Eternal tears trickled down my cheeks, the few remaining ones, all carrying the words that pulled my core down into the fabrics of my bed which all cried alongside me, hugging me, weeping with me, yet they didn't speak any words of comfort or had any arms like a human could do. They were screaming as they soaked into the mattress, whispering words under my limbs and mocking all that surrounded me. No matter what I did, they didn't stop talking, judging, and dying as they were entrapped and consumed by the cheap blankets and free pillows all spiraling around me in a kaleidoscope of pure mediocrity.

Nobody would come to save me. Parents were meant to do that, weren't they? Yet they won't. They never helped me. Even if they tried to help me, they never helped. All they did was plunge the knife deeper within me, laughing as they did so. If they cared, they wouldn't have laughed at me when my body shaped itself in a way that wasn't male. They wouldn't have cared if I glanced at a boy without a shirt rather than a girl without any decency whatsoever.

I'm alone in this world. If I leave the house, I'm bound further to this house. If I'm bound to this house, I can never leave. The job I work means nothing if all of the money I muster could, if anything, let me stay a month at a cheap apartment. My money isn't mine. It's my parents. My parents use my money. They don't even have a job anymore. I have a job. I'm theirs. It's their money. I'm my parent's money. It doesn't matter that I'm eighteen anymore. I'm money now.

If I leave, I'm no longer money. I'm nothing. I deserve everything that would happen to me with money. Hunger, starvation, death, and then revival into another poor family of fools. Yet they aren't fools. They made me stronger. They made me alive. Therefore, I must kneel to them like gods and goddesses.

That's what they want me to think. They won't stop yelling at me with those words, bombshells that don't blow my mind but rend my brain to neatly cut pieces for Thanksgiving instead, a day where they waste all of my money, their money.

I can't fall asleep anymore. Maybe I should try to. My head raised from my hands. For some reason, my lamp was on, illuminating the room. There was a man before me that resembled my appearance though tall, robust, and buff instead of scrawny and unlike a man. His fur was a jet black and smooth, perfectly washed and combed. He wore an enormous maroon suit and dress pants that gave him a professional look, combined with his bright red tie and shirt beneath his suit that was a shade of red between both hues of blood. On each side of his lips were gigantic fangs that curled, nearly brushing against his thick, veiny neck. The most contrasting part of his body were his pastel blue eyes in four pairs, the two biggest ones placed in the location of normal human eyes with small white pupils that I swore were shaped like little cartoon skulls.

I wanted to scream initially but his presence kept me still. An aristocratic aura enveloped him like a pleasant musk that consumed the room entirely. He was staring directly at me like a ghost that could casually grin, a determination and certainty filling his expression. If I opened my mouth, it immediately shut. If I tried to move, he would sit forward and I would sit back in place. Again, I attempted to speak but he spoke first instead, "Thank you."

"Y-you're...?" I stammered, barely able to talk.

"You act as if I held your tongue," He made a quiet purring noise. "You do not have to fear me."

"How did you get inside of here?"

"It's not that hard to enter somebody else's home, yes?" He asked with an odd air of calmness to his tone. "Besides, I prefer not to confine myself to human regulations. The irregularities of this particular town have given me the right to do whatever I want."

"What does that mean...?"

"I'm one of the irregularities."

"If you are, then why aren't you human? Did you fall asleep?"

"Comfortable with talking to me now, aren't you?" He snickered, a sinister air filling his laughter. I never expected laughing from anybody to ever resemble an evil laugh. "I'm not human, no. Neither are you, currently." He continued.
"It's a sleep state𑁋" I was swiftly interrupted.

"Dull name," He spat. "Though I suppose it's better than simply referring to us as monsters... but I personally have never been human."

"So you're just a sleep state?"

"In your words, yes, though this isn't my original form."

"What is your original form?"

"If you saw that body," His expression grew stern. "I'd assure you that you wouldn't be remotely comfortable speaking with me anymore."

I paused monetarily, staring at the strange creature standing before me, speaking to me with such calm words. "...Wh-what's your name?" I sheepishly questioned.

"Knox," He answered. "You may refer to me with whatever pronouns, names, and surnames as you wish. I do not care."

"And why are you here?" I swiftly asked the moment after he finished.

"Why am I here?" Knox repeated to himself, a devilish laughter proceeding his words. He stood up, stepping over to my side and sitting down sweetly, his aura darkening in its initial embrace. "I simply wanted to check in on you, is all. I've been watching you for a while, a long while. You're very important to me and the darkest corners of the world I have created with the simple fact of my existence. Without you, there'd be nothing to darken. Your feelings and thoughts are always vital to me. I was curious as to why you were so... upbeat tonight. Something good happen? It appeared to be promptly ruined by your parents."

My body froze. This guy was... stalking me? If he was speaking the truth, then he might not be human at all. My throat closed on itself, refusing to let me speak. If he was a third irregularity with this town, then what was he? Even with the monstrous appearance, he doesn't seem all that different from a sleep state. Maybe he's human, yet somehow he was able to sneak inside my parent's house and not make a single sound at all? It doesn't seem possible. It shouldn't be possible whatsoever.

"I just..." I croaked like a frog would. "Met somebody."

"Who?"

"A boy𑁋"

"...Who?"

"He sleepwalks."

"Is that it?"

"Why are you pressing me about him?" I glared at him, pushing myself away from him. "He's not an irregularity... like me."

"Or me," Knox omitted a quiet purr. "I'm curious because he made you look so excited to get shouted at by those basic, fleshy humans."

"Are you saying I don't have flesh?" I blinked.

"Oh, not at all," Knox answered. "You're the most fleshy, basic of the irregularities."

"What makes you special?"

"You don't sleep," A wicked grin appeared across his face monetarily, one filled with bear trap teeth that expanded the borders of his lips in a grotesque fashion. His face quickly contorted back to normal, which made him straighten his tie instantaneously afterward, brushing the incident off immediately after it occured. "Though, I don't want to do that with you. I'd like to have someone that I can compare myself to." He snickered again.

"What do you do...?" I hugged a blanket to my chest, as if it'd protect me somehow.

"I make them have a nightmare. Then, they'll wake up from them." Knox explained. "Simple as that. I eat the leftover dream that's left after it's interrupted. They wake up and I profit."

"You profit?"

"I'm no longer starving," He smiled. "With you, I could have infinite food, so I cannot ruin your sleep cycle."

"So you make people have nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night?"

"I've done it with you a few times, haven't I?"

"You have...?" I blinked, staring at Knox as confusion squeezed my eyelids toward one another. He was the reason I don't sleep all that well on my own? "Why can't you do it to me anymore?"

"I fear it reduces the time you sleep in a short period," Knox answered. "From what I can tell, anyways. Reducing your power means that I have less energy to feed upon and fewer dreams to feed upon as well."

"Am I able to reduce your power?"

"I'd prefer it if we didn't see," Knox glared at me crossly, scooting away from where I was seated. "Otherwise, I would be able to speak... or appear like this to you. If you recall what I mentioned before, you most likely shouldn't strip me of this alternate form."

"Yet you can limit me?" I crossed my arms.

"I didn't mean to," He crossed his arms reactively.

I stared at him. Is he truly real? It was like watching my shadow speak to me, six arms and everything. Maybe he was a better version of me? He was more strong, had more gusto, had more power. Am I meant to be more like him or is he just a projection of what I could've been if I were more successful? The dapper clothing, the dark atmosphere, the bright eyes with skull-shaped lights that cut fear in two, the large fangs that curled like a crescent to the neck that was thick to the point it was immune to its own sharpness, and the accent and personality that expunges any uncertainty in his actions with a single word. His presence was immense and I wasn't sure what to do other than just stare and quench the curiosities that only such a man could cure, if he even was a man or not. He only appeared as a man, right? He could be anything. I'm only a boy. Not a man or someone worth respect. Just a boy.

Knox's arms swiftly unfurled, "Do you have anything else to say?"

I gasped, hugging myself tighter with each of my limbs. "N-no..."

Knox hummed, standing up. "Then I will take my leave. Make sure to stay safe for me. I would like you to stay alive for as long as you can." He smiled. "Before I do go, mind telling me the relationship between you and that boy? I rarely see you so... excited to go home before, even with your other friends."

"He's..." I hugged myself tighter, noticing that my other arms were gone and my human coil was back to me. We must've talked for hours. I sighed, "He's my friend... for now. Just a friend. Nothing else."

"For now?" Knox omitted the same purring noise as he had before.

"Well, just... maybe," I looked toward my much skinnier chest. "I don't think anybody would accept it though, or if he even thinks of me like that."

"Interesting how humans make such a big deal out of one's sex," He rolled his eyes.

"Right?" I squeaked, looking at him directly. I whined, deflating into my bed in growing internal defeat, "It's unlikely that it'd happen anyways, though, especially if I want him to come to my house and announce he's... you know. Plus, I don't even know if he is g-gay in the first place𑁋"

"Humans are strange," He repeated as his body began to sink into the ground, darkened tendrils pulling him into a puddle of darkness that pooled on the carpeted floor beneath his drooling legs. Eventually, he vanished into a liquid black mass that seeped into the carpet and disappeared from my vision.

For such an odd occurrence, it felt strangely natural to me to see him leave. Even then, it wasn't like I was sleeping anyways. If I sleep now, I'll oversleep and if I oversleep, I'll have to get yelled at by my parents again. So, I sat there in utter silence. Silence can be wonderful, sometimes.