“I know, I know, the plan,” she said, rolling her eyes but smiling gently at him. “I’ll be where I promised I’d be. Just trust me, okay?” Her hands glowed brighter, and she gave him a worried look. “I’ll see you in a few hours. Don’t have nightmares.”

A wave of sleepiness hit him then, and it was all he could do to lay his head on his pillow before he drifted off, as Sierra faded out from the other side of the bed.

The dream, as it always did, started within seconds.

A giant black scaly hand pushed up through the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, closing around Fort’s father and the woman he’d been carrying to safety. Fort’s heart stopped as he watched his father disappear behind those fingers.

The old woman came tumbling out from between the creature’s fingers, crashing to the grass next to Fort. His father tried climbing through just behind her, but he was going to be too late. He was always too late.

“Dad!” Fort screamed as the creature roared, then started pulling back below the ground.

“Fort!” his father shouted. The creature’s hand curled around him, rupturing the remains of the memorial as it descended back into the ground. “FORT—”

The creature’s massive hand disappeared within the earth, and his father went silent.

“NO!” Fort shrieked, but part of him knew that he couldn’t do anything, even if he wasn’t a ghost here, because the dream would play out just like real life had, and Sierra would be commanding him to run any second now.

But her voice never appeared in his head. Without waiting to find out why, Fort dove into the hole after his father.

Down and down into darkness he fell, unable to see or hear anything but the creature’s scales ripping against the dirt and stone. His father stayed silent as the creature descended. Though Fort was falling, somehow he stayed right with the monster’s fist moving at the same speed.

A green glow lit the tunnel from below, shining off of the creature’s scales as it dug back down, the earth collapsing in a strangely organized way behind them, almost as if by magic. The glow intensified, and now Fort could see the portal, just like the one he’d seen below the old Oppenheimer School when the same creature (or a very similar one) had almost pulled him through.

If only he’d known then that his father might still be alive, he would have gladly gone with it.

The creature passed through the portal, and Fort followed, holding his breath with anticipation. He knew that this was just his imagination, he knew it. But what if he was wrong? What if he was going to see what had happened to his father? Maybe he could see where his dad had been taken, and—