As I sat alone on the bus, I absent-mindedly rubbed the scrape on my arm trying desperately to remember if I had hurt it the day before at some point.

  I pulled out my dream journal and wrote down every detail I could remember about the dream.

  The hardest thing to remember was the song. I remembered something about darkness and birds, and maybe fire, but I couldn’t remember much more than that, and it bothered me.

  I also couldn’t shake the image of Soren demanding that I believe my dream was real. I frowned and stared out the window. I was kind of dreading looking this up in the dream dictionary.

  When I walked into psychology class, Keegan was back in his seat. I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat down.

  I kept glancing at him. A few times I caught him watching me, but each time he quickly looked away.

  After we had read a long section of the chapter, Ms. Douglas glanced around the room with a serious expression as she asked, “How do our dreams affect us? Can they affect our real lives?”

  A guy named Peter raised a hand. “I’ve had dreams that made me think about them for days. And sometimes I can’t remember if something happened in a dream or for real.”

  “I think we’ve all had dreams that have seemed extremely real, but has a dream ever affected you or your actions?” Ms. Douglas persisted.

  After a moment, I timidly raised my hand. “Can something that happens in a dream affect you physically?” I asked.

  “Can you give me an example?” asked Ms. Douglas.

  “Well,” I said, mind racing to think of something that wouldn’t sound crazy, “you know, sometimes you dream that you miss a step, and your whole body jerks. Can other stuff like that happen?”

  Ms. Douglas looked around the class. “What do you all think?” she asked. “Is something like that possible?”

  Peter spoke slowly, “Maybe really strong dreams have aftereffects. I mean, we wake up still feeling the emotions that we had in a dream. Maybe the same thing can happen physically in extreme cases?”

  “The mind is an amazing thing,” Ms. Douglas responded. “We still know so little about what it is capable of. Perhaps one day our dreams will affect us entirely, not just our thoughts and emotions. Maybe one day our dreams will be real.”

  I stared at her, heart pounding. It wasn’t really possible, what she was saying.

  Ms. Douglas directed us to get the dream dictionaries and continue working on our dream journals. “Be sure to discuss your thoughts about ‘aftereffects’, as Peter called them, with your partners and write a paragraph in your journal about your final conclusions.”

  “Maria and Keegan,” she continued, “your partners are both gone again, so why don’t you two work together today?”

  I saw Keegan’s head snap up, but Ms. Douglas had already turned away to talk to someone else. Keegan walked angrily to the front of the room, grabbed two dictionaries, and stalked back to my table.

  As he walked over to me, I realized that he was holding his arm against his side.

  “Keegan,” I said, staring at the faint outline of a faded bruise along his jaw.

  “I’m fine,” he said firmly.

  I knew it was no use talking to him when he got like this.

  “Any interesting dreams lately?” he asked, pointedly steering the conversation away from himself.

  “Just one crazy one.” I opened my dream journal and pushed it towards him. “Here, I wrote down everything I remembered.”

  He took the journal and began reading. I watched him as his eyes moved intently back and forth across the page. As he read, his eyes narrowed, and I wondered what he was thinking, but did not want to interrupt to ask.

  When he finished, he handed the journal back to me. “Intense,” he said. “That…” he glanced back at my page, “Changeling… seems really creepy.”

  “I know. The crazy thing is, look…” I held my arm out to him. The scrape was a clearly-visible, angry red welt running down my arm.

  “Do you really think that’s what happened with your arm? Peter’s aftereffects theory.”

  I shrugged, not wanting to come across as crazy.

  “We… we still need to talk,” Keegan said.

  Suddenly the bell rang, and we both jumped.

  Keegan gave a short laugh. “See you later,” he said. He grabbed his books and rushed out the door.

  I nodded at his back and sighed, wondering what was going on, trying to quiet the feeling that had started building inside me that there was something strange going on with my whole world.

  I rode with Drew to Jessica’s house after school. I told Jessica that I had been really distracted that day and wasn’t sure what any of the teachers had talked about.

  “Maria,” she complained, her voice stuffy with her cold, “how am I supposed to keep up if you don’t take good notes for me?”

  “Please, Jess,” I said, just a bit annoyed with her, “you know that if you just read the chapters, you’ll understand it all perfectly well.”

  “Still, what if a teacher gives extra information?”

  I sighed. She wasn’t going to let it go, so I tried changing the subject. “Keegan was hurt again today.”

  Drew nodded. “I noticed that too.”

  “Why can’t anyone do anything about it?” I demanded.

  Jessica’s mom walked in at that moment. “I’m sure they’ve tried,” she said. “But if Keegan insists he’s getting hurt from football, there isn’t much they can do.”

  “I’m with him every football practice,” Drew said. “He isn’t getting hurt there. This all started when his dad moved back in.”

  “I know,” Jess’s mom sighed. “But his grandma insists it’s not happening at home. I’ve known her for a long time. I don’t think she would hide it if it was Keegan’s dad.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “But he’s her son,” Jessica said.

  “Yes,” her mom replied. “But she was the one who took Keegan and Nathan away from him years ago. If it was his dad, there’s no way she would let him stay with them.”

  Drew drove me home a few minutes later, still upset. I didn’t say anything to him. Keegan was his best friend, and I knew it bothered him that he couldn’t help.

  That night I went to my bedroom early. I stayed up for a long time, sketching scenes from both the ship dream and the dream with Soren. It was strange, I could remember details so small, as if I had been to both of the places before. I tried not to, but it seemed like each picture I drew ended up having Keegan in it. I couldn’t get him out of my mind. More than anything, I just wanted to find a way to help him, to get him away from whatever kept hurting him…

  I fell asleep hoping for a dream, wanting an escape, if only just for the night.

  At first I didn’t even realize that I was dreaming because everything was so dark. Then I noticed how damp it was, and smelly, and swaying. I felt my way around until I came to bars. The door on the cell wasn’t locked, so I stumbled onto the slippery steps and climbed up through the ship until I pushed through the door and onto the deck. I stood still for a moment staring out across the surface of the water.

  “You again. I thought I told you not to come here.”

  I glanced around. Pirate-Keegan was standing there, his long hair pulled back into a ragged ponytail, his tan shoulders muscled under his tattoos.

  I smiled at him and ran my fingers through my long hair, breathing in the salty, tarry air.

  “Miss, you need to get below deck,” he said roughly.

  I frowned. I wasn’t going to spend another dream in the bottom of this ship where the rats were. I laughed and sprinted away from him. Although I was unsteady, I made it to one of the rope ladders and started climbing it towards the crow’s nest.

  Pirate-Keegan tore after me, much faster and far more steady on his feet. He reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the ropes. “I’m serious,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the empty deck. “It isn’t safe.”

  I pulled my arm away. “No, I’m not going back down there. I’m going to climb.” I started back up the ladder.

  “Please, Miss.”

  Now I was getting irritated. “No! Just stop it, okay. Nothing’s going to happen. It’s a dream.”

  His face twisted for a moment into a grimace. He looked like he was about to say something. Then he shrugged and said, “Fine, but I’m coming with you.”

  Suddenly the whole ship seemed to sway. I clung to the rope as the mast tipped down towards the sea.

  “Whoa,” said Keegan, quickly climbing up until he was right behind me. His arms wrapped around me, holding us both close to the ropes.

  My heart pounded as he held me tight, while the ship righted itself. As soon as the ship grew somewhat still, he swung around to the other side of the ladder. He took one look at my face and laughed.

  I gritted my teeth and climbed away from him, up into the crow’s nest.

  “Shouldn’t someone be up here keeping a lookout?” I asked, pulling myself to my feet, arms aching.

  “That’s what I was doing before you came up on deck,” he said, joining me.

  “Oh.” I looked out over the sea. It was beautiful. Miles and miles of blue ripples stretched out in every direction, gleaming in the brilliant sun that blazed overhead. The breeze was stronger here above the world. My hair whipped out behind me. Keegan reached out and tucked it into the collar of my shirt, his hand resting on my shoulder for just a moment.

  The crow’s nest rocked back and forth; the slight movement of the ship below was magnified at this height. We stood there in silence for a long time, watching the prow of the ship slice through the water. After a while, I spotted something on the horizon. It was gray and seemed to be swirling.

  “What is that?” I asked, pointing.

  Keegan looked and said, “It’s just mist. We’ll sail right through.”

  I watched as the mist got closer. Finally, we were right to the edge of it. It crept up over the sides of the ship and poured onto the deck. The sun was still shining overhead, and from where we were standing, it felt like we were flying high above the clouds.

  I turned away from the view to head back down onto the ship. Keegan pulled his gaze away from the mist and started down with me.

  “Don’t you need to stay up here?” I asked.

  “I’m not leaving you alone out in the open on this ship, miss.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. Overprotective pirate.

  It was hard to see where I was going, the mist was so thick, and my hands and feet were beginning to get raw from rubbing against the ropes. We finally reached the deck and Keegan took my arm to steer me back towards the trapdoor into the ship.

  “Uh-oh,” he said quietly, his grip tightening on my arm. “Don’t say a word.”

  I looked up and saw an older man watching us, his eyes raking hungrily over me. His face was tanned and wrinkled, covered with a scraggly beard. He smelled of sweat and stale alcohol. I stepped closer to Keegan, feeling somewhat alarmed.

  “Hey there, Kee, what have you found?” The man’s speech was slurred, and he staggered as he walked towards us.

  “Back off, Noah,” Keegan hissed, in a tone I had never heard before, pulling me behind him, shielding me from view.

  “Ahh come on, let us have a look,” the man complained loudly, taking another tottering step towards us.

  “Miss, get out of sight! Now!” Keegan urged.

  I turned and ran to a row of barrels on deck. I crouched behind them and watched as Keegan tried to pull the man away. Noah protested, moving towards me with a leer on his face.

  Without warning, Keegan’s fist crashed into the side of Noah’s face. Noah’s head snapped around, and he fell to the deck. Keegan dragged him to a pile of rope and dropped him there.

  He turned towards me, his face lined with worry. “You need to leave.”

  I climbed shakily out from behind the barrels, and he reached out to help me up. His hand felt rough, but sure. Safe.

  “You need to come with me now,” he directed. “We have to get you away from here.”

  “Not so fast, Kee,” a deep voice cut through the mist that was still swirling over the deck. “Did I just hear you trying to help this little Dreamer escape?”

  A short man slowly came into view through the mist. Even though he was not any taller than I was, the man radiated authority, and I could easily tell that he was the captain of the ship.

  Keegan pulled me into a rough embrace and glared at the captain. “I just wanted a minute alone with her.”

  “Now that, I can understand.” He looked me over with dark eyes. “But given your recent history with - ” he paused for a moment, “stowaways, I doubt you would have brought her to me afterwards. You know what we do with Dreamers.”

  I felt Keegan tense beside me, and suddenly I was very afraid of what this man would do, not only to me, but to Keegan.

  “Well?” the captain demanded. “Tell us all what the penalty is for hiding one. I’m sure you can recall.”

  “Five lashes,” said Keegan through clenched teeth.

  “That’s right, and a month below deck. Now, Kee, I like you quite a bit, so I’ll waive the month. You’re one of my best pirates, but the rules are the rules,” the man chuckled cruelly. Then he called out, “Morgan! Smith! Get up here!”

  I heard two sets of footsteps coming towards us. Then more joined them. One by one, men appeared out of the mist, some tall, some short, all of them dark and covered with tattoos. All of them looked at me greedily, and I shivered, terror making my heart race and my palms feel clammy.

  Keegan, his arm still around me, pulled me closer. He bent his head towards mine and whispered, “You have to jump overboard.”

  I looked quickly up at him and shook my head. I could swim, but the thought of trying to swim in the open sea was terrifying. Besides, I didn’t want to leave him, alone and in trouble because of me.

  As the captain walked towards us, Keegan squeezed me tightly and whispered urgently, “Please, Maria. You have to do it now.”

  As soon as he said my name, I knew I had to do what he was telling me. I swallowed hard and nodded.

  He let go of me, giving me a little shove, and I ran through the mist towards the side of the ship. I heard shouts behind me and footsteps running to catch me as I reached the side and scrambled over it.

  The fall felt endless in the mist. Finally, I slammed into the water, and my breath was knocked out of me. I plunged deep into the sea, my lungs already aching. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach, and wanted desperately to suck in air. I kicked frantically, searching for the surface, but I couldn’t find it. I started to panic and thrashed around in the water. I kept changing directions, trying to figure out which way was up.

  I tried opening my eyes. The salt water stung, but I forced my eyes to stay open, looking for the light. When I saw how far below the surface I was, I panicked. It was getting harder and harder to fight the pain in my chest demanding that I breathe.

  My lungs burned, my head pounded. My body was screaming for oxygen. Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I opened my mouth and felt the salty water rushing down my throat.