“That would make sense, wouldn’t it? Think about all the scary things that show up in your nightmares — and hell, even the good things that show up in your dreams — sure, they don’t exist here, but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist at all.” Zaniel pauses to take a swig of beer. “My grandfather had this theory, that all the mystical creatures we know and love lived here for thousands of years, but now that all this modernization and globalization has kicked in, they have no place here anymore. They had to move on, go somewhere else. We can convince ourselves we hunted all unicorns to extinction and destroyed mermaid habitats, or bulldozed all the faerie mounds to build condos —”

“If you’re willing to admit you believe in those sorts of things?” I can’t help but tease him a little.

“Exactly.” He lets out a dry laugh. “But we’ve also convinced ourselves that so many of those creatures were immortal. So, the whole extinction thing doesn’t really work. I guess we could say that some of those things can move between the two worlds.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s like a weird zone in time or space or whatever where all the supernatural stuff people’ve stopped believing in exist. Then, when sleeping humans wander into their world, the creatures get all excited and go running after ’em. We wake up thinking it was all in our heads; never give them a second thought.” I take another sip of beer and rest my head on the table. “And the world is so big, odds are … these things that chase after us … we never see them again. Not their exact likenesses. People say recurring dreams are rare, so —”

“They just don’t remember. The World is big. The dream world — or, what my grandpa called ‘Yume’ — is even bigger. What are the odds you’ll run into the same monsters over and over again? Well, there’s truth in that. Usually, you don’t. Not if they aren’t looking for you. Not if they don’t know where to find you. But not everyone is so lucky. Not the one percent.”

“Damn.” I gaze at him, resting my chin on one hand. “I feel so sorry for you, now.”

“Meh,” he shrugs. “I’m starting to see it’s not so bad. Sorry, that turned into a long explanation. I wish I knew how to explain it better. More poetic-like. My mom can. She’d like you. My mother.” He gives me a sleepy, silly grin. “You’re pretty, and sweet. Anyway. Forget everything I said. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company right now. If we sit down to analyze how all this is possible, it’s going to turn our hair grey.”

I look down at the table, trying to be covert about smothering my hand over my ever-widening grin. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”