The Dream Stalker

19) "You Drugged Me!"

I was forced to suffer through another disruptive awakening at the hands of my cousin, though, at least this time he had a sensible reason for waking me.

Jolted awake by the sound of McKenzie jubilantly screaming, "I'm alive! I can't believe it! I'm alive" My annoying cousin was out of his bed and down on his knees, pumping his fists in the air. "I am invincible!"

"Be quiet." I warned him, eyeing the door in case one of my guardians decided to burst in, demanding an explanation for all the ruckus. It was about six in the morning, and seeing how Uncle Kasey was always out late, he probably wouldn't be very accepting of any possible explanation I could come up with for waking him.

McKenzie crawled over to my air mattress with actual tears glistening in his eyes. "Aaron! I'm not dead. I'm not dead!"

"I know," I replied, "Horacio explained everything."

McKenzie continued as if I hadn't spoken. "I bet you were beside yourself with grief, weren't you? You thought good 'ole McKenzie could get taken down by a stupid quiz. I must have some special Gift that makes me immortal. Do you know what this means? The Dream Stalker can't hurt me. I can battle him and, if things start to look bad, I can-"

I clamped my hand over his motor mouth. Yet that didn't stop McKenzie from mumbling incoherently, trying to speak through my gag.

"You are not invincible," I told him, and then before he could say anything else stupid, I proceeded to fill him in on everything from Horacio's explanation; from the fact that death in another's dream returns you to your own subconscious to recapping all the events that followed McKenzie's incineration.

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold the phone-Greta wanted to kiss you and you rejected her!" McKenzie said with a stunned expression.

"Seriously?" I asked with an equally stunned look my own face. "Of everything I just told you, that's what stuck out to you the most?"

"Dude, when a girl wants to kiss you, you kiss her!"

Sometimes I really hated talking to McKenzie. "She thought I was a part of her dream, I'm not going to take advantage of a girl like that. Besides, I have no interest in kissing Greta!"

"If you say so..." McKenzie had a smirk on his face as he waggled his eyebrows at me.

I was heading towards our desk to get one of my textbooks to give McKenzie the beat down he so rightly deserved, when I realized how much time we had spent talking. We were going to need to get to school early in order to have enough time to talk with Greta. I would even be willing to bet that she was already at the school waiting for us.

After getting ourselves ready, we roused Kody from his own slumber. He was unwilling to cooperate, so we had to forcefully dress him ourselves, which involved putting him in a headlock and gagging him with a sock to prevent him from screaming. Usually I would condone manhandling a child, but Kody was a brat and, to be honest, sort of deserved it. The fact that it was all McKenzie's idea to begin with surprised me, because in the past few weeks I had spent living with the Cooke's, McKenzie had been reluctant to even talk back to Kody, almost as if he was afraid of him.

"So...did you make Greta a...you-know-what?" McKenzie casually asked, while attempting to slide a fresh pair of socks onto Kody's constantly kicking feet.

"I don't know," I replied, holding Kody in place for McKenzie to continue dressing him. "Horacio didn't show up and announce it like he usually does, but I guess so."

A grin flickered across McKenzie's face, seconds before one of Kody's legs broke free long enough to kick him in head. As I struggled to restrain my cousin, who was fighting like a caged animal, I couldn't help but wonder if the reason for McKenzie's recent boldness-and by bold, I mean bold for McKenzie-was because of his crush on Greta.