Just as Molly Doogan began slipping into a deep sleep, a scraping sound forced her to open her tired eyes. She tried to ignore it and pulled the pillow over her head. She needed sleep.

But the noise grew louder.

Molly raised up on one elbow and looked over her friend Netty's snoring body lying next to her. The moonlight streaming in through the maple leaves outside her bedroom window seemed to narrow and focus like a spotlight on her bottom dresser drawer. She squinted through blurry eyes following the drawer slowly moving out by itself-then in- then out-then in. Scrape-scratch.

"Oh, no," Molly groaned. "Not again."

But since the moving drawer was where she hid her arrowhead and bag of pebbles, it could mean only one thing.

Another signal from Rairarubia.

But why?

Didn't she and Netty deserve some rest after what they had been through tonight? They'd already made two trips to Rairarubia and back.

Hadn't they just finished helping Romey and Sam return safely from Aiburariar to Rairarubia? They'd all made it through the land of the Jenu and the Redloubs, helped Tunnelsuit and Bearsark defeat the Zingwings. They'd even helped Romey and Sam destroy Elleb and rescue Kired, the King of Aiburariar. The story should be over.

Yet, every time she thought she was finished with the Rairarubia story, something pulled her back in. What could be wrong now?

The drawer continued to open and close.

"I'm too tired for this." Molly sat up in bed and looked at Netty zonked out, mouth part-way opened, her long, red hair framing her oval face. "There lies Netty Parmet, my best friend in the whole world. Why can't I be asleep like you?" Molly mumbled under her breath.

But she wasn't asleep. She looked at the rattling drawer. It seemed to open and close a little faster.

She needed sleep. What if she just pretended she didn't hear or see it? Couldn't it wait until morning? Anyway, wasn't she supposed to be in charge of the story?

Well-not totally, as she kept finding out!

A simple little story to pass the time, that's all she and her dad started out to do. But in some mysterious way, the made-up land of Rairarubia started to become-well, real. Real real. Some how, Rairarubia turned out to be an actual place. And Romey and Sam are real people, not just characters of her imagination. Impossible as it seemed, she could even travel to the very place she and her dad had made up.

But lately, characters and events that she did not make up began making their way into the story. Like Tunnelsuit and Bearsark. She and her dad never made up those characters, or the Jenuaqs and the joot-joot stuff. Something very mysterious was going on, things she knew she should tell her parents.

Should, but wasn't.

Molly had given up trying to explain how it could all be possible and just accepted events as they happened. But most importantly, she knew now that she wasn't losing her mind. For a while, ever since she'd been sick with that fever, she thought she might be going crazy. But tonight she had finally proven to Netty that by holding the arrowhead and sitting in a circle of the pebbles, they could travel back and forth to Rairarubia.

And even more strange was that while time passed in Rairarubia, it didn't at home. When she and Netty returned, it was the exact time they'd left.

Molly eyed her dresser again, wishing the drawer would stop. But no. It began to shake more, as if it were angry.

Well, there was no kidding herself. She had to go to Rairarubia. Should she wake Netty, or just go alone? Having Netty now sharing her strange adventures, even if she'd been forced to, felt a little more safe-and sane.

Molly looked at her peacefully sleeping friend. She wanted to wake her, but decided against it. Why should she ask Netty to come along when she didn't want to go herself. If she needed Netty, she could come back and get her. Anyway, tomorrow was Saturday so she could sleep as late as she wanted.

Molly slipped from her bed and knelt down in front of the moving dresser drawer. It stopped, open. Netty reached under her clothes and took out the arrowhead and bag of pebbles once again. But groggy with sleep, she didn't notice that one of the pebbles fell from the pouch.

Yawning and still in her pajamas, Molly put the pebbles in a circle and sat in the middle as usual. She held the arrowhead in her hand and started mumbling, "Romey, here I come. Boy, this better be good. Romey, Romey, let's get on with it." She wished herself in Rairarubia.

Then came the usual breeze and moist cloud that somehow transported her to Rairarubia. But almost immediately, Molly knew something was wrong.

The moist air turned hot, not cool, and made her skin turn bright pink and itchy. The cloud turned dark red and wrapped itself around her. The cloud began to squeeze her like a giant fist as it tumbled her around. She couldn't tell up from down. Every breath burned her nose and lungs. She tried to call out Romey's name, but had no voice. Trying to scream out in fear only caused her throat to lock. The red cloud tightened-tighter-tighter still.

Then she lost consciousness.