by Jason Segel
“That’s so cool,” Jack said, laughing. “Ollie’s my hero.”
“I bet,” Charlie said. “You two have a lot in common.” And for the first time in what seemed like days, Charlie felt himself smile.
—
By the time the boys arrived at the purple mansion, the clouds had broken open and rain was pouring down. As Charlie rode into the driveway, he noticed a tall figure hiding behind one of the trees in the yard.
“Boys!” it called out, so softly that Charlie barely heard it over the rain. The whisper was followed by a much louder giggle.
“Dabney?” Charlie asked, and the clown stepped into view. He was sopping wet.
“Why are you out in the yard?” Jack asked.
“Your father was home when I got here, and I couldn’t let him see me like this!” Dabney told him.
“Why?” Jack asked. “I thought everybody loved clowns.”
Dabney looked horrified. Charlie knew that if that had been true, his friend would have been out of a job. “Come on,” he said before Dabney had a chance to take offense. “Let’s get you back home to the Netherworld.”
Charlie had planned to create a diversion so that Dabney could sneak up the stairs to the tower. But when he opened the front door, he realized it wouldn’t be necessary. They could hear Andrew Laird on the phone in the kitchen.
“It’s after dark, and he doesn’t know we’re home,” Jack whispered. “He’s probably calling the cops.”
It wouldn’t have been the first time the police had been asked to search for Charlie. But Charlie had promised his dad there would not be a second time.
“Take Dabney up to the portal,” he told Jack. “I’ll talk to Dad and be with you in a minute.”
“If you’re still alive when he’s done with you,” Jack said merrily.
But Andrew Laird didn’t even notice when Charlie showed up in the kitchen. Charlie’s father was sitting at the kitchen table with his head resting on one hand. Whoever was on the other end of the phone had not called with good news.
Charlie cleared his throat, and his father jumped.
“The boys are back,” he told the person. It had to be Charlotte, Charlie thought. He saw his dad check his watch. “Yes, I suppose it is pretty late. I should probably go and get dinner started.” Andrew Laird listened for a moment and then handed the phone to Charlie. “She wants to talk to you.”
“Hi, Charlotte,” Charlie said.
The voice that answered barely sounded like his stepmother’s. “So what’s the latest?” Charlotte asked wearily.
Charlie stepped out of the kitchen so his father couldn’t hear and made his way to the parlor. “Bruce stole two bottles of tonic from the Tranquility Tonight shop in Orville Falls,” he told her. Avoiding the purple-upholstered antique furniture that Charlotte had inherited along with the house, he chose a seat on the sill of a window that looked out over the lawn. “He took one of the bottles to Medusa. The other one should be waiting here for you.”
“Great.” Charlie could hear the relief in Charlotte’s voice. But there was something else in it as well. “So nobody got hurt? Everyone is okay? I asked Meduso to look out for you in case something went wrong.”
“And he found me,” Charlie told her. “I’m fine. I just—” A flash of movement outside on the lawn caught his eye, and he stopped. Holding the phone between his ear and shoulder, Charlie pressed his forehead against the glass and cupped his hands around his eyes. The rain was still pouring down. Charlie searched the sodden lawn but saw nothing. “Never mind about me. How are you?”
“Great,” Charlotte said with fake cheer. Then she gave up trying. “No, that’s not true. I’ve been better.”
Charlie turned away from the window, the phone once again clutched in his hand. He could feel his heart sinking. “How did your meeting with the first publisher go?”
“He said he’d buy the book—as long as I make the Nightmare creatures look a little more cuddly.”
“What!” Charlie exclaimed. “But they look exactly how they’re supposed to look! That’s the whole point of the book!”
Charlotte didn’t need to be convinced. She and Charlie had both come face to face with the creatures that Charlotte had drawn. “I know, I know. But he thinks the book as I wrote it is way too creepy for kids.”
“Most people my age would choose creepy over cuddly any day of the week!” Charlie said. “Has the guy ever met any kids?”
Charlotte chuckled. “That’s a really good question. But try not to get too bent out of shape,” she told Charlie. “I’m not going to let some silly man in Manhattan tell me my book is no good. I’m meeting with another publisher in the morning. Then I’ll be back in the evening and we’ll find an antidote for the tonic.”
Charlie was relieved. Charlotte still seemed to think making an antidote was possible. “Okay,” he said. “We’re going to need it fast. I think I found something today that will help, but it’s getting pretty bad in Orville Falls. Almost everyone in town has been turned into a Walker. Paige’s aunt is one of them, and she’s not doing very well. Paige won’t leave her side until we come up with a cure.”
“Paige is still in Orville Falls?” Charlotte asked, sounding concerned.
“She refuses to come back,” Charlie told his stepmom.
“I can’t even imagine how terrified she must be,” Charlotte said. “Let’s try to get her home as soon as possible. But if we’re going to find an antidote tomorrow, I’m going to need you to do something for me tonight.”
Charlie had been looking forward to a nice dinner and a good sleep. He should have known better. “Sure. What is it?” he asked.
“You and Jack need to cross over to the Netherworld and talk to Medusa. Now that she has a bottle of the tonic, see if she can tell us what’s in it.”
“Okay,” he agreed over a giant yawn. It was going to be another long night.
Charlie turned back to the window, just in time to see a figure dart behind a tree a few feet from the house. For a moment, he wondered why on earth Dabney had gone outside. Then he realized that Dabney was probably back in the Netherworld already. Also, the figure outside wasn’t dressed in a white costume, and it was more kid-sized than Dabney-sized. Whoever it was had been spying on him through the window. The hairs on Charlie’s arms stood up, and a feeling of dread began to creep through his body. The figure had moved much too swiftly for a Walker. It was something else, and it was up to no good.
As Charlotte chattered away, Charlie stood up from the windowsill, trying to look as casual as possible. “Charlotte, I really gotta go,” he said, calmly interrupting his stepmother.
“Excuse me?” She seemed a bit surprised by his sudden rudeness. Then she figured it out. “Is something going on over there?” she asked.
“I just need to talk to Dad for a minute,” Charlie said. “I’ll call you back a little later.”
Charlie clicked off the phone and walked to the kitchen, where his father was reading a piece of paper and absentmindedly stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce. As a protector of the purple mansion, Charlie knew he should deal with the intruder himself, but the night seemed darker than usual, and its shadows felt sinister. Charlie had explored every last inch of the mansion’s yard, and yet it suddenly felt unfamiliar and dangerous. He had a bad feeling about the figure he’d spotted, and he couldn’t bring himself to go outside.
“Hey, Dad?” Charlie said.
“Hmmm?” Andrew Laird responded. He wasn’t really listening.
“There’s somebody hiding behind a tree in our yard.”
The news got his attention. “What?”
“It’s someone really short. I think it’s been watching us through the windows.”
“You’re kidding.” But Andrew Laird knew Charlie wasn’t. He dropped his spoon and slapped the sheet of paper down onto the counter beside the stove. Without bothering to grab an umbrella or even put on shoes, he charged outside, pausing briefly at the back door to whistl
e for Rufus. The dog came running, barking wildly.
Charlie flipped the light switch by the back door and headed for the parlor. He could see his father and Rufus patrolling the lawn, but the mysterious figure was long gone.
The pasta sauce was popping loudly as it began to boil on the stove. Charlie rushed back to the kitchen to turn down the heat. That was when he got a glimpse of the paper that Andrew Laird had left on the counter. Charlie didn’t even need to snoop. A single glance was all he needed to see that it was a letter from the bank. The Lairds had until the end of the month to pay the mortgage—or they’d lose the purple mansion.
Charlie didn’t say much at dinner. At first, Jack wouldn’t stop pestering him with questions about the stranger who’d been lurking in the yard. Charlie responded with as few words as possible, even grunting whenever he could get away with it. Eventually Jack got the hint and focused on twirling as much pasta as possible onto his fork. Only when the glob of noodles was as big as a tennis ball would he take a bite.
Andrew Laird was just as quiet as his sons. Charlie guessed his dad was worried about the same thing he was. Parents like to think they’re able to protect kids from bad news, Charlie thought miserably, but the kids always know when something’s wrong. In this case, even the cat knew. The mood at the table was so dark that Aggie was careful to keep her distance.
After dinner, Charlie and Jack cleaned up the dishes and said their goodnights to their dad. Then they headed upstairs to the tower. Usually Charlie would have waited until their father was asleep before he tried to open the portal. But tonight he had a pretty good feeling that Andrew Laird wouldn’t be in the mood to check up on his sons. And Charlie didn’t blame him.
—
It wasn’t until Charlie and Jack were inside the tower that Charlie remembered what had been nagging at him earlier that day.
“Dabney said Bruce went through the portal this afternoon, but neither of us was here to open it.”
Jack looked up at his brother in surprise. “Yeah, I forgot to tell you. It was still open when I came up here with Dabney.”
“Do you think we might have left it open last night?” Charlie asked.
“Nope,” Jack replied with a vigorous shake of his head. “You’d never forget to close it.”
Charlie stared at the wall in front of them. It looked perfectly ordinary, which meant that the portal was shut.
“Do you think it could have opened on its own?” Jack asked. “Or maybe one of us opened it by accident, like when you went to the Netherworld the first time?”
Charlie was about to say no, when the wall suddenly disappeared. The Netherworld was right where it should be—only, Charlie was certain that his brother hadn’t opened the portal.
“That wasn’t me!” Jack yelped, answering Charlie’s thoughts. “I swear!”
“I know,” Charlie said. He could see a bit of what was in store for them. The nightmare on the other side was very real, and it was his. Charlie stepped over the threshold and into the Cypress Creek bank.
His father and Charlotte were sitting in front of a desk inside a glass-walled office. They looked more like mannequins than real human beings, which told Charlie that they were nothing but figments—products of his own imagination. But the creature behind the desk was no figment. It was an enormous wolf dressed in a dapper blue suit. The way the wolf kept licking its lips, there was no doubt in Charlie’s mind that the beast planned to devour his parents. He’d been waiting for Charlie to show up and watch.
“I’m terribly sorry, but there’s absolutely nothing we can do,” the wolf was saying in a manner that indicated he wasn’t sorry at all. “You couldn’t pay your bills, so the old DeChant property belongs to the Amalgamated Bank of Cypress Creek now. If you haven’t vacated the premises by the end of the month, we will be forced to send in a team of movers to assist you. At your expense, of course. Incidentally, if you’d like to open a credit card to pay for that, just let me know and I’ll fetch you a form.”
Charlie could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He’d conjured his very worst nightmare. His parents had lost their house—and the bank was about to eat his family alive. It was the first time in ages that Charlie’s real fears had been strong enough to open the portal.
“What’s going on?” whispered Jack. “Charlie, is this your nightmare? Why are you dreaming about Charlotte and Dad? And why are you so scared of the bank?”
Charlie looked at his little brother. What would happen if they lost their home? Would they have to move to some terrible house? Even worse—would he and Jack end up sharing a room? And how would they manage to protect the portal?
The wolf caught sight of them watching from the bank’s lobby. He seemed particularly interested in Jack, whose back was turned to him. Charlie watched the Nightmare lift his snout and sniff at the air. Whatever he smelled seemed to make his mouth water. That was when Charlie realized that the wolf could tell the boys were there in the flesh.
“We need to get out of here now,” Charlie told his brother. He grabbed Jack by the arm and practically dragged him from the bank.
“But what about your nightmare?” Jack asked once they were outside on a street of the Netherworld’s Cypress Creek. “You can’t run away from it!”
“I know,” Charlie told him. “Don’t worry. I’ll come back later and face it.” He wasn’t scared for himself anymore. There was something about the way that wolf had looked at Jack that made Charlie cringe.
—
They headed for the Netherworld courthouse. When they got there, they found it deserted. There were no longer any protestors shouting and waving signs. Even the guards seemed to have abandoned it.
“Where is everyone?” Jack asked. Charlie knew the answer, but he didn’t say it out loud. The Nightmare creatures had all hit the road. The hole was growing, and it was only a matter of time before it managed to swallow the entire town. Before they’d fled, though, one of the Nightmares had taken the time to leave a message on the courthouse wall. In large red letters it said, BEWARE THE PROPHECY. FIND THE SMALL HUMAN. Charlie looked down at his brother. He’d almost forgotten about the Netherworld prophecy—that one day a child would come, a child with the strength to destroy all Nightmares.
“Hey, fellas!” someone called, and Charlie nearly jumped out of his skin. “What are you waiting for, you big lug? Take me over to see my friends, or I’m gonna start screaming my head off again.”
Charlie spotted a miserable-looking couple heading his way. The woman had purple bags beneath her eyes and patches of something nasty all over her sweater. Her empty stare was that of a figment. The man by her side was the dreamer. His eyeglasses were cracked, and his hair hadn’t been washed in days. He was toting a small creature dressed in bright red overalls with an embroidered Cookie Monster on the front.
“Say hello to my new parents,” Bruce said with a nasty chuckle. “Suckers don’t know what hit ’em.”
Apparently Bruce was already back to work as a changeling. The man he was with must have just had a baby. The dad was afraid the kid might be a monster, and Bruce got to play the part.
“Hi,” Charlie said, and the man flinched.
“You gonna be rude to my friends?” Bruce asked his temporary father. “Just for that, I’m gonna leave you a little something special in my diaper.”
“That’s okay,” Charlie assured the changeling. “We weren’t offended. Hey, listen, Bruce. There’s something I need to ask you. Dabney said that when you got to the mansion this afternoon, the portal was open.” It was bugging him more and more.
“Yep,” Bruce confirmed.
“Did you see anyone who might have opened it?”
“Nope,” said Bruce. “I just came right through and got back to work.”
“Wow, that fast?” Jack asked.
Bruce scratched at his five o’clock shadow. “Yeah, well, after I delivered the tonic to Medusa, the call went out for a changeling in Cypress Creek. No one else is taking job
s here anymore, but I s’pose this place has grown on me. I figured I oughta spend a little more time in town before it all goes down the hole.”
“What hole?” asked the man.
Bruce reached up and gave the dream dad’s chin a playful pinch. “You don’t need to worry about it, sweet cheeks,” Bruce answered. “In fact, way things are heading, you ain’t gonna have to be worried about anything at all pretty soon.”
“How long do you think we have before the hole destroys the town?” Charlie asked.
“Saw it this afternoon when I got here.” Bruce whistled. “Unless Medusa figures something out pretty fast, I figure this place’s got a day left—two at the most.”
“Where is Medusa?” Jack asked, looking around at the empty streets.
“Up at that cave of hers,” Bruce said. “Not sure she’s gonna be able to do much with the tonic I dropped off, though. She was pretty busy when I got there. Had one eye glued to that telescope the whole time.”
“Telescope?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah. She’s watching that lighthouse. It’s a real tourist destination these days. Seems to be pretty popular with the goblin crowd. They’ve been coming over the border by the hundreds. They ain’t done nothing yet, but something’s got them crawling out of the muck.”
Charlie shot his little brother a grave look. “We need to go see Medusa.”
“Be careful and stay outta sight,” Bruce warned them. “Everyone around here is hunting for some little human. They think he’s the one who’s been smuggling stuff to the other side.”
Charlie glanced at his brother again.
“They think it’s me, don’t they?” Jack asked. He actually looked worried.
“Of course not,” Charlie told him, hiding the truth with a forced smile.
—
Near the top of Medusa’s mountain, the trees thinned out, and there was a perfect view of the giant abyss below. Charlie kept his eye on the hole as they climbed, and he could see that it was still expanding in every direction. As tired as the sight made him, Charlie picked up his pace. Jack stayed right by his side.