“I’m sure he did. It—”
“Baylor,” whispered Oli in a terrified voice, “can you please stop whatever you’re doing?”
“Sorry, Oli,” I said. “Go back to sleep.”
I looked at Tommy and rolled my eyes. Sorry, I mouthed. He grinned.
“See ya later.”
* * *
I’d managed to fall back asleep, carefully avoiding dipping into any more dreams for the rest of the night, but woke up early to distressed texts from J.
J: Still feeling so bad about Aiden
J: I know he’s ignoring me. He usually takes ~4 seconds to answer
J: We need to do something.
Baylor: Like what?
J: Something that’ll make him feel good.
Baylor: We could send over some pepperoni sandwiches.
J: No. Something BIGGER. I have a crazy idea . . .
We wrangled a plan together, looping in Bobby, and somehow she managed to get ahold of Aiden to persuade him to join her downtown.
“He said he was planning on heading in this direction anyway,” she said as we waited together in the square. “He bought a dream catcher from Madame Nadirah yesterday, and he wants to get a refund since it broke overnight.”
My eyes widened as I put the pieces together. Aiden had gotten a dream catcher yesterday! No wonder I couldn’t visit his dreams: I’d been caught in its web. I made a mental note to tell Madame Nadirah she was selling a dangerous product.
“Baylor,” Kristina said, her voice dripping with annoyance, “why did Aiden’s dream catcher break?”
Aiden would be arriving any second, so I pretended not to hear her. We waved at Bobby, who was waiting behind a corner, dressed in all black, a ski mask on his head and ready to be pulled down into position for when Aiden arrived.
This really was an insane plan, but J had insisted it would work.
“He just needs a confidence boost,” she’d said. “This’ll be the simplest way to do it. And maybe we can even get him on the news. You know some people, right?”
“They know me,” I said. “I don’t know them.”
“Still,” she said lightly, “we could get ahold of them somehow and mention your name . . .”
I mumbled something about baby steps before hanging up. Honestly, the last thing I needed was any more press coverage.
“Oh, he’s coming,” J said, excited. “I feel so nervous! I hope this goes smoothly.”
There was a huge chance this could end disastrously, but I didn’t tell her that.
“This is going to end disastrously,” Kristina said next to me. “Colonel Fleetwood even placed a bet on it with Charlie. Odds are five-to-one that Aiden breaks a bone.”
Aiden sauntered across the street, his head down and his hands in his pockets.
“Hey guys,” he said, standing a few feet from where we sat on a bench.
“Hi, Aiden,” J said, standing up to hug him. “Having a good morning?”
He shook his head. “I spent fifteen bucks on this piece of crap yesterday,” he said, pulling out the splintered remains of his dream catcher. “And I wake up this morning to see it’s snapped in half. Look!”
I ignored Kristina’s glare and examined the object, half expecting to see a Baylor-shaped hole in the threads. The wooden hoop around which the threads were tied was cracked in two places, directly opposite from each other. The webbing remained intact for the most part, minus the ripped threads near the severed parts of the hoop.
“Is there a chance you accidentally broke it in your sleep?” I asked.
“Doubtful,” he said. “I sleep with a bunch of blankets, so my arms don’t really have room to reach out and grab things.” I imagined Aiden swaddled like a giant baby.
“That’s a bummer,” I said, doing my best to suppress my smile.
“Yeah, go figure,” he said, shoving the dream catcher back into his pocket. “Of course it would happen to me.”
We turned to walk in the direction of Madame Nadirah’s shop, and J hiked up her purse and subtly double-tapped the back of her head, giving Bobby the signal they’d come up with.
“I’m sure it won’t be a problem to get a new one,” J said. Behind her, Bobby pulled down his black ski mask and was quietly jogging up behind us.
“Yeah, I’ll make sure Madame Nadirah helps you,” I said. “We go way back.”
“Yeah, way back to like three weeks ago, Baylor,” J said. “You’ve had a longer relationship with your toothbrush.”
“Don’t dis my toothbrush like that,” I said, just as Bobby approached us.
Like they’d rehearsed, he gave J a good shove, grabbed her purse, and took off sprinting.
Well, that’s what he was supposed to do, at least.
In the excitement of the moment, he’d pushed J too hard and she shrieked, flying forward and hitting the ground on top of her bag. Aiden and I stood there, stunned, as Bobby ran past us, jumping rapidly from side to side around her fallen form, and tried to figure out how to steal the bag from underneath J, especially since it was still looped around her shoulder.
Aiden yelled, “What are you doing!” as Bobby started tugging at the bag to pull it loose. It was stuck around J and too awkward to remove without manhandling her. He looked at me, then Aiden, confusion and panic shining from his eyes through his ski mask. J, thankfully, realized the problem and shifted her body around so the purse would be easy to grab, and with one last valiant tug, Bobby took hold of the purse, jumped gleefully into the air, and skipped away.
“Come back here!” Aiden yelled after him.
“Chase him, Aiden!” I yelled. “I’ll stay with J and make sure she’s okay.”
“But you’re faster than me.”
“I . . . I . . . I hurt my foot last night and can’t run?” I stammered, trying to think of anything that made sense. “I was playing Twister with Jack and his friends and got too confident and fell while reaching for a red circle.” He was staring at me in confusion while J stared at me like she would start beating me senseless, if only she still had her bag.
“Oh wow,” Kristina said. Her hands were plastered over her eyes, but she was watching through small gaps between her fingers. “Oh, this is just awful.”
“Go, Aiden!” I said, turning to look at Bobby, who was about fifty yards away. He had slowed to a jog and kept looking at us over his shoulder, unsure of what to do. “He’s getting away!”
“I can’t!” Aiden said, looking at the masked man running further and further down the road.
J took hold of his hand, gripped tightly, and said, “Yes, you can, Aiden. I believe in you.”
Aiden’s mouth dropped open slightly and he took a sharp breath. Suddenly, he set his shoulders back, clenched his jaw, and nodded, his face fierce and determined. He got up and ran toward Bobby, who sprang back into action when he saw Aiden heading his way.
“Not too fast, Bobby!” I said, under my breath.
“But not so slow it’s easy for Aiden to catch him,” J said breathlessly.
“Medium pace, Bobby, medium pace,” I said, changing my tune. “How’s that elbow?”
“I think I’ll have a nice bruise, but it’s fine,” she said. “That moron pushed me way too hard.”
“I think he got caught up in the heat of the moment,” I said.
“Obviously,” she said, rubbing her elbow. “And it nearly ruined the plan.”
Nearly being the pivotal word. Aiden found his inner gazelle and, faster than I would have ever thought possible, was within spitting distance of Bobby. Bobby realized it, too, and shrieked in surprise. He threw the purse back at Aiden in an effort to stave him off, and hit him right in the face.
“Gah!” Aiden screamed, and even one downtown square and a few blocks away, we could hear a distinct crunch as the bag hit his nose.
“Ooh! ” J and I gasped in unison as we watched Aiden catch the bag and bend over, his hands clutching his nose.
There was a silent moment in wh
ich Bobby ran off toward the cemetery down the road, Aiden continued to suffer alone, and J and I grimaced in Aiden’s direction.
Then J stood up and shouted, deep from her diaphragm, “You did it, Aiden! Thank you, thank you!”
“Go, Aiden!” I shouted. “You showed him!”
Aiden stood up straight, his hands still covering his nose, and looked our way. We didn’t have a clear view of his face, but it was obvious he was thrilled by our reactions. He slowly sauntered our way, and J met him in the middle of the square.
“My hero!” she crooned, pulling him into a hug.
He wore a dumb smile on his bright red face, and he raised his eyebrows excitedly in my direction, his entire neck flexing and rolling in excitement. Charlie and the colonel were crowding around them as Charlie shouted, “Rigged! The entire thing was rigged!”
“You knew that going in,” the colonel said, bemused, as Charlie handed over some weird-looking ghost money. I made a mental note to ask Kristina about that later.
“Got lucky, ya did,” he said bitterly as the colonel pocketed his ghost money. “That porker shoulda fell.”
“Charlie!” Kristina said, her voice appearing to lash into Charlie, who recoiled as though his entire body had touched a hot pan. “Don’t be rude.”
I cocked my head at her, confused. “Only I get to make fun of Aiden,” she said with a light shrug. “And you, for that matter.”
“Should we call the police or something?” Aiden asked, his voice nasally from how tightly his hand covered his face.
“No!” J said quickly. “It’s fine.”
“But what if he does it to someone else?”
“I have a feeling you scared him off,” she said.
He frowned. “Are you joking?”
“No!” she said. “Seriously, I think it’s some punk neighborhood kid, and I bet he thought you wouldn’t chase after him. But you did! I’m sure he’s hiding behind some tombstone in the cemetery, praying you won’t come looking for him.”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
J smiled. “Definitely.” Then she frowned as she got a good look at his nose. “I think you need to go to the hospital, though.”
We headed to Madame Nadirah’s shop first, though, so Aiden could get his refund, but she was reluctant to give him one.
“It worked!” she said. “It protected you. It sacrificed itself to keep a threat from invading your dreams.”
“I thought it was a permanent thing, not a one-time use,” he said.
“It depends on the threat,” she said, glancing at me for a split second. We made eye contact and I blushed, heading over to look at the candles. “Whatever was trying to invade last night was very powerful.”
He frowned. “Well, if you’re not giving me my money back, can I least get a replacement one?”
She eyed me suspiciously again, but turned back to him and appraised his broken nose with a pitying smile. “Sure thing, my dear. I just hope those big powerful threats mind their own business from now on.”
* * *
J and Aiden headed to the hospital, and I had to rush to the house to have lunch with Uncle Glenn, Gillie, and Oli before they headed home. The entire bike ride back, Kristina gave me an earful about dreamwalking and my stupid decisions. I didn’t say a word, letting her talk until she finally ran out of things to say.
“Your ears still workin’ all right after all tha’?” Charlie asked me.
“Shut your mouth, One-Buck Chuck,” she spit.
“Oy!” he said, wounded. “I was jus’ jokin’!”
This had been one of the more disastrous holidays, and I was looking forward to them leaving so we could put the whole incident behind us.
Back at home, Uncle Glenn squeezed my shoulders and gave me a tight hug as he headed out the door with a small mountain of bags. “See you soon, little buddy.”
Gillie wasn’t exactly warm as she said good-bye. To my surprise, she went in for a hug too, but it was just so she could whisper, “Thanks again for ruining my life, Baylor” quietly into my ear.
I let go of her and patted her on the back. “Best of luck to you, Gillie. I’m sure the rest of your time in high school is going to be just fantastic for the rest of us.”
Oli squeezed me into a bear hug. “I’ll miss you, Baylor,” he said. “But I won’t miss hearing you talk to ghosts in the middle of the night.”
Jack’s face fell into horror. “What?”
I tried to laugh it off. “Ha-ha nothing, Oli’s just kidding. Bye, Oli, see you later,” I said, shoving the kid out the door.
“There was a ghost in your room last night?” he asked.
“Jack, there’s always a ghost in my room,” I said. “Kristina? Remember?”
His face was still sunken, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Well,” Kristina said, eyeing his expression, “I guess I’ll have to reevaluate my feelings on Jack.”
I kept my mouth shut since I was already on thin ice with him, but she read my eyes.
“I know he’s freaked out by ghosts,” she said with an annoyed tone, “but come on! I’m his sister!”
* * *
That afternoon I hung out in the family room and played with Ella, who was really into grabbing things over and over again and then trying to eat them. My shirt, my phone, the remote control, the empty bag of chips by my side, her various toys—anything and everything was up for grabs.
She’d fallen asleep after a couple hours, and I turned on the TV. Except, as I flipped through the channels, I realized I was just trying to get to a news station for any updates on Archie and Helena.
I found a news channel and waited through a whole cycle of news before it started to repeat, with no mention of the lost kids. Demon dung. I didn’t know what I was hoping for. It seemed like we needed a miracle at this point.
I looked at Ella, sleeping quietly, and suddenly felt exhausted myself. It’d been an exciting, tumultuous morning, and my brain was demanding some rest. I sat back and closed my eyes.
Seconds later, I was floating through the air, hovering over Loved Ones’ Lane.
Well, that’s weird, I thought. Am I dreaming about the lane or am I already there?
It began to feel too complicated to think about what was happening, so I just went with the flow, sailing down the lane, past the edge overlooking the vast ocean, which was sparkling brightly under the sun. Except it was too strangely bright, and the odd shimmering colors from last night were more vibrant than ever.
What’s going on? What’s with all the weird light?
Suddenly it became pitch-black, and the ocean and the blue sky and the sun vanished.
Where had the light gone?
I looked around me and noticed the rectangle shape again in the distance, so I ventured toward it. The thin band of light coming around the sides seemed to grow brighter as I approached it, and it dawned on me the light must have gone to the other side of the door. All I had to do was open it to make this side bright again. Easy peasy.
I leisurely floated over, reached out to the door handle, and, just as I about to turn the knob, was blasted backward in a blazing pulse of light.
I woke with a gasp and looked around the family room.
Ella was still sleeping, a glob of drool yo-yoing from her mouth.
Kristina was there, looking at me in confusion.
And Archie was there, standing in front of us, smiling sadly.
He’d crossed over to the other side.
TIP
20
Flying private isn’t that glamorous.
“NO,” I SAID, STANDING UP quickly. “No!” Tears brimmed at my eyes. “If you’re here now, that means . . .”
“There’s nothing more to be done, Baylor,” he said. “It’s too late for me.”
Ella woke up and blinked rapidly, her eyes focusing on the new boy in the room.
“Bay-Bay?” she said, uncertain.
“Ella, that’s Archie,” I said, my voice br
eaking.
“Archie!” she squeaked.
Somehow I managed to laugh; Ella’s cuteness was the only saving grace in the face of this tragic discovery.
He smiled at her. “She reminds me of my little sister,” he said. I thought of when I heard him singing “Amazing Grace,” how he mentioned his little sister playing peekaboo to the lyrics. A pang of sadness flitted in my stomach.
“Are you okay, Archie?” Kristina asked, standing up to greet her fellow ghost. “Sometimes it can be shock for newcomers.”
“I feel okay,” he said. “I’m mostly happy I’m not hungry anymore.”
“This is horrible,” I said. “First you, and Helena will likely be here soon.”
“No,” he said, his voice suddenly fierce. “It may have been too late for me, but it’s not too late for her. You can still save her.”
“How?” I said, perking up. “Can you lead the way?”
“I wouldn’t need to,” he said. “You could find her even without me.”
Kristina’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t mean . . . it worked?”
Archie nodded. “You’ve left a piece of your soul there, Baylor.”
I frowned. “Are you messing with me?”
“Of course not,” he said. “You must have teared up while I was talking about my parents, leaving a piece of your soul on the boat.”
“I don’t know,” I muttered. “It was only one, maybe two tears.”
“And that’s how you’re here now, then?” Kristina said. “Because of the soul connection with Baylor the Crybaby?”
“Archie told a really sad, touching story,” I said, flustered.
Archie nodded. “I wouldn’t normally be able to connect with him?”
She shook her head. “Baylor’s power is proximity based, more out of necessity than anything else. Otherwise, just think of how many people and spirits would be trying to reach him from all over the world.”
“Well, only one person matters right now,” he said. “Baylor, you have to find Helena. She doesn’t have much time.”
I hopped off the couch. “I know what to do.”
I called Mr. Papadopoulos and explained the situation. He did not sound good.
“Archie’s dead?” he said through muffled heaves. “No, no,” he cried. “How can this be?”
Baylor's Guide to Dreadful Dreams Page 16