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The darkness swam around him, inky and invasive, a vile shroud covering up all manner of unseen horrors, and Jason quivered inside. He'd feared the dark ever since he was small, positive that there were monsters hidden just beneath the surface of the world, things that could only walk the earth when light wouldn't show them for what they were, and now he was trapped in a place of shadow and mystery, surrounded by the devils that were theoretically of his own creation.

"This is a dream." He said, though his voice seemed too loud to be a projection of a dream.

" . . . dream." A dark, growling voice answered, almost like a reflection of his own, though it came from somewhere else and seemed to press against Jason's skin like a wet, warm layer of slimy foulness.

"This isn't real. I remember going to sleep." The young man spoke again, louder this time, hoping that his voice would dispel what had to be an illusion.

". . . sleep." The voice answered, gravely and cold.

Something large and terrible moved in the dark, just beyond the fragment of light that seemed to be shining from Jason himself. The light was an unsettling red that did very little to dispel the dark, as though it were fighting to push back a night that was too much for any one light to handle. Still, the light was important, even if it was slight. It was all that Jason had at that moment, all that separated him from the totality of the shadow that surrounded him.

Something wet touched his hand and Jason jumped, nearly tumbling over in his fright until he looked over and saw that there was a large gray wolf standing next to him. It had bumped his hand with its nose. He laughed at himself a little. He knew this wolf. It came to him in many dreams, and it had never tried to do him any harm. He reached out and touched its soft, thick fur, and that's when he realized it was the wolf that was glowing red. He leaned in closer, pleasantly surprised, and spotted a collar around the wolf's neck set with a strange, glowing jewel, the source of the light.

He'd never had that on before. "Where did you get . . . " Jason didn't get to finish his sentence.

The thing in the darkness sprang upon them. The boy yelled and fell backwards as the wolf turned to face the monster, standing and and snarling between the two of them, hackles raised, teeth barred. In the light the crystal gave off Jason could make out the beast that had come for him in the dark. It was as tall as a two story building, standing on its hind legs, though it had long forelimbs that it could have easily used as extra legs if it so chose. Its skin was gray and cracked, as though it had been badly burned, and foul black liquid poured from the gaps, oozing down over its outer layer. It had a head like an alligator, though it wore horns atop that, and its jaws hinged far too wide, filled with far too many teeth.

The strangest part of it all was an indent in its chest where its heart should have been. It looked like it had steel bars over it, as though there were a cage built into the beast itself. How any creature like that could be alive and moving was beyond Jason's understanding. Of course, he reminded himself, this was all a terrible dream. A nightmare.

He turned to run. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!" He repeated over and over again to himself, and then he heard a sharp yelp and he turned back to see that the monster had grabbed the wolf and was shoving it into the cage in its chest.

"No!" Jason yelled, turning back for a minute, but then the creature came towards him again, snapping its terrible jaws.

"No!" The beast repeated, its voice shaking the darkness, and Jason gave into his fear, turning and running, abandoning his old companion.

"It's just a dream." He told himself, realizing that if that was true, the wolf would be fine. The wolf wasn't even real. He could run away, and wake up, and next time he dreamed the wolf would be back and alright. He didn't have to face any of this. He ran as hard as he ever had, or at least he dreamed that he was running hard. It seemed strange to him that he could feel the exhaustion creeping into him. His legs burned, his breathing was ragged, and he was sweating. This was certainly the most realistic dream he'd ever had.

Jason wasn't sure when it had happened, but as he slowed his run he found himself in a forest at night. The world was still dark, but the light of the moon shone down on him now, and he was clearly outside somewhere. As was prone to happening in dreams, things had changed abruptly and he hadn't really noticed. He was no longer in that well of terrible darkness where the monster had been. He was free.

Relief washed through him. Being rid of that part of the dream was a good sign. He'd be just as happy if he never saw that terrible monster again. With nothing else to do now that the earlier episode was done, he began to walk. He didn't really have a direction, so he followed the smell of sea water that wafted through the woods. This, at least, gave him a direction of travel. After a while the trees parted and he hesitantly walked out onto a rocky outcropping, the sound of the ocean crashing coming from below him.

Jason stopped in his tracks. He didn't need to go any further to know that he was walking towards a cliff. The sound of the ocean was coming from far below, and the ground before him seemed to end rather suddenly. He shook his head, deciding he'd go back the way he'd come, but when he turned around there was a girl sitting in the grass between him and the forest. She smiled up at him, a strange gold-white light shining from her.

"Jason." She said, smiling fondly at him. "It is good that you've made it here finally."

Jason was confused. He shrugged. "It's a dream. I can be anywhere I want."

"Yes, it is a dream, Jason, but not the kind you've had so many times before. This dream is important. What you do in this dream will give the rest of your life direction, and decide the fate of billions of lives." She said, picking a flower from the grass, which she began to weave into the stem of another flower, her delicate fingers working carefully and quickly as she spoke.

"Oh, this is one of those type of dreams." He answered with a laugh. "I'm off to save the world?" The whole idea sounded silly to him, but he'd play along if that was what his mind wanted to create for him.

She smiled. "Yes, or not. You've already let the wolf be caught, Jason. That was a mistake. As long as the darkness holds the wolf captive, you are lost. You'll never wake from this dream, and you'll never prove yourself worthy of becoming the man you must be."

Jason felt a pang of guilt which he tried to dismiss. The guilt was mixed, as well, with fear. What did she mean about never waking? "It's a dream. I'll wake up when my alarm goes off in the morning. The wolf isn't even real."

She cocked her head and laughed. "If that's true, then isn't the monster not real as well? Yet you sacrificed one to avoid the other. Bravery, friendship, these elements exist whether or not any of this is real. Are you really alright with letting the wolf be imprisoned in darkness, even if this is only a normal dream?"

Jason frowned, considering the question carefully. He didn't want the wolf to come to harm. It was almost like a friend, or maybe it was more than a friend. For as long as he could remember the wolf had been an important symbol for him, something to take strength from, something that gave him peace in dark times, and he'd just turned his back on it even though it had tried to defend him.

"It's too late now." Jason said, feeling defeated by his own choices. "The monster is gone, and I'm not even in the same dream anymore. I don't know how to find the wolf, and what would I do if I did find him? I can't fight. I don't' know how, and I'm afraid to." Jason had never been a fighter. He avoided conflict whenever he could. He didn't like the idea of being hurt.

"It's not too late." She nodded her head towards the cliff. "The beast awaits below."

He was already shaking his head in denial, even before she'd finished talking. "No, I can't climb down that. I'm afraid of heights."

"You don't have to climb, Jason. You'd never reach the bottom. You have to jump." She said, her eyes, slitted eyes of a golden brown color, sparkled.

"What?!" Jason shouted without meaning to. "I can't . . . I'll die!"

She laughed and stood up. She walked over to Jason and that's when he noticed she had two tails, fox tails, that twined and wiggled as she came towards him. She placed the wreath of flowers she'd been crafting on his head and kissed his cheek.

"It's just a dream, right?" She said, and then she pulled a sheathed dagger from a pocket on the side of her dress. She pulled the blade from its scabbard for a moment, showing off a richly layered steel with thousands of intricate waves along its surface. "This will kill the beast, but only if you're brave enough to use it. Go swiftly, Jason. The wolf is suffering." She slid the dagger away and handed it to him.

Jason looked over his shoulder at the cliff,and then back to the fox lady, but when he turned back she was gone, though a small red fox was running for the tree line, two tails twirling behind it, and an empty white dress lay at his feet. He looked down at the dress for a moment, then back at the place where the small fox had taken to the woods. Finally he just shook his head and then turned back to the cliff. He squeezed the dagger in his hand, then unfastened his belt so he could put the scabbard in place. The girl was right. He had to do this for the wolf. It was a dream, and if it was a dream he could do what he wanted, and he wanted to save the wolf.

He took a deep breath and walked towards the cliff face. He seemed to get there all too quickly, and soon found himself looking over the edge at the crashing water below. The shoreline was littered with jagged rocks, and he couldn't see any way that he would be able to jump far enough to clear them. If he jumped, he would land on the rocks, and it was far enough down that there was no way he would survive.

He thought of the wolf again. "This is a dream. Here I can do what I want to. Here I have the strength to make a difference." He took a step towards the cliff and a strong gust of wind rose up, pushing him back the way he'd come, as thought urging him not to go any further. Even his dream knew he shouldn't do this.

"This is crazy." He said to himself, and then he steeled his nerves and took a step towards the edge. He had to will each movement of his legs as he got closer, but finally he stood with his toes on the edge. He didn't so much jump as he just let himself fall forward, though he did push off a bit, for all that it helped. He was immediately horrified by what he'd done.

A small part of him had believed that when he jumped he'd wake up in his bed back at home like he had in so many other dreams where he fell, but that didn't happen. Instead, the ground and the jagged rocks came rushing up towards him at an alarming pace. The bristling point of a particularly nasty row of rocks filled his entire line of sight, and he absolutely knew that he was going to die on that pointed outcrop of razor sharp stone. And then he was standing in an open field, wind blowing across the open area, black clouds overhead, and a single path stretching out before him leading to an old, beaten house.

Jason spun around to look behind him, but there was only more field. It seemed to stretch out infinitely in every direction, though the path he was on only went one way, towards the house. He was so shocked to be alive and not smashed on the rocks that it took him a moment to try and get a grasp on this new situation.

Thunder tore through the air around him and a streak of terrible, purple lightening flashed and struck the field behind the house. This storm was going to be bad, and he only had one way to go for cover. He began to walk towards the house, fully aware that this was all a little too clearly staged and put together. He was obviously meant to walk into the house, and that made him nervous. He passed a small, decrepit white fence and made his way up the steps to the door.

Just as he reached the open front door of the little house, the rain began to fall. It came down hard, huge drops pouring down so quickly that, looking back, Jason couldn't even see the fence behind him anymore. He stepped inside quickly. The house was barren, rickety and old. It looked like it had been left to decay for years and years. The only sound he could hear inside was the rain pounding on the roof overhead. It was a deafening roar that might have been distracting if Jason was so intent upon figuring out what the dream expected of him next. He walked from room to room, finding each in the same sad state of disrepair, and each equally empty.

He finally went upstairs and walked into the first room across the hall from the steps. This room was small, and oddly without windows. As he stepped inside the door slammed closed behind him. He jumped, and turned to try the handle, but there was no handle inside the room. For a moment he scrambled at the frame, trying to push the door open again, or knock it back open with his shoulder. He even took out the knife he'd been given and tried to pry it open, but it wouldn't budge. It was like the thing had never been designed to open. He put his dagger away in frustration.

"Jason." A voice whispered behind him, and he swung around to face it.

At the other end of the room was a man dressed in a black shroud. He wore the hood up, hanging over his face so that Jason couldn't make out any details of this new person's appearance at all.

"Do you know who I am, Jason?" The whispering voice asked.

Jason shook his head, worried. "No, but I need to get out of here. I have to find the beast who took the wolf."

"You can't do that. You're not strong enough." The man snapped angrily.

Jason took a step back, surprised at the man's unexpected flare of rage. "The fox-woman said I . . . "

The man spoke again, his words venomous. "She doesn't know you, Jason. I do, and you're useless. You're afraid. You are a coward, and you'll never amount to anything. Do you really think you're some kind of hero? What makes you believe that? Is it because some whimsical girl told you that you have potential? You are nothing. You're wasting your time. Just sit down and give up now. It will be better for you and everyone else. Do you actually want the responsibility that defeating the monster will bring you?"

Jason opened his mouth, and then shut it. The man's words cut to the bone. They seemed aimed directly at his weakest points. "Who are you?" Jason asked, incredulous.

His answer came in the form of a dry laugh. "You don't even know who I am. It's so very simple, and yet you can't figure it out. Until you do, you can never leave this room. You might as well lie down and give up now, for you will be here forever."

Jason clenched his fists, his thoughts turning to the wolf again. "I will not give in! I won't leave my friend to suffer!"

"Then who am I?" The shrouded man yelled, rising up and expanding until he was twice as large, seeming more like a wall then a man. He was in impossible hurdle, a challenge that couldn't possibly be overcome. As soon as Jason recognized that, he also recognized his newest, and oldest, foe.

"You're my greatest enemy. You are self doubt." Jason spoke his name, and the figure shrank back to a normal size.

"I am." He drew back his hood and the man inside was an older, tired version of Jason himself. "Do not forget my face, for you will see it many times. I will be with you when you tirumph, and I will be with you when you fail. I will be with you when you're alone, and when you're surrounded by friends. We will always be together. Know me, and never let me stop you." He pulled the hood back over his head, and then the shroud fluttered to the ground, empty. The room was silent and still. Jason waited for something to happen, but nothing did. He turned and walked back to the door behind him, but it was still closed, and there was still no handle. He was trapped.

In frustration he gave the door a solid push, not expecting much to happen, but to his surprise the door, and the wall around it, fell backward, crashing to the ground in a loud bang, which was followed by three more bangs as the others walls too crashed to the ground. Darkness swam in around the fallen walls, filling up the space that had been there until nothing was left. There was nothing at all to see. Jason couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face.

"Hello?" He called, taking a hesitant step forward.

". . . hello." A growling hiss of a voice called back from the dark. In the distance a red light appeared in the void, and the ground shook. The beast had returned. In the void it was all that could be seen. A moment of fear flowed through jason, but he swallowed it down and stood his ground, drawing the dagger at his hip.

"I won't let you keep my friend!" He snarled into the dark as the thunderous footfalls of the monster drew closer. Golden light began to spill out around Jason, and it only took him a few seconds to realize that it was coming from him. His resolve hardened, and as it did the light became stronger. The darkness began to dissolve, ripping apart at the edges where it met the golden glow Jason was emitting.

The beast came closer, still towering overhead, still holding the wolf prisoner in its chest, and still as terrible as it had been the first time, but in the light cast by the boy before it, it seemed far less sure of itself. Jason thought it almost looked afraid of him.

"Give me back the wolf!" He growled at it, holding his knife before him.

The monster leaned down onto its arms so that it was on all fours, and it roared at Jason, a rumbling, bass-filled sound like two rusty metal structures being slammed together and dragged across each other. Jason wavered for a moment, but then he yelled back an inarticulate roar of rage, his voice smaller by far, but no less fierce for that.

He charged forward and leapt onto the creature's snout, which seemed to shock it. It recoiled quickly, which worked to throw Jason further back onto its body. He scrambled as he tumbled through the air, but somehow he managed to work himself around so he landed hard on the back of the beast's neck, driving the point of his knife into one of the cracks in its gray skin. It roared again and thrashed viciously, trying in vain to shake him free, but Jason held on for dear life, the planted knife being the only thing that kept him from being tossed to the ground and trampled.

The beast reached over it's back and tried to claw him away, and Jason took this opportunity to grab a hold of it and pull himself up and over it's shoulder. He could see the cage with the wolf in it just below him. The poor creature was sitting huddled up, curled in its own tale. Blackness oozing from the monster was seeping into it, distorting the red light and seemingly causing the wolf a great deal of pain.

As another claw came for Jason, he leapt downward, plummeting towards the cage in a move he never would have tried previously, one that would have terrified him before this night of strange dreams had begun. He reached out and grabbed for the bars as he sailed past, and he managed to snag one, but only with one hand. He snapped to the end of his arm, his fingers threatening to give out as the beast thrashed again, thinking it could shake him free this time.

To his horror, Jason feared it might be right. His arm was stretched to its limit, his fingers twisted against the bar. He tried to pull himself up, but with the beast thrashing there wasn't a chance. The minute it realized it could just reach up and pluck him off, his fight would be over. Jason grit his teeth together, though, refusing to give up. That's when a new pain shot through his hand. He looked up to try and figure out what was causing the agony and he saw that the wolf had bitten into his hand where it curled around the bars. It was trying to pull him upwards. No, that wasn't quite right.

His eyes met the wolves eyes and he felt a strange pulsing surge inside of him. The wolf began to break apart, splitting into millions of red sparks that flowed into the now bleeding wounds in Jason's hands, and it felt like he was filled with fire. The beast's clawed fist closed around him and then it tore him away from the cage and threw him backwards into the void as the golden light around him flickered to just a dull glow, and the fire inside of him flared even hotter until it felt like he would break apart from the inside.

Jason had a brief moment to contemplate the fact that he might very well die, and then he hit the ground and rolled as his bones cracked and broke inside of him, pain erupting from all over as the solid darkness of the floor attempted to rip him apart. The monster laughed, a terrible, vicious sound that shook the world. It thought that it had won.

. . . but Jason wasn't dying. Even as he lay completely still, his bones continued to churn and snap, breaking and reforming on their own. It wasn't the ground that had caused all of that breaking, it was some deep change that was rising up from inside of the young man, burning through his body like a cleansing fire. He threw back his head and instead of screaming he let out a fierce howl as his skull snapped and reformed, elongating and becoming more wolf-like.

The beast watched, horrified to stillness as the man it had thought dead became something new and fear inspiring. When the changing finally stopped, Jason stood entirely transformed. He was something like a werewolf, clad in fur from head to toe, a hide that shimmered in a mix of red, blue and gold. His underbelly was pure white with a black circle separating it from the rest of his coat. The dagger had vanished as well, but at the end of his wolven hands, his claws were distinctly toned like the blade of the knife.

Jason could have been scared, or shocked, but it all felt right. He felt amazing, powerful, strong and fearless. He snarled at the beast, flicking his tail behind him, and then he charged forward at the beast for the second time. The creature turned, thinking it would flee, but Jason leapt onto its back and clawed his way to the beast's neck. His teeth sank into its flesh, ripping through the stone like skin with ease and tearing away at its jugular. Black blood sprayed through the air, and it attempted to claw him away, but the wolf was far too quick and the beast only tore into its own flesh as its strength began to fail. Jason tore another piece from its throat and the monster slumped to the ground, staggering forward on its knees before it finally collapsed to the dark floor and began to dissolve into nothingness.

Jason stood above it, jaws coated in black ichor, looking down at what he'd accomplished.

"Good work!" A female voice called behind him, and he spun around to see the fox girl from before standing at his back, though this time she was far more fox, and far less human girl. She stood in only her fur, two tails swishing behind her, foxy features wide and open in an obvious smile, teeth and squinted eyes. "That is the first monster, Jason. There are many more, and you'll have to hunt them all, but you've proven you can do it." She came forward and placed a hand on his cheek before leaning forward and nipping his neck lightly. "Go home, Jason. It's time to wake up and do what you were always meant to."

Everything faded away, and Jason sat up in bed with a sharp gasp of breath. It had been a dream. Of course he'd known it had been a dream, but the disconnect of one place fading into the other was still somewhat jarring. He let out a sigh and moved to brush his hair back from his face. That's when his eyes fell on the wristband that he was wearing, one he certainly hadn't gone to bed with. It was metal like the blade of the dagger he'd worn, but studded with crystals that shone red, blue, gold, white and black. They shimmered around his wrist, and then seemed to go quiet, their colors fading to clear. He touched the charm and knew in that moment that his life was forever changed.