Carl

Carl was a sixteen year old wizard with amazing superpowers beyond the comprehension of mortals. He couldn't do cool stuff like controlling water, fire or anything like that. He couldn't even fly, or read minds, or even throw a Lamborghini across the block. Heck, he couldn't even throw the World Encyclopedia of Magic Volume 2 across his own room! But Carl could do something that no other person, or even wizard, could do.

He could manipulate dreams.

Granted, that didn't sound like much. Bit of an anticlimax, to be honest.

But only Carl could fully fathom the true horror of his power.

Too many people underestimate the power dreams have over a person's soul. In a way, dreams are like pathways to a person's soul. They reflect the true feelings, the true emotions of a person. And Carl, by manipulating them, could change the very essence of what made a person themselves.

Carl had first found out that he could manipulate dreams when he was around seven-eight years old.

He hadn't known he was a wizard at the time and was still studying in a regular mortal school. There was this one boy, Mike something, who used to bully him and his then friends, Jason and Marilyn.

One thing led to another, and he ended up wishing that Mike had the same nightmares which had plagued him the night before. Of course, he had no way of knowing that what he had wished – or rather, willed – to happen had come to pass. But over the next few weeks everyone started noticing a change in Mike's behavior. He looked paler than usual and jumped violently when startled.

Carl had, at the time, no idea what could have been causing that. But then, one day, when Mike fell asleep in class and later woke up, crying aloud about ghouls tearing him apart, Carl had known. Because he had had the exact same dream the night before.

That night, he hadn't been able to sleep. For the first time of many, he lay awake in bed, pondering over his abilities.

Now, Carl, whilst the owner of a deadly superpower, was not an evil person. He sincerely felt miserable for ruining his classmate's life. Sure, he had bullied him countless times, but no one deserved those terrible nightmares. Carl may not have known that he was a wizard, but he knew that he was different – that for normal children these were very haunting dreams. So he willed whatever power was inside him to stop what was happening. He did this every night, and kept a sharp lookout for signs of change in Mike.

And that was when he learned the most terrible truth about his powers.

He couldn't stop them.

The power inside him was like a parasite. Once it latched onto him, it was nigh impossible to get rid of it. Carl experienced the worst moments of his life during that time. Everyday Mike seemed to look a little worse for wear, and Carl would keep feeling worse.

Until the day when it all changed.

He had been talking to his elder sister about random things, like they usually did on one of their Sunday afternoon chats, and he had asked her:

"Suppose you puke all over your bedroom wall one day. What then?"

"Then I suppose I'll clean it up."

"And suppose that it won't come out. What would you do then?"

"Then I'll just give it a new coat of paint."

Drawing inspiration from his optimistic sister, Carl decided to give the wall a new coat of paint. That night, he willed Mike to have happy dreams and continued doing so every night after that. And sure enough, a few days later, Mike started looking much like his older self again.

But Carl couldn't let go.

Because when he did, Mike started having his nightmares again. And they were getting more vivid.

And Carl was getting tired of projecting happy dreams every night. He couldn't let go even one day because the dreams were getting more vivid and graphic as time passed by.

But now Carl was sixteen and his power still hadn't let up on his first, and only, target. He was growing tired. His family was worried about him. They thought that the pressure of the wizarding school he had joined was getting to be too much for him. His sister, always so carefree, now had a worried look in her eye whenever she saw him. They all tried to hide this from him, but his power of manipulating dreams and the ongoing issue with Mike had given him the ability to detect emotions fairly accurately.

And Carl was so tired.

He didn't want Mike to suffer, therefore he couldn't stop projecting those happy dreams. It didn't help that Mike lived across the road now, so every time he slipped, he would see the consequences on the boy's face the next day. Carl was very tired of this.

And one day, he finally snapped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carl smiled with true happiness for the first time in years as he walked home from the woods. They would find out someday, but not today.

Carl continued smiling as he let himself in through the back door and slinked up to his room.

As he lay down on his bed, he sighed happily in relief as he closed his eyes and drifted off, no gnawing stress for performing the projecting nor any lingering worries that Mike may suffer of those devilish nightmares.

For the first time in what felt like forever Carl slept and dreamt peacefully. Freely.

For Mike won't suffer due to him anymore. Oh, no, he had taken care of that.

Mike would be completely safe from his dreams in his earthy bed below the old banyan tree.