The Girl Who Could Not Dream

by Sarah Beth Durst

  A second later, a rabbit hopped out and waved his paw, gesturing them inside.

  They crept into the kitchen. It was dark—the light from outside fell in through the window across an ordinary sink, stove, and table and chairs. Lucy’s backpack was no longer on the table. The only thing on the table was a newspaper and an empty glass. With the rabbits in the lead, Sophie peeked into the living room and dining room. “All clear,” she whispered.

  Ethan disappeared into the bathroom, and she heard the shower curtain shift. “Sophie . . . I think you need to see this,” he whisper-called. She and Monster headed for the bathroom. “I don’t know if this is anything, but it has lots of tubes and stuff, like the somnium, and . . .”

  Sophie didn’t hear the rest of what Ethan said. She stared into the bathtub. Sitting there, inside the tub, was the distiller.

  It’s here! she thought. That means . . .

  Monster placed a velvety paw on Sophie’s hand and voiced what she barely dared think: “If he has the distiller, then your parents must be here too.”

  Sophie felt herself beginning to smile. The distiller would be useless without Mom and Dad. If Mr. Nightmare wanted dreams distilled, then he’d have to keep them nearby. “Let’s find them.”

  “I can tell you they weren’t in my cell,” Madison said. “Look upstairs?”

  All of them headed for the stairs. The rabbits hopped up first, and the others followed. Upstairs was a dark hallway, lit only from the faint downstairs light. There weren’t any windows on the hall. Sophie counted five doors. With the others in a semicircle around her, she tried the nearest door, bracing herself in case it wasn’t empty. The rabbits filed inside, and she followed.

  The first room was a bedroom. The sheets on the bed were rumpled, and a stack of laundry was falling off a chair next to a closet that was stuffed with men’s shoes. This could be Mr. Nightmare’s bedroom. It looked so . . . normal. A pile of books, mostly biographies, was on the bedside table, along with an alarm clock. The dresser surface had an electric razor plugged in and an assortment of ties and belts.

  A dreamcatcher hung from the headboard. Monster pointed to it. “That’s ironic,” he whispered. “Mr. Nightmare doesn’t want to experience his own nightmares.”

  The rabbits nibbled on the carpet as Sophie, Madison, and Ethan checked under the bed and in the closet and then gathered at the door. Monster pushed it open with a tentacle and poked his head outside. “All clear,” he said.

  They tiptoed back into the hallway. The next room was a bathroom, ordinary, with two toothbrushes, a tube of toothpaste, and a sliver of soap in the soap dish. The mirror was spotted with dried toothpaste, and there was a ring of mold around the drain in the sink. There was nothing monstrous. And nothing that indicated her parents or Lucy were here.

  Next was a linen closet containing nothing more ominous than towels and a vacuum. “This isn’t going well,” she whispered. “Maybe they’re—”

  She heard footsteps on the stairs and cut herself off. Quickly, Ethan and Madison piled back into Mr. Nightmare’s bedroom, while Sophie and Monster ducked into the linen closet, squeezing in next to the vacuum. She hoped the rabbits had the sense to hide somewhere too.

  In the closet, Monster murmured, “Reminds me of where I was born.”

  “Shh.”

  She saw a shadow pass in front of the linen closet, and then she heard a growl. On the plus side, that didn’t sound like Mr. Nightmare—he hadn’t suddenly returned. On the minus side . . . “Guess the monsters aren’t all in cages.”

  “Ready for our first one?” Monster asked.

  “On three,” she whispered. “One, two, three . . .” She burst out of the closet. She saw the monster—he was as gray as a rock and had multiple arms bulging from his back. Monster leaped for his head. The creature howled. His many arms flailed, but the rabbits swarmed him, leveling karate kicks at his body. Several jumped on each arm, pinning it down. He tossed a few rabbits against the walls, but they sprang back and ran for him again. Jumping on, the rabbits continued to cling to his arms, while Monster pulled him off balance with his tentacles. With rabbits all over him, he fell to the floor. Monster and the rabbits quickly backed away as Sophie sprang forward and pressed the dreamcatcher against his gray skin. He faded beneath her, and she thumped to the floor.

  “Madison, Ethan,” she called in a whisper. “It’s safe. For now.”

  They crept out of the bedroom. One of the rabbits had lost his top hat, and the other had her apron askew, but everyone seemed okay.

  “Nice job,” she told the bunnies.

  They nodded briskly at her.

  There were two more doors on the floor. Sophie hurried to the next one and tried the knob—locked. Maybe, maybe, please, her parents would be behind it! She stepped back so Monster could open the lock with his tentacles. The lock unclicked.

  All of them readied their dreamcatchers as Sophie swung the door open. The rabbits hopped inside, and the rest of them followed.

  Inside was Lucy.

  She was cowering on the bed, her knees tucked under her chin. Her face was red and splotchy, as if she’d been crying. Prowling around the foot of the bed was a lizard-like creature.

  The ninja bunnies charged. They swarmed over the creature, knocking him to the floor. Wielding a dreamcatcher, Sophie threw herself onto its tail and pressed the dreamcatcher to his hide as the rabbits leaped off.

  He swept his tail to the side, and she was tossed against the wall. Madison and Ethan rushed forward and both slapped dreamcatchers onto him.

  The lizard thing flailed but then at last faded.

  Sophie hurried to Lucy. “Are you okay?”

  Lucy’s lower lip was quivering. She nodded, then shook her head, lips pressed together as if she was too terrified to scream or cry. Several rabbits jumped up and climbed onto the bed. One sniffed at Lucy’s feet. Another curled against her leg. A third—the pink one with the bow tie—hopped into her lap and snuggled.

  She scooped the pink bunny into her arms and hugged him, crying into his fur.

  “You’re safe now,” Ethan said. “We’re here to save you.”

  Sitting on the bed, Madison put her arm around Lucy. “They saved me, and now we’re saving you. But you need to be brave. We still have to—”

  Lucy gave a hiccup-yelp and pointed toward the doorway.

  Sophie turned to see another monster. Slinking through the door, it looked like a mix between a dog and an insect. Eyes covered its hairy body. A tongue shot out of its mouth, and then it widened its mouth and roared.

  Monster and the rabbits ran toward it. The dog-insect snapped its teeth at Monster as he leaped over its head. From behind, Monster latched his tentacles around the dog-insect’s neck, but the creature seemed not to notice. Circling it, the rabbits kicked and bit. The pink rabbit jumped off Lucy’s lap and ran to attack the monster too. Dragging Monster with it, the dog-insect began going after the rabbits. It chomped one on the leg, and the rabbit squealed.

  “No!” Lucy cried, speaking for the first time. “Don’t eat the bunnies!” Jumping off the bed, she charged across the room, past Sophie, and leaped onto the back of the dog-insect. Sophie, Madison, and Ethan ran forward to help. As Lucy rode the night­mare, Sophie pressed a dreamcatcher to its side. Monster and the bunnies backed away as the dog-insect faded beneath the girl, and she collapsed on the ground.

  Lucy lay on the carpet without moving or speaking.

  “Lucy?” Dropping the dreamcatcher, Sophie knelt next to her.

  “I did it!” Lucy lifted her head, and Sophie saw she was smiling. “I always run in my dreams, and I’m never fast enough. But this time, I didn’t run away. And now it’s gone.”

  Beside her, the rabbits tore the dreamcatcher into shards of wood and bits of string. Sophie moved to stop them—a dream was a dream—but she was too late. The dreamcatcher was shredded, and the monster was permanently gone.

  Monster and Sophie stared at the ruined dreamcatcher. Kneel
ing too, Madison hugged Lucy, who hugged her fiercely back. “I didn’t cry,” Lucy said. “I didn’t scream. It would have eaten me if I screamed. That’s what he told me—the scary nightmare man, I mean. He wanted me quiet. Can I scream now?” Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she’d done a lot of screaming earlier.

  “Not yet,” Madison told her with another half hug.

  “Why do you have rabbits?” Lucy asked.

  “Don’t ask,” Madison said. “Trust me, you don’t want to know. But they’re friendly, and so is that fuzzy thing with tentacles.”

  Sophie wanted to tell the little girl how sorry she was that this had happened; how she’d wanted to help Lucy with her nightmares, not give her more; how it was going to be over soon and she’d never have to see Sophie again. “Do you know where my parents are?”

  Lucy began to cry. “I want my mom and dad.” The rabbits clustered around her. The pink bunny rose onto his hind legs and wrapped his paws around her ankle in a hug.

  “We’ll bring you to them,” Ethan promised. “But we also need to find Sophie’s parents. Have you seen them?”

  Lucy shook her head.

  Sophie felt her heart sink, but she told herself it didn’t mean anything. Lucy had been locked up. It made sense she wouldn’t know where the other prisoners were. There was still one door that they hadn’t opened.

  Crying harder, Lucy clung to Madison’s arm. Sophie expected Madison to brush her off, but she didn’t. She seemed uncharacteristically gentle with Lucy, and Sophie thought of Madison’s younger sister, who had been born sick. Arm around the younger girl, Madison guided Lucy out into the hallway. Sophie, Ethan, and Monster followed.

  “One door left,” Ethan said.

  Her parents had to be there. She was sure of it. She felt her heart pounding faster. Ethan reached the door first and pushed it open. The rabbits hopped in, followed by Monster.

  Inside, a girl’s voice said, “What is that? And why are there rabbits wearing clothes?”

  “Whoa, another prisoner,” Ethan said.

  They all pressed inside, following the rabbits. Sophie squeezed past Ethan to stand between him and Madison. Lucy darted around them.

  Inside was a bedroom covered in posters of the night sky. An unmade bed was in one corner, piled high with teddy bears and a stack of books. A girl with brown hair and brown eyes—about Sophie’s age—in a pink T-shirt and jeans stood in the middle of the room. She was hugging a book to her chest, as if she’d just been reading. Her hair was stuck in a ponytail and bangs fell over her eyes. Sophie tried to squash her disappointment that it wasn’t her parents.

  Scurrying forward, Lucy grabbed the girl’s hand. “Come on! Hurry!”

  The girl resisted. “Who are you? What do you want?”

  Forcing herself to smile, Sophie waved. “Hi. I’m Sophie. That’s Lucy, and this is Ethan, Madison, and Monster. I don’t know the rabbits’ names. What matters is that Lucy’s right. We have to hurry.”

  Pulling away from Lucy, the girl retreated across the room until her calves hit the bed and she had to stop. A teddy bear toppled from the bed onto the floor. Bending, the girl scooped it back onto the bed and dumped the book with it, all without taking her eyes off them. “But . . . How did you get here? You need to leave! It’s not safe. There are monsters in this house. They’re trained to attack strangers.”

  “Yeah, we noticed,” Madison said.

  Crossing to her, Sophie held out a dreamcatcher. The girl stared at it and then at Sophie. “Press it against any monster you see,” Sophie explained. “Except that one.” She pointed at Monster. “He’s my friend.”

  “You’re friends with a monster?”

  “It’s a little weird,” Madison agreed, “but he’s a nice monster.”

  Sighing as if he were long-suffering, Monster said, “I am not nice.”

  Sophie wondered who the girl was. She didn’t recognize her, and the policeman had said there were two missing kids. Maybe she was from another town, or kidnapped at another time. Judging from the room, it looked like she’d been here for a while. Clothes were draped over a chair and bulging out of a closet. Crumpled pretzel bags filled the trash can. The rabbits sniffed at her shoes, and the girl skipped away as if afraid they’d bite. Gently, Sophie asked, “What’s your name?”

  “Christina.”

  “Christina, have you seen any other prisoners? Maybe a man and a woman who kind of look like me?” She tried to keep her voice calm and even. If Christina had been here a while, she might freak out easily.

  “Her parents,” Ethan clarified.

  Christina shook her head slowly. She must be in shock, Sophie thought. She wondered how long she’d been walled off in this room. Weeks? Months? Sophie felt a surge of pity.

  “Can we go home now?” Lucy sniffled.

  Sophie held out her hand toward Christina and hoped she looked friendly and kind. She didn’t have much practice with that. “We’ll help you go home too. Come with us.”

  Still shaking her head, Christina was looking at Sophie as if she had sprouted tentacles. “But I . . . I don’t understand.”

  Slowly and clearly, Sophie said, “We’re rescuing you.”

  “YOU HAVE A PET MONSTER,” CHRISTINA SAID.

  “He’s not a pet,” Sophie said. “He’s my friend.”

  At the door, Ethan said, “Guys, we should get out while we can.” He retreated to check the hallway, and several rabbits hopped with him.

  Christina looked at the bunnies at Sophie’s feet and at Monster, wrapping his tentacles around Sophie’s waist. She took a tentative step toward Sophie. “Are you . . . Are you like me?”

  “Like you? What do you mean?”

  Instead of answering, Christina scurried across the room to the desk. She yanked open a drawer and with shaking hands held up several empty blue bottles. “I thought I was the only one. But you have a monster and multicolored bunnies, and I didn’t dream them.”

  Madison poked Sophie. “Hey, she’s a freak like you.”

  “I can’t dream my own dreams,” Christina said, eyes fixed on Sophie, full of hope. “And when I drink someone else’s dream . . .”

  “. . . you bring things to life.” Sophie felt a lump in her throat, and her eyes felt hot. All her life, she’d thought she was the only one, and then Mr. Nightmare came . . . “Mr. Nightmare isn’t the one like me. You are.” He’d kidnapped Madison and Lucy to have dreams, her parents to distill them, and Christina to bring them to life—everything he needed to produce an endless supply of monsters to sell.

  Sophie started walking toward Christina, and Christina walked toward her until they stood face-to-face, inches away, staring at each other in wonder.

  At the same time, both of them began to talk. “How do you—” “What do you—” “No, you go first.” “No, you.” “I never—” “I thought—” And then they both began to laugh, covering their mouths to silence the sound. Tears leaked out of Sophie’s eyes. It wasn’t Mr. Nightmare! It was this girl!

  “Very nice bonding moment,” Madison said. “Can we leave now, please?”

  Lucy tugged on Sophie’s sleeve. “I want to go home!”

  “Come with us,” Sophie said to Christina. She held out her hand again, and this time, Christina took it with a tentative smile. Together, they plunged out into the hallway and hurried toward the stairs.

  At the top of the stairs, Monster splayed out his tentacles to stop them. “Let the rabbits go first,” he whispered. “Just in case.”

  The bunnies hopped past them and down the stairs.

  After a few seconds, Monster nodded, and they all crept single-file down the stairs to the living room. Everything seemed quiet. The rabbits grazed on the carpet. Sophie peeked into the dining room, the bathroom, and the kitchen. All empty. Her parents must be in the basement—maybe there were more rooms like the one Madison had been in, or maybe they’d been moved into Madison’s cell. Just because they weren’t there before didn’t mean they weren’t there now. />
  Light swept across the living room. Pushing aside the curtain, Ethan looked out the window. “He’s back! We have to leave!” He pointed to the kitchen. “Back door!” Madison, Ethan, and Lucy bolted through the living room to the kitchen.

  “Not without my parents!” Sophie said.

  “No choice,” Monster said, tentacles flailing, propelling her into the kitchen. “I’m sorry, Sophie. We’ll find a way to rescue them later.”

  Christina caught her arm. “Wait! There’s a monster on guard.”

  Reaching the door first, Lucy flung it open. Outside on the patio, Sophie saw Glitterhoof had the muscled guard still pinned on the ground. The winged pegasus raised his head when he saw them and spread his wings. Seizing on the distraction, the guard spat the rabbit clothing out of his mouth with such force that the tiny top hat sailed into Glitterhoof’s face.

  Startled, the winged pony reared back, lifting his front hooves off of the man’s shoulder. Roaring, the man punched his hands together, and his body began to expand like a balloon. His muscles bulged bigger, and his feet stretched.

  Lucy began to scream, and Madison quickly shushed her.

  The man’s face contorted, bulging until it looked as if it were made of rocks.

  “Other way!” Ethan cried, and they ran into the living room—Ethan, Lucy, and Madison, followed by Christina, Sophie, and Monster.

  Before they reached it, the front door was thrown open, and three lizard-like monsters with red scales and green tongues barreled inside, followed by Mr. Nightmare. Everyone retreated to the kitchen and ran again to the back door. Madison was fastest.

  Glitterhoof galloped toward the house, and Madison tossed Lucy onto the unicorn’s back. Before she could climb on as well, she was pulled away by the enormous muscle man. “Get her out of here!” Madison yelled to Glitterhoof.

  With Lucy clinging to his mane, Glitterhoof took to the skies.

  Sophie felt someone grab her arm and turned fast. It was Christina. “Quick, hide!” Christina said, and pulled her into a bathroom. Monster ran with them, as did the rabbits. Christina slammed the door shut and leaned against it, ear pressed to the wood.