Free The Nightmare Dilemma (Arkwell Academy) by Mindee Arnett

with a pissed-off gorilla.
    Double ew.
    Lance didn’t answer as he rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, leaving them even redder and puffier than before. “You seen Eli?” he finally asked, directing the question at me.
    I shook my head. “Not since English. He got sent to the principal’s office.”
    Lance surveyed the cafeteria. “And he’s not back yet?”
    Selene and I exchanged a look. He was really out of it. If Arkwell had been a normal ordinary high school, I would’ve assumed he was stoned or something.
    “You haven’t heard?” said Selene.
    Lance slid a leg over the bench opposite us, whacked his knee on the table, and then plopped down, groaning.
    I considered him a moment, shocked to find myself actually feeling concern. I’d never seen the guy looking so disoriented and clumsy.
    “Heard what?” Lance said, rubbing his knee.
    Selene relayed the story about Eli doing magic in English class.
    “Huh,” Lance said when she finished.
    Selene reached across the table and whacked him once on the top of the head.
    “Hey.” He winced, putting a hand over his brow.
    “What’s wrong with you?” said Selene.
    Lance’s mouth opened but no words came out. It was as if what little part of his brain he normally used had a short in it. He closed his mouth, knuckled his eyes again, and then glowered back at us, looking more like himself than he had so far today. “Nothing’s wrong with me. I found this note and I wanted to show it to Eli.”
    He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper. “Seems kind of important.”
    Selene and I grabbed for it at the same time, but she got there first, ripping it out of his hands. She set it on the table and flipped it open, revealing a typed message on the inside addressed to the “Dream Team.” My eyes read the words at once, but my brain took several seconds to absorb the meaning:
    Meet me in the library tunnel alcove. 10:00. About a case. Life and death.
    “When did you find this?” I said, my voice constricted by fear. It couldn’t be a coincidence, not given the time and place.
    “Uh…” Lance stuttered. “This morning.”
    Selene narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?”
    Lance scratched his chin as if the question required deep introspection. Gritty black marks rimmed his fingertips. “I think so, only I kind of remember seeing it last night maybe, but I thought I dreamed it. It’s weird, but everything after dinner yesterday is fuzzy.”
    “Um, that’s a little more than weird,” I said.
    Selene waved at Lance. “Let me see your necklace.”
    “Why?”
    “Just let me see it,” she snapped. Selene normally wasn’t this rude to people, but Lance was the exception, part of their strange love/hate thing.
    Scowling, Lance obeyed, pulling the thick silver chain out from underneath his shirt collar. “Happy?” he said.
    “Never with you,” said Selene. “Take it off and place it on the table.”
    Lance grunted but again did as she said. He unclasped the chain and dropped it in front of her.
    Selene didn’t pick it up, but held her hand over it. Then she closed her eyes and began to hum. My skin tingled with the familiar, pleasant feeling of her siren magic. The chain and the round, flat charm attached to it began to glow. At first it shone bright yellow but then little tendrils of black began to seep through like bloodstains through clean gauze.
    I examined the charm that I’d first taken as some kind of Catholic saint medal, but then I realized it was an engraving of the Joker, Lance’s pop culture hero. I flashed Lance a you’re-a-moron look, but it was wasted as he wasn’t looking at me. Instead his eyes were fixed on the joker playing card he was shuffling back and forth in his hands. From the beat-up look of the card, it was time for a new one. A piece was missing from one of the corners.
    I returned my attention to Selene, who stopped humming and pulled her hand away. The glow on the necklace vanished.
    Lance