it.

I tore my eyes away, jumped out of the dreamer’s fog, and closed +Nightmares ARE Fiction’s+ dome. The dome shrank, and with it went the expanded dreamer’s fog and my transformation. Now, the dream was just that little cloud that served as a window to Elma’s mind.

I ran back to it and stuck my hand in as far as I could, barely touching the wailing and crying Elma’s cheek.

“Elma! It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay!’

Her eyes widened when she heard me. “Fainn! Help me!” she cried as she frantically looked around.

“I will! I will! I promise I will! Just hold on!”

The dream started getting darker--I knew what this was.

“Fainn? Where are you?”

“Just hold on, Elma. I’m always right there!”

“Fainn? I can’t hear you!”

“I’ll always be near! Elma!”

I didn’t have this power to not know the rules governing dreams. Elma’s consciousness was fading. Her mind had exhausted itself--it was going into a deeper, usually more dreamless sleep.

As the dream became darker, it pushed my hand out until it was pressed against the surface of the fog with Elma right on the other side. I couldn’t hear her anymore as she cried and screamed, but I could see her eyes all the way up to the moment the fog disappeared.

I held myself as I rocked back and forth on my knees, my jaw clenched. My head was hurting, the memory of Elma crying haunting me.

“I’m Not tHe niGhTmREs. IT’s—it Nat mE, hnest.

"Nigtm-re. I’M not the NghtMr. -lease I'm nOT the one . I Wou-d neV-r Hurt a kind lady—”

I shook my head and tried to reclaim myself from whatever was bubbling up in my mind.

“Nightmares ARE Fiction. Nightmare ARE Fiction. Nightmares ARE… FICTION.”

I panted as I looked at the spot the dreamer’s fog once occupied.

“Elma... It was just a dream, Elma... And we’ll save you from what’s really hurting you,” I whispered. That message was as much for me as it was for her. “Nightmares are fiction. They can’t hurt you.”

A familiar and sweet voice—one that soothed the soul came from behind me.

“Do you truly believe that is still true? Fainn?”