“Jia, come on!” he shouted.
“China,” Jia said.
“What?”
“We have to go to China.”
What was she talking about? “Jia, we have to get out of here now!” Matt ran back inside, grabbed Jia by the arm, and pulled her out the door.
By the time they were outside, Mr. Hudson stumbled and fell to the ground. His legs were fading.
A strong wind swept through the street. A flock of birds scattered from a tree. Then the birds disappeared midflight, as if invisible hands were snatching them out of the air, sucked into some invisible fold of space.
“Oh, the poor birds!” Gaga exclaimed.
“What’s happening to them?” Haha asked. “Where are they going?”
“We have to go to China,” Jia said again, as if she were in some kind of trance.
“We have to get out of here,” Mrs. Hudson said as she watched the birds disappear. “Let’s go. Everyone to Blossom. Chuck, help me with Matthew, please.” They both hoisted him up, fumbling a little with his fading arms and legs.
Everyone started running. Except Matt. Just like in his nightmare, he couldn’t seem to move. Everything around him seemed to be moving, but he couldn’t. He felt like he was standing in the midst, observing everything like theater in the round.
“Mateo! Run!” his mom called. She was reaching for him while holding on to his dad, who was still fading. Matt could hardly see his features at all.
Something snapped.
Matt felt it more than heard it. It was like a rubber band had been pulled too tight and finally it broke. There was a brief moment of stillness and silence. That was all the warning he had.
“Belamie,” Mr. Hudson said, reaching for her, but his faded hand went right through her face. Mr. Hudson began to disappear or, more accurately, unravel. That shimmering fabric, the time tapestry Matt had seen Captain Vincent pull out of his dad’s throat, was spilling out of Mr. Hudson now. The tapestry unraveled, and the threads flew away on the wind. Mrs. Hudson screamed as she tried to hold on to him, hold on to those unraveling threads, but they slipped through her fingers as easily as water.
“Dad!” Matt shouted.
The last of the time tapestry unraveled, and Mr. Hudson was gone.
Mrs. Hudson fell to the ground, clutching her head.
Ruby started screaming.
Matt whipped around. Ruby was looking down at her hands, her mouth open in horror. They were blurry. Corey’s too. Matt took a step toward them when the pavement beneath his feet cracked. The earth began to split open. He almost fell between the cracks but was saved by someone who grabbed him from behind and pulled him back, Haha, he thought, and then they ran to go help someone else.
A building in front of Matt completely collapsed, swallowed up by the earth, and then the earth pushed up, forming a sheer cliff. People were screaming and running in all directions. Some of them disappeared just like the birds, as though invisible hands were snatching them between folds in the sky, and others appeared out of nowhere. Matt saw a few cowboys on horseback pop into being, then a group of people who looked like they were from the Stone Age, and a herd of giraffes.
The earth continued to widen. A deep, bottomless chasm opened. Ruby screamed as her legs began to blur and she fell. Corey followed after her. Matt suddenly seemed to unlock. He dove after Corey and Ruby. He grabbed Corey by the arm. “I got you!” he said. He tried to reach for Ruby, but someone else had her. Matt glanced over and was shocked to be looking at himself. He was dirty and bruised and covered in scrapes and cuts.
“You!” Corey shouted, looking back and forth between the two Matts. “What are you doing?!”
“I’m trying to save you!” they both said at the same time.
“No you’re not!” Corey shouted. “You’re killing us!”
Both Corey and Ruby were fading, their limbs dissolving in their grasp. Matt couldn’t hold on. The other Matt couldn’t either.
“This is your fault!” Corey shouted at both Matts. “You did this to us!” His face started to blur.
“I’ll fix it!” Matt pleaded.
“I promise I’ll fix it!” pleaded the other Matt, and then another Matt appeared and reached for Corey and Ruby.
“Matt, don’t let go!” Ruby cried. Her voice sounded distant, almost like a whisper even though she was shouting.
“I won’t! I promise!” all three Matts said at nearly the same time so it sounded like an echo. He wouldn’t let go. He would go with Corey and Ruby, wherever they were being taken. The three of them were supposed to stay together. They had always stayed together.
But his promise was in vain. He was no match for whatever forces were at work. Corey’s arm dissolved in Matt’s grasp. It slipped through his fingers. He tried to hold on, tried with all his might to pull them toward him, but it was like trying to hold on to air.
Both Corey and Ruby screamed as they unraveled and faded away.
15Nightmare Come True
“No!” Matt shouted. He tried to jump in after them, but the earth crashed back together, closing the chasm and rising up in a rocky wave. Matt went up and then slid down like a giant playground slide, only it ripped at his legs and bottom and was far from fun. He couldn’t tell what happened to the other Matts. They’d disappeared or something, but they weren’t his concern.
Lightning cracked. The sky seemed to shatter like a fallen snow globe, only the snow was pouring in, and not just snow, but rain and hail the size of quarters. Matt covered his head with his arms. The ground tilted. The whole world was fragmenting, crumbling, folding in on itself. The earth fell and rose like waves in the ocean, creating new levels and dimensions.
Matt tumbled and rolled as rocks and hail and lightning shot down all around him.
