The Nightmare Inflictor (3 page)

I trash the place until the dream cracks. Sadie, frozen with fear, lies on the floor near the door. I waltz up to her, bend down, and cup her face in my hands. Her mouth drops open in a silent scream and her eyes water. She explodes into dust in my hands and I finish off her nightmare.

With a nightmare this intense, I’ll be able to go at least a week without inflicting another one. It’s nightmares like these that I wish I could have all the time so I wouldn’t have to inflict fear into so many people. I could pretend to be normal longer.

If only I didn’t have to pretend.

5. RESIST

I swear the council likes screwing with my head. Two days ago they told me they weren’t sure they could get me a volunteer for another week, but suddenly Roxanne slipped a list of seven names under my door. Scribbled across the top of the list was a note that said, “Surprise visit from the Enchantress Sisterhood.”

I roll my eyes. “They’re such liars. No visit is ever a surprise.”

Alyssa shrugs. “You’re right. Roxanne just forgot. Don’t be mad at her though. It really was an accident.”

“Well unless they want me to stalk community members, they need to get their act together.” I stare at my reflection in my vanity mirror. My indigo eyes sparkle in the lamp light and my cheeks are still rosy from the last nightmare I inflicted.

Alyssa laughs. “You wouldn’t.”

I waggle my eyebrows. “I might surprise you. Just because you don’t see me doing it now doesn’t mean I won’t.”

She holds her smile. “But you know I am your backup volunteer.”

“More like a last resort. You know how I feel about it. I don’t want to mess up our friendship.” I run a comb through my hair.

“Nothing could mess up our friendship.” Alyssa gets up from my bed and crosses her arms over her chest.

I press my lips together but don’t say anything. Alyssa will never understand the torment I inflict on people. If I gave her a nightmare, she’d be afraid of me forever. You can’t be friends with someone you fear. Even if that fear was only in their dreams, it would cross over into their reality.

“You should believe me. I’m a seer remember? I don’t see a life where we aren’t friends.” Alyssa strolls to the door, and then turns to look at my reflection in the mirror. “Enjoy your new volunteers. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I clear my throat. There’s nothing really enjoyable about giving people nightmares besides how full I feel afterwards. The guilt is enough to make anything enjoyable go away the moment I step out of their heads.

“I don’t know if I will visit anyone tonight. I just inflicted a nightmare two days ago.” I spin in my chair so I could meet Alyssa’s gaze. “I don’t like to do it more than I have to.”

Alyssa leans on my door. “Dmitri is coming home tomorrow. He’s going to question why you didn’t do it.”

I sigh. “I’ll think about it.”

“Please do.” Alyssa opens the door and leaves me in my room.

She’s right about my father. He’ll question me and worry because he doesn’t understand how I feel. I’m only half nightmare inflictor because my mother was human. I feel for the people I scare because of my human half. I understand that it’s what I have to do to survive, but I don’t have to like it, and I still don’t have to do it all the time. It’s good for me to remember who I am. Recognizing I’m a monster makes me value my human side more. It makes me value humanity, too.

I puff air through my lips and stare at the list of volunteers. The enchantresses are from all over the country. Going into some of their dreams will take me to places I’ll never experience unless I leave the compound. Just the thought alone is tempting enough for me to go to the guest apartments, but I resist. Not tonight. Maybe not this week. One of these days I’ll see how long I can go without inflicting a nightmare. Maybe that will make me human. I want to be human.

6. YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE

The moon hovers overhead, illuminating a pale path of light for my father and me to follow around the perimeter of the compound. We do it every time he comes back from a work trip. This way we aren’t—I’m not—bothered by sleeping people.

Dreams don’t faze my father like they do me. He’s mastered self-control and I hope to be half as good as him when I’m his age. I may never be though. My humanity fights too much with my monster side to allow it.

“How long will you be here?” I glance at my father in my peripheral vision.

He drapes an arm over my shoulders. “A week at least. Maybe longer. Things have slowed down.”

I suck in my bottom lip. “That’s good.” I don't want to get my hopes up. Anytime my father tells me he has a few weeks, something always comes up. It’s just the way it is. The council always keeps him busy.

“I thought you’d be happier,” my father says. “I was hoping we could spend time together.”

I force myself to smile. “I’d love that more than anything. It gets lonely around here.”

He squeezes my arm. “It’s lonely on the road, too.”

I sigh. He’ll never get it. I wish I could tell him how I really feel, but he doesn’t need the guilt of knowing I’m miserable here. It’s not like I can ask him to quit the council either. It wouldn’t be fair to him. I’ll just hold tight until I’m considered an adult and I’ll find somewhere else to go—somewhere safe enough to not have to worry about the crazy HPA always trying to kill me, but immersed more in human society. It’s hard being different in such a confined place. It’s okay to be different in the real world where everyone else is different, too.

We stop outside the guest apartment and he hugs me. He kisses my forehead and looks between me and the opaque door. I already know what he’s thinking, and I wish he wouldn’t bring it up.

He presses his lips together. “Coming in, Nadi?”

I don’t move. “Well...”

His brows knit together. “I looked over the log and it’s been three days. You need to stay in control and use the volunteers when they’re available. It’ll make it easier for you in the long run and the council won’t have to rush to find someone willing to open up their dreams to you if no guest volunteers right away.”

I tuck my hair behind my ear. “You don’t understand.”

He sighs. “What is there to understand? You are what you are.”

I gaze at the ground.
Exactly, Dad, and I hate it,
I think. I exhale a long breath and after a few seconds, I say, “I know. Just give me a few minutes, all right? I don’t need you to baby me. I’ll go in when I’m ready.”

My father rubs his hand over his forehead. “Fine, but don’t skip tonight. I’m tired of having this conversation over and over again. Inflicting nightmares is how we survive.” He turns away and glides inside the guest apartment building.

I plop down on the stairs and stare up at the glittering stars. The night is always so beautiful, but I love the sunlight even more—maybe because the less I inflict nightmares, the less I can enjoy stepping into the sun. When I’m in need of sustenance, my body rejects sunlight to force me into inflicting nightmares. Sunburns are the worst. It’s Mother Nature’s way of telling me to suck it up if I want to pretend to be human all the time.

I stare at my pale fingers. I could go another day at least before I’m stuck indoors, but my father would be furious and I don’t want negative emotions to shroud our short time together.

I rise to my feet and glide to the opaque door. Before I enter, I tug the list of volunteers from my pocket and peer at the first name. Robin Black is an enchantress from Arkansas. I’m a little surprised all of these enchantresses volunteered to be my victims, but I don’t know many so maybe they dared each other.

The Enchantress Sisterhood is another governing body for the supernatural world and they work with the council to keep everyone safe. They have more widespread safe havens that are open to any creature while the council is pickier. Maybe I’ll ask them about places I could go when I can leave the compound.

Robin’s room is the second door on the right and I don’t hover in the hallway because the guest apartments are so crowded. I don’t want anyone to see me stalking. She’s fast asleep at the desk, with her head resting on her arms, as if she had been trying to work through the night, but just couldn’t resist her dreams.

Tucked under her arms are a few hand-written pages with what looks like a speech, probably for the council, and I force myself to look away from the slanted cursive. I bring my fingers to her temples and the world shifts.

I’m standing in a dry field outside of a blue painted barn. It’s old and abandoned, and a forest creeps up behind it, growing closer to swallow the barn in time. Laughter sounds out nearby and I lower my feet to the dry brush and it blackens under my touch. The blue sky overhead darkens as gray thunderclouds roll in and lightning strikes a power line in the distance, sending a thousand bright sparks to the ground.

“Oh, no, Johnny! We need to find cover!” A feminine voice yells.

My lips curl into a smile when the taste of apple floods my mouth as Robin’s fear circles me in a breeze. I stomp toward the barn and enter through the broken door. Dust and cobwebs cover the walls and beams, and the broken ladder that is supposed to lead to the open attic space hangs crookedly against a cracked tractor tire.

I lurk next to the opening of the barn. Within a few seconds, rain pelts down and turns the soft dirt into mud. Robin rushes in with a boy on her heels and they stop a few feet away from me. They laugh before hugging each other, and I glide closer, blocking the exit to the door. They’re so lost in each other’s company, they don’t notice me closing in on them.

I reach and grab the boy’s wet T-shirt. He stumbles backward and I wrap my arms around him. He explodes into a cloud of black dream dust and Robin screams as I suck in a breath of her crumbling nightmare. Her startled eyes look like two round, blue pools and her black hair is slicked against her cheeks.

She stumbles back and looks for a way to get around me. Sticky web materializes on the entrance to the barn, blocking her in, and she jerks her head back and forth, frantically searching for a way out. She screams again as she turns toward the broken ladder. Picking up a piece of it, she swings it at the web, but nothing happens.

Her wild eyes line with fear as I stalk her, forcing her back. Her arm brushes the giant spider web and she yanks it away, but instead of breaking free, it grows and tangles around her until she can no longer run. I lurk closer and smile, licking my lips as the barn’s roof cracks and the ground shakes, and then I reach out and cup her tear-stained face. She screams as she explodes into dream dust and I consume the rest of her nightmare.

I’m out of her head in seconds and I rush into the hall. My father greets me when I open the door, but instead of letting him hug me, I dash past him and out of the apartment building. I don’t want to look at him right now. I need to be alone with my guilt.

7. AGAINST MY WISHES

“Dmitri is leaving tomorrow,” Alyssa says. “The council wants him to escort the enchantresses to Arizona.”

I pull my hair back in a ponytail. “I thought I’d at least get a couple more days. I really hate the council sometimes. It’s like they don’t want me to ever see my dad.”

“It’s not that. Dmitri is just really great at his job. The council trusts him more than anyone.” I watch in my mirror as Alyssa folds her legs under her on my bed. She pulls the damp towel from her head and tosses it on the floor.

I sigh. “I wish he wasn’t sometimes.”

Alyssa frowns. “People would die if he wasn’t.”

I swivel in my chair to look at her face to face. “No, he’d have a different job.”

She yawns and stretches her arms. “Not necessarily. There aren’t many people brave enough to put themselves in danger.”

I stand up from my vanity. “It was just a thought, Lys.” I glide the short distance to my door. “I’ll see you later. I have an enchantress to visit.”

“Nadia,” Alyssa says.

I turn to look at her. “What?”

“I wish Dmitri didn’t have to go either.”

I bob my head and exit into the hallway. I know Alyssa’s trying to make me see reason, but I don’t feel like being reasonable. I feel like gathering my stuff and leaving the compound. I feel like begging my father to quit the council. And I want to ask Alyssa to come with us. But I won’t do any of those things because it’s impossible. This is the only way to stay safe.

Cool air wraps around me when I step from the dormitory. It’s just past eleven and I hope Jessa Smith is asleep. I cross the sprawling lawn, following the glowing light of the moon, and make my way to the guest apartment building.

A towering figure stands just outside the door and I lift my hand to wave at my father. His pale skin contrasts with his dark hair and eyes and he’s wearing a black T-shirt and dark jeans. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him this casual. He’s usually wearing button-up shirts and slacks.

“I thought you’d be with the council,” I say. I cross my arms and look up at the stars.

My father touches my cheek. “Just finished up. They’re finally running out of things for me to do.”

I shift my gaze from the sparkling stars to his obsidian eyes. “Yeah, until tomorrow.”

His eyes crinkle in the corners when he cracks a smile. “You don’t know that.”

I press my lips together.

His smile twists into a frown. “Oh, so you do know. Alyssa have a vision?” He rubs the bridge of his narrow nose. “I’ll never get used to you having a seer as a friend.”

“A best friend,” I say. While almost a year ago it was hard to wrap my head around, now it’s just part of my normal. I never liked surprises anyway and with Alyssa I never have to be worried about it.