The Zodiac Signs - Time And Space

Chapter 26 - Illusions Of Anxiety

[June 6, 2024 - June 9 2024]

Aries' POV
Song: Emperor's New Clothes By Panic! At The Disco

"What? There's nothing here?" Sagittarius called out. He then glanced over at Leo and I. "Guys? Where'd you go?" He sounded confused and looked even more confused.

"What are you talking about?" Leo walked over at him. "We're right here." He lightly hit Sagittarius' head.

Sagittarius blinked and glanced at us again. "Oh, there you are. Where'd you go?"

"We didn't go any -" I was cut off as I was hit and knocked to the ground by something sticky. "Ugh." I grumbled, pulling it off. It was a spider's web. Freaky.

"I didn't know those... serpent things spit webs." Leo raised an eyebrow at Aries.

"What are you rambling about?" Capricorn walked over to us. "That is no serpent!"

"Yeah, because it's a giant bug!" I glared at her before turning my attention back towards the freakish eight legged thing in front of me.

"No, there's nothing there!"

"No, it's a serpent monster!"

"No, you're all wrong!" Capricorn blurted out. "It's a storm cloud! And it's a being too loud! And you're not helping!" She glared at us.

"A storm cloud?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I hate thunderstorms, okay?" Capricorn huffed as I rolled my eyes.

"Serpent? Bug? Storm cloud?" Virgo nervously walked out of Nurse Columba's office. "That's giant bee." He shivered.

"What?" I raised an eyebrow. "You guys aren't making any sense." I got back up to my feet.

"I understand what's going on." Scorpio walked over to us. "You all see it differently because it's channeling your worst fears." He stared up at the bug thing.

"So... we're seeing our greatest fears?" Virgo muttered as be also stared at the bug.

"That... makes sense." Capricorn glanced at the bug and shifted closer to Virgo.

"But I'm not afraid of nothing?" Sagittarius blurted out. "What's going -" He glanced at us. "Guys? Why'd you disappear again? Guys?" He called to us, wandering around us.

"Of course!" Capricorn walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Sagittarius? Can you hear me?" She asked, locking eyes with him.

Sagittarius narrowed his eyes at Capricorn and squinted for a bit before his eyes suddenly widened. "Ah! There you are." He let out a sigh. "What happened?"

"You have Autophobia." Capricorn told him.

Sagittarius blinked. "Huh?" He looked completely confused.

"You're afraid of being alone." Scorpio walked up to Sagittarius. "So, we disappear from your vision, and you can't see us."

"Oh." Sagittarius nodded. "That makes sense. Still weird, though."

The bug then transformed into a large creature of darkness. Soon, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Libra, and Pisces all suddenly appear together. They look rightfully confused.

Soon, they catch sight of the large darkness thing, and Cancer and Libra hug each other while Taurus backs up against a wall, Gemini freaks out and clings onto Pisces and Pisces himself books it and runs over to Scorpio with Gemini in his arms.

Soon, Aquarius suddenly rushes out of Nurse Columba's door and skids to a halt beside me. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be resting!" I told her.

"I have to help. I can't stay cooped up forever!" Aquarius huffed.

I sighed and allowed it. "Fine. But if you get hurt. You're going back in there."

The darkness monster raises what looks like a hand, and its eyes start glowing, piercing white. It let out a large cry and brought its hand down, and soon, random things started appearing in front of all of us.

Storm clouds. Ghosts. Huge snakes. Large wasps. Copies of Taurus and that stupid snake for some reason. Tall dark figures. Large angry dogs. And... giant spiders. Great. Why did it have to be spiders?

Everyone was quiet and tense. I could tell that none of us seemed to be looking forward to this.

Soon, a snapping noise was heard, and the objects suddenly rushed towards us. Specifically, the stupid spiders headed towards me! I froze for a moment before letting out a yell and charged back towards the spiders. I faced them head-on and used my horns to my advantage. I thrashed my horns and peirced into the giant monstrosity. Then I kept doing the same for the others.

Once they were gone, I glanced at everyone else and saw Taurus get snatched up by the darkness demon. Soon after, Gemini was taken, and Sagittarius disappeared! Then the lights were dimmed, and more spiders, even larger than the other ones, appeared. I stared at them as they approached me.

I was then hit by a thick web and stuck to the wall. A sense of dread washed over me as they just kept appearing and approaching. I frantically looked around and saw the others were just running away from their problems instead of facing them. I didn't blame them, but that wasn't the way to go! "Guys! Stop -"

I paused when a spider started crawling up the wall. Slowly. Slowly getting closer. The dread quickly turned to panic as another and another and another started crawling up the wall to get to me. Then, more and more. Slowly but steadily. Slowly. Steadily.

I heard a quiet whimper come from me as I closed my eyes and started to wriggle out of this web thing. I opened my eyes again and saw the spiders kept approaching me. My movements began getting frantic as I tried to free myself. It didn't work. "Stupid web!" I scowled as I kept trying to use brute force to get through. Still didn't work.

The fear soon began forming into something different. Anger. It bubbled up inside of my body as I felt my hands clench into fists. I gritted my teeth and felt the anger continue to brew inside of me. After a bit, the anger changed into something else. Rage. The screamed from everyone didn't help. It got annoying. And obnoxious. They're so stupid. I glanced down at the stupid monstrosities, and they continued to rise over to me. Stupid. Stupid! STUPID! I let out a battle cry and managed to break off the web. I landed on the ground and leaped up to the spiders and slammed them to the ground, and started to beat them up. It barely even noticed the glow coming from my hands.