Dreamcatcher

1

They hung by a thin thread. Silk, probably. The wind blew the dyed feathers around as they swayed like weightless leaves, the bead-like bells jingling softly to welcome the coming holidays. Then there were the threads on the inside of the covered rings, the patterns always resembling the same thing – flowers. Whether they were green, purple, blue, pink; it didn't matter. They were always flowers. At least, that's what everybody else thought.

Aerial thought they looked like spider webs. She saw the way the butterfly decorations clung to the threads like they were trapped, never able to escape until they met their inevitable fate of death. What flowers? Flowers never caught anything. Only spiderwebs did, and in this case they caught dreams.

More bells jingled. Aerial's eyes wandered from the neighborhood street to each house's door, and like normal, clustered dreamcatchers all hung in array. Some looked handmade, and even if they looked impeccably perfect, Aerial could always tell if they were store-bought or not. It was a talent she had.

But it was odd. One of the houses didn't have a single dreamcatcher hanging on the door, let alone a couple with butterflies attached.

"You gonna give those back?"

Aerial spun around. Her gaze met a teen boy's, one who looked the rough age of seventeen. He wasn't dirty, no, but the way he stood in his baggy hoodie and casual attitude made him seem wrong. The boy wasn't supposed to be there.

"I asked if you were gonna give those back," he repeated dryly. He nodded his head towards the dreamcatchers Aerial was carrying, his hands shoved casually into his pockets.

Making eye contact with the teen, Aerial found herself debating on whether to walk away or simply shut him down. Finally she decided on a stern "no", then continued to make her way down the wide street with her fat stack of dreamcatchers tucked underneath her armpit. The bells continued to jingle. The sound was beginning to get annoying.

The teen followed her with a curious silence. As if Aerial didn't know he was behind her, he also made sure his footsteps made no noise at all. Aerial liked cats and quiet predators, but she found his behavior immensely annoying.

"You shouldn't steal dreamcatchers from those houses, you know. People worked hard to make those."

"Mhm," Aerial replied.

"It's wrong. Immoral."

"Mhm-hm."

"It's – Are you even listening?" The boy stopped in his tracks, expecting Aerial to do the same. When she continued making her way down the gravel street without a single care in the world, he ran up behind her again with a defeated huff.

"Go home."

But the boy was firm in his beliefs. Though in comparison Aerial was more stubborn, he never ceased in pushing her with questions. "Nobody's naturally that hateful. Why do you steal them – the dreamcatchers?"

Silence hit the pair like the sudden gust of autumn breeze, and the sound of footsteps halted. Aerial knew that the boy had watched her for the entire previous hour as she stole, and only now did he speak up about her theft like the hero he wanted to be. His dedication in stalking her deserved some sort of congratulations, and perhaps her dismissal of his questions was a bit cold-hearted, even if the teen did interrupt her train of thought.

"Why do I do it?" she repeated in a low whisper. Her back was still turned to the teen, who stood like an unmoving marble statue. "Let's see here...dreamcatchers are dumb."

And that was all. Aerial picked up her pace again and continued walking, her strides casual but purposeful. After a few seconds she paused at a house on her right with two butterfly dreamcatchers, her eyes staring intently at the monarchs placed beside the centers. She was like a cat eyeing its prey.