in, but we can’t let you run away again until we find him. Gosh, no, we can’t.”
Christopher looked at the floor. It was stamped with bloody footprints. All shapes. Sizes. Men. Women. Mostly children. It looked as if people had been staring at him the way they would an animal at the zoo.
“Just tell us where he is, Christopher, and we’ll let you go.”
Christopher looked back at the television. Bad Cat made his tongue clack like playing cards in a bicycle tire. Tick tock. Tick tock. Then, somehow, he reached his claws out of the television and changed the channel. Christopher saw himself on the television now. Strapped to the bed. The nurse dipped the sponge into the bucket. When she brought the sponge back out and squeezed it, Christopher saw it was dripping blood like a bleeding heart. On the television, the door opened. Bad Cat walked to his bed.
“Hey, buddy,” he said, leaning over. “Do you know where you are? Where do you think you are?”
Christopher thought he was on the imaginary side. Right? He had been here before. But how did he get here? Or was this a nightmare? Or was this both? Or neither?
“Where am I? That’s what you’re thinking, buddy. I can smell it on you. You didn’t fall asleep, so this isn’t a dream. No no no. You didn’t go into your little tree house, either. But still, here you are. Yes yes yes. There are four ways in. Three ways out. You know two. We know more. She has the key. But where is the door?”
Bad Cat brought his paw to Christopher’s forehead and began to pet him as if Christopher were the house cat. Not the other way around.
“I’ll tell you how to get out, buddy. But you have to tell me where he is first,” Bad Cat purred. “Four ways in. Three ways out.”
Christopher’s mind raced. The tree house and a nightmare. Those were two of the four ways into the imaginary side. What were the other two? He tried to remember how he got here. All he remembered was a bright light. And screaming.
“This is your last chance, buddy. We don’t want to hurt you. Gosh, no, we don’t. But if you don’t tell us where he is, we’re going to have to cut the words right out of your body.”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do, buddy.”
“I don’t! He ran away!” Christopher pleaded.
“No. You helped him escape. There’s a big difference. He was going somewhere. He must have said where he was going.”
“I don’t know.”
“Think real hard, Christopher. You must have a plan to meet up. Where will you meet him, buddy?”
There was no plan to meet. But he had to think of something fast. So, he lied.
“At the school.”
“You’re a bad liar, buddy.”
“I’m not lying!”
Bad Cat dropped his smile. He let out a deep, resigned sigh.
“Nurse, please prepare him for surgery.”
The television turned off, taking Bad Cat with it. The nurse took the bloody sponge and started to scrub Christopher’s arms and chest with it.
“Please, ma’am. Help me,” he whispered to the nurse.
The nurse did not respond. She just kept humming. She finished the bloody sponge bath, then unlocked the gurney and wheeled Christopher out into the hallway.
“Where are we going?!” he asked. “Where am I?! Is this the imaginary side?!”
The nurse said nothing. She just kept humming that tune. Blue Moon. She pushed Christopher down the hallway. The gurney wheels turned. One of them was crooked like a clubfoot. Squeak squeak squeak.
They passed a hospital room. Mr. Henderson sat up in bed, holding his bloody throat, trying to scream. But no words came out. Just blood. It poured from his neck in tiny bubbles, which floated like balloons in the air until they popped, letting out little screams. Suddenly the hospital loudspeaker woke up like an old radio filling with electricity. There was a moment of terrible feedback, and then the terrifying voice echoing through the hallway.
“Tick tock, buddy. You’re almost there,” Bad Cat said.
The nurse kept pushing the gurney. Squeak squeak squeak.
“This is your last chance, buddy. Oh gosh, yes it is. Tell us where he is, and we won’t go into the next room.”
“Where are we going?!”
“Oh, you don’t want to see it, buddy. I’m counting to three. You ready? One. Two.”
The nurse pushed the gurney toward a door. Squeak squeak squeak.
“Three!”
The door opened. Christopher was suddenly blinded. He looked around at moaning and slobbering faces lost in the flare of a bright light. His eyes