Hurrying back to her room with her friends, there were only two things on Mena’s mind: Who sent the mysterious letter and what secrets lie in the forbidden section in the library. Once they were safe from prying eyes, Mena let her questions fly.

“This is quite a twist. What d’you girls think?”

“Well,” Janus said, closing her raccoon-like eyes. “You were looking for an answer about the book, and you got one.”

May turned her head between Mena and Janus. “But should we trust this person? We don’t even know them.”

Mena gave confident head nod. “I don’t see why not. I mean, they simply told us to go to the library.”

“B-but,” May stammered. They meant the forbidden section of the library.”

“What’s so bad about there?” Mena asked, a triangular eyebrow raised.

May held her hands to her face, turning slightly purple. “That where all the dangerous magical books are. They date back to times before book makers learned how to properly control them.”

Mena pumped her hands excitedly as Janus put her spindly fingers together. “That sounds exciting,” they both said in unison.

“It sounds s-scary,” May shuddered.

“Scarier than your mom?” Janus smirked.

May looked at Janus. Her head dropped instantly. “Point taken.”

Mena tucked herself into bed that night, knowing a grand adventure awaited her tomorrow. Little did she know a mystery of equal measure awaited in her dreams.

The young witch awoke on a bridge floating far from the ground. The skies were a shade of sweet pink, as if the water vapor in the air was pink lemonade. Clouds swirled in sugary puffs like they were made of marshmallow. Each brick in the bridge was divided into strips of bright color, forming a rainbow brick road.

Mena’s eyes twinkled brightly over her surroundings. “Where am I? It’s so pretty. Ooh—”

A flock of tiny marshmallows zoomed by on fluffy wings. Mena snatched a marshmallow and licked her lips. She dangled it over her mouth, when suddenly, tiny black eyes popped out of the fluff. “Don’t eat me!” it hollered in a small voice.

The rest of the marshmallows zoomed off leaving the two alone.

“Aww,” Mena whined. “I didn’t know you were alive.”

“Of course, I’m alive. Everything’s alive in Dula! The land of no-body!”

“Oh my galoshes,” Mena squealed. “I’m in Dula!”

Mena released the marshmallow into the sky “Here little guy, go be free!”

“Thank you very Muchmallow!” It said in an overly cutesy voice.

Mena sighed as she watched it fly away. “Ouch!” she cried as she felt something jab her in the rear pocket.

She turned around but nothing was there. She reached in her back pocket. “I could have sworn I had my wallet.”

Mena turned around and gasped. The flock of marshmallows flew away carrying her dark leather wallet. Mena screamed as she gave chase, “Give back my wallet, you ruffians!”

She ran down the rainbow bridge, but the marshmallows were getting further and further away. Without looking where she was going, Mena ran directly into a pink and yellow striped pole. It was transfixed at the center of a town square. “Owie zowie,” she moaned as she slid down onto the ground.

The marshmallows hovered over her head as she sat on the ground with a dumbstruck grin. Shaking away the dizziness, she gazed around and marveled at the sight. There was a different colored sign on each point of the pole, pointing at gates that lie north, west, east, and south. Each designated area beyond the gate was different. One sign was labeled, “The Jungle of Subconscious” with a rainbow bridge leading to a portal of azure and violet trees. Humanoids with animal characteristics walked to and from it, looking much like Ashlan.

Another pointed to an enormous ocean with dark sands and pink liquids. Brains leaped in and out of the frothing waters. The sign pointing to the aquatic area read, “The Sea of Brains.” Weird half fish, half men walked across the bridge. Their top half resembled a fish with walleyes and opening and closing mouths, while their bodies consisted of human legs, arms and torsos.

A third sign designated the “Monk-ey Mind Mountains,” a land of high mountain peaks, distant horizons and residents who were indeed monkeys in monk robes. They zoomed to and from on clouds. Their eyes were all closed and their hands held in circular pinches.

The last sign, pointing north, was strangely covered in dark miasma, and pointed to an enormous blot of darkness. The marshmallows zoomed off in that direction. Mena rolled her eyes as she ran onward. “Of course, they hafta go to the scary place.”

The marshmallows carried the wallet to the cusp off the abyss. Mena reached them, panting hard. She looked up and gasped. The darkness made a sickly pulsating sound like a coagulated heart and a miasmic hand reached out towards the marshmallows. They screamed and dropped the wallet. Mena deftly caught it and gave a proud snicker. “Hah! Serves you right. You almost became mush-mallows!”

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The dark hand pulled itself out of the shadow blot, extending further and further towards Mena. Mena swallowed hard but remembered her training. “Fire ball appear in my hand, send this abomination to another land.”

Mena held out her hand, waiting to unleash a blast of burning crimson, but nothing emerged. Not even a smoke or a flicker. “Uh, why doesn’t my magic work?”

The young witch scampered as quickly as she could, but the enormous vein-y shadow hand gave chase. It was only when she snagged her foot on a loose rainbow brick, did the hand succeed in catching her. She turned around and screamed, but before she perished, blinding white light blasted her eyes. The shadow hand was snagged in a giant version of Caligari’s nightcatcher.

Mena awoke with a start.

Mena inhaled and exhaled quickly. Beads of sweat lined her forehead. “What’s wrong Mena?” May asked with concern.

Mena turned around and found the night catcher split in two. “So, it wasn’t a dream,” she said, catching her breath. “It was real.”

Janus’ large pink eyes curiously observed her. “I’m surprised Caligari didn’t tell you those nightcatchers only work once. Were you attacked?”

“I was in Dula for the first time,” Mena said, shifting her head from May to Janus. “It was so strange. I had my wallet stolen by living marshmallows.”

“And the strangest part,” Mena began, causing Janus and May to stare at her intently. “I don’t even own a wallet.”

“That was the strangest part?” May and Janus both asked.

“No…” Mena said. “I saw the worlds in Dula and I was lead to an enormous mass of shadow.”

“The Nightmare Void…” Janus said softly.

Mena held her arms over her head to signify a giant calamity. “This giant shadow hand reached out of it…and I couldn’t fight back. My Imagicnation wouldn’t let me…”

“That’s strange,” May responded. “Don’t you have the most imagicnation out of anyone?”

“I know!” Mena exclaimed. “It’s totally bonkers and a half!”

Janus held her hand to her pointed chin. “Perhaps you should ask Professor Caligari. She is the one who’s been coaching you to fight the nightcreepers.”

Mena brushed her thick head of hair with a look of worry and unease. How could she possibly be the Ambassador of Dreams, if she couldn’t use her powers in Dula?”

“Looks like we got a busy day ahead of us,” Janus sang. “Oh and I nearly forgot. If we sneak into the library at night. We might have a few ghosties to deal with!”

Janus and Mena headed down to their Night Elixirs class with Professor Apo Carrie. As the short, buck-toothed professor lectured everyone on the contents of their spring syllabus. Mena whispered quietly to Janus.

“Where exactly is the ancient magic section in the library?”

Catching Janus’ attention, the reaper girl with her pixie like voice whispered back. “It’s way behind the main section in a separate room. Since you asked though. I’ll warn you about the factors that stand between us and our destination.”

Janus held her hand to her head and drew a small pink D. “The D-factor is Doris the deceased librarian. I’m sure you remember her.”

Mena nodded. Janus continued, “She wants absolute quiet in the library so the dead authors can rest. Any disturbances from mortals anger her.”

“Tell me about it,” Mena responded, thinking back to their last encounter with Doris.

Janus drew a pink G in the air. “Then there’s the G factor. Disturbed author ghosts who’ve got unfinished business. Mainly with the works they wrote when they were alive.”

Mena nodded again. She remembered the old man who desperately wished he could update his dream research postmortem. Janus whispered, “They tend to make a lot of racket when they encounter mortals. Most likely hoping they’ll contact their publisher with a post-script.”

Janus placed her bony hands together. “We’ll need to be silent as a grave to make it past them both.”

Mena’s mouth spread into a shiny grin. “Well now that you made an awesome pun, I’m totally up to the challenge.”

When the class ended, Ashlan rudely bumped into Mena in the doorway. “Move it or lose it, Rainy,” she sneered as Mena glared at her ex-roomate.

“Geez…What is her problem?” Mena whined.

“Nothing casts a spell worse than puberty,” Janus said wryly.

May joined Mena for her following class. They shivered together in Caligari’s pitch black classroom. The castle was already frigid in mid-winter, but half phantoms obviously likened temperatures closest to the sunless Nightmare Void.

“I can’t wait til this class ends,” Mena said, “Then I can talk to Caligari about my magic problems.”

May pulled her arms into her robe sleeves as the candles flickered dimly. “I can’t wait for this class to end period.”

Like cat’s eyes glowing in the dark, Caligari’s bright green eyes appeared first, followed by the rest of her body and soon, the class began.

After a long, overly-serious introduction to Night Creeper Self Defense, (“Only Caligari can read a syllabus like a death warrant,” May murmured softly to Mena) and a new lesson plan for defense against magical mortals, class ended and Mena approached her teacher.

“Hey, teach,” Mena asked earnestly. “Can I talk to you about something urgent?”

“Sure,” her teacher responded in candidly fashion. “What is it Willow?”

Mena frowned and bit her lip in frustration. “Last night, I dreamed I was in Dula and was attacked.”

Caligari’s eyes gleamed with concern. “You were?”

“And,” Mena added. “If It wasn’t for your nightcatcher, I’d probably be in a world off hurt.”

Caligari crossed her arms, lecturing Mena in a stern, yet matronly fashion. “That’s precisely why I gave it to you, Willow. I know you’re reckless in your runaway dreams.”

“But that’s not my problem,” Mena continued.

“Oh?”

“I couldn’t use my powers like you’ve been instructing me,” said Mena with an upset frown.

“That is strange,” Caligari said, meditating on Mena’s words. “Do you have any idea why?”

“No,” Mena whined. “That’s why I was asking you.”

Caligari ran her hands through her short, dark haircut. “Our power stems from the imagicnation of Dula. Perhaps something is wrong there.”

“Well,” Mena said. “There is a gigantic glob of shadow in a corner of it.”

Caligari’s face illuminated with intuition. “There you have it. The Nightmare Void has affected a place vital to your imagicnation.”

Mena gave a look off confusion. “But what place is it?”

Caligari place her hands on Mena’s shoulders. “That I don’t know. But I’ll be sure to ask Gemini when I see him.”

Mena’s expression lightened. “Oh, you’re going to ask him soon?”

“Yes, this very weekend,” Caligari said with a quick bob of her head. “But I’d appreciate you being in there in the shadows to help me with…you know, love advice.”

“That’s perfect,” Mena smiled. “Then I can hear what he has to say about Dula.”

“Ok,” Caligari said, giving a gentle smile in return.

Mena nudged Caligari with her elbows. “You’ve come to the right place. Fabias taught me every move a man can make in the game of L-U-V.” She raised and lowered her triangular eyebrows, causing her teacher to squirm.

“I’ll hold you to that,” said Caligari. A blush as red as a blooming rose returned to her face.

Later that night, Mena and May reconvened with Janus and headed down to the library. “I hope there aren’t many spirits about,” May said with a look of trepidation.

“I’m sure there won’t be,” Janus said, confidently. “Always a few stragglers wishing they sold more copies in their lifetime and…”

The three reached the library entrance and Janus’ skeleton jaw nearly dropped off its hinges.

An enormous crowd of ghosts had gathered in the center of the library, milling, and gabbing with each other. A banner above them read, “UNDEAD WRITERS CONVENTION OF THE MILLENIUM.”