Dreamcatcher

13

The week flew by with the autumn season. Before Aerial knew it, small signs of winter began appearing for the first time, and the air itself numbed her to the bone every time she stepped outside without a thick jacket on.

Ah, remind me again how I used to survive in Reinfeld Park. No way did I not develop hypothermia or a frostbite.

On the first snowy day of the season, Venus was celebrating her birthday with three cups of warm coffee and two more cups of lemon-herb tea. The only words she said to Chase and Aerial in the morning were "hi" and "thanks for the drinks" before disappearing into her room like she was a bear hibernating. Chase thought he caught a glimpse of her sneaking in a bottle of wine.

That noon, however, Venus reemerged from her beauty nap in a good mood. Chase assumed that she had found her day satisfactory, for she even cared to ask Aerial when her birthday was.

"...March fourteenth..." was Aerial's slow reply. Chase raised one of his eyebrows.

"I thought your birthday was twenty-something." He stirred his cup of tea, which he found too hot for his tongue. "I think I might be going crazy."

Aerial put on a sheepish smile. "Doesn't really matter the day if I make sure you guys forget it. I'm sorry, but I really don't want to go to some lousy birthday party with apple juice to drown out our sorrows. I'm not that desperate for fun."

"Thanks for the idea," Venus said with an evil grin. "We do have leftover beer cups from Chase's party." She raised her coffee up like she was saying "cheers", then slowly went back up the staircase so as to not spill her piping-hot drink. Yet again she disappeared for the rest of the night, and Aerial often felt like the house was empty.

At midnight Aerial looked outside at the dense darkness swallowing the street, then finally decided to get out of her cozy shell. In the hallway she knocked on Chase's bedroom door and waited for it to open.

"You're awake at this time?" Chase asked. He was still in his pajamas, his desk's lamp turned onto the brightest option. After stretching out his arms, he asked, "What's up?"

"I'm going out. I'll be back before the sun rises."

As if unaffected, his tired expression didn't change. "Stealing dreamcatchers again?"

Aerial didn't say anything, and the silence answered his question. Chase sighed, nodded, and waited for her to leave the hallway and down the stairs. He was too exhausted to stop her, and at that point he felt it would simply be a waste of energy. To him, getting rid of another's dream was the hardest thing to do; it was already hard enough to abandon his own.

Chase quietly closed the door and absorbed the midnight's stillness. It felt like the entire world was asleep, but at the same time the night was when dreams danced around and illuminated hearts like fireflies, nightmares cursing the deep sleepers until they struggled to wake up. Hope remained awake, even if others were unconscious.

However, Chase was a true neutral. He didn't attract dreams with dreamcatchers, but he also still had a self-sufficient dream to say "piss off" to future cursed tragedies. Likewise, he abandoned sleeping to stay far away from nightmares caused by his bare front door.

He yawned, mixed his second cup of coffee, and continued reading "History of Butterflies". When Aerial came home at five, he was still absorbed in his textbook.

"Aerial, you wanna come with me to the library?" The girl was surprised to see barely any eyebags under Chase's eyelids, and she reminded herself to ask him about his beauty tips later on. "Aerial?"

"You already finished those comics on your desk?" The young girl saw him carrying not just the thin colored graphic novels, but also a fat stack of random textbooks. "Wow, you read a lot."

"Nothing else to do at one in the morning. So, are you coming?" Without waiting for an answer, however, Chase made his way down the hallway with his heavy load of books. His sighs and grunts of effort were heard far off in the distance.

Naturally Aerial had no choice of backing out, so she tagged along.

"This would be so much easier if you had a driver's license." Aerial felt like a stiff snowman at that point, but the two still had more than ten minutes to get to Walspark County Library. After trying to think up hot conversation topics, she asked, "How old are you, Chase?"

"Seventeen. Driving really isn't my thing, though. I feel like I don't have the self-control to navigate a vehicle that could easily wipe out twelve on the street," Chase replied. He took steady white breaths that resembled mist in the air. His cheeks were a light pink. "I don't trust myself that much."

"...It'd be nice to teleport places. Taking dreamcatchers would be easier, and I've always wanted to see the stars far away from any cities or lights."

Chase put on a gentle smile. "So you do have other dreams besides destroying Dream Catchers. That's nice to know."

"It's hard to have more than one dream. Dream Catchers and dreamcatchers alike only affect your largest goal in life, so the inferior dream is always in the back of your mind, haunting you like a lurking shadow. It's another reason to hate dreamcatchers."

"Oh?"

"Think about how pleasant the world would be if everybody had countless expanding dreams, countless wishes, and infinite satisfaction even when one dream fails. If only dreamcatchers didn't give people hope so everybody could regulate their happiness themselves," Aerial said, "just like you and Venus."

"Are we the only house you've seen without dreamcatchers?" Chase asked. Aerial couldn't decide whether the teen seemed proud or disappointed.

"So far you guys are the only ones. Venus's dream is revenge, right? Didn't you tell me before that she wanted to kill Dream Catchers just like me?"

"No. She only wants to get rid of dreamcatchers, as in the hoop-and-feather thing. Her goal, unlike yours, isn't to slay death."

Aerial slowly nodded in response. "And your dream is simple. It's hard finding people with simple dreams lately. They live longer, pleasant lives because the Dream Catcher isn't as attracted to 'weaker' dreamcatchers. 'Weak' dreams also don't need as much hope to make them grow."

"That's true. But...they're still sufficient enough for me to live," Chase replied. He slowly let out a sigh. "Aerial..."

"Mhm?" She kicked a pebble on the sidewalk, and it slid across the icy sidewalk surface like a hockey puck.

"I don't know what my dream would be if I didn't have my current one."

Aerial looked at him. "...So you'd die?"

"Mhm, probably. A Dream Catcher can sense if I don't have a dream even if I don't have a dreamcatcher, right? It'd be my end." Chase seemed calm when he said this, but more than anything Aerial could sense his stress. Bravery came in many different forms, and for Chase that meant his willingness to deal with nightmares as he alone fed his own dream, obviously to protect his life. "I'd die."

"It's a good thing you have your dream, then. And...me."

Chase smiled, then shoved his hands in his pocket. "Yeah – I'm pretty lucky, aren't I?"