“The first and only one I’ve managed to bottle.”
“Interesting. I didn’t know dreams could be captured; it’s another riddle to solve.” She set it down carefully. “I’m off to research these latest findings, but I’ll return by—” She squinted at something outside the window, morphed into a pillow with a gasp, and plopped onto my bed. “Quick, act natural.”
I grabbed my journal and pretended to read it. After a moment I peered above the pages for any sign of what had caused Stardust’s alarm. All was quiet, and yet…
Familiar prickles coated the back of my neck, the sense of someone’s sharp gaze monitoring my every move, similar to the feeling I’d experienced earlier when I’d spotted the pair of eyes spying on me from the forest. I shivered and sank deeper beneath the covers.
“Your book is upside down,” Stardust whispered.
“Someone is watching me.”
“That’s why I’m hiding. Keep quiet and don’t—where are you going?”
I strode to the window, but all I could see was my pale reflection illuminated by the light from my dripping candle. I peered outside; the garden was abandoned.
“No one’s there.”
Stardust morphed back into her cloud shape. “It must have left.”
It? “What did you see?”
“Maybe I imagined it, but for a moment I thought I spotted a Nightmare.”
I shivered. “Why was a Nightmare outside my window?”
“If it’s the same Nightmare whose dream dust we found earlier, it means he’s probably been watching you. I really need to go to the library for some additional investigating. I’ll return at dawn with my findings.” She morphed into vapor, slipped through the sealed window, and just like that she was gone.
Everything took on an eerie feeling in the silent emptiness following Stardust’s sudden departure. Although the room appeared abandoned, my neck still tingled with the sensation of being watched, but I found nothing unusual when I searched outside again. It was probably my imagination, but I still double-checked that the window was locked before crawling into my bed of pillows and blankets and blowing out the candle.
Another sleepless night lay ahead. Shadows slunk across the wood-paneled ceiling like overgrown ivy and twisted around the beams in a spooky dance, as if the darkness was alive. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed sleep, an elusive stranger, to visit, but instead my blankets quickly tangled as I tossed and turned.
I peeked one eye open to stare at the clock face illuminated by the moonlight tumbling through my window. Only an hour had ticked away. I sighed and tried to count sheep, but I gave up upon reaching seven hundred twenty-one. I squinted through the darkness at the time; only fifteen minutes had inched passed. Above me, the shadows shifted, swaying back and forth hypnotically. I stared, transfixed, as they stretched lazily and crawled down the walls, as if they were drowsy, too. My eyes drooped with each shadowy fluctuation. I yawned and rolled over before my eyes finally slid shut.
Something sticky tickled my cheek. I brushed it away and it attached to my hand. A long thread caressed my arm at the same moment another coiled around my ankles. I tried to rub both away but I couldn’t move, having become stuck in the sticky thread.
My eyes shot open.
Webs cloaked the room, forming a transparent curtain across my window and dangling from the beams, while others stretched from the ceiling to the floor like columns…and more were constructing. I gasped and tried to sit up, but a web had twisted around my shoulders, fusing me to my pillows. More webs crawled up my back and wove around my legs, immobilizing me further. The shadows above me sprang to life and shattered into hundreds of tiny specks, each scurrying with eight tiny legs. My heart jolted.
Spiders. They crawled with expert ease across the webs while dozens of others daintily created new, carefully woven designs of horror. Spiders descended from the walls to form a black cloud creeping across the spider-carpeted floor, while others hung lazily above me, lowering themselves closer and closer. Tiny legs tickled my toes, crawled up my thighs, and scurried across my midriff; spiders nestled in my hair, others investigated my ears. I twisted and squirmed, but like a trapped fly I couldn’t break free, and save for a slight helpless whimper from my sticky throat, I couldn’t even scream.
A soft chuckle pierced the deafening pattering of countless spider legs, and that’s when I spotted him: a young man sitting cross-legged in the air. He appeared and disappeared in a single flicker, and when he did, the spider-infested room instantly disappeared, revealing my bedroom as it’d been before I’d closed my eyes and lessening the horrible sensation of the army of spiders invading every surface of my body.
I squinted in the strange boy’s direction and he slowly reappeared, floating in the air. I couldn’t discern any part of his face except for a cocky grin flashing in the moonlight. He worked expertly with a needle and thread as he wove strange dark plants together, the glowing green stitches faintly illuminating the black spiderweb tattoo snaking his wrist.
The young man paused and reached into the bag slung over his shoulder to pull out another plant, which he stitched into his makeshift quilt. Immediately, he and my bedroom vanished and I was once again trapped in my webbed prison. All at once, as if their torture were rehearsed, the spiders slowly enlarged. I squirmed as the heavy, furry spiders investigated my body, their sharp legs pressing into my skin as they explored.
The man reappeared in the corner, flickering in and out of focus. My gaze riveted to him, my only life preserver midst the horrible waves of this swarming spider sea. He seemed so solid and clear, especially
