I had been on the hunt for two years at this point. Last known location was Singapore but the trail ran cold until I got word from HQ that evidence had arisen in Florida. By evidence I mean bodies of deceased men and women in their early twenties who died of “natural causes”.

Clearly it was immature Niadent out of control. Our department had not run into this before. See Niadents typically are bottom feeders in the paranormal hierarchy- they feed on dreams of the elderly who have lived long and fulfilled lives but did not achieve everything they wanted. That’s when the Niadent who looks just like you or me breaks in to there room and harvests their soul through their unfulfilled dream. It’s an unfortunate reality of our world that no one talks about but as you age you become more likely to become prey to these creatures.

When twenty something’s are being preyed upon though we have to step in - catch the Niadent and kill it. Very easy to do it bleeds the same as you and I and is human by all appearances, but that makes identifying it very difficult. Niadents have always been around, in the old world they were shamans or witch doctors and people would bring them the old and unbeknownst to the villagers they would eat to their fill as long as they cured just enough people to not raise suspicion. Now though when modern medicine is predominant they have no choice but to hunt. They are part of the reason our training for this mission included drinking heavily every night - I didn’t need much training for that, but blocking dreams and alcoholism go hand in hand.

Arriving in Florida I finally had footage of my guy. Posing as a CNA at a hospital he could have stayed under the radar forever, but had to start taking people to young.

I followed him into a hospital room of a young man with pancreatic cancer- completely bald and very weak - the creature was already eating before it noticed me. Purple light filling the room and flashes of birthdays, holidays, sports cars, and most intensely sleeping under the Aurora beaurealis in an igloo. I creeped forward and the Niadent spryly jumped over the bed mid meal to face me.

“It’s an acquired taste-I know I shouldn’t have, but the old ones these days with tv and internet numbing their minds have so few dreams to feed on. Even this young man likely to die anyway has few dreams left after sitting behind a desk as an accountant for only a few years.”

Instead of engaging in this conversation I lift my hand in my pocket coat as if to shrug my shoulders and pull the trigger on my silenced pistol. Down goes the Niadent - a flurry of his last meal escaping the bullet hole in his chest confirming he has been killed. I block the door with crime scene tape and stay on scene until the clean up crew arrives.

I need a drink.