by Kerstin Gier
I swallowed. Quite right. There was nothing to laugh about.
Henry also bit his lip. “I was just so relieved that…,” he murmured. He turned to Grayson’s door for a moment and then looked at me. “Grayson is right. It’s not over yet.”
“But over for tonight at least?” I asked hopefully. “We can think again tomorrow. An idea will occur to us, we’ll make a plan, and…”
Henry shook his head. “It will never be over. At this moment, Arthur is out there meeting Anabel.”
“And heaven help us if those two are working together.” Grayson hit a bookshelf with his fist. “It’s not fair! I found out so much, and will it all have been for nothing?”
“No. No, it won’t.” Henry was suddenly looking very determined. A few steps took him to the door. “I’m going out there now to end it once and for all!”
“Wait!” I jumped up. “I’m coming with you. You have a plan, don’t you?”
Henry smiled at me. “More of an idea, and I’m not sure it will work. But you can’t come with me, Liv,” he added immediately. “Not this time. I can only do it without you if…”
His sentence hung in the air, unfinished, and then, without more warning, he pushed the door open and strode out into the corridor.
I sprinted straight after him, but the door closed right in front of my face and I collided with a sparkling energy field.
“I don’t believe it!” I stamped my foot. Henry was certainly on a learning curve. This time he had tricked me. Furiously, I turned to the other two. “Do you understand what this is all about? What’s he going to do that he says can only be done on his own? And why doesn’t he simply tell us what his idea is? Why this ego trip all of a sudden?”
Grayson just shook his head, baffled, and Mia said, “It’ll be something dangerous, anyway.”
Exactly. That’s why I was so annoyed.
“I hate it when he does this!” I tried reaching for the doorknob through the energy field, but I was flung a couple feet back. “This obsession with protecting me really gets me down. I’ve saved him at least as often as he’s saved me, and he ought to know me better by now. And I didn’t leave him alone in Mrs. Honeycutt’s sister’s dream … Oh!” Realization went through me like lightning, and all at once I knew what Henry was trying to do.
And yes, it was only an idea—but a brilliant one.
If we could somehow lure Arthur into Muriel’s dream and make sure he couldn’t get out again, he was bound to wake up while he was still in it. And next time he fell asleep and dreamed he would land right back there, just as I had done. Then, because he’d have no idea whose dream it was, he would be stuck—again, just as I had been stuck. He’d be visiting it night after night for the rest of his life. He would never again …
“Livvy?” Mia and Grayson were looking at me with a question in their eyes, and I tried to tell them, in as few words as possible, about Muriel’s dream. Neither of them looked as if they understood much of what I was saying, although when I had finished, Henry’s energy field was considerably weaker than before. But then it wouldn’t have stood up to my determination, anyway.
“I’m going out there now.” Without even looking at it, I made the energy field of glittering dust motes collapse. “I’m going after him. And I want you to keep watch and look out for Florence—only to be on the safe side.”
Mia had risen to her feet, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Oh, sure, we’ll look after the old folk, the women, and the children, while you and Henry save the world—you’re in the wrong movie, big sister! If you think I’m going to sit around all night biting my nails and waiting for you, you have another think coming.”
“Take her with you,” said Grayson too. “She’s really good. The mere way she imagines that boy…” He pointed to a student sitting at the back of the library, alternately chewing his pencil and scribbling something in an exercise book. Unless I was much mistaken, it was Gil Walker. Like the other visitors to the library with walk-on parts in this dream, he hadn’t noticed any of what had gone on. “She kitted him out with amazing authenticity, and even though she was sitting with her back to him, he put his pencil up his nostril and picked his nose.…”
“At least one person appreciates my skills.” Mia joined me at the door and linked arms with me. “Come on, Livvy, pull yourself together! We’re going to help Henry! We’re going to save the world!”
“But we don’t know…” I sighed. “All right. But you must promise me, whatever you do, don’t go into Muriel’s wool shop.”
“It doesn’t sound all that interesting. I promise.” Mia raised her free hand as if swearing an oath.
“And then I’ll wake up,” said Grayson.
I was on the point of running back to give him a hug, but instead I just said, “I’m glad you’re not going to be my murderer.”
He smiled. “Me too,” he said. “I’d never have dared to have my hair cut again.”
All was quiet out in the corridor, which stretched ahead in the twilight to infinity, door beside door beside door, and every time it branched off, it led to another endless corridor, crisscrossed in its own turn by countless other corridors, branching off into more endless corridors.… All of a sudden our prospects of tracking Arthur down anywhere here seemed hopeless. When he’d said he had a date with Anabel, had he meant a real meeting, or was he only going to lie in wait for her pretending to be the demon again? He’d probably often done that before; he must have enjoyed whispering things to her in his demonic voice, making winged shapes appear on the walls, and slowly but surely driving her back into her delusions.
Where were we to start searching? At Anabel’s Hello Kitty door? Where had Henry gone in looking for the two of them?
At that moment the light in the corridor turned very bright, and at almost the same time we heard the echo of an explosion some way off. Or at least, that was what it sounded like. We even felt the blast.
“It came from over there.” Mia pointed down the corridor to where it turned just after Mrs. Cook’s door, and without any more discussion, we set off. Mia had turned into a bat and shot around the corner fast as an arrow.
In my jaguar shape, I could hardly keep up with her.
Another flash of light showed us the way, and it looked as if it were leading us straight into the corridor with Mrs. Honeycutt’s door in it. We heard voices from that direction, and when we were nearly there, we could also hear Arthur’s mocking laughter.
I slowed down before reaching the last turn and peered cautiously around the corner. Mia was fluttering somewhere overhead.
Arthur, with his hair very untidy, was standing in the middle of the corridor, right in front of Mrs. Honeycutt’s door. There was no sign of Henry. But obviously he was somewhere here, because Arthur, his arms outspread, was turning on his own axis, looking for him. “Henry!” he called. “What’s the idea?” His face and the palms of his hands looked sooty, as if he’d just been fighting his way out of a burning house. “Stop it. Are we going to spend all night showing each other how good at this we are? Or is that why you lured me here?” He pointed to Mrs. Honeycutt’s door. “Is there something in your dream of private meetings that you think might somehow help you?”
Of course—Arthur knew we had been meeting here. He’d probably observed us in secret all this time. And it must have been Arthur who recently created that sinister darkness to haunt me.
My heart sank. Was he really still a step ahead of us?
“Lured you here?” said Henry sarcastically. He had materialized out of nowhere and was leaning back against Mrs. Honeycutt’s door. Unlike Arthur, he didn’t look at all the worse for wear. “I’d say I forced you to come here, wouldn’t you?”
Arthur shrugged. “Whatever you like. Yes, yes, you’re really good, Henry. Go on, blow everything here sky-high if that’s what you need for your ego trip. But that doesn’t alter the outcome as a whole.” He stared at Henry with narrowed eyes. “Why don’t you understand? If what I c
an do to Liv isn’t enough for you, I’ll sort someone else out next time. Your little sister, for inst—”
But in the middle of what he was saying, he was catapulted backward by an invisible pressure wave and crashed into the wall. He stared furiously at Henry, who hadn’t so much as lifted a finger. Because it hadn’t been Henry but me who set the pressure wave going. I moved into the light, growling softly. A small smile passed over Henry’s face.
Rolling his eyes, Arthur scrambled up. “Of course,” he said. “I might have known it. Do you two know something? You bore me to death! I’m off!”
“Oh yes? Off to where?” asked Henry.
Arthur laughed, but it didn’t sound like genuine amusement. “Don’t fool yourself that you can really hold me up with your stupid energy fields! I can always come awake. Any time I like!”
“But then you’ll never know why I wanted you exactly here,” said Henry. “Because it’s not about that door, but this one.” He pointed to Muriel’s wool shop opposite, and for a moment I held my breath. A bat was fluttering around the sign above the door and ended up hanging head down from the lintel.
“Besides,” added Henry, “if you wake now, you’ll miss your date with Anabel.”
Arthur shrugged again. “So? Once and for all, unlike you two I have all the time in the world. Ever since that business with the snake, Anabel thinks the demon has forgiven me. So we’re fighting on the same side. If I can’t convince Anabel to tell me about your diabolical tricks with the secrets of dreams today, tomorrow will do. Or the day after tomorrow. Or after Liv’s funeral. A few more days won’t bother me one way or another.”
Of course every word he said was true, and unfortunately Henry and I knew it ourselves. I was sitting beside Henry, leaning my jaguar head on his thigh. Somehow I couldn’t bring myself to change back. Absentmindedly, Henry stroked my furry ears.
“Did Anabel put the snake in your locker?” he asked.
Arthur laughed, and this time he did sound genuinely amused. “No, idiot, the demon had to do it himself.” A black feather floated to the floor right in front of him. “So that Anabel would see how vast his power is in the real world.” More feathers followed, swirling around his head like a flock of tiny birds.
“You put the snake in the locker yourself?” said Henry.
Arthur nodded. “My father is friends with a hedge fund manager who’s always showing off about his terrariums and the snakes he breeds. That gave me the idea. Is there a more demonic creature than a snake? I knew it would make everyone’s hair stand on end. So I programmed the hedge fund guy to give me one of his snakes, preferably a venomous one so that it would all look very dramatic.” He snorted. “Not that I planned for the idiot to choose the most venomous snake of all. It nearly did for me.” He looked at his hand, which in waking life was still bandaged. “Never mind—it did what it was meant to do. Now, tell me what’s so special about that yellow door. Or don’t if you’d rather not. It makes no difference.”
For a while he and Henry stared into each other’s eyes in silence.
“The door,” Henry finally began, “is very unusual. But I’m afraid you’ll never find out in what way. Because I’ve just changed my mind.”
“How will I ever survive?” said Arthur sarcastically. “Those crochet patterns look so wildly exciting.”
“He’s not entirely wrong about the door,” said a sugar-sweet voice. Arthur’s eyebrows rose as Anabel materialized beside him, like an evil blond genie coming out of its bottle. She smiled at Arthur. “Sorry I’m a little late, darling, but his energy fields”—she pointed to Henry—“held me up a bit.”
Damn it, how did Anabel know about Muriel’s door? And why did she have to turn up now and tell Arthur? We’d been so close to tricking him. I’d seen just how curious he was already feeling, even if he’d tried not to show it.
“Now what?” I whispered to Henry. I’d returned to human form without noticing it myself. Henry didn’t reply. He was grinding his teeth.
Pleased, Arthur smiled at his supporter, and at the sight of her, my heart sank even further. Anabel had placed herself at Arthur’s side like a queen next to her king.
“You’ve arrived at just the right moment, Bella,” said Arthur.
“So she has!” I took a step toward her. “If you’d come a little earlier, you’d have heard Arthur admit to putting the snake in his locker himself,” I said urgently. “He’s been fooling you the whole time, Anabel! Did you listen to the message Grayson left for you? And did you find the notebook that came through your real-life door? Because if so, you’d know that—”
Anabel cut me short with a wave of her hand—so effectively that I literally couldn’t say another word. It was as if an invisible hand were holding my mouth shut.
Arthur grinned. “You must show me that trick!”
“Later,” said Anabel. She turned to Henry, who so far hadn’t moved. “Open the door,” she told him coolly.
“No, I will not,” said Henry. But all the same, as if moved by invisible forces, he slid over the floor until he stopped in front of Muriel’s door. The bat was flapping its wings restlessly, and now I was immobilized by not just one hand but many, holding me back against the wall and keeping me there. All I could do was breathe in and out, and watch Anabel go over to Henry and destroy our last hope. If she revealed the secret of Muriel’s dream to Arthur now, we’d never be able to put our plan into practice.
“Open the door,” she repeated quietly.
Henry shook his head.
Arthur came closer. “What’s behind it?” he asked, sounding positively avid to know.
“You’ll see in a minute.” Anabel turned the palm of her hand to Henry. The bat began to dive in the air, but Anabel just snapped her fingers and it flew in a circle. And then another.
“You are not authorized to use this door, Henry,” said Anabel in the dramatic tone of voice she always used for anything to do with the demon. “Only the Lord of Shadows and Darkness may do that.”
As if in slow motion, Henry raised his hand and pressed down the handle of the door. I tried to scream, but no sound came out. The bat was still caught in its circular flight, squeaking furiously.
When the door swung open, Arthur let out a cry of triumph. “You’re the best of us all, Anabel. I bow to you! To think you can even pull the strings of the great Henry Harper like a puppet’s … We’ll be able to learn a lot from each other.”
“So we will.” I couldn’t see her face, because her back was turned to me, but I was sure that Anabel was smiling. No wonder. As long as she had Henry under control, she and Arthur could walk in and out of Muriel’s dream whenever they liked. I tried to free myself one last time and then gave up.
Anabel made an inviting gesture. “After you,” she said to Arthur.
He turned to me again. “I hope you’ll console Henry a bit tomorrow. He hates to be a loser. And maybe you’d like to discuss the arrangements for your funeral. For instance, Henry could play something on his guitar.…”
He gloated over my helplessly wide eyes for a moment longer, then took a self-confident step through the doorway and disappeared into Muriel’s dream.
At lightning speed, Anabel closed the door behind him and clung to the handle. “Go on!” she shouted at Henry. “Seal it!”
Only now did I realize that the invisible hands pinning me to the wall had also gone away. In spite of that, it was some time before I could move. I was staring incredulously at Anabel. The air around her had begun to flicker, and Henry turned to me with a broad smile on his face.
“She—she lured Arthur into the trap,” I stammered.
“So she did.” Henry put a hand on Anabel’s shoulder. “You were simply amazing, Anabel,” he said. “I thought we’d lost you to Arthur until almost the last minute.”
Anabel was still clinging to the handle. “Are you sure the energy field will hold?” she asked. “It didn’t keep me away for long.”
“I don’t think any ene
rgy field will be necessary,” said Henry. “If everything works the way it should, Arthur won’t be able to see the door from inside without a personal item belonging to the lady whose dream he is in. But even if he can, I guess he’d think it beneath his dignity to rattle the handle. I bet you anything he’ll prefer to wake up at once.”
Anabel let go of the door handle and leaned over with her hands on her knees, as if she had been out for a long run. She was breathing heavily, and at that moment her usually doll-like face, with its perfectly regular features, looked positively human. It showed one emotion above all: relief. “I hope you’re right,” she said to Henry. “But for safety’s sake, we ought to stand guard here all night.”
I slowly went closer to her. “Anabel…” I was trying to find the right words. “You … were you on our side all along?”
She searched the corridor with her eyes before turning them on me, as if it took her some time to get control of herself, and then slowly shook her head. “Not the whole time. Yes, I listened to Grayson’s message, and the notebook came through the door, but…” She hesitated. “But most of all, I heard what Arthur said just now. What he said about me. And how he’d deceived me.” She pointed at the opposite wall. “I was up there—you were staring at me all the time, but your eyes were full of tears.”
The letter box. Of course. Mia was right: I really did need to work on my powers of perception.
Where was my little sister, anyway? I turned around, looking for her.
The bat was still flying in circles overhead.
“I think I’d better be going.” Anabel looked at the floor. “I’ve a feeling there are a few urgent things for me to put right. Someone who’s been dreaming for a little too long.”
I thought of Senator Tod and nodded.
“Off you go, then,” said Henry. “Arthur’s never going to set foot in this corridor again.”
Anabel swallowed. “Maybe I won’t either. Or not for a while, anyway. Not until…” She cleared her throat. “Not until I’ve straightened myself out properly.”