Free The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld Page A

way to school. She wasn’t so far from home. “If I can just make it past the hairy snakes and the giant predator, I’ll be fine,” she mumbled. “No problem.”
    The moon was fully risen now. It was moving much faster than the sun did during the day, Jessica realized. It hardly felt like half an hour since the dream had started. She saw how gigantic the moon was now. It filled so much of the sky that only a strip of horizon remained visible around it. The huge bulk hanging overhead made the world seem smaller, as if someone had put a roof on the sky.
    Then Jessica saw shapes against the moon.
    “Great,” she said. “Just what I need.”
    They were flying creatures of some kind. They looked like bats, their wings fleshy and translucent, slowly gliding rather than flapping their wings. They were larger than bats, though, their bodies longer, as if a pack of rats had sprung wings. Several of them wheeled above her, making low chirping sounds.
    Had they spotted her? Were they, like everything else in this dream, hunting Jessica Day?
    Staring into the dark orb was giving Jessica a headache again, making her feel trapped under its light-sucking gaze. She turned her eyes back down to earth, watching for the panther as she jogged toward home.
    The flying shapes stayed overhead, following her.
    It wasn’t long before she felt the rumble of the panther’s growl again.
    The black shape slid into sight in front of her a few blocks away, directly between Jessica and home. She remembered the intelligence in the panther’s eyes when they had faced each other through the fence. The cat seemed to know where she lived and how to stop her from getting there. And its little slithering friends were probably already in formation to prevent any escape.
    This was hopeless.
    The creature started padding toward her, not breaking into its full stride this time. It knew now how fast she could run and understood that it only had to go a little bit faster to catch her. It wouldn’t overshoot this prey again.
    Jessica looked around for a place to hide, somewhere to escape to. But the houses here on the main roads were farther apart, with big wide strips of grass on every side. There were no tight spaces to crawl into, no fences to climb.
    Then she spotted her salvation, one block in the opposite direction from the panther. A car.
    It was sitting motionless right in the middle of the street, its lights off, but she could see that someone was inside it.
    Jessica ran toward it. Maybe whoever was at the wheel could drive her to safety, or maybe the panther couldn’t get inside the car. It was the only hope she had.
    She looked over her shoulder at the cat. It was running now, still not at full speed, but fast enough to close the distance with every bound. Jessica ran as fast as she could. Her bare feet ached from pounding the concrete, but she ignored the pain. She knew she could make it to the car.
    She had to.
    The cat’s raspy breathing and padded footfalls reached her ears, the sounds carrying like whispers through the silent blue world, closer and closer.
    Jessica dashed the last few yards, reached the passenger side door, and yanked at the handle.
    It was locked.
    “You’ve got to help me!” she cried. “Let me in!”
    Then Jessica saw the face of the driver. The woman was about her mom’s age, with blond hair and a slight frown on her face, as if she were concentrating on the road ahead. But her skin was as white as paper. Her fingers gripped the wheel motionlessly. Like Beth, she was frozen, lifeless.
    “No!” Jessica shouted.
    A hissing came from below. Snakes under the car.
    Without thinking, Jessica leapt up onto the hood. She wound up facing the driver through the windshield, the blank eyes staring back at her like a statue’s.
    “No,” Jessica sobbed, pounding the hood of the car.
    She rolled over to face the panther, exhausted, defeated.
    The beast was only a few strides away. It paused, growling, and the two long fangs