Twenty-Five
It was snowing in my dream. At first I thought that was cool. I mean, it really was beautiful ... it made the world look Disney-like and perfect, as if nothing bad could happen, or if it did it was only temporary, because everyone knows Disney is all about hap pily ever after .. .
I walked slowly, not feeling the cold. It seemed to be just be fore sunrise, but it was hard to tell with the sky all snowy and gray. I tilted my head back and looked at how the snow clung to the thick branches of the old oaks, and made the east wall look soft, and less imposing. The east wall. In my dream I hesitated when I realized where I was. Then I saw the figures, hooded and cloaked, standing in a group of four in front of the open trapdoor in the wall. No! I told my dreaming self. I don't want to be over here. Not so soon after Stevie Rae died. After the last two times fledglings died I saw their ghosts or spirits or undead walking bodies or whatever here. Even if I had been gifted with a weird ability to see the dead by Nyx. Enough was enough! I didn't want-- The smallest of the cloaked figures turned around and my in ternal argument scattered from my mind. It was Stevie Rae! Only it wasn't. She looked too pale and thin. And there was something else about her. I stared, and my initial hesitation was overcome by a terrible need within me to understand. I mean, if it really was Stevie Rae, then I didn't need to be afraid of her. Even weirdly changed by death, she was still my best friend. Wasn't she? I couldn't help moving forward until I was standing only a few feet from the group. I held my breath, waiting for them to turn on me, but no one noticed me. In my dream world it was as though I was invisible to them. So I moved even closer, unable to take my eyes from Stevie Rae. She looked terrible--frantic--and she kept moving restlessly, shifting her eyes around her like she was ex tremely nervous or extremely afraid. "We shouldn't be here. We need to leave." I jumped at the sound of Stevie Rae's voice. She still had her Okie accent, but nothing else was recognizable. Her tone was hard and flat, lacking all emotions except a kind of animallike nervousness. "You're not in charge of usssss," one of the other cloaked fig ures hissed, baring his teeth at Stevie Rae. Oh, ugh! It was that El liott creature. Even though his body was weirdly hunched, he stood over her aggressively. His eyes had begun to glow a dirty red. I was afraid for her, but she didn't let him intimidate her, in stead Stevie Rae bared her own teeth, her eyes blazed scarlet, and she gave an ugly snarl. Then she spat the words at him, "Does the earth answer you? No!" She walked forward, and Elliott automat ically took several steps backward. "And until it does, you will obey me! That's what she said." The Elliott thing made an awkward, subservient bow that the two other cloaked figures mimicked. Then Stevie Rae pointed to ward the open trapdoor. "Now, we go quickly." But before any of them moved I heard a familiar voice from the other side of the wall. "Hey, do y'all know Zoey Redbird? I need to tell her I'm here and--" Heath's voice broke off when the four creatures, with blurring speed, rushed through the door after him. "No! Stop! What the hell are you doing?" I yelled. My heart was beating so hard that it hurt as I ran to the closing door in time to see the three of them grabbing Heath. I heard Stevie Rae say, "He's seen us. Now he comes with us."
"But she said no more!" Elliott yelled as he kept an iron grip on the struggling Heath. "He's seen us!" Stevie Rae repeated. "So he comes with us until she tells us what to do with him!" They didn't argue with her, and with inhuman strength they dragged him away. The snow seemed to swallow his screams.
I sat bolt upright in bed, breathing hard, sweating and trem bling. Nala grumbled. I looked around the room and felt mo mentarily panicked. I was alone! Had I just dreamed everything that had happened yesterday? I looked