The Spider Pt. 18

She opened her eyes, and blinked in the dark. She looked around her sparse room, feeling a little stronger. Each day that passed left her a little more in control of her body, able to move more. She'd been able to sit up, and eat a thin soup that he had made for her.

She'd been able to keep it down. He explained that the venom was being purged from her body, that her immune system was recovering.

That she would live.

He told her that he had been helping her, healing her, and how he had been afraid that she would not make it for a long time. He told her that he was glad when he thought that she would live after all.

She peered into the darkness, her eyes getting used to the dim light.

She saw him sitting there, at the only chair in the domicile, at the only table. He was sitting straight upright, motionless. His eyes were only slate black orbs in his thin skull, revealing nothing. It did not look as if he was looking at her, though. Or anything else, for that matter.

It seemed as if he had grown taller, or rather stretched higher. If she had to guess, she'd put him at about nine feet tall at the moment.

She sat up, with some effort. Next to her bed- well, more a mattress on a shelf- was a simple wooden table. She found her glass of water next to it, filled and somehow cold.

She drank it down in long gulps, keeping an eye on him the entire time. But he never moved, even slightly.

She laid back down, and went to sleep.

*****************************

She woke up, partially anyway, some time later. How long she couldn't say.

She was laying flat on her back, on her thin mattress. Her covers were next to her, she was a little chilly. Perhaps that's what woke her up, she was only wearing a simple pair of white underwear.

His long, distended fingers were on either side of her head, pressing lightly into her skull. The touch was gentle and somehow not foreign, not unpleasant. She blinked her eyes a few times, and looked up at him, at his black eyes. Those eyes were not looking down at her, from what she could tell.

"What are you doing to me?" she whispered in the dark.

"I'm healing you."

"How can you do that?"

"I can... change things here. You may notice that I myself am changed, if I don't keep track of my body it can stretch and alter itself until I force it back into shape. But I can also change things here in this place also. Things that seem solid here are somewhat... fluid, is the word I use, but that's not quite accurate."

Her head began to throb lightly where his fingers were pressing into her skull.

"Why are you healing me? Why didn't you just let me die?"

His long shoulders pulled upwards into a shrug.

"I may have use for you," he replied in the dark, his black eyes still looking at nothing in particular. "I may not. But I decided that it was best to let you live either way. I wasn't sure you would. The only other person I've ever brought to this place did not do as well as you. Your super powers seem to protect you in some ways here."

"How long are you going to keep me?"

He shook his head.

"Time doesn't quite mean as much here as it does other places. It'll be best for you to quit thinking in terms of time, and just to accept the moment. Trying to apply the framework of time as you understand it in a place that doesn't work that way will drive you insane after a point."

"I don't understand."

"I'll try to help you... I'll try to protect you from your own mind turning against you. But it will be easiest if you accept the moment, and only the moment, is what I need you to do."

The throbbing, pulsing on the sides of her head grew in intensity. It was not an unpleasant sensation, rhythmic and deep.

"What if I want to leave here?"

"I expect you will, actually," he said. "But we can talk about that later. For now, I need to focus on healing you of the venom that the Red Eyes infected you with. It's best if you sleep while I do this, it makes it easiest for me to help you."

The pulsing grew stronger where his fingers rested.

"I have so many questions," she whispered, but he did not respond.

Soon, she drifted back into sleep.

******************************

Some time later- no way of knowing how long- she woke again in the dark. She sat up.

It didn't hurt to do that. For the first time in who knows how long...

She stopped herself. Maybe he was right, she thought. Maybe time is a trap here, and I need to avoid falling into it. I am not in pain now. Maybe that's all that's important.

She looked across the room at him. He sat there again, bolt straight, motionless.

I think maybe he might be asleep when he does that.

She stood up, and stretched herself out quietly in the dark.

His eyes did not follow her movements. He didn't move in the slightest.

Drinking her water, she looked at him, took in the rest of the domicile. On the other end of the single room, there was a simple, windowless, wooden door.

Noiselessly she put her glass down on the table, and slipped quietly across the room. She made her way to the door, put her hand on the knob. She stopped, and looked back at the man.

He had not moved in the slightest way.

Good a time as any, she thought, and she turned the knob and slipped out the door.

The light was blinding. She had assumed that it would be nighttime when she made her escape, but judging from the blazing red sun above, it was closer to noon. She shielded her eyes with her hand, and took in her surroundings.

What she was was a harsh and alien landscape. Sharp and dark rocks and boulders jutted angrily out of black sand. She seemed to be in the bottom of some kind of valley, all around her, the ground sloped up steeply towards an upper ridge of some kind.

Maybe I'll just get a better view from up there, she thought. She stretched her arms open wide, and prepared to launch herself into the alien sky, to fly to the high point and see what this world was all about.

Nothing happened.

I can't fly here.

She proceeded on foot, walking up the black sand of the hill, picking her way through the sharp rocks. There was no trees, no grass, no vegetation of any kind. Just dark, sharp rocks and black sand as far as she could see.

She'd made it about halfway up the slope, when her foot slipped on the warm, loose sand. She went into a slide, tumbling, for only a second or two.

But it was enough to send her into one of the sharp rocks, which slashed into her lower arm. She cried out, and grabbed at her wound. She pulled her hand away, dark with her blood.

More careful, she admonished herself. This is a dangerous place.

She pulled herself up, and began making her way back up the hill again.

Finally, she made her way to the top of the ridge. She pulled herself up on one of the boulders, carefully, and stood up to her full height. She looked around her, as far as she could see.

Nothing. There was nothing out there. Miles, and miles, and miles, all around as far as she could see, nothing but black sand, sharp stones jutting out, shining in the harsh sun.

It was hot up here, she noticed. The angry sun above her was beating down harshly up here.

She stood there, looking and looking. Looking for some way to escape, some way to get back to her some. Somewhere to go and think, shelter, anything.

But as far as she could see, there was nothing. Nothing anywhere.

She didn't mean to scream into the cruel sky around here. She didn't even know she was doing it until she forced herself to stop.

Behind her, she heard a solid thump on the loose sand.

She spun around, slipping on the black stone.

It was Red Eyes, crouched on black sand, looking directly at her. It's black, reptilian wings were spread wide, it's jaw dripping with saliva.

It's tail was whipping back and forth, the poisonous barb stark white against the alien's black, metallic skin.

The Power jumped off the rock, scraping herself in the way down. She crouched at its base, trying to make herself small, looking for a way to escape through the maze of sharp black boulders.

Oh, fuck, she thought. Fuckfuckfuck.

She ran off in a random direction, through a hallway of black rocks, keeping her head down, hoping the Red Eyes couldn't see her. She heard the flapping of leathery wings in the sky above her, somewhere.

Maybe it's flying away, she thought. Maybe I'm not its prey after all.

She remembered what the Detective had told her, how Red Eyes will poison their prey, and leave them paralyzed for their young to devour, the victim laying helplessly, eyes open, watching every single bite.

She ran and ran, finally stopping next to a large rock, her chest heaving, clutching her bleeding arm. She hoped- she prayed- she had outran the creature. Tears streamed unnoticed down her dirty face as she heaved for breath.

With a shriek, the Red Eyes landed in the sand directly in front of her. It spread its wings as wide as it could, and stepped towards her, its jaw gnashing at the taste of her, its arms spread wide, claws open to catch her if she ran.

The tail was whipping back and forth.

She sobbed, and crouched in the dirty black sand, her back pressed up against the sharp rock. There was nowhere for her to go.

The creature shrieked again in anticipation of the kill.

It stepped forward, readying its stinger to fill her full of venom.

A shadow fell over the Red Eyes and the cowering woman, the cruel red sun was momentarily blotted out. The Red Eyes looked behind and above it, and shrieked louder than she had ever heard before.

The Red Eyes was jerked upwards into the air, she could see now that another creature had it in its claws. This creature was built more like a bird, or some kind of evil bat, and it flapped its own wings, keeping it aloft. It had caught the Red Eyes in strong talons, gripping the Red Eyes tightly. The Red Eyes struggled, shrieked, and whipped it's barbed tail around and tried to sting it's killer, she could hear its stinger clanking uselessly against the bat-things armor.

The bat-thing had a long, cruel face, with a long spike coming from its chin. With one quick motion, it drove the spike into the Red Eyes skull.

The red eyes went blank, the tail fell lifelessly.

The bat-thing flapped its wings, and flew off with the Red Eyes high into the sky.

She turned, and ran as fast as she could, back down the hill towards the domicile. The fell, more than once. She cut herself, unnoticed.

Finally she made her way back to the wooden door, and without care for stealth she opened it and let herself in. She stood there, her chest heaving, her back to the door.

He had not moved in the slightest way.

She made her way quietly over to her table, to her water glass, which she gulped from, trying to get her wits back together, trying to stop her hands from shaking.

"You made it back alive," she heard him say evenly behind her.

She put the glass back on the table with an audible crack. She stood there, not facing him, shaking, gasping for air.

"You probably encountered another Red Eyes," he went on. "They are as common here as flies are on our planet. As wasps, maybe. They form a vital part of the food chain for the other, more serious predators in the ecosystem here."

She turned around to face him, her sobs become more shallow, less ragged.

He stood up to his full height, and looked down at her.

"You are hurt," he noticed. He reached out with his long fingers and stroked her blonde hair, gently. He put his hand on her shoulder, his long arms reaching here there without him having to bend over, and he gently steered her towards the bed.

She turned at the gentle pressure.

She laid herself in bed as he stood over her, her hands still trembling as she pulled the blanket over herself.