The DreamWalker

It was a modest house. The woman, who had introduced herself as Abigail, led Maxwell to a small log cabin that rested in a nest of trees. He was closer to his destination; less than a mile to the tree line.

She stopped before the door and turned to Maxwell. “P-Please wait out here for a moment!”

“Uh… Sure” He nodded.

Abigail smiled, barely cracked the door open, and slid in. Maxwell stood outside, listening to the sound of various items being shifted about. He looked to the orange horizon, watching the sun sink behind the mountains.

“Oh? It seems like she’s trying to make an impression.” She said. Maxwell looked at his smug companion. She stood beside him with a wide grin and narrow eyes, fingers tied together behind Her back.

“Abigail is just being polite.”

She then chuckled. “We’ve been alone for so long that you forgot about talking to me out loud. You must’ve creeped her out.” Touching Her cheeks, She feigned horror. “That girl could be getting a weapon!”

He chuckled and returned his attention to the horizon. “Telling her I was thinking out loud makes the most sense yeah? I guess it’s not wholly incorrect.”

She ignored him. “Then again… Being out here… She’s probably alone too…”

The two grew silent.

This was odd. They were never this awkward. Had never been this awkward.

“Maxwell, why did you never give me a name?”

He blinked in surprise and looked at Her. Reservation and anxiousness filled Her body. Her eyes were pleading, wanting to know.

“M-Maxwell! I’m ready for… Everything okay?”

He blinked and looked at Abigail. She stood on the porch above, looking at him with concern.

“Yeah. Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

“O-Okay… Please come in!” She bowed with a red face.

Maxwell walked up a handful of creaking wooden steps and entered the home with her. The main room was a small kitchen. A furnace sat in its corner with a wooden table in the center. Chairs were neatly pushed under it, and books that had undoubtedly been spread about were now neatly stacked.

Maxwell couldn’t help but smile. “Looks like you’re doing a lot for him.”

“Y-Yeah! Here, come on!” Abigail led him to one of three doors along the left wall. She then stopped herself. “Oh, my manners! That middle room is spare, and the far end is mine…” Her cheeks blushed. “The bathroom is outside! A-A-An outhouse!”

He sighed. “Thanks, let’s see your brother now.”

She fidgeted. “R-right!”

The two entered the small room. Underneath a window was a small bed. On that bed a boy, seemingly in his early teens, eagerly rose. His eyes glowed as he stared at Maxwell. “You were serious Abby! A real knight!”

Maxwell’s chest tightened. Despite the glow in the boy’s brown eyes, his skin was pale and he looked very tired. Maxwell swallowed, wanting to maintain confidence. He sat on a chair beside the bed.

“Your sister told me you were ill, that you had bite marks. May I see them?”

“Mhm!” The boy stretched his neck.

It was as he suspected. The teeth punctures were small and formed a perfect circle. A single, larger hole sat in the center.

“W-Will the herbs work?” Abigail stumbled.

“They will not.”

The boy’s face grew pale and Abigail cried. “What do we do?! Wh-”

“It’ll be okay. I’ll fix it.”

The two looked at Maxwell, wanting his explanation.
She energetically hopped up and down beside Maxwell. “Another demon to kill! Another demon to kill! Let’s get it, Max!”

“We call them DreamWalkers.”

Abigail’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head. “A DreamWalker?”

“It is a de-, a creature that can wander between the physical and spiritual world. Human blood is their food. Ultimately, they’re parasites.” Maxwell then looked at the boy. “Have you had any nightmares…?”

Maxwell trailed off and his face grew hot. “I’m sorry. I forgot to ask for your name.”

The boy blinked for a moment. “Oh! I’m John!”

“I’m Maxwell. Nice to meet you, John. Now, about any nightmares...” Maxwell’s companion patted him on the back as his face burned. Making such a rude mistake was below a knight.

John, with his own tint of red, eagerly shook his head up and down. “I do. Uh… Some of them are things I remember. Others are things I know nothing about… But it all feels oddly familiar.”

“As they feed you are given horrific images to make your blood more tasteful. They will either show you your own fears or the fears of their previous victims. If they hold the blood of people related to you, they will always use it. Blood memory is an effective tool for them.”

“W-What are we supposed to do?! How do we even beat that?” Abigail asked, looking tired and stressed. More so than her brother.

“I will kill it.” Maxwell said as he rose.

“How do you kill something like that?” Both siblings asked in unison.

Maxwell looked between the two. “I’ll wait tonight. It will come when you’re asleep and I will slay it.” He then placed his hand on John’s head. “Slaying a DreamWalker is common for knights. In fact, it’s a major test, a graduation. Really, you have the hard part.”

The boy looked at him, eyes widening as he began understanding Maxwell’s implication.
“Now, after everything I told you, do you think you’ll be able to fall asleep?”

...

Maxwell watched the moon’s slow ascent over the trees. He sat in the kitchen’s corner, front door beside him and slightly ajar. Before him was the sealed bedroom’s entrance.

“I wish we could have kept the door open.” Abigail moaned.

“DreamWalkers are annoyingly cautious. It needs to feel that it is safe to eat.”

He was ready to act. His sword, unsheathed, rested against his shoulder. He cautiously cracked the entrance more to watch the boy’s window. If it was too obvious, the beast would flee. This was the hard part: the waiting.

But despite his impatience and pounding heart, the world was at ease. Crickets chirped and lightning bugs zipped through the air. His companion rested Her head on his free shoulder, sleeping peacefully.

“Where did you come from?” Abigail broke the silence.

Maxwell kept his gaze fixed outside. “Further west. From the mountains.”

“Are there more knights out there? My father used to talk about them… Honestly, I thought they were just a myth. The knights, the Kingdom. It was all too perfect.”

Her voice was melancholic and he glanced at Abigail. She sat at the table, resting her head on her arms and looking to him for a response.

“No… I’m the only one. My father trained me. This… this is his armor.”

Her eyes widened. “Wow! He must be proud of you! Wait… So did your dad know a lot about that stuff?”

He looked back outside. “He was alive during the end, and he told me enough. The golden age was long before his time. Frankly, I don’t think he wanted me to…”

Maxwell stopped himself.

He was out of his league.

By no means was he a knight. He acted confident to keep Abigail and John calm, but he had never faced a DreamWalker before. His father passed long before he ever finished his training. He had been so focused on his path he neglected the details, the simple logistics. He took deep breaths attempting to calm the twists in his stomach. He looked at her from the corner of his eye. She furrowed her brows, possibly thinking he fell asleep.

Maxwell couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m awake.”

She blushed and responded with a trembling voice. “I’m sorry. You’ve gone out of your way to help us and I can’t offer you anything.”

“You don’t owe me anything. This is what I am supposed to do.”

“Why?!”

He turned his head to her and she covered her mouth, realizing she was getting too loud. Abigail rose from the table and sat on the floor beside him, hugging her legs. “What do you get out of it?” She whispered.

Maxwell looked at the dark sky above; few stars returned his gaze. “I’m going to kill these monsters. I want to restore what we had before.”

He glanced back to the girl and nearly jumped. Abigail was close, her eyes a green glow of curiosity. “You mean that things are going to get better?”

“I want them to.” Maxwell said flatly, trying to calm himself. He was growing increasingly thankful for his helmet and armor.

“How?” She whispered.

He returned his eyes beyond the cracked door and to John’s window. “My father told me where the knights came from.”

A pack of deer caught his eye, and Maxwell smiled as the family hopped back into the trees.

“Don’t leave me hanging!” Abigail eagerly whispered.

He laughed and she puffed her cheek. “A serpent arose from the sea and brought chaos upon the land. A young man named Ansel slayed the beast and returned order to the land.”

“I don’t get it. If he killed it, then what is going on today? Why did The Order fall? My father was unsure himself.”

“There were more things than the serpent. It had, and still has, many followers, worshippers, and allies. Ansel swore to destroy them and restore humanity’s cleanliness. He found The Order and trained generations of knights, thus he is known as Ansel The Warden.”

“So he’s like the founder?”

“Yup.”

”So… what destroyed the knights?” Abigail asked with hesitation.

Maxwell looked back to Abigail. She was sitting so close to him that they almost touched. She squeezed her legs and held her gaze, green eyes swimming with curiosity and sorrow. Before he could reply his companion rose and stood before the bedroom door.

“What? Is something there?” Abigail asked as Maxwell’s gaze followed Her stride.

Then he heard it.

A soft rustle.

The creature was here.

He rose, holding his hand up to keep Abigail still.

Heart pounding in his ears, Maxwell crept to John’s door and gently pushed it open…

It was much larger than he expected. He never knew the DreamWalkers could grow this large. It had no consistency in its body. It was a mesh of legs and arms like a mangled spider. The grotesque shape held up its disgusting snout, which housed countless small daggers of teeth. Blood pulsed through its flesh as it drank. This was his chance to strike; the creature's had to remain in the material world while they were attached to their host.

Maxwell needed to be careful. If he struck too hard the creature could kill the host in shock. His armor quietly chimed as he crept closer and closer. He readied his blade, pointing it to center mass.

Then something hit him.

He faintly heard Abigail screaming.

A sharp pain clawed his hip and he glanced down, seeing red mixed with his chainmail. Looking behind him, he saw it.

Another one sat in the corner waiting.

He never knew these creatures did this. That one would guard.

It roared, and the creature attached to John separated and looked at Maxwell. It growled and leaped through the window, shattering glass. The other one quickly followed, yanking its hands out of Maxwell. With a grunt, he stumbled, but quickly regained himself and jumped outside in pursuit of the two creatures. The two siblings screamed his name, but it was drowned out by the rustling of his bouncing armor. It was dark, and the night grew darker as he entered the forest. Branches and bushes bounced off him, rattling his body. He finally stopped, gaining his breath.

The forest was silent.

He had failed.

The damned things were gone, far from his reach. Heart pounding and frustration growing he cursed in the night as he desperately scanned the dark surroundings of twigs and bushes.

Then, a desperate gamble made itself known to him. Maxwell stopped and breathed.

He could do it.

He would do it.

Clutching his side, he laid on the dead leaves below and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to take him.