“It’s not there,” he muttered under his breath. “Nothing’s there.”
Laurie shrieked, hands flying up to cover her head as she ducked from some unseen monster.
“It’s not—” Matt began.
“I know,” she said, already uncovering her head. She cast an angry look around the room. “Not real. You hear me? You’re not real.”
“You got it.” Matt put his hands on her shoulders and steered her, in front of him, toward the doorway.
When a puff of smoke appeared in the doorway, swirling, he instinctively stopped and pulled Laurie back. The smoke took the shape of a woman—so thin she looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over her bones. Long white hair swirled around her. Her eyes were empty pits. When she opened her mouth, it was filled with rotting stumps of teeth.
“You’re not there,” Matt said, pushing Laurie forward. “You’re a figment of my imagination.”
The apparition hissed and reached out a long, bony finger.
Laurie dug in her heels. “Uh, Matt? Are you seeing a really ugly woman pointing at us?”
“Yeah…”
“Then she’s actually there, because I see her, too.”
“A mara,” he said. “That must be what they look like.” He stepped in front of Laurie and squared his shoulders. “But it’s still just a spirit. It can’t hurt you. Remember that. Close your eyes and hold my shirt, and we’ll walk right through—”
Something shot from the hag’s finger and hit Matt like a jolt of electricity, knocking him to the floor and stunning him.
Laurie pulled him up. “Your theory is wrong.”
“No kidding.”
The mara pointed again, this time at Laurie. Matt pushed Laurie to the side and dove after her. The bolt hit the wall, leaving a sizzling hole in the plaster.
“Other door!” Matt shouted.
He pushed Laurie and ran behind her. When he heard a sizzle, he shouted a warning and dodged. The bolt whizzed past into the wall again. They raced out the other door and found themselves at the foot of the stairs.
From above, they could hear Reyna shouting and Ray gibbering.
“Guess I’m going up with you,” Laurie said.
They raced up the stairs, the mara in pursuit, seeming in no hurry, as if just herding them along, cackling and throwing her bolts. When a figure appeared on the steps, Matt almost fell backward. It was his mother—her face gray and dead, like it’d been in his dream.
“I believed in you,” his mother said. “I told them you could save us.”
His father appeared at the top of the stairs. “You let her down, Matt. You let us all down.”
“Not real,” Matt whispered. “Not real.”
Laurie shrieked, seeing some apparition of her own, and she turned as if to run back down the stairs, but Matt pushed her up, his voice getting louder as he chanted, “Not real. Not real!”
The more he fought the nightmares, the harder the mara tried. His parents came first, then his brother, then his grandfather, then friends at school. All dead. Devoured by serpents and rotting in graves. All dead. All blaming him.
But Laurie was getting it just as bad. He could tell by her yells and cries, but all he could do was keep pushing her forward and deal with banishing his own nightmares. When they finally reached the top, the apparitions fell in behind with the mara chasing them.
Laurie ran to a closed door and yanked it open. Inside, Matt saw Baldwin’s parents’ room, and he almost stopped her, ready to say they shouldn’t go in there. But now wasn’t really the time to worry about being rude. So when she pulled him in and slammed the door, he let her.
On the other side, he could hear his family, shouting at him. A bolt from the mara went right through the wood and burned his shoulder. As he stumbled back, Laurie spun and raced into the room. She ran to the balcony door and yanked it open.
“Wait!” Matt yelled.
“We have to get outside. They won’t follow us there.”
She raced through. Matt ran after her. The balcony was long and narrow, with a wooden railing that overlooked the backyard. Laurie climbed onto the railing.
“No!” Matt shouted, lurching forward.
“We need to get over the fence,” she said. Her eyes were blank again, and he knew she was dreaming.
He ran for her. “That’s not a—!”
She dropped over the side. Matt let out a cry and raced for the railing. He looked down to see Laurie lying on the ground. He scrambled over the railing, stood on the edge of the balcony, crouched, grabbing the edge, then dropped.
He hit the ground hard enough to let out a gasp, pain shooting through his legs. Then he scrambled over to Laurie. She was sitting now, cradling her arm. It was bent at a weird angle. Broken.
“Are you okay?” he said. “Other than your arm, are you—?”
“There you are,” said a voice from the house.
They both looked up as Fen barreled out the patio door, his face twisted with rage. “Did you really think I’d let you take my cousin away?”
NINETEEN
FEN
“TROUBLE IN PINK BOOTS”
Fen saw the two of them and realized they were trying to ditch him. His cousin, his almost-sister, was leaving him because he wasn’t as strong as Matt. He’d known it could happen, but he’d believed in her. She was the only one who’d ever stuck by him.
“So what, you creep out while I’m sleeping? Leave me here while you go save the world?” Fen advanced on them, growling deep in his throat like he wasn’t on two legs anymore.
“It’s a dream, Fen.” Matt had his arm around Laurie, and she was leaning on him.
“You and Thorsen?” Fen reached for her, but she flinched away. “You’re going to be heroes and leave me behind?”
“No.” Laurie pushed away from Matt. “This is a dream, and we’re all having nightmares about the things we fear.”
“They’re called mara. They’re attacking us with nightmares.” Matt stepped closer to them and pointed up to the second floor. “Laurie jumped from there thinking it was a fence.”
Fen looked at Laurie, and she nodded and then looked pointedly at the arm she was holding tight to her chest. “I broke it. That’swhy I pulled away.”
He started to answer, but then Kris walked out of the shadows and stood behind Laurie. “You believe this trash? You always were dumber than the rest of the family, boy. You know they offered to pay me to take you in? And I still said no.” Kris laughed and then tossed a half-empty beer at Fen. “I lost the betting pool, though, and now I’m stuck with you.”
Fen ducked to avoid the can.
“Fen.” Laurie stepped up to him. “Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real. Focus on me. Please. I need you to help me.”
He shook his head, and Kris vanished. “How do we fight illusions?”
“Focus on what’s real.” Matt looked back toward the house. “The bony women inside aren’t illusions, though, and my Hammer is in there. If we’re going to fight them…”
“Let’s go get it, then.” Fen marched up to the door and went back inside. His dad was on the floor in the kitchen, being kicked in the sides and stomach by Skull and Hattie. They grinned at him.
“You’re next,” Hattie said. “Wait till I tell your little friends about how we got the shield and how you’re going to help us get Matt, too. Bet we won’t have to hurt you then. They’ll do it for us.”
Beside him, he heard Laurie repeating, “Not real. Not real. Not real.”
Fen squared his shoulders and looked away from the Raiders in the kitchen. They needed to find the mara and get rid of them. Baldwin ran toward them. “There are monsters in my house.” He held out a hand to Matt; cupped in his open palm was the Hammer amulet. “Here. You left this in the living room.”
“Thank you!” Matt folded the tiny Hammer in his hand so tightly that Fen thought it might cut the skin. Baldwin really was a good guy: he’d brought them what they needed without even being told.