by L. E. Fred
“Melissa,” I said soft enough for only her to hear. For a second her eyes looked at me, but then she looked straight ahead.
“Name of reservation?” she asked in a flat tone. I stared back at her, not comprehending the reality of her being a soul.
“Come on, Devon,” Mitch muttered. “We’ll save her when our plan works.”
“Melissa, wake up!” I said a little louder than I intended. “Your family misses you.” She looked at me again.
“No reservations?” she asked. “No problem. There will be a fee, but I can give you a room with two double beds for—”
“Melissa!” I reached out and grabbed her arm. At once, the ball of light at my shoulder became brighter, and Melissa’s eyes focused on me. They grew wide with fear, and I realized she was seeing Nightmare me.
“No, don’t be scared,” I told her. “I’m Devon!”
“D-Devon?” Melissa blinked a couple of times. Her eyes still looked glassy, but I could tell she was becoming more aware of herself. I turned her lucid.
“I believe you two have special reservations.” I felt a talon-like hand grab my shoulder. I spun around and saw Serpentine had finally caught up with us. I looked to Mitch and saw Gruff had him in a headlock. The sword swung uselessly at his side. We were completely defenseless.
The first thought on my mind was that they didn’t spot Melissa. I was sure she was no longer a soul, but I didn’t want anyone else to find out. She wouldn’t have to check any more Nightmares in, so I hoped I could save her once I got out of my predicament.
If I got out of my predicament, that is.
Chapter 9
Trapped
“This boy’s got fight in him, I’ll give him that.” Gruff merely chuckled as Mitch tried elbowing, kicking, and even biting him. For all the good it did, he could’ve been tickling the big man. Serpentine cuffed my hands behind my back. I didn’t resist; what good was I without my sword? I didn’t feel bad for giving it to Mitch, though. At least it was with someone who could use it — when he wasn’t preoccupied by a giant goat-man, of course.
“Just wait until you see what Leona has in store for you,” Serpentine muttered in my ear, causing an Arctic chill to descend down my spine. “I hope she lets me attack first. I have some unfinished business with you, little boy.”
“Where’s Kyle?” I asked angrily. Although I was scared, I was more concerned about my brother. He volunteered to help us, even though he could escape any time he wanted. He even came up with the plan to save Tiff. I ruined it all with my stupid actions in the lobby.
“Oh you’ll see soon enough.” Serpentine laughed evilly. “You will be able to die together, side by side.”
As Serpentine led me away, I stole a glance back at Melissa. She was still behind the lobby desk, staring at Gruff and Serpentine in horror. She caught my eye, and I tried my best to warn her not to follow. I think she understood, because she didn’t come chasing after me. Either that or she was too scared to move. I really didn’t blame her.
****
The two creeps led us past the lobby and through a narrower corridor. Nightmares everywhere turned to get good looks at us. Most of them chuckled and muttered things about us having too much fun. Some of them were confused as to why two of their own were being escorted out of the area. One larger-looking Nightmare and our friend from the line stepped in front of Gruff and Serpentine.
“What seems to be the problem?” the other Nightmare asked in the deepest voice I’ve ever heard. He sounded as if his voice came from the darkest part of the universe. His voice made me want to run away, find the nearest bed, and hide under the covers. That was out of the question, though, since Serpentine put my hands in cuffs.
“That isn’t any of your concern, guest.” Serpentine’s voice sounded pleasant enough, but I caught her anger like venom laced in sugar. “Please continue to enjoy your stay—”
“I think you forget who’s really in charge here.” The female Nightmare cut across Serpentine. “I recall these two in line behind me. They seem complacent enough, and they just arrived. There should be no reason for them to be escorted out—”
“Their actions aren’t your problem, Miss!” Gruff interrupted impatiently. The male Nightmare's eyes flashed dangerously, and the female let out a low growl. Even Serpentine looked at Gruff reproachfully.
“You dare call me by a human term?” the female Nightmare asked Gruff, taking a long spear off of her back. “We control this land; you merely serve the woman who entertains us. You are not even real beings. You must listen to us!” She pointed the blade at Gruff’s chest. I would have been happy with this, but unfortunately, Mitch’s face was about an inch away from the spear’s blade. Even in Nightmare-form, Mitch looked frightened.
“I—I apologize for my mistake.” Gruff’s voice trembled, which was pretty comical. I didn’t think the big man could be afraid of anyone, except Leona. “It will not happen again. Now, if you’ll excuse us—”
“Not until you’ve released these two,” the female Nightmare ordered. “I do not care what your master wants with them; they are guests who deserve relaxation and entertainment. You cannot manipulate them into anything otherwise.” She looked at Mitch and me as if we were naive Nightmare children. I guess we were, in some sense.
“But—”
“As you wish.” Serpentine cut Gruff off. Mitch, Gruff, and I all stared at Serpentine with wide eyes as she uncuffed my hands. I stared at my Nightmare talons in amazement. Gruff did the same with Mitch.
This action pleased the Nightmares. The female gave Mitch and me an odd expression that I think was a smile before leaving. I wanted to call out “thanks” but I didn’t know if Nightmares were polite.
“I like a chase, anyway.” Serpentine turned to me before I had time to react. Thankfully, Mitch caught on. He drew the sword and counterattacked Serpentine’s moves. No fire or lightning appeared this time, but Mitch did manage to cut her arm. As Serpentine fell back in pain, Gruff lunged. I knew we had to get out of there if we wanted to save Kyle and Tiff. We needed a distraction, and Mitch’s sword wasn’t enough to provide it.
“Come on!” I yelled, pushing Mitch out of the way. I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but somehow I knew my ball of light would help. It began to glow and became larger until it filled the hallway with light. I heard Gruff cry out as the light became blinding. Shielding our eyes, Mitch and I ran down the other side of the hallway.
“How did you do that?” Mitch asked as we ran.
I didn’t really have an answer. There wasn’t much time for explanation as we ran for our lives. We stopped as we reached a fork in our hallway. The two new hallways looked identical — each was narrow with several doors lining both sides.
“Where to now?” I asked desperately, looking back to see if we were being followed.
“Let’s see.” Mitch closed his Nightmare eyes for a minute. “This way.” He led the way down the right hallway. Sure enough, we ended up in a central stairway.
“How’d you know?” I asked.
“It’s built just like every other Chimera resort.” Mitch shrugged. “My parents book them once a year.”
“You mean you actually stay in Leona’s places?”
“Hey! I didn’t know we were contributing to her Enslave the Dreams fund!” Mitch protested. We heard footsteps not far off from us. “Let’s go downstairs. The main buildings are always at ground level.”
We ran down the stairs, jumping flights at a time with our long, Nightmare legs. As much as they creeped me out, I was glad I was in a Nightmare’s body; I knew Serpentine and Gruff would have no problem catching up with me in my regular form.
The stairs led to a deserted room. I could tell we were underground because of the lack of windows and the thick silence. The ceiling was low and made of rough stone that matched the floor. Old weapons and boxes cluttered the corners. This room definitely didn’t fit with the rest of the resort. Compared to the luxurious lobby and hallways
filled with velvet carpet, this place seemed like a dungeon. The only source of light was faint and coming from the sword and my ball of light.
“Think we ended up in a basement?” I asked Mitch.
“Looks like it.” Mitch frowned in the dim light. I knew he felt just as uneasy as I did. We both looked up as we heard footsteps descending the stairs. Gruff and Serpentine had finally caught up. I scanned the dimly lit area for any sign of escape.
“There!” I ran to the opposite wall and started pushing a large box out of the way. My Nightmare strength was enough to practically throw the wooden crate. Removing the box revealed a dark passage that sloped upward and hopefully led the way out.
“I don’t know,” Mitch said slowly. We turned around as the footsteps sounded closer.
“I’d rather take my chance.” I led the way up. Thankfully, my light was just enough for us to see a few feet in front. Mitch and I ran full-speed up the slope for what felt like at least a half-hour. As we ran, I no longer heard footsteps following us. We continued to run, just in case. I didn’t want to imagine meeting Gruff and Serpentine in this dark, narrow corridor.
Suddenly, without warning, we stumbled into an open area full of blinding light and loud applause.
“What?” Mitch stopped next to me. He drew his sword as he looked around. Suddenly, the noise dropped to silence. We heard low hisses. As my eyes adjusted, I saw we were standing in a large, circular area surrounded by a tall, stone wall. I looked up and saw bleachers behind the wall. Nightmares sat shoulder-to-shoulder as souls served them food and drink. All of their eyes were focused on us.
We ended up running straight to the coliseum.
Directly opposite from us there was a higher seat covered by a pavilion. Leona sat at the tallest chair; Kyle sat next to her on a shorter, chained stool. Even from this distance I saw Kyle’s look of disappointment. Leona, on the other hand, looked very pleased. Her eyes gleamed golden and twinkled as if to say, “Checkmate.”
I felt my stomach drop to the floor when I saw Tiff chained to Leona’s throne. We fell for the biggest trap of all.
“My dear friends.” Leona stood up from her seat. The Nightmares fell silent as she spoke. “This tournament will not be like the others. You must be wondering why two of your kind volunteered to participate. More importantly, you must be trying to find the answer as to why one of your kind holds the cursed Reverie, the talisman sword of your enemies.”
The crowd of Nightmares roared barbarically. Some moved forward as if to attack us.
“Yes, I know!” Leona called to them, placating their anger. “It would appear these traitors are getting what they deserve, yes? Fortunately, they are not of your kind. They are much worse.” She snapped her fingers, and our disguises vanished. I felt myself shrink to my normal height, my fingers became smaller and thinner, and my mouth no longer felt like it was full of razors. I looked at Mitch and saw he also transformed. We were both back to our normal, puny, and very vulnerable selves. The Nightmares shouted at us. I heard “Human scum!” quite a few times.
“They are Lucid Dreamers!” Leona began speaking again. “They have the audacity to come into your world, are able to thwart your control, and they try to overthrow your establishment for entertainment!” The Nightmares roared in outrage.
“But they will pay.” Leona’s voice lowered to a more sinister tone. “Yes, they will be today’s attraction. I will not create monsters of my own design; however, my loyal servants have graciously volunteered to fight the humans.” I knew she was talking about Gruff and Serpentine.
Mitch and I exchanged nervous looks. This was definitely not part of the original plan. Then again, the plan went wrong the minute we stepped into Leona’s resort. So far we’ve managed to get this close to rescuing Tiff by improvising along the way. I wasn’t so sure the same trick would work in the coliseum. Even if we did defeat Serpentine and Gruff we’d have Leona and an arena full of angry Nightmares to answer to.
No matter which way it looked, our situation pretty much stunk.
Chapter 10
Hit the Sword
As Mitch opened up his mouth to tell me something, a loud horn blew. A large gate below Leona, which I hadn’t noticed before, slowly stretched open. Gruff and Serpentine emerged from the other chamber to loud applause. I wondered if our female Nightmare friend was now cheering on Serpentine and Gruff. Did she regret saving two humans from their grasp?
“I’ll hold them off as long as I can,” Mitch muttered into my ear.
“What? You’re nuts!” I looked at Mitch incredulously. “That would be two against one, and they’re both strong—”
Mitch cut me off. “If you can free Kyle, he can help you save Tiff. Then you can escape.” I looked at his face. Mitch seemed set on taking both of them on.
“How am I gonna get up there?” I asked, scanning the wall below Leona. It had to be at least fifty feet high.
“See the tapestry?” Mitch looked at the scarlet silk hanging down the wall directly underneath Leona. It had a golden lion embroidered in the middle. “Climb up there.”
“Right,” I didn’t mention that I sucked at rope climbing in gym. “And when I get up there?”
“I believe in you, Devon.” Mitch looked at me fiercely. “You were the one who made the fire and lightning, not the sword. You blinded Gruff in the hallway today. Face it, Devon; you don’t suck half as bad as you think.” He smiled at the startled look on my face. That was the most backward compliment I’ve ever heard, but it was nice coming from Mitch. All this time I envied his strength, courage, and leadership skills, and here he was complimenting me. Blame it on the near-death experience, but I suddenly felt more confident.
Serpentine and Gruff slowly made their way to us. Serpentine’s eyes were flickering evilly, a large smile on her face. Gruff cracked each one of his knuckles, chuckling with every snap. The amount of pleasure their faces showed should have been illegal.
“Ready?” Mitch held his sword ready to charge.
“I guess.” I didn’t know how to prepare myself so I decided to plant my feet firmly apart like a sumo wrestler, just in case Gruff decided to run me over.
“I hope you’re ready to die, little boys.” Serpentine jeered as Gruff chuckled. Almost without warning the two of them pounced. I rolled to the side while Mitch attacked Gruff. He got the goat man square in the chest, but Gruff seemed to be made of steel. He backed away, rubbing his chest but still laughing. Mitch turned to Serpentine, and I ran to the other side of the coliseum. I almost made it to the tapestry when I felt claws grip my shoulder and spin me around.
“You’re not getting away again, Devon Alexander!” Serpentine’s eyes now held pure hatred. “I haven’t repaid you for your brutal attack!” She slashed at my right arm with her clawed hand. The pain was intense but not blinding; her bite was much worse than her scratches.
Serpentine must have been thinking along the same lines, because she launched at me again, mouth wide. It was strange to see a beautiful woman open her mouth wider than humanly possible and grow long, thin, and very deadly fangs. Thankfully, I anticipated the move and ducked underneath her leap. I tried punching her, but she merely bounced away from my attack and somersaulted to her feet.
“You are nothing without the sword, boy!” Serpentine spoke casually, as if we were merely taking a stroll. She retracted her fangs and fixed her hair into a high ponytail. “You may be agile, but eventually you will grow tired. And when you do, I will attack!”
She lunged, and I once again dodged. We played this game around the entire outside of the arena. I heard Nightmares jeering as I rolled, jumped, and swerved my away around Serpentine’s attacks. I thought I was doing pretty well until I started losing energy.
My knees felt hot and sore from rolling to the ground so many times, and my breath was as shallow as if I had sprinted a mile. I glanced up at Kyle and Tiff as I dodged my way around the coliseum. Kyle seemed to be cheering me on as much as he could in his bound positio
n. Tiff gazed ahead as if she really wasn’t there. I guess she wasn’t. Leona looked down on me smugly. It was clear she enjoyed every second of my turmoil.
I didn’t see the attack coming until it was too late. Serpentine’s extended hands pushed me off my feet. I landed flat on my back into the sand, smacking my head on the ground. When my vision cleared, I saw Serpentine above me. She had me pinned against the stone floor, her clawed hands pressing deeply into my shoulders. I guess I ran out of fuel too quickly. I watched as her mouth grew wide again; her fangs reappeared.
“This time there will be no escape. No hero to save you.” Serpentine’s words came out as a hiss from her snake-like mouth. She was right. I looked to where Mitch and Gruff were fighting. Though Mitch was holding his own, there was no way he could take his eyes off Gruff for a second. They were equally matched.
Kyle was in chains above me. He’d watch me die. I wondered what would happen if I died in the dream world. Would I simply wake up like when I have nightmares about people killing me, or would I never wake up again?
Guess I’m going to find out, I thought as terror seized my being. I closed my eyes and anticipated the attack.
Suddenly, my entire body tensed. I felt my skin grow warmer; even Serpentine felt it. Her hands slackened around my shoulders. Behind her, I could see a bright figure forming. I couldn’t see the person, but I saw two pinpricks of light: the eyes of the Dreamer. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who saw the figure. The Nightmares in the stands started howling. Even Mitch and Gruff stopped fighting to witness the sight.
“Devon, have hope, for it is needed!” The light glowed as a female voice spoke to me. “Use your power to undo this evil!” It grew to a blinding light before suddenly vanishing.
“Huh?” I sprang to my feet before realizing what had happened. The light vanished, and Serpentine was thrown off of me. Instead of attacking me again, she stared at me questioningly, as if she were afraid to attack again. The light had gone, but the Nightmares were silent. All of their glowing eyes were focused on me. Even Leona was at a loss for words.