Awake (25 page)

Her arms crossed, Katie stared at the ground
thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, I think I may have seen
something like that before.” She looked at him briefly before
turning to the opposite direction. “That way. There should be
something—”

Before she finished her sentence, the blood
drained from her face. Katie looked down. To her horror, the ground
was becoming alive. Lumps in the road formed into human hands and
they reached out for her legs. Andrew took her by the hand and they
fled the scene.

“It’s getting worse and worse,” said Andrew
breathlessly. “This way, you said?”

“Yeah,” said Katie, nodding “the exit should
be at the dead end of this road.”

As they sprinted across the neighborhood,
everything around them became blurry and distorted. Houses were
bending and twisting around, almost as if they were being reflected
off funhouse mirrors. Fire hydrants changed colors rapidly from red
to black or blue. Cars came to life on their own, revving their
engines as they went up and down the sidewalks.

Stay…

“Did you say something?” Katie asked.

Andrew shook his head. “I thought you said
something.” Andrew then noticed something falling from above. He
held Katie back. “Watch out!”

A large oak tree landed upright in front of
them. They fell back as they eyed the great plant. The segments of
bark on the tree moved in such a way that it gave the tree facial
features of a human. The eyes of the tree looked straight at the
kids and the lips mouthed words.

Andrew turned to Katie. “Is this your
doing?”

Katie shook her head. “I don’t think
so…”

“But this is
your
dream,” said
Andrew. “I never had this problem in mine!”

“I’m just as clueless as you are!”

“Whatever it is, we should be able to fight
back. I’m not letting some talking tree stop me from leaving!”

Andrew charged at the oddity. The branches
came alive and swept across, attempting to brush Andrew away.
Andrew blocked the movement of the branches and forcefully shoved
the tree back. The tree toppled over on its side and couldn’t get
up. The two teens ran past the fallen tree. Then they encountered a
blue swirling circle of light.

“That must be it!” said Andrew. “That must
be the exit!”

They wanted to walk into the blue circle but
they couldn’t. The trees all around them suddenly became animated.
The trees, big and small, twisted and waved their branches. The
branches acted more like vines with their incredible flexibility.
The limbs of the trees reached out and grabbed the kids by the
legs.

Taking rapid breaths, Andrew exclaimed,
“They’ve got us!”

Katie squirmed. “Get off! Get away from
me!”

Katie swung her hand down with the full
rotation of her upper body. The branches were cut cleanly and fell
to the ground, shriveled and gnarled. Katie looked at her hand. She
was holding onto a large sword and never realized it. With her
blade she chopped off any branches that were grasping for them.

“We can’t let the dream get the best of us,”
said Katie, gripping the hilt tightly. “We’ll fight fire with
fire.” Yelling out her battle cries, she swung the sword around,
hacking away at the moving forest.

At first the trees retreated frightfully at
the sight of the sharp blade and its restless owner. Then, as if
they suddenly realized they weren’t truly alive to begin with, the
trees attacked again, boldly approaching the force of the blade
without hesitation.

Katie was greatly outnumbered. For every
tree she sliced apart, two more would rise from the broken wood.
There was no end to it.

Andrew took off his shirt to reveal his
superhero garments underneath. He looked at himself in dismay. He
probably still had some of his powers, but without the muscular
body, he just didn’t feel as dashing.

Katie was unable to contain her laughter at
how ridiculous he looked in tights. Even the trees howled in
laughter. In fact, the trees couldn’t stop laughing, and they all
fell down and rolled around in hysteria. Andrew grimaced. He had
planned to show off his superpowers in the dream world, but
apparently there was no longer any need for it.

“Now’s our chance,” said Katie quickly,
restraining her laughter.

She walked up to the portal. Andrew was
right behind her. Together, they watched the gateway uneasily.

“Are you sure this is it?” asked Katie.

“I don’t know…it looks different.”

“That’s not very assuring…”

“We cross over together,” said Andrew with a
smile.

“No…” a voice said darkly. “No one is going
anywhere.”

Another voice screamed,
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

The loud scream echoed through the portal.
The light of the portal intensified. Katie retreated slightly.
Andrew simply stared blankly and swallowed. Kevin flew through the
portal and tumbled to the ground.

“Kevin!” Andrew said. “What are you doing
here?”

“Andrew! Kat—What the heck are you wearing?”
Kevin’s jaw dropped at the sight of her dress. Katie gave him a
menacing glare. Then Kevin quickly said, “Oh, I mean, Andrew!
Katie! We’ve got trouble!”

The monster’s head poked out of the portal,
its freakish bloodshot eyes staring at the teens.

“But I guess you didn’t need me to tell you
that,” Kevin added.

“WHAT IS THAT THING?” Andrew shrieked.

“He calls himself the boogeyman,” Kevin
explained. “And he’s pretty ticked off that we’re trying to set
people free from their dreams.”

The monster couldn’t quite squeeze through
the small portal, so it pulled it apart.

As she watched the monster tear a gaping
hole through the dream world, Katie asked, “What should we do?”

“I was thinking we should beat it up,” said
Kevin.

“Are you kidding?” Andrew said. “How are we
supposed to beat that thing?”

“Well,” said Kevin, “whose dream do you
think is this?”

“Katie’s?” Andrew said.

“Well, it was Katie’s…but now it’s
our
dream,” said Kevin. “Our dream, our rules. This isn’t a
battle against flesh and blood. This is a battle against our mind!
If you think you’re weak, you’re weak. If you think you’re strong,
you’re strong. Got it?”

Andrew nodded.

Kevin continued, “But whatever we do, we
have to do it now, while we’re still in our dream. I don’t want to
think about what will happen if he can destroy the dream.”

“Destroy the dream? Is that possible?” said
Andrew.

“I don’t know,” said Kevin. He pointed at
the hole that was getting bigger and bigger. “But I don’t want to
risk it. So let’s just deal with this thing before it gets out of
hand. We need to use powerful weapons against him. Think of the
most powerful thing in the world that you can imagine and fight
with it. Distract him for now while I prepare myself.”

Kevin leaped high into the air. Pieces of
broken down cars flew toward him, as if a powerful magnet drew
them. The broken glass and scraps of metal came together and formed
a jet fighter around him. Kevin sat snuggly in the cockpit and
engaged the throttle.

Whoosh! The jet fighter shot into the air,
the flames of the engine roaring. And then it disappeared into the
sky.

“I’m not sure what he’s planning,” said
Andrew. “But let’s see if we can take out this monster before he
gets back. Transform into the most powerful thing you can think
of!” After seeing Kevin’s choice of weapon, he was curious as to
what Katie what do.

Katie nodded. She closed her eyes for a bit
and concentrated. All of a sudden she began growing and
growing…until she was as big as the monster itself.

“You just grew bigger,” said Andrew,
sounding disappointed.

“I know,” said Katie. “And now I’m the most
powerful thing!”

“Now it’s my turn,” said Andrew
excitedly.

Andrew closed his eyes and thought for a
moment. The houses crumbled around him and the broken pieces
swirled around in a huge tornado. Then he jumped up into the sky
and fell in the catastrophic winds. The wind subsided and the
tornado dissipated. The only thing that remained was a huge
robot.

“You’re such a geek,” said Katie.

“True,” said Andrew, sitting in the pilot’s
seat of the robot. “But I don’t care because this is AWESOME!” Then
he called out to the monster, “Hey, boogeyman! Want a piece of
this? Huh?”

The monster paid him no attention. It kept
its focus on destroying the dream.

Katie punched the monster in the face. The
monster growled back and used one of its six arms to punch her
back. Then Andrew began firing away hundreds of small missiles.
However, the monster shielded himself with his arms and appeared
unharmed. They both continued to attack the monster, but nothing
they did seemed to hurt it.

“Nothing is working!” Andrew exclaimed.

“Why?” asked Katie. “How come we can’t hurt
it?”

Suddenly, Andrew realized something.
“Wait…what did Kevin say again?”

“He told us…to think of the most powerful
thing…in the world and use it.”

“Oh,” said Andrew. “Maybe if it’s
fake…something we just made up…then, even in a dream, it won’t be
effective. Maybe we have to use weapons that we know are real.”

“That’s right,” said Kevin, his voice
echoing in their minds. “You can fool yourself, but you can’t fool
your subconscious. But you don’t have to worry about that. I’ve got
my weapon ready. Now all I need you guys to do is open up that
mouth.”

“Open that mouth?” Andrew raised a brow.
“But it’s already open.”

“Don’t just let it hang open,” said Kevin.
“Open it all the way. I need it to stay open.”

“I don’t know about this…” said Andrew.

“Just do it,” said Kevin.

Andrew steered the giant robot toward the
massive monster. But just as he started thinking about how he
should open up that mouth, the monster closed it.

The monster grinned.
You think I can’t
hear your thoughts? I heard you loud and clear. There’s no way
you’re going to get me to open this mouth now!

“Oh yeah?” Katie said smugly.

She ran up to the monster. The monster tried
to smack her away with an open palm. Katie blocked with one hand
and reached down with the other. Andrew thought she was going to
punch him again…but this time…she tickled him. The boogeyman was
ticklish!

“No! Stop!” the monster growled, unable to
hold back the laughter. “Stop it!” He flung his other hands around,
trying to swat her away.

Andrew froze at the strange scene unfolding
before him.

“What are you spacing out for?” Katie
snapped, dodging the attacks. “Hurry up and pry that mouth open! I
can’t keep this up forever!”

“O-oh, okay,” Andrew replied. He got close
to the monster, shoved the robot hands into the mouth and forced
the jaw open. “All right! I got it open for now! Hurry, Kevin! Do
whatever you have to!”

“Roger that!”

Kevin flew his jet fighter back down to the
ground. He zipped through the shattered streets. The sight of the
monster came into view. He was locked onto his target: the
monster’s mouth. Kevin pulled up, rising steadily.

At that moment, the monster shoved Katie and
Andrew aside. Kevin pushed the jet’s engine to its limit, flying
faster and faster. Just as the monster was about to close its
mouth, Kevin’s small jet fighter slipped through.

“Did he make it?” Andrew wondered.

The monster got redder and redder. Its skin
began to glow as if a bright light was shining within. A surge of
flame escaped from the monster’s mouth. Then…BOOOOOM! A giant fiery
explosion emerged from the belly, enveloping the beast in a solid
beam of light. A massive shockwave was released and tore the whole
dream apart. Everything shook and crumbled. Everything faded.

“W-what’s happening?” Katie asked, shielding
herself from the light.

Andrew screamed as the robot was breaking
into pieces.

And then darkness fell…and all was
silent.

- All Is Well -

Twiddling his thumbs, Andrew sat on a bench,
his back against the wall. He looked up at the door facing him. He
took a deep breath to calm his nerves. It didn’t help. There was
nothing he could do to shake off the anxiety. The door opened.
Andrew continued to stare as a woman came out, turned around and
closed the door. It was a nurse. Andrew grabbed his book bag,
jumped to his feet and straightened up.

“How is he?” Andrew asked.

The nurse sighed and studied him for a
moment, as though unwilling to reply. “Andrew, was it?”

“Yes.” Andrew said again, this time more
urgently, “How is he?”

“His body is still in good condition, all
things considered. There hasn’t been much change in the past
twenty-four hours.” She hesitated. “There’s really nothing more for
me to say that I haven’t already said. Maybe you should come back
tomorrow.”

“I-I want to see him now.”

“I don’t want you to keep your hopes up. The
doctor still is clueless about his current condition.”

“I know. But I still want to see him.”

The nurse nodded wordlessly and walked
away.

Andrew placed his hand on the handle of the
door. He swallowed. A small bead of sweat trickled down the back of
his neck. He entered the patient’s room. His breathing slowed as
his eyes came across the foot of the bed. Time almost came to a
standstill as he gazed over Kevin’s peaceful face.

Andrew drew near to Kevin’s bed, as he lay
there unconscious.

“Hey Kevin,” said Andrew, trying to sound
cheerful, “I just thought I’d drop by and say hello.” Andrew
dropped his backpack by the bed and unzipped it. “I know you’re
going to hate me for this, but I brought all your homework.” He
took out a stack of papers from his bag and placed it on the table,
right on top of the existing stack. “How are you doing? Are you
feeling any better?”