The Children of Hypnos

[Vol. 2] Chapter 20: His Lonesome Nights Are Over

Just the sight of green fog was enough to make the few students out shut their windows and pull their blinds; none of Klaus's nightmares had made an appearance yet, so far as Emery had seen, but the fog was a terrible, choking thing, acrid and eye-watering. Ridley lived in Waesh Hall, a mixed day-and-night student dorm, right next to Kirkland. The front doors had been locked, the lights turned off in the lobby, so Emery and Wes had to pound on the doors until the denmother appeared, looking wary. Emery began pulling the pins out of her hair until it was clear even in the dark that it wasn't floating, and only then did the denmother allow them inside.

"What's going on?" The young woman, hardly older than Emery or Wes themselves, looked like she was about to cry. "I told everyone to stay in their rooms, but—"

"Keep them there!" Emery said, chasing after Wes, who had already bolted for the stairs. Ridley was on the fourth floor. Wes took the stairs three at a time and swung himself over the railings, his hammer in his hands the moment he hit the fourth floor. Emery stalked close behind him, guns drawn. Soft wall lights illuminated the hallway in either direction, buzzing faintly; the air smelled like pizza and scented candles. Wes made a motion for Emery to follow him down the right-hand hallway. He stopped at the corner, his hammer held against his chest as he peered around the corner, then made another motion and started forward, crouched low. The floor was empty, but as they moved, a door to their left cracked open. The boy who looked out yelped at the sight of them and slammed the door shut again. We startled at the noise, but didn't stop until he stood in front of 409.

"Careful," Emery said. The door was firmly shut and didn't appear damaged, but Ridley was a very nice, occasionally gullible person, and doppelgängers could be beyond deceitful when it came to their own survival. She didn't sense the Dream nearby, save for what was already blanketing campus, which made her all the more hesitant. Klaus's dream was potent enough to cloak the sense of any other nightmare or dreamform, and the doppelgängers—especially one as strong as Klaus's—would be able to hide even from dreamkillers.

Wes rapped on the door with one hand, his hammer held aloft in the other. "Rid? Ridley, it's me."

There was silence on the other side, then a soft voice called, "Stand up so I can see your hair."

Wes and Emery rose from their crouches. There was a gasp and a cry, and the door burst open. A wave of bronze hair enveloped Wes. Ridley fell into him, openly sobbing.

"Wes! I-It was her—me—b-b-but she didn't talk, a-and she knew I was here, and s-she just stood there for so long—"

"Where'd she go?" Wes pried Ridley away from himself and forced her to look at him. "Which way?"

Ridley pointed to the emergency outdoor stairwell at the back of the hall. "How d-do I have one?" She looked around at Wes, at Emery, wide-eyed and lost. "I'm not close—I-I'm not close to my Insanity Prime!"

"Did anyone else see her?" Wes asked, nearly shaking his sister. "Anyone else?" He shut his mouth abruptly and looked up and down the hallway, as if only now remembering the other rooms weren't empty.

"I don't know." Ridley wiped her eyes with her sleeve and held out her hand. "She slid this under the door."

In her hand was a crumpled piece of paper. Wes smoothed it out. On it, in Ridley's loopy handwriting, was the word FAMINE.

"Great," Emery said. "Now they're leaving notes."

"Ignore this," Wes said to Ridley, taking the paper. "Nothing's going to happen to you. Do you have your pick hammers? Okay, good. Get your armor on, we're going to find Marcia and Uncle Ares."

Ridley whimpered at Ares's name, but did as Wes said. She was as deadly with her pick hammers as any other hunter, but Emery didn't like the idea of her back being watched by anyone who had gotten so spooked by seeing their doppelgänger for the first time. The three of them made their way out of Waesh with no other incident, and outside the fog wasn't as thick on the ground. The pressure of the Dream had begun to recede from campus. They jogged to the quad, where Marcia and Ares were not joined by Moxie. Moxie had a hand out, releasing a stream of Dream-cloud from her fingertips that swallowed the fog and spread outward.