Cobweb Head

t h i r t y - t w o

"I'm Scarlet, I don't think we've been properly introduced." She took another step forward, stretching her palm out as she waited for me to take it. I didn't move.

The Scarlet that Grimm had been talking about as if she were Satan himself, the Scarlet whose name was eerily familiar, the Scarlet who the Frights feared and hated – standing in front of me as if she could just start a leisurely discussion about the weather.

I stepped back again, stumbling against a stick hidden in the grass. I could feel everyone's anxious stares burn into my skin like branding iron. They were waiting for a response – ready to react however necessary. I was dizzied with it.

I blinked. "I'm not in any condition to be making decisions – if you hadn't noticed, I've been stuck inside a cave for however long."

"Three days." Oliver added dryly.

"Did I ask?" I sent him a quelling look. The truth was I really did want to know how long I'd been gone, but I wouldn't admit it, especially not to Oliver. I gulped – I didn't know how I was supposed to speak around them. "I'm going to need time."

Effie watched me, her smile twitching. She pulled at the lacy sleeves of her jacket anxiously before speaking. "That's – that's fine. We'll take you to your dorm to wash up. Afterwards we could get something to eat at the diner."

Scarlet's lips pulled thin. "But we will want to speak to you again, Will. You're going to have to make a decision."

I leaned forwards uneasily, away from Scarlet. Everything about her made me nervous. "But the Frights. They'd be swarming Windsor's."

Effie nodded quickly, grinning. "Don't worry about that, we've got it sorted." Then she exchanged a knowing glance with Scarlet and placed her cold hand in mine. "Let's go."

Scarlet nodded at Oliver. "Go with them."

When he moved towards us, I stepped between him and Effie, swallowing down a snarl. I turned to face Scarlet. "I think we're going to be fine on our own, thanks."

"It's just a precaution, if you're confronted with the Frights three is better than two. An echo won't do much." She nodded towards the little horse on Effie's shoulder.

I glanced at Oliver dubiously, who looked at me as if to say what? I seethed. "I'd pick an echo over him..."

As we started for the school, Scarlet spoke from behind me. Her voice was clearer now, her tone slightly acidic. "I'll be very disappointed if you decide not to help us. I'm sure it wouldn't end well for anyone."

I glimpsed back at her for only a moment before disappearing behind the outlining trees. The shadows shifted and started towards her before they moved out of sight.

I shuddered.

Effie's hands was coiled into fists at her sides when she dropped mine, and she dug her nails into her palms, smiling through her restlessness. "You'll of course go with the walkers after what the Frights did to you. I heard it was terrible – I can see that it was terrible."

I drew my hand to the dried blood on my face, looking down at the black stains on my clothes. I swallowed back bile. "I need to find Leo."

"Leo?" Oliver scoffed.

Effie's expression twisted. "After what he did to you?"

"It wasn't him, it was the Frights." I snapped. Heat crawled across my face – I could feel my cheeks go pink.

"He's with the Frights, Will." Effie glowered.

"Yeah, well why is it that I didn't know about your involvement until after I was locked inside a cave for three days? Was it to get me while I was weakest?" I stared up at Rosebud Tower ahead. "Not that I am at my weakest. I'm fine."

Oliver groaned impatiently. "You don't understand—"

"From what I hear, Leo has been more honest than both of you," I interjected. "So don't go lecturing me about anything."

We were quiet the rest of the way, until we came to a stop near the edge of the forest. Effie leaned down until the tall grass reached her elbows, searching the ground for something. An opening, maybe. I was instantly wary of snakes.

I stepped forward. "Be careful."

"She knows what she's doing." Oliver said. Fuck, I hated him.

There was a clicking sound, and she lifted up a small wooden doorway in the ground, where the grass went with it. She fell down the hole – another lamplit tunnel lay buried in the earth. Oliver gestured for me to go first.

I glowered at him and lowered myself into the opening, climbing down the old, rusted ladder. It was damp. I wiped my hands along my shirt and staggered back as Oliver started to climb down after me.

We started down the tunnel. The clammy walls pressed on both sides, and cold water dripped down from the roof.

"The headmaster's tunnel isn't the only one below the school." Effie's voice shivered. I could hear her teeth chatter.

The air was chilled and stale. Underground air. I'd recently come to find how much I hated underground air. A lot.

I stepped over a small puddle that'd formed in the muddied ground. "Why did you join the walkers if your mum is in the Frights, Oliver?" The question had been nagging at the back of my mind.

"When I found out about the Frights," he said bitterly, "and how she had excluded me from it, I had to go find out everything for myself. That's when I found Scarlet – my aunt."

"Scarlet is Grimm's sister?" I frowned. I had almost forgotten about that part. What a twisted family. "So, you're attached to a—a..."

"Nightmare? No. I'm saving myself for a strong one. That's what you're going to find for us."

"You know how that term is usually used right?" I scoffed. What a dimwit. I thought of Scarlet, her silver bracelet. "Scarlet isn't attached to a nightmare yet, isn't she."

"No." Effie replied for him. She paused, coming to a stop in front of another aged ladder. "Alright, keep your heads down. We're coming up near the boys dorm wing."

We followed her up the ladder, and a sense of disorientation fell over me as I lifted my head up to see a storage room. Old blackboards collected dust at the corner of the room, carpet rolls sat across the floors in front of me, and an old grandfather clock leered in a shadowy corner to my left.

I stood up as Oliver lifted himself up through the opening behind me. Shelves full of old antiques lined the room. Effie covered the hole with one of the carpets.

"They've got tunnels like these hidden all around the school. All you have to do is look." Oliver stepped next to me.

I sent him a sideways glance as Effie moved in front of us. She opened the door softly, peered out into the hall and gestured for us to come forward. I made sure to shove Oliver slightly as I walked ahead of him.

We poured into the corridor, and I recognised the numbered doors, the stained windows – I hadn't thought I could miss them until then.

104, 105 – 106

I nestled my hands into my pockets. When I found nothing, I grimaced and looked up, noticing the exhaustion cast across Oliver's face like shadows. I chewed against the inside of my cheek. "I might've lost the key."

Oliver looked as if he wanted to gawk but was too exhausted to manage it. "Just when I didn't think you could get any dumber."

"For all I know, your mother could've snatched it from me while I was unconscious!" I scowled. "And calling me dumb isn't very persuasive of you if you want me to join your little cult. Not a great selling point."

Effie hit the back of my head and then proceeded to do the same to Oliver. "If you haven't realised, we're standing in an open hallway. Oliver, where's your dorm?"

I rubbed the back of my head with an angry pout.

He offered a pained look before giving in. "Two halls down."

"Right," she tapped his nose airily, to which he scrunched his face. I laughed, receiving a seething look of anger. "Then that's where we'll go."