Nightmare's Daughter

by Aurora Smith

  “Pretty sure Mother Nature is looking for me.” I tried to explain the crickets, although I wasn’t positive. Maybe Liam had also created some cricket mutating serum as well.

  “I’ll walk you back,” Justin said and I felt my face catch fire.

  “Okay.” I exhaled. Liam snorted and I shot him a ‘shut it’ look. I walked past him towards Justin and tried to give him a sweet smile, but it probably looked like a young orphan street child who needed a shower and a hot meal.

  “Je vais revenir, Liam.” Justin said to his brother. His voice had a warning tone, but of course I had no idea what he was saying. Sounded good though.

  “Pue importe, mec,” Liam said with his back to us.

  Then the incomprehensible happened; I was alone with Justin Prevot, er, Frankenstein. We started walking though the broken branches caused by the boom and sound of the morning birds was coming back through all of the crickets.

  “So, Maya, I had no idea you were a part of this strange world that I live in.”

  I pulled my brain back from the murky waters of incoherency and played the importance card.

  “Yeah, my life is pretty crazy.”

  “Really? I never caught what you were.”

  BINGO.

  “I’m nightmare.” I wiggled my fingers at him like I was magical. He gave me the impressed look I had been hoping for.

  “Your father is The Boogeyman?” He asked and I almost died from how cute Boogeyman sounded with that accent. “Does that mean that you’ve never had a nightmare?”

  “Yeah, no. I have them all the time.”

  “Oh? I assumed that your father would spare you.” He said, smiling his amazing smile.

  “I would guess that I get it worse, actually. I’m supposed to be taking over the nightmare gig someday, after all.”

  “I understand that.” Justin laughed and an angel got his wings. “I’m not very good at the Frankenstein thing, but nature corrected itself and gave me a twin that could make our parents proud. I hope you are good at what you’re meant to be doing. I’m assuming your parents didn’t get a second chance like mine did.”

  “Yeah, the twin thing, that’s basically unheard of.”

  “Oui,” he said and I raised my eyebrows at him. “Yes, I mean.”

  “So you’re not into the science stuff?” I asked.

  “Not as much as Liam. I mean, I think it’s pretty cool, but I don’t know how my brother figures out how to do any of the things he comes up with.”

  “He seems pretty smart.”

  “He’s, how you say…parfait.”

  “Parfait? Isn’t that like a pastry, or something?” I laughed.

  “Perfect, it means perfect.” Justin ran his fingers through his thick, dirty blond curls. I died. What I wouldn’t give to hear Justin call me ‘parfait.’

  “You two seem like you’re pretty close.” I sighed.

  “We are, now. We haven’t always been so close.” He said while kicking a rock on the trail we were taking back to the cabins.

  “Really? What changed?” I asked, thrilled by all this attention.

  “The accident.” He sounded sad.

  “The accident? Like, the reason he has a burnt face?”

  “Exécuter! Exécuter! RUN!” Justin and I both turned around to see Liam yelling, waving his arms and running with his knees up like he was a solder in the German army. He ran past us. He turned around to see us standing there like shocked idiots so he took a sharp turn back to us, grabbing our arms and started running again. Justin seemed to snap out of whatever daze he had been in and scooped me up in to his arms and began running with his brother. Not five seconds later an explosion that trumped all other explosions that had taken place that morning shook not only the ground but the trees. Alarmed wild life began running with us; except my macaw. He must have bailed once he saw Liam running.

  All three of us went flying forward, and unfortunately I slipped out of Justin’s arms. My neck snapping back and my head hit the ground hard.

  “Maya?” I felt a hand on my check, it was rough and calloused. The goggle-less face of Liam came into view and when our eyes made contact he closed his and exhaled with relief.

  “Liam, what happened?” Justin screamed at his brother; a sound I didn’t think could possibly come from his perfect mouth.

  “I tried potassium permanganate and glycerol.”

  “What? Why?” Justin was livid but Liam looked unapologetic.

  “It was only a little,” Liam answered his brother defensively.

  “Imbecile stupide!”

  I tried to get up on my elbows and the two Frankensteins came to my aid. Liam was on my right with his bald, rippled head and Justin was on my left, his perfectly shaped face inches from mine.

  “My neck hurts,” I said while rubbing the back of my neck. The muscle felt tight and sore.

  “I am so sorry,” Liam whispered, a surprising sadness in his voice.

  “You should be!” Justin was still yelling with his beefy arms crossed over his chest. Little tiny veins were popping out of his forehead and his face was completely red.

  “Vhat is going on here?” I heard a Transylvanian accent and knew at once that it was Dracula, Vanessa’s great, times like a million, grandfather.

  “I - I -I didn’t…” I stuttered.

  “It wasn’t Maya, sir.” Liam put a hand on my shoulder and moved himself in front of me. I looked over at Justin and saw that his arms were still crossed, a man tantrum happening. “She was standing here when I ran into her and knocked her down.”

  “Iz zat true, miss Justice?”

  “Ahhhhhh… well?”

  “Vell, zat answers my question.”

  “No wait I didn’t do anything!” I pleaded.

  “She didn’t, Mr. Dracula. The explosion was mine,” Liam said sounding irritated this time.

  “Vhat vere you doing exactly?”

  “Well,” Liam looked down, embarrassed. “I was trying to make an invisibility serum.”

  “Vell, I can certainly see vhy,” Dracula said.

  “Hey!” both Justin and I cried at the same time. I would have been pleased about that, but I was annoyed by the fit Justin was still immersing himself into.

  “Enough of vis, follow me please!” Dracula started walking away and us three were expected to follow. I scrambled to my feet, afraid that I was going home already, but Justin and Liam took their time. Liam was slump shouldered and his head was hanging while Justin stomped; maybe he was trying to wake the dead. I shivered; bumps on my arms began to rise as the morning chill swept over me. I felt some soft fabric over my shoulders; Liam had put his lab coat on me.

  “You should have kept that extraordinarily ugly sweater on,” he whispered.

  “You’re right.” I smiled and Liam looked taken aback for a moment.

  “You also should have agreed with what I told him. You really had nothing to do with this.”

  “I wasn’t thinking.” I really didn’t want to go home and I had just missed the perfect opportunity to get out of this.

  “I’ll tell them again,” Liam said comfortingly to me.

  “What about me?” Justin wasn’t whispering. In fact he was so mad at Liam that he was weaving English and French together in a long run-on sentence that didn’t sound like it was going to ever end.

  “Of course, I will tell him the same for you,” Liam said, and he sounded sad.

  “Yes you will! This is just like last time!”

  “Justin, please calm down, this was nothing like last time.”

  “Yes. It. Was!” Liam didn’t respond and it didn’t look like Justin was expecting him to. The silence grew so heavy between them that even I was beginning to get uncomfortable.

  The four of us, with the one and only Count Dracula leading the way, walked our way past the girls’ cabins and a pond that smelled oddly familiar. Abby must have gone for a quick dip before she went into room six yesterday evening.

  After a few moments
and ear-splitting silence we came to a big beautiful cabin that was in the corner of the campgrounds. It was a three-story cabin house and was surrounded by beautiful trees that were covered in moss, and glowing little pixies. It had always looked like a fairy tale to me, but no matter how beautiful it was I could only correlate it with trouble.

  Dracula turned around and faced the three of us. “You three vait here while I go get Mr. Torricelli.” He turned around comically with his cloak whipping and he silently stepped up the stairs and into the cabin.

  “I’m completely throwing you under the bus!” Justin spat at his brother.

  “Whoa, that’s not cool!” I said, shocked. “What happened to parfait?”

  “You may not have an opinion about this!” Justin snapped.

  “Don’t get upset at her. I will take all the blame.”

  “Of course you will!” Justin’s beautiful face was crinkling in odd places and his hands were shaking.

  “He vill see you now,” Dracula said with an evil hum in his throat.

  Justin stomped up the stairs ahead of us and I went behind, Liam with his hand out for me to lead the way for him. Justin slammed the door in my face, which was adorable. We went straight into Mr. Torricelli’s office, which was large and covered with red sparkly hearts. It always made me laugh, even now when I was so irritated. I knew he was Cupid, but seriously this bald man looked creepy surrounded by so much love, especially for how foul he was. He looked like a sweaty lump of lard sitting sleepily at his desk, his fingers behind his head and his elbows held up in the air like a molting chicken.

  “Miss Justice, I must say I’m surprised to see you here so early.” On the contrary Cupid did not sound surprised, he even sounded a little pleased.

  “Please Mr. Torricelli, Maya had nothing to do with this. That was my explosion,” Liam started saying, but Mr. Tortellini cut him off.

  “I am, however surprised to see Justin Frankenstein here.”

  “Wait, not Liam? As in you think I made Liam do something?” I asked, trying to control my temper.

  “Naturally I expected to see Liam, Magnus and Christina in here with you at some point during the summer.” I groaned. It looked like I would be the one getting Liam in trouble even though I was the one that was being framed.

  “That is not fair!”

  “Oh isn’t it? The Frankensteins came with excellent recommendations from their camp in France. One day in and I see you and both of them in my office. You tell me if that’s a coincidence?”

  “Yes, it is!”

  “Mr. Torricelli, can I say something?” Justin stepped forward, anger rippling all around him. “I don’t know if Maya had a part in this, but what I do know is that Liam had everything to do with it! He has done this before and frankly, sir I think he’s dangerous!”

  I could not believe what I was hearing. Was this the same guy that I was whipping my hair back and forth for just a bit ago?

  “A danger? How do you mean?”

  “He continuously tries to create things; he is crazier than our ancestors! Just look at his hand!” Justin pointed to Liam who reluctantly held his stumpy arm up in the air and revealed to him the hand that was not there.

  “What the… What happened to your hand?” Mr. Torricelli about jumped out of his chair.

  “It’s there. It’s just invisible,” Liam answered.

  “You made your hand invisible! How… Never mind.” Mr Torricelli tried to compose himself but he looked excited. “You, Miss Justice and you, Mr. Frankenstein are going to have detention the entire summer.”

  “Detention!?” I have been in plenty of trouble before but I had never had detention. That was like a school thing.

  “You two,” he pointed to both Liam and me, completely leaving Justin out of the mix, “are going to be cleaning the bathrooms, both men’s and women’s, every single night before you go to sleep.”

  “WHAT?!” I shouted but Mr. Torricelli had his hands up in warning.

  “You’re both also going to fix the part of the forest that you decided to blow up!”

  “Sir? Are you telling me that you’re not going to send Liam home?” Justin interrupted.

  “No. I will admit that it is tempting but I think that the parents will look down on me if I have to send kids home the day after they come. I have a reputation to uphold here.” He sounded cross, daring Justin to ask him again. Justin must’ve been afraid that he was going to get dragged into this because he closed his mouth and crossed his arms again. “Now I want everyone to go back to their dorms, you two will meet me after breakfast and we will discuss how to begin the forest’s repair.”

  “Yes sir,” Liam said but I just glared at him.

  “You are dismissed.” He waved us away with his hands, looking sleepy again and no longer entertained. We turned around and headed out of the cabin, Justin and I both stomping down the stairs, Liam sheepishly coming behind us.

  “I didn’t realize that you were such a jerk!” I growled at Justin.

  “I am not a jerk! Liam is not safe to be around!”

  “Justin, I am so sorry,” Liam was apologizing again to his brother. Who didn’t have the decency to stick up for him when we were in trouble.

  “You better not go to sleep, or you’re going to get it,” I threatened him. He had the decency to look frightened, but dismissed my threat and turned to his brother. “Stay away from me.” Justin didn’t yell this time he just held his finger up trying to keep Liam at arm’s length then turned around and walked away.

  “What is going on with you two?” Liam didn’t answer me right away; in fact, he kept his face to the ground and his hands in his pockets, looking very sad.

  “I owe Justin my life, please don’t be upset at him. But I am very sorry that I drug you into this,” was all that he said.

  “Well, I guess it could be worse.”

  “Yeah how?”

  “We could be going home!” I laughed.

  “Oh, that’s worse than having to clean the bathrooms every day?”

  “Obviously.” I started laughing again, relieved that I wasn’t going home.

  “Move!” Mr. Torricelli was yelling out his window at us which jumpstarted our feet into moving towards our cabins.

  “I’ll see you at breakfast.” Liam said to me, his hands in his pockets as he turned to go toward the boys’ cabin, leaving me to go back to my room to retell the story that I knew my roommates were never going to believe.

  Chapter Seven

  I could hear happy birds chirping in the forest. Their sweet peeping made me calm and I felt stillness fall over me. Content tingles shot up my arms and legs, but a warning flag went up. It was dark out, but the birds sounded like they were calling up the sun and when things did not make sense to me after lying in bed, I usually got nervous. I looked around the cabin room, Abby below me, Vanessa at my level on the top bunk on the other side of the room and Christina below her. Mother Nature was snoring with extraordinary lack of grace, but who could sleep with a lamb on your face? The clock said it was 4:30 am. This was usually the time of the day when I got up to take a shower, but my alarm hadn’t been the thing that woke me; it was the sound of obnoxious giggling.

  I stepped out of my bed, my feet not registering to the usually cold floor as I walked to the door. I opened it slowly and cringed, hoping Mother Nature didn’t wake up while I figured out what the commotion was about. I was surprised by how easily I had made it out into the hall, especially with the shenanigans that happened between Liam, Justin and me the day before. Not even happy little woodland creatures that littered my cabin room woke up.

  Closing the door behind me I caught the last whip of hair disappearing out the door of the girls’ cabin. I followed them quietly, not wanting to alert anyone to my presence. I looked closer at the hyper girls in front of me and recognize the red long hairstyle I had two years before. Christina and Vanessa were next to me, too. I turned my head to the right and saw my caged white rabbit leaning against the
door I had just come through. I looked around into the darkness, nervous that something was about to jump out at me. Contrary to how I knew I should feel, I actually felt safe, unnaturally so. This kind of freaked me out. I walked over to Fred, picked him up and followed my younger self and my friends, but I hung back, trying not to make any noise; I had no idea what was going on so I wanted to play observer. This kind of thing had never happened to me before. Was I dreaming some kind of memory or was my father part of this?

  “If anyone dies then I’m running away from home, I’m not even kidding with you!” I hissed into the night but I got no response. I wasn’t sure if that was encouraging or not.

  The group of girls looked like they were headed towards the boys’ cabin. We had already passed the pond and I could see Cupid’s cabin up ahead. I thought back to a couple of years ago at camp and a prank that we might have pulled on one of the boys here. Feeling a little bit more comfortable and in control of my own dream, I got close enough to hear what we were saying.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure everyone stays asleep.”

  “And if that doesn’t work then I’ll make sure we get out.” Christina winked at me. It must have been the end of the summer since she was playing along with us.

  “And if that doesn’t work then I’ll run them dry!” Vanessa said and we all laughed. We knew she couldn’t do that, but it was funny to watch her be frustrated about it. Bless her heart.

  We had moved out of the protection of the trees and into the moonlight and that’s when I saw it. A big bag that looked like it had trash in it was flung over Vanessa’s shoulder. Her Scandinavian build had always won her the prize for being the one to carry the props to a big prank. The bag look like it had trash in it, because, well, it did! Kind of, anyways. We had spent all summer collecting cups by not throwing away any that we had gotten at breakfast, lunch or dinner and we rescued the ones from the trash that had been crumpled. We had a few thousand cups in that bag. The little annoying ones. You know the ones that are good for nothing but a swallow and a hiccup after gulping mostly air.

  Hushing from nerves and excitement, I saw that we got to the front door that led to the smaller rooms of the boys’ cabin. I watched myself as I closed my eyes and concentrated on all of the dreaming lads that slept before us. I remembered the flashes of different dreams coming to me and the excitement I felt whenever I thought about manipulating them. My eyes squinted as I brought the poor, unexpecting fellow campers and camp counsellors into a deep, almost unbreakable sleep. My bony thumb went up, a sign that we were ready to go. With that the three overly excited girls opened the cabin door and I joined them as we stepped through the No Girl Zone. Of course I had been in there at least three times each summer to do something to someone. But that wasn’t the point.