The Dreamtrap - 33. Chapter 33

- XXXIII -

“Des, come on...” Gabriel said louder than he did before, both of his hands pressing hard against Desmond’s temples, his gaze blink-free and intense. “I don’t care what she managed to come up with...! You are in dreamland, Desmond, which means you can do whatever the hell you want with it! You might not be able to get out... Yet,” he added quickly. “But you can manipulate the surroundings...! You are in a dream that is not even real, which means anything goes...! There will be no consequences in reality, all bets are off... Des, come on!”

Suddenly, there was a strange, gurgling sound coming from his right, and Gabriel blinked and turned his head.

“What the fuck...” he said incredulously when he saw the little golden spider on Julian’s throat twitch spasmodically, and all of a sudden, the golden creature dug all its legs deeper into the blond’s flesh. So deep that there was blood seeping from underneath it. Gabriel’s eyes widened and he quickly got off the bed, walking closer to the unconscious blond. He bit his lip, trying to figure out what to do, knowing that the spider wouldn’t let him touch it.

Suddenly, Julian let out a small, gurgling sound, and then the spider buried itself even deeper into his throat.

“Oh, goddammit...!” Gabriel hissed when blood started gushing out with unexpected rapidness.

He shot his right arm forward, remembering that it took the spider a couple of seconds to react for the first time, and hoping that he would be able to reach it quicker than it would send that wave at him. He was right, and his fingers clutched around the golden brooch. He tried yanking it off blond’s neck, but as a result, the spider bit even harder into Salamander’s flesh, and then there was that wave, furiously throwing Rayhe away, making him smack his head on the wall.

“Shit...!” he hissed, shaking his head, his ears ringing. “Oh, bloody hell...”

He realized that the spider was determined to rip out the blond’s throat, and it was working on its goal with envious dedication.

“Bloody hell,” he hissed again and half-closed his eyes, reaching for magic streams.

He found the one he needed several seconds later, and pulled it towards himself, his expression tight, eyes narrow. He sent the stream towards Julian, and it wrapped itself around the bleeding badly by now blond. Gabriel knew that it wouldn’t do anything to stop the spider, but it would heal the man somewhat, and slow down what seemed like an extremely rapid blood loss.

He couldn’t do anything else about the spider situation, so he marched towards Desmond’s side of the bed and sat down, placing both of his hands on his mate’s temples, just as he did ten minutes ago.

“Desmond,” he started saying again without taking his eyes off the serene face. “Anything goes...”

****

“Fucking do it already,” Raven said through his clenched teeth, stepping closer.

“Hold on...” Desmond said slowly, and Magda shot him a quick, dark look.

“Take your last breaths, asshole,” she said in a low voice. “I won’t kill him,” she nodded at the wheezing blond. “But as soon as I wake up, I am killing you right there, on the freaking spot!”

“Yeah, I know,” Desmond nodded, looking at her with the same strange, thoughtful expression. “By the way,” he glanced at Raven. “She is not lying; she will let him live,” he nodded, ignoring Magda’s somewhat dumbfounded look. “Not because she is so noble about keeping her word, but because she is afraid that all those rumors about Salamander practicing necromancy, might be true...” He grinned. “She doesn’t want him to come back from the dead; if she leaves him alone in his current state, it’ll be safer...” He shrugged. “Well, that’s what she thinks anyway... Right?” he shifted his gaze towards Magda, who stared at him without blinking.

Desmond grinned again, nodding slightly.

“Yup,” he said and took a deep breath, stretching slightly. “Huh...” he said a few seconds later. “I guess it is true – anything goes...”

“What...” Raven started saying, and suddenly, everything around them shimmered with some strange glitter.

“I don’t know how you did it,” Magda said quickly through her clenched teeth. “But I don’t care...! This is my creation! You won’t be able to do jack with it...! I’ve had enough... Kiss your psycho goodbye,” she nodded furiously and stared at the spider, stepping away smoothly and easily when Raven lunged at her.

“Oh, come on...” Desmond sighed. “I mean, as much as I would love to attend his funeral, I don’t want to give you a satisfaction of killing him... That and he is bleeding all over my sheets as we speak... Or carpet,” he shrugged. “Depends where Rayhe put him...” He tilted his head to the left as he spoke, his gaze fixed on the golden spider, expression as thoughtful as before, except now, there was also a shadow of some strange hunger splashing in his eyes.

The spider stopped twitching and its eyes lost their dark-blue glow. Julian let out a moaning exhale, and immediately coughed.

“What...” Magda stared at the spider with disbelief.

“Just helping out a damsel in distress...” Desmond muttered and glanced at Salamander and Raven, who was all but shaking the blond by the shoulders, frantically repeating, ‘Are you okay?’

“Well,” Desmond sighed. “So very figuratively speaking...” He looked at Magda again without smiling. “I am tired of this place,” he said melancholically. “You did a crappy job of decorating it... Let’s make it better... Anything goes...”

****

...“Anything goes, Desmond... Just reach out to whatever it is that you reach out for to manipulate something that is not real...! Des...”

Gabriel blinked and turned his head when he heard a strange clanking sound. He blinked more rapidly when he saw the golden spider relax all of its legs, pull them inwards somehow, and tumble off Julian’s throat, rolling off him onto the floor.

Gabriel stood up and quickly walked around the bed. He stared at the spider that right now was just a dully-shining brooch. Its eyes were glow-free and lifeless, the golden shine turned into nothing but a dull shadow. Gabriel slowly lowered himself on one knee, reaching for the lifeless creature with a wary hand, expecting some nasty trap. He touched it very carefully, thinking that if it lunged onto his throat this time, they were going to be royally screwed. “If all of us are unconscious...” He never finished his thought because the spider remained still and lifeless. Gabriel’s fingers touched warm, slick from Salamander’s blood metal.

He picked it up, dropped it into the small box that it originally occupied, and slammed the lid on top of it. Then he briefly glanced at Julian, narrowed his left eye, kicking up the intensity of the stream around the blond, nodded to himself, and sat next to Desmond again.

“You did it, didn’t you?” he muttered, digging his fingers into Desmond’s temples. “Keep going... Don’t stop now...! Anything goes...”

****

Before Magda could say anything, Desmond closed his eyes, just so they could fly wide open a couple of seconds later.

“Anything goes...” he muttered again, staring into nothing without blinking.

The air sang with silver anticipation, and suddenly, there was a cool, fresh breeze ripping staleness into shreds, making the old posters and advertisements fly off the large wooden post in a rushed paper-wave. Desmond slightly raised his arms, spreading them apart, his fingers twitching rhythmically, and the front door of the opera house slammed shut, sending remains of the broken glass all over the rocky steps.

“Stop!” Magda screamed, throwing both of her arms above her head, dropping the useless now spider on the ground. “Stop, or I swear to God...”

“Hush,” Desmond said quickly and looked at the spider next to her feet.

Suddenly, the little brooch started trembling, creating some strange buzzing sound, and a few seconds later, the spider came back to life, ripping its metal shell apart, growing to grotesque proportions in a matter of seconds. It became the same height as Magda, and then it wrapped all eight of its metallically-shining legs around the stunned and terrified woman, trapping her in unforgiving embrace.

“Anything goes...” Desmond said again. “You created this place,” he looked into Magda’s eyes, ignoring her shrieking grunts while the spider tightened its hold on her. “You are the parent, but like every child, it grows up; and when it does, it wants to fuck and to be fucked... Not by its parents,” he let out a small smile. “And right now, it knows that I can fuck it good...! Therefore, anything goes...!”

His arms flew farther apart and he threw his head backwards, staring into the blackness of the sky above him. The sky trembled in a dizzying manner, and suddenly, it ripped itself apart, flooding everything with streaming, brilliant light.

“Holy hell!” Desmond screamed with wild laughter. “I see now why you wanted these powers so much...! This is unreal!”

The sky trembled again, and this time, it sent spasmodic tremors into the ground as well, making it buck wildly underneath everyone’s feet, creating a menacing earthquake. Desmond laughed louder, screaming something else into convulsing sky, turning that breeze into a miniature hurricane. The ground trembled harder, throwing Raven off his feet. The opera house creaked desperately, and all of a sudden, the earth split apart, swallowing the building whole.

“Bloody hell!” Julian yelled, trying to over-shout the roaring wind. “He lost it...!”

Raven turned his head towards howling with wild laughter Desmond, and he had to agree with Julian – right now, Specter looked downright insane.

“We have to stop him before he blows this place to hell!” He yelled, wincing from the vicious wind. “Us included...!”

Julian nodded at that, and they lunged towards Desmond, resisting the wind that grew even more powerful. They almost made it, and blond’s arm shot forward, aiming for Desmond’s neck, planning to knock him off his feet. Right before Salamander’s fingers touched him, however, Desmond laughed even harder, and screamed out:

“Anything goes...!”

The sky roared with deafening satisfaction and exploded into infinity of brilliant stars, dancing wildly in the raging wind.

“Raven...!” Julian screamed when those stars started wiping everything off the face of existence. “Raven...!”

The wind swallowed every single sound, and then there was nothing but brilliant roar. Then there was nothing at all.