Helping a Child

'I guess I have no choice.'

"Fine, I'll help you. What are you having a hard time understanding?"

The child smiled and inched closer to Cain.

"Explain how change isn't only about new things. That doesn't make sense. I've always received feedback when people enter a new stage in their lives or when they do something they've never done before, stuff like that."

Cain answered with a serious tone.

"Well, I believe Change isn't just about new things. Change can be anything, like switching up a style. The style doesn't have to be new; it can be something used before. It's still change. You could go back to the old style and it would also be change."

"So I don't have to always find new things? I can just do old stuff as well. But then why do I always get emotions and fears when people do new things?" Change questioned. 

Cain studied the child's face.

"I think that's because you don't realize you're getting feedback from the same people. Change can happen every second, from a new thought to a new routine. Things get reused, but it still feels new because it's changed. It's different than how things go normally."

"Ohhhhhh, so people just fool themselves into thinking things are new?"

'I've become a teacher for one of the most powerful beings in this place. Just how did it come to this?'

Cain facepalmed himself and then corrected the child.

"No, it's not so much about fooling themselves. It's just how they work. Anyway, do you get it now? You don't have to chase new things; just always make sure you're doing something different.

"Not to mention things get forgotten and become learned all over again. Change has no limits, and there doesn't need to be any emotion connected to it. Change is much more than just a fear, it's a concept that knows no bounds."

Change paused for a second, indicating it had realized something. Cain sighed in relief, he no longer had to waste his breath.

"I think I get it. As I existed, I found that much of everything stayed the same, much of everything repeated over and over. I guess that too has always been change."

The child pondered for a bit, and finally, he spoke again, "What are your questions? I'll only answer four."

'Well, at least I'm getting somewhere.'

Cain smiled, getting 4 answers from a powerful entity just for answering questions was a steal. He quickly gave his questions with zeal.

"Why do you and the other two Horrors need me? You are all sufficiently powerful yourselves. You are literal embodiments of your names. Isn't the Dream Realm constantly changing? You should have enough power to blow up this whole Realm!"

Change's face turned blank. Such a question wasn't in his expectations.

"That's not how it works. Although things like change, failure, and death aren't only things that solely happen to humans, we don't get lots of energy from obscure methods like that.

"Didn't Death tell you that we exist from the many? The many are the conscious and subconscious. If a season changes, I barely get enough energy equivalent to a droplet of water.

"It's the Same for Death and even more so for Failure. It's not like many things can be constituted as failing; he's even more bound to conscious beings than me. Death has the easiest time."

'So that's it. He might be Change in name, but it only applies to the subconscious level of all beings with individual thought. They need the many but the many don't need them...'

Change went on, "Of course, there are theories that all things have a subconscious much like the grand subconscious in this Realm. That's true to a degree since we three can take from the unliving and unconscious.

"But as I said, it's not even close to how much we Three get from beings with thought."

It pointed at Cain auspiciously, "That's why we need you. The 4th will be unbound. The 4th will, in of itself, be unknown; all things unknown are for it to take. You will be much more free than us in this sense. Your main food will not be the unknown fears of the conscious but the unknown of everything. The Nightmare of all Nightmares. The Nightmare of all things."

'So they need a more ambiguous Horror to act more freely? Just how will the Horror of Unknown work? How will I get power?'

"So I won't be affected by the laws you Three have to follow?"

Change nodded, "Yes, but to a degree, Unknown still has to be Unknown.

"Say you try to use the dark to gain fear and power. There will be those unafraid of the dark which can reduce the power of your unknown."

"So I have to keep my cards hidden?"

Change laughed, "You can think of it that way. Don't you know Nightmares feed on Dreams? Nightmares are incomprehensible to Dreams, so they are the same to the subconscious which creates Dream."

Cain's face was stiff. He understood Change and then he didn't. It was all very confusing. Change, of course, noticed the Seed's confusion, laughing like the child it was.

"Don't worry, once you get the ball rolling you will be Unknown itself. You will no longer need other means to generate fear and emotion. 

"Now, ask your last question."

'Already on the last one.....'

Cain mulled it over. He didn't know what to ask that would take full advantage of the question. But then he remembered Death's actions after talking about a specific being. Cain's lips quivered to learn about such a being. 

Finally, he opened his mouth, "Who or what is this 'One'?"

The child immediately tensed, "I-I.....'It'..... 'It' is the strongest."

Cain frowned, "That's not an answer."

Coming out of its strange condition, Change realized its reaction and seemed to grow estranged.

"Think of it this way, in the beginning, 'It' was the favorite, the one blessed by the Universe. The chosen one."

Cain was going to continue with this line of questioning, but he was promptly cut off by Change, whose voice began to distort and warp.

"I thank you again. It's been so long since I've been able to become strong again. To ₮Ⱨł₦₭ all Շђเร time, I merely MIƧƬӨӨK change ɨȶֆɛʟf."

"What?"

The Nightmare Pocket began to crumble, the sky broke, and the land split. Before Cain knew it, he was back in the void.

Before him, ever-changing symbols and creatures were abundant. It was like a compilation of everything in existence.

Some things he had seen before, and many others he couldn't even begin to understand.

This was Change, everything happening all at once over eons. A repeating cycle that stayed the same but didn't. A being that was born from thought and was therefore every thought all at once.

True Change, an amalgamation of a cycle, a cycle that will always be used again and again. 

Because nothing ever changes, it is only an illusion. Any being which has lived long enough would realize this fact.

Cain felt himself changing as well, his cloak turned different colors, his skin acted like a chameleon, and his thoughts were chaotic. One moment he thought of a tree, the next a life he took, the next a single word or letter.

If he looked around, he would also see that space was warping; the abyss seemed to bend to Change's very essence, and the darkness was forced to go along with it.

The Primordial didn't speak; instead, it sent out a single changing symbol that fused with Cain, turning into black sand just like Death's fingerbone.

Cain's cloak came alive; it rose from the abyss and endlessly wrapped around him. Before he knew it, he was in a brilliant cocoon made of stars. Everything became silent, and he drifted to sleep.

Change looked at the seed Its elder sibling made; Change had always been the one that was unknowing when it came to these things, but it believed that Death was trying to do good by the other two siblings.

More than all three of them, Death wished to be free. Change was neutral, and Failure only leaned towards escaping this place a little. 

The two long lost hope, unlike their elder.

Abruptly, a childlike voice echoed through the ever-reaching darkness. 

"I hope Death will succeed. I wish for Death to have no more pain over this matter. It would be even better for it to accept this is the better outcome. The rest were treated much more harshly than us. We should be thankful we're so weak....."

Slowly receding, the amalgamation of different symbols and objects slowly dispersed. The abyss once more found peace.

Inside its farthest reaches, one of the Primordials roamed free, spreading change.

Whether the outcome is good or bad, no one would know.