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I’m sorry. I’m not really like this. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Tell me what you need me to do.

Shut up. That’s what they need. Otherwise, they’re going to stop trying to help.

And that’s exactly what they do. One moment he lapses into blind panic, flailing against the man’s firm but calm hold, and the next they’re gone.

They’re both gone, and he’s alone, and his leg … Oh God, his leg.

He’d been right the first time, thinking he was dreaming. Now it’s turned into a nightmare where he’s in an accident, and he can’t stop screaming and the two people trying to help give up on him. Barry would say—

To hell with what Barry would say. It doesn’t matter what the nightmare means, only that he can relax because he understands this isn’t real.

But knowing it’s a nightmare doesn’t stop the unbelievable agony in his leg, and it doesn’t stop him from screaming either. He’s struggling to wake up—or at least convince himself that his leg isn’t actually hurt and he doesn’t need to keep screaming—when he sees the sky. Catches a glimpse of it through the broken windshield.

A blood-red sky.

He could weep seeing that sky, because it means, beyond any doubt, that this is a dream. He hiccups, the scream subsiding long enough for him to catch his breath.

A dream. Definitely—

Something moves near the passenger side. A shadow slinks past the window.

Because it’s a nightmare.

That doesn’t keep his breath from jamming in his throat. Now that he isn’t screaming, he can hear something outside the car. A soft growl and the sound of paws, as if something is circling the vehicle. It’s coming around his side. The driver’s door isn’t quite shut, and a shape appears outside the window, a shape that resolves into—

A massive black dog.

Edgar’s head jerks back against the headrest, and the dog swings its huge head his way. Bloody foam coats its muzzle, and drips from long fangs, and its red eyes blaze with madness.

Rabid. The dog is rabid.

Edgar should laugh. He should throw back his head and laugh at this undeniable proof that he’s dreaming. But he can’t because there is a rabid dog outside his car, and even if he knows it’s a nightmare, it’s his worst nightmare, one he’s had for over forty years.

A few months before he met Sunila, he’d gone on a blind date, and the woman wanted to go see some new horror movie about a dog. Edgar wasn’t a fan of horror, but a dog didn’t sound very scary. After the movie, his date said the film was stupid and maybe the book was better … and Edgar barely heard her, his mind still back in that theater, back in that car with the rabid dog trapping the boy and his mom inside.

Such a simple thing. A dog outside a car. But it ignited something deep in Edgar’s brain, maybe an old memory long buried, and that dog became a fixture of his nightmares. Trapped in a car with a monstrous hound outside.

He wants to squeeze his eyes shut, but he can’t. He needs to keep his eye on that dog.

Nightmare! This is a nightmare!

If nothing else so far has proven this isn’t real, the rabid dog does it.

But it’s not the same dog. The one in the movie—and all his nightmares—had been a Saint Bernard. This is a shaggy black beast with blazing red eyes and fangs as long as his hand.

The beast has moved on now, pacing back toward the rear of the vehicle. Edgar exhales, and yes, that logic center berates him, but he can’t help it. The rest of his brain tells him this isn’t a nightmare. There really is a rabid dog out there, and that’s why his two rescuers are gone. The dog scared them off.

He can hear it snorting, its paws smacking the asphalt as it circles the car. The sound gets softer and softer until Edgar finally relaxes. Whatever it was, it’s gone and that man and woman will come back. He just needs to wait—

A thud sends the car rocking, and Edgar jerks back, ripping his leg and making him scream again. This time, he cuts it short and whimpers as his ears track a sound on the roof of the car. The sound of nails clicking on metal.

The beast moves over him and then stops, and Edgar twists, wildly trying to locate it, even as the movement sets his leg screeching.

Where did it go? It was on the roof and then—

The monstrous head appears right in front of him, jaws snapping through the broken windshield, and Edgar screams.

“Come back! Please! Come back!”