Rise of the Night Witch

Chapter 3.5 - In Your Dreams

Recap: Last time, Marissa approached the PPE Library (yeah, renamed the PPE Research Facility) and was found by Darcy. Then, a nightmare monster attacked.

The curtain of darkness opened to reveal a world of nightmares. Part of me knew I was dreaming. The other part, the part that took over, drowned in a mire of unpleasant memories.

My first dream abducted me back to my elementary school classroom in Brooklyn. I stood near the chalkboard with my tiny, bushy brown hair and milk teeth that formed an overbite. My plus-sized red blouse and my pattered undershirt didn't fit my skin color; they looked like blotches compared to my awkwardly pale complexion. My knobbly knees trembled, the chalk piece quivering in my hand.

"Marissa, what is two multiplied by five," the teacher asked.

I tried to write it down, but my handwriting was so awful that my "2" looked like a "5" and my "5" looked like a "2" and everyone laughed.

The next dream made me relive the Grief Eater attack when I was seven.

And then, I relived the part when I shivered under my blanket and Dad told me there was no thing such as monsters. But the dream continued. While I was buried under my warm blankets in my cloud-soft bed, I heard voices outside. My parents were talking.

"Honey, I think we should separate," my mother said behind the door.

"What makes you think so?" Dad answered.

"I don't know, it's just a general feeling. Rissy makes me concerned. Her grades aren't good, the other kids only laugh at her and I'm not sure if my people will accept her."

"Do you think our marriage was a mistake?"

"I am not sure, honestly. Our people are very different."

No. No. Don't have that be the reason why Mom had to leave us.

This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real.

"I am very real," Darcy said as she pulled me back to my feet.

We had landed in the PPE Library. Despite the cobwebs in the library shelves and the poor lighting, the abandoned facility felt fresher than expected. The faint moonlight streaming through the windows was like sunlight to my cat-like eyes. I noticed dusty books that still lay in the shelves, torn posters of scientific presentations hanging on the walls, and graphs speculating about the causes of the recent PPE increase. Just because no-one did research anymore didn't mean this place was left to decay. It hoarded treasures of knowledge that the public had a right to see. If only because researches failed to solve those mysteries and declassified the information.

So, we were at the crime scene. I hope the small transfiguration potion I drank also changed the DNA I left, but I wasn't sure about Darcy.

Knowing she was a law breaker, Darcy now wore an owl mask matching my kitten face. She held a doll with my hair strands in one hand. In the other, she held her potion against harmful Otherworldly effects.

"Thanks," I said. "To get the obvious question out of the way: How did we get here?"

"Portals," Darcy said, "are normally around doors and corners. The mare made you walk into one that sent you here."

"And, you-"

"Yes. I ignored the police tape to follow you. I don't know the mare's range, but it needs to be in the library to attack you."

Which meant we were luring it out.

Since Darcy had far higher life energy pools than I did and shielded her mind better, we agreed to let her walk ahead. I stood in place while she led with her flashlight. My potion-enhanced sensitive eyes watered with tears any time I looked at her light cone directly. Yet, my muted color vision sufficed for me to notice my star-necklace's bluish glow.