Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

What Nightmares May Come?

The field near the manor bursts with spring wildflowers that blow in the sea breeze. The grass tickles my feet as I run through the dew with Mom and Miranda while Celeste chases us. My sisters are both young, Celeste no older than six. She claims furtively that she touched Miranda’s hair and is no longer “it.” A fifteen-year-old Miranda laughs and snootily says that hair doesn’t count. Tears well up in Celeste’s eyes, and she runs away. Mom gives Miranda a look of disapproval, and they both rush after Celeste.

I want to join them, to console my little sister. But my legs don’t move, trapped in the vines that run all along the field. I grab at them, trying to free myself. A few break away, but there is a particularly thick vine that is tougher to snap. With both of my hands, I grab hold of its snaking stem, where it is curled over my right ankle. I yank as hard as my arms are able. It begins to pull through. As it does, I spy movement twisting through the field. The vine wrapped around my ankle has also twined itself into the ground all around the grassy area, like a strand of thread in embroidery work. I pull and pull until the vine is free.

The ground I disturbed begins to grumble and shake, unstable now that the thread holding it together has been removed. A fissure erupts below me, and chunks of earth drop away into nothingness. With a scream, I fall. But my arms catch on the edge of the cliff face that has formed in our front yard. Below me, a gaping chasm stretches down into absolute darkness. I scream for my life, my wild eyes searching for my family. Mom is across the field, picking up Celeste and comforting her. Miranda strokes her hair, apologizes. They cannot see or hear my panic. Despair settles over me, but still, futilely, I scream for them.

The ground rumbles again, trying to shake me loose off the solid earth. Somewhere in the abyss beneath me, dark laughter echoes. I shriek in fear one final time as my fingers are pulled from the cliff edge, and I fall backward into hell.