The Nightmarys (35 page)

water beneath them. “But I was wrong.”

They strol ed back toward New Starkham.

The cars continued to whiz past. Every now and

again, someone honked, a student happy to be

leaving. They were almost at the part of the

bridge that stretched over the campus parking

lot when Abigail froze. She glanced over her

shoulder at the lighthouse. “I’l be back,” she

said. “Wait for me.” She turned and ran in the

direction from which they’d come. Once she

was over the water again, she reached into her

back pocket. Something silver glinted in her

hand as she waved it over her head. Then,

closing her eyes, she threw the lighter as hard

as she could. Like the tooth, it faded away, then

disappeared into the Lit le Husketomic.

When she returned to where Timothy stood,

When she returned to where Timothy stood,

he said, “Hey, I thought you needed that.”

“I thought I did too,” Abigail echoed. “But I

was wrong.”

Once they reached the intersection at Edgehil

Road, she said, “Come over, if you want. Mom

said we could order a pizza, and Gramma

wants to listen to my grandfather’s records with

us.” She shrugged. “I know it sounds kind of

boring, compared to everything else we’ve been

through….”

“That doesn’t sound boring,” Timothy said,

smiling. “Actual y, that sounds like fun.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to my friends and family who

supported this story from the moment I shared

my nightmare about those creepy girls in white

dresses. Thank you to Charles Beyer for

inspiring me with your bril iant Victorian ghost

paintings. And to Gary Graham for not only

reading parts of an early manuscript, but for

the “mil ion-dol ar idea” and the subsequent

Nightmarys trading-card il ustration.

Thank you also to Nico Medina for being a

wonderful y perceptive copy editor and an al -

around awesome friend. Thank you to Kathy

Gersing and Nick Eliopulos for graciously

reading the very long rst draft and for not

wanting to smack me with it. Thanks to Nic

DeStefano for the glamorous photo shoot in the

Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Thank you to Katie Cicatel i, El ice M. Lee,

Thank you to Katie Cicatel i, El ice M. Lee,

and everyone else at Random House Children’s

Books, especial y my editor, R. Schuyler Hooke,

who adopted this baby and helped me make

her even more disturbed than she already was.

It must be stated that Barry Goldblat is a

dream agent; I’m so grateful he’s in my corner.

Thank you to David Levithan for al you do.

Thank you to my grandparents, Francis and

Wanda Poblocki and Doris and Ray Piehler, for

your stories and support. Dad, Maria, Emily,

Johnny, Brendan, Amanda, Mom, and Bruce—I

love you guys.

And Ethan, you’re just the best.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In the rst nightmare DAN POBLOCKI can

remember, giant ants at acked his town. Dan

lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is

stalked only by slightly-larger-than-ordinary

cockroaches. He is also the author of The Stone

Child. Visit him at www.danpoblocki.com.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination

or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons,

living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2010 by Dan Poblocki

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House Children’s

Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks

of Random House, Inc.

Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit

us at

www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Poblocki, Dan.

The nightmarys / Dan Poblocki. p. cm.

Summary: Seventh-grader Timothy July and his new friend

Abigail try to break a curse that is causing them and others to

be tormented by their greatest fears brought to life.

eISBN: 978-0-375-89317-9

[1. Fear—Fiction. 2. Blessing and cursing—Fiction. 3.

Supernatural—Fiction.

4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Books and reading—Fiction. 6. Horror

stories.] I. Title.

PZ7.P7493Nig 2010 [Fic]—dc22 2009050690

Random House Children’s Books supports the First

Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v3.0