I poke my head into the room a few hours after John first collapsed. Sarah has her head down, pressed to the back of John’s hand. I’m not sure if she’s asleep or not and I don’t want to disturb her. Nothing has changed with John and Ella. Their facial muscles twitch, and their bodies occasionally lurch as if they’ve just tripped in a dream and are scrambling for their balance. I’ve had those dreams before, the ones where you trip or fall off a bike, and I always wake up before I hit the ground. That doesn’t seem to be the case for John and Ella.

I take a closer look at John. It has only been a few hours, but already his skin has taken on a pallor similar to Ella’s, dark circles forming around his eyes. It’s almost as if he’s being drained somehow. Now that I think about it, Ella looked pretty washed out before training this morning. I’m worried there’s some kind of physical aspect to the nightmares, like they’re weakening John and Ella, or worse.

“Sarah?” I whisper, and then realize there’s no point in keeping quiet. We want these two to wake up. I should be banging on pots and pans. “Everyone’s getting together in the living room.”

Sarah stirs, shaking her head. “I’m going to stay here,” she says quietly. “I don’t want to leave them.”

I nod and don’t press the issue. I leave the room and head over to the workshop, where my dad has spent the rest of the night hunched over a computer. When I enter, language samples are scrolling by on the screen, but it doesn’t look like he’s any closer to cracking those Mogadorian documents.

“Anything?” I ask.

“Not yet,” he replies, turning to face me. He has to blink a few times, his eyes dilated from staring at the screen. “I’ve worked up an auto decoder so I don’t have to sit here monitoring the progress. It’s pretty, ah, old school. I’m a little behind the times when it comes to software, but it should be able to crack it eventually. I only hope it’s quick enough.”

I glance at the scanned Mogadorian pages. “You think any of this is related to the nightmares?”

“I don’t know. The timing certainly seems convenient.”

“Yeah.” I notice my dad’s cell phone sitting out on the desk. I tap it. “Were you trying Adam again?”

I didn’t think it was possible, but my dad’s face droops even farther. “Yes. No progress there either.”

I pat him on the shoulder. “Come on. The others are meeting and want us to join them.”