Cobweb Head

t w e n t y - n i n e

I didn't realise I'd fallen asleep until I woke to the sound of footsteps, dust coating my cheek and a chill settling across my skin like silk cloth.

I took to my feet and scrubbed the dirt from my clothes and face. Leo was coming back to get me.

The footsteps rang through the tunnel. When I stepped forward, I hit my already bruised knee on the box and grunted with both pain and exhaustion. My face was hot – staying here was starting to feel like a fever dream.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Leo come out through the opening, the darkness melting away from his silhouette as he entered the cave. He didn't smile or grin or say anything at all.

"Thank god," I breathed, lips creased into a faint smile as I moved forward. I hoped there wasn't still blood or muck on my face. "I hate sleeping on the ground. My neck aches."

He was quiet.

The relief was short-lasted when Grimm came through behind him, followed by three other people I didn't recognise.

"I'm sorry for the discomfort, William." She answered instead, and I was immediately reminded of how much I hated her voice. Had I never realised that before?

I stumbled back and swallowed against the bile in my throat. When I glanced back at Leo, he was already looking directly at me, and I only then realised that his face was wet.

"Look," my voice cracked. "If you let me go now, I won't go calling the police on you when I get out. How's that?"

Grimm rolled up her silken sleeves, exchanging unreadable glances with the man beside her. "No one else is going to be able to do what we're going to do today. You don't know it yet, but you need this."

I knew the words were supposed to be somewhat persuasive, but with the venom in her voice, I wondered why she even tried. She hated me. And the feeling was completely mutual.

"I'm not attached to a nightmare!" They were moving closer and my skin was starting to crawl. I glimpsed back at Leo again. "What's going on?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but Grimm was quicker. "After Mae explained what had really happened, poor girl, we caught him trying to get in."

Leo's brows were drawn together in worry. "I should've come sooner." His voice was small.

"Like I said," I turned my head to face Grimm again. "I don't have a fucking nightmare."

She didn't say anything in response, instead tilting her head forward only slightly and tracing a long nail across her scaled bracelet. The man moved forward. He had an ashy beard and soft, gentle eyes, which only made me feel more uneasy.

I was starting to feel more and more confused over how they could communicate through only glimpses. Was there some kind of telepathic connection that came with being in the Frights? Was it a hive mind?

When I went to move away from him, I hit the back of my knee on the box, which was enough hesitation for him to grip at my arm and pull it behind my back. I felt a sharp pain in my spine as he buried his elbow into my flesh, and fell when he kicked at my legs. I heard Leo yelp.

It was only a little embarrassing how easily he'd gotten me on the ground. More terrifying than anything else.

My head felt heavy with sickness. Everything felt too warm. I hated this bloody cave and its goddamn side-effects.

"Here's what's going to happen," Grimm continued as the man held onto my arm with a rough grip. Someone else took hold of my shoulder. "We're going to give you a little cut on your hand, and then we're going to take the nightmare out from that cut. Alright?"

"You ask me like you don't already know the answer to that." I watched her through the hair that'd fallen across my face, and I only then realised how much of a greasy mess it was. Like blond tree roots growing from my scalp.

"Alright." she moved forward, drawing a knife out from behind her. Where the hell could she have kept that?

I tried to flinch back when the man pulled my hand forward, but his grip was scarily strong. The knife's tip touched my skin, embedded itself into the flesh and tore down my palm. I clamped my teeth down onto my lip as to keep myself from crying out.

It wasn't like the movies, when someone was cut they would handle it as if it never happened. It stung. It hurt. I could feel my face go red.

"This won't hurt." Grimm tossed the knife aside and drew her bracelet up, until it was only inches away from the bloodied cut in my hand.

"It already—"

I broke off when something pressed up against my skull from the inside. Twisted. Moved. I went to cry out when it pulled harder, but my throat closed around the sound. Something shuddered inside my chest. My pulse quickened and my blood shivered.

A strangled gasp rose up from my throat when black blood bled through the open cut. And then it poured and thickened, running down the cracks between my fingers and creating puddles in the dirt below.

Despite what Grimm had said, it did hurt. A lot.

My eyes felt as if they were being pushed out from my skull, my chest rattled, thick black tears trailed my cheeks and touched my jaw.

Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.

My whole body was shaking when the blood seemed to solidify, rise up in smoky tendrils from the dirty puddles and throw Grimm off her feet. Okay – that might've been slightly satisfying, even if I ached everywhere and terror was freezing the blood in my veins.

The tendrils whipped and struck out. The grips on my arms fell away as the people behind me leapt back, and I crumpled in on myself. The tendrils then shrunk away back into my hand.

Both the blood and the cut was gone. Not even the shimmer of a scar left behind.

My body was still shaking when Leo fell down beside me, placing a warm hand down onto my face and another grasping at my shoulder. My vision was stained with black splotches.

"Will!" He cracked.

Copper filled my mouth, my chest was tight, and the noises around me were melting away. Overall, I felt like absolute shit.

"We have to continue." Grimm. She sounded breathless.

"Does he look like he could handle it again?" Leo shot back, and looked back down. "No offence."

I went to say something through the metallic taste in my mouth, but only succeeded in coughing up more black blood. It coated my chin and bled through my nose.

Grimm was silent for a long, painful moment. "We'll continue tomorrow."

What happened next was heard from underwater. A yell, echoed footsteps moving further away, a muffled voice. The warm touch on my face falling away.

I was left alone.