Dreamless

by Josephine Angelini

  There were tons of people at school that day wearing even more ostentatious getups. Helen had never seen so many people in costume before. The energy in the air bordered on recklessness. Kids were actually bouncing off the walls, and teachers were letting them.

  “Is that Parkour?” Helen asked Claire as one sophomore ran up a wall and did a backflip off it.

  “Yeah,” Claire replied uneasily. “Um . . . isn’t anyone going to stop him?”

  “Guess not,” Helen said, and the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing. What did they care? They had a Hergie hall pass. They were freaking bulletproof.

  By the time they were done retouching this and adding another layer of glitter to that, going to and from the prop room, their lockers, and the soda machine as they came up with more and more excuses to wander the halls, it was almost lunchtime. Hours later, they were sauntering past Miss Bee’s social studies class in their kick-ass costumes when the bell rang. All the AP kids poured out of what would have been Claire’s class if she had bothered to show up.

  “Whoops. I guess we’re late,” Claire said with a cheeky grin.

  Helen was in midlaugh when she felt someone grip her upper arm tightly and pull her back. The air around her blurred and refracted, like she had been shrunk and put inside a diamond. When her pupils adjusted, she saw that she was on the other side of the hallway, and Lucas was using his body to barricade her up against a locker.

  “Where have you been?” he asked in a low voice, close to her ear. “Don’t move or they’ll be able to see us. Stay very still and tell me what happened to you this morning.”

  “This morning?” Helen repeated, stunned.

  “Matt said you looked like you’d been attacked. Then you and Claire just disappeared for the rest of the day. School’s almost over. We’ve been worried sick.”

  “I had to shower and change. We lost track of time.” Her excuse sounded lame, even to herself. She had no idea why neither she nor Claire had thought to go back to class.

  She glanced over Lucas’s shoulder, trying to figure out what was going on, and saw a scared look on Jason’s face. He took Claire’s hand and led her down the hallway, pulling her close to him. No one seemed to pay any attention to Helen and Lucas at all. They were standing so close—literally on top of each other—but Matt walked right by them like he hadn’t noticed, and so did Ariadne. Something was wrong. There was no way Ariadne could look at Helen and Lucas pressed up against each other and not shoot them a disgusted look.

  “What’s going on?” Helen whispered.

  “I’m bending the light so no one can see us,” Lucas said softly.

  “We’re invisible right now?” Helen breathed.

  “Yes.”

  A dozen confusing moments finally clicked in her head. Helen’s blurred vision, the uncanny sense of another presence in the room, Lucas’s disappearances, and how he could just suddenly come out of nowhere—it was because he had been there all along.

  “You’re my invisible sun, aren’t you?”

  She felt his stomach, pressed tightly up against hers, tense in a silent, startled laugh. She saw his lips move soundlessly around the words “invisible sun.” She forced her gaze away from his mouth to meet his eyes.

  “Lucas,” Helen chastised gently. “You really scared me. First I thought there was something wrong with my vision, and then I thought I was going insane.”

  “I’m sorry. I knew I was freaking you out and I tried to stop, but I couldn’t,” he admitted, embarrassed.

  “Why not?”

  “Look, just because I pushed you away from me, that doesn’t mean I can stay away from you,” he said, laughing at himself a little. “It started with me learning how to bend light, but it’s turned into something else now. Something I never thought I could do.” He broke away with a pained look on his face. “I learned how to become invisible so I could stay close to you and let you move on with your life at the same time.”

  “Have you always been there?” Helen asked in a worried voice, thinking about a thousand private things he could have witnessed.

  “Of course not. I miss you, but I’m not a pervert,” he said, looking away and blushing a little. “You’ve always known when I’ve been there, Helen. Unlike everyone else, you can still sense my presence when I’m invisible. No one knows I can do this, except for you.”

  Helen didn’t know how to respond. The only thing she wanted to do was kiss him, but she knew she couldn’t. All she could do was stay still and stare at him.

  The bell rang and dozens of doors shut simultaneously, but neither Helen nor Lucas made a move. A few random kids were still roaming the halls, looking for trouble. Strangely, no teachers seemed to be stopping them. It was like a day without rules. Helen certainly didn’t care if she got in trouble. Suddenly, she felt like destroying something. She couldn’t recall ever feeling like that before.

  Over Lucas’s shoulder, Helen caught a glimpse of the ghoulish woman she had seen by the side of the road, walking down the hallway.

  “Right behind you,” Helen gasped quietly. Lucas moved very slowly to turn and look. “I saw her this morning, and it was like everything went wrong at the same time. That’s why I looked like I’d been attacked.”

  “She’s not mortal,” Lucas whispered to Helen as the ghoulish woman moved past them.

  “Can she see us?” Helen asked, but Lucas just shook his head distractedly. Helen saw his nostrils flare, and barely a moment later she smelled why.

  The she-ghoul reeked like rotten eggs and spoiled milk. It was the smell that Helen had mistaken for dead squirrel—the stench that had clung to her until she had scrubbed it off in the showers that morning.

  The smell seemed to permeate the walls, and commotions began inside every classroom that the she-ghoul walked by. There were loud voices and yelling at first, and then crashes and squeals followed, like everyone had suddenly started throwing the furniture around. Notebooks and book bags were being tossed into the air. Soon enough, the doors started opening and students started pouring out, closely followed by the teachers. But the teachers weren’t trying to restore order. They were just as unruly as the kids.

  Wrapped in their cocoon of invisibility, Helen and Lucas watched in awe as Miss Bee, their stolid, logic-loving social studies teacher, savagely kicked in a locker door with her sensible shoes. Helen looked up at Lucas and could tell he was fighting the urge to join in the destruction. She felt it, too. She had been feeling it all day, she realized. It was why she’d agreed to the costume and the glitter, and why she had been so willing to blow off five classes instead of just one or two. Helen felt like raising some hell.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Lucas whispered with narrowed eyes.

  “What?” Helen whispered back. She bit her lower lip, feigning innocence. “Don’t you feel like doing something bad?”

  “Yeah, I do,” he said, and pulled Helen a little tighter to him. She felt his body generate a wave of heat, like she had just opened the door to a hot oven, and pressed harder against him. He held his breath and made himself look away from her. “We have to get out of here.”

  Lucas grabbed Helen’s hand and pulled her into a sprint. She understood why right away. If they moved fast enough, they could remain invisible as they went from hiding behind Lucas’s light-cloak to moving faster than a mortal could see. It was such a thrill to run through the hallways of her high school at Scion speed that she nearly hooted with glee.

  Once outside, Helen and Lucas took to the air and shot up high over the island, away from the influence of whatever was turning their school into the monkey cage at the zoo. Floating high above the ocean, Lucas turned to her and stared with a half smile on his face.

  “Maybe adding wings to those paintings wasn’t such a bad idea.”

  She knew immediately what he was talking about. The first time he’d taught her to land after flying, she’d hovered above him while he stood on the ground. She told him she’d seen a
painting that looked just like them, only the one in flight in the painting was an angel. He’d told her the angel wings were nonsense. Now he didn’t look so convinced.

  Helen felt like it had been forever since the day Lucas had taught her to fly, but every second of that perfect time came flooding back in complete detail. She marveled at how much it still hurt.

  Helen decided that the saying about “time healing all wounds” was a bunch of bull and probably only worked for people with very poor memories. The time she’d spent apart from Lucas hadn’t healed anything. The distance had only made her miss him more. Even the few feet between them in that moment were excruciating. Unable to bear it, Helen soared closer and tried to hold him.

  “Lucas, I . . .” Helen reached out, but he jerked away from her with a half-panicked look on his face before she could finish her sentence or lay a hand on him.

  “Text Orion, tell him what happened,” he said in a loud, nervous voice. He took a moment to dial down the volume before continuing. “He’s been around, seen a lot of things. Maybe he knows who that woman is, or at least what we’re dealing with.”

  “Okay.” Helen let her hands fall awkwardly to her sides. She told herself not to act as devastated as she felt. “I should go. I promised my dad I’d work at the store today.”

  “I should find my sister, make sure we’re all okay,” Lucas said through tight lips. He wouldn’t even look at her. “I’ll tell everyone what we saw in the hallway and see if we can come up with a theory. And Helen?”

  “Yeah?” she responded in a thin voice.

  “Let’s keep the invisibility thing quiet for now. We’ll just say you and I hid in all the commotion.”

  “What about the obols?” she asked in a remote way, trying to separate herself from him by acting much calmer than she felt. “I’ve been dodging everyone’s questions about how I got into the Underworld last night, but I can’t put Cassandra off forever. She can’t see my future right now, but sooner or later she’s going to foresee something about you and those obols.”

  “I guess I’m going to have to come clean about stealing them,” he said, sighing. “But we should probably not tell our family how I gave you one in bed last night.”

  Helen knew he’d added that last bit just to remind her that he’d done the right thing by pulling away. Helen knew he had just saved her from a potentially disastrous situation, but it still stung.

  They parted ways and Helen went back to school to get her stuff, trying to put Lucas out of her thoughts. He’s my cousin, she chanted under her breath until the feeling of rejection was replaced with guilt. She felt like an idiot for reaching out for him like that. What was she expecting to happen?

  Helen had the vague feeling that Lucas told her to text Orion just to make her think about him, like a guy asking a girl if her boyfriend knew they were alone together. The more she thought about it, the more miffed she became. Did Lucas think she and Orion were dating or something? Helen wondered exactly what the two of them had been saying about her.

  Throwing her destroyed bike in the Dumpster with a bit more hostility than was necessary, Helen went in the side entrance of the school and walked quickly down the deserted halls. There were broken tables, overturned chairs, and upended trash cans everywhere. The whole place was a jumbled mess, and it stank like that she-ghoul. Helen hurried to her locker, grabbed her bag, and draped a sweater over her arms to fight off the chill as best she could without crushing her borrowed costume, and then went right to the News Store. She didn’t want to hang around and take the chance of seeing that wretched woman again.

  Out on the streets, Helen felt a raucous, almost dangerous mood simmering. Amber-hued autumn light added a crackling vibrancy to the already festively decorated streets. In the town center, orange-and-black Halloween banners snapped in the chilly wind and glowing jack-o’-lanterns flickered, casting spooky shadows in the doorways of the old whaler-style houses and on the cobblestone roads. Helen clutched at her sweater and glanced around suspiciously, looking for the source of the menace she felt.

  Dozens of groups were already out trick-or-treating. At this early hour it was mostly parents with small children, but one or two of the costumed hordes were certainly not out looking for candy. These groups had a heightened, aggressive energy, as if their monster masks gave the people wearing them the soul of the characters they depicted. For the life of her, Helen couldn’t recognize any of the young people in these groups, which was really strange. Usually, she would have passed half her high school by this point, but the streets seemed to be filled with strangers, which was nearly impossible. It wasn’t tourist season anymore.

  Something was definitely off. Helen was not afraid for her own safety, but she was still concerned. It was so early, and there were so many little kids still out looking for treats, she wished the people more interested in tricks had waited a bit longer. She went into the News Store with a worried frown, wondering if she should call Luis and tell him to take Juan and Marivi home early this year.

  “Nice wings, Princess,” a man drawled.

  “Hector!” Helen exclaimed as she tossed herself right into one of his fantastic hugs, despite the fact that he was using her least favorite nickname. He caught her effortlessly and she hung from his neck for a bit. “One of these days, I’m going to get you to stop calling me that.”

  “Not in this lifetime.” He tried to sound like he was joking, but she could tell right away that something was wrong. He seemed tense. She pulled back and took a good look at him.

  “What’s happened to you?” she asked, and ran her finger along a thin, pink scar that was still healing across his cheekbone.

  “Family,” he said with a sad smile.

  “The Hundred are still chasing you?”

  “Of course they are,” he said, shrugging. “You’re the only person I’m certain I’m safe with. Tantalus won’t risk harming his one and only chance to be free of the Furies.”

  Helen frowned and wondered if she should be happy about that or not. A part of her didn’t want to do anything that made Tantalus and the Hundred happy, but what else could she do? Not help Hector because it also helped Tantalus? She was stuck and she knew it.

  “You’re freezing!” he said, chafing his hands over her skin to warm her up. “Usually I prefer it when women wear as little as possible, but not you. Where are the rest of your clothes, little cuz?”

  “Long story,” she chuckled. “So get comfortable, because I’ve got to fill you in.”

  “I have something to tell you, too,” he said seriously as she dumped her stuff behind the counter. She looked up at Hector, and was struck again by how worn he looked.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, really concerned for his health.

  “Go on,” he said. “We’ve got a little time, but not that much.”

  Helen ran off to greet Kate and her father, and then had to count her register before she could come and talk. Kate set Hector up with hot cider and as many hazelnut sticky buns as he could eat, while Helen checked her bank and organized the credit card slips in the relatively deserted front part of the store.

  When everything was in order and Kate had bustled off to take care of the noisy customers in the back, Helen caught Hector up on everything that had happened recently in the Underworld. She altered the stolen obols story slightly to make it seem like Lucas had stolen them strictly for her use and not his own, and ended with the riot at school. He listened without interrupting, a brooding look on his face.

  “Her name is Eris,” he said. “She’s the goddess of discord, or chaos, depending on which translation you use. Wherever she goes, disorder, arguments, even riots erupt. Everything that can go wrong will. She is sister and companion to Ares, and she is very, very dangerous.”

  “Hector. What’s going on?”

  “I came here to warn you. About two hours ago I saw Thanatos walking down Madison Avenue in New York, right outside the building where the House of Thebes is holding Conclave.”r />
  “Who’s Thanatos?” Helen asked, although the name sounded familiar.

  “Thanatos is the god of death,” Hector explained. Helen nodded, remembering Cassandra had told her that. “He’s the original Grim Reaper—black cloak and all bones, but minus the scythe. That bit of farm equipment got added during the Middle Ages. Luckily, most people on the street thought it was just a guy in an amazing costume, although there were a few of the more sensitive types out there who keyed into what was really happening and ran screaming.”

  “What was he doing there?”

  “Didn’t stop to chat. Thanatos just has to touch you to kill you, so I left that one to your mother and her bolts.” Hector gave an expressive shrug. “We don’t know why the minor gods are out and about. Daphne sent me back here immediately to have you ask the Oracle if she’s seen anything.”

  “I’ll call her right now.” Helen took out her phone.

  “There’s one more thing,” Hector said reluctantly. “We don’t think Automedon is working for Tantalus anymore. We don’t know who’s pulling his strings now. It could be that he watched you for a while, saw what you can do, and decided it wasn’t worth it. He hasn’t attacked you, so don’t panic yet. Just keep your eyes open.”

  “Great,” Helen said with a mirthless laugh. “Anything else you want to tell me? Because I just started dreaming again and I could really use some more nightmare material.”

  Hector laughed with her as she dialed Cassandra’s number and listened to the phone ring. She reached out and laid her hand over Hector’s, giving him a sympathetic smile. She noticed that he had avoided saying Cassandra’s name, and opted instead to call her by her title. He missed them all so much. Hector smiled back at Helen ruefully and dropped his eyes.

  “It won’t be much longer,” Helen promised him softly, listening to the phone ring and ring. “You’ll be back with your family soon.”

  “You found something, didn’t you?” he said, perking up. “Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

  “Orion and I are pretty sure we know what we need. The only problem is I still don’t know how to find the Furies once we get it,” she replied as she hung up and dialed Matt’s number instead. “I didn’t want to say anything, just in case this all falls through, but we’re going to make our first try for it tonight.”