The Girl Who Could Not Dream

  She didn’t wait for them to agree—or try to talk her out of it. She was afraid she’d lose her nerve. Slinking along the wall, she headed toward a door at the end of the balcony. It was gashed with claw marks. The knob had been broken off, leaving only a hole.

  Below, one of the monsters howled. A cheer erupted.

  Trying hard not to imagine what had made the gashes, Sophie opened the door. She jumped backward, but nothing leaped out at her.

  Inside was a stairwell. It was lit by yellow, cobweb-coated lights, and it stank like a dumpster. It looked as if it went one flight up into the house and one flight down toward the fight pit. Up felt safer—there would be windows and doors and light, as well as furniture and carpet and kitchen appliances and other ordinary things. But she wasn’t looking for ordinary. Down here was where the secrets were kept. And maybe her parents? Slipping into the stairwell, she crept downstairs. In the stairwell, the music was muffled.

  “Sophie, you don’t know what’s down there,” Ethan said, following her.

  “That’s kind of the point,” Sophie whispered back. “Hey, didn’t you say you wanted to be a hero?”

  “Monster said that.”

  “Was he wrong?”

  “Well . . . no.”

  “If it matters,” she said, “I think you’re brave.”

  He paused midstep. “Really?”

  He’d had impossibilities shoved down his throat one after another for the past few hours, and he hadn’t panicked once. He’d even cracked jokes. If their positions had been reversed, Sophie wasn’t sure she’d have stuck around. “Yes, really.”

  Near the bottom of the stairs, the lights flickered, plunging the stairwell into darkness for a few seconds, then blinked back on. Sophie felt as if her heart was beating louder than the shouts from the pit.

  The stairs ended in a narrow hallway. One wall was yellowed and stained plaster, and the other was chunky rock that looked like it had been gouged out by claws. She wondered if Mr. Nightmare had used the monsters to make this hall. There were two doors: one red, and one yellow. Both had windows in the middle.

  Crossing to the red door, Sophie peeked through and saw the fight pit. Mr. Nightmare’s back was toward her, and he was standing on the crate and shouting over the howls and cries of the fight and the wailing music. “Look at the speed and skill! Consider the detail, with the teeth and claws . . .” He continued describing the monsters, as if they were used cars he wanted to sell.

  Sophie peered through the window of the yellow door. It was smeared with dirt, but she could make out what looked like a storage room. She didn’t see any people. “Ready?” she whispered.

  “You think I’m brave. Can’t say no after that.”

  She opened the door and slipped in. The storage room was stuffed with cages, stacked one on top of another. The lights were dim and flickering, as in the stairwell, with just a few bare bulbs strung through the steel beams in the ceiling. Shadows crisscrossed the narrow cement corridors.

  Monster stuck close to Sophie’s ankles. “Sophie, this is really not a nice place.”

  Nodding, she walked forward between the cages. Most of them were empty. But a few weren’t. One cage held a three-headed turtle with spikes on its shell. Beyond it was a half snake, half ostrich. Above it was a scarlet-colored monkey with eyes that looked like flames dancing inside his skull.

  “Okay, interesting,” Ethan said, his voice shaking. “Don’t see your parents.”

  On the other end of the storage room was a thick steel door, like a bank vault door or a supermarket freezer. It had a metal bar across it, locking it, and a window like a porthole. “What do you think is in there?” Sophie whispered.

  “Worse monsters?” Ethan suggested. “Come on, Sophie. This is well beyond freaky, and as someone with nightmare issues, I feel fully qualified to say that. Your parents aren’t here. Let’s look somewhere else.”

  “But we don’t know what’s in there.” Sophie started forward.

  As soon as she reached them, the monsters in the cages reacted. Screaming and howling, they bashed against their cages. The turtle-like monster roared, the ostrich kicked, and the monkey shook the bars so hard that the metal rattled like a thousand cans crashing together.

  Sophie shot a look back at the yellow door that led to the stairs. For an instant, she was torn—stay or run? You’ve come this far, she told herself. She had to at least see what was on the other side of the steel door. If she didn’t look and her parents were there . . . She hurried toward it, hoping the fight in the pit and the thunderous music were loud enough to drown these monsters out.

  The monkey with flame eyes swiped at her. “Stop!”

  She slowed. “You can talk?”

  “Better than you,” the monkey snarled.

  She looked from the monkey to the turtle to the snake-ostrich. The other two quieted. “Are you from a dream?” she asked.

  “Oh yes, I had a nice tropical dream with sandy white beaches, palm trees, and the scent of scared tourists for dinner, but I left it for the promise of tastier prey. But instead of the freedom to hunt, I was thrown into a cage like a . . . a . . .”

  “Monster?” Monster supplied helpfully.

  “You must let us out, before we’re sold. Let us find our sandy beaches and our freedom!” He crooked his finger toward Sophie. “Come on, set us free, little girl.”

  “What do you mean, ‘before we’re sold’?” Sophie asked.

  “You know what goes on out there! He drags us in, two at a time—the dumb brutes fight, and then he sells the winner to the highest bidder. We’re his performing monkeys, parading our prowess on the auction block.”

  “He sells you? Who does he sell you to?” Ethan asked.

  “Don’t know. Don’t care. But he lies to them. Oh yes, he lies. Tells them he created us in a laboratory. Trained us. ‘Genetically engineered fighting machines,’ he says. Good for defense. Or offense. Or whatever you need.” The monkey twisted upside down inside his cage. “His customers want proven champions, he says. Winners command the highest prices. Losers . . . no one sees again. He calls it his fight club, as if it’s all a game. But we have no choice. We fight in the pit or we rot in our cages.”

  Monster shuddered. “That’s horrible.”

  “Precisely. But you can save us. You can free us!”

  The turtle howled, and the ostrich kicked the cage again.

  “Shh, if you want us to free you, we can’t be caught!” Sophie whisper-cried.

  The monkey snarled at the others. “Shut up, you idiots!” To Sophie, he said, “This lot is no brighter than animals. Can’t even talk. Their dreams were short and blurry. Bad distillation,” he said. “But I . . . I was made by the best.”

  Sophie rushed to the cage. “My parents? Are they here? Where are they?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care,” he said again, singsong.

  “How about two kids? Two girls, one older and one younger?” Ethan asked.

  “I said I don’t know,” the monkey growled. “Set us free.”

  Maybe her parents and the missing kids weren’t the only ones who needed rescuing. These creatures had been lured out of their dreams, promised something better, and then suddenly, they were here, stuck in a basement, without light, without hope, waiting to be sold. She imagined if it were Monster behind these bars . . .

  Ethan caught her arm and pulled her back, away from the bars of the cage and the monkey’s reach. “Sophie, tell me you aren’t thinking of letting them out.”

  The monkey drew his gums back in a smile that looked more like a hideous grimace. “Oh, yes, let us out. Pretty please, let us out!”

  “What will you do if I let you out?” Sophie asked.

  The monkey bared his needle-sharp teeth. “Rend your flesh from your body and suck the marrow from your bones.”

  “And that was the wrong answer,” Monster said. “Come on, Sophie.” He scuttled across the storage room to the steel door. Rising up on his tentacles, he
peered through the porthole window. He wasn’t tall enough. Ignoring the curses and pleas of the monkey, Sophie scooped up Monster, and they both pressed their faces against the window.

  Behind them, Ethan asked, “What do you see? Are they in there?”

  It was too streaked with dirt to tell. All she saw was an amber glow, as if a light was on inside. She shook her head. “We have to open it.” Twisting, she asked the monkey, “Do you know what’s in here?”

  But the monkey only whisper-howled, “Come back! Free me!”

  “Let’s look and get out of here,” Monster said, “before he brings the entire audience.”

  Together, Sophie and Ethan lifted the bar that locked the door.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ethan asked.

  She glanced back—no one had to come to check on the noises yet. They must have been used to the monsters howling, or else the music drowned them out. “No.”

  “Be ready to run,” Monster advised.

  The monsters were watching them. Hanging upside down by his feet, the monkey licked his lips. Setting the bar aside, Sophie cracked the door open. Nothing leaped out.

  Monster stuck his head inside. “Well, that’s unexpected.”

  Sophie opened the door wider. “Oh. Wow.”

  Ethan pressed closer. “‘Wow’ what?”

  Inside was a lavish, windowless bedroom. The walls were painted with images of castles, knights, and princesses, chased by dragons and gorgons and Cyclopes. The ceiling was blue sky with white clouds, a sun, a moon, and stars. One wall was lined with bookshelves stuffed with what looked like fantasy and horror novels. Three beds were piled high with pillows. A dreamcatcher hung from each headboard. Two of the beds were empty . . . but the other held Madison.

  She was awake, and her eyes widened as they came into the room. She was tucked in with blankets and teddy bears around her. She was also bound and gagged.

  ON THE BED, MADISON THRASHED, YANKING ON HER ROPES. She was trying to talk, her voice a muffled “Muph, murphle, mrph.” Sophie rushed to her side. Kneeling next to her, she pulled at the gag. It was too tight to slide off. She dug her fingernails into the knot. Squirming, Madison tried to break out of the ropes.

  “Hold still,” Sophie said.

  Madison didn’t listen. Stretching, she strained her arms.

  “You’re making the knots tighter,” Ethan said, working on the rope around her ankles. Staring at him, Madison quit struggling. The whites of her eyes were bright and reminded Sophie of a frightened horse. Her nostrils flared as she breathed fast through her nose.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of here.” Continuing to work on the knot, Sophie said, “Monster, guard the door, okay? Shout if you see anyone coming.” She saw Madison’s eyes land on Monster as she glimpsed him for the first time, and her eyes widened even farther. If they widened any more, Sophie thought, her eyeballs were going to fall out of their sockets. “He’s friendly.”

  “Usually,” Monster amended.

  At last, the cloth loosened. She pulled it quickly out of Madison’s mouth. It left marks on her cheeks from where it had been tied too tight, and there was dried spit in the corners of her mouth.

  “Get me out of here!” Madison cried. “There are monsters here!”

  “Yeah, noticed that,” Monster said. “Rather put out about it, actually. I liked being unique. Much of my identity, in fact, was wrapped up in my uniqueness.” He peered out the door. “This place is a serious blow to my self-image.”

  Madison gawked. “It . . . it talks?”

  “He likes to talk like a college professor when I’m upset or worried—thinks it’s distracting or something.” Sophie tried to sound casual, hoping that would keep Madison from freaking out. She set to work on the ropes around Madison’s wrists. “He’s just trying to calm you down.”

  “A talking mutant cat does not calm me down!” Madison tried to sit up and then failed, flopping back. “Look, it’s very nice that you’re saving me, if that’s what you’re really doing, but how did you find me? Why are you here? And what are you doing with him?” With each question, her voice grew more shrill, as if she was on the brink of losing it.

  The knots were tight. “He’s Monster. He’s friendly.”

  “Not that. Him. Ethan, star basketball player.”

  Ethan looked up from the rope around her ankles. “Long story. Is there another girl somewhere? Lucy Snyder?”

  Madison tried to jerk herself up to sitting. “Lucy!”

  “You know her?” Sophie asked. “Do you know where she is?”

  “They put us together at first,” Madison said. “But then they took her upstairs. Said she was crying too much and they had to separate us. That’s when he gagged me—said it was so I could practice not whining.”

  Ethan glanced at the ceiling. “Do you think she’s okay?”

  “Don’t stop!” Madison begged. “Untie me! She’s not okay; she’s scared. They told her to sleep, and she wouldn’t. Couldn’t. How can we sleep?”

  “Who’s ‘they’?” Ethan asked.

  Madison was shaking as Sophie wiggled the knots in the rope around her wrist. Her fingers knocked together. She’s terrified, Sophie thought. Of course she is. She wondered if Madison had been tied up the whole time. Did she know where she was? Or why? “Two men,” Madison answered Ethan. “One with bushy hair and scary eyes, and another with tons of muscles. Did you see them? Are they out there?”

  Sophie thought of the man with the muscles in the backyard. He must work for Mr. Nightmare. They’d been lucky he hadn’t seen them on the way in. “Have you seen my parents? I think they might be prisoners too.” It was hard to keep her voice even, but Sophie managed to choke out the words.

  Madison shook her head. “They weren’t in here. Maybe upstairs with Lucy?”

  “Okay, then upstairs next?” Ethan said to Sophie.

  “No, no, we have to get out!” Madison cried. “Didn’t you hear me? There are monsters here!” Jumping to her feet, she strode toward the door.

  Spreading his tentacles, Monster blocked the door. Grabbing a book as if it were a bat, Madison barreled forward. She raised the book as if she planned to hit Monster with it. Monster hissed, “You idiot, someone’s coming! Hide!”

  “Back in bed,” Ethan ordered. He seized Madison around the waist and hauled her away from the door. “Pretend you’re still tied.” He tossed the ropes at her. For a second, her eyes narrowed, and Sophie thought she was going to fight Ethan. Then she jumped into bed and stuffed the gag into her mouth. She bit it so it stayed, and she wrapped the ropes around her wrists.

  Sophie ducked behind a pile of pillows. Ethan hid beside the bookcase, while Monster scrambled to the top and tried to squeeze himself into as tight a ball as possible.

  At the door, the gray giraffe-man stuck his long neck inside and swung his head from the right to the left and back again. Sophie tried to pretend she was stone. Don’t see me, she thought at it. I’m not here. I’m no one. I’m nothing. She imagined she was at school, invisible to everyone even though she was right there.

  Peeking out from between the pillows, she watched the giraffe-man saunter inside. His long arms with the razorlike claws swung by his sides. He prodded Madison, who whimpered.

  Please, don’t see me.

  He was going to see her. She wasn’t hidden well.

  She scanned the room for something, anything, that could help. She met Monster’s eyes. He looked deliberately above her then back to her again. Tilting her head, she looked up—and saw a dreamcatcher dangling from the headboard.

  The gray creature plodded closer.

  As he reached the pillows, Monster leaped from the bookcase. At the same time, Sophie tossed the pillows off, jumped up, and grabbed the dreamcatcher. Madison screamed as Monster landed on the gray creature’s head. Springing forward, Sophie shoved the dreamcatcher against his gray skin, and Monster jumped away.

  “Hold it on him!” Monster yelled, keeping his dist
ance from the dreamcatcher.

  The gray creature flailed, swinging his long arms in a circle. One connected with Sophie’s stomach, and she was knocked back.

  Ethan shot himself at the creature’s knees. The creature wobbled and then tumbled over. Lunging forward again, Sophie pressed the dreamcatcher against his flat gray stomach.

  He didn’t cry out. He had no mouth.

  Thrashing beneath them, the gray creature began to fade. First, it looked as if the color was leeching out of his skin. Then, the floor was visible through his body. And then Sophie and Ethan thumped to the floor as the creature melted away entirely.

  Sitting back on her heels, Sophie held the dreamcatcher up. “It’s done. Got him.” She slid it into her pocket.

  Madison jumped up. “What happened? Where did it go? What did you do? What was that? Is it gone? Can it come back?” Her voice was a shrill squeak, like a squeezed mouse.

  Monster lifted his tentacles to point at her. “Explain later. Upstairs now.”

  He was right. The fight in the pit wasn’t going to last forever. They had to get upstairs before Mr. Nightmare finished and came for more monsters to sell. Sophie led the way, out the door, past the cages. The monkey with flame eyes called after them, “Wait! Let us out!” All three monsters roared, howled, and shook their cages.

  Sophie, Monster, Ethan, and Madison piled into the hallway. Slowing by the door to the pit, Sophie looked through the window. In the pit, the fight still raged. Goo hung from the links of the fence. The sand was speckled with red. The muscled monster limped, dragging one of its legs behind him, and the shark-faced monster circled around him. The five men and women were still shouting, as if they were watching the Super Bowl—none of them seemed to have heard the noises from the storage room over the sounds of the fight and the pounding music. There was still time, right? She could search upstairs. “Take Madison out of here,” she told Ethan as they hurried up the stairs toward the balcony. “I’ll search for my parents and Lucy.”