Page 52 of Barbie: Dreamscape

A hush settles across it as the forest goes silent. A lick of fear slides down my spine.

I have the urge to turn and run.

“Evalyn… what are we doing here?”

“We’re going to see the spiders, of course. They’ll get you sorted for Lord Evernight’s masquerade tonight.” She smiles, as though going to visit a spider community in the forest to ask them for a dress is a perfectly normal, everyday thing to do.

“But why—”

But Evalyn cuts me off and says, “There.”

She’s pointing toward the center of a cavernous shadow in the middle of the grove. Even though it’s only late morning, it’s so dark in this one part I can’t even see the grass blanketing the clearing. For all I know, it could be a hole.

I swallow. “Um. There?”

She nods.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Okay, then.

Slowly, I take a step forward. Then another. Until I’m right in the center. I turn around—but Evalyn is gone.

“Hey! Where—”

“I’m over here!” she says. I squint, and can barely place the shape of her, hiding in the trees. “You’re doing great!”

That isn’t concerning or anything.

Dread curls in my stomach as I remember what she said about the spiders being venomous. I shift my weight between my feet, peering at the ground (that is, thankfully, there) and at the surrounding forest. Searching for spiders. Minutes pass without anything happening at all. Nothing but this strange chill sliding down my skin like a warning and this nature-defying darkness.

Finally, I can’t stay silent any longer. “What—”

Hello… a quiet voice says, whispered from the trees. It’s high like a wind chime and ripples beneath my skin, casting chills.

“H-hi,” I respond, my voice shaky as I look around, trying to identify the source. But other than me and Evalyn, the forest is empty.

She won’t do! a sharp voice says. I whirl around.

Still, no one is there.

Right. Okay, now I’m officially scared.

Also… a little offended? I probably don’t even want to qualify for whatever these ominous voices have already deemed me unsuited for… but still.

Then, Yes she will; look closer.

I stumble back, because that voice… it was right in my ear. I whip around—only to see a string of silvery silk whirl right by, a tiny shard of sunlight glimmering off it in prisms. She has a whisper of wonder in her.

Wonder? I think.

Yes, wonder, one of the voices says, as if it can hear my thoughts, and my breath catches in surprise. My entire body tenses. I try not to think about how I’m kind of afraid of spiders, in general, and I’m definitely afraid of spiders that can read my mind and are venomous, and—

Stop it, Barbie!

Another string passes me, arcing from a treetop, swinging all the way across the clearing, and that’s when I see it. A tiny black speck with several legs.