Page 100 of Sweet Nightmare

“What the fuck was that?” he demands as he braces his arms on either side of me and pulls himself out of the hole like it’s the easiest thing in the world. I suppose when you have biceps like tree trunks, it is.

“I don’t know.” My ears are ringing, and there isn’t a part of my body that doesn’t hurt right now. Still, I grab onto the hand Jude offers and look around as he pulls me up. “It sounded like something exploded, but—”

I break off mid-sentence as I see what has, indeed, exploded. The cottage on whose front porch Jude and I were just taking shelter. “Oh my God!” I yell as I knock on Caspian’s door, hard, before I begin running/hobbling down the steps. “There were people in there! Jude, there were people in there.”

Two mermaids to be exact—Belinda and Bianca. I’ve had classes with both of them through the years. We’ve been lab partners and on the same teams in P.E. and…

“Where are they?” I demand as I get my first good look at their cottage—or should I say what’s left of their cottage, because the place is decimated. The explosion leveled it. “They have to be here. They have to be here somewhere. They have to be—”

I start desperately scouting around, looking for any sign of the two mermaids.

Please don’t let them be dead. Please don’t let them be dead. Please don’t let—

Suddenly, I hear Jude yelling from beside another cottage, two doors down from Belinda’s and Bianca’s. But I can’t hear what he’s saying over the insanity of the storm.

I make my way over to him, going as fast as the pain in my side will let me. Above us, the thunder is so loud it sounds like it’s getting ready to rip the sky apart while lightning strikes shake the ground every few seconds.

If these are just the outer rainbands of the hurricane, what on earth is the center of the storm going to be like? Either way, we have absolutely no business being out in the middle of this. But it’s not like we have a choice. My cottage just burned down—I don’t let myself think about why it burned down—and another cottage just exploded.

Something awful is happening here, but I don’t know what. I just know that it doesn’t feel like there’s anywhere safe for us to go.

Plus, two girls are missing and we have to find them.

When I finally make it to Jude, he’s on his knees, leaning over a Black girl in short pink pajamas who’s lying on the ground, her arm bent at an unnatural angle.

Belinda.

“Is she okay?” I yell as I drop to the ground on the other side of her.

But the second I do, I realize, no. She isn’t okay.

Her beautiful face is scraped up, and her sightless eyes are staring blankly into the distance.

“How did she—” My throat seizes up, and I can’t get the word out. I just can’t. There’s been too much death here tonight, too much devastation and destruction.

“She hit her head,” Jude says in a monotone voice. “It’s still bleeding.”

I glance at him, sharply, because he doesn’t sound any more okay than I feel. But he keeps his face averted, refusing to look me in the eye.

Figuring he must need a minute, I reach over and close Belinda’s eyes before pushing to my feet. Then I jog over to the orange comforter I tossed into the rain earlier and pick it up. After checking to make sure the snake is long gone, I drape it over the girl who was my lab partner sophomore year.

Then I say, “We need to find Bianca.” Dread fills me even as I say the words. I’m terrified we’re going to find her the same way we found Belinda, and I don’t think I can take it. First Serena, then Eva, then Belinda.

I can’t handle any more.

Not that I have a choice. I’m going to have to handle it, because wherever she is and whatever has happened to her, Bianca has to be found.

“What’s going on?” I whisper to him. “Why is this happening?”

Jude doesn’t answer as he climbs to his feet beside me. He’s still refusing to look at me, too. I wonder if it’s because he knew Belinda, too, or if he’s as sick of death as I am.

But when we turn around, we’re no longer the only people around. Students are pouring out of their cottages—and out of the underclassmen dorm—onto the center mall that runs through the whole housing area.

The rain is still pounding, thunder and lightning still devastating the sky, but terrified students are coming out in droves anyway.

Which can only mean one thing.

Eva and Belinda aren’t the only ones.

---