Gaia’s dark eyes practically steamed like hot coals as he glared at Mena. Mena summoned all her calm so she wouldn’t panic. Instead, she pursed her lips, narrowed her eyes and said, “You mean the poor golem who works in that dusty basement all by himself?”

A look of shock followed by irritation came over Gaia’s face. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

Mena put her finger to chin and spoke in a mocking-ditzy voice, “What do you mean?”

“Gah!” Gaia screamed. “Don’t play coy with me. Why must women and especially girls always act like this? It’s so bothersome.”

“If it’s so bothersome, why do you work in a school for all girls then?” Mena snapped back at him with a smile.

Gaia raised his fist to his head like he was going to punch Mena out, but closed his eyes and breathed instead. “You know in the very fine print of that restraining order, there was also a gag order. You are not allowed to speak of what transpired in the basement to ANYONE.”

“What happened in the basement?” Mena asked in her most-innocent voice.

Gaia let out a terrifying howl and stormed away, causing Mena to turn her rear to him and stick out her tongue with her eyes crossed. She then hurried to the dining hall to meet up with Janus and May.

***

Sitting atop a dining cloud, Mena put her freshly prepared breakfast aside to tell May and Janus all about what happened.

“Gaia threatened me,” Mena said. “He told me to not tell anyone about what I saw in the basement. So naturally, I’m going to tell you guys!”

“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for,” May exclaimed, dropping her silverware to remain truly transfixed on Mena’s words.

“So,” Mena said, “There’s been a golden door in my dreams. It makes the dreams come true of anyone who enters it!”

“Ah right,” Janus said, “The one you said was unrelated to death’s door.”

“Right,” Mena said. “Anyway, I asked Gemini about it and he said it was simply, well, a dream. But when I fell down the Dream Deposit, I discovered Gaia’s hidden bunker and guess what was inside?”

“A body pillow?” May asked and with a dreamy sigh she said, “I’ve got one of Fabias.”

“Uh…” Mena said, her eye lightly twitching. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“All the innocent women he’s murdered?” Janus asked, her face equally dreamy.

“No!” Mena exclaimed quickly, before whispering. “Though I wouldn’t put it past him too. What he had was an enormous drawing of the golden door from my dreams. And a cryptic message below it that read, “What he does—doesn’t know will hurt him.”

Janus and May both widened their eyes. “Who do you think he’s talking about?” May asked.

“I think it might be Gemini,” Mena suggested. “After all, Gemini claims he doesn’t know anything about the golden door, but I don’t know if I believe that. Anyway, I think I’ve got to find out more about this golden door. It clearly exists.”

“You know,” Janus said, “We could search for it in the Library of Tomes after class. They have countless books on the history of Dula, Autolycus and the Dream Castle.”

Janus’s breathy voice lowered to a high whisper. “You just have to watch out for the librarian. She gets a bit cranky at night.”

“Librarian?” Mena asked. “I didn’t know we had a librarian.”

“Oh, you’ll see her,” Janus said, a skeletal smile stretched across her face. “Especially at night.”

Taking Janus’ ominous warning into account, Mena headed down to Professor Carrie’s potion lab for her first class.

Much to Mena’s surprise, taking a single day of remedial Dulabet with Ashlan helped her immensely with understanding the basic instructions for the class. Even though she sat away from Ashlan in class, and they were not friends anymore, she was still grateful when she was successful at brewing a warm pink milk for fluffy, pleasant dreams. Even Professor Carrie was amazed when he drank it and didn’t feign dying afterwards. Mena came away from the Dream Elixir class feeling a bit more confident. Unfortunately, that confidence was shot down in the next class.

Caligari was still hell-bent on getting Mena’s dreams under control, but much like last time, the harder she tried to subdue them, the more they raged back. Putting Mena under hypnosis again, Caligari attempted to clear her head personally, but right when Mena was about to feel nothing, the Unibirds came back and this time they materialized into reality, chasing Caligari around the room as she haplessly swatted at them. It would have been funny if it did not mean low marks again for the class. May had no further luck either, falling asleep again while hypnotized, and this time, she tumbled out of the chair right onto Caligari, who had to call the Lolly Pop Lift services to remove May.

By the time, Mena trekked up to librarian with her friends, she was exhausted, both mentally and physically. Still, she had to find out about the golden door. The library, much like the court-room, looked different from the rest of the castle, with ancient columnated pillars allowing entry into a room of cragged stone floors, ancient bookshelves made of water-soaked wood, and a feeling of antiquity that was lacking elsewhere. It was like the famed sunken library of Autolycus had been dredged up and tethered to the Dream Castle. Torches of green embers burned in the evening as the sun set above them.

“Now remember,” Janus said softly. “The librarian doesn’t like it if we stay here too long into the night.”

“Why?” Mena and May asked with questions in their eyes.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Janus said with a smile, “Now let’s get looking for books on that door.”

Janus’ ominous words made Mena and May both wary, and the two elected to stay together as they searched for any kind of book that would yield them knowledge on the Golden Door. Fortunately, there were no other students or teachers…or anyone for that matter. As the torches around them crackled loudly, May asked Mena, “Where do we start?”

“Well at ‘A’ obviously!” Mena said. “I don’t know anything about this place.”

They walked to the far end of the cobweb infested, dirt ridden book shelves until they got to the one emblazoned with a golden A placard in Dulabet. “It’s always best to start at the beginning!” Mena said with a smile and they entered the dark, narrow way between the bookshelves.

Mena scanned the dusty books, each with peeling labels and loosening spines. She really wished she had a directory because going through all these books would probably take a century. She read off the authors to herself: “Abbey, Abboy, Abbit…”

May gave a soft moan, causing Mena to look up. “M-m-m-m-Mena,” she stammered. “I-I-It’s so cold in here all of a sudden.”

“I don’t feel it, May,” Mena responded back, and she went back to looking at the authors. “Abbey, Abbit, Abboy…Hey…”

“W-w-what?” said May, shivering like a big teddy bear.

“These were out of Dulebetical order before…” Mena said, narrowing her eyes and looking up at May. “Now they’re not. Strange…”

“M-M-M-ena,” May stuttered again, her eyes magnified huge by her circular spectacles.

“What?” Mena said.

“B-b-b-ehind you!” May pointed, and covered her face.

The book by Abbit had floated out of the bookshelves, covered in neon green spectral gas. It read “Essential Dream Therapy.” Mena’s face turned pale as the wind blew through the tight bookshelves and the pages flapped openly loudly and abrasively. “Ohhhhhhh!” A voice moaned loudly.

An old man’s head with a singular tooth popped out of the book, and he moaned even louder. “Whhhhyyyyy?” He asked, in his whispery voice. “Why did I write that it’s good dream therapy to tell other people about your dreams. Nobody cares! Ohhhhhhhh!”

Mena and May let out terrified screams and fled from the bookcase, running all the way to the far end, when suddenly, Mena stopped short. There was a pair of pink frilly glasses at the far end with pearly strings attached. They were floating in midair with nothing attached to them. A pair of terrifying bloodshot eyes appeared in them and below them a pair of wrinkly female lips pursed to make a loud “SHHHHHHHH!”

Mena and May stopped dead, as the glasses, eyes and mouth formed onto the face of an elderly female with thick jowls and a mean stare that could send shivers like ice water down a naked back. Her name tag read, “Doris.”

“What are students doing in the Library of Tomes at twilight time?” The ghostly librarian asked. “Don’t you know this is when Dula’s finest authors emerge from their books?”

“Wha-What?” Mena asked nervously.

“Many of Dula’s authors rest in their greatest works,” the librarian said, “but many continue to edit and fuss over the changes they could have made to their books when they were living. Granted, they can’t change what’s already been published, but such is the afterlife of authors.”

“Oh, okay,” Mena said softly. “That makes sense.”

“Now if you don’t mind,” Doris said, and her eyes grew large and cracked with hundreds of disgusting veins and her rotten teeth stood on the ends of her mouth. “SHHHHHHHHHH!”

Mena and May ran quietly to the front of the library where Janus stood with a big smile on her face. “So what’d you find?” she asked, but Mena and May had already run out of the library.

“Why did you want us to go into a library that’s infested with ghosts?!” Mena screamed at Janus outside the library.

Janus gave a light giggle. “Aw, I thought it would be a fun trip. Nothing like a good spook to remind you that you’re alive.”

“Yeah,” Mena frowned, her hands on her hips. “Maybe if you like ghosts and ghouls and what not. From now on, we’re only going during the daytime.”

May laid flat on her back breathing slowly. “I think I lost control of my body functions for a second,” she said, causing Janus and Mena to wince.

“Now that’s scary!” Janus exclaimed. “At least for the Lollypop Clean-up brigade.”

***

After a terrifying spook and draining classes, Mena at last made her way to Gemini’s tower. She was looking forward to a relaxing night hanging out with the handsome clown prince, but when she arrived there was a magical note on the door. “Salutations Mena, I’ve been out of sorts lately, so in order to get sorted out, I’m cancelling tonight’s class. Fear not, for Caligari has offered (more like I convinced her) to teach you instead! Have fun!”

“Great,” Mena said, ready to faint. “Double classes with Caligari to finish off the day! Miserable magicaps! What have I done to deserve this!”