by Brian Olsen
“Yes. They were all awake, but cowering.”
“They were all in one place?”
She shakes her head. “I only went to the police station. But she must have hit the firehouse, too, and that’s across town.”
He touches the trophy Mr. Ambrose holds. “Everyone reacts differently when faced with their greatest fears. But the minotaurs acted as one, as if she steered their behavior through the visions she sent them. I have never heard of her having that ability before.”
“Tannyl,” Alisa asks, “what are you saying? That she’s not behind this?”
“No. But to make so many humans and minotaurs, spanning a great distance, see specific nightmares for such a period of time. Rendering some senseless while sending others on a controlled rampage. I could be mistaken. I am no expert in logomancy. But does that not seem like an extraordinary display of power?”
He’s right. This was even more extensive than what I saw her do in my dream. And she was right in the middle of everything, then, not off hiding somewhere.
“Especially after the Moment,” I say. “None of us have even close to the control we had before.”
“I fear she is…” Tannyl stops. “Oh.” He turns quickly to Alisa. “I’m afraid my time—”
He shakes. Alisa cries out and tries to put her arms around him, but he stretches and disappears into her necklace. Her arms close on empty air.
She spins to Mr. Ambrose. “Can you…?”
“Pull one specific elf out?” He blows air out of his cheeks. “I’m sorry, that’s too precise for me, even if I weren’t wiped out. I could try fishing? Pull elves at random until we find him? How many are in there?”
Her shoulders droop. “Too many.”
Nate rubs her back. “We’ll get him out, Alisa.”
“I know.” She puts her hand to her chest, where the medallion sits under her blouse. “I know we will.”
“If the elf is right,” Liefer says, “then the Nightmare Queen must be close by. Perhaps watching us now. We need to find her.”
Alisa shakes her head. “That’s not what he was saying. If she couldn’t—”
“We can help,” I say quickly, cutting Alisa off. “Mr. Liefer, let us help look for her.”
“No. You five, go home. Keep a low profile. Footage of the minotaurs got out, and we don’t know what effect that’s going to have on the Moment. The fewer people who see your face right now, Chris, the better.”
“Forget it.” Zane spits in the grass. “We’re way better at this than you. You need us—”
I grab Zane’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll take everyone home, Mr. Liefer, then stay out of sight. Everybody grab on.”
Alisa puts her hands on her hips. “Chris, come on! We can—”
I give her as much of a ‘shut the hell up’ look as I can without alerting Liefer. “Grab on, I said!”
Her jaw snaps shut. She puts a hand on me, and the rest of my friends do, too. I teleport us to my yard.
Nate lets go. “So what are we really doing?”
“Going inside,” I answer.
He looks at Alisa, who shrugs. I go in through the front door and they follow me into the living room.
“Dad?” I call out. “You back yet?”
Nothing.
“Chris,” Zane says. “What’s going on? We gotta find the Nightmare Queen. We find her, we find Miller. Maybe even your mom and dad. We’re not gonna sit on our asses, are we?”
My heart is a rock in my chest. I hate what’s about to happen.
Nate shakes my shoulder. “Buddy? You still with us?”
I grab him and hug him. Tight. “I’m sorry, Nate. I’m so, so sorry.”
He pats my back and laughs a little. “What? What’d you do now?”
I break away. “We don’t need to look for the Nightmare Queen. I know exactly where she is.”
I walk to the far end of the room. I don’t have to look at my friends to feel their confusion, their concern.
I turn back.
“Jasmine. Please stop. Stop before more people die.”
“What?” Jasmine blinks. “Stop what?”
“Dude!” Nate puts his arm around Jasmine’s waist. “Not cool, and not funny!”
“Wait.” Alisa holds up a hand. “You’re not saying Jasmine—”
“I’m not!” Jasmine hugs her pink elephant backpack tighter to her chest. “Chris, I promise! Nate, tell him!”
“Then open your bag, Jasmine,” I say. “Open your bag and show us what’s inside.”
She freezes.
“Jaz?” Nate’s voice quivers. “Jaz, what’s he talking about?”
Jasmine smiles. She doesn’t look at Nate. Just at me.
She unzips her bag and lifts out a heavy book, just far enough so we can all read the title. Creatures of Myth and Legend.
“Well.”
She shifts her weight onto one hip and flicks back her long red hair.
“Took you long enough.”
Thirty
“No.” Nate’s expression falls but he doesn’t take his arm from around Jasmine’s waist. “No, Jaz. Not funny.”
“But it is, Nate.” She chucks him under the chin. “It’s a riot.”
“Please.” His voice cracks. “It’s not true. Please. Not you.”
“Aw.” She kisses his cheek. “He still cares. Isn’t he the sweetest?”
Alisa shakes her head. “No. Jasmine didn’t experience the Moment.”
“I did, actually.”
Jasmine walks a little away from Nate. His arm hangs in the air for a second before he slowly lowers it.
“I was asleep when the Moment happened.” She zips the book away and shifts her bag onto her back. “Which is appropriate, I guess.” She points at me, a wry smile on her face. “How’d you know, Chris? Not that I was being all that discrete, honestly.” She waggles her finger at Alisa. “But nobody else figured it out.”
“I didn’t know, not for sure,” I answer. “Not until just now. What Tannyl said, about you needing to be nearby to use your powers. In the same city, at least. It got me thinking about how the Nightmare Queen found me in London so easily, if she was still back in Charlesville.”
Zane moves to my side. “She’d have to be watching, to see when you were about to say your word. I thought Miller found a new friend, somebody who could spy from a distance or something.” He eyes Jasmine warily. “But it’s not that complicated. She was on the bridge with us.”
“And the Nightmare Queen knew about Mrs. Wollard, too,” I add. “Sent her a dream, telling her we’d be on the Millennium Bridge.”
Alisa gasps. “That was Jasmine’s idea. To walk across.”
“And Jasmine was holding the book, in the mall,” I continue, “when the lightning bird got out.”
“No, no, no.” Nate puts his hands to his temples. “Jaz got hit by a nightmare too. In school. The class she forgot to take? Why would she attack herself?”
Jasmine giggles. “Red herring, babe! I put a lot of work into it. I couldn’t make that schedule with my powers, since it’s from my own nightmare. I had to print it in the computer lab!”
“And on the bridge,” I continue. “Nate was the only human in our group that Mrs. Wollard turned into a wolf. Not me, or Alisa, or Zane. And not you. We would have resisted the spell, because we’re all logomancers.” I shake my head. “I didn’t put it together. I should have suspected you, but I didn’t. Not until that look you gave me a little while ago. In the park.”
She sighs. “I wondered if you saw that.”
“You thought I wasn’t looking. Like in the memory you sent me, of when the Nightmare Queen and the Common King first met. She pretended to be crazy, but he caught her dropping the act. In the woods, you looked at me like that, just for a second. That made me think what a coincidence it was, that the minotaur who was right about to kill Nate got sent back to the trophy just in the nick of time. Which made me remember London, and how the Nightmare Queen only stopped
interfering with my magic after Nate was endangered. Except those weren’t coincidences. That was you, saving him.”
“Can’t let anybody hurt my sweetie.”
“But…” Nate grabs her hand. “No, you couldn’t, Jaz. Those minotaurs killed people. You’re not responsible for that. Please. Miller’s using you, right? He did something to you?”
“Oh, Nate.” She strokes his cheek. “All Mr. Miller did was wake me up.”
“When?” I ask. “How long have you had your memories back?”
“Since the fight at the prom. Remember how Mr. Miller took me to safety while you went off to fight the good fight? He had an idea that I might be someone from his side, but he wasn’t sure who. So he used his magic on me, right out in the parking lot.” She laughs. “And he was right! Although technically, he’s on my side. I am his queen, after all. Hey, I’m queen of all of you!” She takes her hand away from Nate and claps once, sharply. “Let’s see some bowing, people! Not you, Chris, obviously.”
“Nobody’s bowing, you loon. Shadow.” Zane throws his hands out and a shadow creeps across the floor from his feet towards Jasmine. “We haven’t been friends that long, Jaz, so I’m not all that broken up about—”
Jasmine snaps her fingers and five children appear in my living room. Five giant children, so big their heads hit the ceiling. They’re about seven or eight years old, and although their faces are grotesquely distorted into monstrous proportions, I recognize them. Three of them are kids I went to elementary school with. The other two are me and Nate.
Zane screams. His shadow dissipates.
“Bully!” the children scream in unison. “Bully!”
Jasmine claps her hands. “Uh oh! Somebody’s got some unresolved guilt issues!”
I jump in front of Zane but one of the children swats me aside. The one that looks like me wraps its meaty hand around Zane’s face, muffling his cries of terror. The other children chant, “Who’s the fag now, Zane? Who’s the fag now?”
Alisa screams, “Stop it, Jasmine! Stop it!”
Jasmine sighs. “Fine. Nightmare.”
The children disappear. I run to Zane and catch him as he collapses, lowering him to the floor.
Jasmine pouts. “He started it. I was trying to have a civil conversation.”
Zane takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m okay. Gimme a second.”
I hold him. “What do you want, Jasmine?”
“You know what I want, Chris. I told you.”
“I’m not going to be the Common King again. It’s not happening.”
“Argh!” She stomps her foot. “You’re so unreasonable! I told you, you can shape him to be something better! You won’t be the Common King, you won’t be Chris, you’ll be both! Like me!”
“You’re saying you’re still Jasmine?”
“Totally.”
“Jasmine would never hurt anyone. Not ever.”
She rolls her eyes. “You gotta break a few eggs, Chris.”
“Truth!” Alisa darts forward and grabs Jasmine’s face in her hands. “Truth!”
Jasmine shoves her away. “Not cool, Alisa!” She wipes her cheek with her forearm. “And not going to give you the result you want, either. I mean, think about it. Which is more true, Jasmine or the Nightmare Queen?”
“No.” Nate drops to the carpet, holding his head in his hands. “No, no, no.”
“Oh, Natey!” Jasmine sits next to him. “It’s okay, babe, really, it is!”
“It’s not! It’s wrong! Everything’s wrong!” He presses his palms against his eyes. “I’m a lie and you’re a lie and the world is a lie and I can’t. I’ve been trying to pretend I’m okay with it all but I can’t. I can’t.”
“Oh, no, Nate, no!” She takes his hands away from his face. “You’re not a lie! You’re the best part of this stupid fake world!”
Tears stream down Nate’s cheeks. “You killed people, Jasmine.”
Zane tenses. I think he’s going to attack again while Jasmine is distracted, but I squeeze him and shake my head. If anybody can get through to Jasmine, it’s Nate.
“I didn’t kill anybody on purpose, Natey,” Jasmine answers. “There were so many minotaurs. I’m really strong right now but I couldn’t keep track of all of them at once.”
“But you knew,” he says. “You made them so afraid, you made them see everyone as monsters, you knew they’d hurt people!”
“I had to!”
“Why?” He intertwines his fingers with hers. “Why, Jaz?”
“You said it. This world is a lie.” She kisses him. “We’re going to fix it.”
She stands up, holding on to one of his hands while he stays seated on the floor. “You guys should be helping me, not fighting me. All of you. Alisa, the truth is your whole jam, but what’s true about the Moment? Zane, you feel guilty about being part of the spell. Don’t you want to make that right? And Chris.” She grins at me. “Chris, you’re my husband. Isn’t that crazy?” Her smile falters and she looks down at Nate. “Don’t worry, babe, it was only so I could be queen. It’s totally an open marriage.” She looks back at me. There’s a surprising warmth in her eyes. “But Chris, you were my best friend in the whole world. Nobody understood me until you found me. Nobody. You took me from nothing and made me a queen.” She winks. “So don’t worry. I’m gonna save you, like you saved me.”
“You’re glossing over a lot, Jasmine.” I slide my arms from around Zane and stand. “Like all the people the Common King and the Nightmare Queen killed together.”
“It’ll be different this time. We’re going to bring the old world back, but we’ll keep our new memories. We’ll know how to fix things! You’ll see.”
Nate pulls his hand out of hers. “I wasn’t in that world, Jasmine. I don’t have a place there.”
“That’s right.” Alisa crosses her arms. “You can’t undo the Moment, Jasmine. There are billions of people who’ll die if you do.”
“No!” She sighs. “No, they won’t die. They won’t ever have been. It’s different!”
“Not to them!” I say. “Not to Nate! Not to my dad!”
She thrusts her fists into her hair. “Oh, you’re getting me all twisted up! We’ll protect the people who matter! Nate will be fine! So will your father! It’s all taken care of!”
“What?” My hands flame up. “What do you know about my father? Where is he?”
“Ooh!” She smacks her forehead. “I’m such a blabbermouth. How did I keep pretending as long as I did? We’d better go before I spill the rest of the beans. Come on, Nate. We’ll take your car.”
“Shadow.”
The archway leading from the living room to the front hall turns solid black.
Zane stands. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oh, Zane.” She smirks and shakes her head. “That would be adorable if it weren’t so sad.”
The ceiling explodes. The whole second story of my house is destroyed in a burst of fire. Chunks of burning rubble fall all around me. A figure floats down from the sky, through the cloud of dust.
It’s me. No, it’s him. The Common King.
“No,” I say. “No.”
He has no eyes. Fire fills the empty sockets. He opens his mouth to smile, revealing more flames. Inside him is nothing but fire.
My heart pounds. I open my mouth to scream but no sound comes out. I turn to run but the room spins around me and he’s still there. I back away and trip over something.
Zane. Dead. Burned to death.
I scream silently and scurry backwards on my elbows. I bump into Alisa. She’s dead too. Burned by him.
Nate. Jasmine. Tannyl. Lily. Andy. Mr. Liefer. Mr. Ambrose. They’re all here. A pile of smoldering bodies.
More. Kenny and Shonda and all my classmates. Friends from the LGBTQ Center. From Hope House. People I know from town. People I don’t know. They’re all in my living room. They’re all dead.
My parents.
“You did this.” The Common King’s
voice crackles. “You did this.”
I scream. This time the sound comes out, loud and harsh and long. I scream and scream and scream.
He’s gone. The bodies are gone.
My house is intact.
I’m on the floor. Curled into a ball.
I stop screaming. I cry instead.
Someone else is crying too. Two people. Zane and Alisa.
I crawl to them. The three of us hold one another and sob.
“So afraid,” Zane chokes out. “That was…I was….”
I swallow. “I knew it wasn’t real. But I couldn’t…” I can’t finish.
“Nothing.” Alisa takes a deep breath. “I couldn’t fight through it. It was too real.”
“Where’s…” I wipe my eyes, then jump up, run to the front door and throw it open. “They’re gone. Nate’s car is gone.”
“Chris!”
I turn and look back. Zane’s got his phone out.
“It’s been an hour!” he says. “She kept us in those nightmares for an hour!”
“They could be anywhere.” Alisa staggers to her feet. “How do we find them?”
“And how do we fight her?” Zane shakes his head. “If she’s that damn strong, how the hell do we fight her?”
I can’t answer them.
Jasmine is going to undo the Moment. She’s going to kill billions of people. And I have no idea how to stop her.
Thirty-one
“Nothing.” Alisa bunches her tree necklace up in her hand and lowers her phone. “I scried for Jasmine, for Nate, for his car, for the book. It’s just like when I tried to find Miller before. Nothing.”
I put my phone in my pocket. “No answer from Nate. Or my dad.”
Zane collapses into the sofa. “I hate to say it, but should we call Mr. Liefer?”
Alisa puts her necklace back on. “I guess. But it’s not like he’s had any luck finding them so far. And Jasmine’s so strong now. Do you think Miller got that much stronger, too? Maybe that’s why they’ve been so good at hiding.”
“How is her logomancy so powerful?” I pace back and forth in front of the coffee table. “All this stuff she can do. It doesn’t match what Tannyl said or what I saw in my dream. I don’t think she could do this much even before the Moment. It’s like she’s being—”