The Fall of Five

19

I jolt awake as soon as Ella starts screaming. It was my night to stay with her and it had gone by peacefully. We’d stayed up late talking about the new arrivals and what Malcolm Goode had told us about Pittacus Lore and the possibility of helpful Mogadorians. Ella had finally fallen asleep and I’d hoped that maybe the nightmares plaguing her since New Mexico were finally gone for good. She hadn’t had one since reading Crayton’s letter. Maybe it was all stress related after all. Now that she’d gotten over the anxiety of that unopened letter, things could get back to normal.

I should’ve known better.

“Ella. Ella, wake up!” I shout, trying to decide if I should shake her. I’m feeling a little panicked, especially when she doesn’t immediately snap awake. Ella digs at the blankets with her fingers, kicking her heels into the mattress, all while belting out steadily hoarser screams. She’s moving about so much that she almost falls out of the bed. I reach out to steady her.

As soon as I touch Ella’s shoulder, an image pops into my mind. I’m not sure where it comes from. It feels like when Ella talks to me telepathically, except there’ve never been visuals to go along with her mental voice.

What I see is horrible. It’s Chicago, the same lakefront area where Eight and I wandered around just the other day. There are bodies strewn everywhere. Human bodies. The sky is filled with columns of smoke from nearby fires. The surface of the lake is covered in something viscous and black, like oil. I can hear screams. Smell the burning. Hear explosions in the distance . . .

I pull away from Ella with a gasp. Just like that, the vision is gone. I’m out of breath, shaking, my stomach feeling queasy.

Ella has stopped screaming. She’s awake now, looking up at me with wide, scared eyes. I glance over at the clock and realize less than a minute has passed since Ella first started screaming.

“You saw it too?” she whispers.

I nod, not sure how to answer, much less describe what I just saw. How is it possible that I just found myself in Ella’s dream?

Someone knocks on the door and without waiting for an answer, Sarah pokes her head in. I can see Sam standing behind her in the hallway. They both look concerned.

“Is everything all—?”

Before Sarah can finish, Ella makes a sudden motion towards the door, slamming it shut with her telekinesis.

“Ella! Why’d you do that?”

“They shouldn’t be near me,” she replies, her eyes wide and frantic.

Someone tugs at the door, but it won’t budge. Now I hear John’s voice, probably drawn by all the screaming and commotion. “Marina? Everything all right in there?”

“We’re okay!” I yell through the door. “Just give us a minute.”

Ella pulls a blanket around herself and curls up at the head of the bed, pressing her back to the wall. Her eyes are still wide and she’s shaking like a leaf. When I try to touch her, she flinches away from me.

“Don’t!” she snaps. “What if I send you back there again?”

“Calm down, Ella,” I say soothingly. “It’s over now. The dreams can’t hurt you, especially when you’re awake.”

She lets me hold her hand. There’s no telepathic jolt this time, which I’m thankful for. Whatever strange effect the nightmare had on Ella’s telepathy is over now.

“How—how much did you see?” she asks, her eyes darting around the room, like there could still be some leftover nightmare lurking in the shadows to get her.

“I don’t even know what I saw, exactly,” I answer. “It was the city. It looked like something terrible happened.”

Ella nods. “It’s after they come.”

“Who?” I ask, but I already have a good idea who Ella means.

“The Mogadorians. He’s showing me what happens after they come. He—he made me hold his hand and walk through it all.” Ella shudders and lunges away from the wall, into my arms. I feel like shuddering too. The thought of having to walk through that carnage hand in hand with Setrákus Ra is enough to get me rattled. I try to put on a strong face for Ella.

“Shh,” I whisper. “It’s okay now. It’s over.”

“It’s going to happen,” Ella cries. “We can’t stop him.”

“That’s not true,” I reply, squeezing her tight. I try to think of what John or Six might say in this situation. “The nightmares are lies, Ella.”

“How do you know?”

“Remember those cave paintings Eight showed us in India? The one of Eight dying? That was supposed to be a prophecy, but we broke it. There’s no set future, only the one we make.”

Ella lets go of me and takes a deep breath, pulling herself together.

“I just want the nightmares to stop,” Ella says. “I don’t know why it’s happening to me.”

“It’s Setrákus Ra trying to scare you,” I tell her. “He’s trying to scare you because he’s scared of us.”

I’m glad I was able to calm her down, to sound confident doing so, because I’m actually pretty freaked out. Sunlight is starting to peek through the curtains, and outside that window is a beautiful city full of innocent people that I just saw ravaged. That dream seemed so real, I can’t just shake it off. What if we aren’t able to stop what’s coming?