Page 174 of Sweet Nightmare

CHAPTER NINETY-ONE

CAN’T KEEP A GOOD

MANTICORE DOWN

“Am I wrong, or is that Kafka’s worst nightmare?” Izzy growls as we walk out of the portal straight into Hell.

Now that the storm has passed, it’s a direct contrast to the weather outside where the air is sweet, the sun is setting, and hermit thrush song fills the skies.

“Forget Kafka,” I snarl as I scramble backward in a desperate attempt to avoid a giant eight-foot-tall cockroach-type monster with giant pincers at the end of each of its legs and two giant needles coming out of its mouth.

It’s the needles that horrify me the most. What exactly is in them and what can they do to me? I scream bloody murder when it skitters across the floor headed straight for me.

“Shift, Clementine!” Mozart yells as she takes off running. Black wings sprout from her back as she does, and then she’s launching herself into the air just in time to avoid two giant chricklers that have her in their sights.

She doesn’t shift all the way—the room doesn’t exactly lend itself to a giant dragon flying around it—but, then again, she doesn’t have to. She’s almost to the ceiling now and shooting fire toward various monsters in the room, being careful not to hit the chricklers, obviously. The last thing we need is an SUV-size chrickler. But the other monsters don’t seem to have the same leveling-up capability that the chricklers do, and when she hits Cockroach Kong, it rolls over with a hiss.

At first I think it’s injured, but then I realize its stomach is made of some fire-deflecting metal. Because that’s exactly what the world needs from a giant cockroach: to be even harder to kill. Talk about a total nightmare.

In the meantime, Simon is running in a zigzag pattern through the ballroom, knives borrowed from Izzy in each hand. The chricklers start to swarm him, and he slams the knives into them, one after the other.

They pop like balloons.

“Do you think that will work on the other monsters?” I shout to Jude as we race toward the front of the dance hall, where Izzy and Remy are fighting back-to-back against two of the same massive monsters.

At first glance, they look like a cross between giant spiders and centipedes. They’ve got huge, hairy legs and a million eyes all over their long, skinny bodies. But then they turn, and I realize they’ve got wings, mouths full of jagged-edged fangs, and antennae made of some kind of sharp material that they’re using to stab at Remy and Izzy over and over again.

As we get closer, I take Mozart’s advice and shift into my manticore on the run. I’m not as smooth at it as Mozart—this is only my third time—but I get the job done.

So, while Jude jumps into the middle of the fray with Izzy and Remy, I race toward a disgusting lizard-type thing that’s currently got Ember and Luis cornered on the left side of the dance hall. It’s spewing some kind of noxious black goo all over them, and they definitely look like they can use some help.

Ember’s in her phoenix form, and she keeps diving down, trying to go for its eyes. But apparently the monster doesn’t care about its eyes because it doesn’t appear bothered by her attack in the slightest.

Luis—who has shifted into his wolf—keeps going for its bony, skinny legs in an effort to bring it down. But every time he gets close to it, the goo comes flying at him like a projectile.

Figuring my best chance is to take it by surprise, I swoop down from above and grab it with my claws. Or, more specifically, try to grab it with my claws. Because the second I get close, a bunch of huge spikes pop out all over its back. It’s like a porcupine straight from Hell.

I’m coming in fast and hard and nearly impale myself on them before I’m able to pull up at the last second. One does get me, however, slicing a long gash down my belly.

I gasp in pain as blood gushes out of me. The only plus side is the blood falls on the creature’s face, blinding it just long enough for Luis to dive in and grab ahold of its front leg in his powerful jaws.

It freaks out, starts thrashing around and screaming in this weird, high-pitched chittering that makes my entire body cringe. And then it buries Luis beneath a continuous stream of its disgusting black slime.

I circle back around, a lot more confident coming in now than I was a minute ago. But with Luis out of the way, it’s reached up and grabbed Ember in its sharp, crocodile teeth. It chomps down, and she screams loudly.

Panicked, I drop down beside it when it whirls around to confront me, Ember still in its mouth, so I skewer it with my tail, which—for once—is actually doing what I want it to.

I shake it around, and I can feel its body tearing as my tail makes a bigger and bigger hole through it. But it doesn’t dissolve like the chricklers, and now I’m stuck, attached to this thing.

It finally lets Ember go, and she half flies, half falls several feet away from it. It takes advantage of its suddenly free mouth to twist around and spew tons of that noxious goo onto me as well.

I gasp as it hits me, because it burns like acid, even through my manticore fur. Desperate to avoid another round of the stuff coming at me, I flick my tail and send the thing flying several yards away from us.

Then I drop down to the ground to check on Ember, who’s shifted back to her human form and is dragging herself along the ground as a new bunch of chricklers gets her in their sights.

I throw myself in front of them, determined to keep them from attacking her when she’s in such bad shape. But I can barely see to fend them off as the goo currently feels like it’s burning my eyes out of their sockets.

I wave my tail around, trying to keep the chricklers at bay, but they know I can barely see them. So they take instant advantage, going for my jugular while the lizard monster, acting seemingly unharmed, circles around to have another go at Ember. I wonder if it has the lizard ability to regenerate body parts.

---