He approached the door with caution. When he opened it, he saw the woman from his dreams standing on the threshold. For a moment he stood there, staring at her in silence and it was her who spoke up first: ‘Before you do anything you might regret,’ she said in a melodic, tranquil voice, ‘Know this: whatever happened, it was not me.’

‘What… What do you mean it wasn’t you?’

She shook her head and momentarily looked to the side, before turning her attention back to him. ‘I am cold. May I come in?’

He watched her walk into the house and glance at the interior. ‘You know,’ she spoke up again, ‘You should not let just anyone in. That is how they get you.’

‘They?’

‘People like me. Although I am not what one might call people. Not necessarily, no.’ She turned to face him. ‘You know me, do you not?’

‘Yeah… You’re Amy.’

She raised an eyebrow on hearing the name. ‘Is that how I introduced myself to you?’

‘That’s not your name?’

‘My name is long and unpronounceable. Might as well stay with Amy.’ She walked over to the table, her bare feet hitting the wooden floor in the room’s silence. ‘I take it you did not enjoy the gift?’

‘So it was you who left it for me?’

‘No. The people who run this… establishment did. I received a bottle as well. And curious as I am, I tried it. At the same time you did. I suppose that is what allowed you the passage.’

‘Can you tell me who you are and what exactly is going on?’ Nathan asked, growing impatient.

‘Very well,’ she turned to face him again, the tone of her voice not changing. ‘I am a mara. I am of the dream and to the dream I return. And as for you, you have intruded upon my dream. And if your expression is any indication, you do not understand what I am saying. So let me put this in simpler terms: I did not enter your dream, you entered mine. Whether by coincidence, sheer luck, or anything else I could not be bothered to pay attention to, you did enter my dream.’

‘You mean nightmare.’

She shrugged. ‘Is there a difference?’

‘Alright, I’m just about done speaking in circles. Tell me, how do I get rid of… No. How do I leave the dream? How do I stop all,’ he made a circle in the air with his index finger, ‘this?’

‘I have already told you. You must see it through. To the end.’

‘I have died in each and every one of those dreams. How much through could I possibly see it?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, that you have. The problem is: you resisted. To sever the link, to leave the dream, you have to resign yourself to your fate.’

Nathan blinked, unable to process what he just heard. ‘This is bullshit. You expect me to, what, lie down and die because…? Because why, exactly?’

The woman’s expression changed, a small smirk making its way into the corner of her lips. ‘Ah. Evading the inevitable. How human of you.’

‘You still didn’t answer my question.’

‘Because the rule is to see it to the end. No deviation is allowed.’

‘Whose rule, yours? Are you doing this? Why are you doing this?’ Nathan’s tone grew more and more exasperated.

‘So many questions,’ Amy sighed, shaking her head. ‘And so few words to possibly explain it to you. Let me put it like this: if your leg fails, or your kidney, or even your brain, do you blame yourself for making it do so? Were you the one to establish the rules your flesh ought to follow? Are you responsible when it does not?’ She looked intensely into his face and for a moment her eyes appeared to glow in the twilight. ‘The dream is my flesh. I cannot control it as well as you accuse me of. Do you understand?’

‘Usually when something goes wrong with my body, it’s because there’s an external factor. Is there one with you?’

She remained silent for a moment. ‘Possibly. It is true what you might describe as… nightmares, has been occurring more often than usual. But that is something you should not trouble yourself with. I am giving you a choice. See your role to the end and be free or wallow in the dream-flesh until your mind and body give up.’

Nathan sighed. ‘Alright. I’m tired of this. What do I do?’

‘Just lie down, close your eyes and wait for the sleep to come. And then, do your part.’

He walked over to the bed and positioned himself in it. The woman, in her turn, sat by the wall, looking at him. ‘One more thing,’ he asked, keeping his eyes closed. ‘You said you can’t control it. Does that mean all those things I’ve seen… They weren’t your idea?’

‘No. A dream is a dream just as flesh is a flesh, even the one that is misshapen. I cannot control it. I can only relieve it and follow the setup. It is like, oh… Like a play. A play someone else had written for me. But I do owe you an apology, right? I am sorry you had to be dragged into this. Usually, it does not happen. Usually.’

‘So when I dream,’ he followed, his voice becoming more quiet, ‘I have to resign to whatever happens to me? And then I’ll be free? Even if I don’t know what it’ll be?’

‘Precisely.’

They said nothing more to each other until the sleep grasped Nathan.

The beach, the hot sand scorched by the midday sun, as far as the eye could see, burning his feet and blinding his eyes. To the side, the sea was silent and still, the waves unmoving, frozen in time. Only the occasional gust of wind carried spare grains of sand from the top of the dunes, against the pale-blue sky. Nathan took a deep breath as he looked around the dead landscape. The air smelled of salt and cinnamon, an improbable scent of an improbable desert. What could his role possibly be in a place like this?

All of a sudden, he heard a scream. He turned and saw a ten-foot pole and a woman tied to it. He knew her, of course he did. Her white dress was torn, her blonde hair unruly. She squirmed against the tight ropes binding her. And then he noticed that the sand in front of the pole began to swirl, to shift and then to rise. Something was digging its way from under the ground and before long it became evident what: a crab, the size of a tank slowly appeared, shaking the sand from its armour. Its massive body was the colour of a sickly yellow, except for its eyes which gleamed like two oval emeralds. The beast moved, clacking one pair of thin legs on the sand, then the rest, slowly, as the woman screamed, shrieking from fear. To Nathan it seemed as if the monster was enjoying itself.

‘So that’s my role here, then,’ he thought as he watched the scene unfold. To stand still and observe as she was devoured by the beast and then, possibly, to suffer the same fate himself. This was wrong, all of it. But he was helpless to stop it. Or was he? If she couldn’t control what happened in her own realm, could he? He looked at his hands, empty as they were. To throw oneself with bare hands against such a creature would be suicidal. If only he had something to protect himself with. He blinked. He was now wearing gloves of thick leather. Good, but he could do better. The leather began to contract, then fall apart in thick flakes, revealing bronze beneath. Better. He glanced over his torso and his legs, his clothes replaced by an armour of the same material. This would do. But still he was empty handed. He crouched and grabbed a handful of sand in each hand and as he rose back to his feet, they formed into a spear and a shield. Yes, this would do.

He ran towards the beast. He knew he couldn’t pierce its thick plating and that he had to aim for the unarmoured bits. He stuck his spear into one of the creature’s hind legs, just where its pallid flesh was exposed. The crab howled from pain with a gurgling sound and turned to face him, the speed with which it did surprising Nathan. He barely dodged its claw as the beast took a swing at him. The two engaged in a struggle, Nathan piercing the bare spots on the monster’s body as it kept him on his toes with each threatening move of its pincers. The beast’s blood gushed from the open wounds, painting the sand blue. Eventually, the creature lost so much of it that it began to slow down, to falter, each swing it took at Nathan becoming more sluggish than the one before. He took the advantage of its state by slicing its eye, then the next, as the crab howled in agony. And when it collapsed to the ground he plunged his spear in the spot between what was left of its eyes, the armour giving way, parting from the impact and the beast perished with the one final wail.

He walked towards the pole and started to unbind Amy, who was giving him an indignant look. ‘You just do not listen, do you,’ she asked, rubbing her forearms when she was free from the ropes. ‘You resisted yet again.’

 ‘I couldn’t just stand there and see you get eaten by that thing. You’re welcome, by the way.’

She shook her head. ‘That was my role. And playing the hero was not yours. But…’ Her face changed, taking on a more relaxed, albeit saddened expression. ‘It seems to have done the deed. I can feel the link between us weakening. Tearing up.’

‘So… what happens next?’ Nathan asked, looking at her. Something else seems to have changed with her demeanour.

‘The dream will end when you awake. And then you will be free, just as you wanted. You may end it even now, if you so choose.’

He understood then what was the issue. She seemed lost, uncertain of what comes next. Not because she wasn’t in control of the situation, since she never was, but because there was nothing around to tell her what to do. ‘What if I don’t want to wake up just yet?’ he asked.

She blinked and looked at him surprised. ‘Well… What else is there to do?’

‘First of all – this.’ He pointed towards the frozen sea and the waves began to move once more, splashing against the shore. ‘This was irking me this whole time. As for the other things… When was the last time you went star-gazing?’

He extended his hand and made a swapping motion. The sun fell down the sky and vanished behind the horizon and the blue was replaced by a black canvas of the night. One by one, the stars appeared on it, distant dots of light. In the corner of the eye he noticed Amy lift her head to look upon them. ‘Pretty, aren’t they? I only wish I knew just what constellations they belong to.’

‘What is my role in all this?’ she asked, turning to him.

‘I don’t know. What would you like it to be?’

‘I wish to see them closer,’ she said and he nodded in agreement. The sand beneath her began to slowly engulf her, starting from her feet and moving to the top of her hand, then swallowing her whole. For a moment, Nathan was alone on the beach. But soon the sand he was standing on began to rise, taking him with it. Higher and higher he went, standing still on a fragment of a mound of sand as it coalesced into a silhouette of a woman, hundreds of feet tall, shaping itself to resemble Amy. He was once again small, minuscule, compared to the sand colossus of a woman he was now standing on the right shoulder of. The two remained silent for a moment, sating their eyes with the view of the stars.

‘I have an idea,’ Nathan spoke up after what could’ve been a few seconds or a few centuries. ‘Why don’t you gather some for me?’

She began to grow larger and larger until he was no bigger than the grain of sands her form was composed of, and she reached out towards the void. She plucked one star after another with one hand, placing the shimmering orbs within the palm of the other. Before long she gathered an entire galaxy within her grasp and both stared in awe at the scintillating spectacle before them. He asked her to bring her hand closer, then even closer, until it was directly under her shoulder. Then, approaching the edge, Nathan took a deep breath and leapt, his tiny form vanishing into the light.

‘Hey, you okay?’ he heard a female voice speak. He opened his eyes. He was sitting on the sand, in front of his beach house, a brown ceramic mug in one hand, a green bottle in the other. He looked up. A pretty woman in her mid-twenties, clad in a simple white dress, was staring at him with a smile. ‘You spaced out there for a moment. You really shouldn’t drink this stuff,’ she pointed to the bottle he was holding. ‘Even the locals don’t drink it.’

She stepped forward and took a seat to his right, still smiling at him. She looked familiar. He could’ve sworn he had seen her before, but could not remember where. ‘I saw you wave to me, so I thought I’d come and say hi,’ she said and extended her hand. ‘I’m Amy. And you?’

If war were a game that a man or a child

Could think of winning

What kind of rule

Can overthrow a fool

And leave the land with no stain?