Narrated by Renni.
I grew up next to a boy who never slept.
His name was David.
Small, pale and always with dark circles under his grey eyes.
He never smile. Unless he was lying.
That was what his elder sister told me before leaving town.
And she was right.
He lied all the time.
" i don't get tired"
" sleeping is no fun~"
" i like the night. It's when i think better "
He said those things every time i asked.
But once, i caught him whispering something into his hand in the school bathroom.
" Pleace, don't come tonight. I don't want to see you again"
Two days later, one of our classmate invited us to a sleepover.
Everything was going well, we had snacks and pizza, we played video games, cartoons and even tell late-night stories.
We went to bed around 1am.
That was the first time i have ever heard David scream.
At 2:33am, he started choking in his sleeping bag.
Not coughing- choking.
Like something had climbed down his throat.
Then he stood up.
Eyes wide, blood was coming out of his mouth.
Then, he said with his voice shaking,
" he found me"
The adults said he had night terrors.
Said his mind was fragile.
That he should take his pills and go to children's therapy.
But David didn't want medicines.
He wanted your dreams.
I learned later that- he figured out that around the age of nine.
That if he stayed near someone asleep....
He wouldn't have to see that "man" in his dreams.
So he got closer. Started sleeping beside people .
The more exhausted you were, the deeper your dreams...the better the meal.
" it's not stealing " he once told me dead serious.
" i just eat what you don't remember "
I didn't believe him until that night in 8th grade.
We were both staying late for our school night studies.
He was sitting beside me as we waited for the teacher.
He leaned towards me, eyes slowly dropping.
" are you sleepy?" I asked him.
He nodded, " just a nap" he said.
I told him it was alright, that he could rest a little.
I don't remember falling asleep myself .
I only remember waking up in the janitor's closet.
I screamed, blood coming out of my ears.
I felt a pressure behind my eyes.
Like something had been unzipping my skull.
When i stumbled outside the closet, i saw David sitting on the stairs.
He looked better.
Smiling. Awake.
" i needed that" he said like he did nothing wrong.
I avoided him after that.
But the others didn't.
Kids who sat beside David in class started getting headaches. Nosebleeds.
Unexplained exhaustion.
Then came the coma.
Mina Collen. A straight- A student.
David had spent the whole week whispering to her at lunch.
She went home on Friday, told her mom she was feeling tired, and never woke up.
The doctors said it was brain aneurysm.
But i said it was him.
I cornered him one day after school and asked him what he was doing to the kids.
He looked at me like a kid caught stealing cookies.
" i- i didn't mean to" he said.
"She just...tasted too good"
He tried to stop himself .
Started locking himself in his basement at night.
Taping his mouth shut.
Writing names on the walls to keep himself human.
But it was no use. He couldn't stop it.
And the more sleep he ate.....the less human he became.
He doesn't blink anymore.
He always sat at the back of the class, staring outside the window, never speaking to anyone.
By the end of high school, only a few of is remembered who David really was.
Most thought he was just some tired weirdo who wore sunglasses every day and night.
But i knew why.
He had grown tall, his skin pale as a ghost.
Always covering his entire face.
He would show where he shouldn't.
People's houses, bedrooms, libraries.
Wherever someone was on the verge of sleep, he would lean in and whisper,
" dream of something nice. Something with colours"
And like that, the person would never wake up.
The last time i saw him was at the hospital.
I was visiting my mother after her appendectomy.
As i walked past the paediatric wing, i heard someone talking.
The voice was...familiar.
That's when i saw David, standing beside the bed of a sleeping five-year old boy.
His hand resting lightly on the child's chest with his eyes closed.
I shouted.
He opened his eyes and looked at me like i had broken something scared.
" he was scared of the nightmares" he said,
" i made sure he wouldn't have them again"
I screamed for the nurse.
But he disappeared before they arrived.
And that child never woke up.
------
Weeks later, i found a package on my doorstep.
Inside; a journal.
On the first page, it wrote.
" the man in my dreams had too many eyes and a crown made out of pillows.
He told me the only way to escape him.....
Was to become him"
I think David did.
Because lately, i haven't been sleeping.
Every time i start to drift, i heard a heavy breathing in the walls.
I feel fingers on my chest.
They Smell ash.
And when i close my eyes.....
I see him.
Tall and thin. Smiling down at me.
I don't know why i still woke up from sleep.
But i know it wouldn't be long before i won't wake up again.
I can feel that day coming.
So I'm writing this.
If you ever feel like someone's watching you sleep...
If you wake up more tired than when you went to bed.....
If you start to forget your dreams.....
It means David is sleepy again.
Don't let him near your bed.
Don't nap near strangers.
And whatever you do....
Don't fall asleep humming.
Stream Commentary- Tape #20: " the boy who ate sleep "
Kai returns]
(flicking his fingers, as if brushing dust off an invisible coat):
"Insomnia isn't always a curse.
Sometimes, it's a defense mechanism."
(He leans closer.)
"Because if you knew who else was dreaming with you...
You'd rip your eyelids off before lying down."
COMMENT STREAM
[@Enchomay "Sleep is the most vulnerable we ever get.
David didn't break into homes—he broke into minds.]
[@Jaija: I don't get it. Was David possessed? Cursed? Or… was it just him? Was loneliness really enough to make him a parasite?]
[@642:He didn't steal dreams.
He consumed the peace people felt in sleep.
He didn't want joy. He wanted relief.
That's what made him so human—and so monstrous.]
[@Jaija: So... how long until he eats the whole world's sleep?
We dream in shifts, don't we? Someone's always asleep. Always feeding him]
(Kai nodded)
"You all noticed it too, didn't you?
David wasn't evil.
He was… tired.
He just wanted it to stop.
So he made it stop for everyone else."
"There are children who grow up in fear so constant, they forget what rest feels like.
Eventually, fear becomes hunger.
And hunger always finds a way to feed itself."
(He lowers his head.)
"You mock the monster in your closet.
But some kids… they learn to live with them.
And worse—some become them."
(raises a strange object—a child's plush bear stitched shut with human hair.)
"You can't out run sleep forever.
But if you're lucky… it won't be him waiting behind your dreams."
(He places the bear down. The camera glitches—just once.)
"And next, my dear viewers… we'll be talking about 'The Window That Wasn't There.'
A girl.
A view that didn't belong to her house.
And what happens when you look out and realize something's… looking in."
STREAM ENDED
SYSTEM NOTE: Audio trace detected — faint child's whisper: "Don't sleep. He's watching."