Some Quiet Place

the grass, into the soil, as if I’m on a ride that won’t stop spinning. All the sleepless nights, the haunting dreams that felt so real … it was him. Never the boy, reaching out to me, begging me to know his story. No ghosts, as I’d secretly believed, no revelations of the past. Just the ugliness of this creature using and twisting my own mind against me.
    “What are you?” I say, past the ragged air struggling in and out of my lungs. He approaches and leans over me, bringing that weird scent with him, and it’s in that instant that I realize what that underlying smell is.
    Old blood.
    “Don’t you know yet?” he breathes in my ear. When I don’t—can’t—answer, he whispers, his lips moving against my skin, “I’m Nightmare.”
    I stare up at him, frozen. He’s silent now, waiting for me to speak. He’s a hole of quiet and malicious intent, and I have no idea what he’s capable of. This is most dangerous of all.
    The questions don’t matter. I scramble to my feet and run again.
    He lets me go. “I saw you save the boy when he was about to get hit by that truck!” Nightmare calls. He hasn’t moved. “There’s no way any normal human could have gotten to him so—”
    The Element halts midsentence. Breathing violently, I glance over my shoulder and stumble. Fear stands between me and death. I can only see his back, his white hair curling on his neck. Nightmare doesn’t say a word. He’s looking at Fear with that pleased, ravenous expression.
    “Go!” Fear shouts to me. Crouched, his body tensed, he doesn’t take his eyes off Nightmare. “Don’t look back, Elizabeth! Keep going!” he orders.
    I obey without any more indecision, and the wind rushes past my ears. But at the sound of Fear crying out, I falter. I can’t just leave him. I spin to help …
    But I’m too late. Fear is crumpled on the ground, blood gushing between his fingers, from his middle. He struggles to stand up again, but the Element laughs and knees him in the face. Fear hits the ground. Nightmare stands over him, holding a long, wicked-looking knife. It’s red all the way down to the hilt. Dripping.
    Nightmare looks up, sees that I’m staring at his knife. He smiles. “Didn’t he tell you to keep running?” he calls to me as if we’re comrades, waving the scarlet blade back and forth. “We aren’t indestructible to each other, you know.”
    I’m frozen again. Fear rolls his head back, his cheek scraping on the cement, and he sees that I’ve stopped. “Go,” he chokes, his eyes wilder than I’ve ever seen them.
    Instinct takes over, and I find myself running once more. Behind me, I hear Nightmare make a sound of amusement deep in his throat before he’s flying through the air again. He gives me a hard shove as he lands. I fall forward and throw my palms out to try to soften the blow. The skin on my hands shrieks at me as it tears, and then my face hits the hard ground. Black dots dance before my eyes, and I’m dizzy, so dizzy. Nightmare’s shoes appear in my line of vision, and a moment later his voice sounds in my ear.
    “It was ironic,” he whispers. He brushes my hair back like a father would his child. “Those mewling humans chained you up and left you there, a fruit ripe for the plucking. Not to mention you brought a friend. Two birds with one stone. This is my lucky day. By the way,” he adds, “the battery is behind the front left tire of your truck. I dare you to try and get it.”
    “Elizabeth!”
    I would know that voice anywhere. It races through every part of me, filling all the corners with light, tearing apart the strong cobwebs inside my soul. Nightmare’s shoes vanish. That fetid smell is gone. And then Joshua’s actually there, holding me, rocking me, a cell phone pressed against his ear. “Fear?” I manage to ask, my voice so faint that Joshua doesn’t hear it.
    “Yeah, I need an ambulance. In front of Edson High. Someone has hurt Elizabeth Caldwell pretty badly. Yeah. Okay.”
    I’m barely aware of any of it. All I know is that when I lift my head, indistinctly anxious that the Element will come back, he’s gone. And so is Fear. I think I call his name again.
    But Joshua’s here. And he’s whispering in my hair, telling me that everything is going to be all right, he’s not going to leave me, I’m safe now, I’m safe.
    The moon is full in the sky when the girl emerges from the house. She closes the door as softly as she can, glancing around to make sure no