The very worst nightmare: Tess watching in horror from her bed while the bruise-colored shadows coalesced into a creature vaguely human-shaped but something both more and less human. The monster blocked her doorway, her only escape, filling the space, hulking there, waiting for her to make a move. Tess told herself it was nothing, she was imagining things, she was only dreaming; but the monster told her that she was awake and utterly alone, that everyone else in the world was gone, that it been saving her for last. It was patient, it been around forever, it was made of lies and deception, rage and resentment, bitterness and oblivion, and it would wait as long as it took. It would wait her out. And it would win, because it always did.

When she had this last, worst nightmare, Nine would climb up into her bed and nibble on her fingers and lick her face until she woke with a shudder. Then Tess would hold on to the Cat as if Nine were a buoy in a storm-tossed sea all the way till the morning.

“Well, you look perfectly terrible,” Tess’s mother said, when Tess shuffled into the kitchen after hours of tossing and turning. “Nightmares again?”

“Probably,” said Tess, grabbing a cereal bowl from the cabinet. “I don’t always remember.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m fine.” Tess plunked the bowl on the table and filled it with cereal, though she wasn’t that hungry. “Still thinking about 354 West 73rd is all.”

“That’s understandable,” her mother said. “We all are.” Her mother’s tone was neutral, but her eyes were shrouded with worry.

With the sun coming through the windows burnishing her mother’s face, the terror of the nightmares faded a little. Tess began to feel foolish that she’d been so scared. She had her mom; she had her dad and brother and Aunt Esther. She wasn’t alone. “It’s okay, Mom. I’ll keep trying my meditations. And Nine helps a lot.”

At this, her mother smiled and glanced down at Nine. “I’m glad you have her.”

“I’m glad we have her,” said Tess. Nine mrrowed, brushed up against Tess’s legs, then wound herself around Tess’s mom’s, getting fur on Miriam Biedermann’s suit pants.

“Is Dad already at the office?”

“Yep,” said her mother. “He needs to prep for the new school year.”

Tess’s dad was a school social worker, and he took the “worker” part as seriously as Tess’s mom did. “He’s there already? It’s not even seven o’clock!”

“He’s got a lot of kids to take care of. You know him.”

“And you’re going to work early today, too?” Tess asked.

“Have to. New partner,” said her mother, grimacing.

“Really? What happened to Syd?” Tess had liked her mom’s old partner, a man with silver hair but the big biceps of a body builder.