The Girl Who Sold Her Dreams Online

The first time Aria uploaded a dream, she told herself it was just business. Nothing more.

She had always been poor—living in the broken apartments at the edge of the city, where the neon lights from the inner districts never reached. Her mother was sick, her younger brother was always hungry, and her job at the food stall barely paid enough to cover the rent.

But in her world, there was something more valuable than money. Dreams.

Ever since the technology was invented, dreams had become the new entertainment. People didn’t want to watch movies or listen to songs anymore—they wanted to experience someone else’s dream. They wanted to taste the impossible. They wanted to fly through glass skies, fall in love with strangers who never existed, fight dragons in burning cities, or hold conversations with people long dead.

Dreams had become a currency. And for the desperate, like Aria, they were something to sell.

The First Sale

The dream broker’s office was small, tucked between two towering buildings in the city’s digital district. Its glowing sign read: “Somnia Exchange—We Buy Your Dreams.”

“First time?” the clerk asked her, adjusting his augmented glasses.

Aria nodded, clutching the old strap of her bag. Her pulse raced. She had always guarded her dreams like secrets—private places where she was more than the girl who scraped dishes for minimum wage.

“Don’t worry,” the man said, smiling too easily. “Everyone’s nervous at first. Just close your eyes, connect to the uplink, and… relax. We’ll take care of the rest.”

When she opened her eyes again, she felt oddly hollow—like a piece of her had been scooped out.

“You’ve got something rare,” the broker said, studying the playback. “Your dreams are vivid. Colorful. Emotional. People will pay top credits for this.”

She walked out with more money than she had ever held in her life. Enough for medicine. Enough for food. Enough for hope.

That night, her brother smiled for the first time in weeks.

The Addiction of Selling

It was supposed to be a one-time thing. But money vanished quickly, and desperation returned even faster.

Soon, Aria was back at the Exchange, again and again. Each time, her dreams were stripped away, packaged, and sold to strangers. People across the city began talking about “Dreamer A”—an anonymous girl whose dreams were unlike anything they’d ever experienced.

Her visions of flying cities, silver oceans, and lovers made of starlight became viral sensations. She had no idea who watched them, but she knew the credits kept rolling in.

Yet with every upload, something changed inside her. Her nights grew quieter. Darker. Sometimes, she lay down and closed her eyes only to wake up in the morning with nothing in between.

Her imagination, once wild and alive, began to feel… empty.

The Realization

One night, she tried to dream on her own. She wanted to escape, to feel the beauty she had once taken for granted. She wanted to see the boy who always appeared in her dreams, the one with silver eyes who told her stories and made her laugh.

But when she searched for him in her sleep, he wasn’t there.

She woke up trembling, her chest aching. It hit her like a knife: she had sold him.

She had sold every part of her—the happiness, the wonder, the love. She had sold the boy who wasn’t real but had felt more real than anything in her waking life.

And now he belonged to strangers.

The Choice

The next morning, the Exchange contacted her.

“Your dreams are in high demand,” the broker said. “If you keep producing, you could be rich. Famous. People would pay to have your name on their screens.”

Aria stared at the blinking cursor of the contract. Money meant survival. But dreams… dreams were her soul.

Her brother needed her. Her mother needed her. But what would be left of Aria if she continued? Would she still be herself, or just an empty shell, a body without dreams?

She walked out of the office without signing. For the first time, she felt a strange sense of clarity.

The Last Dream

That night, she fell asleep without connecting to any machine.

At first, there was only darkness. Then slowly, like sunlight breaking through clouds, colors began to bloom. The silver-eyed boy returned, standing on the shore of a glowing ocean.

“You came back,” he whispered.

Tears slipped down her cheeks. “I almost lost you.”

“You can never lose me,” he said softly. “I’m not for sale.”

When Aria woke up, she knew what she had to do. The world could keep its credits, its hunger for illusions. She would find another way to survive. Because without her dreams, she wasn’t alive at all.

And for the first time in weeks, she smiled—because she had something no one could buy.