“Oh,” he realized aloud. Then it struck him he had taken things to the point that not making a move might very well be worse than making one and getting rebuffed.
“Oh,” the kid’s reply dripped with sarcasm, “now you get it.”
He got it.
It was put up or shut up time. And he had been about to blow it.
“Err…thanks,” he offered weakly. “I guess.”
The kid didn’t say anything. He just put the straw back in his mouth, rolled his eyes, and sauntered back into the theater. The doors swung shut behind him, leaving Adam alone with his tub of popcorn, and his doubts.
Congratulations, Adam, he stared at the doorway with glum resolve. You have now reached the stage where even the people trying to kill you are giving you pointers on women. It’s way past time to put on your big boy pants and find out where things stand.
Swallowing hard, he braced himself and pushed through the swinging doors.
###
Now what the hell was that?
Billy Clayton only half watched the screen as he returned to his seat. As he moved down the aisle, he pushed his enhanced senses to their limit, trying to find a trace of the faint echo he had felt in the lobby. For a brief instant, while talking to the outsider, he felt a distant “movement” that immediately disappeared. It was like brushing against somebody you hadn’t noticed in a hallway, then turning to discover nobody was there.
No. Somebody WAS there.
Somebody had peeked at the outsider’s spirit. Whoever it was had been sneaky about it, and if he hadn’t been standing so close to the man he wouldn’t have noticed. But he had noticed, and promptly tried to track the probe back to its source. To his surprise he found nothing, leaving him to wonder if perhaps he had imagined the whole thing. After all, the rest of his people were supposed to stay out of Hallisboro until after Wednesday night.
Could the Dog People have somebody else in town? Since the woman was niece to the Dog People’s Chief, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to think he might have left somebody behind other than the outsider to look after her. The thought caused him to do a quick visual scan of the theater as he reached the row with his seat, but it didn’t really make sense. It was known the Dog People had some members who could hear people’s spirits when given the Mother’s Kiss, which was why they came every summer to steal spiders. But none of them were truly spirit singers like he was and shouldn’t have been able to hide from him…not without using their spirit-quieting drug, and that wouldn’t let them listen to spirits in the first place.
So what was it then?
Could it be his own people had sent somebody to watch him? That idea made him slightly queasy because he had breached his orders in a major way by approaching the outsider. Now he missed Sunspinner more than ever. Enhanced as he was by the Mother’s Kiss, the presence of his companion would have sharpened and strengthened his senses much further.
But even in this state there weren’t many who would have been able to hide from him. Grandma Lilah certainly could do it, and probably Maggie too from sheer spirit strength. But Grandma Lilah would never leave home for something like that, and he couldn’t picture anybody crazy enough to send Maggie on something involving the outsider right now. This left a small few of the older spirit gifted, who might be able to do it by skill alone, but Billy simply couldn’t picture any of them lurking around the theater trying to spy on him.
Okay, so maybe I’m starting to tire a little and I’m imagining things. It’s only been three days, but I’ve never gone this long without Sunspinner. I’ll call in tomorrow and tell them I need to come in for a nap.
Having resolved that, Billy plopped down into his chair and prepared to try and enjoy the movie again. He hadn’t been gone long and it appeared he hadn’t missed too much. On the screen a scantily clad girl was trying to escape by squeezing her supermodel dimensions through a small window, providing a memorable view from inside the building. The yellow Happy Face panties were the perfect touch.
Now this was quality cinema.
A brief burst of embarrassment from the back of the theater told him the outsider had re-entered the theater, but it was swiftly muffled.
Good. That told Billy the outsider was trying to force himself to focus on the task at hand.
Good luck, dude.
Billy really didn’t have any affinity for the outsider—old people getting together was kinda creepy in his book—but it was a hell of a lot quieter than listening to a guy wailing to himself the world was coming to an end because some chick blew him off. Besides, in his book being a guy was the same as being part of a huge fraternity. They might have to backstab, fight, or even shoot the other guy, but when it came to the womenfolk they were all in it together.
And speaking of womenfolk…
The coed on screen had now managed to get herself stuck halfway through the window and lose more articles of clothes in the process. Billy grinned and pulled his tub of popcorn from the next seat over into his lap.
He didn’t know what the outsider’s problem was…this was Academy Award material.
###
Adam stepped back into the theater and came up short at the sight of the giant smiley face bobbling on the screen. The fact it was featured on a pair of panties stretched across a coed’s behind was almost the last straw. A glance down the last row revealed Olivia to be regarding the spectacle with a look best described as bewildered fascination.
Lovely.
For a moment he wondered if it were possible to commit suicide with a tub of popcorn.
Knock it off. Now get over there and get on with this.
Yep, there was no way to go but forward.
Squaring his shoulders, he made his way back down the row.
And remember, you don’t have your cane so don’t trip and dump popcorn all over her.
Yeah, that would probably make her evening complete.
Adam paused a second to banish the nightmarish image then finished his journey while paying careful attention to his footing. He stifled a sigh of relief as he slid back into the seat beside her.
“Here you go,” he whispered while offering the tub.
Olivia accepted the popcorn with a gracious nod of her head while maintaining rapt focus forward. On the screen, the girl had finally squeezed her way through the window and the smiley face went bobbing off around the corner of the building as she retreated with the killer in hot pursuit.
Get on with it!
Adam took a slow breath and glanced once again at the beauty beside him. She ate her popcorn with the same refined precision he had witnessed in the Asian restaurant earlier. Once again he got the brief feeling of being the high school nerd sitting next to the homecoming queen. She was just so…complete.
Get ON with it!
Adam steeled himself for the inevitable. There was nothing else left to do. He had painted himself into this corner, now it was time to act. It was go time.
And exactly like the teenager he so self consciously identified with…
…he raised his arms in a mock stretch…
…then settled one across her shoulders.
Then he held his breath.
For one impossibly long instant, Olivia didn’t react. She merely gazed at the theater screen. Then a twinkle seemed to appear in her eye and the corner of her mouth did a definite uptick. Adam had the sudden, horrified feeling she was about to burst out laughing, although he wasn’t totally sure he could blame her. But then she did something completely different.
With one smooth motion the woman slid next to him and settled herself comfortably under his arm.
And just like that, all was right in the world.
The knot in Adam’s throat and chest unwound, and warmth suffused him from head to toe. Olivia fit under his arm as if she had always belonged there, and he could feel her tilt her head to look up at him.
He gazed down into those two amazing emerald eyes, delighted to see affection mixed in with the merrim
ent dancing in their depths. He knew right then he could look into those eyes the rest of his life without a single regret. As long as they looked back at him that way, there wasn’t a challenge in the world he couldn’t find a way to meet.
Starting right now.
He kissed her without even thinking about it.
And just like chess, science, computers, scenario analysis, and god only knew what else…she turned out to be amazing at that, too.
###
Billy Clayton sprawled in his seat, finally feeling secure he would get to watch his movie in peace.
The three potheads were quietly enraptured in the movie. The married couple (but not to each other) had decided to take their act elsewhere and left the theater a minute earlier. The outsider wasn’t even doing what he could call real thinking anymore. And the Spine Ripper was now chasing Miss Happy-Panties through a car wash.
Life was good.
And then it came again.
The very quietest of probes.
Perhaps the only reason he even noticed it was because of his current relaxed state, and this time Billy didn’t even try to trace it back to its source. He had a different strategy in mind. He simply continued to lounge in his chair, his mind open and calm as water in a well.
This approach bore results, because it wasn’t long before he detected it again. Another gentle questing, as if somebody were carefully feeling their way through the theater and finding the location of each person in the room by touch.
He let the “finger” probe and determine his location without resistance. The tranquil surface of his mind did not betray the alarm growing beneath.
Whoever did this was somewhere outside the building. And the range of this probe combined with its control, even though it was being conducted through a solid brick wall, reduced the number of potential suspects dramatically. There were only two people on this planet that could pull off a move like this.
And both of them counted as bad news.
If it were Grandma Lilah, then there existed the very real chance she would discover his encounter with the outsider from the outsider’s spirit. Then he would be in for it, for sure. On the other hand, if it was Maggie…
Billy chose not to even think of that. Better to stay on top of things now. Relaxing further, he let the concerns settle down through his mind like leaves sinking in a quiet pool. His breathing slowed. His mind became still as dust on chalkboard, waiting for something to disturb it and leave a mark.
And this time he caught it.
A mental motion. A sneaking. A process already in the act of happening. And it was happening somewhere above and behind him.
Careful to keep his mind still, he simply let the situation guide him and turned to view the rear of the theater. His eyes took a second to adjust from looking at the bright screen, then he could make out the forms of the outsider and the Dog Woman embraced in the last row. Billy started to roll his eyes, a natural reaction to the sight of old people making out. It was due to him doing that that he spotted the intruder…
And in a single horrified heartbeat he knew his worst fears had come true.
It was Molly.
Maggie’s companion.
The great spider’s seven-and-a-half foot form hugged the ceiling as it crept toward the back of the theater. If it hadn’t been for the yellow parts of its abdomen, he might not have seen it. As it was, it had already been in here long enough to have somehow manipulated the ceiling vent cover free of its place and webbed it next to the square hole it once covered. Or Maggie more likely helped with that part. Either way, it now neared the juncture of the ceiling and back wall,
He had less than a minute until it reached the pair obliviously kissing beneath. And at Molly’s size, her bite was lethal.
Trying not to think about the mismatch he risked engaging in, Billy focused instead on minimizing the fallout of what was about to happen. He came to his feet and stepped up onto the back of the seat in front of him. Then the boy did a fast, mincing walk down the backs of the chairs until he reached the three stoners in the front row.
“Hey dudes,” he whispered as he dropped into the seat behind the kids and stuck his head up between a pair of them. “There’s a cop up in the lobby talking about three kids and a bag of weed. I think he means…”
The teens hit the rear exit next to the screen before he even finished.
Perfect. Well, not perfect, but better.
However this turned out, at least there wouldn’t be any witnesses. Now, if he correctly understood the role his people’s honor demanded of him, it was his job to save the lives of his enemies by getting between them and a clearly deranged Maggie. He would have preferred a slightly less intimidating opponent….perhaps something like an enraged T-Rex…especially since what he would have to do next was going to really piss her off.
Dammit! I thought she was past this. What the hell set her off?
Hustling his way to the end of the row, the desperate teen strode back up the aisle. He spotted the huge arachnid right away. It was already halfway down the rear wall, nearing the oblivious couple kissing beneath it. It would be in striking range in seconds.
So without further ado, Billy committed one of the most egregious offenses imaginable in the culture of the Spider People.
He directly interfered between another spirit singer and her companion.
MOLLY, STOP!
The spider halted a mere five feet above the couple, confused by this sudden mental intrusion.
Sweat sprang up on Billy’s forehead as he continued to hammer the big spider with mental commands in an effort to hold it while simultaneously drown out contact with the more distant Maggie. A flare of outrage somewhere outside told him that time was about to become an even more precious commodity.
Now he had to get the couple out of here. And he needed for them to move in a steady manner without making any sudden motion that might get Molly to attack on sheer instinct. He briefly considered yelling orders at them as he approached but his confidence in the outsider’s nerve wasn’t very high. No, they were only going to get one shot at this and it needed to be done right. He would rely on the Dog Woman.
He hoped she remembered…
“Tchuta!” he stated in a loud clear voice.
Now it was up to her.
###
“Tchuta!”
To Adam’s disappointment, Olivia pushed away from one of the greatest kissing sessions he had ever been involved in.
“Adam, wait a second…”
They both looked forward to see the teen from the Spider Tribe walking up the aisle toward them. He approached in a slow but steady manner, with a look of intense concentration on his face.
“Tchuta!” he repeated. “Kumna?”
Adam frowned at the unfamiliar words. What the hell was going on here?
“Muda?” Olivia replied in a tight voice.
Adam looked from the approaching boy to her in surprise. Then he realized they were conversing in their own tongue. He had forgotten this aspect of things. It truly drove home that, despite their physical dissimilarity, these two shared a common lineage.
The boy replied with a stream of words and Olivia visibly paled as she listened. Adam felt a stab of defensiveness toward her and started to interrupt, but she put a couple of fingers to his lips and nodded at the boy to continue.
By this time the teen was only a few rows down and Adam could see that sweat covered his face. What in the ever-loving hell was going on here?
“Adam,” Olivia took him firmly by the hand, “I need you to do exactly what I tell you without saying a word. We have a problem and Billy here is trying to help us.”
Adam looked into her tense face and realized whatever this problem was, it must be bad. He gave her a slow nod. He couldn’t see any threat, but everything about both Olivia and the teen suggested it was dire.
“Get your cane, and we’re going to both stand up slowly. But we’re going to keep facing forward and stay low. Wa
tch what I do, and then do the same thing.”
Olivia grasped the back of the seat in front of her and slowly pulled herself to her feet. She didn’t stand straight up, but leaned forward with her hands still resting on the chair. She reached back and caught his arm, urging him to do the same.
As he complied, Adam saw the boy turn into the row in front of them, and very slowly start making his way in their direction. There was definitely something wrong with him. His face glowed from pallor and sweat, and Adam wondered if the youngster could be sick.
Olivia gave a gentle tug, and started slowly down the row toward the aisle. Adam followed right behind. As they moved in the direction of the aisle, the teen moved toward them in the row ahead. They met halfway, then continued past each other in their respective directions.
Thoroughly confused now, Adam turned his head to follow the Spider Tribe kid. The barest hint of motion caught the corner of his eye and he looked back at the seats they had just vacated. And that is when he almost fainted.
There was a monster on the wall, and it had been sitting right above them.
“Holy shit!” Adam stumbled away.
“Molly, NO!” the teen cried and pointed his finger directly up into the face of the wall hanging creature.
The spider had started to move, but froze again at the command from the boy. It looked like some kind of battle of wills was taking place, and judging by the sweat on the kid’s face it was all he could do to stop the beast.
Adam froze as well, afraid that motion on his part might provoke the monster.
“Mister,” the boy strained. “I’ve got this. You got bigger problems coming. Now get out of here!”
Bigger problems? He had a hard time believing that.
“He means your blonde admirer with the big gun.” Olivia grabbed his arm. “Come on!”
On second thought, “bigger problems” it was. Adam didn’t have to be told twice.
Spiderstalk Page 35
