"Don't run," he yelled and held the shoulders of the boy who shivered in fear. When he tried to cover his eyes, he grabbed his wrist and pulled it down. "And don't close your eyes! You have to look it in the eye."

The monster was massive, like a giant black mount of muscles and sweat. Spit dripped out of its open mouth that bared fangs so big, it wouldn't have taken it much effort to rip open their chests.
But the point was that it wasn't real.

"This is all in your head," Kai said and frantically held onto the boy's shirt. "If you run, you lose."

The monster came closer. Every breath it took filled the air with a low roar.

"Look at it!"

The boy's heartbeat pounded through the dream like drums of war. It grew faster and faster.

And then he ran. He elbowed Kai away and spurted along a neverending corridor. The monster followed, always at his heels. It would never catch him, they would never get forward.

Kai sighed. He already hated the job.

---

Sometimes he got the feeling that the world outside made even less sense than the worlds inside other people's minds. If one single person set the rules, they at least followed a single pattern. Outside everything was decided through various factors, the outcome of which sometimes was even more bizarre than any dream world.

As far as he had heard, the Chinese plutocrat's son had never woken up. He would probably forever hide in his paper world. In a way it made sense. Now that he knew that his mother wasn't there any longer, he didn't have much more reason to face reality. In his dreams everything at least was in order, as long as there weren't strangers like Kai who barged in.

His thinking Kai could understand. But his father was like a puzzle.

His wife was dead, and his son was in a coma, but the Chinese plutocrat was overjoyed to hear that his son was still there somewhere. To him that apparently was enough. He seemed sure that his son would eventually return. He called Kai their 'saviour', although Kai hadn't done more than to pass on simple messages.

He was a 'saviour' now, and word spread among other Chinese millionaires that he was a 'dream counselor', a 'healer', a 'magician'. It frankly was ridiculous.
But his new status brought him offers and offers came with the permission to enter more dream worlds, so he couldn't decline. He needed to find Chanyeol no matter what, or else he would go crazy. He already had trouble sleeping without any kind of medication, so he couldn't waste even more time.

----

Had he not been so desperate, he probably wouldn't have agreed to try and help Zhang Yixing. It was one thing to talk to someone's comatose family members, but the mind of someone who lived and breathed normally, but who was troubled by nightmares was something entirely different. Without a translator he couldn't even talk to Zhang Yixing unless he was asleep and in his dreams, they had too little time to go through routines. Whenever he tried to tell him what to do, the monster appeared. Every time they ran in circles, until Zhang Yixing woke up and violently pulled Kai with him.

It was annoying, and didn't bring him any closer to finding Chanyeol. But he had already accepted, so he couldn't not help.

---

"Lay, look," he said urgently and pulled Zhang Yixing aside. He had already told him that in his dreams he was supposed to give himself a different name. Kai was fairly sure that the monster was something Zhang Yixing himself had created, but it was always best to be on the safe side. "This is your dream, so you set the rules. Nightmares are just a way for your brain to deal with things you don't want to deal with."

Zhang Yixing shifted uncomfortably. He clearly knew the scenery. They were in that very dark school building again. It was only a matter of seconds until the monster would appear. "So why do I have to deal with it now?"

Kai sighed. "Well, you obviously don't have to," he shrugged and Zhang Yixing gave him a miserable look, because he knew the direction the discussion would take. They had been over this a couple of times now. If he ran now, the monster would chase him forever. Night after night its foul breath would tickle the back of his neck as he ran.

Night after night after night.

Until the problem solved itself.

But unless they knew what the problem was, there would always be a tiny space reserved for the monster. It could stay forever, until Zhang Yixing himself died.

"So what does the school remind you of?" Kai asked helpfully, although they had been over this a couple of times now. It was Zhang Yixing's old high school. Half a year ago he had graduated. "Did anything bad happen to you here?"

Zhang Yixing gave it a thought, and a jolt went through the building. Just as expected. The school was the trigger.

There was a rumbling in the distance, and then it appeared. The monster, in all its gory brilliance.

"Okay, great," Kai said excitedly and rubbed his hands, when Zhang Yixing looked at him as if he had gone crazy. "Now look at it. It won't move, unless you start running."

Zhang Yixing flinched, and the monster took a step forward with flared nostrils and a growl coming from deep within its throat. Even Kai felt a shiver running down his spine at its sheer ugliness.

"Don't run," he said and tried to sound as calm as possible. "If you run now, we'll have to repeat this over and over again. I won't stay forever, so if you don't solve this yourself, no one will."

Zhang Yixing gave him a pleading glance, and he nodded at the monster. There was no use looking at him now. He couldn't fight other people's minds, no matter how easy a solution that would have been.

"Don't run," he yelled, when Zhang Yixing's face grew pale again. He gulped, and moved backwards a little.
The monster bared its teeth.
And Zhang Yixing dashed.

It was tiring.

"Why would you even be afraid of your own mind?" Kai muttered and rubbed his eyes, when he noticed a weird sensation. Something felt wrong.

He still saw Zhang Yixing being chased by the monster.

They would wake up any minute.

But something was different from all the previous dreams.

"I don't get it either," Chanyeol said and shook his head. "But I mean, aren't you a bit of a hypocrite? Unlike him you actually know how dreams work, and you still run from your nightmare."

Chanyeol pulled a face, when Kai stared at him in horror.

"Although I'm honestly not sure why I'm even considered as a nightmare."

Zhang Yixing was still stuck in his dream, when Kai abandoned him and woke up.

---

"This is my last attempt," he said when they stood in the empty school corridor. "If you don't do anything about the monster now, I won't be able to help you any further. This is my limit."

Zhang Yixing frowned at him, but didn't really seem to take him serious. He was tense, as he usually was whenever the arrival of the monster came closer.

"You have trouble sleeping at night, don't you?" Kai asked to get his full attention. "But the monster isn't always there, is it? You only saw it so often lately, because I forced you to. But now imagine it to be there every single time you fall asleep. Would you like that?"

Zhang Yixing shivered, and the familiar growl could be heard in the distance.

"Okay, look," Kai said urgently and nodded towards a corner. "Do you see that guy over there?"

Zhang Yixing turned his head, and looked puzzled. He of course didn't know Chanyeol, because he wasn't part of his memory. Chanyeol had crawled out of Kai's mind like a spider spinning a tight web, and waved at them as if the whole thing was a joke.

"That guy is my nightmare," Kai said. "The moment I close my eyes, he's there. I can't even stop him from following me here."

It was funny how the growling grew more faint, when Zhang Yixing looked at him in indignation. He obviously must have felt like he had got yelled at by someone who had no right to. Why did he have to face his fears, when the one who told him to was just like him? Chanyeol, too, laughed.

"The real him lost his soul because of me," Kai said. "I hope that he's still somewhere in a dream, but the truth is that I can't be sure. We did something were weren't supposed to do, and I lost him, because I ran and left him behind. And now that ghost haunts me in my dreams."

The monster sneaked into the room. It looked a little less dangerous than usual. Chanyeol whistled at it.

"That's what happens when you run in a dream," Kai said. "That's what happens when you can't fight your nightmare."

The monster gave a bark.

"Is that what you want?" Kai asked. "Is that monster really so terrifying that you'd rather run from it forever?"

The monster shrank.

"I haven't really slept in weeks," Kai said. "He's always there, always talking about nonsense, always acting as if nothing has changed. I know he's not real, but I can't face him."

Chanyeol patted the monster's head.
"I'm not a nightmare though," he said cheerfully, and when Zhang Yixing just blinked at the way he treated the monster like a pet, he added, "I guess it's all just a matter of perspective though. I'm the last thing Jongin wants to see, but to you I don't look threatening, do I?"

Zhang Yixing shook his head in confusion.

"Well, it's the same with this big ugly dog," Chanyeol shrugged when the monster began to wag its tail. "It's not really scary to anyone but you."

The monster turned its head and looked at Zhang Yixing, who seemed too taken aback to be scared. It jumped towards him and just...
Disappeared.
It was swept away by a storm.

People started to pour into the building as light crept through the windows.
No one took any notice of them. Chanyeol jumped out of someone's way, only to have a group of girls pass right through him.

Zhang Yixing seemed even more tense than before.

It was then that everyone suddenly stopped and stared at them, who stood in the middle of the corridor.

"What now?" Chanyeol asked and sounded amused.

"Zhang Yixing," an elderly man suddenly said in a grave voice. "What did you say? You want to become what after graduation?"

Zhang Yixing gulped and answered, "I want to be a musician." He seemed to forget that he was still in a dream.

Everyone around them started to laugh as they asked in a thousand voices, "Are you serious about that? Do you think you can do whatever you want, just because your father is rich? Do you think life is that easy?"

"That's not..." Zhang Yixing began and looked down, unsure how to continue.

Everyone around them pointed at him. "The rich think they can have everything. The rich think they're better than we are. The rich can buy talent with money," they murmered, making it sound like a low hum. The more they repeated those words, the more they sounded like the growling of the monster.

They were finally at the core of the nightmare.

They had to be delicate now.

They couldn't be rash.

"Wait, that's it?" Chanyeol asked in surprise and sounded almost disappointed. "That's what's been troubling you? The opinion of some douchebags?"

Zhang Yixing hunched his shoulders. To him it clearly wasn't such an easy thing.

"I mean, you're rich, so what? It's not like that's your fault," Chanyeol continued and clicked his tongue at the murmuring group. "And it's not like only poor people have the right to do what they want. So maybe you have a different starting point, that doesn't mean that you can't run the same track."
He turned to Zhang Yixing and patted his shoulder. "Just do what the hell you want and be a man!"

The group became louder. Everyone stared at them.

Chanyeol snorted. "No need to look at me like that," he said and pulled a face at the mass around them. "It's not like you people aren't born without any advantages. Some of you are pretty, some of you are smart, some of you have really supportive parents. Do you want others to blame you for those things? Do you want this boy here," he pulled Zhang Yixing towards him and made him look at them, "to tell you that you have no right to make your own decisions?"

And then they suddenly all shut up.

The spell was lifted and they all moved on, as if nothing had happened. A girl passed through Kai, a ball through Chanyeol and Zhang Yixing started to laugh like a madman.

---

"He's not really a nightmare, is he?" Zhang Yixing asked before they woke up again, and nodded towards Chanyeol.

Kai shrugged. "He is, to me."

"Does he scare you?" Zhang Yixing asked.

"Yeah," Kai said and tried to ignore Chanyeol's sigh.

He did scare him.

But to him Chanyeol wasn't what the monster had been to Zhang Yixing. What really scared Kai was that he secrectly felt much too willing to accept the Chanyeol in his mind. He wanted him to be there, he wanted him to be back.

It scared him because it was just an illusion and the more used he got to it, the less eager he would become to look for the real Chanyeol.