The Girl Who Could Not Dream

  Sophie screamed.

  A woman’s face loomed over her. It was planted on top of the body of a massive brown spider. Her eight legs straddled Sophie. Her abdomen was the size of Sophie. Her face was as lovely as a model’s, framed by lush black curls that cascaded down to her hairy arachnid shoulders. Her makeup was perfect, with bronze skin, deep pink lips, contoured cheekbones, and accented eyes. She frowned, a perfect upside-down rainbow frown. “You aren’t Eugene.”

  “Hi. I’m Sophie. I borrowed his dream.”

  The spider woman lowered her face—all eight legs bending to bring her closer. Her breath smelled like overripe peaches. “Ahh, so this is a dream. That explains my shape. And you say you borrowed his dream . . . You must be a friend of his.”

  “No!” Immediately Sophie worried that the answer should have been yes.

  “No?” The spider woman straightened her legs, and Sophie could see her entire spider body. She stepped backwards, allowing Sophie to sit up. “Why would he give you his dream?”

  “I, uh, took it.” In a burst, she told the spider woman about how Mr. Nightmare had kidnapped her parents and Madison and Lucy and how he now had Ethan as well, and Sophie was trapped in a bathroom . . . She petered out of words as the woman stared at her.

  “So, he’s taken more children.”

  “More? He’s done this before?”

  “He’s done this to me. My child! Stolen away and fed a diet of lies.” The spider woman skittered around the kitchen, her feet clicking on the floor. The kitchen was filled with shadows. A stove lurked in one corner. Half a sink was visible beneath a cloudy window. Crayon drawings were stuck to the fridge, the proud work of some small child, as well as photos, but they were blurry. Sophie wondered if she’d distilled the dream correctly. At least the spider woman was here, even if the room wasn’t complete.

  “He’s doing it again,” Sophie said. “Will you help me stop him?” As she asked, she wondered if it was a mistake to invite this spider woman out into the real world. Then she pushed her doubt down. If she believed this creature would help, then maybe she would. Help us, she thought as hard as she could.

  And then she woke.

  In the bathroom, she lay on the bathmat. Monster was around her. And the spider woman again straddled her, squeezed between the bathtub and the sink. Sophie tried to get her mind to stop spinning. Her head hurt even worse than after she’d dreamed up the rabbits. Squeezing her head with her hands, she concentrated on breathing evenly. She was here. Awake. Alive. Unhurt. Mostly unhurt.

  “You brought a friend,” Monster whispered in her ear.

  “I hope so,” Sophie whispered back.

  UNDERNEATH THE SPIDER’S ABDOMEN, Sophie blinked hard several times, trying to clear the last of the fuzziness left over from the dream. The throbbing in her head had dulled to a faint ache. As it faded away, she pressed her ear against the bathroom door. There was still someone in the kitchen. She heard the squeaking of a chair, the shutting of a cabinet, the whoosh of the sink—one person, she thought. She hoped it was Mr. Nightmare.

  Reaching up, she unlocked the door and twisted the knob. The spider woman lifted one leg and pushed the door open. She then shuffled out, carefully placing the tips of her eight legs silently on the floor.

  “Creepy,” Monster noted.

  Clustering by the door, the rabbits crouched, ready. Sophie laid her hand on the pink rabbit’s back. “Wait until he sees the spider, then we’ll go out.”

  In the kitchen, a glass shattered on the floor, and a man screamed.

  “I’m thinking he saw her,” Monster said. He darted out of the bathroom, and Sophie tiptoed behind him. From the hallway, she could see half the kitchen: the stove, the sink, and part of the table. It had a bowl with a spoon in it. He’d been eating.

  “Aw, don’t look so surprised, Eugene,” the spider lady said. “You had to know I’d find you. Why else dream about me?”

  Mr. Nightmare’s voice shook. “You aren’t her.”

  “I am close enough.”

  Dropping to hands and knees, Sophie peeked around the corner into the kitchen—the door to the basement was directly behind Mr. Nightmare. The back door to the yard was behind the spider woman.

  Now the spider’s many legs clicked on the kitchen floor. “I suppose I have you to thank for my appearance. Is this how you truly see me, Eugene?”

  “It is what you are.”

  “Am I poisonous?” the spider lady asked.

  “Just your words.” He shuffled backwards, as if trying to inch away, and hit the sink counter.

  “Interesting,” she said. “Do I feature in all your dreams?”

  His eyes were fixed on the spider woman. “Always.”

  “Then, in a way, I have already caught you. And this is only a formality.” With a cry, the spider launched herself forward. Mr. Nightmare grabbed a skillet from the stove and hurled it at her head. It hit the side of her face, and she reared back.

  “Inside, now!” Mr. Nightmare shouted.

  The back door banged open, and the muscle man charged through and rammed into the off-balance spider lady. She crashed into the wall. A clock fell from the wall and smashed onto the floor.

  “She needs help,” Sophie said.

  Brushing past her, the rabbits charged into the kitchen. They swarmed over the muscle man. Sophie stepped forward to follow, and Monster caught her leg with his tentacles. “How about a fire extinguisher?” He pointed beside the stove.

  She nodded. If she ran fast enough, she could make it. He’d see her, but— Before she could complete the thought, Monster shot across the kitchen, keeping low, and leaped onto the counter. He plucked the fire extinguisher off the wall and aimed it at the muscle man.

  He fired, and white foam sprayed out of the extinguisher and into the man’s face. The man roared, and Sophie ran toward him. She pulled a dreamcatcher out of her pocket and pressed it against his back. The rabbits hopped away. Wiping foam from his face, the man spun and knocked Sophie sideways into a chair. She dropped the dreamcatcher, and it skittered across the linoleum.

  The pink rabbit shot across the floor, picked up the dreamcatcher in his mouth, and ran toward the muscle man. He leaped onto his foot and pressed the dreamcatcher to his ankles.

  Seizing the moment of distraction, the spider woman scurried toward Mr. Nightmare and caught him in her front legs. Mr. Nightmare screamed, and the muscle man turned to help him—then faded away, along with the pink rabbit.

  Web shot out from the base of the spider’s abdomen. Quickly, she began wrapping Mr. Nightmare in the threads, flopping him over as she wound the strands around his torso.

  “Don’t do this, Jasmine,” Mr. Nightmare pleaded with her. “You and me, we could be a formidable team, especially the way you are now. If you were to be my partner and help me showcase the monsters, prices would skyrocket. We’d be rich, powerful—everything you’ve ever wanted would be ours.”

  “I want my child,” the spider woman said. “I want the moments I lost—the morning breakfasts, the walks to the school bus, the afternoons of homework, the bedtime books, the weekend cuddles, the laughter, the tears . . .”

  Sophie wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but she did know this was her chance. She stepped closer to Mr. Nightmare and the spider woman. “And I want my parents back. Where are they? And where are Ethan and Madison?”

  Mr. Nightmare turned his head to face her. His arms were secured to his sides with threads, and he couldn’t move his body, but he seemed suddenly more confident, now that he saw Sophie. “Ahhh . . . Betty! I assume I have you to thank for dreaming my Jasmine to life?”

  “Where are my parents and the other kids?” Sophie asked.

  He smirked. “Hidden, where you won’t find them.”

  “Tell me, or I’ll ask her to bite you,” Sophie threatened.

  The spider loomed over him. She wore a smile on her beautiful face. “He’s not very tasty, but I do owe you. I’d be happy to oblige.”
br />   Mr. Nightmare matched her smile. “She plans to bite me anyway. She always does. I’ve had this dream before, and I can handle a few bites. So no, I don’t think I’m going to tell you.”

  Monster began to growl, and the spider lady hissed. Spittle rained on Mr. Nightmare’s face. He couldn’t wipe it away, and he didn’t flinch.

  “You’ll tell me or—” Sophie began.

  “Or what? You can’t keep me wrapped up forever, and she won’t kill me,” he said. The woman flopped him onto his stomach and then his back again as she continued winding him in thread. “You dreamed her up, which means she’s your creation, and you don’t have the heart for killing.”

  The spider woman stroked his cheek with one foot. “Do you really want to test that theory? I have my own free will.”

  His eyes were fixed on Sophie’s. “You haven’t won. You won’t find them without my help, and I won’t help you unless you send this atrocity back into a dream and free me.”

  Was it true? She refused to believe it.

  “You have no other choice,” Mr. Nightmare said.

  “Actually, I do.” Switching directions, she strode across the kitchen to the phone. She picked it up, and before she could reconsider, she dialed 911. “Hi. The kids you’re looking for, the ones who went missing today, are at 263 Windsor Street, Eastfield.” She hung up without answering any questions and then stared at the phone, not quite believing she’d done it. As the phone began to ring, she backed away. They’d come now, and then so would the Watchmen, but at least he would never kidnap anyone again. They’d stopped him; they’d won, almost. Squaring her shoulders, she marched past Mr. Nightmare to the basement door. She paused only to pick up the dreamcatcher that held the muscle man and the pink rabbit.

  “Come back!” Mr. Nightmare yelled.

  The spider lady wrapped his mouth in threads as Sophie and Monster hurried downstairs.

  MONSTER CRACKED THE DOOR TO THE STORAGE room open and peered through. He drew back. “Ooh, not good. Looks like Mr. Nightmare had your new friend very busy.”

  “Do you see Mom and Dad? Or the others?”

  He checked again. “I don’t see your parents. But Ethan and Madison are in the second cage on the left.”

  Sophie peeked inside and stifled a gasp. The storage room was full of monsters. Every kind of monster: one with a skull for a face, one lion man, the three red lizards, a huge snake, an oozy ball of goo . . . She spotted Ethan and Madison, huddled in the back corner of one of the cages. The other cages were empty, and the monsters swung, climbed, and oozed around the room. The dreamcatchers Ethan and Madison had carried were strewn on the floor outside the cage, beyond their reach, and the monsters avoided them. It looked as if Ethan and Madison had tried to defend themselves, and the monsters had ripped away the dreamcatchers and tossed them on the floor. “If I could get those dreamcatchers back to them . . .”

  The rabbits hopped toward the door.

  Blocking them, Sophie dropped to her knees. “You saw what happened to the pink bunny. You can’t touch the dreamcatchers. Let me do it.”

  “Sophie, you can’t go in there. You’ll be eaten like a cupcake.” Monster clung to her, his claws digging into her jeans and his tentacles wrapped around her legs. “You aren’t a cupcake.”

  “It’s my fault they’re here. If we hadn’t come back—”

  “He would have recaptured them. How about we search for your parents and let the police free Ethan and Madison?”

  “The police won’t know what to do.” Plus she at least had the element of surprise. She could jump in there, a dreamcatcher in each hand . . . And then they’d eat her.

  “Let me do it,” Monster said, releasing her. “I’m like them. They’ll think I belong.”

  “You can’t touch the dreamcatchers either.”

  “I won’t,” he said, his voice calm and reasonable. “I’ll pick the lock on the cage, and then Ethan and Madison can get the dreamcatchers themselves.”

  She wanted to say no, but he was right. If she went in there, they’d notice her instantly and probably tear her to pieces, but Monster could blend in. “Think you can pretend to be mean?”

  “I am mean. I don’t know why people keep thinking otherwise.”

  “Be careful.”

  Monster rose onto his tentacles as if they were legs, and he pecked her on the cheek. “In case things go disastrously wrong and I’m torn to shreds, I want you to know that you’re the best friend a monster could ever have, and I count myself lucky to have had the chance to live beyond a moment of imagination and become not just a dream, but also a memory.”

  She felt a lump in her throat. “Wait. Don’t go. We’ll find another way.”

  “And waste that lovely speech? Don’t be silly.” Before she could reply, Monster scooted through the door. She pressed herself against the wall again, listening, afraid to watch because they’d see her. She heard Monster:

  “Hey, guys. I’m new. Can I eat the humans?”

  Growls. Barks. Hisses.

  She didn’t hear what else he said. Pressing her cheek against the door, she strained to hear. For a very long few seconds, everything was quiet and calm.

  And then screams, shrieks, and howls split the air.

  “Go! Help him!” Sophie shouted at the rabbits.

  They didn’t hesitate. As she threw open the door, the rabbits charged in. She took a step to follow, and Monster bounded through. Close on his heels was a slobbering mess of ooze, covered with hundreds of eyes. Monster ran for the stairs.

  Behind him, the ooze monster left a path of gunk. Goo stuck to the steps and smeared on the walls. Sophie slapped a dreamcatcher on the creature as it ran past. The dreamcatcher stuck to its hide, and the monster faded before it could catch Monster.

  Sophie stared at the gooey dreamcatcher. The threads had absorbed the monster itself, but leftover ooze still clung to the steps and the wall, where the monster had smeared its slime.

  “Brilliant,” Monster said.

  Sophie pulled dreamcatchers out of her pockets and dumped them in the ooze. She then opened her backpack and dropped those dreamcatchers in the goo too. As soon as they were saturated, she scooped them up, ignoring the way the ooze stuck to her own skin. As the monsters came through the door, snarling and hissing and spitting, she threw the dreamcatchers at them, one for each. The dreamcatchers stuck to their fur and their hides. She backed up the stairs as they came after her—and one after another, they vanished.

  She reached the top of the stairs, rubbed the last dreamcatcher in the goo from her shirt, and waited—ready. But no more monsters followed. Crouched on the top step, she listened. She didn’t hear anything. No hisses, no snarls, no footsteps, no claws on the cement.

  “Is that all of them?” Sophie asked.

  “Maybe?” Monster said.

  Cautiously, they crept back down the stairs.

  Below, she heard the door creak open. She halted and crouched, the last dreamcatcher ready. Ooze congealed on her hand and dripped down her wrist. Beside her, Monster bared his teeth.

  And then Ethan and Madison ran up the stairs, followed by a herd of rabbits.

  Monster threw his tentacles around Ethan’s leg in a hug, and Sophie, without thinking about it, hugged Madison. As soon as she realized what she was doing, she jumped back. “Are you guys okay?” Sophie asked.

  “The ridiculous rabbits rescued us,” Madison said.

  “After Monster unlocked the cage, the monsters went nuts,” Ethan said. “But the rabbits fought them so we could get the dreamcatchers. We turned a bunch of the monsters into dreams, and it looks like you took care of the rest. Sophie, do you—”

  “Are my parents down there?” Sophie interrupted.

  At the same time, Madison asked, “Where’s Mr. Nightmare?”

  “Trapped by a giant spider,” Sophie said as she hurried downstairs. Her parents could be in a cage that Madison and Ethan couldn’t see, or in another extra room.

  “A what?
” Madison followed her down.

  Sophie ran through the storage room, looking in cage after cage. There were no other rooms, except for the little bedroom with the painted walls. Maybe they’d been put there after Madison left? She flung open the steel door to the bedroom. It was empty.

  MADISON MARCHED UP THE STAIRS TO THE KITCHEN. “Are all the monsters gone?”

  “I think so.” Pausing on a step, Sophie stuffed the used dreamcatchers into her backpack. She wouldn’t be able to use them again—they were full—but she didn’t want to leave them for anyone to find, and she couldn’t bring herself to destroy dreams, even nightmares.

  Madison opened the door at the top of the stairs, stuck her head into the kitchen, and screamed. She slammed the door. “Spider. Big spider.”

  “She’s on our side,” Sophie said. “I told you.”

  “Right. You said that. Sort of. More details next time, okay?” Madison cautiously opened the door again, and they all crowded into the kitchen.

  Mr. Nightmare lay on the kitchen floor, swathed in spiderweb.

  “Whoa,” Ethan said.

  “Friends of his?” The spider woman’s feet skittered over the floor. Her body bobbed as she moved, and her spinner had a trail of thread hanging from it.

  “Friends of mine,” Sophie said quickly, and then wondered if that was true. It can’t be, she thought. Given what they knew about her, she’d be lucky if they considered her the same species.

  “Ah, very well, then.” The spider backed away, allowing them to come up. Madison hugged the cabinets, her eyes glued to the spider. She was fingering one of the remaining dreamcatchers.

  Sophie turned to Madison and Ethan. “I’m going to free Christina and ask if she knows where my parents are. She’s been here the longest. She might know more about the house.” She skirted the tied-up Mr. Nightmare. “Can one of you watch for the police and make sure they know he’s the kidnapper, not a victim?”

  Ethan caught her arm. “Wait, you called the police?”

  “Yes, before I found you.” She tried to sound as if it wasn’t a big deal, as if it didn’t make her feel like she was being wrapped in threads like Mr. Nightmare.