What was not her problem? Confusion fil ed her mind.
It's a dream. Just a dream. Wake up. Wake up. She tried to remember how Dr. Day had taught her to stop the dreams, but she couldn't. She closed her eyes real y tight and opened them, hoping she'd be back at her cabin.
She wasn't. Somehow she'd moved closer to the house and to the screams. The woman was in the house. Someone hurt her. Who? Why? What did it al mean? Why was Kylie here? Why was she stuck in a war movie? Or was it a movie? No, a dream. Her mind tried to compute the questions. No time, a voice deep inside her demanded, only time to feel, to understand. Why did she need to understand?
Her questions faded and she felt completely present in the dream again, in the havoc, in the ugliness of war. She felt an enormous guilt for not wanting to be involved with the woman. If she ran, if she ran right now, she knew she could catch up with the others and get away. Choices ran through her head. She could live if she left now. But could she live knowing she'd al owed this to happen to the woman?
No. She couldn't. She glanced down at an assault rifle in her hand. Just like the ones from the war movies. She had to stop whoever was hurting that poor woman.
Kylie kicked in the door and aimed her gun at the man hunched over the woman. "Stop it!" Kylie screamed, but it wasn't her voice making the demand. It was a man's voice.
Kylie froze for a second, then she saw that the man had a knife. She saw the woman, her clothes ripped, and blood covering her face and hands, as she scrambled away from her assailant.
The man swung around to face Kylie. He rushed forward, his bloody knife held high. Her finger on the trigger tightened. She saw him fal and felt no remorse for shooting him. He was evil, she knew it.
A young boy came running in the front door. His dark hair and eyes seemed haunted and older than his years. "No!" he screamed when he saw the bleeding woman huddled against the wal . He fixed his eyes on Kylie.
He started yel ing something in a language Kylie didn't understand. He pul ed a gun from his pants pocket and aimed it. Aimed it right at Kylie. Pop. Pop. Pop. She heard the shots. She didn't feel them, but she knew she'd been shot-she also knew when she fel to the floor she was dying.
Suddenly, she stood in the corner of the room looking at the boy and the woman. Her gaze shot to the body lying in a heap, the body she'd just left
-the person she had been. Soldier Dude. Blood streamed down his face. He reached inside his uniform and pul ed out a letter. He brought it to his lips and with his last breath, he kissed the envelope.
Kylie's heart ached for the loss. She didn't know him, but she cared. Cared that he had died. Cared that he had died trying to save someone. The woman sat up, looked at the dead soldier, and started screaming again, and so did Kylie. When she woke up, she was stil screaming, standing with her back against the kitchen wal in her cabin. Miranda and Del a, dressed in their pajamas, stood in front of her, staring.
Kylie let go of her tension and felt herself slide down the wal . Her throat felt raw, her heart raced.
"She's having a night terror," Miranda said from far away.
Kylie wanted to believe it, but no. She'd never remembered the others. This time she remembered. Somehow she knew that this had been more than just a dream. This was how Soldier Dude had died.
* * *
Kylie sat there for a good ten minutes, assuring Del a and Miranda she was fine. When they final y went back to bed, Kylie returned to her bedroom. Realizing she couldn't sleep, she got dressed and went to see Holiday. The camp leader had told Kylie if she ever needed her, night or day, she could come to her cabin. Kylie was about to find out if Holiday real y meant it.
Moving down the path toward Holiday's cabin, Kylie couldn't help but notice how the night seemed void of noise. Not a bird, not even the shuffle of a raccoon. In her mind, she heard the woman's screams again and saw the soldier take his last breath. Tears dampened Kylie's face. She brushed them away, not wanting to be crying when she got to Holiday's cabin.
Suddenly, the dark silence shattered. Kylie heard arguing in the woods. The voices were gone just as quick as they'd begun, though. The hairs rose on the back of her neck. She ignored the fear of the unknown and focused on what she knew. The soldier was dead. He'd died trying to save someone. She kept walking. Holiday's cabin was only another five minutes away.
She took another step, and that's when she felt someone move into place behind her.
That's when she felt the hand grab her arm and jerk her back.
"You shouldn't be out now," the eerily familiar voice snarled.
Chapter Thirty-three
Kylie swung around. It felt as if her heart jumped up and slammed against her tonsils. As soon as she saw it was Sky, Kylie breathed a sigh of relief.
"You scared me," she said.
When Sky's hold tightened, Kylie's relief started to vanish. "I ... I need to speak to Holiday. She said if I needed her, I could come. It didn't matter what time."
Sky continued to stare, but her grip final y lightened. "What do you need to see her about?"
"I had another bad dream. Only I remembered this one. The ghost was there."
Sky dropped her hold and then stepped back as if she wanted no part of Kylie's ghost. "Do you know which cabin is hers?"
Kylie nodded. Sky motioned for Kylie to continue, and she did. Even so, Kylie felt Sky watching her as she took each step. Kylie wasn't sure why and then it final y hit her that Sky probably thought Kylie was going to or coming from a hookup with a boy. Kylie stopped in front of Holiday's cabin door and knocked. A few seconds later, the camp leader, wearing a big night shirt, opened the door.
"Kylie?" Layers of concern fil ed Holiday's voice. "Is everything okay?"
The distress in Holiday's voice opened up Kylie's floodgates again. Tears formed in her eyes and her throat grew tighter. "No." Kylie shook her head side to side. "It's not okay."
Holiday pul ed Kylie inside and wrapped her in a solid hug. Kylie al owed herself to be held by someone who seemed to understand. When the hug ended, Kylie told her, "I think I know what the ghost wants from me."
* * *
When the sun rose, Kylie stil sat on Holiday's sofa, going over and over the dream. The camp leader confirmed what Kylie had suspected. It hadn't been a normal night terror, but an out-of-body experience. The ghost had brought Kylie into his last memories. Holiday agreed that Kylie could be right, that the ghost might have been accused of committing the crime he'd died trying to stop, and now he wanted someone to let the world know he wasn't the vil ain. Nevertheless, Holiday also said that it was seldom that easy.