Quinn stomped on the campfire, snuffing out the flames. The ashes fell off the sole of his shoe as he pulled away. Stepping back, he made sure the fire was completely put out before walking towards the door at the back of the room.

The group stood there, refreshed and charged after a day of rest. Kiara had improved greatly since the fight, being capable of walking on her own. Still, the damage would take a while to heal, even with the power of her Echoes. Liz was perfectly fine as well. What damage she took had now been mostly healed.

Quinn's arm still hurt, but it had begun to heal as well. It would eventually leave a scar across the back of his arm, but Quinn wasn't worried about it.

“Winston, help me open the door.” Alec grabbed at the bottom of the stone door. Winston stood beside him and they both began to lift the door, “This is much easier than last time. You really are strong.”

Winston nodded at Lex, accepting his words.

As they opened the door, a long and dark pit could be spotted. No end could be seen and the group looked confused as to what it was.

“Are we really supposed to go down there? I thought this was a tower. Shouldn't this be taking us up?” A concerned tone was etched into Cally’s voice.

Liz spoke with a gentle tone, “The mansion doesn't obey normal laws. It likely does lead up, but only looks as if it is going down.”

Quinn bent over the dark hole, looking to see if there was an end, “You may be right.”

Quinn grabbed a lit torch from Liz and dropped it into the hole. He watched as the torch fell a long way before the fire dissipated and could no longer be seen.

“I didn't hear any noise indicating there was a bottom. Maybe it's just a leap of faith?” Alec looked confused as he stared into the bottomless pit.

Quinn didn't like taking risks, but he would prefer jumping in this hole then having to go back into the darkness of the current layer, “There is only one way to find out.”

Quinn jumped into the hole, trying to avoid thinking about what would happen if he was incorrect about this being the right way. Alec followed quickly behind him, jumping into the pit with a gleeful laugh. He screamed and cheered as he fell, his voice fading the further he got.

The others were hesitant to jump in the hole, but one by one each person jumped. The pit consumed them and the sound of Liz and Kiara's screams could be heard as they fell at a rapid pace.

***

Quinn awoke to a silky cocoon wrapped around him. It stuck to his clothes, making it hard to rip himself free. His sword, held in a scabbard on his back, was the perfect tool to slice away at the silk. He pulled it in front of him and slashed at the silk that surrounded him. The silk began to loosen and the cocoon ripped open, freeing him.

He began to fall at a quick pace. He pivoted his body to look at the ground and discovered that he was approaching the floor rapidly. With a quick turn, he was capable of turning onto his side as he impacted the floor. The impact hurt him less than he expected as he landed in a web of silk.

This is disgusting. Why is this silk so sticky? Where did it come from?

Just as he thought those words, a shrill laugh could be heard as a man fell from above. Quinn turned to his right to see Alec wrapped in silk.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asked as he examined Alec.

Alec ripped away the silk that covered him and smiled, “Never better.”

Alec rolled away from the silky surface they had landed in and onto a stone floor not far away. Quinn followed behind him, crawling across the sticky silk. After gaining his footing, Quinn turned to Alec confused, “Where are the others?”

After dusting himself off, Alec pointed towards the ceiling. Stuck to the ceiling, multiple cocoons of silk could be spotted. Two of them were ripped open, the ones Quinn and Alec had been in just previously.

One, two, three… Quinn began to count the number of cocoons, counting a total of seven.

“There is enough for each member of the group…”

“Looks like the others are still in there… ones even beginning to wriggle.” One of the cocoons began to shake back and forth before ripping open, sending another member of the group falling out. Lex looked around in astonishment, trying to regain his senses.

“Where am I?” Lex spoke to himself before spotting Quinn and Alec standing at the edge of the silk bed.

“So you guys are here too. Where is everyone else…” Just as he said that, a small girl landed on his head, moaning in pain.

She sat up and looked below her, spotting Lex who had broken her fall unnecessarily, “Oh my gosh, are you all right?”

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Lex pushed himself upwards with a smile, “Yeah, I'm fine…”

Just then, another girl fell from above. Liz looked around in shock, “ That landing didn't feel so good…”

Just as she spoke, she turned behind herself and stared at the man whose back she was sitting on. Lex laid in a daze on the silky bed.

“I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to land on you!” Liz spoke with a troubled tone.

After Liz stood up, Lex leaned up once again, giving a thumbs up, “I'm fine, maybe just a broken nose… kidding.”

Lex rolled away from the bed of silk and onto the floor next to Quinn and Alec before anyone else could fall on top of him. Liz and Cally followed behind him as they ripped away the smooth silk.

“Well that's five members of the group…” Kiara fell from her cocoon just as Quinn spoke.

“Six.”

Not a second later, Winston also fell from his cocoon. Quinn sighed as he once again had to recount, “That makes seven. That should be everybody.”

Everyone regrouped beside the bed of silk, slapping away any silk that had stuck to their skin or close.

Quinn looked around as he waited for the other members. Besides the cocoons stuck to the ceiling and the bed of silk beneath them, there also seemed to be red webs that covered the stone walls. The red webs emitted a slight glow, illuminating the area enough to see their surroundings.

After slapping away an excess amount of silk, Lex walked around the room in awe, “So this is the layer for the fear of spiders. It looks like jumping down that hole was the right decision.”

Kiara and Liz looked at each other. Kiara spoke with a quiet and fearful tone, “Why did this have to be a layer? I hate spiders, they are so disgusting and ugly.”

“Sadly, it isn't our choice as to what occurs in this Tower of Nightmares. I guess we'll just have to deal with it as we did last time.” Quinn spoke as he was distracted looking at the room, “Lex, do you still have the map?”

Lex turned to him, pulling out a map and laying it on the floor for everyone to see, “It seems this layer is different from the last one. Instead of having multiple saferooms, it only has one directly in the middle of the tower. It also only has one entrance and the exit is all the way on the opposite side of this layer.”

“So if we want to get to the exit, we'll have to make our way to the other side of this layer.” Kiara had goosebumps across her arms.

“There seems to be another giant room near the exit. It must mean there is another big enemy like the dark monster from before.” Quinn commented. Everyone was unhappy with their situation.

Lex rolled up the map and placed it back in his bag, “Well then, we should probably get moving. You never know how long this room will be safe.”

Lex walked over to a stone door, the entrance into the rest of the layer. Just like before, it was a heavy stone door that needed to be lifted. As Lex and Winston were busying themselves trying to open it, Quinn asked with a concerned tone, “Are you alright Kiara? Your injuries still aren't the best. Didn’t the fall hurt?”

Kiara shook her head, “Actually, my injuries seem to be mostly healed. I'm guessing we were in those cocoons for quite a while, maybe even a few days.”

Quinn breathed in relief before hearing a quiet shushing sound coming from Lex. Quinn didn't understand why Lex did such a thing until he slowly approached the door being held open. On the other side, a cluster of white spider eggs were scattered across the floor.

Quinn turned to see Kiara's eyes open in shock. He could only guess what she was feeling at that moment.

Lex whispered, “Step slowly across the floor. Do not step on the spider eggs. We don't know what will happen if we do and I think it would be best if we don't find out.”

The group nodded before stepping their way past the stone door. Lex and Winston made their way to the other side before slowly laying the door on the ground.

Quinn took the first step into the landmine field of spider eggs. He slowly stepped in between a group of eggs, making sure to not touch them. Everyone else followed behind him, taking steps as slowly as possible, trying not to make any noise.

At least I can see the door at the other end of the room. This layer is much smaller than the last layer. As long as we are careful, we can make it through this fine.

Quinn raised his foot to take another step, but before he put his foot down, he realized there was a spider egg right where he was about to land!

Quickly thinking, he pivoted his foot, barely missing the spider egg. He let out a quiet sigh as he tried calming himself down. Who knows what would have happened if he touched the egg.

With more decisiveness, he continued to make his way across the room, slowly and steadily. After making it half way through the room, he heard a sudden gasp from behind him. He turned around in fear of what he would see, but luckily Kiara had moved her foot just in time to not step on an egg.

Quinn turned back around and began to walk, when suddenly he heard a crack. Fear arose in Quinn as he turned back around to see Alec standing a few feet behind him with his foot on a squished egg.

Alec looked at Quinn in shock, no longer a smile across his face, but a face of shock and embarrassment, “Whoops.”

The egg beneath Alec’s foot began to shake, then the rest of the eggs as well. Each egg began to crack open, revealing a spider wrapped in a disgusting slime.

Quinn stared at the eggs cracking open in fear, “Shi…” just before he spoke, the spiders began to let out small cries.

Everyone began to sprint across the floor, no longer minding the eggs and baby spiders that they stepped on. The baby spiders began to chase after the group, running behind them quickly. They piled up, trampling over each other to reach their victims.

Quinn knew him and the others were not capable of fighting all of these spiders, and when the spiders began to run at them from all sides, a deep fear began to affect him.

In an attempt to clear out the spiders, Winston created two walls of flames that led to the door. The flames incinerated all the spiders in their paths, and any spider that attempted to run through it were quickly killed.

“Quickly, run between the flames and towards the door.” Winston yelled out. It was a great plan, but would they be able to make it to the door in time?

Quinn ran between the flames and no longer had to worry about the spiders surrounding him. It was a straight shot to the exit.

After everyone entered in between the wall of flames, Winston created yet another wall, blocking the path behind them, separating the group from the mass of spiders.

Without thinking, Quinn began to lift the stone door along with Alec, allowing for the group to slide under. After everyone went through, Quinn lifted the door up high enough for Quinn and Alec to roll under and escape the scene.