Toshie opened her eyes.

  “You are awake!” said Brot. “Is the Dream Eater dead?”

  “Not yet.”

  “What do you mean?” Brot tilted his head.

  “Will they wake up?” Toshie sat up.

  “Yes, they should wake soon,” Brot said.

  “Good,” said Toshie, wiping the blood from her mouth. “Mr. Williams, I am so sorry.”

  Mr. Williams and Elena stared at her.

  “We’ll do anything to keep you safe, darling,” Elena said, clasping her hands.

  “No, you won’t,” Toshie said. “How many years have you worked here with your husband?”

  Elena turned to Mr. Williams, then back to Toshie.

  “How many years, Mrs. Williams? Fifteen, right?”

  “Darling, what’s the matter? Yes, fifteen years.”

  Toshie lifted a hand and set Elena’s head on fire.

  “What are you doing?” yelled Brot.

  “It’s her.”

  Mr. Williams pushed Toshie away and began patting out the fire on his wife’s head. “Elena!” he screamed as he tried to extinguish the fire. As the fire died out, Elena remained unburnt and motionless. She blinked, pulled out a dagger, and screamed as she stabbed at Toshie.

  The knife struck a block of ice.

  “Are we still dreaming?” Navarin said, half in a daze.

  Toshie fumbled to her belongings and found her sword. Elena had stumbled forward from the weight of the ice on her dagger. Toshie swung the blade down on her neck.

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  “Elena!” Mr. Williams screamed. “Why? Why?”

  As her head slid off, thick purple blood oozed out.

  “That wasn’t your wife, Mr. Williams.”

  “What? But...”

  “I’m sorry you had to see that, but look. A Kaerin’s blood is green, isn’t it?” Toshie could not forget her first night at the restaurant.

  “Yes, but... Where’s Elena?” Mr. Williams said.

  “The basement,” Toshie said.

  “Why are you so confident?” said Yrlith, who was only now getting out of bed.

  “Elena went there to get the wine. Remember when she cut her finger on the glass Navarin broke? The blood was purple.”

  “And everyone who died in your dream had purple blood...” Sally, too, had finally awoken.

  Mr. Williams stared at the corpse on the ground. He knelt to touch it, and it dissolved into dust.

  They found Elena’s body, the real Elena’s body, stuffed into a potato sack. All that remained of the once jolly and full-of-life woman was a bony husk.

  The Frog’s Pickle did not open that evening. Toshie and Brot set out to buy a small canoe for the funeral. The others helped Mr. Williams prepare Elena’s body. They dressed her in her finest robes, and when Toshie and Brot returned, they laid her out in the canoe and carried it to the docks at sunset.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Williams. This is all my fault,” Toshie said as they set the canoe out to sea.

  “It is,” he said as he stared out to sea. “But what’s done is done.”

  Toshie hadn’t expected such cold words from him, but it wasn’t her funeral. So she said nothing. She looked over to her teacher and saw tears in his eyes.

  “I don’t blame you. I was excited to see someone I knew here. It’s been a long time. Elena welcomed me into her restaurant, and we fell in love. But starting over was hard, not knowing if this was real. But my love was real. And now she’s gone.”

  “Mr. Williams...” Toshie had to say something.

  “You all stay one more night. Elena would have wanted that.”

  The canoe drifted out of sight. The group headed back to the restaurant without saying a word. Mr. Williams prepared them a small dinner despite their protests. They wished him goodnight and headed to the room.

  “You may have the bed,” Navarin said solemnly.

  “I think I’d prefer if we all shared it,” Toshie said.

  “Odd, but as you desire, Hero.” Navarin slid to the side of the bed, and Toshie climbed in after her. Yrlith and Sally squeezed in next to her. Brot found some space at the foot.

  “Goodnight,” Toshie said.

  “Goodnight, Master Toshie,” Brot said.

  Navarin replied with a snore.

  “Goodnight,” came from Sally and Yrlith in unison.

  She could hear the two whispering as she stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Despite being surrounded by people she cared about, she felt alone. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

  Toshie was sitting in the cafeteria of her old high school. She was sitting across from the girl who had become the Dream Eater in her last dream. This time, she didn’t, but Toshie could feel sweat—Was it real sweat?—crawling down her back. The girl—What was her name? She wanted to say ‘Mavis’.—was babbling on about something. Toshie kept looking around, expecting something to happen. Nothing did. Mavis kept talking about something Toshie couldn’t understand.