King of Dreams

”Don’t go too near to your dreams:
they are like smoke and might fade away –
they are dangerous and might remain.

Have you looked into the eyes of your dreams?
They are sick and understand naught at all –
they only know thoughts that are their own.

Don’t go too near to your dreams:
they are a lie and should go away –
they are madness; they only want to stay.”

“Dangerous Dreams” from Edith Södergran
(freely translated)

It was odd how her life-force and dreams – the very essence of herself seemed to shine somehow brighter these days.

Man smiled at this thought while he measured the girl in front of him.

Even now, reality tight in his grasp and time and space defined, Damian felt Kate’s dreams and humanity struggling to alter his world into something that what was familiar to her. Her desires and hopes fought against him and his will.

Infinity – men just can’t stand it. They always need boundaries, he momentarily allowed himself to be amused by his thoughts.

Then he who called himself Damian felt his face to turn dark. Kate had done something he had never experienced before. She had defied him: denied Damian’s world and tried to escape. No one did that to him, for he was an omnipotent creature – a god-ruler of his world.

But, Kate had rebelled against him while trying to deny Damian’s might.

”It seems you are unable to resist me anymore,” Damian mocked the young girl. ”You have no strength to return back to your pathetic Real World.”

Kate’s knuckles turned white, and she felt how her over-grown nails dug deep into her flesh. Kate was so furious she felt an irresistible urge to hit the wane and self-righteous face of this man.

”The reason must be quite clear to you,” Kate answered and only by great effort resisted her undeniable temptation to hit him. “You were the one binding me into your world”, she bitterly spat out.

”Only by your request,” Damian coldly reminded her. “I only did it since you requested it.”

”You tricked me!” Kate hissed, and the hate flamed inside of her like a fire. “You only wanted to use me and my dreams!” she blamed the man, and her chestnut eyes shone bright with rage. “You only wanted to own my dreams...”

The silver-haired man granted her a beastly smile and took a step closer, but Kate remained in her place and kept her chin courageously high as she faced him.

“Why, of course,” Damian answered with a dreadful smile, and the girl felt her limbs turn numb from sheer fright. How she hated and feared this silvery haired and eyed man of the Grey Kingdom! But, still she remained in this spaceless dream-world, when she only wished to be somewhere else. Even when his long, cold fingers slid through air toward her and finally touched her face, she found out she couldn’t run away. Kate remained silent, though she wanted to scream from pain, for his touch was freezing cold, and burnt her skin like fire and ice.

The tears welled in her eyes and sparkled on her eyelashes.

”I am the King of the Dreams,” he withdrew his arm and his cold and pale face twisted into an amused smile. “And now your dreams belong to me, Kate.”

It was purely fortune that he had found the girl and her dreams.

She was driven forward by an unrecognizable need and urge, almost a fiery spark of life. Her dreams blinded him and tempted him like a beacon. She called to Damian like a siren; lured with her innocence, yearning, and with her youth. She was such a child then, though a child she still was compared to Damian.

He lived in a changing, unstable world, where every wish and thought could destroy and reconstruct every moment all the time. He controlled it, for he was the ruler of the dreams. Every dream came from his world, and Damian knew all the stories and every desire, every nightmare and its solution. He controlled dreams, and his world remained between the dead and the living; between the waking time and the night. But, even though he ruled the World of Dreams, he possessed none of it.

Until, he met the girl.

Even in her dreams Kate searched for something; a knowledge, a meaning for her life. And the man became possessed by her and her dreams, in which sun sparkled on the coral-like ivory towers, and people rather flew instead of walking; where the winged-horses and the unicorns roamed. Her dreams were so naïve, so sweet. Damian was possessed by them, and followed Kate a long time, automatically waiting for her naivety to disappear. People’s dreams and wishes were always changing, and became dull and bitter along with their age.

But, to Damian’s wonder the girl didn’t lose the essence of her dreams. They remained nearly unchanged. Of course, as she grew old, they became darker, but never turned grey. Kate’s dreams sparkled with life and colour, and tempting scents mixed mysteriously in them. Even though, she matured, she never grew old. It was like she alone could defy all of his assumptions of mankind – she remained loyal to her dreams.

The plan formed by its own. Kate’s dreams were different, and their freshness and richness constantly changed his world, as well as Damian. She believed in her dreams and her fantasies so much that his shadowy world started to anchor itself in her. He and his world, became solid and real.

Damian’s plan was simple: attach the girl in his world, make her his own, and Kate’s dreams would eternally belong to him. Her belief and purity together with Damian would make his world something real, something grand. He would no longer be an essence of unstable dreams, but he would be a Dream: A King of Dreams.

It had been so easy.

And for a time, also proved quite amusing.

The girl unknowingly assisted Damian, as the man reached toward her through her dreams and called her to come and meet him. So she arrived: as a ghost, unknowingly, curious. Man used all his abilities to enchant his world to appear appealing to her, and Kate became charmed and awestruck.

”This world is so beautiful”, Kate sighed. ”I could stay here for all time.”

”I’m the ruler of this world,” Damian carefully replied to her and fleetingly touched her hopes and desires with his mind. “All you need to do is ask, and you will be part of it.”

Kate laughed, and tossed her light-brown hair. She bent down to pick a rose from a white rosebush nearby her, and ingenuously and trusting smelled the flower. Her chestnut eyes sparkled and danced, and she radiated a passion of youth, life and light. Damian nearly became blind by her.

”Maybe, I should hope so,” Kate finally sighed. “I so wish to be part of even something!” she lowered her eyes, still holding the rose in her hands, and Damian listened to her. His body was tense and he knew that here lied his change.

”This is only a dream,” the man gently told her. “Anything is possible in one’s dreams. All you need to do is ask.”

Kate looked at him and smiled.

“Alright,” she replied with a small laugh, “then please, make me a part of your wonderful, enchanted land!” And with these words she bound herself Damian.

The thorns of the rose suddenly grew and pierced her skin marking her as Damian’s. A surprised, small scream escaped from her as she let the flower fall from her hands.

Then Kate laughed again, and bent down to pick up the flower.

”It seems roses have thorns even in my dreams”, she sighed amused, without noticing the victorious expression on Damian’s face.

But, she understood when she tried to wake up and found out she no longer could, for she was imprisoned in her own dreams. She tried to escape him, but found out she could not. He always found her, and too late she understood what she already should have: that dreams were not to be trusted.

Damian laughed seeing her terror when she finally realized she could never run away from him.

It had been so easy.