Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,45

two, then three, her gaze never wavering from the light on the piano keys. But she took one step too far when she walked face first into the largest spider web she'd ever encountered.

The threads enveloped her, her arms, her face; she felt them in her mouth when she sucked in breath to shriek. Her fingers frantically clawed at the fibers on her skin. But the air froze painfully in her throat when she felt an unfamiliar presence at her back.

Unable to move, unable to scream, every part of her felt frozen except where she felt a hot breath on the back of her head. Her heart had stopped in her chest, she couldn't breathe, her mind shut down, unwilling to even imagine what was standing behind her. She heard a sinister hissing, strangely like laughter. Harsh words were spoken into her ear. Then she felt a scorching tongue and teeth on her neck.

Chapter 11

The scream that ripped through the castle was a sound dragged from the very depths of the blackest nightmare. It wasn't the piercing sound so popularly heard in Hollywood movies, but a loud guttural animal sound that froze the blood of everyone who heard it.

Jack exploded from the bedroom, pulling on his pants and almost collided with Noah running from the next room. Jack's feet nearly skidded out from under him on the heavily polished wood floor. Other doors flew open, more running feet, voices babbling in confusion. Noah sprinted down the hall towards the music room, discerning before the others as to where the sounds were coming from.

They found her standing stock still just inside the door. Her eyes were screwed shut in terror. Her body paralyzed, save for her lungs that continued to suck in air and screech it out. Her fists made tiny pumping motions each time she expelled breath.

Despite Noah's head start, Jack got to her first, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Dana! Dana!" He tried to shake her. Finally he slapped her.

Dana's eyes popped open and in a mindless rage she flew at him, beating her fists on everything she could reach. "You son-of-a-bitch!" she shouted.

Rose leaped into the fray, wrapping her arms around Dana from behind, pinning her. "Shh. It's all right, you're all right." She glared hatefully at Jack. "Just like a man. Doesn't know what to do, so he hits something."

Dana, her brief fury spent, sobbed brokenly. "Get it off, get it off." Mark, the last person to enter the room, did what amazingly no one else had thought to do in the past two nights. He turned on the overhead light.

For the first time they could see the fibers clinging in tatters across Dana's face, shoulders, arms and chest. As Rose was still holding her from behind, Noah embraced her from the front. "Dee-Dee,”he cried, nearly in tears himself, "Dee-Dee stop crying, for God's sake stop!"

Prompted by Jack's habit of calling Dana D, as a small child Noah had called his sister Dee-Dee. She had allowed this for a few years until she reached the excruciatingly self-conscious age of fifteen and had put a stop to it. Jack was still the only one allowed to shorten her name. More than anything else had, the almost forgotten childhood nickname began to pierce through her fear and she began to gradually calm down. "Jack, what is it?" Noah asked considerably distraught.

"It looks like angel hair,”referring to the sticky stuff used in Christmas decorations. "Jeez, no wonder. D, it's angel hair. It's not a spider web, it's angel hair." He began gently tearing it away from her. "Shh, it's just angel hair." Freeing her from it, as well as from both Rose and Noah, Jack scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the room and down the stairs. Feeling helpless, the rest of the group followed.

Jack carried Dana, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, through the dining room and into the kitchen, depositing her in a chair at the small kitchen table. A pot of coffee already sat perking, filling the room with its rich aroma. "Sweet heaven,”whispered Henry, looking at it in awe. "The woman is psychic."

Mrs. Babineaux was in the kitchen as well, looking even tinier in her girlishly ruffled castle coat. Her eyes were wide and frightened as she watched Jack come into the room with Dana in his arms. "Ah, Cher, did monsters get her?"

"No monsters, just meanness." Jack whispered some instructions to Mrs. Babineaux, who nodded and began heating a