A bell rang. It sounded like from somewhere deep underwater. Muffled and wrapped.
Eugene's eyes were forced open. Ever so slowly, they adjusted to the dim light, fighting a lost battle against the eerie shadows around.
"Varian?"
His brain had trouble processing what he was seeing. The boy was on his knees, bound by strings of gold. They gnawed at his slim frame, spreading his raised arms apart and holding him in an unnatural position.
A thought stabbed his mind like a nail piercing through his skull, again and again. Eugene willed it down for all their sakes while he stepped closer.
Baby-blue eyes looked up and Varian started to struggle, yet he couldn't break free. He only entangled himself further. A chock escaped his covered mouth. He was trying to say something. A warning. A plea. The noise seemed both a million miles away and right next to his ear, but the dark prince couldn't understand a word. He didn't dwell on it tho, already extending his hand, ready to help.
He was weirdly relieved when he touched the golden threads. They were sticky, tingling at his fingertips.
His shoulders relaxed. Those were neither strings nor hair. They were cobwebs.
He yanked at them, trying to tear them apart, however the harder he pulled the tighter they became, each attempt drained more energy from the kid until only Eugene's grip and the webs that had trapped him in the first place held him upright.
"You can do this." The damn things wouldn't budge.
For the second time, the bell rang, now directly from behind him. A tapping sound accompanied it. Impatient clicks and clacks echoed over the floor, crawling up his spine and leaving icy footprints. Eugene's guts clenched together. A crack ripped through the air, close and loud, vibrating within his bones. He couldn't quite place the noise. Just that it was made by something… big.
As if in slow motion, he turned and froze. Never before had he understood what it was like to be prey. How could he? And yet, at this very moment, Eugene did. Above him loomed the King. The King of clown-spiders, half man, half spider.
It rubbed its giant legs together, the coarse dark hair grounded at each other like sandpaper. Attached to them was the disproportionately swollen abdomen of an arachnid, whereas its head was replaced with those of a human. Calling it human was kind of a stretch. It had all the right parts in all the right places, still, together they just didn't make sense. The concept was there but the knowledge of how they were supposed to function seemed utterly lost to the creature.
On top of the abomination rested the crown of a fool, vivid and bright and cheerful. Its bells jingled as the thing rotated its head 360 degrees. They stopped as their gaze met again. Hollow eyes focused in on him. They were as black as charcoal and Eugene swore he could see thousands of compounds reflecting his own terrified expression.
He took a step back and the monster licked its lips. The red color of its painted smile smeared across sickly white skin. Saliva gathered at the corner of its mouth, gradually dripping down its chin. A second later, a burning stench emerged. It flooded Eugene's nostrils as thick waves of acidic drool spilled and dissolved the ground.
"Hmpfh!"
Eugene's head spun around. Too late. Behind him, the webs dragged Varian into the grim void. Out of sight.
Suddenly he was alone.
A grin rose on the monster's face and with an incredible speed, it darted forward, closing in on him.
One last time, the bell rang and the spider attacked.
.
.
.
He awoke, heart racing fast and furious. Eugene rubbed the cold sweat from his temples as he cursed lance and his clown-spiders.
Down on the floor lay his alarm clock. It was still ringing with all his might. Once. Twice. Thrice. It must have gone off when it fell from the nightstand. With trembling hands, he picked it up and put it out of his misery.
The silence that followed hit hard and his thoughts drifted to the boy he'd left behind in his nightmare. Varian.
On a rational level, he knew it was nothing but a dream, yet he couldn't get him out of his head.
It had been weeks since he had first voiced his concern to Rapunzel. And while he intended to visit him, as so often, life got in the way, something always came up. Between royal duties and Rapunzel's crazy adventures, Varian simply slipped his mind.
Eugene sighed. Better late than never.