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The world was dark and silent, and it felt like Louis imagined sleep would, if he could remember dreamless sleep. It felt like an eternity that he stood in the dark dream world, waiting for something to happen and starting to feel more and more trapped. He finally moved after a moment- his mind knew that it was strange that he hadn’t moved, but his dream self apparently was calling the shots.
As soon as he tried to take a step, he bumped into a solid wall, cold and hard. He fell back from it, stumbling back a few steps only to run into another wall across from the first. He reached his hands out to steady himself and found two other walls close enough to touch, closing him in completely. The wall to his right had an indentation on it, and he realized it was a ladder, and he started climbing, his hands stiff on the cold metal bars of the ladder.
The climbing went on for ages- he endlessly climbed, pulling himself onto each bar with growing weariness. The bars started getting slippery, and it got harder and harder to climb, but he knew that he couldn’t stop.
The end finally came, and he pulled himself onto a flat platform. It was still dark, but he could just barely make out vague shapes around himself. He started walking towards what looked like a door, and went through it easily, the handle not resisting.
The door led to a tiny room with two more doors within it, and he chose the one on the left, flinching at the loud clang the door made as it shut behind him.
The room it had led to was another tiny one like the one he’d begun in, but this one had no ladder. He spent a few minutes trying to examine each wall, feeling for dents or anything other than a smooth wall. Finally he found something that felt like a small button in the bottom corner of a wall, and he pushed it happily, hearing the light, satisfying click.
Nothing happened for a moment, but then he felt something on his feet and stood up from his crouching position. He couldn’t quite see what the things were, and as if on cue with his thoughts, a bright light snapped on far above him, blindingly illuminating the tiny spiders all over his feet.
He had a moment of still shock before he started moving, desperately trying to kick the spiders off and get up the wall. The spiders multiplied, piling up and reaching his knees within moments. He started screaming and crying, kicking and trying to get them off.
He started feeling sick once they reached his stomach and started crawling up him as well as rising, and soon they had flooded up to his neck and several flitted into his mouth, quickly followed by dozens of others, the force of their rise keeping his mouth open. The spiders completely covered him within seconds, and he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even think.
Louis woke up in a panting, sweaty terror, woken by his own scream. His hands were shaking violently, and he curled up instinctively, kicking off his sheets and trying to convince himself that the residual itching on his legs wasn’t real.
He had to jump out of his bed and stand, rubbing his arms, the feeling of spiders crawling on him still strong. His heart pounded in his ears, and he took a deep breath before bolting out of his hotel room, the back of his mind insisting that his room wasn’t safe.
Louis went to the door immediately to his left, knowing that Liam was sleeping behind the mahogany barrier. He knocked lightly, having to get louder when nobody answered.
He was banging on the door frantically by the time that Liam finally yanked the door open with an angry frown.
“What is it?” Liam demanded, rubbing his eyes. “It’s two in the morning!”
Louis felt his mouth quivering slightly, and he pressed his lips together, determined not to cry.
“Can I sleep in your room tonight?” Louis asked, his voice shaking.
Liam’s angry expression instantly turned to one of concern as his protective instincts kicked in.
“What happened?” Liam asked, pulling Louis into his room and shutting the door behind him.
“It was just a nightmare,” Louis said miserably, following Liam to the bedroom part of the hotel room.
Liam turned towards him, hugging him tightly. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t real, okay?”
“There were spiders,” Louis said, feeling his eyes fill with tears and cursing himself for it. “Everywhere!”
“Wait, did you scream?” Liam asked. “Because I was dreaming that someone was screaming, but maybe it was real.”
“Yeah,” Louis said, hugging his arms around himself.
Liam sat on his bed, thumping the spot beside him, prompting Louis to sit.
“Are you afraid of spiders?” Liam asked curiously. “Because you’ve never said anything.”
“I’ve never said anything because it’s the stupidest, most cliché fear anyone can have,” Louis said. “I was hoping I wasn’t anymore.”
“Are you okay to sleep now?” Liam asked softly.
Louis bit his lip. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“Go to sleep, Louis,” Liam said, climbing up to the top of the messy bed.
Louis followed, slipping under the blankets and curling himself into a small ball as if it could protect him from imaginary spiders.
Liam lay down facing him. “You have to close your eyes to fall asleep.”
“I don’t want to close my eyes.”
Liam shifted slightly closer, letting their knees touch. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Go to sleep.”
Louis closed his eyes slowly, the irrational thoughts at the back of his mind quieted by the comfort of Liam’s proximity, the light tickle of Liam’s breath against his throat.
Sleep took him quickly, and it was dreamless, any more nightmares chased away by the boy sleeping close to him.