Beneath the Trees - Faith Chmielewski

Max Pryce is tormented by nightmares, and monsters only he can see. To distract himself and maintain some semblance of a normal life, he accompanies his best friend, Kit Donovan, on a vlogging excursion to an abandoned house. While there, the two encounter an entity that plunges Max back into the world of the paranormal he has so desperately tried to escape.

Max's nightmares worsen as he and Kit delve deeper into a realm of otherworldly creatures, magical daggers, and strange portals to other dimensions. As Max loses his grip on reality, the shadow entity makes physical contact with him for the first time. It entices Max with dreams of another dimension, where he can live in peace, free from nightmares and pain. All he must do is become its host.

Though he's initially uncertain of the entity's motives, Max takes matters into his own hands when Kit fails to find a way to get rid of the shadow creatures and stop his friend's nightmares. Leaving isn't as easy as he'd like it to be, however, and his decision is further complicated when Kit tries to stop him from-as Max comes to believe-fulfilling his destiny. Faced with a life-altering choice, he must decide whether to embrace the entity's offer and leave his old life behind, or heed Kit's warnings that becoming a host will only result in one thing: Max's loss of humanity and death at the hands of the creature.