Suddenly, Isabel was sure that Jessica was in the middle of a dream she had had since she was a little girl. That made the dream less helpful for Isabel. A recurring child- hood dream wouldn't have the kind of detail that Isabel and the others would need to find Jessica in the real world. There was a noise from inside the closet on the other side of the room, and the girl on the bed opened her eyes. Isabel could see fear in young Jessica's eyes.
Jessica glanced with recognition as if remembering this dream. Whatever was in that closet scared her badly. Isabel considered interfering, but decided to let the dream run its course. Perhaps it would show her something helpful.
Jessica got out of bed and walked toward the closet. She did so almost unwillingly, as if she knew what was inside and was being forced by some twisted dream logic to seek it out.
Isabel felt a swell of sympathy for the scared little girl in front of her in a long white nightgown and the scared young woman out there somewhere. She wanted to stop the girl from opening the closet door, but Isabel forced herself to keep out of it. Jessicas life would likely depend on what Isabel could learn here.
The girl padded across her room and reluctantly put her hand on the closets doorknob. Slowly she turned it and started to pull at the door.
An instant later, the door practically exploded open, throwing the girl backward and onto the floor in front of her bed.
What happened next, happened quickly. The first thing that Isabel noticed was the noise: A loud roar sounded from the closet.
It wasn't an animal sound that Isabel had ever heard, nor did she recognize it as anything from any movie or tel- evision show she had ever seen. It was a high-pitched and piercing series of clicks and tones that Isabel could feel in her chest.
Isabel was sure of one thing, though: It was terrifying Jessica. Feeling her panic rise, Isabel realized that there was something unnatural in that sound. Reflexively, Isabel found herself raising up her hand to defend herself as Jessica backed away from the closet as she sat on the ground. Then the creature that made the sound took a step from the darkness of the closet into the light of the room.
It was hideous. Isabel couldn't believe that it had come from a child's imagination. The creature had roughly the shape of a person, but that was where the resemblance ended.
Covered in a scaly brownish-yellow skin, it had a large head that came to a point in the back of its skull. Its eyes were a bright yellow, and it had a wide mouth that jutted out from its face and was full of long teeth.
It was a monster, and Isabel felt her blood run cold just looking at it.
A scream sounded from behind her, and Isabel turned to see Jessica cowering against her bed. The creature looked down at Jessica, and then it seemed to notice Isabel.
The monster began to make its sound, which was even louder now that it was free of the closet. When it lurched forward, Isabel instinctively raised her hand and sum- moned her energy. Before the monster could take a step, Isabel released her power and hit it full force in the chest.
The creature betrayed a moment of surprise as it sailed backward into the darkness of the closet. As Isabel caught her breath, she sensed motion next to her. Then she turned to watch Jessica getting up and heading for the closet.
"Wait," Isabel said.
But before Isabel could act, the girl grabbed the closet door and slammed it shut.
Then Jessica looked up at her and said, "We should go.”
Isabel nodded and said, "All right.”
She took Jessica's hand, and they started walking for the bedroom door. They had only taken a few steps when Isabel felt the little girl jerk in her hand.
Looking down, Isabel saw that something was pulling Jes- sica toward the bed. A claw with three fingers had snaked from underneath the bed and had grabbed Jessicas ankle. She recognized it as belonging to the creature from the closet.
Jessica screamed, blind terror in her voice. "Help me, don't let him take me!”
Isabel pulled on Jessica's hand, trying to tear her away from the bed. But the creature was very strong, and Jessica started to slip down to the floor.
"Nooooo!" Isabel heard herself scream.
Then the world flashed around her, and Isabel found herself in a large room. No, not quite a room, she realized as her heart hammered in her chest.
She looked around frantically and saw that the creature was gone. She was relieved, but still felt the tension and adrenaline of the encounter in Jessica's bedroom. As she started to relax, she took note of her surroundings. She was in a… place that she had never seen before.
It wasn't a room.
It had a floor that was made of some sort of metal and a ceiling maybe ten feet above. But it did not have walls. The floor and ceiling seemed to go on forever on all sides until they just disappeared into the distance.
There were no lights that she could see, but there was light all around her.
Looking down, Isabel saw that Jessica was with her, lying on a low table. The girl had her eyes closed, but Isabel could tell that she wasn't sleeping.
The little girl's eyes were shut, but they were being squeezed shut tightly. Jessica was afraid, Isabel saw. She was as afraid here as she had been in her bedroom. Isabel decided that she couldn't let this continue. She would have to try to contact Jessica directly. It risked waking her up and expelling Isabel from the dream, but she had no choice. She wasn't going to learn anything in this place.
And the girl was terrified.
Leaning down, she took Jessica's hand and whispered, "It's all right. I'm here to help you.”
Keeping her eyes closed, the little girl shook her head and whispered back, "Don't make any noise, they'll come.”
"I've come to find you. My friends and I are going to help you," she said.
"No, run. They'll catch you if you stay," Jessica said.
The little girl's eyes opened. Then her mouth opened. She was locked into a silent scream, gasping in terror over Isabel's shoulder. Spinning around, Isabel looked up and saw the monster from the closet's face. This time it was huge, hundreds of feet across and looking down at them from above.
Jessica screamed again, and this one wasn't silent.
Isabel realized a sound was rising in her own throat, and then the world shifted around her again.
Isabel came out of the dream in the small room off of Johnny's Garage. Jessica's screaming still echoed in her mind as she shook her head to try to clear it.
Someone had her by the shoulders.
"Isabel!" a voice called to her.
She focused on his face. It was Max. All at once, the screaming stopped. She realized that it was she who had been screaming.
Her friends were circled around her, looking at her with concern. Their sympathy made it harder for her to keep her composure, so she stopped trying. She leaned into Max's arms and let him hold her. When she finally felt like she had control over herself, she pulled away.
"What happened, Is?" Max asked, his voice gentle with concern.
"She was having a nightmare," Isabel replied. She took a deep breath and explained everything she had just seen. When she had finished telling the story, Liz nodded and said, "Thank you, Isabel. I know that was hard for you.”
"Not as hard as it was for Jessica," Isabel replied. "Wher- ever she is, she's in real trouble and she's terrified. And I don't think she'll live long if we don't do something.”
"At the moment, there's nothing else we can do," Max said. "We still don't know anything that could help her.”
"I'll have to keep trying," Isabel said.