Those Who Live in the Shadows

Chapter 5

"Why am I the only one who can hear you?" asked Camelia, sitting on her bed.

"I don't know," I responded, standing in front of her. "But I am working on it."

She nodded. She was shocked, and I understood why. It's not every day that you learn that a whole new society exists.

"Thank God," she sighed of relief. "I thought I was turning crazy, but this..."

"What? You are not scared or some stuff like that?" Even after centuries of looking and spying on humans, I still didn't understand their... emotions. And reactions. They sometimes behaved in such strange ways that I never knew what to expect from them.

"Scared? No, I'm relieved. Now I know that I am sane."

"Hm."

"So how exactly did you make the book mess?" Camelia asked. She walked to the books lying on the floor, avoiding falling –I'm beginning to think she's a ninja- and picked one up, that she replaced randomly in her book shelf.

"Well, I wanted to try to make a huge book castle, but it fell down," I replied simply.

"How can you... touch things, but not humans?"

"It's like that. Humans never notice us. But we can interact with inanimate objects."

"Don't people ever see you moving things around?"

I laughed. "Oh yes, they do!"

"Do Nightmares want to be noticed and drive humans crazy? You are basically like ghosts."

"Yeah, I guess we kinda inspired ghost stories. But we don't particularly want to mess with your heads. We basically leave you live in peace, while we feed from your fears."

"That isn't so bad. The name "Nightmares" made me think about horrific stuff, but you are nice."

Nice? Me? I had never thought I was nice... Interesting. Camelia's point of view of me was certainly different from the other Nightmares.

"Nice? How come?"

"Well, you could have hit me, pushed me down the stairs, taken advantage of my blindness... But you stayed strangely pacifist in your methods to convince me. Thanks."

Now I was lost. Like really, completely lost. I... Why was Camelia thanking me? No... No one had ever thanked me. And if they would, it would not be for something as insignificant as that. You simply never said thank you, or thanks. If someone did something for you, you just accepted it and did something for him later on. Did "thanks" mean anything particular here? Was it a kind of contract?

"Desire? Des? Did you leave?" asked Camelia, a little worried. Her voice brought me out of my mind, to the present time.

"Yes," I replied seriously. Well, more or less seriously, since it was obvious that I was still here.

She giggled.

"Since you left, obviously," she continued sarcastically, "I am going to take a shower." I smiled. I liked her. But then, what is "to like"? I appreciated her? Hm... Could a feeling really be explained? I will have to ask Camelia about it later.

"You clean up the books. You did this, you repair," she continued.

"Fine."

Camelia left the room, and I began replacing the books on their shelves. I was half-done, when she rushed in her room, looking panicked.

"Des?" she started.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you dare come in the bathroom while I'm there. Or I will never talk to you again. Ever." The blind girl went out again.

The idea of watching her naked had never crossed my mind. Why would I even care about that? And even if I did see her in her shower, what was the problem with it? Maybe she liked being alone. I didn't mind being alone, even if I preferred to be with a friend. I wondered if she was like me. I replaced all the books on the shelves, and waited for Camelia. I sat on the bed. I guess I would mostly keep my human form now on, since I would be better to interact with her.

Camelia came back few minutes later, changed in to her pajamas, her brown hair wet.

"Des?" she called while lying on her bed, beside me.

"Yeah?"

"Do you sleep?"

"No. Never. I don't need to sleep. If I feel low on energy, I just go collect some," I explained. I had never felt the need to sleep. If I ever felt tired, some energy always made it disappear.

"And how do you do that?"

"Simple. I create nightmares for sleeping humans and take their fear, sadness, or despair, which becomes energy for me."

"Oh. Of course. But how do you know what they are afraid of? I mean, we aren't all scared of the same thing."

I had never needed to explain that much things to anyone. I guess it can't be helped, since she doesn't know a thing about Nightmares, except the little I told her.

"We see what people most fear just by looking at them," I said. "It just..." I stopped.

That was not a lie, but not the complete truth. If all Nightmares could see what the humans are scared of, I think I am the only one who can see their deepest desires too. The wish they wanted the most to be realized. For Camelia, she most feared to be alone, while she most desired to not be blind. I saw it. I couldn't really explain how, but I knew it.

That is how I earned my name, Desire. The dreams I created weren't nightmares. They were beautiful, shiny and desirable illusions. I made true human wishes in their sleep, only to watch them wake up, realizing that it was all a dream. That it had never been true, and that their realized desires weren't real. It's when they wake up that reality becomes a never ending nightmare. Because the dreams I created were so more comfortable than real life. I still remember the horrible feeling of despair that the humans were releasing.

I was one of the cruelest Nightmares, using my unique knowledge of the human hearts to make their dreams a living hell. Sometimes, I even turned them crazy.

All Nightmares respected me at that time. They didn't dare to oppose me.

Then, I met Wish. The only one not scared of who I had been. A new Nightmare, ignorant of the horrors I had done. I took it as a second chance. And I stopped using human wishes as a source of nightmares. I went back to being a normal Nightmare –as normal as we could be-. Sticking to the classic fearful nightmares. Wish never knew the "me" from before. It was a secret, kept deep hidden inside me.

"Why did you stop talking?" I slowly emerged from my thoughts. There was no need to tell her about my past, or my capacities. Yeah, really no need...

"Sorry!" I excused myself, "I tend to be dragged away by memories, thoughts, and daydreams."

"That's fine. We all deserve a moment to drift away once in a while." She smiled. I felt surprisingly good in her company. "If you are tired, you better go...eat," Camelia continued. "It's late anyway, so I'll probably go to sleep soon."

"I am still surprised you aren't freaked out," I responded. Camelia was talking about this as if it was normal to have a Nightmare acquaintance.

But she was right. I needed to feed at least on three people each night if I wanted to be at my best.

"I am freaked out, you know. But not as I was when I turned blind. So don't worry about it. I'm fine."

Wait. When she turned blind? That meant she had her sight before? Maybe that's why she was so good at moving in her house without help.

I wanted to question Camelia more, but she went to close the lights and laid back on her bed, blankets over her.

"Good night," she said.

"See you later," I replied. I never understood the phrase "good night". Why would the night be good?

The night was dark, cruel and filled with Nightmares.

Definitely nothing good about that.