I want to be me

He was standing still.

Chaos everywhere.

It was like the nightmare collapsed on itself.

Iwao couldn’t take his eyes off the chimera. It was crying and screaming as if its whole life was taken out of its body. It looked at the terrifying appearance of Iwao and tried to run away from him. It couldn’t make a single move. The sand sucked it into his depths. Iwao couldn’t do anything. His eyes were lost. He stared into nothing. No thoughts traveled across his mind, except one.

“So, it’s who you really are…” Do it! “I’m not the only one you did this to…” Don’t have any pity! Make it suffer! “You’re not a product of my mind… You just wanted me to be you... to suffer even more…” What are you waiting for? Scare it to the point of having a heart attack. Accentuate its nightmare.

He looked up. His gaze still looking blank. His face revealed a half smile, a strange smile. His mouth was slightly opened and his sharp teeth were showing. Just the right half of his mouth was smiling. It gave a creepy atmosphere and the chimera had the fear of its life. It's as if it decomposed on the spot while begging for forgiveness in her own language.

As the chimera sank deeper and deeper into the sand, blood started falling from the sky. Iwao was covered with it. He was still lost in his thoughts and mumbled strange words. He suddenly raised his hand in front of him and started walking towards this thing that was sinking there. Slowly, he approached without controlling any of what he was doing. He crouched and closed his eyes. His evil smile resurfaced. His hand leisurely approached the chimera’s face, like he was doing it out of habit. The chimera gave up, it could do nothing. The creature was too terrifying, its nightmare was too strong.

“No… No… Wake up! Now! I’m not this creature! I can’t do to others what he did to me! Wake up! AHHHHHHH!!!”

A sudden pain took over all of his body. He woke up, but his hand was still not being controlled by him. He decided, in the heat of the moment, to cut it off with his teeth. In one sharp blow, without taking much time, he bit his arm and ripped it off. Blood was flowing. He screamed in pain.

“YOU ARE DEAD! YOU ARE NOT HERE ANYMORE! I DON’T WANT TO BE YOU!”

He was panting. He took a deep breath.

“I WANT TO BE ME!”

While he was saying that, he opened his mouth wide and plunged it in the sand. The pain woke up many things in his body, such as memories or sensations he didn’t understand yet. These things flowed all over his body. The world suddenly stopped shaking, the rain stopped where it was. Explosions of energy came out of his body. First time, sand was sent flying everywhere. Second time, the chimera flew few meters away.

Then, the silence.

The chimera didn’t want to make a single noise.

Nothing was moving.

*

*

*

Gulp

Gulp

The sound of someone swallowing something echoed in the heavy silence. The nightmare began to transform itself in a strange fluorescent energy. It was aspirated by the mouth of Iwao. He was devouring the nightmare.

Once nothing was left, he ate the rope that sent him here. Then he fainted. He woke up in the forest with difficulty. He arranged all of his thoughts. The chimera was near him and it seemed to have a peaceful sleep. His arm was there too, he just lost it in the nightmare. He was relieved.

“You saw that, creature! I didn’t accentuate its nightmare! I made it go away! I ate it! You hear me! I’m not you, I will choose my own path!” Yelled Iwao in a voice full of happiness.

He took conscience of something else. His hunger had weakened. He was not full but he was not as hungry as before.

“So I don’t have to kill to eat! If I eat nightmares I can be satiated. But… the ones of animals are not very nutritious. I guess they don’t have really sophisticated nightmares. When I ate it, I understood that, at first, it was just having a nightmare about being in a place where there was no food and where it would die of hunger. I need more. Animals are not enough. Maybe… I can do it on humans… It can’t hurt them, right...?”

Iwao was perplexed by his finding about the nutritious value of nightmares, but was also terrified of what it would do to humans. His tone was calm and full of joy, but the doubt could be felt under his words.

“It’s strange too. Since I ate it, it seems like I’ve accessed to a major part of the memories of this chimera… Every feeling, every information... it’s like they are mine now. But from an animal, it’s not very useful… If I do that to a human, I can maybe learn more about this world. I need to learn how to use the power of this body… learn what I’m able to do.”

As he took off his eyes from his hands. He saw a herd of lightning wolves that were sleeping not so far of him. Some of them had the rope. He dodged the lightning that came out of their bodies despite their sleep and took one of the rope.

“As for the moment, I’m hungry, so let’s eat. I will think about all of that after.”

******************************

Two years later

“Since I’m in this body, I feel more confident. It’s like all that I am now and what I’m able to do gave me a new mind. I’m not the same Iwao Aoki as before. Since I’m in this world, I can take my own decisions and do what I want. Nobody can stop me like before. I feel like I can do something good… If everyone sees my good actions, maybe they will accept me and “hooray” there is my happy ending. A happy ending that I would have wanted. Something to make me happy, something to make me be me, something to show me that I’m not the tool of anyone. I’m now a new person. I’m Iwao Aoki, the Nightmare Eater... It sounded better in my head… Oh here they come!”

He climbed down of the tree he was on as he saw a group of people passing by the road, in a cart, and going to the city of Taranios.

**

During the last two year, Iwao trained his power and his abilities. He ate the nightmares of many animals and learned more on what they really were. He also discovered some secrets of the nature. It seemed to him that all animals had something in common, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

After one year, he could use a camouflage spell and he used it to quit the forest he lived in until then. He started going in the camps of people he found here and there and he ate their nightmares. It was beneficial because he finally could learn more about this world, the magic system, the wars, where he was and all sorts of things. He learned a lot, but his powers were not fully developed, like something was restraining them. He could use some spells and abilities, but he knew that it was not all he was able to. He then learned magic from the memories of humans and became stronger and smarter.

He discovered that the world was named Aruniol. He also gained the information that, since his arrival, he was in the Polmo kingdom, in the south of the Deflo continent. This vast kingdom was at war with the Stuts kingdom and the Murn kingdom, respectively on the north and on the east. Iwao then decided to not go to these frontiers to escape the conflicts.

The second important thing he got from a nightmare was about the magic system. Firia was the name given to the invisible energy that was floating in the air in all the world. By absorbing it, it was possible to give form to spells of the type people are the closest. Although, anyone could use every type of spell, even if it was not at the same intensity. It seemed that only a limited quantity of Firia could be used everyday, but the quantity differed for everyone. Even Iwao had a limit for the spells that used Firia. However, what was strange was that some spells that he had thanks to his monster form were not impacted by the quantity of energy in him.

The most important thing was not quite what he waited for, but as he learned it, he knew that it would have its utility. It looked like that in this world, and most especially in the city of Taranios, Halloween was celebrated, or whatever it was called in this world. If that was the day of terror and fear, it meant that the nightmares of kids would be delicious, but also very strong. Iwao saw the opportunity and he took this information at face value. It would maybe help him to unlock some more powers and achieve his true goal.

**

Iwao used his camouflage ability and ran with all that he had to reach the cart in the dark night. Nobody saw him as he jumped on it. It was like he was not there. The cart continued its way and Iwao let himself be transported to Taranios. Three days from now, it would be Halloween. Something important would happen as it was the first time he would go inside a city in this world.

******************************

On another road, in another cart, Saya was leading towards Taranios but not to celebrate Halloween. It had been two years since she accepted the mission of her father. She isolated herself far from the castle to focus on her research and, one day, she found where the creature was hiding. She explained all that she found out about it and what she had done before this mission in a letter she sent to her father three days before going in this city.

“Dear father,

I know what you will say, but I didn’t met it rapidly because I wanted to have more information first, as you wouldn’t give me any. It’s been now five months since I found it. It didn’t saw me but it was there in the forest. He was horrifying, I couldn’t move. A strange aura emanated from him, it pushed me away. I couldn’t be there for more minutes, so I just decided to cast Tracker to keep an eye on him. I followed him with it. But it seemed like it avoided to enter in Taranios, I thought it was strange. As I write this letter, it’s been two hours since he took the direction of the city. He will be there for The Fear Feast. There must be a reason. I will meet it during this event to prevent him from committing a crime.

Everything will be fine, father. I will bring it back as our ally for the war, it seems powerful. I will fight my fears to convince him. Give me the strength.

Love you, your dear daughter, Saya Benegram.”

She arrived at Taranios late in the night, but knew it was still there. Her spell told her that it was not far away. She walked slowly through the maze of streets that was Taranios. It was getting closer and closer. She turned right at the end of another street and then she saw it.