MADISON MARCHED UP THE STAIRS TO THE KITCHEN. “Are all the monsters gone?”

“I think so.” Pausing on a step, Sophie stuffed the used dreamcatchers into her backpack. She wouldn’t be able to use them again—they were full—but she didn’t want to leave them for anyone to find, and she couldn’t bring herself to destroy dreams, even nightmares.

Madison opened the door at the top of the stairs, stuck her head into the kitchen, and screamed. She slammed the door. “Spider. Big spider.”

“She’s on our side,” Sophie said. “I told you.”

“Right. You said that. Sort of. More details next time, okay?” Madison cautiously opened the door again, and they all crowded into the kitchen.

Mr. Nightmare lay on the kitchen floor, swathed in spiderweb.

“Whoa,” Ethan said.

“Friends of his?” The spider woman’s feet skittered over the floor. Her body bobbed as she moved, and her spinner had a trail of thread hanging from it.

“Friends of mine,” Sophie said quickly, and then wondered if that was true. It can’t be, she thought. Given what they knew about her, she’d be lucky if they considered her the same species.

“Ah, very well, then.” The spider backed away, allowing them to come up. Madison hugged the cabinets, her eyes glued to the spider. She was fingering one of the remaining dreamcatchers.

Sophie turned to Madison and Ethan. “I’m going to free Christina and ask if she knows where my parents are. She’s been here the longest. She might know more about the house.” She skirted the tied-up Mr. Nightmare. “Can one of you watch for the police and make sure they know he’s the kidnapper, not a victim?”

Ethan caught her arm. “Wait, you called the police?”

“Yes, before I found you.” She tried to sound as if it wasn’t a big deal, as if it didn’t make her feel like she was being wrapped in threads like Mr. Nightmare.

“But your family secret! You said—”

Sophie cut him off. “I said if we saw anything suspicious, I’d call.” She stepped back, out of his grip. “You’d better call your parents. Let them know you’re okay.”

Madison picked up the phone by the fridge. “You’re one hundred percent certain the spider won’t eat me?” Backing against the sink, she evaded the spider’s legs.

“I do not eat children,” the spider said.

Her eyes on the spider woman, Madison dialed, while Ethan pulled out his phone and began texting. If the police weren’t already on their way, they would be soon, Sophie thought. As if reading her mind, Ethan looked up. “If you find them fast, maybe you and your parents can be gone by the time the police arrive,” he said.

She nodded. At least she could try.

With Monster on her heels, Sophie ran up the stairs and threw open Christina’s door. Christina rushed out. “Why are you still here?” she cried, seizing Sophie’s arms. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, everything’s okay. You’re safe. We turned all the monsters we could find back into dreams, and we captured Mr. Nightmare. The police are on their way. Here”—Sophie gave Christina a dreamcatcher—“in case we missed any.”

“You what? How? You called the police?”

Craning her neck, Sophie looked up and down the hall at the other doors. She’d already looked in all these rooms. “Christina, I haven’t found my parents yet. Do you have any idea where they could be?”

Monster nosed at the wall. “Any hidden rooms? Secret passageways? Portals to other dimensions or what-have-you?”

Without answering, Christina pushed past them and hurried downstairs. Sophie and Monster followed close on her heels as she barreled through the living room.

Madison and Ethan had left the kitchen and were perched kneeling on the living room couch so they could see the street. “Good. You found her,” Ethan said. “Does she know where—”

Christina sped toward the kitchen and then halted. Sophie and Monster nearly bumped into her. Retreating fast, Christina pressed her back against the living room wall. “What’s that?”

“She’s from Mr. Nightmare’s dream.”

Christina’s face was pale, and she looked as if she was going to be sick. “Make her go away.”

“Yeah, kind of felt that way myself,” Madison said. “Don’t worry. The police are coming.” She waved at the window. “They thought the first call was a hoax, but they believed me. They’re on their way now.”

“The spider woman is on our side,” Sophie told Christina. “She helped us.”

Flattened against the wall, Christina looked petrified. “I don’t care. Send her away. Please!”

“We probably should send her back into a dream before the police come,” Ethan said. “They might not get that she’s a friendly scary spider.”

Spontaneously, Sophie hugged Christina. “It’s almost all over. And then you’ll be back with your parents, and everything will be fine! You’ll see.”

“Just please, get rid of her, okay?” Christina begged.

Sophie nodded and then went into the kitchen. The spider woman was busily adding more thread to Mr. Nightmare’s wrappings. He looked like a plump mummy. “Um, hi. Sorry to interrupt, but I need to send you back into a dream before the police come. There’ll be questions, and . . . it would be better.”

To Sophie’s relief, the spider woman nodded. “I understand. I do not belong here. I can feel the air pressing on me, making me feel heavy. The physics of your world do not want me to exist. My true self is out there somewhere, in a body that isn’t a spider. She will complete my work. For now, it is enough that even the memory of the woman I was had the opportunity to triumph over him.”

“You were triumphantly triumphant,” Monster told her.

“Thank you,” she said gravely. Sophie had never thought a spider could be regal, but she was both grand and gracious. “You may send me now.”

Reaching into her pocket, Sophie pulled out a dreamcatcher. It was her last unused one. The used ones were all stuffed in her backpack. With more than a little regret, Sophie used the dreamcatcher on the spider woman. She faded away with a contented smile on her human face and her spider leg resting lightly on Mr. Nightmare’s encased chest. Sophie gently put the dreamcatcher in her backpack with the others and then called to Christina, “Okay, it’s safe now.”

Christina came into the kitchen and stopped when she saw Mr. Nightmare, trussed up on the floor. Emotions flickered across her face, too fast for Sophie to read.

Outside, sirens wailed in the distance.

“They’re coming!” Madison cried from the living room.

Monster tapped Sophie with a tentacle. “Come on. We have to find your parents now. Ask her again.”

“Christina, do you know—”

“He must keep them in the safe room,” Christina told her, crossing to the basement door. “It’s beneath the fight pit—there’s a secret door in the floor. I’ll show you.” Together, they headed downstairs, passing the balcony and stepping over the ooze that clung to the stairs and dripped down the walls. Christina opened the red door to the fight club arena.

Sophie and Monster followed her in. The sand was still speckled with blood, and ooze had congealed on the fence. Various empty beer cans were under the benches.

Without hesitation, Christina led them into the fight pit. “The trapdoor is buried under the sand.” She pointed. “Right in the dead center.”

Dropping to her knees, Sophie began to dig. Inside, she was screaming, Mom! Dad! I’m coming! Sand filled her fingernails and flew into her eyes, but she didn’t stop. Beside her, Monster used all his tentacles, flinging sand behind them.

Watching them, Christina asked, “Your monster . . . He’s been with you a long time, you said?”

“Years. He’s my best friend.” It would be nice if they had a shovel.

“I didn’t know they could be friends,” Christina said. “I’ve never had any friends.”

Pausing, Sophie looked up and smiled at Christina. “We’ll be friends.” We already are, she thought.

“Something’s here!” Monster cried. Digging faster, he unearthed a handle. Sophie swept the sand clear of the trapdoor. She tugged on the handle—locked!

Christina took a key out of her pocket, knelt next to Sophie, and unlocked the trapdoor. She lifted the door and sand fell inside. Sophie peered into the darkness. “Mom? Dad?”

“Why do you have a key?” Monster asked Christina.

From below, Sophie heard familiar, wonderful voices: “Sophie?” It was them! “Sophie, run! Get out of here!”

“It’s okay!” Sophie called. “We stopped Mr. Nightmare. You’re safe!”

Key in hand, Christina backed away from the trapdoor. “I’d like to be friends, Sophie. But I don’t think that’s possible. You see, you’ve destroyed my life. That’s hard to forgive. In fact, I think it makes us enemies.”

Sophie felt as if all her muscles had frozen. “What?”

“This is my life.” Christina waved her hand at the fight club arena. “This was to be our future. My father’s idea; my monsters. But you ruined it by bringing her back.”

“Your father?”

“The spider . . . She wore my mother’s face. The very first monster I ever created was a giant spider. My mother saw it, and she called the Watchmen. She said it was for my own good, that they knew what to do with people like me—but you and I both know what the Night Watchmen do with people like us. They hunt us. My father fled with me before they came. He saved me from them—and from her.”

Sophie shook her head, as if that would make Christina’s words make sense. It wasn’t possible. Christina couldn’t be a part of all of this. She was a prisoner! She was like Sophie!

“She chased us for years, but my father always kept me safe. This was supposed to be how we built our new life.” Christina waved her hands at the fight pit and toward the storage room. “We were going to be rich. So rich she’d never be able to touch us. So rich the Watchmen wouldn’t dare try to take me away. Then you came along.”

“You were part of all this? Kidnapping Madison and Lucy and my parents?”

“We needed more monsters.” Walking backwards to the door of the fight pit, Christina looked sad. “I was hoping for one to match the greatest monster I ever dreamed. We call him the champion. We were saving him until we had the right opponent for him. Guess you qualify.”

Monster howled. “Sophie, it’s a trap!” He ran toward Christina.

But Christina held the dreamcatcher—the one that Sophie had given her, the only unused one—in front of her and gave a sharp whistle. From the trapdoor, Sophie heard a growl, and her parents screamed at her to run.

Sophie’s muscles finally obeyed, and she scrambled after Monster, toward Christina and the fight pit door.

But Christina’s champion was faster. It burst out of the hole and lunged for Sophie. Swiping for her leg, it caught her ankle. She fell forward and slammed into the sand on her knees. Twisting to face it, Sophie screamed.

The champion bulged with muscles that popped over its arms. Its skin was fiery red and streaked with purple veins that glistened like snakeskin. Two curved bull horns crowned its head, and its face was dominated by a massive jaw full of fangs. Its tail was thick with spikes, and as it twisted, Sophie saw its back was covered in spikes too.

A foot from Christina, Monster snaked out a tentacle and ripped the dreamcatcher from her hands. He then pivoted and ran toward Sophie and the champion.

He flung himself onto the monster, wrapping his tentacles around its neck, and he pressed the dreamcatcher against its skin.

“Monster, don’t! You’ll disappear too!” Sophie tried to jump for him, to grab the dreamcatcher from him, but the champion swiped at her. Its claws raked her arm. Crying out, she clutched her arm and fell back again onto the sand.

Monster was fading, becoming translucent, along with the champion. She could see the sand through the champion’s muscles. “Run, Sophie!”

“No, Monster! Throw me the dreamcatcher! Please!” Scrambling to her feet, she ran toward him. The champion’s arm shot out at her, blocking her.

“Go, Sophie! Remember me!”

There had to be something she could do! Some weapon! She remembered the pole that Mr. Nightmare had used. It leaned against the pit outside the fence—

The champion clawed at Monster, pulled him off, and threw him against the side of the pit. Monster thudded against the wall, and the dreamcatcher fell out of his tentacle.

“Monster!” Sophie cried. She ran to him. He was half faded, limp, and breathing shallowly. Before she could reach him, the champion’s tail swung around and knocked into her. She was tossed to the side.

Christina strolled in, picked up the dreamcatcher, and pressed it against the unconscious Monster.

“No!” Sophie screamed.

Monster vanished.

Christina ripped the threads of the dreamcatcher. As the droplets of the dream fell onto the sand, Sophie felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest. “Now you know what it feels like to be truly alone,” Christina said. Then she ran out of the pit, slamming and locking the door behind her.

From the balcony, a horse whinnied.

“She’s not alone.” Ethan’s voice came from above.

Sophie looked up. Ethan and Madison were mounted on Glitterhoof. He swooped down into the pit and kicked the champion with so much force that it flew backwards against the fence and slumped unconscious onto the sand.

Ethan and Madison jumped off Glitterhoof’s back. Together, they pressed dreamcatchers onto the champion until it faded and disappeared.