The Nightmare Thief

This could not be! My nightmare potion has been stolen and cleverly traded for a counterfeit replica. I discovered this dilemma when I went to use it only for the potion to have no effect.

I am Fear itself and this is a dire situation. I am in charge of giving people their nightmares so I need that nightmare potion. While people have pleasant dreams, they need to have nightmares as well.

Unfortunate you say? Oh, not really. You see, there has to be a balance in the dream realm. An order if you will. Every single nightmare I give to a person is perfectly created for them depending on their deep fears.

People consider me to be the villain - an evil entity that tortures them with nightmares. However, there is far more to me than meets the eye. You see, while some people might be eager to face their fears, there are others who are just as eager to deny and avoid them. With the nightmares I give them, they are forced to experience and confront the very fears they’ve been avoiding.

To give them these nightmares, I need my nightmare potion. So, now do you see how alarming this dilemma is?

Just the very idea that it was stolen is alarming and remarkable. Part of me is even fascinated and impressed. It is not easy in the slightest to steal from Fear. No one would dare consider stealing from me. I am a very powerful and intelligent entity which gives me the impression that whoever stole it is very cunning and perhaps at least half as intelligent as I am.

It is an absolute must that I find whoever stole my nightmare potion and restore order to people’s nightmares once again.

***

I’ve not had a single bad dream in over a week. Not one. All of my dreams have been quite pleasant. Part of me wonders why I suddenly stopped having this reoccurring nightmare I’ve been having on and off.

While I am curious of its abrupt hiatus, I am nonetheless relieved. There are no more nightmares of a mysterious evil being stalking me and attempting to push me over the edge of a cliff. The second that it is about to push me over the edge, I wake up in a sweat. It doesn’t help that I have a huge fear of heights to begin with.

People’s nightmares must be restored! Without them, many will be unable to face their fears. Whoever stole my potion must have been so clever to elude me. That would be close to impossible. Maybe they have the power of invisibility. I suspect they must be some sort of trickster that also has the ability to successfully replicate anything of their desire including my nightmare potion. Otherwise, how else could they have stolen it? Just replace the potion with a replica and I’d be none the wiser.

My plan to get the potion back would be to deliberately become missing in action from both the dream realm and the real world. It would be an extremely risky move. Without fear, people would make dangerous and fatal decisions. I would not be there to stop them.

Venture out into an unfamiliar dark woods? Let’s go!

Scale an obviously unstable structure twenty feet into the air? No problem!

No fear!

My absence would be noticed immediately, and the results could be fatal.

But it would be the only immediate way for me to outsmart this trickster and get my potion back. My theory was that the trickster would grow comfortable and overconfident enough to let its guard down once it noticed my disappearance.

I waited in the shadows with my most skilled yet nerve wracking patience. I could only hope that my need to be absent wouldn’t be for long.

Just when I thought my plan would be in vain, I caught sight of a small and quick figure. The figure moved with great stealth as it shifted in and out of invisibility. Cunning and surely intelligent. I remained silent waiting for the perfect opportunity for confrontation.

The trickster became invisible once again and wore invisibility like a cloak of confidence. Unfortunate that they didn’t know it would be under such false confidence. While I could not see them. I knew they were there. I was watching their every move.

They let their guard down to the lowest I’ve seen as they revealed my nightmare potion and looked at it in deep intrigue.

“Return my nightmare potion to me now!” I demanded my voice low and chilling.

The trickster froze in shock as I cornered them.

While fearful, it clenched the potion in a vise like grip. It mustered up a confident yet still weak glare. “You won’t be giving any more nightmares to people anymore, Fear.”

So, this trickster thought it was being the hero? I couldn’t help to laugh.

“You really think you’re doing people a favor by protecting them from their nightmares? From me, Fear?”

The trickster nodded with sure confidence. “You can’t torment people anymore with awful nightmares. No one is afraid anymore.”

“The absence of fear is a dangerous and foolish thing,” I reply as I keep a patient calculated eye on the trickster. “While some fear we must face, there are others that protect us from harm or worse. While I am the chilling fear that haunts the deepest corners of the mind, I am like a protector guiding one away from the edge of a cliff.”

The trickster looks distracted by my response. I wait my move. “I give people their nightmares to help them face their fears. All too often, people will take the convenience to ignore them. Without fear or nightmares, people would prove to make some rather fatal decisions.” I snatch the nightmare potion from the trickster’s loosened grasp. “If you eliminate my power, who’s the villain now?”