“This is bad, isn’t it?” I say. “Something in the air on that staircase affected her.”
“I’d say that’s unlikely, Rye. She’d be showing more symptoms than this if she’d been poisoned or something,” Mel says.
I hope she’s right. I really hope it’s nothing more than a nightmare that the sedative is keeping her trapped in.
Sunday suddenly sits bolt upright, his eyes wide open. He drops Sailor’s hand and rubs his hands over his face.
“What is it?” I demand.
“That was intense,” Sunday says. I get the impression he’s choosing his words very carefully. “She’s okay now. I pulled her out of it and gave her a nice dream, but it took longer than it should have. It was like I couldn’t quite reach her at first.”
“What was she dreaming about when she was trapped?” Nexus asks, beating me to it.
Sunday shakes his head.
“Dreams are private, Nexus,” he says.
“I know,” she replies. “But this could be important.”
He considers her words and then he starts to speak. His voice is shaky, and his eyes stare off into the distance as he talks, and I can’t help but squeeze Sailor’s hand a little too tightly. If just seeing her dreams has affected Sunday this much, I dread to think what she was going through actually living the dreams.
“It was a bunch of flashes, little flashes from a hundred different scenes, each one worse than the last one. When I first got in, Sailor was running from a pack of demons. Then she was in a clearing facing a whole army of demons. We were there and she was begging us for help, but we were all just watching her, laughing at her, taunting her.
“The scene changed and she was with her dad in the living room. Ms. Price came in and told her that her dad was hers now and they didn’t want Sailor in their lives. Sailor was begging her dad not to do this, not to cut her out, but he stood up and walked away from her. She was crying, following him, begging him to acknowledge her, but he just looked right past her like she wasn’t there and held his hand out to Ms. Price. And the whole time, Ms. Price was laughing.
“The scene changed again and Jenny was killing Grace. Sailor tried to stop her, but she couldn’t. It was like she couldn’t move, although she was trying her best to get to them. Grace died, but then she stood up and glared at Sailor, telling her it was all her fault she was dead. She said that Sailor is a failure and she hates her. And she said Rye can stop blaming himself for her death, because everyone knows it wasn’t his fault; it was all her fault.
“There was a flash of a restaurant. Sailor was looking in the window. Rye, you were there with that Felicity girl you went on the date with. Sailor was trying to get your attention. You looked up and saw her but you didn’t acknowledge her. You were kissing Felicity but you were looking Sailor in the eye as you did it, and the people at all of the other tables were pointing and laughing at Sailor through the window.
“And finally, there was a woman. I didn’t recognize her, but I knew she was Sailor’s mom. She told Sailor it was all her fault she was dead, that she killed herself because she couldn’t stand everyone knowing what a weakling she had for daughter, that she was ashamed of her. She was smiling as she said it. And then she told Sailor that the gods aren’t really keeping you two apart, Rye. She said that you don’t want her because she’s weak and useless, and you deserve a hero. That’s when I managed to get through to her and pull her out.”
I don’t know what to say. I mean, what can you say to any of that? I can only imagine the hell Sailor was going through. The whole team has fallen silent—even Jinx doesn’t have a sarcastic comment or a joke.
“She’s okay now, Rye,” Sunday says. “I made sure she was in a nice dream where we were all together and having a good day.”
“Thanks,” I say, trying to find some solace in the knowledge that she’s okay now, that she’s out of the nightmares. “Really. I appreciate it more than you know.”
Sunday shrugs.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Rye, we should go,” Ya-Ya says quietly. “I know we won’t wake Sailor, but if her dad hears us all talking and comes up here to see what’s going on, he’s going to have questions.”
“I’m not leaving her,” I say automatically.
“I know,” Ya-Ya says, resting her hand on my shoulder for a moment. “But the rest of us need to go.”
I realize what she’s trying to say and I nod.
“Yes. Yes, of course, go. She’ll be okay now,” I say.
Nexus portals the team out and I am alone with Sailor. I hate the silence that fills the room, and I’m worried if she can’t hear my voice, she will end up having another nightmare. I don’t know what to say at first, but then a story comes into my head. One my mom used to tell me when I was a kid. I begin to tell it to Sailor.
“Once upon a time, in a world far away, a beautiful princess was walking through the woods picking flowers for her mom, the queen. Her mom’s favorites were yellow roses, and she picked armfuls of them, causing quite a stir with the palace gardeners.
“As she headed back toward the palace with her flowers, she heard a scream. She dropped the flowers and ran, recognizing the scream as her mom’s. She arrived back in time to see a huge golden dragon dragging her mom away in its claws.
“Distraught, the princess knew she had to save her mom and she called in the head
