Blue Noon

Instinct took over as they dropped, Jessica twisting in midair to reorient herself for a last jump toward the stone spire. They landed in the high grass and rebounded without any pause.

They rose above the trees again, and Jessica spotted two tiny figures standing close together by a fissure in the stone. “That’s them!”

“They look like they’re in one piece,” Jonathan said softly. “Any slithers down there?”

“Close your eyes.”

She switched the flashlight on again, playing it across the small clearing, the rocks, and the treetops. Nothing burst into flame; no slithers hurtled screaming from the undergrowth. Jessica did catch, however, the dark purple flash of Rex’s eyes as he glanced up, then turned away, his expression of pain visible even from the air.

“Oops.” Jessica turned the flashlight off. “Okay. You can look now, Jonathan. Landing in five, four…”

They came down softly in the thick grass, about ten feet from Rex and the small, thin girl who stood next to him, clinging to his arm. She was about Beth’s age, wearing a ragged sweatshirt and pajama bottoms. Her eyes bulged as she stared at Jonathan and Jessica. She’d probably seen some pretty astonishing stuff tonight, but two people flying hand in hand was still pretty jaw-dropping.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked.

“Sorry about blinding you. Rex,” Jessica said.

His eyes still covered, his hands shaking, Rex answered, “No, that’s fine. It cleared my head. You got here just in time.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow, wondering what that meant. There weren’t any slithers here. Why had they been frying themselves just to delay her another minute?

Jonathan dropped Jessica’s hand and crossed to the girl. “Cassie, right?”

She nodded dumbly.

“I’m Jonathan. Hey, your elbow looks ouchy.”

Cassie looked at the red mark, then pointed into the cave. “Banged it in there. But you should see my ankle.” She pulled up one pant leg, revealing the dark bruise of a slither bite. Jessica winced, shaking out her own hand, which was still tingling with icy needles.

“Ow!” Jonathan said. “I hate snakes.”

“No. It was this stupid cat.”

Jonathan glanced back at Jessica.

She remembered that night, only her second time in the secret hour, when the black slither-cat had transformed horribly into a snake before her eyes. Then another dozen slithers had shown up, along with a darkling in the shape of a giant panther. And then the biggest surprise of all: finding out that the whole thing hadn’t been a dream, but an entire new reality opening up.

Jessica frowned. On the phone this afternoon no one had mentioned what was supposed to happen after they rescued Cassie from the blue time. How would they keep her from spilling the beans to everyone in town?

Of course, maybe the answer was obvious. Melissa would reach into the young girl’s mind and erase what had happened here. She had done it more than once before—to Jessica’s own parents, probably. And back when her talent was young and unformed, Melissa had forced herself into Rex’s father’s mind, leaving the old guy half crazy. The thought of his milky, empty eyes made Jessica shiver again.

But maybe it didn’t have to be that way.

“This is a pretty crappy dream, huh?” she said to the girl, rubbing her slither-bitten hand.

Jonathan raised an eyebrow, and even Rex, who still looked pretty shaky, snorted out a short laugh.

“What?” Jessica shrugged. “I’m just saying, as nightmares go, this one’s on the weird side. Right, Cassie?”

The look of dazed confusion gradually faded from the girl’s face, her expression turning more thoughtful. “Well, I was kind of wondering: what’s going on here?” She looked up at the dark moon. “What happened to everything? And who are you guys?”

“You’ve got a fever, right?” Jessica asked.

“Not a fever. My grandma said it’s just a cold.”

“Oh. Right. Okay,” Jessica said slowly and deliberately. “But sometimes when we’re sick, we have fu

Cassie crossed her arms. “Yeah, maybe. But people in those fu

Jonathan laughed. “Nice try, Jess.”

“Yeah, this kid’s smarter than that,” Rex said. “And tougher than she looks too.”

“Smarter?” Jessica cried. “What’s that supposed to mean? I thought the blue time was all a dream, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” Rex chuckled. “Well, feel free to tell her whatever you want until Melissa gets here.”

Jessica frowned and glanced at Jonathan, who shrugged, a helpless look on his face. He didn’t much like the idea either, but he clearly couldn’t see any other way of keeping the secret hour secret.

A crashing sound reached them through the trees.

“Speaking of which,” Rex said.

Dess emerged first, a long metal pipe balanced over one shoulder, like a spear ready to be thrown. She stumbled into the clearing and came to a halt, looking at them one by one. Then she lowered the spear with a disgusted noise. “No monsters left, are there?”

“All under control,” Rex said.

“Rats,” Dess said. “Jessica, I haven’t slain jack squat since you became the flame-bringer.”

Jessica sighed. “Yeah. My bad.”

Melissa came into view, yanking on her long black dress, the hem of which was tangled with twigs and trailing branches.

“Jeez, Rex. That was freaky,” she a

“You tasted it?” he asked quietly.

“It was pretty hard to miss,” Melissa said, ru

Jessica glanced from one of them to the other. Rex had a fu

“Are we missing something here?” Dess asked aloud.

“Yeah, what happened?” Jessica said. “I saw a darkling ru

Melissa took a step closer to Rex and the girl. “The darkling was here, but it seemed to think Rex was a—”

“Don’t!” Rex interrupted.

There was a long silence, the two of them staring at each other.

“Not now,” he hissed.

“Wow,” Cassie Flinders said. “Maybe I am dreaming because you guys are really weird.”

Everyone looked at the girl. She stood there, staring defiantly back at them. Jessica decided that she had a point.

“Okay, kiddo,” Melissa said after another awkward moment of silence. “I think it’s past your bedtime.”

“But it’s morning,” Cassie answered, then looked up at the sky and frowned. “Or it was…”

“Either way, I can’t believe your grandma let you out of bed,” Rex said. “You being sick and all.”

“She always lets me play in the backyard,” Cassie said huffily. “Says it’s good for a cold to get out in the cold.”

“Well, I’m putting you back under the covers,” Melissa said, reaching out a hand. “Come with me.”

“Said the spider to the fly,” Dess muttered.

Jessica looked across the clearing at Jonathan. There had to be some other way to keep the secret than messing with people’s brains. She was just a kid, after all. Who would believe her?

As Melissa’s hand closed around Cassie’s, the girl seemed to relax. Then she yawned, her eyes growing sleepy.

Melissa turned to the others. “Chill, guys. I’m a lot better at this than I used to be.” She shrugged. “Besides, I’m only going to calm her down and put her to sleep and maybe suggest that this all was a nightmare. When it comes to radical memory overhaul, I only work on stiffs. Which, you may have noticed, Cassie isn’t. Anything else will have to wait.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Cassie asked sleepily.

Melissa smiled, leading Cassie back toward the railroad tracks. “We’re discussing how you’re going to remember this crazy dream tomorrow.” She winked at Rex. “But probably not the next day.”