20

20

AGAIN THE DREAMS haunt my night, and again the only change is Duke has taken Jason’s place in the cycle. I wake up, every muscle in my body feeling knotted and tense, a little before eight. Mary Sue, I see, is already up, dressed, and about.

“Mornin’ sleepy head,” she chirps cheerfully, making me want to take her grape and onion peels from the night before and shove them down her cheerful throat. “You must’ve been having some dream there, I couldn’t tell if you were having the time of your life or being chased by Freddy Krueger.”

“I think I would’ve preferred the torments of Krueger,” I respond, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and if Mary Sue thinks I am going to say anything more than that on the subject of my dreams, she is going to be sorely mistaken.

“Just got a text from Zeke,” Mary Sue says, mercifully changing course. “The extraction team will be arriving in a couple hours. We will need to be here when they arrive.”

“Great, so we’re stuck here until then,” I gr