Cobweb Head

t w e n t y - s e v e n

"The—what?" I croaked. The air suddenly grew warmer.

The two students entered the room, and they moved so quickly, so smoothly, that I could barely believe their feet were touching the ground at all. It had to come with whatever the Frights trained their little cultists – no normal teenager could possibly move like that.

I forced them back with a snarl, one I surprised even myself with. I was impressed. The students held up their rings and I pressed up harder against the window, hands raised. My heart was throwing itself against my ribcage.

Grimm stepped forward. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be – we're going to fix you. What Scarlet has done to you will be undone."

I cocked my head to the side, a threatening expression softening with confusion for just a moment. Scarlet. That name.

One student, a girl with olive-tan skin and sharp eyes reached forward with an urgent flash in her eyes. I leapt away and came up behind the desk, to which Grimm seemed to lose her patience.

With the quick flick of her wrist, her silver scaled bracelet moved against her palm. Soon, smoke dripped out from the snake's indentured eyes like ink from a quill pen. What rose up through the thin smoke was a girl, hair like wire and skin like untouched snow. What looked like black paint stained her fingertips and eyelids.

I watched her, furrowing my brows with parted lips, as she stood up onto the desk. She moved like a spider, bony arms pulling at her thin dress as if it burned her.

She moved closer, bending down onto the desk until her face was only inches away from mine. My breath was shaky. I seemed unable to move as she fouled the air with her cold breath. Behind her pale lips I could see blackened teeth.

"Sleep." More than one voice spoke from behind her tongue.

I collapsed into darkness.

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The first thing I realised was the cold, gnawing against my skin.

I felt the ground beneath me and buried my fingertips into the earth. Dirt rode up into my fingernails. Dim lights moved from behind my eyelids. I drew in a bitter breath of air.

Throbbing hard against my ears were the sounds of screams and shrieks and roars. I went to press my hands against my ears to block them out – but it did nothing. They were coming from inside my head.

When I opened my eyes, everything was blurred. I had to blink away the haze for a few long moments before I saw the cave stretched out in front of me. The cave below Rosebud Tower. The memory of when I'd last been here opened up like a fresh wound.

Okay.

This was starting to feel illegal.

I struggled to my feet, the silver wall's sharp edges cutting into my spine. My breath turned to fog as I released it.

When I staggered away from the wall, the disembodied voices died and dust kicked up from underneath my heels. The same fear took hold of my heart – the one that only my body could feel.

Everything was darker now, a single lamp sitting against the cave's silvery wall.

I took for the hole, grazing my knees and cutting my hands on the sharp surfaces, but when I looked up to see the opening, there was only darkness. They'd closed it up.

Yep. Illegal.

An unsettling feeling found its way beneath my skin as I realised I'd be stuck under here until they came back to get me. I dropped down back onto the floors and kicked up the dirt with a frustrated grunt.

As I neared the other hole, the one leading to Grimm's office, the buzz of furious nightmares pressed up against my skull. I couldn't bring myself to get too close.

I slumped down to sit cross-legged in the centre of the room, restlessly burying small holes into the earth as I thought. A sick feeling curdled at the bottom of my stomach.

What did they mean by nightmare extraction? I didn't have a nightmare to detach from.

I fell backward with a huff, my back meeting the dirtied ground. I scrubbed the dried blood from my face and clamped down on my lip.

I didn't know what the Frights were going to do to me, but it wasn't help. Leo was a fuckwit if he thought otherwise.