Page 101 of Sweet Nightmare

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

NIGHTMARE ON

MY STREET: PART ?

My stomach churns at the thought that more people are dying, and I swallow down the sudden fear that’s dragging me into an abyss of horror. Because if all of these students are outside, and none of the adults who are currently in charge of us are anywhere to be found, something really bad is happening.

Or, more likely, has already happened.

“What do you think is going on?” I whisper to Jude.

He must not hear me above the chaos of the storm, because he doesn’t answer.

I turn to look at him, but his face is stoic even as the rain slaps against him again and again.

“Jude.” I raise my voice this time to make sure he can hear me, but he still doesn’t answer as he stares, blindly, into the storm.

“Jude!” I yell his name now. “We’ve got to help them.”

He nods, but he doesn’t move. Just keeps peering into the dark.

I don’t know if that means he’s in shock or if he’s just as overwhelmed as I feel. Either way, I can’t leave him like this. Can’t leave any of them like this—not when so many people obviously need help.

I grab his shoulders and shake him until his multicolored eyes meet mine and snap back into focus. “We have to help them,” I say again.

“I’m trying,” he answers, which makes no sense considering he’s just standing there.

But now that I have his attention, I’m not going to ask what he means. Instead, I say, “I think we need to find our friends. They can go get help while we look for Bianca.”

I studiously avoid mentioning the fact that our friends might not have made it through whatever this is. Eva didn’t. And neither did Belinda.

I can tell by the clench of his jaw that the same nightmarish thoughts are running through Jude’s head.

I pull out my phone again and try to text Luis. But—just like earlier with Michaels and my mom—it doesn’t go through. I try to keep the panic at bay, but it’s hard when I think about Eva.

“Where do you—” Jude starts but breaks off when a scream splits the night, followed by a series of several more.

I whirl around, heart in my throat, just in time to watch a girl run out of her cabin and melt not twenty feet from me. Like actually dissolve right in front of me.

“Oh my God!” I scream and take off down the ramp toward her while Jude simply vaults over the railing.

But he’s only gone a couple of steps before he snarls, “Fuck!” and turns back toward me, holding a hand out to stop me in my tracks. His voice is hoarse when he says, “Don’t come this way.”

At first, I can’t figure out what he means. But he’s standing under one of the old hurricane lamps that line the center mall, and I watch in horror as the rain washes blood off his shoes.

A scream wedges in my throat, and it takes every ounce of self-control I have to swallow it down.

“Whose is that?” I ask when I finally succeed.

Jude shakes his head, and for a second, he looks as defeated as I feel.

“We need to find them,” I tell him. “We need to—”

“We already have,” Mozart says as she and Simon come up on Jude’s left. “It belongs to one of the freshman girls. A fairy.”

“What happened to her?” I ask.

Mozart just shakes her head.

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