Rachelle Vanessa woke with a gasp, her eyes wide with fright. Another nightmare, haunting her even after it was over. Couldn't remember what it was about but she knew it was horrible and involved spiders. Taking a deep breath,she started her calming exercises as she did almost every night.

'Five things I can see.'

She turned on the lights.

'Things I can see. My bed, my phone, my pillow, the walls, my dreamcatcher.' she repeated those twice and went for the next one.

'Four things I can touch.'

From touch camesmell, and from there it went to taste. Finally she went to her mantra.

'I'm home. I'm safe. I'm home. I'm safe.'

For the next twenty minutes her chant was the only noise in the house, a hushed croak, until her parents woke up in the next room. They sat next to each other; hugging her daughter, comforting her.

‘It was just a dream, honey, go back to sleep.’

She knew they were right and she fell asleep again. But it was only a short nap. One hour later, Rachelle was woke up yet again with the same haunting feeling.

This had been an issue for weeks now. Nobody knew why so suddenly her nights were plagued with nightmares. The doctors said she was showing some ptsd symptoms. Which could be a normal explanation except for the fact that Rachelle was a teenager living in a small town and never had traveled more than a few hundred miles to visit her grandparents' farm. Love was not short in her house either. Or money. They were comfortable enough to not have to worry about rent or food. So they could afford the private doctors and when that failed, a friend of them was a shaman too (or he called himself a shaman). It was his idea to buy the dreamcatcher and other things. Nothing worked.

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Rochelle woke with a gasp. She started her calming rituals.

'Five things I can see.'

The lights didn't work. She hit the switch several times. It was the same. She ran to the hall. The switch didn't work either there. She moved around the darkness, guiding herself touching the walls. It was all the same. She called for her parents. There was no answer either. Fear was creeping through her heart, her calming exercises long forgotten. Every time she took a breath she felt a thick, viscous sticky liquid flowing into her mouth. Down her throat. She ran, trying to find a light,until she found herself out in the streets. Only it seemed the whole city had been swallowed full by the shadows.

A gloomy laugh broke into her spiraling thoughts. She looked up and found the most gigantic spider she had ever seen. Twice as big as her house. The spider loomed at her laughing.

Rachelle tried to scream, to move, to do something. She was frozen in place.

'It's just a nightmare, just a nightmare.' she tried to reassure herself.

'I'm more than a nightmare.' the spider boomed. 'I am the father of all the nightmares.'

'But the dreamcatcher—'

The spider laugh again.

'That shit made in China couldn't catch the weakest of my children. For the magic to work you need an intention and their only intention was to make money. And now is too late for you.'

Rochelle yelp when she saw the spider becoming smaller by the minute and climbing her body. No matter how much she shook her body, the spider was moving up into her face and then into her mouth.

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Rochelle woke up with a scream. Her parents rushed to her room, turning on all the lights. She couldn't remember her dream but she knew it was awful and it involved spiders.

Her parents sat next to each other; hugging her daughter, comforting her.

‘It was just a dream, honey, go back to sleep.’

A pinch in her heart made her questioned whether it had only been a dream or not.