Cobweb Head

t h i r t y - s i x

I woke up with my head resting on the car door, the window rattling against my scalp.

We were in a town, one I didn't recognise. It had to be morning, the sun was barely in the sky, and a drizzle had started to peter down from the greying clouds. The car rested in a parking space.

I turned my head to look at Leo. The dark circles around his eyes were as thick as bruises. He breathed out and closed his eyes as the engine grumbled to a stop, sinking into the seat.

I took this opportunity to look through the car's cracks and crevices for anything of use. I found lint, dust and spare change scattered inside the cup holder.

When I turned to Leo to ask him if he wanted anything to eat, he was already snoring, eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks as he settled into a light sleep.

I pushed the door open quietly, making sure to close it softly behind me. Leo looked younger when he slept, something I hadn't realised until I saw him through the car window, his pyjama shirt ruffled and skin flushed with the cold. I would have to go get something warm.

There was something strangely peaceful about the early morning in this town. Only a few  strangers littered the streets, dressed in flannels and caps. The calm unsettled me – the calm only ever seemed to unsettle me.

My skin crawled as the drizzle decorated the fine hairs along my arms in a shine. I stepped over a shallow puddle in the concrete path.

After buying two cheap pastries from the bakery and a fleece jumper from the opportunity shop, I headed back to the car, cosying up to the warm bread inside the paper bags.

I fell back into the car, careful not to wake Leo, instead placing the jumper over his chest in a poor attempt to keep him warm. His lips had gone pale from the cold.

Leo's eyes fluttered open groggily, and I drew back a little too quickly, hitting my head on the car window behind. He lifted his arms up to stretch. His face melted into a hungry grin at the smell of pastry.

"How'd you get those?" He snatched a paper bag up, then looked down at the jacket strewn across his chest. "And this?"

"I found some spare change in the cup holder," I opened up the drawer and scanned for useful contents, rubbing the back of my head with a glower. There was nothing. "Figured you'd be hungry. You're always hungry."

He inhaled the pastry without hesitation. It was gone in a flash. I opened the wing ahead of me, which swung back to reveal a squared mirror. A small piece of worn paper fluttered down from where it was wedged behind the wing.

After batting Leo's hand away with a scowl, to which he responded with a look of unmistakable hurt, I held it up from where it'd fallen into my lap.

It was a list:

- Bunyip.

- Kraken.

- Lizard man of Scape Ore Swamp.

- Futakuchi-onna.

- Fin-folk.

- Dracula.

I frowned down at the list – some of them were cryptids, or legends, or scary stories we were told as kids. Some of them sent shivers crawling down my spine.

Leo still had a mouthful of pastry. "What is it?"

I didn't look up at him. "Whose car is this?"

"I just grabbed the one closest," he returned the frown. "I think I saw the headmaster driving it at one point."

I threw the note at him, hitting him square in the chest. "Read this – what do you think it means?"

After staring at it for a few long moments, which I spent chewing my nails and swallowing back the lump in my throat, he looked back up to meet my gaze. He gulped down the bread.

"I know the Kraken has only just recently popped up in the Frights' radar. I think these are the most recent nightmares – the ones we've only just found out existed." He passed the note over nonchalantly.

I glowered down at the cursive ink. "Are they... bad?"

Leo reached over to place a hand in the bare space between my shoulder and my neck. I couldn't suppress a shiver. "If the Frights are after them, then they probably are."

I stared back for a moment longer. Somehow he still believed in them. Somehow he still thought they were the ones doing good.

My chest tightened when he leaned back and took his hand away. I was left feeling colder than before.

"I have to tell you something..." He looked up from his slumped position, and his expression was as sad and soft as a guilty puppy after it'd chewed your favourite shoes. I raised my brows expectantly. "Grimm found something else inside your head -- she found an echo."

I frowned. "What?"

"She couldn't take it out, but – but it was old. It'd been there for a long time." He bit down on his bottom lip.

This couldn't be happening.

I fell back into the seat, head feeling heavy as I stared down at my open palms. There was an echo in my head all along – every panic, every time I'd gone sick with the very thought of getting one stuffed inside my skull, felt very far away.

How did it get there?

Why was it there?

I didn't want to think about it – I wanted to think about anything but it.

"Where are we gonna go?" I muttered.

Leo licked his lips hesitantly. "My family lives in New York, and it's not a super long drive from here to there. I know someplace we could stop to get money."

I nodded – I needed to talk to my Dad, I needed to tell him what was going on. What was Grimm going to tell him? That she was sorry, but she lost his son?

I wondered how he would react.

|||

After falling asleep for a few hours, we were on the road again. Pine trees whirled passed us, greens and browns and blues streaking my vision as my eyelids fell heavy.

When I turned my head, I could see Leo singing to Lana Del Rey, dimples buried into his round cheeks as he grinned madly and knocked his head back. His voice was horrid – I visibly winced. How had I slept through that?

I didn't think about the echo, or the Frights, or the walkers. The road asphalt stretched ahead of us.

Sunlight filtered in through the pale clouds and draped the mountainside in lighter colours. It silhouetted Leo's face.

I found myself smiling back at him.

Shit.

I was smiling. My chest was hot. My palms were sweaty. My mouth turned bitter with the sick realisation. Leo turned to look at me, his voice cracking awfully. More and more trees tore passed us.

I was in love with him.

Now that was going to be a major problem.