Page 153 of Sweet Nightmare

When the burning finally stops, I ask the question that’s been bugging me since we stepped through the door. “How are you healed so fast? You were in the worst shape out of all of us.”

He nods to acknowledge the question but takes his time answering it as he continues to doctor the bite. After a minute or so, though, he answers, “I’ve been wondering the same thing—I’ve never been bitten by one of the monsters before, so healing this quickly is a new experience for me. But I think it’s because nightmares can’t hurt me.”

“No offense, man, but I beg to differ,” Simon tells him. “I saw you get your ass kicked.”

“That’s not what I mean. I mean, they can momentarily cause me pain—bite me, scratch me, whatever—but nothing else they did to me stuck. But the rest of you look like you’ve been trapped in a cage with a hungry bear, so the difference has to be that…”

“You’re the Prince of Nightmares,” I finish for him when he trails off.

He shrugs.

Jude finishes cleaning my last wound, then moves on to Ember and the others.

The ibuprofen kicks in about ten minutes later, and I push myself up to help.

It must be kicking in for the others because they’re moving around, too. Mozart even heads over to the old, out-of-tune piano at the edge of the stage and starts playing “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” from R.E.M. And holy shit, I think it’s at least as good as the original—and that’s on a decrepit old piano. I can only imagine what it would sound like on a decent instrument.

Apparently, she got her name for a reason.

Also, I can’t think of a more perfect song to sum up the shit show of the last twenty-four hours.

Not to mention the even bigger shit show I have a feeling is still to come. So good on her.

As if to underscore my feelings, an ear-piercing screeching—louder even than the thunder, the wind, or the other distant roar—sounds from just outside the dance hall.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

TWO TRUTHS

AND A LOVE

“What the hell is that?” Mozart demands as she stops mid song.

When it comes again, I kind of wish she’d just keep playing because I’m pretty sure I know exactly what’s making that noise.

“Squidzilla,” Izzy says so that I don’t have to. “That thing sounded just like that when it was trying to kill us yesterday.”

“So that means all the monsters are out?” Luis asks flatly. “Because that’s three now.”

“I don’t know about all—” I break off as a different scream fills the air, higher and more eerie than the first one.

“Pretty sure that answers your question,” Remy tells him dryly.

“But how? I’ve been down there a hundred times with you. The cages aren’t electric. Maybe one lock failed. But all of them?” Luis shakes his head. “No way that happened.”

“The waves haven’t hit hard enough to have fucked things up in the admin building. If they had, this whole area would be flooded,” Mozart comments. “So what did it?”

“I think you mean who,” I answer.

I can’t help remembering Jean-Luc’s face yesterday in Brit Lit, after that snake monster thing attacked. He was really excited, gleeful even. At the time I couldn’t figure out what had him in such a good mood, but now that I know Jude wasn’t the mysterious visitor in the dungeon yesterday, all of this is starting to add up.

“The Jean-Jerks.” Luis beats me to it. We’ve been best friends for a long time, and he can obviously read my face.

I tell them about yesterday and finish with, “It’s the kind of petty bullshit thing they would do.” I look over at Jude, who looks absolutely guilt ridden. Because the mafia rule tends to be if you fuck with them, they go after the people you care most about. Jude shut them down in class, and I nearly got my ass kicked by the grossest snake monster imaginable.

“Kill our friend and I’ll let loose a plague of monsters on everyone?” Remy sounds skeptical.

“I’d do it if someone pissed me off enough,” Izzy tells him.

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