by Amy Cross
“Hey, Lilith,” I continue. “I really need to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”
Hearing footsteps, I turn and see that Jonathan has come over to us. He kneels next to me with his eyes fixed on the little girl.
“Don't,” he tells me.
“Don't what?”
“Don't tell me to go back to the door. Don't tell me you've got this.”
“I don't have a clue what's wrong,” I tell him, watching Lilith's calm face. “You said you were here with them earlier. Did you notice anything unusual?”
“The children were all in pain. Clarissa said it was because they were aware of what was coming, but it seemed to be more than that.”
“Where was the pain?”
“Lilith mentioned her belly.”
Leaning a little closer to the girl, I lean down so I can get a better view of her face.
“Abby, get back,” Absalom says from the doorway. “We need to quarantine them until we know what's wrong.”
“Hang on,” I reply, watching Lilith's features. For hours now, I've had a sense that there's some kind of presence nearby, that Gothos has been breached, but now the feeling is stronger than ever. Even though Lilith's eyes are closed, I can't shake the feeling that somehow she's watching me, and after a moment I realize that her eyelids are flickering slightly, almost churning, almost -
Suddenly something pokes against the inside of her left lid. The eye doesn't open, but something seems to be in there, under the skin, and a fraction of a second later it happens again, this time in two places at once.
“Did you see that?” Jonathan asks.
I nod, unable to stop watching as small, sharp objects continue to poke at the inside of the girl's eyelids.
“The others are the same,” Jonathan continues. “What the hell's going on inside them?”
I keep telling myself that I'm wrong, that it can't be possibly be what I think it is, but at the same time there's a slow feeling of dread rising through my body.
“Lilith,” I say finally, “I want you to open your eyes.”
I wait.
No response.
“Lilith, please.”
Again, I wait.
“Lilith.” I lean closer, as my heart pounds in my chest. “Open your eyes.”
Suddenly I see that there's a faint smile on her lips.
“That pain in her belly,” I whisper, as a sense of horror starts to grow through my chest, “I think it was -”
Before I can finish, her eyes flick open, revealing a swarming nest of tiny spiders in place of her eyeballs. I freeze for a moment, before turning and seeing that the same thing has happened to all six of the children. Hearing a splitting sound, I tun back to Lilith and watch in horror as her entire head starts to crack open, allowing hundreds more spiders to come swarming out over her face.
“Get away from them!” Absalom shouts.
Letting out a cry of anger, Lilith lunges at me, pushing me back and landing on my chest. I reach up to force her back, as more splits open on her face and chest, allowing thousands of spiders to come spilling out. Their sharp legs are like razor blades, slicing against one another as they pour across my body, but a moment later Lilith is pulled off by Jonathan and thrown to the ground.
Brushing spiders from my chest, I stagger to my feet and stumble toward the doorway before stopping and looking back across the room.
All six of the children are split open now, with more and more spiders pouring out from their bodies and spreading across the floor. What remains of their flesh and bones, meanwhile, is starting to peel away and drop to the ground in a series of chunks.
“Out!” Absalom shouts, grabbing me and pulling me into the corridor along with Jonathan, before slamming the door shut. “Everyone get back!”
Brushing the last few spiders from my body, I quickly stamp on them. I swear I can still feel the sensation of their legs all over my body, but I'm certain they're all out of my clothes as we step back, watching the door.
“I knew it!” Absalom hisses. “The council told me I was wrong, but I knew Gothos had been infiltrated.”
“Why would they do that?” Jonathan stammers. “Why would they go for the children first?”
“Even by their standards,” Absalom says darkly, “this is obscene.”
Before I can say anything, the door starts to shudder, and a moment later it creaks open. The six children are on their feet now, stumbling forward even as more splits open in their bodies, allowing yet more spiders to come swarming out. Lilith is in the lead, limping heavily; her skull has been cracked down the middle, leaving a deep rut in her face with spiders crawling across her skin. It's hard to believe that so many of them could fit in the body of one child.
“Stand back,” Absalom says, before taking a step toward the children.
“What are you going to do?” I ask. “Absalom, why -”
Suddenly I spot the ax in his hand, and I watch in stunned horror as he raises the weapon and then brings it crashing down, slicing Lilith's head clean away and allowing another swarm of spiders to come bursting out through the stump of her neck. He hacks at her legs, finally bringing her down, before moving on to do the same to the next child and then the next. All I can do is watch in shock as he fells them one by one until finally, after less than a minute, all six are crumpled on the floor with spiders scurrying across their corpses.
“They were dead already,” he says, turning to me with a sense of shock in his eyes. “They'd already been eaten from the inside by those parasites.”
“Step back!” one of the soldiers shouts, rushing past us and dropping a burning torch onto the swarm of spiders. Absalom steps to safety as the vast swarming mess goes up in flames, although a few of the spiders manage to scurry away and disappear into cracks in the walls.
“What did they hope to achieve by this?” Absalom asks, staring at the flames. “Did they just want to show off their new-found taste for barbarity?”
“They must have been in the children for days,” I reply, feeling the fire's heat on my face. “Breeding, growing, spreading. Eating them alive from the inside.” I turn to Jonathan. “There's nothing we could have done. No-one could ever have expected them to try something like this. The spiders were always deadly, but they never would have gone this far in the past. They were never this grotesque.”
I wait for a reply, but he's staring in shock at the corpses of the children in the heart of the fire, and from the look in his eyes it's clear that the horror is too much for him.
“This was more than just a warning,” Absalom says after a moment, turning to me. “Abby, why would the spiders do something like this? Why make such a vivid display of their presence? This is so unlike them.”
“It doesn't make sense,” I reply, “not unless...”
Turning, I look across the hallway and see that a crowd has gathered. Shocked and horrified, it's almost as if every vampire in Gothos was drawn here by the screams, including members of the council and even the sentry guards, which means...
“They're distracting us,” I whisper, before turning back to Absalom. “They wanted us all to be drawn here, they knew if the children were in danger we'd all come running, even the lookouts.”
Before he can reply, I make my way along the corridor, picking up the pace until finally I start running to the hallway. By the time I get to the main stairs and start making my way up to the next level, Absalom has already caught up to me and we reach the door at the top together, bursting out onto the balcony and then taking the metal steps that lead to the roof of the building. I'm wrong, I have to be, I pray that I'm wrong, but deep down I already know the truth.
As soon as we get up onto the roof, I see them.
Spiders.
Huge black spiders lurking on the plains all around Gothos, keeping still so that it's barely possible to spot them at all. There's not much moonlight, but as I turn and look all around I realize I can see them everywhere.
Hundreds of spiders
.
Poised to attack.
And mixed in with them, hundreds of other troops in human form.
“We're surrounded,” I stammer, feeling a sense of panic bursting through my chest. “How are there so many of them?”
Turning to Absalom, I'm immediately shocked by the hopeless look in his eyes.
“We thought there'd be ten or twenty at most!” I shout. “Where did hundreds of them come from?”
“I don't know,” he replies, with all the color having drained from his face, “but...” He turns to me. “This isn't going to be a war, Abby. This is going to be a massacre.”
Emilia
“Okay,” I say with a smile, watching the house of Gothos from a distance as the screams continue, “I think we got their attention.”
“The order is yours to give,” Skellig whispers with relish. “Your majesty.”
Taking a step forward, I stare out at the massed army. Hundreds of spiders, surrounding Gothos with only one aim in mind. The fulfillment of a destiny that was written in the stars long ago, and which almost slipped away from us. The night air is cold, with a strong breeze blowing against us, but I feel in my heart that we are ready to achieve our final victory.
“Time to go to war,” I continue finally. “And this time, we don't stop until every last vampire is dead.”
Part Six
The Fall of the House of Gothos I
Abby Hart
“Seal the main doors!” I shout, racing down the steps. “Make sure the window blockades are in place! They're coming!”
“Who are?” Jonathan asks, hurrying to me as everyone else races to take up a position. “Abby, what's happening?”
“That whole thing with the children was just a distraction,” I tell him, heading to the doors as a series of metal relays are slid into place. All around, there's the sound of panicked voices shouting at one another as defenses are hastily strengthened. “They needed to keep us busy while they got into position, and now they're out there, ready to attack.”
“Spiders?” He pauses. “How many? Ten? Twenty?”
I turn to him.
“Thirty?”
“Maybe three hundred,” I reply, feeling a shiver pass up my spine at those words. “They seem to be split about fifty-fifty between spider and human forms, which is pretty typical. The Book of Gothos says that they always employed mixed tactics.”
“Three hundred?” he replies, clearly shocked. “Abby, there's no way -”
“I don't need to hear that right now,” I mutter, turning and hurrying along the corridor. In the distance, more voices are shouting at one another, and I have no doubt that the members of the council are locked in discussions about how we can fight back. We have defenses, sure, but we weren't expecting the spiders to show up so fast and in such numbers, and my mind is already racing as I try to work out how we're going to get out of this situation. By the time I get to the old banqueting room, I realize that I can feel the ground starting to tremble.
“Is that them?” Jonathan asks, having kept up with me.
Heading to the window, I peer out and see a large shape crawling through the darkness, its legs glinting in the moonlight. The first spiders are already down at the bottom of the garden, and there are other figures creeping through the shadows, no doubt getting into position for the first wave of their attack. They've been planning this for a long time.
“How will they try to do this?” Jonathan whispers. “What kind of weapons do they have?”
“They'll use full force,” I reply, my heart pounding as I watch the figures edging closer. “The full fury of a spider assault... I've read about it. Very few people have ever survived such a thing.”
“What about guns?” he asks.
I turn to him.
“Why does everyone around here use swords and fire? Have you guys never heard of missiles, machines guns and landmines? What about a few helicopters?”
“That kind of technology doesn't work too well here,” I tell him. “Believe me, if we could call in a strike from the air, don't you think we'd have -”
Before I can finish, there's a loud bang in the distance, followed by a rumbling sound as the whole house shakes for a moment. Screams ring out, and it's clear that our ranks are already being diminished.
“They're attacking from all sides,” I continue, as the sense of panic builds in my chest. “They know we don't have a chance of defending properly, not when we're outnumbered. They want to get it over with quickly.”
“So what do we do?” he asks. “Surrender? Abby, maybe if we reason with them, we can make them see sense. We can negotiate!”
I shake my head. “That's not a word they understand. If we went out there with our hands raised, they'd kill us instantly. Besides, vampires never surrender to spiders. The whole idea is obscene.”
“What if we run, then?” he continues. “Surely it's better to live so we can fight another day?”
“We're surrounded!” I hiss, as the building trembles again. I can hear more voices shouting in the distance, and at this rate I wouldn't be surprised if the first line of defenses has already been breached. I have to do something, I have to come up with a plan, but I feel almost frozen to the spot as a sense of indecision ripples through my body. Every plan that enters my head ends the same way.
We lose.
“This can't be it,” Jonathan continues. “After everything we've been through, you can't seriously think that we're just going to sit here and wait for -”
Suddenly there's a loud crashing sound and the floor shakes more than ever. I turn just in time to see a huge shape on the other side of the window, breaking through the wooden defenses and then crashing into the glass, shattering the window itself as a spider leg reaches through and tries to strike at us. I pull Jonathan aside before grabbing a dagger from my belt and driving the blade into the creature's leg, gouging into its skin until it pulls back. From the other side of the window there's a loud screeching sound, a kind of torn, anguished roar, but I know pain won't hold the monster back. Losing my grip on the dagger, I'm forced to let go and watch as the leg rises up with the blade still embedded in its flesh. So much for that weapon.
“Will the wound slow it down?” Jonathan asks as we take a step back.
“Not for a second,” I stammer, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the door. “Come on, we have to find the others. If we work out some kind of plan, we might still have a chance!”
Ignoring the sound of breaking glass behind us, I lead Jonathan out into the corridor that runs through the center of the house. There are shouts and cries coming from every direction, along with the sound of walls being cracked and glass shattering. The house is shaking, too, with heavy impacts coming from every direction, and a moment later I feel brick-dust starting to rain down on us. Every few seconds, I hear another horrified cry as more and more of our fighters are killed.
“Where's Absalom?” I shout at a passing soldier, but he simply races into the next room with his sword drawn.
“Do you really think he can help?” Jonathan asks.
“Have you seen Absalom?” I ask another soldier, but I don't catch his answer as he runs to the far end of the corridor. A moment later, spotting movement nearby, I turn just in time to see an injured soldier being dragged out by a colleague, leaving a smeared trail of blood on the floor. Half the left side of the poor wretch's body has been torn away.
“They're everywhere,” one of the other soldiers says as he comes to help. “Every window, every door. Nothing's holding them back. At this rate they'll have taken the entire house within minutes.”
“We have to try negotiating with them,” Jonathan suggests, although I can tell from his tone of voice that he realizes the suggestion is futile. “What else are we supposed to do?” he hisses. “Just let them kill us?”
“A werewolf once told me,” I reply, “that no matter how bad the situation seems, there's always a way out. You just have to be smart enough to find it.” Lo
oking around, hearing the sounds of vampires screaming as they die, I feel as if that advice is about to be put to the ultimate test. “We need to move upstairs,” I stammer finally. “At least we can buy ourselves some time that way. We have to use the layout of the house to our advantage.”
“How?” the soldier asks.
“I don't know yet, but if we stay down here we'll all be dead within minutes. Tell the others to abandon the lower level! That's an order!”
“We only take orders from the council.”
“I doubt much of the council is left by now,” I say firmly, “but if you want to go and check on them, be my guest.”
“But won't the spiders just burn us out if we go upstairs?” he asks. “It's just delaying the inevitable!”
“Move!” I shout, before turning to Jonathan. “We need to find Absalom. There's still a chance. I saw him heading to the eastern wing, so I'm going to get him to come with us.”
“And then what?” he asks.
“And then we'll come up with a plan,” I tell him, “and we'll find a way to defeat the spiders. This can't be the day that our house falls, I won't let it all end like this. Now go! Find Absalom!”
With that, I turn and race along the corridor, before reaching the door to the ballroom and looking through. Five huge spiders have already broken down the main wall, and now their legs are scratching along the walls and ceiling as they make their way over the pile of vampire bodies on the floor, coming straight toward me.
Emilia
I squeeze tighter, pulling the miserable vampire wretch closer while the fangs from my belly dig into his chest. He struggles, of course, but it's the desperate, doomed struggle of prey that knows its time is up; all he can do is stare into my eyes as his life ebbs away, and finally I spot the moment when my venom reaches his heart and his soul is extinguished. His mouth opens, letting out some of the sulfurous gas from the acid that burns in his chest.
He slumps dead in my arms, I disengage and retract my fangs, and then I let him slip lifelessly to the floor.
