Julia could not remember a time before the dreams. She vaguely suspected they had started shortly after she had bought a strange necklace from the curio shop, its intricate interwoven design with a central jewel had caught her attention the second she saw it. A fair price had been bartered and the jewellery purchased. It had only been meant for occasional wear, but once she had put it on she found it difficult to be without it. Over time it became a staple part of her daily outfits and she even stopped taking off when she went to bed. Many commented on it, some complimenting the design, others saying it made them uneasy. In fact, there were some that could not even bring themselves to look at it. Julia cared not, she had never been beholden to trends or fashions and actively sought out the bizarre and unorthodox, she liked it and that was all that mattered.
But her dreams. So vivid! Each night, a kaleidoscope of colour, light, and texture. Each successive dream started where the previous had left off. Each night she explored further into the dreamscape, wandering crystalline paths and negotiating structures spun of the finest gossamer strands. Everything shone and sparkled. The cloudless sky was a pale purple hue with ever-busy spiders overhead endlessly spinning threads that intersected the tall silk towers and spread across the sky like a canopy. Though she explored the dreamscape she was not entirely free. Funnels and dead ends meant that often she would have to turn around, a route would turn out to be inaccessible as small spiders barred the way with strong webbing that even at that moment they were adding to. The spiders didn’t bother Julia, even though they were abundant in the extreme. Much as in real life, she adopted a live and let live policy. It bemused her that so many lived in terror of the benign creatures. No, it was the serpentine that struck fear in her heart. The sinuous and cold snake at which she quailed and dreaded to think.
On this latest adventure, having passed under some silken bridges and down a crystal-studded tunnel that shimmered and shone like a thousand eyes, she found herself at some elevation, which seemed bizarre given her initial orientation had been downward. There was no denying, however, that she was now overlooking much of the dreamscape, able to see the twisting paths and labyrinthine walls of silk and that ever-present violet sky. There was something familiar about the layout of the fantastical construct before her, with its myriad woven spires and bridges. The pattern of silk arcing across paths and causeways, so intricate, so purposeful. It was also seemingly concentric, though it took some looking to discern this, such was the extent of the threads and strands criss-crossing the horizon. Still, there was certainly something in the centre, and although she could not see it through the masses of silk, she knew somehow that it had to be her ultimate destination. A path led down away from the tunnel entrance, after taking a moment to gain her bearings and set a route in her mind she proceeded down it resolutely, pausing from time to time as white and lilac spiders crossed her path. They paid her no heed, fully devoted to whatever their tasks were. Some were spinning strands of shimmering silk, others were carrying silken bundles in their jaws, carefully cradling their cargoes as they scuttled to and fro.
Julia made some way along her new route before she woke, knowing that she would pick up where she had left off that evening. The dreams didn’t come during the day even if she slept, only ever at night. That was the only time she was ever able to access the silken dreamscape. She got up, washed, dressed, and went about her day, all the while thinking ahead to her evening’s escapades. Indeed as evening drew in she became increasingly somnambulant, operating almost in a trance, until she finally made it to bed and closed her eyes. A smile creased her face as she felt herself fall back into violet slumber.
This time, she felt a sense of purpose, she was near something significant, she could feel it. No dilly dallying or meandering for her this time, she was on a journey to the centre. She strode the crystalline paths resolutely, pulled herself over silken obstacles and through such barriers as she could, small lilac spiders scattering before her. Even focused on her route she still glanced up from time to time, though all she could see were strands of silk crossing the sky. Indeed it seemed that as she approached her destination the canopy of silk grew more dense and enclosing, and she started to finally feel a little uneasy as the barest remaining scraps of violet sky disappeared. Nonetheless, her ambition overcame her trepidation and she persevered. The shimmering path twisted and turned back on itself and she could swear she had crossed her own trail on multiple occasions, though neither crystal path or unyielding silk left footprints to judge. Unperturbed, she preceded.
As Julia continued towards the epicentre of the dreamscape the environment became increasingly organic, until the paths became silken tunnels, more than large enough to stand in. Any deliberate route that she had in mind was now moot. She was treading paths totally unknown, though they had thankfully become more straightforward and linear, no longer twisting and turning upon themselves in this silken labyrinth. No, it was more like a passage now and she made swift progress, though she noticed that the walls seemed to heave slightly from time to time. Endless numbers of spiders still scuttled and scurried around her, and she was gratified by this constant at least.
In time she came to a chamber, walled all around in silk, with a single door, pausing for a moment, it took her a heartbeat to realise this was the first actual door that she had seen in her time in the dreamscape. The door was made of simple stone, which confused her still further given all the magnificence and lustre she had seen previously. The silken passages had sparkled and glittered, the iridescence of the silk itself casting the luminescence needed to navigate. The door was about fifteen feet tall, and nearly as broad. She approached it with trepidation, cautiously looking around her. She could see that it was roughly hewn, not as smooth as she would have thought. Indeed the very manufacture and being of the door was entirely at odds with everything else she had seen in this wondrous yet alien place. It was the only thing she had seen that was entirely untouched by silk which sent a chill down her spine that she could not suppress. Yet all that moved were the omnipresent scurrying and scuttling of spiders that provided a skittering soundtrack to the unsettling spectacle before her. As she drew up to the door she spied an indentation, a place for something to be inserted. A keyhole? Upon further investigation, she could see that the hole was exactly the same shape as the charm on the necklace she wore. Furthermore, she realised with a chill, the design of the charm was ghastly similar to the path she had followed to arrive at this point. The entire dreamscape, the countless paths, bridges and silken structures, all of it was captured in microcosm upon the jewellery she wore around her neck. She stared for a moment, frozen by the enormousness of the revelation overwhelming her.
Trembling, she removed the necklace, unclasping it and holding it before her. It was undeniable, the necklace was some sort of key and always had been. Barely daring to breathe, she inserted the charm into the recess. She half expected it to glow, to make a sound or some other kind of reaction, but there was nothing save a slight scraping as the charm settled into the gap. Then total silence. She slowly turned around, all too aware of the sudden absence of that comforting skittering background sound that had accompanied her journey for so very long. Her eyes widened as she saw that bar none, every single spider, large or small had stopped moving and was now facing her, a multitude of shining yet impenetrable eyes focused in her direction like a sky of a thousand glittering stars. Such was the terror that gripped her, it was all she could do to stay standing. The silence did not last though there was never again any movement from the spiders. With a low grinding scrape, the door slowly opened behind her.
For the first time since the dreams had begun Julia wished she could wake up. She would give anything to be able to leave this place at this very moment. Warm air pressed upon her neck as the portal behind her opened and yawned. Hesitantly, she turned around again, away from the staring spiders….
The door opened to another chamber many hundreds of feet tall and at least a hundred wide. It was not however, empty.
Countless eyes still stared at her from the walls that were covered with spiders of all sizes and hues, each with its eyes fixed upon her. In the middle of the chamber, suspended in the air by means of a gigantic web was a pulsating mass, a heaving white silken sac, that bulged and rippled. It was huge, the size of a tower block. All around thousands and thousands of spiders scrutinised her unfathomably. Their eyes were hypnotic, bewitching. Without will, she found herself on her feet again and although she tried to fight it, Julia slowly entered the chamber.
As she drew closer she became aware of details she would have rather remained blissfully unaware of. The sac beat like a silken heart, slowly pulsing, but that was the least of it. She could see the surface clearly now and its true horror was revealed. Screaming faces, which were horribly and recognisably human, pressed out from under the surface. Worse still, coming down the suspending threads and disappearing into the sac were the silken parcels she had seen the spiders moving up above, Too small to be bodies, nonetheless for each one absorbed another face wailing in torment was added to the mass. Another tortured soul, trapped for eternity. Julia blinked, she now stood right before the massive silken monstrosity. The huge web towered over her and the sac bulged suddenly as if trying to reach her. She looked up and she could see similar webs far above in the upper reaches of the chamber stretching almost out of sight. She didn't resist as silk strands appeared from up high, attaching to her and drawing her up into the soft masses of the silk and gossamer haze while the spiders looked on…. Bearing witness to the sacrifice.
It was almost a week before the police battered down the door to Julia Ramirez's modest apartment, alerted by concerned acquaintances that were worried by her continued absence. They found her, still in bed, having never woken. Her body was nearly entirely desiccated, as if it had been drained. There was no sign of any injury or trauma, indeed her face, though drawn and skeletal, was at peace, her sleeping expression serene. Her death was never explained, even though the level of desiccation was far beyond what should have been possible in such a short time span. The mystery was consigned to a perfunctory coroner’s report and never investigated or explored. Julia’s possessions were collected and auctioned off at a later date. Subsequent occupants of the property never reported anything unusual.
The curio shop owner was bemused to find a necklace on display that he could swear he had sold several weeks ago. Still, he reasoned, he was no longer a young man and his memory was not what it once had been. Besides, the evidence was right there, sitting on its stand in the window, covered with delicate silken strands…...
