Steven Harper - Nightmare

"Who’s It?" Willa asked. In the Dream, Kendi noticed, she seemed taller, more sure of herself.

"My mother and your mother were hanging out the clothes," Kite chanted, pointing to each person at each word. "My mother socked your mother in the nose. What color was the blood?" His finger landed on Jeren.

"Green," Jeren said. "Like snot."

"G-R-E-E-N and you are It ." Kite’s finger pointed at himself. "My turf, then. Here goes."

He spread his arms wide. The ground rumbled and the air swirled. Green shoots speared up from the ground, thickened, and widened into solid, leafy walls. New-mown grass sprouted beneath Kendi’s bare feet. The air coalesced into fluffy clouds and bright sunlight. In a few moments the group was standing in the center of a garden maze. White marble statues gleamed above granite benches, and a fountain sprayed cool water high into the air.

"There are lots of entrances to the center," Kite announced, and Kendi counted eight. "It isn’t a real maze-there are also lots of pathways and openings."

"Lots of places to hide, in other words," Dorna said. "Let’s go."

Kite plucked a blindfold out of thin air and tied it around his eyes. Kendi marveled at the other boy’s control. So far conjuring objects had proven difficult for him, though he was becoming adept at molding landscapes. Kite started counting.

"Why the fuck are we standing here?" Jeren said. "Run!"

They scattered. Kendi dodged into the twisting hedge-lined paths until he was alone. Whispers murmured sibilants all around him. He could sense other people moving about in the maze like a swimmer senses ripples in a pond, but it was hard to figure out exactly where they were. He closed his eyes and tried to sense who was where. Jeren was off that way. Willa was two pathways over. Dorna was …was …Kendi furrowed his forehead in concentration. He had a hard time fixing on her. And where was-

Kite barreled around the corner. Kendi felt him coming and his eyes popped open. With a whoop and a yell, Kite pounced. Kendi dodged and fled, trying to remember which way home base was. Kite stayed right behind him. Kendi concentrated as he ran. He needed an obstacle, something to slow Kite down. The earth rumbled, and a boulder burst out of the ground between the two of them, blocking the pathway. The smell of damp earth filled the air. Kendi continued to run down the leafy corridor. An opening to home base was just ahead of him.

"Oh, no you don’t," Kite said from the other side of the rock. Tendrils of plants and vines shot inward from the two hedges, weaving themselves into a thick barrier just ahead of Kendi, who screeched to a halt. Kite started to clamber over the boulder, but it was too smooth for good purchase and he slid back to the ground. Kendi tried to push through the vegetation. It was too thick. He needed something to cut through it, or a way to go over it.

Kendi felt Kite’s mind pressing on his own. The boulder started to crack. Kendi wanted the rock to exist, big and solid, while Kite wanted it to crumble into rubble. Whichever one of them could force his own perception on the other would win. They were on Kite’s turf, which gave him an advantage, but Kendi’s Silence was strong. Dozens of cracks raced over the boulder’s surface, and Kendi could feel it weakening. Kendi narrowed his eyes. He wanted a solid boulder. He wanted the cracks to disappear. They would disappear now . There was a moment of resistance, then the cracks smoothed over and vanished.

"Home free!" yelled Jeren from the center of the maze.

"Dammit!" Kite said from the other side.

"Mom, Kite’s swearing," Kendi yelled back in a child’s singsong. "Can’t catch me!"

There was a clank , and the final rung of a metal ladder appeared at the top of the boulder. Uh oh. Kite’s ability to conjure objects was more advanced than Kendi had thought. Kendi cast about for a way out. He could try to make the ladder disappear, but Kite had created it and they were on his turf. Kendi doubted he could overcome both those advantages at the same time. He needed to get through the hedge wall.

"Home free!" Willa shouted from the center.

Now’s the time to get it right , Kendi thought. He held out his hands. He needed a machete, sleek and sharp. It would appear in his hands, and it would appear in his hands-

"Gotcha!" Kite said behind him in glee. "You’re It ! And you owe me five freemarks."

"Yeah, yeah," Kendi grumbled. "At least I get to dictate territory."

Kite grinned and the maze vanished, leaving the flat plain behind. Jeren and Willa stood next to each other, Dorna off to one side.

"Round two," Kendi said, and without further explanation he spread his arms wide and called for the Outback. Scrubby plants sprouted from nothing. Sandy soil and piles of rock sprang into being, and the sky rippled and shifted into a pure, hot blue.

"Shit," Jeren said, wiping his brow. "It’s fucking hot!"

"What a mouth," Dorna observed dryly.

"Hey, Sis, you take me as I am."

"I’m not a-oh, never mind."

"Home base is this pile of rocks," Kendi said. "And watch out for drop bears."

"Drop bears?" Willa said.

"According to legend, they hide in the tops of trees," Kendi told her with an absolutely straight face. "Especially around the billabongs. When you pass underneath them, they drop on you. They aren’t very big by themselves, but if ten or eleven land on you all at once, it gets pretty nasty. Smelly, too."

"You liar," Jeren said.

"Can’t lie in the Dream," Kendi replied.

"Right," Dorna said. "Of course, that ‘according to legend’ bit sort of lets you off the hook, doesn’t it?"

With an injured air, Kendi covered his eyes and started counting. Around him, he felt the ripples in the Dream as the others scattered. This time he kept a mental eye on Dorna.

"Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty."

Kendi felt Dorna retreat quite a ways and dodge into the brush around a small billabong. Then he lost her. Puzzled, he tried to find her again.

"Seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four."

Where had she gone? Kendi gnawed his lip. Maybe she had the ability to hide herself in the Dream just as Kendi had a talent for finding people. Or maybe she-

There! She was right there. Right at the edge of the Outback.

"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred!"

Kendi made a beeline for Dorna’s hiding place. He skirted a clump of scree, then flung himself around a boulder, knowing full well she was on the other side.

"Gotcha!" he shouted, and lunged.

"What the hell?" sputtered the man on the other side.

Kendi leaped back as if he’d been bitten. It was a man, blond, dressed in overalls with a tool belt. Kendi had never seen him before, hadn’t sensed him either.

"Who are you?" Kendi demanded. "What are you doing on my turf?"

"Your turf?" the man said. "Kid, you better have a look."

That was when Kendi noticed he had crossed some kind of boundary. The Outback was directly behind him, but at the moment he was actually standing in some kind of workshop or garage.

The man crossed arms that bulged with muscle. "This is my territory, yeah?"

"Oops," Kendi said, backing away. "My mistake. Sorry!" He fled, face burning with embarrassment. The moment he re-entered the Outback, he felt Kite making a run for home base. Kendi raced across the hot plain but didn’t make it time. Kite touched the rock pile and thumbed his nose at Kendi.

"ImadeitImadeit!" he said, lapsing into his old speech patterns in the excitement. "Fivemarks!"

Kendi ground his teeth and cast out his mind to track the others. Jeren was creeping closer, crawling on his belly like a snake. Willa was some ways off, and Dorna was …was …He narrowed his eyes. It felt like she was in more than one place. Abruptly, the sensation vanished and he could feel her again in only one place. Before he could try to figure out what was happening there, Jeren leaped from his hiding place behind a tree and made a break for it. Kendi spun and tackled him at the last moment.