Her head jerking from side to side, she hissed. “What was that?”
Holding up my fingers for her to see I whispered. “It’ll be—”
Aidan grabbed Robin by the arm and yanked. Still attached to me, Robin jerked me back to the wall fast and hard and I choked back the rest of the words. Hell I forgot what I was about to say.
Spinning us around, Aidan’s pale eyes screamed but his voice whispered instilling a fear all the way down to my knees. “Something’s coming.”
Read stood near the chairs and craned his neck to look through the darkened archway. “What could it be?”
No one answered, leaving only Robin’s whimpering to fill the void. Robin and I found the wall and stood with our backs to it. Aidan stood in front of us and I had to duck my head to look past his shoulder.
Robin’s body hunched as she pulled her hand out of mine to put them to her face. “I can’t take anymore of this.”
Aidan warned Robin to keep quiet and she clamped her hands over her mouth hard enough to leave dents in her cheeks.
In the stillness, I listened.
At first it was just a shuffling or swishing sound. Gradually it grew louder, closer.
It reminded me of a straw-bristled broom against concrete, except it was coming up the stairs.
I almost didn’t hear Robin. “…to get out of here. Someone think of something.”
Her panic was infectious, the opposite of what I needed.
Aidan hissed at her to be quiet again and Robin began to whimper behind her hands.
Unable to take it anymore, I moved to hug her when they burst in like oily floodwaters.
Dozen of the arachnids, no hundreds, maybe more rushed into the room. There were large hairy tarantulas and smaller spiders of all shapes and colors and sizes. I recognized a few daddy-long-legs but they weren’t small. This particular variety was as big as the tarantulas.
Aidan must have seen that peculiar spider at the same time.
“You know what I heard?” His voice shook as we backed to the wall beside me. “The daddy-longlegs spider is the most poisonous spider in the world, but their mouths are too small to infect people.”
“Very reassuring, Aidan but that’s a myth.” I almost sounded calm and received a side-ways glance. I wasn’t calm though, I felt the panic shaking in my guts. My dream, the nightmare that haunted my youth had showed itself into reality; there was no waking up from this. I needed something to do or some avenue of escape to turn to.
I scraped at every available corner of my mind hoping for a hero moment but found only fear caving in whatever logic and common sense I have left.
Robin, who I thought would be screaming by now, had frozen stiff, staring at the eight-legged mob without uttering a sound.
Read batted at his pant-legs as he danced his way toward us, dark little spiders clinging to his jeans.
The hero moment was passing, fast.
Aidan and I pressed our backs against the chilled bricks. We could run past them, squish a few; they won’t all attack at once, right? In the childhood dream however, they all attacked when I ran.
A black, hand-sized scorpion propelled its way over the sea, moving with it and even squishing some of the smaller spiders under foot.
There was a whimper and I looked to Robin. She was still frozen against the wall and it took me several seconds to realize it was me who’d made a noise.
The spiders crawled all over each other to reach us. I felt the little tickles near my ankles, then my arms and shoulders by those that had taken to the walls.
My skin crawled without their assistance and I tried to focus on the facts. When I was suffering from the spider nightmare as a child my mother thought it would be a good idea to learn about them. You can’t fear what you know, she said.
Though right now, I could argue that point.
Some spiders could produce milk. Ok, that was distracting enough for a weird fact. What about that spider in the South Pole that could withstand a lot of heat?
There was a tickle in my ear. Every thread of willpower prevented me from moving. I took a deep breath through my lips before closing them and thought, They have disjointed limbs to move fast and no spinal cord.
The venomous scorpion skittered past Read and over Robin’s boots, then over my sneakers before stopping. Scorpions are considered arachnids too, I thought.
Arching its intricate, segmented body, it almost appeared to be looking up. The tail wobbled with the oversized stinger.
One pointed foot drew itself down my shin, the tiny hairs on its legs tickled mine and almost made me flinch.
Go away, I pleaded in my head while at the same time trying to stay a statue.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the curled stinger, sharpened and ready to strike. I realized it would be comparable to a pocket knife.
“Guys,” I struggled to keep every limb from shaking. I didn’t want to startle my new friend. My hands, legs, and body were beginning to constrict to the point where I had to struggle to stay upright. Please don’t fall, I begged my legs. Please don’t fall.
The idea of falling headfirst into a sea of spiders made me dizzy but the idea of falling into the scorpion was enough to remind me that I could die here.
My eyes flickered to the writhing mass that was the spiders, trying to distract myself as three of the scorpions sharp feet pressed hard into my upper thigh, trying to gain purchase on my flesh.
“Hold still, Robin,” Read muttered a few feet away though I couldn’t see him out of my peripherals. But I could see Robin. The only movement on her was the shifting of the spiders as they messed up her hair and crowded Phoebe’s sweater. If she could do it, so could I.
“Keep your back at the wall and keep yourself very…still.” Aidan swallowed in between his last two words. A tarantula stopped its trek up the front of his shirt to watch his mouth move with several glassy eyes.
As I pressed my back against the wall, my knee almost slipped. The abrupt jerk stilled the scorpion. I needed both of my hands against the bricks to keep steady and tried to move very, very slowly.
Robin’s silence was making me nervous.
Hairy, spider-legs brushed over my bare calves and thighs, joining the scorpion that was testing its grip on my jean shorts. They tickled my arms, fingers and tugged into my hair, I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the nightmare to be over.
* * *
There was a calm.
The shrill silence forced me to let go of my held breath and I listened for any movement, any voices, any sign of life.
It was then that I realized I was lying on my side, my head propped up but leaning on something hard. My hand tingled with pins and needles beneath my body, like I’d been there a while.
My eyes snapped open and I found myself staring at the legs of the wooden chair on the third floor. I was still in the Birket house. But, I didn’t feel the spiders, the crawling, the blanketed terror…
Back to back the two heavy-set chairs were illuminated by the moonlight from the window behind me. The carved letters were only a few inches from my face. Robin had mentioned them earlier, I remembered.
NEF.
Licking my dry lips I whispered, hearing the croak. “My middle name starts with a J.”
The presence was heavy, weighing around me like a blanket.
Rolling my eyes up the wood I saw the large hand gripping the armrest with a creak.
Another hand slapped down behind my head, making me jump.
I could feel his body hovering but it wasn’t warm, it was just there. An instinct that prickled like knowing someone was watching you. He was almost touching along my hip and shoulders—almost. Despite the lack of touch, he was trapping me to the floor. Lording over me that I couldn’t move and he must have known, must have felt my helplessness.
I dared to turn my head I found myself staring into two bottomless eyes that were so close I was surprised I couldn’t feel Damien’s face. Our noses should be
bumping together.
It took a second to realize I was staring into the demon’s eyes and something finally snapped.
As I drew in a breath to scream, the small window of stillness vibrated a tension through the silence.
“You shouldn’t be here, Nora.”
* * *
Something skittered across my face.
The rustling erupted in a wave and I let out the scream in a wheezy breath.
Eyes squeezed tight again, I listened to my blood pumping in my ears. The calm had vanished; a distant dream. Had I passed out for a second? I felt the cold wall at my back instead of the wood floor or the pins and needles. I was back in the nightmare instead of the silence of the third floor.
Four spiders took to racing across my face.
Fear plaited down my spine until my knees buckled.
One stopped on my eyelid and another wriggled up my nose.
I couldn’t fight it any longer.
Screaming, I kicked my legs and slapped something wet off my cheek in my frantic flailing.
Swinging my head back and forth I almost lost my balance and was forced to open my eyes.
I dug my hands into my hair to shake the spiders loose.
The scorpion flew off my legs and landed on its back near the heavy chairs.
In my frenzied attempt, I tried to stop screaming, but my own voice wouldn’t cease.
Tears stung the corners of my eyes as the spiders came back for me, faster than before.
I shoved my back against the wall and felt something wet against my right shoulder blade. Nausea shuddered as an aftershock.
“Hold still!” Aidan’s cry was muffled, but alert. “They’ll kill you if you don’t, just hold still!”
I turned my bleary vision to him, attempting to resist the urge to twitch.
Aidan was pressed tight against the wall, spiders all over him. They were in his hair, on his face, arms and legs. They crawled all over each other and one big brown one dropped from the ceiling and landed on his shoulder.
I winced but Aidan stood still, his face half turned toward me.
“Hold still ‘til they’re less aggressive,” he said. A smaller spider crawled into his ear.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Read had imitated Aidan, his back pressed to the wall, eyes closed, nostrils flaring.
It took me a second to realize that Robin was curled up on the floor with her hands on her head, still silent and stronger than me.
Moaning, I tried to do as Aidan suggested. I held my arms and legs together to avoid anything crawling up where I probably wouldn’t be able to keep my cool.
My palms pressed to the brick so hard my shoulders threatened to shake. Even as I moved I could feel the spiders already regaining their claim on me.
Hairy feet crawling up my legs and arms but luckily, I didn’t feel any stings.
A tarantula on my shoulder touched my chin with one, slow limb. I felt two spiders land in my hair with fat plops. My legs felt weak. They wobbled and I didn’t have time to catch myself before I twitched hard enough to cause a ruckus. I felt the first sting in my kneecap. It burned sharp and hot, bringing tears to my eyes.
The tears ran down my face unaware of the eight-legged-dangers and dripped off my jawline.
Holding my body rigid, I calculated each breath through my nose. Iiiiinnn, ooouuuut. Iiiiiinnnnn…
Focus! A frantic voice in my head demanded. Think about how to get out of here, not about the spiders.
Taking a deep breath I obeyed; I had no other choice. In the dream they’d rip at me if I ever moved and there was never a place to run. Even if we broke for the archway, we’d be filled with venom by the stairs. In my nightmare they were poisonous, all of them. How would I wake myself up? There had been a way. There was one way out of the silly nightmare.
But, this was not a silly nightmare. This was real. And I could die in it and if I didn’t act smoothly. I could kill Aidan, Read and Robin with me.
I thought of the doppelgängers. They said that we would kill each other and there wasn’t any trust. Other Nora had said: Robin would be consumed by spiders.
The sting on my knee was getting hotter, almost unbearable.
Spiders were crawling under my shirt and up my shorts; thank goodness I wore underwear.
In the dream it was a phrase I’d say to myself to wake up. It’s only a dream? That didn’t seem quite right, but it was close.
“Robin!” I shouted through clamped lips making it sound more like “Ruuhhin.”
No one answered. No one dared.
This isn’t really real, Damien just made it all up so that he could scare you and stop you from winning the Challenge, the helpful voice in my head reasoned. Unfortunately, when the voice of reason shows up, so does its insidious counterpart. You can barely stand, there’s poison in you. You can’t do this, Nora. What about Robin? She’s covered and isn’t moving. What if she’s dying? Maybe already dead.
With my eyes closed, the room was tilting and a strange heat swelled within my stomach. I thought for a moment it was from the lack of food.
Skin on my forearm snagged on a clawed foot. The twitching pain offered wood, in the form of panic, to the fire in my stomach.
Without warning, the memory switched on. The fire in my belly writhed and burst with enough energy for me to open my mouth and say, “This is only a nightmare.” And for a single moment, I believed it wasn’t real.
Despite the belief and the words, the throng of arachnids thickened. I stifled the panic as my face began to crawl and itch. Just take that step, Nora, and let them kill you, I thought. The tears welled up in my eyes again, threatening chaos if they were to fall.
“Say again!” Aidan’s voice shouted through his closed lips.
At first I was confused, trying to weed through the terror to remember what I had said. Straining through the panic I shrieked through the edge of my lips, not wanting to open my mouth again. “Only a nightmare!” My stomach didn’t empty its contents and the heat from within dissipated with the words, a release.
My voice fueled the feverish agitation. I was certain I was covered from head to toe. My body itched and my fingers twitched involuntarily.
I heard Read shout. “Ei ju’ a nighmer.” The conviction in those words made me relax just a little. I felt a warmth inside my stomach return with the spark of hope when I heard Aidan say the same words.
The warmth spread, like a bad case of heartburn up my chest, but there was nothing there and it felt as if it weren’t restricted to only my organs, even my skin felt hot with it.
The tickling of a spider in my ear was almost too much. I screamed this time and moved away from the wall. Despite the danger and the hissing warning, I shouted, no longer afraid of what might crawl into my mouth—well for just a second I wasn’t. “This is just a stupid nightmare!” The warmth in my body oiled out of my skin as I threw all of my energy, my hope and fear into those words.
Suddenly there was nothing.
The shuffling noise evaporated, leaving the air noticeably lighter.
Little hairy bodies, scraping feet and the insistent tugging all stopped. My hair stopped moving with bodies and my face didn’t itch against tiny feet.
I opened one eye and peeked through lashes.
The floorboards were bare, devoid of arachnids, dust and everything else.
Opening my eyes wider I took a chance and looked down at myself. With my vision clear and the dizziness subsiding, I straightened my posture with slow, meticulous motions just to test it out. My knee was swelling and showing off a combination of dramatic reds and whites. There was a cut, but it wasn’t as deep as I thought it would be. It didn’t hurt much either. My skin felt stretched and a little sensitive to touch but otherwise I could move it without any trouble. There were a few bites, though none compared to the colors on my knee.
My arm had a scratch but it was minor and about as deep as a cat scratch. I glanced over to see Aidan, he was brushing his pant
legs, making sure that they were gone.
Read stepped away from the wall, eyes wide. “Robin?”
The hardwood where Robin had crouched was stained black.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Aidan inched forward and tested the burnt spot with his foot. “Where’d she go?”
“She didn’t say anything,” Read said as if his tongue were too thick to form the words. “Half way through I thought she might have passed out.”
Robin would be consumed by spiders.
“Robin?” I called uneasily. “Robin, where are you?”
There weren’t many places to look and we ended up staring at the floor before I asked, “You don’t think she’s dead. Do you?” Consumed maybe?
“You’d think there’d be a body,” Read answered, his eyes never tearing away from the spot. “It’s like the weird Nora said.”
Looking up at Read I felt the uneasiness clawing inside my head. Other Nora said Read would burn and I knew Read was thinking it too as he stared at the empty spot on the floor.
Aidan asked. “That was your nightmare?”
It took me a second to realize he was talking to me. “An unpleasant one from when I was little.”
Aidan grimaced. “Can’t say that was pleasant for me either.”
I tried to smile and failed miserably.
Our eyes rose to the arched brick doorway. It appeared to be the only way out.
“Should we go?” Aidan asked.
Casting one last glance at the burnt spot in the floor, I immediately regretted it as a new wave of guilt crashed headfirst.
“I guess,” I said, knowing I didn’t sound helpful. “There’s no black door anyway to tell us to go somewhere else.” My gaze settled on the two chairs. The initials carved into the wood weren’t there, I realized. Remembering Damien hovering over me I wondered how long I’d passed out. Was that what happened to Robin? Did she pass out and they…
They didn’t consume her, the reassuring voice in my head sang loud.
Aidan and Read were talking and I realized I wasn’t paying attention.
“…our only choice, Read.”
Read ran his hands hard back over his dark, short hair; flattening it to his skull. “This isn’t fucking right, man.”
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