For Nevermore Season 1

same time, she felt a responsibility to warn her.
    “OK, well, they aren’t just dreams. Not all the time. Sometimes, this man really does bad things to people. And sometimes I dream about these things before they happen.”
    “He kills them?” Tori asked.
    OK, so much for being subtle.
    Noella didn’t flinch. “Yes, he kills them,” she said. “And last night I dreamed about him again. And he’d . . . taken you.”
    Tori’s eyes went wide. “What?”
    “Yeah, he had locked you up in some room with other women.”
    Tori’s eyes were still enormous, and her mouth hung open, terrified.
    Oh crap, you just scarred the poor girl for life!
    “I’m gonna die?” Tori asked, her voice at the edge of a crack.
    “No, no, no. It was just a dream!”
    “But you said sometimes they come true!”
    “I know, but I didn’t see you get hurt. Which is why I’m telling you now to be careful. Don’t talk to any strangers. Don’t go anywhere without your mom or a teacher or someone you trust. And don’t ever take rides from anyone, even people you know, unless your mom says it’s okay.”
    Tori nodded her head. “I know. We learned all that in school last year. Stranger danger and all that stuff. I’m not stupid.”
    “I know,” Noella said. “But you also need to be careful of people who might not seem dangerous. Like if a neighbor says they lost a dog or something and asks for your help. Sometimes these people will take advantage of your kindness. People who aren’t really strangers, but you don’t know them too well.”
    “Like the guy down the street who is always standing outside in his robe and talking to everyone as they go by?”
    “Yeah,” Noella said, even though she thought of Mr. Harris as perfectly harmless. “Basically, don’t go anywhere with anyone except your mom. And don’t play outside alone.”
    “OK,” Tori said, nodding. “Do you think something bad is gonna happen? Do you think we should tell Mom?”
    “I dunno,” Noella said. “Part of me wants to. But like I said, it was only a dream. I’ve had weird, scary dreams before of things happening that never did. I don’t think I’m psychic or anything. I’d hate to get your mom all freaked out for no reason, or have her think I’m some sort of weirdo.”
    “I thought you said you didn’t care what people thought anymore?” Tori said.
    “Well, yeah, not most people. But people I already like, well that’s different. Especially someone as cool as your mom. I really like her and I love watching you. I don’t want her to think I’m a nut job. What do you think? Should we tell her?”
    Tori put a finger to her chin and stared at the ceiling, pondering the question through the rest of the commercial break and into the first minute of the show’s return.
    “No, not yet. Just tell me if you have any more.”
    “OK, and what about the sleepwalking? I think you should tell her about that, to keep an eye out or something. I’d hate for you to sleepwalk your way right out of the house or something.”
    “Could that happen?”
    “I dunno. I would think you’d wake up, but I don’t know. I was gonna go to the bathroom, remember!”
    Tori said, “Poop in the kitchen,” then launched into another fit of giggles before her attention gradually drifted back to the TV. Noella sat beside her, watching the way the girl’s eyes lit up while watching Phineas and Ferb, and how her cheeks rose and blushed with each new round of laughter. Noella ran her hand through the girl’s hair as she had seen Jen do so often.
    She was surprised how quickly she’d come to think of Tori almost like family. When Noella was young, she had wanted a sibling, but her dad never remarried. Then once he died, and she went to live with Josie, that dream died with him. Noella wasn’t sure, but she didn’t think that Josie was able to have kids of her own. Tori made the perfect little sister.
    Noella wondered if maybe she should tell Jen about the dreams. After 20 minutes or so of beating the matter to death in her head, she found her thoughts drifting towards the playroom, and Dante out there, somewhere on the other side.
    She found herself missing him even more now that she was so close to the doorway, or whatever it was, that brought her to the other world. Noella wondered if there were really a portal upstairs or could she cross over from anywhere? After all, she’d also crossed over in her classroom — if that was what happened during the two