I'm climbing around the upper floors of a big maze. Where it has floors, I mean--where pits don't yawn.

People are hunting me. Oops, here they come--firing arrows at me.

My main enemy is a vampire with great magical power. I have no weapons--all I've got is armor. I'm covered in dreams--mostly typed ones, computer printouts inches thick, plus a few older hand-written journals.

Paper armor sound flimsy? It's so thick, it's better than Kevlar! Their arrows stick in till I look like a pincushion, but they've hardly nicked me inside my shield of dreams.

I bluff that it's some mysterious power, yell mockingly "You've met your match, vampire!" And... the idiot buys it! He COULD have defeated me easily. Just one match, and my whole suit would burn.

But he backs off, afraid his other powers will fail him like his arrows did. Doesn't want to risk it. HA! I bluffed Mr. Fancy Fangs!

I wake, pleased that I outsmarted that bastard with nothing more than a bit of paper. No, be fair--with dreams.

They felt flimsy, but they did the job.

GLARINGLY OBVIOUS NOTES NEXT MORNING

• Arrows = Eros! Sex. See, I'm afraid sex will lure me into another relationship where I mostly do what my lover wants. I don't want to be a doormat like last time--stayed with a batterer for two years.
• Vampire = This bad model of love I'm trying to change. Relationships where I give give give... till all my blood is drained.
• Dreams are my armor:
  1. I withdraw into solitary dreamworlds when I'm stressed out, which doesn't sound like the most assertive way to protect myself, but DOES keep me out of parasitic relationships. But also...
  2. My dreams have tried to teach me how to change--and more than that, they've steered me away from bloodsucking relationships, warning me about specific people and problems. You see, it isn't all bluff! Dreams really work--they keep the vampires out. Even if they feel flimsy from inside.

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