Suho sat up in his bed, his heart doing a round of jumping jacks in his chest. Slightly disorientated, he looked around the dimly lit room, the only light coming from the light post across the street. A cold stream of sweat was making its way down the center of his back. He wiped his forehead. That had been some nightmare. He took a deep breath. He could only remember glimpses. A bright light flashing before his eyes, almost blinding him. And the screaming. The horrible screaming. That was why he woke up. Someone had been screaming, the way you scream when something so awful happens that your mind is incapable of comprehending it and you just start screaming instead. The screeching still echoed in his head, making the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

A sudden, bright lightning outside startled him, eerily lighting up his room for a few nanoseconds. A loud thunder followed. It was like something out of a horror movie. Maybe the weather had woken him up. It all fit. The blinding light he saw could have been a bolt of lightning, and his brain could have interpreted the thunder as screaming. He wanted to believe that, but he couldn't. He had been having the same nightmare every night for almost two weeks. He was used to restless dreams and nightmares by now, but normally he could remember them clearly when he woke up and most of the time they were premonitions that went away if he managed to get to the ones who appeared in his dream in time and help them.

The way he saw it, people in need emanated some kind of an SOS-energy, that was stronger and more intense than the energy people normally emitted, and he just so happened to pick up on it, like a human antenna. When he answered the call, the cry for help that he was sensing disappeared and he could once again breathe lighter and get some sleep. But this time was different. When he woke up, all he was left with was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had seen some bad things in the course of his life, awful things, indescribable things, but this not knowing was much, much worse.

Suho lay back down, closing his eyes but failing in keeping them shut for more than a few seconds. Every time he closed his eyes, that uncomfortable, nagging feeling would revisit him. He desperately needed to help the one who had appeared in his dream, but he had nothing to go on. The darkness felt like it was closing in on him, eating him alive.

At times like these, Suho wished he had a boyfriend, someone to keep him company and give him strength. He hated being alone.

“Hello?” A sleep-drunken voice answered the phone.

“Hey. It's me,” Suho whispered, feeling bad for having woken him up in the middle of the night for something as childish as a nightmare.

“Oh. Nightmare again?”

“Mmm.”

“Want me to come over?”

“Could you?” Suho didn't want to impose, but this was kind of why he called in the first place.

“I'll be there in five.”

Suho lay back down, feeling a tiny bit better knowing he was on his way. They had been best friends ever since he had discovered Suho cowering in a corner after a particularly grueling vision. It had been Suho's first day at this school. He had spent most of his childhood in and out of mental institutions, constantly haunted by his visions that no one believed in, not even his parents. The day the principal found him, malnourished and out of his mind, left to rot in isolation after his latest escape attempt, was the best day of his life. The first day of his life, his new life. Since then, he had learned how to control and focus his powers, but every time he fell asleep, he went back to being that defenseless kid who nobody believed, being attacked by visions, unable to get a single moment of peace.

Suho had grown up alone. It wasn't until that first day of school that he really understood what it was to have somebody in his corner. It was the best feeling in the world. Better than flying, he imagined. Making a friend had been such a culture shock, he still had trouble believing it sometimes. He was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

A soft knock on the door startled him. Suho stood up to open the door, but his bestie had already opened it with his spare key. Suho was the only kid on campus with a private room, after a series of roommate trials had ended very badly, nobody being able to handle the burden of his relentless visions, day and night.

“Come on, off to bed, you. I'm dead tired and I have an exam tomorrow. I'm going to pass out the moment my head hits the pillow,” he murmured as he pushed Suho into bed, getting in after him.

“It's going to be alright, I'm here now,” he said, whispering into Suho's ear as his long arms enveloped him, hugging him tightly. A moment later he had fallen asleep. Suho suppressed a chuckle. What use was there in having a guard dog, if it just fell asleep? But it actually made the world of difference to have him there. He always felt better when he was around. Suho imagined that his arm, that had wound itself around him like an octopus tentacle, was a magical arm that would protect him from his bad dreams. And it did.