She slumbers. Before resting her head, she wished for sweet, peaceful dreams, but is instead met with a nightmare.
She opens her eyes. She is standing in a dimly lit room, unfurnished and without any windows. She hears a voice, seemingly close to her ear. Something tickles the lobe.
"Hello, Llorenna. Are you here to stay this time?"
Llorenna whirls around, furiously looking for the source of the voice. She finds it, spinning a web in a corner of the ceiling.
A spider. The largest she has ever seen, pincers sharp as daggers protruding from her mouth. Intelligent eyes, tracking her every move. Llorenna starts to shake, much to the spider's amusement.
Then she glances at the web.
Made with material much resembling steel, it holds flies as big as a leopard, some half eaten, some still twitching. She holds in the overwhelming need to barf.
"Are you?" the spider smiles. "Are you here to stay? Will you be my friend?"
It takes all of Llorenna's willpower to open her mouth and speak. But even as such, only a small squeak, as whisper of her voice exits her mouth.
"No."
She tries again, trying to make her voice as firm as it can get.
"No!"
The spider's eyes flash with fury. Under Llorenna's bewildered gaze, the spider starts to transform.
Its sacharrine smile shrinks and spilts, along with the rest of her body. It forms another spider with the same smile. It shrinks and spilts into another spider, which does the same, until soon, the room is filled with a million little spiders, crawling over her, whispering into her ears, until their voices blend into one, practically screaming now.
"Why won't you STAY, Llorenna?! STAY!"
She opens her mouth, despite the millions of spiders crawling over her face, and screams, over and over again.
"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!"
"NO!"
She sits up in her bed, silent tears forming rivulets down her face. She finds herself shaking her head, whispering the words over and over again.
"No, no, no, no. No."
She feels something, as light as a feather, crawl up her leg. She whips the cover off and covers her mouth in a silent scream.
A spider.
She jumps up, shaking it off her leg, and stomps on it until she is sure it is absolute mush.
Shaking her head even more furiously than before, she runs out of her room and into her sister's. She shakes her, hard, making sure that she is awake and the grogginess has evaporated from her eyes.
"Maria? Can I sleep with you?"
Her sister turns over, pulling Llorenna into her bed before drifting off again.
But before that, she whispers in Llorenna's ear: "Stay."
