Dead Is Just a Dream

by Marlene Perez

  “It’ll probably give me nightmares,” I said.

  The comment seemed to please him. He smiled widely. “It’s been a pleasure, but now I must meet my other guests.”

  Dominic waited until Mr. Kenton had left and then said, “Why don’t we blow off the rest of the exhibit and get a burger at Slim’s instead?”

  “Sounds good,” I said. “I should check in with Flo about what happened on the beach last night anyway.” Flo, who worked as a waitress at our favorite diner, had a tattoo that matched mine. And Raven’s and Andy’s. Actually, Flo had several tattoos, one for every year she’d been a virago. I figured Dominic’s mom had some, too, but we never talked about it.

  “We should leave now or we might not have any appetite left,” Eva said.

  On our way out, we saw a sad-looking clown torturing balloons into animal shapes in a corner.

  “Who would bring a kid to this exhibit?” Dominic asked.

  “Maybe he’s a performance artist,” Eva suggested.

  “Or maybe just the regular kind,” I said. I pointed to the wall behind the clown. It was covered with sad-eyed clown paintings.

  “Ugh. Clowns,” Eva said.

  I agreed with her. Clowns gave me the creeps.

  The disturbing paintings stayed with me even after we’d left the exhibit.

  The diner was busy, and we grabbed the last open table. Slim’s was the most popular place in town. It was decorated with lots of stainless steel and red leather. Flo’s brother, Griffin, owned the place, but everyone called him Slim because of his semitrans-parent nature.

  Connor Archer came over to take our order. “I didn’t know you worked here,” I said. Connor was a year ahead of me in school.

  “Hi, Jessica, everybody,” he said. “I just started, so go easy on me.”

  Dominic grabbed my hand under the table. I gave it a reassuring squeeze. He didn’t have anything to worry about. Connor used to have a bit of a crush on me, but had been dating Selena Silvertongue for the past few months.

  “Flo would kill us if we didn’t behave,” I told Connor with a smile.

  “How are the guitar lessons going?” he asked me.

  “Good,” I replied. “How about you? I haven’t seen you at Mrs. Minerva’s lately.” Mrs. Minerva was our extremely strict guitar teacher.

  “I had to change my lesson time,” he said. I wondered if Selena had made him do that so he wouldn’t run into me, but I dismissed the notion as egotistical. Besides, Selena, a budding sorceress, would probably put a spell on anyone who looked twice at her boyfriend.

  After Connor took our order, I looked for Flo so I could give her a report.

  I found her filling water glasses behind the counter. Her T-shirt read I’M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE. Flo’s bad attitude had decreased only an infinitesimal amount since she’d gotten married to Vinnie, the drummer for Side Effects May Vary.

  “We saw a demon horse at the beach the other night,” I said.

  “I know,” she replied. “Andy already told me.” Figures. Andy was Flo’s pet.

  “Ever heard of anything like that?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll ask Lydia about it.” Dominic and Raven’s mom was now the most experienced virago in town.

  I had been dismissed, but I stood there. Flo wasn’t going to like what else I had to tell her.

  “Anything else?” she asked.

  “I have to miss practice on Wednesday,” I said. “Mom’s making us take horse-riding lessons and I can’t get out of it.”

  I expected her to scold me, but she said, “Horse riding, huh? Where?”

  “Phantasm Farms,” I replied.

  “Could be useful.”

  I waited, but she didn’t elaborate, so I headed back.

  I stopped by the kitchen to say hi to Slim. “How’s married life?” I asked him.

  A few months ago, everyone had been hopeful that Slim would stop being invisible and return to normal. Unfortunately, he’d kind of frozen midway. The left side of his face was back, but the rest remained invisible.

  His wife, Natalie, didn’t mind, but Slim did. He had wanted to be visible for the wedding. “For once, I’d like a good photo,” he had joked. “I haven’t had one since my high school graduation.”

  I wanted to ask Flo how Slim had become invisible in the first place, but I wasn’t sure she’d tell me. It was more likely that she’d tell me to mind my own business.

  The wedding had been beautiful anyway.

  “Married life is amazing,” Slim said. “Natalie is amazing.” The gooey look in his one good eye convinced me it was time to return to my table, so I said goodbye.

  “What did I miss?” I asked Eva, whose eyes were glazing over. Dominic and Evan were deep in conversation.

  “Nothing much,” she said. “They’re debating the world’s fastest runner’s time or something equally thrilling.”

  Our boyfriends were both on the Nightshade High track team.

  “It’s nice they have something in common,” I said.

  “It would be nicer if my boyfriend paid some attention to me,” she said.

  Evan looked up with a distracted air. “What did you say?”

  Eva laughed. “Never mind.”

  He scooted closer to her. “Have I been neglecting you? Sorry.”

  She leaned in for a kiss. “You’re forgiven.”

  Connor came back with our food and I took a giant bite of my burger. “I’m starving.”

  Dominic leaned over and snagged a fry. “Did you run this morning?”

  “Not today,” I replied. “Flo canceled, so Eva came over.” Flo usually made all the viragoes go for a long run every Saturday. “What did you do?”

  What I hoped he’d say was that he had said goodbye to his ex-girlfriend, but instead he shrugged. “Nothing much.”

  “So she’s still here?”

  “Who’s still here?” Evan asked. Eva elbowed him in the ribs.

  “Dominic’s ex-girlfriend is staying at his house,” I said.

  “Don’t make it sound like that,” Dominic objected.

  “It’s true,” I snapped.

  “C’mon, Evan,” Eva said. “Let’s put a quarter in the jukebox.” She was making an exit so Dominic and I could fight.

  Rumor was that the jukebox used to be possessed, but local psychic Daisy Giordano had exorcised it somehow. It was just a regular jukebox now. I kind of missed its old unpredictable ways. It used to play “The Warrior” every time I stepped into Slim’s.

  “Why is she here in the first place?” I demanded.

  He hesitated. “To see me.”

  “That’s just great.”

  “We’re just friends, Jess.”

  “How long is she staying with you?” I asked.

  “She’s not staying at Aunt Katrina’s. There isn’t enough room, but even if there were, I’d want her to leave.”

  “You would?”

  “Of course,” he said. “I know it would make you as uncomfortable as it would make me. She’s staying at Harmony’s.”

  “She knows Harmony Clare?”

  “Their moms are old friends,” he said. “Now can we stop talking about Tashya and enjoy the rest of the night?”

  I nodded but my tattoo tingled, and I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t exactly a tattoo, because the whirlwind moved sometimes, but I didn’t know what else to call it. When the weird mark had appeared on my arm, my life had changed. Maybe it was about to change again.

  Chapter Three

  Eva and I met at the bus stop before school the first day. “I figured Dominic might pick you up,” she said.

  I bumped her shoulder with mine. “There’s no way I was going to miss our first-day-of-school ritual.”

  She whipped out her handheld video camera and pointed it at me. “Smile!”

  “No way,” I replied. “You get in here too.” I draped an arm around her and dragged her closer.

  Eva did her usual commentary with the date, time, etc
. Only this time, she felt compelled to add something about the current state of our love lives.

  I tried to wrestle the camera away from her. “That’s enough of that.”

  “What’s the matter? Don’t you want the world to know you’re dating a future rock god?”

  “Everyone in Nightshade already knows,” I reminded her.

  “Like Dominic will stay in Nightshade for long,” she said, then saw my face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

  I shrugged. “It’s true. He’s bound to leave.”

  Eva gave me a hug. “I didn’t mean to depress you,” she said. “Going back to school is depressing enough. How much do you want to bet that Mr. Krayson assigns homework on the first day?”

  I wasn’t taking that bet. Mr. Krayson was Nightshade High’s least popular teacher and Eva and I both had him for first period.

  The first day of school went smoothly, but the teachers didn’t bother to ease us back into things. I had a pile of homework already and not just in Mr. Krayson’s class.

  At the end of the day, Raven, Eva, and I walked to chorus together. There was a bulletin board outside the music room and Eva went over to check it.

  She came back with a red and gold flyer in her hand. “A circus is coming to town,” she said.

  “I don’t like seeing the animals in cages,” Raven said.

  “Me, neither,” I replied.

  “I don’t like the clowns,” Eva said.

  “Me, neither,” I said again.

  We all giggled.

  “So we’re definitely going, then?” Eva asked.

  “I don’t see how I’ll be able to get out of it,” I admitted. “At least not once my little sisters find out about it.”

  In the music room, Dominic was surrounded by his fans as usual, but when he saw me, he broke free to say hi.

  Our choir director, Ms. Clare, was super-strict about public displays of affection, so I had to be happy with just holding Dom’s hand.

  “How was your first day?” he asked.

  “Tons of homework,” I told him. “You?”

  “Me, too,” he said. “I thought the teachers might go easy on us senior year.”

  “Settle down, everyone,” Ms. Clare said. “Let’s get started.”

  We obediently took our places.

  “We don’t have much time before our first performance,” Ms. Clare continued.

  “When is that?” Harmony asked.

  “I’m glad you asked,” her mom replied. “There will be a Day of the Dead party at the Wilder estate, and the choir has been invited to perform. Now who has suggestions for Halloween-themed songs?”

  “How about ‘Monster Mash’?” Connor suggested.

  “How about something from the last decade?” Selena teased.

  “Like what?” Ms. Clare challenged.

  That stumped Selena for a few seconds. “What about an a cappella version of ‘This Is Halloween’?”

  The suggestions flew and Ms. Clare wrote them all down on the board. “One of the numbers will be a duet,” she said. “So think about your audition piece. It should reflect the theme.”

  I hoped Dominic would ask me to audition with him, but he didn’t say anything before I left to meet the other viragoes.

  Raven, Andy, and I had arranged to meet by the oak tree in the front of the school. Eva walked with me. “Are you going to audition with Dominic?” she asked.

  I shrugged. Dominic and I had performed a duet with Side Effects May Vary at the Battle of the Bands but hadn’t sung together since then. I wondered if the other band members didn’t like me horning in on their gig.

  “I need to swing by the library,” I told Andy. She had her license, so she usually drove me and Raven around.

  “Me, too,” she said. “I can’t believe how much homework I already have.”

  My favorite librarian, Ms. Johns, was manning the front desk when we arrived. She looked like she’d been crying.

  “What’s wrong, Ms. Johns?” I asked her. “Allergies?” I thought I’d give her an out if my question was too nosy.

  She shook her head. “I guess you haven’t heard the news yet,” she said. “Mrs. Lincoln died last night.” Mrs. Lincoln had been one of the older librarians, but she wasn’t that old.

  Raven gasped. “What happened?”

  “Nobody really knows,” Ms. Johns replied. “She lived alone. She didn’t show up for work today, so I went to check on her.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  “No, I do,” she said. “It was just so strange. The look on her face. It looked like she died screaming.”

  “Screaming?” Andy asked. “That’s odd.”

  “I know, right?” Ms. Johns said, sniffling.

  “Then what happened?” I asked.

  “I called the police and they took over. Deputy Denton wanted to drive me home, but I didn’t want to be alone, so I came here.”

  “How do they think she died?” Raven asked.

  “They think she was murdered. There were signs that she was smothered.”

  “That’s horrible. Is there anything we can do?” I asked.

  “No, I think it’s being handled already,” she replied. “Mrs. Lincoln had a nephew, but I haven’t been able to get in touch with him.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said again.

  After we left, Andy said, “Do you think Mrs. Lincoln’s death has something to do with the horse on the beach?”

  “Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” I said. “But my tattoo did tingle when we saw it. And then someone was murdered right after we saw that ghostly horse.”

  Raven held up the stack of books she’d checked out. “I’m about to find out what that was all about.” She read aloud while Andy drove.

  “Here it is,” she said finally. “A supernatural horse called a night mare is also known as a Mara. A Mara gallops into someone’s dreams. Even a glimpse of the deadly Mara is enough to scare some people to death.”

  “How can we stop it?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t say,” she said.

  “That’s not good,” Andy grumbled. Understatement of the year.

  Chapter Four

  My little sisters Katie and Kellie had their first riding lesson after school on Wednesday. Mom had roped me into going too, but since I didn’t have my driver’s license yet, she was paying our next-door neighbor Poppy Giordano, Daisy’s sister, to take us. In fact, Poppy was running the ultimate kids’ chauffeur service in between her classes at UC Nightshade. She picked my sisters up from school and then drove them all over town for their various activities when Dad and Mom couldn’t make it.

  When Poppy arrived, Kellie was eating a snack in the kitchen, but there was no sign of Katie.

  “Katie, Poppy’s here,” I called, but she didn’t answer. I was pretty sure she was upstairs playing with her dollhouse. Normally, playing with a dollhouse wouldn’t be worrisome, but Katie’s was enchanted. We’d discovered it in the old Mason house, and Natalie had given it to my sister. The dollhouse was amazing, a miniature medieval castle, like something straight out of a fairy tale.

  Princess Antonia, the main occupant of the dollhouse, was a royal pain in the butt.

  I walked up the stairs to Katie’s room. She was having a conversation with Princess Antonia. “I don’t think Jessica will like it,” Katie said.

  The princess, who had a very loud voice for a little doll that had come to life, said something I couldn’t catch.

  “All right,” Katie reluctantly agreed. “I’ll do it.”

  “You’ll do what?” I asked.

  Katie and the princess both jumped about a foot.

  I leaned in and gave Princess Antonia a stern glare. “Do not get my sister into trouble,” I said, “or you will regret it.”

  She shrugged and turned back to her gilt-framed mirror. “I have no idea what you are speaking of.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “I mean it
, or I’m going to have to have a talk with the prince.”

  “The prince,” she sniffed.

  Sounded like trouble in miniature paradise, but I didn’t have time to worry about the royal relationship right then.

  “Katie, are you ready?” I asked. “Poppy’s here. Make sure you wear the boots Mom bought you.”

  She put out a leg and admired her new riding boots. “I’m ready.”

  We found Kellie downstairs, tugging on her boots. We piled into the car.

  “Jessica, not that I mind the extra cash, but isn’t it almost time for you to be driving by now?” Poppy asked.

  I nodded. “I just got my learner’s permit,” I explained. “I still have six months before I turn sixteen.”

  “What made your mom decide on riding lessons, anyway?”

  I shrugged. “She was the Realtor who sold Phantasm Farms to the new owner,” I said. “Have you ever been out there?”

  “We went a few times when I was little,” Poppy said. “The place is huge. There’s the stables, of course, but there’s also a couple of barns, pastures for all the horses, and the original house, which was deserted. The last owners built a huge new house but left the old one alone.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  Poppy shrugged. “Everyone said it was haunted.”

  I glanced back at my sisters, but they were busy staring out the window at all the horses in the pasture.

  “We’re here,” I said.

  Poppy nodded. “Kind of,” she said. She pointed to a sign that read PHANTASM FARMS. “We turn up that lane and then the stables are still about a mile away.”

  “Yikes,” I said. “No wonder Mom didn’t think we could walk.”

  “Here we are,” Poppy said. “I’ll meet you guys in about an hour.” She pointed to a picnic table under a shade tree. “Wait here if I’m late.” She let us out and we headed to the stables, where a short blond man in jeans, checkered shirt, and a black hat was waiting for us.

  “Hi. We’re the Walsh kids,” I said.

  “Anton Plasky,” he replied. “Let’s get you saddled up.”

  We were on the horses in a matter of minutes. Katie and Kellie had placid old ponies, but my horse looked like he wanted to take a bite out of me.