Chapter Text
Lilla’s nightmare always started out the same way. She didn’t know if she could even call it that, given that it was, in reality, a parasitic nightmare. It always started the same; her dad driving with the windows down, wind whipping through the car.
The family was coming back from the perfect beach vacation, though she couldn’t remember which beach anymore. Her dad was driving on one of those windy mountain roads, the kind that would definitely make her freak out if she thought too hard about it.
Lilla watched as her mom sang along to whatever was playing on the radio, wind blowing her hair around her head like a halo. Her dad tried to sing along, but it was obvious he didn’t know the words. All he managed to get out was a “yeah, yeah” here and there. Kasey, her brother, was gripping a pamphlet and rattling off tourist destinations for the road trip home.
Everything was perfect…until it wasn’t.
Nobody noticed the semitruck in the parallel lane and nobody saw it cross over into their lane. Her parents were singing, her brother was rambling, and Lilla was digging around in her bag when, within the blink of an eye, the semi rammed their SUV head on and everything went dark.
🕸
“Dude, get up.” Lilla blindly swatted at the hand shaking her awake. “Do whatever you want, I guess you don’t want to go on the field trip after all…”
Opening her eyes, she looked up just in time to see Kasey leaving her room and closing the door behind him. She’d barely slept in anticipation, so why was she now finding it so difficult to get out of bed? “Just a few more minutes…” Lilla grumbled then paused as her mind suddenly cleared. This was THE field trip, the one upperclassmen tell stories of, the one people put on their calendars in middle school, she could not afford to be late for the best field trip ever.
After stretching in her bed, Lilla threw off her covers and stumbled to her closet. Sorting through hangers, she settled on her favorite pair of jeans and a light blue tank top, shoes were a problem for post-food Lilla.
She practically ran out of her room, shoving her phone into her back pocket, and said a quick ‘morning’ to her Aunt Dani and Uncle Matt. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Dani asked, holding an envelope in one hand and a poptart in the other.
“It would kinda be bad if I forgot those.” Lilla sheepishly grabbed the stuff from her aunt and sprinted back towards the door and Kasey who was waiting for her next to it. “I’ll be back a bit later, field trip goes until 5. I’ll call if I need anything, which I probably won’t, but otherwise my phone will be off.”
“Oh yeah, you can’t have your phones on, I forgot about that part.” Kasey said, clearly half-listening as he looked out the window, watching the bus make its way down the street. Lilla slipped her shoes on, not bothering to lace them up, and ran out the front door with a jacket she grabbed off a hook.
“Be safe, I love you guys!” Dani called after them, watching as their front door slammed shut.
In the crowded bus full of kids from their neighborhood, Lilla craned her neck to find…”Lilla, over here!” A small girl with curly green hair called from a seat in the middle. Lilla pushed through the other students and finally sat down next to Anabelle Santos, her best friend since she moved to Manhattan in fifth grade.
The two girls could barely contain their excitement as the bus made its way to their school and it eventually bubbled up. Shortly after the next bus stop, the two of them were deep in conversation about their upcoming adventure, and the 20 minutes it took to get to the school flew by as they talked. Finally, their bus pulled up to their school and the 40-something kids all filed down through the double doors and into the small hallways of Ersatz High School.
Lilla and Anabelle, still chattering, quickly made their way through the crowd of students, up two flights of stairs, and into their homeroom, sitting down just in time to hear the bell ring. Everyone in the class was talking while their teacher, Ms. Caulder, walked in and shut the door before clearing her throat. “Good morning guys, obviously today is our science trip so none of you should have backpacks because you won’t even be able to bring them in with you. Those of you who aren’t going will head to Mr. Holder’s class in B203 at 9:30. I have a list of those of you who still need to provide payment or permission slips. For those people, come talk to me within the next 10 minutes. Until we leave, you can do whatever, just keep your volume low.”
A couple seconds later, the class split off into their different groups and hushed conversations flowed around the room. After hearing Ms. Caulders speech, Lilla paused her conversation with Anabelle and walked over to her teacher's desk. Ms. Caulder, who was looking over papers at her desk, looked up to see Lilla waltzing over with an envelope in hand.
“Hey Lilla, you’re on my list.” Ms. Caulder stopped what she was doing and turned her chair.
Lilla handed her the envelope Dani had given her earlier that morning, “Here’s the money for the trip and I’m 99% sure I gave you my permission slip, it’s not at my house so I don’t know what else I would’ve done with it…” her voice trailed off as she saw Ms. Caulder flipping through a separate stack of papers, no longer paying attention to what she was saying.
“Yep, I have it here. You’re good to go back to your seat.” Seeing Ms. Caulder holding her filled out permission slip, Lilla let out a sigh of relief and went back to Anabelle to continue their conversation. “So, what are you most excited for on the trip?” Anabelle asked when Lilla finally sat back down.
“Well Kasey told me a little bit of when he went, but I think he was sick and didn't remember most of the tour. I honestly don’t know much about Oscorp outside of Norman Osborn’s son being friends with my brother.” She dug around her memory for any slice of information, but with the lack of information from Kasey and the strangely nondescript stories from upperclassmen didn’t give Lilla much to go on. “I’m pretty sure Peter was more interested in the trip than Kasey anyways, I could text Kasey and ask him to ask Peter what to look out for? I know they have first period together…”
Anabelle waved her off, “Nah, I took a peek at their website and I think we should pay attention to this section, these displays, and maybe these other areas.” Lilla watched Anabelle scroll through the Oscorp website, knowing full well Lilla had absolutely no clue what she was yapping about.
“I trust you to pay attention, you can just explain everything to me when we get there. Speaking of getting there…” Lilla watched as their teacher gathered her stuff and turned her computer off.
“Ok guys, let's head out to the lobby, the buses are in front of the school. Last one out please turn off the light and shut the door.” Ms. Caulder said before releasing the class of 24 students. Lilla and Anabelle both rushed out of the door and shoved their way through the crowd of about 200 sophomores to get to their bus.
Almost as a consequence of her impatience, Lilla was accidentally shoved into a girl also making her way to the bus. “Hey, watch it.” The girl glared at her then turned her head sharply, inadvertently hitting Lilla square in the side of the face with her long white hair.
Her irritation was interrupted by Anabelle grabbing her hand and dragged her towards a bit further down the line. Eventually, the two girls found a seat away from the chaos and settled in for the frankly short drive, so short they probably could’ve walked with less hassle. “This is so annoying, can we just drive already?” Lilla complained to Anabelle after about only 15 minutes of sitting, receiving an eye roll and a smirk. As if spoken into existence, the bus doors closed and the driver checked the rearview mirror before pulling out to join the school bus caravan.
“Dude, I’m so freaking excited for this trip. I have a list of questions to ask the tour guides, I made another list of things to keep an eye out for, and I made another list of things to say that will totally get me noticed by the scientists. I’m getting an internship one way or another.” A suddenly sinister expression took over Anabelle’s face as she went on about her plans for the trip, but it all turned into background noise as Lilla turned to stare out the window. ‘Hmmm, what did Kasey tell me about the trip’ She thought to herself, grasping at any memory from two years earlier. Suddenly, something he said jumped out at her and Lilla found herself thinking back…
She had gotten home from school on the bus, same as always, and swung open the door to… nobody? Every time she opens the door after school, without fail, Dani was always there to make her a snack or ask how her day went, so where was she now? After taking off her shoes and putting her backpack down next to the counter, Lilla finally heard something, proof of life in their silent apartment.
She heard coughing coming from her brother's room which was not only strange because, well, he was supposed to be in school, but also because Kasey Moss had never gotten sick as far back as Lilla could remember. He had maybe gotten a cold once or twice a year, but it was never bad enough to warrant missing school.
After hearing more coughing, Lilla grabbed an electrolyte drink from the fridge and made her way down the hall, following the unusual sounds coming from Kasey’s room. Eventually, she reached his door and paused, preparing herself to see her brother in a state she had never even thought possible. Grabbing the handle, she turned it and slowly pushed the door open.
Darkness was all she saw until her eyes adjusted. As the light from the hallway filled his room, Lilla could barely make out a person-shaped lump on his bed, convulsing with every bone-rattling cough. “Kasey?” she quietly called to her brother, cautiously walking deeper and deeper into his room. “I have something that might make you feel better. I’m just gonna put it right here–” she was cut off as Kasey suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm, knocking the bottle out of her hand onto the floor.
“Lilla,” he spoke shakily through his chattering teeth, “the spiders.” His words confused her because, well, there were no spiders anywhere in their apartment, Lilla had personally made sure of that when she first moved in. After Kasey let her arm go and wormed back under the covers, Lilla quickly put the bottle on his nightstand and dashed out of his room, silently shutting the door behind her.
Her brother's switch up in the next few days was something to be studied; he went from feverish and pale to usual self seemingly overnight. Of course he was sick for practically a full week, but he woke up perfectly fine one random morning. It had ultimately been decided he had caught some sort of bug right before the trip because one of his classmates had been out for the same week, getting sick right before Kasey and therefore missing the trip. Lilla had chalked his words up to sick-person-babble and honestly forgot about it until she got on her bus. After all, she herself had been known to say and see some crazy things while deep in the trenches of a fever.
“–so I think that’s going to be kinda boring. It’s really a shame that they closed their animal study area to the public a year and a half ago, my cousin said that part was always really cool.” Anabelle’s words snapped Lilla out of her trip down memory lane. “Animal study area?” she inquired.
“Oh yeah, there’s an animal study lab on the fourth floor I think? It’s still in use, so not like abandoned or anything, but tours don’t go in there anymore. Apparently there were a bunch of reports of specimens getting loose, it was a safety hazard to the guests and other employees so nowadays they keep that area pretty under lock and key.” Anabelle recited the information from memory, now scrolling through her phone to find news articles to show Lilla.
“Did they have bugs?” She already knew the answer to her question, but wanted to hear it from the expert. Anabelle nodded, “Don’t worry though, the creepy crawlies can’t get to you. I saw pictures of their enclosures, they looked very enclosed.”
After about a half an hour, the buses finally arrived and pulled up in a loop, letting the teachers out first. Ms. Caulder and the other teacher from their bus were the first to meet with their respective tour guides and were each given a stack of “visitor” passes before heading back to the bus. When they got back to their spot in the front, Ms. Caulder split the stack in half and gave each stack to whoever was in the first seat on each of the rows on the left and right hand sides.
“Listen up you guys, visitor passes are being passed back from the front. When you get one and only one, make sure it’s visible at all times and do not lose it. The tour guides said they can’t replace them they get lost and you will be sent back to bus two to spend the rest of your day with Mrs. Jordan and none of us want that. That would ruin both your day and hers so the moral of the story is don’t lose your pass.” Ms. Caulder finished her speech and turned to talk to the bus driver.
“How many times do you think she's given that speech?” Anabelle asked as the stack of passes was handed to her. “I dunno, probably like 20 times.” She handed Lilla a pass before giving it to the boys behind them and promptly went back on her phone.
“I think your phone’s gonna die before we even get there.” Lilla pointed out “Although that shouldn’t be an issue because you’re not going to be using your phone at all while in there, correct?” she shot Anabelle a knowing look as she pinned her pass to her top.
“Yeah yeah, no for sure, not gonna use it at all…” Anabelle said, keeping her nose in her phone.
“All right, everybody up! When you get off the bus, people in my class go to the guide holding the sign with my name on it, everyone else in Mr. Vaughan’s class can follow him to your guide. Do NOT go past them or stray from the group. Hold your friends accountable people.” Ms. Caulders voice carried through the bus as everybody stood up to go outside. Lilla and Anabelle followed the crowd out the door and split off to join their class in the sea of sophomores. It was certainly chaotic with everybody talking and teachers trying to keep their classes together, but Lilla had managed to tune out all of the background noise until their tour guide started walking them to the lobby. “It’s smart how they’re kinda funneling us in, one group at a time.” Anabelle said. Lilla just nodded, a blank expression plastered on her face.
Their guide took the class through the lobby and down a side hall, up some stairs and through a set of glass double doors. The further they went, the more the noise died down behind them and it was soon quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Finally, the guide stopped and climbed up onto a nearby stepstool. “Good morning Ersatz High School! My name is Cory Logan, but you can just call me Cory, and I’ll be your tour guide today. I’ll take you through different parts of the lab, throw out some fun facts here and there, answer some questions, etcetera. Halfway through the day we’ll get some lunch from the cafeteria on the third floor then we’ll continue through some more labs. I don’t have much else to say, just make sure you keep your phone off ‘cause photographing or recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Other than that, have fun! Ok, let's start.” Cory finished his rehearsed speech, hopped off the stool, and pushed the double doors behind him open.
Right before turning her phone fully off, Lilla saw a message pop up from Kasey and, out of curiosity, clicked on the notification.
Kasey
{Yo Harry said his dad is going to guide a part of the tour but you didn’t hear it from me lol. Have fun on your trip}
Lilla, who had always found Mr. Osborn, a little unnerving, sighed as she turned her phone off and shoved it into her pocket. “This should be interesting…” she muttered under her breath as she followed Anabelle into the first room.