The Dream Merchant

In a city that never slept, a man named Arlo ran a small shop that opened only at dusk. His shelves were filled not with goods, but with dreams — bottled, shimmering, humming faintly like lullabies.

People came to buy fragments of peace, courage, or forgotten joy. They left lighter, but emptier too.

One night, a girl asked for a dream of her mother, gone for ten years. Arlo hesitated but gave it to her for free. She smiled in her sleep — and when she woke, the bottle was gone.

The climax: The next morning, Arlo found a single new bottle on his counter labeled “Yours.” Inside was a vision of himself as a child, laughing freely for the first time in decades.