The Spider Pt. 19

She came to on the thin mattress, slowly blinking her eyes in the dim. There weren't any windows in the domicile to let any of the harsh red sunlight in.

And now she knew why there weren't. It wasn't to keep her in... it was to keep the horrible things of this awful place out.

She sat up, and placed her feet on the smooth stone that was the floor. There was, as usual, a glass pitcher filled with cold water on the simple wooden table next to her bed. She poured herself a glass and drank from it.

She stood up, and stretched her body up towards the ceiling, then bent over to touch her toes. She did this a few times, working out the kinks.

She felt good, strong, whole, for the first time in a long time.

Time, of course, not having any meaning where she was, wherever she was. She had no idea how much time had passed since she had been brought here, or even how much time had passed since she had tried to make her escape.

She hadn't tried to escape a second time. He had explained to her that she wasn't strictly a prisoner, and she could leave if she wanted, but that she would almost certainly be killed by one of the Red Eyes that were prevalent all over the outside, or the even worse things that preyed on the Red Eyes.

You won't be able to hide, he told her. This planet that we are on doesn't seem to have an axis. It's always day here, the sun never quits shining down. You won't make it far before something sees you, and takes you. They don't see me, for some reason. But they'll see you, just like they saw her.

Her?

But the subject wasn't brought up again.

It didn't seem like he was here now, she thought. Sometimes he was outside when she woke up, sometimes he was back home on Earth, she couldn't be sure. But it wasn't uncommon for her to be alone these days.

She made her way to the corner that comprised the bathing area. There was a little stone wall that came up to her hips, forming a small stall, and a simple wooden stool over the drain. As she expected, there was a bucket of cold water on the floor and a bar of soap, with a plain white towel and a washcloth folded over the wall.

She pulled her simple white panties down her hips- she had been provided with no other clothing and didn't know where the outfit she had been wearing when she came here was. She stepped into the bathing area, and dipped the washcloth into the water. She wet herself, and scrubbed down with the soap.

It felt good to be clean- both inside, and out. The venom that the Red Eyes had injected her with on Earth seemed to be more or less out of her system- he said that it was almost all gone, also. Her hands had quit shaking from it, she was able to keep down her meals.

She rubbed the soap all over her arms, over her shoulders, down across her breasts and belly. She squeezed the water from the washcloth over her body, watching the water run down the drain.

In the corner, she saw a small mirror.

She had not noticed that before- it hadn't been here before. He must have put it there recently.

She made her way over to it, and looked in the mirror.

She gasped. Her hair was no longer blonde, like it had always been. Her hair had changed to a slate grey, almost a silver, with long black streaks running through it.

She dropped the soap onto the floor, unnoticed.

What is happening to me?

She saw red light reflected on the wall coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw a long red slit in the stone wall, and knew he would be stepping through it.

He did.

He was dressed in his typical cheap grey suit that police wear, wearing his mirrored sunglasses. He looked fairly normal otherwise, she noticed. He was standing only a little over six feet tall, his arms and fingers in the typical proportions that a human being would have.

That wouldn't last, she knew. She had seen the effect that time spent here would have on him, his arms would begin to stretch longer, and his fingers, his torso would begin to stretch upwards and elongate.

I have to keep an eye on myself, he had told her. I'm not sure how far this would go if I didn't consciously stop it and force myself back into human form. Maybe you can help me, and let me know when I start drifting too far.

She hadn't answered.

She stepped backwards towards the wall, and covered her breasts with her hands out of habit.

The two of them stood there like that for a moment or so, both eyeing each other.

"You are looking well," he finally spoke.

She said nothing.

He held up a paper bag, showed it to her. McDonald's.

Still she stood there.

Shrugging, he put the bag on the table by her bed. He retreated across the room, taking his seat at the larger table there.

"Eat," he said.

She wrapped the towel around herself, and made her way over to the bag of food, keeping her eye on him the whole time.

She ripped the bag open, and began devouring the food, glaring at him from time to time as she shoved the sandwich and fried into her mouth. She gulped the food down, barely chewed, squatting on the ground next to the table.

She could not remember when she had been more hungry. The towel fell to the floor, she didn't bother to pick it up, she just kept tearing off hunks of the greasy, salty meat, shoving french fries in her mouth by the handful.

He sat there quietly and watched her. He took his sunglasses off, and laid them on the table.

Finally she was done. She crumpled the empty bag, and threw it into the corner of the domicile. She turned her back to him, and made her way back to the shower stall. She picked up her panties, and put one long leg through them, and then the other.

She stood up and turned back around, and cried out, startled. He was standing directly in front of her, taller now than he had been when he came through the portal.

"Pick that up, please," he said, pointing to the bag.

She stood there, glaring up at him.

"Pick that up, please," he said again, lower, his quieter tone underlying menace.

She went to the corner and picked the bag up. One of his grotesque long fingers pointed towards a trash bin. She dropped the bag in as he stood close and looked down at her.

"What do you want with me," she asked quietly.

"I've decided I have use for you after all. You destroyed my Red Eyes, my pet. It took me a long time to make it serve me... they are stupid beasts, and catching it in the first place was difficult, not to mention all the teaching and training I had to do with it before it would obey."

"So?"

He shrugged.

"So you can take its place. You can be my muscle, my killer. There are a lot of advantages to having you do it instead. The Red Eyes can only tolerate the atmosphere at home for a brief period, but clearly you will be able to serve better in that regard."

"I won't serve you," she said quietly, firmly. "I'm not a killer. I've never killed anyone."

"I think you will, though."

"I'll die first."

"That is possible."

He pointed his long finger towards the door.

"You can go out there if you need to die," he said. "No one will stop you. You will be free to go where no one can follow you, right outside that door."

He walked over to the wall, and ran his finger over the stone. As always, a burst of cool red flames erupted as his fingertip dragged over the wall.

He stepped one leg into the portal, and turned back around.

"If you decide not to die, I will be back shortly. Or what I imagine shortly might be. I don't know how long it will seem to you. Is there anything that you need from the world?"

"You can bring me some clothes to wear."

But he shook his head.

"No," and he stepped through the portal, and closed it up.

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

She sat on her mattress for a long time after that. She put her head in her hands, and wondered if she would cry, if she'd crack open with sobbing as she had done so many times recently.

She didn't. She thought maybe there were no more tears left. Maybe there never would be any more again.

After a while, she got up and walked over to the door. She opened it, and stepped outside.

The dry, hot air blew across her as the sun beat down. The ugly landscape stretched out bleakly in front of her, grey and black shining sharply in the angry sunlight. She took a couple of steps further, looked up into the sky. She scanned the sky and the horizon, looking for predators, looking for Red Eyes, looking for bat things, for the other creatures that she began to suspect might be even worse.

Nothing.

She stretched her arms up into the air.

Up, she thought to herself. Fly.

She closed her eyes, and looked within herself. She thought of herself soaring through the air, faster than sound when she needed to, the air cool and strong as she ripped through the cosmos. She looked deep within herself, reaching for the inner strength that she knew she had, and willed herself to leap into the skies, strong, proud, and soar as only she could.

She opened her eyes.

Her feet were burning in the hot black sand. High above her, she heard some kind of animal shriek.

She hurried back inside, and closed the door.

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

"Why can't I fly anymore," she asked him later.

"You can," he said. "Just not here. I don't permit it, here. That's one of the changes I made."

"Is that why my hair is different?"

"Maybe," he said. "It's not a precise science here. I was surprised by that, also. Probably a side effect."

"When will you let me fly again?"

"When you get back to Earth," he said. "You can fly there. When you get back to Earth, you will be allowed to fly in my service. You will be my fist. You'll start by smashing the last of the Korean syndicate, then we'll move on from there."

"I've told you I won't."

"A wonderful culture, the Korean," he went on. "I've actually been to Seoul a few times, had a fiancee that was Korean and we visited her family there. Wonderful people. They certainly deserve better than the scum that is terrorizing their community and the larger community as well. You'll deal with that."

"Fuck you."

"While you are mopping up the last of them- it shouldn't take long, my Red Eyes slaughtered a good amount already- I'll work on finding the Spider. Once I have her in my possession, there won't be anything I can't do. But she's dangerous, and more powerful than she knows. I'm glad I'll have you as dumb muscle when I have to face her."

"Aren't you listening to me?"

"It doesn't matter what you say."

He stood up, feet taller than her.

"It's time for you to go to bed now," he told her, pointing towards the pallet.

She stood up straight, tall, looking him dead in the eyes.

Except he didn't have eyes, not exactly.

What he had was terrifying. Black orbs, red lighting dashing across them... crashing into each other, making little explosions against the black...

Blinking, she looked away. Looked down.

He put his fingers on her bare shoulders, wrapped them loosely around her neck. He began to steer her towards the pallet. He stood behind her as she reached down, and pulled the blanket back.

"The panties," he said. "Your underwear. Take them off."

She looked back at him, her mouth open slightly.

"Why," she said quietly, almost a whisper.

The black eyes didn't betray an answer. He said nothing, just stood there with his hand out, expectantly.

She bent over, and slid the panties down her legs.

She handed them to him. He wordlessly put them in his pocket.

"Good," he said as she slid under the thin blanket.

She pulled the blanket tight around her, up to her chin.

The click of the wooden stool let her know that he was sitting behind her. Soon, she felt the tips of his fingers on the sides of her head, gentle pressure. He sat there like that, completely silent, his eyes looking straight ahead as always.

She closed her eyes.

But this time, she didn't sleep. Not for a long time.

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

The next morning- morning?- she woke up, blinking in the dim.

She pulled the blanket off herself, swung her feet onto the floor. She stood up, and stretched.

She made her way over to the table, poured herself a glass of water. She noticed that her panties were folded nicely on the table next to the pitcher.

She put the glass to her lips, and drank the water down, every drop. She held the glass aloft in front of her face, and watched it shine and glisten. She smiled slightly.

She dropped the glass to the stone floor. She bent down, and selected one of the large shards from the wreckage. She investigated it with her eyes, and took a sharp end of it and dragged it across her forearm.

Bright red blood burst out from the cut. Sharp.

The Power sat down and waited.