The Web I Spin for You ~ Richpez & Rosenwalker

Chapter 21

Joe stared up at the spider, once again unable to move from his current position on his back. He'd long grown used too these dreams; for whatever reason, he found himself night after night watching this spider spin their web along the roof.

He managed to turn his head to the side, checking to see if she was there with him. Zoey turned her head to the side to face him as well, her eyes filled with tears. Joe tried to look away, but all of a sudden his head felt too heavy to rotate. She'd been appearing frequently in his spider dreams as well, usually watching the web with him. However they'd rarely made eye contact like this, and he didn't like it.

He whipped his head back up, managing to shift his vision back to the roof. Ultimately, this had been a mistake; making eye contact with Zoey wasn't the only new event happening. To his horror, the spider had abandoned the web spinning and was beginning to descend towards him. Joe gasped, trying with everything he had to move, but his body was still frozen stiff. As the spider grew closer and closer towards him, he couldn't help but notice the black iris of its eight eyes.

He turned to Zoey for help, hoping she could break him free. Surely, she also didn't want to get caught in the spiders web. When he turned, he found her staring back up at the ceiling, appearing indifferent about the spiders new course of action. He called out to her, pleading for her to free him before he got caught in the web.

After what felt like hours of screaming for her to help him, she finally rotated her head to look at him; the irises of her eyes were pitch black, just like the spiders.

Joe jolted awake, panting heavily. He was drenched in sweat; his hair soaking wet and his shirt sticking to his skin. He glanced up at his ceiling nervously, but it was back to being it's usual plain white.

He exhaled slowly, relaxing back against his pillows. It was just a stupid dream; it didn't mean anything.

Or did it? Should he ask Meredith again?

He grabbed his phone so that he could text them, opening it to find a text from Lauren.

Lauren (lil shit)
you busy today? we haven't hung out in forever.

Joe sighed miserably; he hadn't hung out with any of his friends in forever, especially ones that were going to make him think of Brian. He noticed that the text was already two hours old, and he glanced at the time on his phone to find that he'd slept in until well past noon. He texted Meredith asking about his dream and what it meant if the spider had descended towards him, before tossing his phone away. It'd already been hours; Lauren had probably found something better to do.

He took his time getting showered and dressed, hydrating as much as he could without having to travel downstairs and risk coming into contact with people. Unfortunately he quickly downed all of the half-drunken bottles in his room, and he was still massively hungover. He needed water, and as much as he didn't really feel like eating, he knew that he probably needed food.

He pulled a hoodie on, hoping that he could sneak in and out of the kitchen unnoticed. As he left his room and began traveling down the stairs, he could hear voices coming from the living room. He closed his eyes sadly, knowing that he was likely going to get addressed by his parents.

"Oh there he is! Joe, I was about to come get you, your friend is here."

Joe looked over in surprise, pulling his hood down to find Lauren sitting in the living room with his parents. "Oh. Hey. Sorry I didn't text you back, I've been having a slow morning."

"All good," Lauren said cheerily, walking over to him. "Wanna go to Dunkin' or something?"

Joe shifted uneasily; in truth, he really just wanted to go back to bed. "Yeah, sure. Er, let me just run upstairs and grab a few things."