The Girl Who Could Not Dream (20 page)

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.

O
N THE BED,
M
ADISON 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 distance 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.”

“I'm not leaving you here,” Ethan said.

“I am,” Madison said. “Where's the exit?”

They were nearly to the level of the balcony when the door to the pit opened below them. “Hey, what are you kids doing?” a woman shouted.

Above, from the kitchen, a door swung open, and the man with muscles came through. He was carrying a soda. He dropped it as soon as he saw them. “Stop right there!”

Sophie, Ethan, Madison, and Monster tumbled onto the balcony. They ran for the cellar doors and burst out onto the lawn. Sophie shouted, “Glitterhoof! Help! Get us out of here!”

Yelling, the muscle man emerged from the cellar doors after them.

In the time that they had been in the basement, the sun had set, and the sky had darkened to a deep gray blue. As the pegasus trotted out of the garage, he sparkled in the light of the street lamps. Slowing, Madison gasped.

“Don't stop,” Sophie ordered, propelling her forward by the elbow. “Glitterhoof, fly us home!”

“You are too many for flight,” he declared. Tossing his mane, he turned away.

“Glitterhoof, please! You can—”

He lifted his tail in the air—

—and out flowed a rainbow.

The rainbow arched into the night sky. As it hit the sky, it paled, nearly translucent—a moonbow. Sophie shot a look back and saw the muscle man had stopped. His mouth hanging open, he was staring at the sparkling pegasus and his night rainbow. Speeding up, Sophie propelled the others toward the moonbow.

“Climb it,” Glitterhoof ordered.

Sophie didn't hesitate. She and Monster herded the others onto the rainbow. It looked pale and thin, but as soon as Sophie touched it, she could see it—the colors as bright as in the dream she'd swallowed. They scrambled on, hands and feet sinking into the glittering colors. It felt cool and wet, like mist, but also soft, as if they were climbing onto a damp pillow. Last, Glitterhoof stepped onto the purple band.

The man unfroze and began running toward them again. “Stop!”

“Step lively, little smelly ones,” Glitterhoof said.

On hands and feet, they all scrambled up the rainbow. As they climbed, the colors dissolved behind them. Reaching them, the man leaped—and grasped at air. “Keep going!” Sophie shouted.

Clinging to one another, they climbed the night rainbow into the sky.