Page 88 of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

“Wait,” Painter said, backing up. “Wait, it’s pointing towardme. Did it (lowly) see me?”

Yumi finally found her strength. She looked down, frantic, and dug into her bag for the jar of ink. With trembling fingers, she tried to unscrew the lid—but found it fastened tight, as if bolted in place.

“You canhearme?” Painter said louder, stepping forward.

The nightmare paused and withdrew its legs. Then it balanced its bulky body in an impossible posture on only two of them as all the rest stretched again toward the window—slowly, carefully elongating—as if the night itself were reaching to swallow Painter.

“You do see me,” Painter said. “I guess if Design can do it, it’s not so surprising that…” His voice drifted off, then he made a strained sound, prompting Yumi to look.

To find him beginning to disintegrate.

Painter had gone rigid, his eyes wide, as parts of him became smoky and indistinct—his formfuzzingtoward the nightmare. His essence twisted, coalescing into twin vortices of smoke like miniature tornadoes. One blue. One magenta.

Hion. Hissoulwas becoming hion. And the nightmare—spreading its many legs around the window and drawing its center bulk toward Painter, pinprick white eyes facing his direction—wasfeedingon that energy.

Yumi screamed.

He’d told her not to do that. Some weaker nightmares did react to sudden sounds, but a painter’s job wasn’t merely to frighten them away—it was to deal with them so they didn’t assault someone else. Still, a loud noise could disorient and frighten off a nightmare, and was a last resort for a painter who was out of supplies or otherwise indisposed. Not that this was her line of thinking.

Her line of thinking amounted to: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

There are things a classroom can’t teach. For those, you need a good scoop of field experience plopped right on your plate, glistening like grease. Everyone at leastfeelslike screaming their first time.

In this case, the nightmare drew back, its legs curling in. Then it darted away, fleeing through the opposite wall—leaving Painter to shake himself, his form snapping into place.

“That,” he said (lowly), “was unexpected. It could feed on me like it does a sleeping person.”

“How can you be so calm!” Yumi said, frantic.

“I’m probably just numb,” he said. “Thank you for frightening it off.”

“P-painter?” a voice said from within the room. The elderly woman had sat up and seemed disoriented.

“Tell her you’re simply checking on her,” Painter advised. “And you got startled by something. Nobody wants toknowthey’ve been fed on. It…is better this way.”

Feeling overwhelmed, Yumi did as he suggested. Then, blushing deeply, she grabbed at her bag. Her body was still electric, pumped full of every frenzied cocktail it could make. She felt like she should be doing something, even if it was more screaming.

Fortunately, Painter was calm, as if the incident was over. He wasn’t looking in the room. What if the thing returned?

Yumi’s shameful failure made her want to scrunch up and vanish. Had she really been thinking ofhimas a coward earlier?

“That could have gone worse,” he said.

“What?” she said, shocked.

“Everyone has trouble their first few times,” he said, turning to her and smiling. “Don’t fret. I couldn’t sleep for days after my first fieldencounter—and I was shadowing two experienced painters. I think you did fine.”

“I didnothing.”

“Which is better than running,” he said, then frowned. “Though I supposethatis going to be a problem…”

It took her a moment to realize what he was indicating. He’d moved to the railing and was pointing below. Two figures had entered the alleyway, worried, to check on the scream they’d heard.

Akane and Tojin.

Painter tried tocalculate whether there was a way to escape without Yumi being seen—but it was too late. Tojin was already pointing, and Akane called up. Yumi, looking sheepish, stepped to the railing of the fire escape landing.

Yeah, he’d worried about being seen by the wrong painters. He’d hoped that Tojin and Akane would find Yumi onlyaftershe had accomplished their goal and proven the existence of the stable nightmare. How would he explain any of this?

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