The Children of Hypnos

Chapter 38: Waking Up

Emery hadn't passed out.

It would have been more merciful if she had. She had laid on the ground, staring up at the sky, until Wes had shambled over to her. There was yelling. She remembered moaning for Joel, for Wes to let her go so she could get Joel out of that horrible house on the hill. Then crying for Edgar until Wes told her that Edgar was okay, that he'd be okay, even though she knew he wasn't okay at all.

Grandpa Al had shown up some time later, then Ares Montgomery, and they cleared off the other students.

Emery remembered being led back down the hill, stumbling through her headache and her throbbing leg. The brightness of Klaus's storm had dimmed, the clouds dispersing, the night settled over Fenhallow once again. then she remembered sitting in Grandpa Al's office staring at the edge of his desk. Wes sat in the chair beside her, his knee touching hers, neither of them saying anything. Grandpa Al on the phone, surveying the grounds outside the window. Grandpa Al hanging up and saying, "The police," and "investigate" and "it won't be a question—so much Dream activity tonight."

Emery got the details from Wes later. The police came out, and so did several Hypnos cleanup crews. It was Stainer, the highest ranking of any of the cleanup crew members and now completely sober, who confirmed Joel's death had been caused by a nightmare. Everyone in the city knew about the storm of nightmares that had cloaked the school for nearly half an hour, and news crews swarmed the campus like flies. All the students now knew most of the story. Queen Emery had a doppelgänger. Queen Emery couldn't defeat it. Queen Emery, top of her class, had finally been knocked off her pedestal.

That such a large outbreak of nightmares had been allowed to form was a possible violation of several Hypnos State laws, but information had been kept under wraps.

"They're calling in the head of the North American Ward," Wes said later, when they sat together in the clinic. Emery was in her pajamas, curled against the headboard of the clinic bed. Wes had changed out of his clothes and showered, and his damp hair was curling around his head. Two nasty bruises formed around the bandage over his nose. The clinic windows were closed against the midmorning sun so that Emery could be knocked out and sleep in darkness. "Marcia thinks they're going to try to pin it on Klaus."

"They're going to say he fell asleep on purpose?"

They both looked down the clinic, where Klaus lay cuffed to the last bed in the row, staring blankly at the ceiling. Marcia sat in the chair beside his bed, her back to Emery and Wes, quieter than she'd ever been.

"He knew how powerful his nightmares would be," Emery said. "He wanted his water."

"Hopefully enough people know that and can fight against the accusation when it comes up."

"I will."

"So will I. So will Marcia, and probably Lana, too."

Emery rubbed her palms across her face. Her tears had dried, but her whole head felt like it was packed with cotton. Images of Joel spread-eagle on the ballroom floor had burned themselves into her mind. She could still hear the tearing of Morrigan's hand through his abdomen. It had been hours ago, but it felt like seconds. It felt like she was still there, experiencing it for the first time. She stared at the empty bed across from hers, imagining Joel there. Bandaged up, only sleeping, and he'd wake up and she could curl up beside him and watch reruns of Golden Girls while he healed.

Her insides twisted horribly. She started to imagine Edgar in the bed, instead.

Edgar had not been on the news reports. Edgar had not been brought to the clinic. After Grandpa Al learned what had happened to him, he'd sent Edgar straight to the sleep research center. Emery had refused the nurse's sleeping sand until they told her what had happened to him. The only update she received was from Grandpa Al via one of the clinic nurses: Edgar was alive, but comatose. He had killed his doppelgänger too early.