“No…?” I said, unable to tell if he was joking or actually asking if I’d made the same mistakes he did.

“Then you didn’t fuck up as badly as me,” he said, mock-soothing.

“What’d you do?” he asked after a moment, a rapid series of blinks giving away how deeply interested he really was in the answer.

“I went for a dive,” I said. “Several, actually.”

“Without permission, I’m assuming?” he guessed. I nodded. “Why? Why would you even want to see their dreams?”

“I wanted to see who they really were,” I explained. “After everything they told me about you … I don’t know, even though you didn’t deny any of it, it just felt like they were hiding something.”

“You thought they were lying?” he laughed. “Those Eagle Scouts?”

“They lie a lot to each other,” I said and I saw his eyes flash in glee for a second. “Or, at least, they hide things. Tell each other half-truths. I wasn’t sure what to believe.”

“That must get confusing,” he said, before taking a sip of his coffee and wincing at how hot it was.

“What do you mean?”

“We lie to ourselves so much in dreams,” he went on. “Our brains tell us stories about ourselves that aren’t true; make monsters out of even the smallest fears. But that’s half your reality. More than half sometimes. Where does the real reality begin and the animated fear end?”

“That’s … surprisingly insightful, Damien,” I said.

“I’m not as heartless as everyone thinks I am.” He smiled wolfishly. Someone had clearly regained their confidence and I felt like I was looking into a kaleidoscope and seeing the person Damien was when he had his ability. I wasn’t sure I liked this version as much as the broken man I’d met in January, the man who really understood what it was like to have a monster follow you out from inside your head.

“Did you get your ability back?” I asked and he blinked in surprise.

“What, no, why would you think that?” He sounded panicked.

“You just seem … different.”

But I believed him, despite all my best instincts. Because there he was, sitting across from me after texting me out of the blue and asking to meet at the diner that somehow felt like ours despite the fact that we’d only been there once, understanding me better and faster than anyone I’d ever known.