Humid air filtered in and out of Arnold's lungs. The familiar cacophony of insects, birds and monkeys echoed across the materializing green landscape. He had been here before, more than once, and now he couldn't recount how he got here this time.
"I know this place…" Arnold said. Indeed he had seen this place before. Before him was a vast stone gorge in the midst of the jungle foliage. Last summer he and his friends had faced down their enemy in a final showdown above this very cliff, only now it was dark with heavy rain pouring down. Arnold gasped in horror as the zombified corpse of a man he never wanted to see again lurched into view. His skin had turned a sickly hue of green and his eyes were burning red. His clothes were torn and tattered, but Arnold would know his face dead or alive.
"When shadows fall… the shadow lurks… come out… come out to play, little amigo." his raspy voice hissed.
"No…" Arnold shrunk away, "No it can't be you… you're…"
"Dead?" Lasombra laughed, "Am I really? What do you think, my friends?"
He gestured to his side, and Arnold suddenly noticed to familiar people crouched at his feet, bound and gagged.
"Mom! Dad!" Arnold shouted.
"If I were dead could I do something like… this!" Lasombra's malicious grin widened as he grabbed Miles by the scruff of his shirt and casually threw him over the edge of the cliff.
Arnold screamed out in terror, "NO!"
"Off to join that treasure your family cost me… twice now!" he laughed, then turned his attention to Stella.
"No… please…" Arnold begged.
"Yes, yes, yes, where are my manners?" Lasombra playfully admonished himself, "I forgot, it's ladies first!"
The brutal madman grabbed Stella and threw her over the ledge as well.
"Mom!" Arnold wailed, but before he had time to mourn either of them another piercing voice broke through Lasombra's insane laughter.
"Arnold!" the voice of Helga appeared, "Help me!"
Arnold looked to see Lasombra suddenly holding Helga over the edge of the cliff.
"This isn't real!" Arnold shouted, "None of this is real! It can't be! This was supposed to be over…"
"Oh, I assure you," Lasombra grinned, "It is real. Thanks to you my life may be over, and for that you will not be safe from me! So long as you sleep you'll see me every night for the rest of your life!"
Lasombra grabbed Arnold by the scruff of his shirt and held him up with Helga. Arnold reached for her, but before she could take his hand, Lasombra dropped her.
"Arnold!" she screamed all the way down.
"No!" Arnold cried.
"That ugly little monkey girl has fallen hard for you." Lasombra laughed, "You should return the favor!"
And with that Arnold felt Lasombra's grip release him, just as everything around him flashed with a blinding white light, followed by utter darkness.
Arnold clasped his hand to his chest and gasped, with the shock sending him rolling out of his bed and onto the floor of his bedroom. Panting, he immediately ran down to his parents room to find them sleeping peacefully. Or at least his mother was sleeping peacefully as his father snored loudly. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief and returned to bed, but was no longer able to close his eyes.
As if in a flash, Arnold found himself sitting at his desk in Mr. Simmons class, or at least he found himself on and off sitting there. The world kept fading to black around him as he struggled to stay awake.
"Arnold?" a voice faintly.
Arnold searched for the source of the voice
"Arnold?" it came again, sounding closer and more threatening.
Arnold turned to the desk next to him and noticed the entire classroom was suddenly empty.
"Hey, Arnold!" a loud voice sounded directly in front of him. Her turned and again saw the deranged animated corpse of Lasombra glaring at him. Arnold cried out in horror but Lasombra was abruptly replaced by Mr. Simmons.
Apparently his teacher had finally snapped him back to reality, and the sound of laughter from his peers only drove it home.
"Arnold? Are you all right?" Mr. Simmons asked, "You're looking rather sickly."
"I'm fine." Arnold mumbled, "I just… didn't have my morning… coffee…"
"You drink coffee?" Gerald asked from a desk over.
"No…" Arnold answered, "But I think today should have been the day to start."
Later, at his locker, Arnold stood turning his lock over and over with his eyes closed. From close by, Helga and Gerald watched as he endlessly attempted to open it but kept nodding off and starting the combination over again.
"Now that is just sad." Gerald said, "I better help him out."
"Allow me." Helga insisted, "Delicate woman's touch needed, I fancy."
Helga grabbed Arnold by his shirt and slammed him against the locker.
"All right, what gives?" She demanded, "You're making me sleepy just looking at you. What's going on with you?"
"Didn't get much sleep." he said.
"Uh, doi, but why?" she asked, "Grandma take up midnight rooftop piano again?"
"I wish…" Arnold sighed, "At least that would be somewhat soothing…"
"Well what's the matter then?" Helga kept pressing, then asked in a mocking voice, "Did little Arnold have a scary nightmare?"
Arnold looked at her with despair in his eyes. Helga realized she'd unwittingly hit the nail on the head and released him from her grip.
"Arnold?" Gerald came over and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "You okay, buddy?"
"He's having nightmares." Helga said, "Ghost bride nightmares? Ghost train nightmares? Wally nightmares? Or something else?"
Arnold looked at them both and after an ominous pause uttered, "Lasombra."
Helga abruptly no longer appeared hostile and looked as concerned as she was capable of looking, and Gerald too fixed him with a sympathetic eye.
"If we're going to talk about this, can we talk about it elsewhere?" he asked.
Helga and Gerald nodded, then helped him down the hallway to the doorway leading outside. When they reached the bench on the playground, Arnold at last tried to explain.
"I kept having these dreams all summer," he said softly, "Just, reliving the whole San Lorenzo trip, and then waking up in terror… thinking it had all been a dream."
"Mm, mm, mm, that's rough," Gerald said, "For all the good you've done, life really ought to just give you something with no strings attached for once."
"No such thing as a free lunch, Geraldo," Helga huffed, "I ought to know. Miriam forgot mine again. Still, that's gotta bite."
"Yeah well, it got worse." Arnold said, "Eventually I got used to it and would always wake up knowing the truth. That's when the dreams started to shift…"
"How so?" Gerald asked.
"Let's just say the whole trip started having an alternate ending," Arnold said, "Lasombra… he…"
"I think I can guess," Helga shuddered, "How long have you been having these?"
"About a month…" Arnold said, "They just keep getting worse, and now I think they're affecting my…" He paused for a long yawn, "…sleep."
"Well you're not gonna be much good to us on the baseball field asleep at short stop." Helga shook her head, "Haven't been eating pork rinds, have you?" she asked.
"Um, no?" Arnold reacted in confusion.
"Well, this is beyond my knowledge then. We'd better get an expert opinion." she shouted across the playground, "Yo, Feebs!"
Phoebe, who had been conversing with a few other girls heard Helga and came flitting over and sat down next to Gerald.
"What is it Helga?" she asked.
"Arnoldo here's having some sleep issues." she said, "You cracked the mystery on my little bout with sleepwalking that one time, so we need your expertise."
"Oh I wouldn't say I'm an expert," Phoebe said, "I just know that nightmares are commonly just a series of isolated images without any real emotional connection to the person in question. Though, in worse cases they can evoke feelings of abject terror, normally tied to some deep unaddressed psychological issue that can lead to extreme anxiety resulting in insomnia or other disturbing emotional responses."
The other three kids stared at Phoebe wide-eyed.
"Hmm, the second one," Helga said, "I think the football head is dealing with that. It sounds like he's dealing with something pretty serious. So what do we do?"
"I don't really know," Phoebe shrugged, "As I said I'm not an expert on tween boy psychology. Arnold may want to seek out the advice of a more learned adult."
"If only we knew someone…" Helga sighed, "Oh well. Guess you'll just have to sleep it off. Good luck, Arnoldo, I've got stuff to do. Come on, Feebs, you can come sort beepers for me."
"Coming." Phoebe said, waving goodbye to Gerald as he watched them head off.
"Glad that Helga is so generous and caring these days," Gerald sighed, "Come on, buddy. I'll make sure you get home safe. Arnold?"
Gerald turned back to see Arnold face down and asleep on the picnic table.
That night at the Sunset Arms, Arnold sat at the dinner table with his parents. Arnold hadn't said a word, leading his parents to assume something was wrong.
"Dad warned me about this…" Miles said, "What did he call it… an 'oh so painfully illuminating boyhood problem' I think? Well, Arnold what's wrong?"
Arnold looked at his dad and said, "Just having some nightmares… about Lasombra."
His parents looked at one another with concern. Suddenly a new voice shouted, "LASOMBRA?"
From the kitchen doorway they saw Grandpa Phil standing there looking terrified.
"Which one was he again?" Grandpa scratched his chin, "Was he the big oily guy in the nice suit who tried to knock down the neighborhood?"
"No… that was Scheck." Arnold corrected. "Lasombra was the river pirate in San Lorenzo."
"Oh that's right." Grandpa chuckled, "Two very different types of villainy… though arguably both very capitalistic in their ultimate motives…"
"Thanks, Phil," Stella cut him off, "We took him on once. It wasn't so bad… but it must have been scary for a bunch of eleven year olds…"
"What should I do?" Arnold asked.
"Well, Arnold, let me tell you…" Miles said slowly, "I have no idea."
Both Arnold and Stella looked at Miles with half-lidid stares of disappointment, while Grandpa laughed.
"You are your father's son…" he chuckled. "I'm so proud of you, Miles."
Stella stepped over to Arnold and wrapped her arms around him, "Just remember Arnold, you're home safe and we're never going to leave you again. And Lasombra? He's gone. He can't hurt you or anyone else ever again."
Arnold nodded.
"He's down at the bottom of a gorge thousands of miles from here at the bottom of a river." she continued.
Arnold recoiled slightly at that mention, not wanting to dwell on the idea, but Stella kept trying to comfort him unaware she was now unnerving him.
"He's stone cold dead and should be thankful, because if I had gotten my hands on him I'd have-"
"Thanks mom." Arnold cut her off, "I get it."
Miles placed his hands on Stella's shoulders and said, "Yeah. Your mom's here to protect us both. There's nothing to be afraid of, Arnold."
All three of them suddenly jumped as the shrieking sound of laughter shocked them out of their little family moment. Grandma Gertie bursted onto the scene, puppeteering the head of a huge Chinese dragon puppet, followed by Oskar, Ernie and Mr. Hyunh all propping up the body and tail of the beast.
"Happy year of the Dragon!" she cackled as her parade of dragon dancers ran through the room, all laughing wildly as they went.
"Pookie!" Grandpa went running after them, "Put that away! We've been over this! It's the year of the pig!" Calm washed over the dining room as quickly as the chaos had come.
"Mostly nothing to be afraid of." Miles corrected himself.