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Amber Blake is having dreams, and they just might be the key to saving her best friend, Mark.
Unfortunately, she's too preoccupied pretending to hate the boy next door, Carter Hayes. Secretly hoping to rekindle what once was, Amber atte...
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I'm standing in a grass field, the blades intertwining with my bare toes. The night air is light and summery; warm without being overbearing. A thousand stars sparkle above me, each one trying to outshine its neighbor. Cicadas chirp from the trees off in the distance, and I breathe in the sweet smell of an ocean. As I take it all in, a nightgown swishes around my legs. I rub the material between my fingers, the pale pink silk slippery to the touch.
A pinprick of yellow light flashes in the distance. Then, another, just to my left. Another flash a few feet away. Another right near my hand.
Lightning bugs hover lazily around the field, bouncing their lights back and forth in a call and response. I lift my arms and let them dance around my fingers, each one leaving a gentle kiss as it passes. They begin to move as one, whooshing through the field in waves.
Then — they stop.
I feel the ground shift beneath me; something's off, and my body can tell right away. The hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end, and I can feel tension buzzing in the air like flies.
It's about all I feel. The world has become stagnant, the grass still. The cicadas have silenced their song, leaving only an eerie silence. The lightning bugs light up all at once, their glare blinding. I want to look away, but for some reason, I can't. It feels like I'm supposed to see this.
Caught in a trance, heart racing in my ears, I'm stuck waiting for something to happen. Anything to happen.
And that's when I hear his voice.
"Can't you trust me?"
"Carter?"
In the blink of an eye, the fireflies disappear. In their place hover thousands of spiders, their legs squirming and kicking in the open air. They hiss and spit, and even from a distance, I can feel the anger rolling off the cluster. Dropping in a swarm, they disappear in the grass, but the chill up my spine let's me know they're coming.
I spin on a dime and try to sprint, but my legs turn to lead. The dirt melts into mud, and my feet sink in the goopy mess. I fight to break free of the loose ground, but it pulls me down, further and further.
