Young Writers Society

In response to the man's comment, The Creature made a noise that sounded more like a cough than actual words. The Creature attempted to take another step back - completely forgetting about the doorway thanks to the embarrassing rush of emotions.

Then The Creature took a deep breath, remembered the reason for being here in the first place, and turned to the main dreamer. The others were just ensemble in the cast; she was the starring role.

"I'm not your creation," The Creature confirmed. Far from it, but now wasn't the time - it would take too long to do convincing her about that, and probably the rest of the group, too. "I'm here because this is your worst nightmare - and some things find nightmares like that to be very, very appetizing."

"How dramatic," Queenie commented from her place behind the main group, "What does it mean, exactly?"

The assumptions she came up with were not to be trusted, but she went through them anyway.

It was there to feed off Cleona's fear.

It was there to make the nightmare more nightmarish.

It was there...

Did it matter?

She shook her head. She'd get her answer soon enough, whether the thing gave it to her or not.

"So you're here to eat all of us? Feed off of my fear? What?" Cleona asked, her sword held across her body.

Carter could still feel the energy fluctuating in the room as Cleona tried to press the shadow with the gleaming teeth. This was not the best way for the evening to be proceeding. He would have preferred to have stayed at the cocktail party investigating ghosts, but Paul just had to drag him home that night.

That goddamn man, and his wonderful needs.

If they hadn't have gone home so early (it was barely past 1am, for crying out loud) and fallen asleep on the couch, maybe Carter wouldn't have been transported to this hell hole and wouldn't be a negotiator in a hostage situation.

He sighed as he said, "Well ain't that just special, with whatever it is that y'all have going on. But how about we put those little toothpicks down and talk things out?"

Thytes had wanted to stay out of trouble. He had three days on this ship (three days without his friends or most of his family), and the last thing he wanted was for it to be stressful. The group splitting up, the sailor holding his head while running up onto the deck, the strange thumping noise the lion heard when he and the wolf went into the ship - none of those were good signs.

But here the lion was, standing behind the others as they alternated between threatening or flirting with a very strange creature.

The lion nodded in Carter's direction. "You had best talk to us, or you might find this nightmare to be particularly unappetizing."

As two more emerged and joined the rest of the group, The Creature once again made the mistake of backing into the low-hanging doorway.

"Ouch," The Creature said again, cursing being more than six feet tall right now. The height was good most of the time, but five feet, five inches was where it was really at. No more head injuries, no more awkwardly squeezing into things, and no more awkwardly towering over the people that probably didn't want to be awkwardly towered over.

"I'm not going to eat you!" The Creature protested with a frantic shake of a shadowy head and the dismissive, hurried waving of two clawed hands. "And I'm not here to feed on your dreams, either! I know I look the part of a monster, but I'm actually here to protect you. The things that I was talking about - the ones that feed on fear, and love nightmares like this - are going to show up, and I want to help you with them. It's not technically my job, but it's something that I do a lot, so you can trust me."

The gleaming of The Creature's shark-like teeth and sight of the long, rough tongue seemed to disprove that proclamation, but The Creature didn't have choice when it came to appearances. The Creature just was. It was annoying, and frustrating, and obviously a little scary when people were threatening, but The Creature had given up on trying to fight it a long time ago.

Cleona's eyes narrowed and then closed when a flashback hit her memory. Her face took on a pained/terrified look, and then her eyes flew open again. She pressed a button on the sword and it became a knife again. She put it away. "Do you have a name?" She asked, looking directly at it.

"Not many people, uh, ask me that," The Creature admitted. Of course The Creature had a name - it just wasn't a name regularly used here. The Creature, in fact, couldn't remember the last time it had come up. Most people were a little more busy screaming and panicking, but The Creature was starting to realize this was an unusual bunch.

Still, The Creature did have a dilemma. Giving too much information about who The Creature really was - what The Creature really was - would bring up too many questions. But The Creature had to give some kind of answer, and one that was relatively realistic.

"...I like the name Juliet," was the final response, as awkwardly spoken as a shadow entity could say it.

Queenie rolled her eyes, "As interesting as all of this is, Juliet, would you like to explain how those of us who don't typically dream about sea voyages ended up here?"

She would admit that she was a little impatient, and that some good information could have been gleaned through the conversation they were having, but she was feeling rushed.

If she could go back to her regularly scheduled nightmares, that would have been fantastic.

"All I want to know is how to end this." Cleona said, eyes masked. She looked up as a sailor shouted overhead. "This is my nightmare, but once I hit that....that part, I can't get beyond that."

Juliet focused on the first question first.

"I'm not entirely sure how it works," Juliet admitted. "I just know that people sometimes share their dreams, and it's usually because of the dream demons - that's what we call the things that go after fear-Er, what I call them, anyways."

Juliet almost gave an awkward smile, but then thought of better and stopped before the sharp teeth could be revealed again.

"I think it's because they want to get as many nightmares as they can. It's almost like a feast - this nightmare is like an appetizer, and later dreams are the main courses and dessert. Not that some are better - uh, worse than others. They're all pretty bad, especially if you're the person with the nightmare."

There was a pause.

"...Sorry," Juliet added, turning to the main dreamer. "I've never been in a situation exactly like this one before, but I've heard that you just have to overcome your nightmare. If you don't, we're all, um..."

Juliet faltered.

"...Technically trapped here and forced to repeat the nightmare." Now Juliet gave the awkward, terrifying smile. "But we can handle it! We just have to fend off the dream demons and focus on overcoming your fear."

Well, this was all flying right over Thytes's head. Wonderful.

"What if we have to keep repeating the nightmare?" the lion said, shuffling ever so slightly (force of habit, and he didn't have any big reason to look presentable). "Will these 'dream demons,' as you call them, make an appearance?"

Juliet nodded.

"They'll appear even before then, too." There was a pause. "...They'll, uh, probably be appearing soon, actually - they don't like small spaces, and this boat is pretty big."

"Lovely." Cleona said, dripping sarcasm. "How do we beat them, or is it up to me?"

"We just have to fight them," Juliet said. "Like...um....I can't think of any good comparisons right now, but we have to physically overcome them. I'm usually pretty good about it because of all this-" Juliet gestured down. "-but there's going to be a lot here tonight. I'll need as much help as I can get."