Wake Up

Chapter 10

Sportacus floated in the pitch black as the hot updrafts buffeted him on all sides and made him weightless. The steamy air smothered and scalded him to an unbearable degree until at last a red glow broke through the dark and drew him to the bottom. His feet touched down on concrete with a sizzling hiss.

A monstrous machine awaited him, the source of the broiling heat. Sportacus could barely keep his eyes open in the face of the fiery blast. It poured out of the metal monster in a relentless roar, more powerful than any industrial furnace. The rusted and clouded dials, riveted nuts and bolts, and crudely welded metal parts all put together had an effect like a screaming face, stricken in anguish or rage.

Standing in front of the churning and flaming instrument the man's silhouette burned a hole in the glaring light.

"Infernal elf," the man growled. "What do you think you can do by following me down here?"

"The kids need my help," Sportacus declared, "and that's just what I'm here to do."

"Help them?" The man scoffed. "When I came to them in the night, did you help them? When I took them away one by one, did you help them? You can't help anyone here. With this," he gestured grandly to the machine, "the Dream Snatcher, I control all of LazyTown. You are all trapped in my nightmare!"

The machine boomed and bellowed a harsh blast of fire, illuminating the whole of the subterranean chamber. In each of the four corners of the room a wriggling shadow revealed itself in sharp contrast to the burning light. Sportacus spun around and stared into each corner, his jaw dropping. Stingy, Stephanie, Ziggy, and Trixie hung suspended from the walls, strung up like flies in a spider's web. They squirmed in their snares and cried out but couldn't be heard for the roaring furnace.

Sportacus lurched forward one way, then another. He stood paralyzed in the intersection of the four kids while the sweat ran down his face.

"What's it going to be, Hero?" the man taunted him. "Maybe I'll let you get one brat down, but what do you think will happen to the others?" His eyes glinted the hot red of burning coals. "Will you save one of them to doom the rest... or will you save yourself?"

They stared each other down. The air snarled around them in scorching wafts. The longer Sportacus stayed there the more he felt his energy leaving him again, sapped from him by the unrelenting heat. He squinted through the sting of accumulated sweat, keeping the man's wavering black shape in sight.

"I will save everyone," Sportacus said.

"Is that so?" the man sneered.

"Yes," Sportacus said, "starting with you."

The man stiffened up. "What?"

"This is your nightmare," Sportacus held the man's broiling gaze, "isn't that what you said? Then I'll help you wake up, right now." With that he charged towards the raging furnace.

"No!" the man shouted. He threw out his arms and gesticulated wildly after the hero, discharging sharp crackling bolts from his fingertips. Pop! Pop! Pop! The wild electric arcs scorched the walls and floor wherever they hit, but Sportacus threw himself into his own wild twists and somersaults to cross the floor and evade the attack.

Every time his hands made contact with the ground Sportacus grimaced against the sizzling hiss of his burning skin. He lunged up and flipped head over heels to land on the top of the diabolical machine.

Sportacus bit back a cry, the metal of the furnace burning him on contact. He couldn't breathe the air that scalded his lungs, could barely see as his vision blurred in the oppressive heat. Somewhere below him on the angry face of the machine were a battery of levers controlling every function and output.

He tried to perform a back flip but swayed on his feet, his head spinning and his energy drained. Seared and suffocated Sportacus dropped down in a graceless tumble and caught hold of the first two levers he could reach, dragging them down with his weight. They screeched in protest, chafing against blackened rust before slamming down.

The machine belched smoke, crackled and squealed as the whole thing shuddered and rambled. The entire cavernous chamber shook in response, sending up a bone rattling rumble more deafening than the furnace before it. The light of the fire guttered lower, plunging Sportacus into a rapidly darkening oblivion.

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Robbie Rotten jerked upright in his recliner, gasping for air. He pawed at the sweat that drenched his scalp and dripped down his temples. Deep underneath LazyTown his lair was normally cold and drafty but now he found it was sweltering, hotter than an oven.

"Are you okay?"

Blinking out sleep and sweat Robbie stared blearily up at the source of the question. He cowered back in his chair to see Sportacus standing not two feet in front of him, more out of place than even the unnatural heat in the chamber.

"What— how—" Robbie struggled to form a question. His mouth was dry and tacky, his throat parched and tight. "Am— am I awake?"

"Yes," Sportacus assured him.

"I've been asleep," Robbie murmured, staring off, his eyes dazed and unfocused, "for three days..."

"Actually, I think it's been five," Sportacus said. He leaned in, his brow furrowed. "Robbie, what happened?"

"I was so tired," Robbie said. He focused his eyes back on Sportacus. "All you noisy people up there always keep me awake. I just wanted to sleep! So I invented a machine—"

"The Dream Snatcher," Sportacus supplied. Robbie's eyebrows shot up on his face.

"Yes. I thought it was only fair if I could get to dream whenever those rowdy kids finally go to sleep. But when I turned the machine on..."

They both looked at the Dream Snatcher, a big hulking monstrosity of metal set in the middle of the floor. Steam poured out of its vents and grates but was otherwise still and silent. Already the lair had started to cool back down to its normal brisk temperature. Robbie shivered in his seat.

"This wasn't what I had in mind," Robbie said.

"You weren't trying to hurt anyone," Sportacus said. "So now, you won't try to do it again, will you?"

"No," Robbie said with a sad shake of his head. "I don't think I'll ever sleep again."