Of dreams.

What do you think dreams actually mean?

Does it reflect real life? Your innermost desires? Perhaps a distortion of real events? Or something much more sinister?

You see, stranger, I've walked through many people's minds. They all have their own wishes and hopes, ambitions and goals. I've seen people who want to settle down, 3LDK and a promotion, loving wife and two kids. I've seen people who yearn for psychopathic oblivion, just rampaging and destroying the world. Yet who dreams of what? Care to guess?

Stranger, you guessed wrong. It's the well-adjusted people who see nightmarish hell in their dreams. Despite being perfectly normal in real life, and having sanitised desires. The crazies, they have mundane dreams. Boring, even. I've ever walked out on my job before, that guy's dream was so dull, just... sickening.

My job? I am an agent of balance, seeking equilibrium in the real world and this. And naturally, since I'm cursed to traipse this empty void for a fragment of eternity, I'd want to have some fun as I go along, right? This land is filled with people's dreams, but one by one, everybody wakes up. Huge tracts of this land vanish when its constructors awaken, and I have to migrate. There are always new sleepers, of course, they bring new worlds to discover, new joys and sorrows. As for those who never wake up?... One day, you'll find out. It's not your time.

Ah, but I digress. Happens a lot on this job, you know? Anyway, anyway. You're wondering why I appeared in your dream? Just to give a warning. I'm a pretty good judge of character, because I say I am. I know what you crave, what you despise, what you need, what you believe. I've seen a wealth of riches in dreams, and the true treasures of the mind; and yet I cannot take these into the real world. What I seek you out for is to warn you: your mind in particular is sought-after. The dreamscape is fraught with dangers and beings who would take you apart from your body, and I'll give notice to you. If ever you see another such apparition in your dreams, wake up. No matter what form it takes, if EVER there is another living being in your sleep, WAKE UP.

I see you're backing away. Good. You're afraid of me now. I have no business against you tonight. Although the second warning: I do get bored sometimes. A human mind is something entertaining, like a good meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant, or an artwork centrepiece at the Louvre. Excellent to put on display. Excellent to put in a cage with otherworldly minds, and watch the horror and torment. There is no true death; this is merely a dream, where time doesn't exist, and death is simply when you wake up. However, you'll always return, and I'll be here, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Now wake up. And don't ever drop your guard again.