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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 compared to the fuzziness that hovered across my senses when the spiders appeared, as if I were watching everything through a rain-splotched windowpane.
Gradually, the pieces fell into place—spooky and surreal surroundings, fuzzy details, and a floating boy sewing a quilt in the corner, stitch by stitch, as if he were creating something…this was anightmare.
At this realization I jerked upright. Instantly, the spiders and their webs disappeared. A dream, only a dream. I struck a match to light my candle before sinking against the pillows and waiting for my pounding heart to settle.
My entire life I'd wanted nothing more than to experience a dream, but not one like that; it had felt so terrifying andreal, far more so than merely viewing another’s faded one. Even though I was now awake, its memory shrouded me like the shadows swaying with each flicker of the candle. I could still feel the spiders’ sticky webs immobilizing me, their legs prickling my skin. I rubbed my arms to wash the feeling away. And there had been that peculiar young man…
I gasped and scooted back, slamming my back against the wall. He still floated in the air, watching me.
My scream caught in my throat as icy fear curled up my spine. The young man made no acknowledgement of my noticing him. He turned towards the window as if to leave, but paused when he spotted my dream jar resting on the shelf where Stardust had left it. Puzzlement tugged at his mouth as he stared at it. He held his hand over the jar, as if feeling for something, and his eyebrows creased. Then in one swift move he pocketed it.
My body tightened, ready to spring from bed in order to snatch my dream from his thieving hands. “Give that back!”
He spun around, green eyes wide as they locked with mine. For one moment we stared at one another, during which a strange sensation overcame me, as if a thread was weaving between me and this strange man.
I heard his breath catch, as if he sensed this too. He advanced a hesitant step in the air and I immediately shrank back.
“Please, don’t come any closer.”
He paused, a puzzled frown tugging on his mouth. He didn’t move…nor did he make any motion to leave. He simply stared, the feeling between us intensifying the longer he did so. Tingles pinpricked my flesh and blood pounded in my ears. This couldn’t be real, but how could I tell? When did dreams end? I squeezed my eyes shut.Wake up, wake up, wake up.
I peeked one eye open. He’d advanced closer and was now only a few feet away, close enough for me to see the black spiderweb tattoo that stretched from his right eye and twisted towards his ear. I pressed myself so hard against the wall the wood scratched my back.
He paused, head tilted, eyes full of questions. “Can you see me?”
