The Spider Pt. 33

"How could you do this to me? Of all the people to hurt me. You? I thought you would help me."

The Hawk shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I hope it ends for you."

And without another word, the Hawk spread her wings, and soared through the air towards the window, over Anna's head. She went right through the window.

Just like that, she was gone.

The Fist stood, dumbfounded, the knife loose in her hands.

Anna turned around and saw the Hawk land gracefully in Anna's living room.

On earth.

Anna put her hand to the window.

She pushed.

She could not get through it.

She pushed harder. She beat on it with her fists. She called out to the Hawk, who stood in Anna's living room, looking around, trying to gauge her surroundings.

The Hawk could not hear.

Anna turned back around, and saw the Fist approaching the Detective, who had a long arm wrapped around his torso, in a futile effort to stop the bleeding. He had risen to a knee, and held the other arm out in front of him, trying to ward off the woman who was walking towards him. He crawled backwards, trying to escape her.

She kept towards him, holding the knife in front of her.

"I didn't think you had it in you," he croaked.

"I need it to be over," she sobbed, bending lower, the knife weaving back and forth as she looked to plunge it in one last time.

"It will be," he said. "Kill her."

"Look out!" Anna screamed, but it was too late.

With a lightning quick whip of its tail, the Red Eyes plunged its barbed tail into the Fist. The blow shattered her ribs, broke the woman's back.

The knife fell harmlessly to the black sand with a soft thump.

Anna could see the barbed stinger jutting from the front of the Fist's chest, see the woman wrap her hands around it, uncomprehending, pulling weakly at the stinger.

The Red Eyes lifted the Fist up into the air, the woman's legs kicking uselessly. The creature's long tongue snaked out of its mouth, tasting the air like a snake would. It's evil Red Eyes narrowed as it regarded the Fist's useless struggles.

Soon, the legs quit kicking, and the Fist's hands fell away from the stinger that impaled her. The venom, Anna knew.

In the blink of an eye, the Red Eyes struck, lashing out with its clawed forearms, twisting the Fist's head, cracking her neck, ripping it off entirely. The creature tossed the head down on the sand like it was nothing, making a sickly warm thump as it hit the ground.

Anna looked away, beating and pounding on the window.

Why couldn't she get through?

"You are trapped here, Anna," she heard him say from behind her.

She turned around. He was struggling slowly to his feet.

"I'm healing up even as you watch," he told her. "I'll be fine in just a few minutes. This isn't the first time I've had to heal myself because of her. But, it looks like I won't have to worry about that anymore."

He pointed. The Red Eyes had raised the Fist's body into the sky, and clamped its jaws onto where her head had been. Anna could see the creatures neck swelling as it gulped and drank the blood from the body.

Anna backed away, her back to the window she had opened between the worlds. It was as hard as any wall.

"You'll recall that I made some changes to you when I brought you here. You can't get through your own windows anymore here. I couldn't have you escaping, could I?"

He drew himself up to his full height. His bleeding had stopped.

"God, she hurt me," he whispered. "I should have killed her a long time ago."

His eyes focused on the Red Eyes.

"Go," he said, pointing his long finger towards the window. "Kill them all. Kill everyone you find in that place, tear them apart. Kill everyone who interferes in any way."

The Red Eyes tossed the Fist's body aside like an afterthought. It began to approach the window, where Anna crouched.

It let out a shriek.

"Your friends are all about to die, little Spider. You can't escape me, you are trapped here. There's nowhere for you to go. Come to me, and submit to what I make of you."

He stepped towards her.

"You can't go anywhere. You will only find death out there," he said, waving his arms at the horizon. "I have dozens of Red Eyes, I'll send them all out after you. There's nothing for you to eat, nothing for you to drink. Only a matter time before they find you, or I find you, or something else even worse does."

She said nothing. The Red Eyes approached the window, it's tail slashing back and forth. Anna jumped out of the way, away from the slashing tail, and watched as the creature stepped easily into the window between the worlds.

And into her home on earth, where the person she loved was. Sleeping. Helpless.

"Come to me, little Spider. I'll destroy your mind, is my best offer. You won't know anything about who or what you were, or what you had and lost. Your suffering will be over, I promise you that."

She turned and ran.