Mena slowly slid from out of her comfy, puffy dream sheets and tiptoed across the room. She didn't want to wake May for the sake of politeness, but she also didn't want to wake and face the reaper creeper herself. She had enough of Janus in her nightmares.

May snored loudly and it was an effective enough smokescreen (or Snorescreen) to drown out Mena's semi-flat-footed tiptoeing around. Getting outside of her room, she immediately flipped sideways on the Cloud Wall. But Mena let out a terrified gasp when she saw who was waiting for her.

"Mena!" Janus said, with curlers jammed haphazardly into her spikey hairdo. "Where are you going at this late an hour?"

Mena's mind worked overtime to formulate an excuse. She decided to use the method of turning the question right back at the asker. "What are YOU doing at this late an hour?" Mena asked and pointed at Janus.

The pixie reaper sighed wistfully. "The hour is always late for me. But seriously, Mena, why are you sneaking out of our room? Did you have a bad dream again?"

Mena's face betrayed a look of nervousness as Janus's neon purple eyes flashed in the dark.

Was it possible she knew what I dreamed about? Mena thought to herself, No that wasn't possible.

Janus wore a sad smile from her crooked mouth. "Mena, I know things haven't been the same since we got back from the Mind Jungles, but...you can always talk to me. I'm your friend aren't I?"

Mena was quieter than a crypt. She looked into the pixie repear's eyes, but no words managed to squeak out.

At last, Mena simply said, "I'm going to the bathroom, Janus," and she began to back away and head down the Cloud Wall."

"But…" Janus said softly and pointed up the Wloud Wall. "The bathroom is up there."

Mena giggled nervously. "I'm er… using the Lollypop Staff's bathroom... I got a small bladder, you see?"

She turned around and power walked down the wall, hoping desperately there weren't any Lollypop staff in the vicinity. They'd surely kick her in the shins for the insensitive short joke.

Once Mena got inside the tunnel, she caught her breath. She wasn't expecting that kind of questioning from Janus. She immediately knew where she was going next--she was heading to Stellaris. Though she was the current headmaster, she was also a dream diviner. Mena yearned for those innocent classes in the first semester so this would at least remind her of them.

As she traversed many long and twisting hallways, Mena's mind meditated how she should handle the Janus fiasco. She trudged up the twisting spiral staircase to Gemini's old study and upon knocking politely, the door opened and instead of Stellaris' heavily night creamed face and curlers, Caligari answered. Mena screamed even louder, but Caligri merely sneered at her. "If you scream any louder, you'll wake the dead. But judging by your expression, you already did."

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"W-W-What are you doing here?" Mena asked timidly.

"None of your business," Caligari said with a dramatic wave of her hand in front of Mena's face. "I'm done explaining myself to the likes of you. Someone who doesn't take any of this seriously."

With those cold words, Caligari sunk into the depths of the shadows like the phantom she was. Once she vanished, Mena stuck out her tongue and spit on the ground where Caligari once was, but didn't realize that someone else had stepped into her place.

Stellaris, who for once, wasn't wearing her terrifying, light-green-night-creme, put her hands on her hips as her slippers glistened with saliva.

"Mena…" Stellaris said in a perky but annoyed tone. "I don't believe you are a llama...or even one of the llama people exchange students from the Mind Jungles. Spitting is beyond rude."

"Sorry, headmaster," Mena said, shaking her head. "I wasn't aiming for you."

"Who were you aiming for, may I ask," Stellaris asked, but Mena broke into a cry.

"Professor, you used to be a Dream Diviner. Can you please read my recent, super scary dream I had?"

Stellaris pursed her lips with intrigue, and then, put her arm around Mena. "Seems you had a rough night, honey."

Mena entered Gemini's study and much to her surprise, the colors of the miniture solar system swirled brightly before her. It hadn't been active since the last time she had visited...or even, since Gemini inhabited his magical study. "Excuse the current array," Stellaris said, casting her hand and causing the planets to shuffle. "I had quite the visitor before you showed up."

"Tell me about it!" Mena said, wincing over Caligari's odious presence.

Stelarris lead Mena to a table cloth that displayed the shifting cosmos upon it like it was a night sky of diamonds. The table reminded Mena of the time Gemini and Caliagari had their date of catastrophic proportions.

"So," Stellaris said, positioning to a chair that had already been pulled out. "Care to tell me about this dream? We can work on healing through it together."

The warmth of Stellaris' glowing body and the kindness of her eyes made Mena fell at ease. She sat where Caligari sat and she reclined semi-comfortably. She proceeded to tell her teacher all of the details of the dream, ranging from the happy parts involving Straw-Woman and the shirtless, hunky Tal, and the dark parts involving the nightmarish Janus fish with the scythe teeth. All the while, Stellaris contined to observe her with the age-old wisdom of an eon old star.

Once Mena finished retelling her sordid dream, Stellaris closed her eyes and wispily said," Mena, you don't need to be a Dream Diviner to know that you have a lot of baggage."

"I do!" Mena exclaimed. "I totally have my bags packed for the Stressful Motel!"

"Indeed," Stellaris said, and she gave her a stern expression. "You shouldn't have dove into the murky part of your dream without a teacher to supervise you. Caligari should have warned you that the nightcreepers like that Jangler creature can eat you and keep you in your nightmares forever."

Mena sighed and turned her eyes away from Stellaris. "I don't want to be around that pungent phantom. She hates me now."

"Not true…" Stellaris said, but the scowl on Mena's face indicated she was less than convinced.

"Mena," Stellaris urged her, "You don't need to face this alone. We are here to help you and that includes Caligari. She chose you because you have the strongest magical mind in the school but that doesn't mean it can't be lead astray."

Mena nodded. "I know that, professor. But I think that I should take other measures to help me first."

"Like what, honey?" Stellaris said and Mena took a deep breath.

"I cannot believe I'm asking this," Mena said with a serious expression on her face. "And I never thought it would come to this, but can Janus change her room? I think it will put me in a better place!"

Stellaris put her hand to her chin. "We'll have to take that up with Miss Harvestar tomorrow. But if you truly believe that will help you, Mena...we can try."

Mena nodded frantically. Even if she feared Janus's reaction, at this point she needed any reprieve she could from the nightmares. When Stellaris bid Mena goodnight, she felt she made the right choice.