Cleaning the family bathroom on the second floor was seldom an easy endeavor, especially in a house with three boys. There's the scrubbing and the wiping and the rinsing and the deodorizing. As Melvin grew older, he quietly assumed that his mother's harshness on him and his brothers during her deep cleaning was because boys were typically dirtier than girls, and if she taught them to be more self-conscious of the messes they left behind, there would be less to clean up in the future.

Ironically, Melvin wouldn't be aware of his mother's expectations had he not embarked on that decades-old dream to begin with. He remembered most of his time in Io - except for the parts of him being a baby and a toddler, of course - and had often wished he helped out his mother more and showed his parents and brothers how much he cared about them. And now, after what seemed liked 24 years, he's gotten another chance to make good on the promise he made himself.

After mopping the bathroom and letting the tiled floor dry, the boy's heart raced when he opened the curtain. In the house next door, past a window on the second floor, he spied a girl his age reading a book. Her features were hard to make out, but he took note of her short, silver hair and the black short-sleeved dress she wore.

And after a chance glance in his direction, the mysterious girl smiled at him and waved at him joyfully. She was quick to stand up and stepped away from the window. After a minute, he could hear the sound of a door closing and the girl dashing from her front porch to the direction of his house.

"Who...is that?"

***

The Williams household was an African-American family living in a two-story house in the cul-de-sac. Melvin looked at the family picture hanging by the stairs; there was Rufus, the father who worked from sunrise to sunset from Monday to Friday; there was Yolanda, the mother who drove the kids to school, attended PTA meetings, and took care of the house; Antoine, the eldest of three children and straight-A student; Devin, the youngest child who would much rather play video games than study; and Melvin, the middle child.

Having this in mind, it was strange for Melvin to see a sixth person - who just so happened to be the girl next door - eating a bowl of cereal at the family table while chatting with his mother.

"Hey, sweetie." Yolanda's tone sounded a lot nicer than earlier, though Melvin suspected it was partly because they had a visitor. "You remember Selena, don't you?"

Now he remembered. Selena was probably the prettiest girl in 8th grade, at least to Melvin. She was quiet, sweet, and quirky; most of the student body kept their distance because of her strange fondness for insects, but she didn't mind the loner's life. After all, there was a boy from her class who just so happened to live next door to her and also loved insects.

Come to think of it, did she always have silver hair?

"Hey, Ces," Selena greeted as she tilted her head and smiled sweetly. "Your mom was talking about that crazy dream you had."

"You told her?!"

Melvin froze when his mother looked back at him. No words were spoken, but he knew that look; raising an eyebrow as she tilted her head forward? That look meant 'Boy, drop the attitude before I smack you with this spatula.' One smack of the spatula on her hand was done to emphasize her point, which was enough for Melvin to meekly sink his head and mouth an apology.

Yolanda, turning back to the stove to flip the pancakes waiting for her, kept her friendly tone. "I had to tell her. Selena loves bugs, sweetie. You know Luna moths are her favorite ones."

"I bet the giant moths were cute, too." Selena, paying no mind to the non-verbal exchange between mother and son, happily munched on the oat cereal in front of her. Melvin sat down across from her, and was happy to see a plate of pancakes make its way to the table. And not just pancakes, either.

"Breakfast sausages and syrup." Melvin's mouth was already watering. Blueberry pancakes were his favorite, but sausage links drizzled with syrup were the next best thing for him.

Selena patiently waited for Melvin to finish his breakfast, after which she stood and slid her chair into the table. "Thanks for the meal, Mrs. Williams."

"No problem, Selena. You know you're always welcome here. What are you kids up to, anyway?"

"We're going to see Precious for a little bit, then we'll go to the park and look for mantids." Selena happily skipped to the front of the house. "Hurry up, Ces."

Melvin stuffed his face as fast as he could, paying no mind to the footsteps at the front of the house and the ones at the stairs. The slow, hardened stomps were not the sounds he was used to hearing from his brothers, so there was only one other person this could be.

Not wanting to risk a lecture, Melvin swallowed his food before greeting his father. "Morning, Pops."

"Morning, son. What's the rush?" Rufus Williams was a stocky man in his late thirties, with a short yet simple curly haircut and neatly-trimmed beard. He pulled out an empty chair, but not before greeting his wife with a kiss. "Morning, baby."

"Morning, baby. Caesar's on his way out with his little girlfriend for a playdate in the park." Yolanda set her husband's plate on the table, which was a simple yet thick stack of sausage links with two slices of toast on the side.

"Momma, she's not my girlfriend," Melvin corrected, keeping his voice low and meek to avoid another scary stare.

Rufus hung his head back in confusion. "The weird little white girl next door?"

"Keep your voice down," Yolanda quickly said with a whisper. "Better for him to have any reason to go outside than to stay in and watch those Asian cartoons all day like he does every weekend."

"Fine." Rufus planted a fork on one of the sausage links. "But you better set a good example, Caesar. Last I heard, her parents work all day, seven days a week. As far as she's concerned, you're the only man who's ever around her. You understand?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Pops, I'm only four-" Melvin was quick to catch himself from digging a grave that didn't need digging. He remembered all the times he hit on (and was rejected by) the girls from his dream, and to have one finally rely on him was something he hoped to cherish, doubly so if it was his parents' wishes. "Yes, sir."

***

The ride to Melvin's first stop from his house was an alleyway just beyond his suburban neighborhood. Normally, this would take a mere five minutes on skateboard, and that's usually been the case for Melvin. But having a new companion ride along with her pink bike, Melvin wanted to get there as soon as possible to introduce one friend to another. So he had no qualms with cutting through church parking lots, weaving between pedestrians on the sidewalk, and kickflip over a garage sale sign when turning a corner instead of going around it.

Sweet Selena had trouble keeping up, barely able to keep Melvin in her line of sight. "Slow down, Ces!" She smiled with relief when Melvin slow down next to a red building, but she frowned when he took a sharp turn to the right. She pedaled her bike faster, making sure to ring her bell to warn incoming pedestrians before she, too, turned the corner.

They had arrived at a dirty alleyway, sitting between a butcher shop and a Hispanic general good store. Melvin stopped and stomped on his skateboard, flipping it upwards and catching it midair. Selena parked her bike against one of the three trash cans by the back door of the butcher shop and joined her friend.

"This is where Precious lives? Who is she, anyway?"

The boy chose to answer using a different method. Clapping his hands first, Melvin followed that up with three short whistles. Selena braced herself when one of the trash cans close to her bike rattled on its own. She could hear a muffled cry from inside. She lifted the lid off the trash can, and-

"Mrooow?"

"Precious!" Melvin fought to hold back his tears, instead crouching to greet the feline with the slate gray fur that had already ran up to his feet. The tiny critter rubbed itself against Melvin's leg, as cats are wont to do, and didn't resist when Melvin picked her up. "Oh, how I missed you, girl..."

"She's so cute and adorable," Selena commented. "Russian Blues are always so cute."

"You must have seen me yesterday, but it feels like years since I last saw ya." By chance, looking under her belly gave Melvin pause. "Hey, your scar is gone."

Selena tilted her head. "S-scar?"

"Yeah. The butcher said he found her with a stab wound on the night they met. He said the vet told him it was a miracle she stayed alive for so long. I would have taken her, but Momma is allergic, so..." His voice trailed off as he kept searching for the scar on the cat. But the little critter had no wounds whatsoever. He remembered from his dream that wounds took time to heal, and even then the worst ones always left a scar behind. And scars could never be removed completely.

It was like magic.

"Don't you find that odd, Selena?" Selena offered no response, so the boy turned to face her. But she was gone; there was no trace left of her, her bike was gone, and even her rose scent had vanished completely.

Precious used this distraction to squirm her way out of Melvin's grasp. When the boy proved too much for her, she instinctively swiped one of her claws across his face and, after Melvin shouted expletives and let go to tend to his wound, she ran off into the shadows of the alley.

"Ah! Precious, don't go! I'm not hurt! See?" The boy pointed to his wound, which...was actually not in pain at all. Realizing this, Melvin wiped his fingers across the area Precious had scratched, and felt no pain whatsoever. There wasn't even a sign of blood. "Wait a minute..."

***

Moments before

Cecilia followed the silky tunnels inside the cave. She had failed to wake everyone else up, which made her suspect some foul magic was at work here. The gang's new 'ally' was nowhere to be seen, driving her to the conclusion that she must know something they don't. She had to find Luno and demand answers, using force if necessary. She steeled herself for a fight, and whenever there were forks on the path, she would pick the one with the most silk.

"Nice going, Cecilia," the halfling scolded herself. "'Oh, we'll keep the Argo Navis fired up. The Captain can shoot a flare if things get bad.' Look at you; trying to impress that knight in shining armor, now you're in some cold, damp cave with what I assume is a killer moth girl. Everyone is dreaming peacefully, but this is a nightmare for me."

And then she wondered, why was she the only one among her crew to wake up? She had the sweetest dream in months, and woke up from it just fine. If some foul magic was at work here, then her friends would likely be experiencing sweet dreams like she had. Dreams they wouldn't wake up from.

"Magic. Wait a minute..." Stopping to catch her breath, Cecilia wiped the sweat from her brows and clasped her hands together. In a single moment, her irises shifted from their emerald green color to purple. She focused first on the cave ceiling, then the walls. If they were inside some sinister magic field, she would find it and get a clue on what's going on.

Unsurprisingly - for her, anyway - her head sank as if she was suddenly burdened with a heavy weight.

"I feel something for sure." Six seconds have passed. She closed her eyes and steadily spun around. In the darkness behind her eyelids, Cecilia was able to picture a single purple strand coming from the direction she was facing. Not long after, that strand multiplied into two, then those two multiplied into four, then eight, sixteen, and so on.

She would face a different direction, but the result was the same. One strand would multiply into many, and that's when it dawned on her.

"The silk!" Cecilia opened her eyes, seeing the same purple light coming off of the silk stuck on the ceiling and walls. "Yes. It's faint, but there's definitely something coming off the silk. The aura is from the enchantment school, and the spell itself can bend weak minds..." Faint, enchanted, and mind-bending. Given the circumstances of her predicament, it was not hard to draw a conclusion. "The aura matches that of my [Hypnotism] spell, but there's something different from it, too. The silk is somehow keeping them asleep."

Cecilia thought back on the night before. She remembered Charlie and Temuulen staying asleep, a sleep so deep not even the sounds of fighting woke them up.

"A forest of giant moths."

Moths! Kill the moths and their Guardian!

"And she's their guardian. The moths were protected by the locals for their silk, but I just thought it was to make clothes or something. Of course. It all makes an uncomfortable amount of sense."

A couple of voices interrupted her train of thought. They came from the path up ahead and, coincidentally, her detection spell revealed a greater number of strands in that direction. Cecilia's steps softened after she hunched her back, hurriedly but quietly marching forward. When the path cleared up, she had finally found her quarry. However...

"This is where Precious lives? Who is she, anyway?"

The children and the crew had been wrapped around in silky cocoons. How was it possible, if Cecilia left them asleep back at the makeshift encampment they made farther back in the cave? What she saw were definitely the spitting images of the children and her crew, but their bodies were transparent. Their outward features were visible, but so was the magic strands of silk wrapped behind and round them. And Luno? She hovered above a pool of pristine water, where her 'Captain' also hovered motionlessly.

"Oh, gods, no. Captain!" Not wasting time, Cecilia went on the offensive. Pointing at Luno, three magic darts materialized around Cecilia and launched themselves in the direction of the moth woman. "I knew you were bad news when I first laid my eyes on you. Let my crew go! Let my Captain go!"