The Dreamwalker's Curse

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1: THE GIRL WHO TOUCHED GHOSTS

Aria's POV

Three weeks after waking up in the hospital, I was still seeing things that should not exist.

The translucent boy—I had started calling him Ghost internally—appeared everywhere now. In my bedroom at night, standing by my locker at school, hovering near my desk during calculus. He never spoke again after that first desperate plea for help, but his eyes followed me with an intensity that made my skin crawl.

"Aria, you're doing it again," Luna whispered, sliding into the seat beside me in the cafeteria. My best friend since elementary school had an uncanny ability to know when I was freaking out internally. "The thousand-yard stare thing. People are starting to notice."

I forced myself to focus on her face instead of the ghost-boy who was now sitting at the table behind her, his form flickering like a dying lightbulb. "Sorry. Just tired."

"Still having the dreams?"

That was the understatement of the century. Since the accident, my dreams had become vivid beyond anything I had ever experienced. Last night, I had dreamed I was flying through a city made of crystal and starlight, chasing a woman with silver hair who kept calling my name. The dream had felt more real than reality itself, and I had woken up with actual wind-burn on my face.

"They're getting worse," I admitted, picking at my sandwich. "Last night I dreamed I was in someone else's body, living their memories. I was a soldier in World War II, and I could feel the mud, smell the gunpowder, hear the screams. When I woke up, I knew things—historical facts I had never learned, German phrases I had never heard."

Luna's expression grew troubled. She had been my anchor to normalcy since the accident, but lately even she seemed concerned about my increasingly strange behavior. "Maybe you should talk to someone. A counselor or—"

"I'm not crazy," I said quickly, though the words felt hollow. How could I explain that I was seeing ghosts, having dreams that felt like memories, and sometimes—just sometimes—I could swear I saw dark shapes clinging to people like shadows?

Like the one wrapped around Luna right now.

It was a writhing mass of darkness that seemed to whisper of abandonment and betrayal, coiled around her shoulders like a parasitic scarf. I had first noticed it two days ago, and it had been growing stronger ever since.

"I never said you were crazy," Luna said gently. "But you've been through trauma. It is normal to—"

"Luna," I interrupted, my voice barely above a whisper. "Don't look around, but can you see anything... unusual... about the people in here?"

She frowned but kept her eyes on me. "What kind of unusual?"

I scanned the cafeteria, my heart sinking as I took inventory of what I was seeing. Dark shapes clung to nearly everyone—writhing shadows that seemed to feed on fear and insecurity. Some were small, barely visible wisps. Others were massive, tentacled things that wrapped around their hosts like living straitjackets.

"Never mind," I muttered. "I'm just being paranoid."

But Luna was studying my face with an expression I had never seen before—like she was seeing me for the first time. "Aria," she said slowly, "what exactly are you seeing?"

Before I could answer, the ghost-boy suddenly stood up from his table and walked directly toward us. His form was more solid now, more defined, and for the first time since the hospital, he looked directly at me with clear, desperate eyes.

"They're coming," he said, his voice audibles now to anyone who might be listening. "The Nightmare Feeders. They've found you."

Every shadow in the cafeteria suddenly turned toward me.

Luna gasped, her hand flying to her throat. "Aria, what—"

The lights flickered. Students around us began to look confused, rubbing their eyes and shaking their heads as if trying to clear away cobwebs. The shadow-shapes clinging to them grew more agitated, writhing faster.

"Everyone out!" I shouted, standing so quickly my chair toppled backward. "Now!"

But it was too late. The shadows were detaching from their hosts, flowing together into a writhing mass of darkness that pulsed with malevolent hunger. Students began to scream as the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees in seconds.

The ghost-boy grabbed my hand, and to my shock, I felt solid flesh. "If you want to save them," he said urgently, "you have to let me in. Let me show you what you really are."

"I don't understand—"

"There's no time!" The mass of shadows was taking shape now, forming into something that hurt to look at directly. "You're a Dream walker, Aria. And these are Nightmare Feeders. They eat fear, and they've been starving since you woke up."

Luna was backing away from the growing creature, her face pale with terror. Around us, other students were fainting or running in panic. The shadow-thing opened what might have been a mouth, revealing rows of teeth made from crystallized screams.

"Let me in," the ghost-boy pleaded. "Let me show you how to fight."

I looked at Luna, at the terrified faces of my classmates, at the monster that had somehow followed me from dreams into reality. Then I looked at the ghost-boy and nodded.

"Do it."

He stepped forward and merged with me, and suddenly I was no longer Aria Nightshade, confused teenager. I was something else, something that had existed long before this body, this life, this reality. Power flowed through me like liquid fire, and I understood with crystal clarity what I had to do.

I raised my hand toward the Nightmare Feeder and spoke a word that had never been spoken in this reality before. The creature shrieked and began to dissolve, its stolen fear-energy dissipating like smoke.

But as it died, I heard something that chilled my blood: the sound of something vast and hungry stirring in the darkness beyond the veil of reality. Something that had been waiting for me to use my power, to reveal myself.

The Devourer had found me.

As the cafeteria returned to normal and my classmates began to recover from what they would later convince themselves was a mass hallucination, I felt the ghost-boy's consciousness separate from mine. But now I could see him clearly—not a ghost at all, but a projection of someone very much alive and very far away.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

He smiled sadly. "My name is Kai Shadow mere. And you, Aria Nightshade, are the most important person in any reality. We need to get you to the Academy before they send something worse."

"What Academy?"

"Somnum Academy. The school for the Awakened." He was already fading, the effort of maintaining his projection clearly draining him. "Find Professor Thorne. He will explain everything. And Aria?"

"Yeah?"

"Whatever they tell you about the price of power, whatever they say about the choices you'll have to make... remember that some prices are worth paying."

He vanished, leaving me alone with Luna, who was staring at me with a mixture of awe and terror.

"Aria," she whispered, "your eyes are glowing."

I looked down at my hands and saw she was right. Golden light was emanating from my skin, pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. And in that light, I could see the truth that had been hidden from me my entire life.

I was not human. I was not even sure I was real.

But I was the only thing standing between consciousness itself and something that wanted to devour it all.