by Amy Cross
“Skellig was a fool,” Damos tells me, as he steps closer and I start backing away. “He thought he could hold back death. He clung to the dream of immortality.”
Feeling another burning pain, this time on one of my legs, I look down and see that Skellig is attacking me again. It's as if he's filled with fury at his own inability to change anything, and I instinctively push him back against the wall. When he lunges at me yet again, I lean forward and bite his head, digging my fangs through to his brain and pumping the last of my venom through his skull. He lets out an agonized cry as the venom dissolves his mind, and finally he slumps down dead.
Turning, I see Damos leaning weakly against the wall as if he can barely even manage to stand upright. He's muttering something to himself, and it takes a moment before I realize that he's actually praying, as if even this miserable wretch has a god he believes will deliver victory.
“You're too late,” he stammers, turning to me. “I've been planning this moment for too long, you can't -”
Gasping, he falls back, clearly in pain. For the last specimen of a once-powerful race, he sure as hell doesn't seem very impressive.
“The thirteenth demon is already growing,” he continues, struggling to his feet. “The next -”
Reaching out, I smash one of my legs against his torso, sending him crashing into the wall. Without giving him time to react, I use another leg to drag him closer, until I'm towering over him and staring down into his pathetic, weak face. Leaning closer, I open my jaws and lean toward his face. I might not have much venom left right now, but I can still crack a nut.
“Your species rose on the back of mine,” he sneers. “You might not want to admit it, but the spiders of old saw our mighty ruins and tried to copy them. You built Karakh on top of the ruins of a great fortress. I remember... I remember standing in the mud, watching the very first spiders as they crawled from the puddles of water. It's only natural that we return now, that we push you aside and show you what real power looks like!”
I lean even closer, letting thick, slimy saliva drip down onto him.
“I know I'm going to die,” he stammers. “The plan was never to live forever, I realized long ago that the original twelve demons were fated to pass into death. All I wanted was to ensure the survival of our species, and I've done that. The thirteenth demon grows inside the body of its mother, and its power is even now filling Abby's soul, giving her the strength she needs to raise the child and bring a new era of demon civilization. And through her, our species will never -”
Bored by him now, I reach down and bite his neck, bringing a scream from his lips as he desperately fights back against me. I bite harder and harder, cutting through his flesh and feeling weak, lukewarm blood spilling out as he reaches up and places his hands on my face.
“You poor dumb beast,” he gasps. “Your time, the time of the spiders and the vampires and all the others, is over.” He lets out a faint whimper, and suddenly I realize that I can feel a tremendous vibration coming from deep within his body, as if some previously untapped power source is preparing to explode. “It's time,” he says with a smile. “Even the oldest star can burn bright at the end, when it releases the very last of its energy. In death, I shall begin the process that the grail child will continue. Your lives -”
And that's the last thing he says, before a vast explosion of furious white and blue light bursts from his body, filling the room and shattering the walls. For a moment, all I can do is bite through the last of his neck, ripping his head away, before the chamber collapses all around me. Rocks come crashing down, forcing me to the floor, and for a few seconds I worry that I might be buried alive. Turning and stumbling on my eight legs, I manage to reach the corridor just as more rocks come tumbling down. It's as if the entire plateau is being destroyed by the energy that's still flowing from Damos's body, but after a moment I spot Abby up ahead, dropping to her knees just as the ceiling starts to collapse.
Even as flames ripple up my legs, threatening what's left of my venom sacs, I crawl toward Abby and throw myself on top of her, protecting her as the rocks come crashing down onto my back. As I feel my body being crushed, I let out one final scream.
Abby Hart
I can feel it now.
All that energy, bursting through from the air and roaring into my unborn child. The thirteenth demon lives.
Jonathan
“Abby!” I scream, stumbling to my feet.
The explosion tore the whole place apart. Not just the passageway and the chambers, but the entire plateau and part of the mountainside too. With huge fires raging all around, burning under the night sky, I stagger through the rubble, but my body is too badly damaged for me to be able to walk properly. I don't know how long I spent unconscious after the initial force hit me, but as I look around at the rubble I can't help realizing that the explosion must have been immense.
“Abby!” I shout, turning and looking for some sign of her. “Where are you?”
Stumbling through the apocalyptic landscape, I spot huge chunks of rock nearby, clearly thrown far by the blast. I don't even recognize this place anymore, and it's almost as if the explosion was enough to destroy the entire land. I wander further, limping heavily on my damaged right leg and still calling out Abby's name, but after a few minutes I start to consider the possibility that maybe I'm the only one who survived, that I was just lucky while Abby and Emilia were obliterated.
And then I see her.
Up ahead, with flames burning all around her, Abby is standing calmly on an open patch of ground. She still has one hand on her belly, but her face has returned almost to normal, with just a few traces of the scars and damage that made her almost unrecognizable earlier. She's not reacting to the carnage all around her; instead, she's just standing completely still, as if she's in some kind of trance, and she doesn't react as I start limping toward her.
“Abby!” I shout, waving frantically. As I get closer, however, I can see that the expression in her eyes is different somehow, almost as if she's lost in thought.
Just as I'm about to reach her, there's a loud rumbling sound beneath my feet, and I look down to see a large crack opening in the rocky ground. There's another rumble nearby, as if the entire mountainside is on the verge of collapse, but when I turn back to Abby I realize that she's not reacting at all. It's as if she has no idea of the danger all around us.
“We have to get out of here!” I tell her. “Abby, everything will be okay, but first we have to go somewhere safe.”
I reach a hand out to her, but after a moment it's clear that she has no intention of coming with me.
“It's inside me,” she says finally, her voice sounding strangely weak. “I fought back for so long, for so many years, but finally I let him...”
“You let him what?” I ask, as the ground shudders beneath my feet once again. “Abby, what did he do to you?”
“He needed a child,” she continues. “He's dead now, all the demons are dead, they only had enough strength to return briefly and create something new.” She looks down at the hand on her belly. “They needed a mother for their child, and they chose me. They chose the daughter of the strongest vampire family.”
The ground shudders again.
“This place is going to fall apart,” I tell her. “Abby, whatever's happened, we can work it out once we get away.”
“He was in my head,” she replies, as if she hasn't heard a word of what I've been saying. “Constantly forcing his way through, testing my defenses. I was strong for so long, but no-one could have resisted forever. In the end, I gave him exactly what he wanted.” Finally she turns to me. “His plan worked. He always knew he'd die, and that he wouldn't get a chance to witness the child's birth, but it was enough for him to know that the child existed.”
Her voice trails off for a moment.
“It's inside me,” she stammers. “The grail child is growing in my belly.”
“Abby, please...”
“The thirteenth d
emon will rise,” she says suddenly, her voice sounding firmer than before and her eyes appearing darker. “It grows inside my body and when it emerges, it will be the first of a new race of demons.”
“Abby, no, we have to -”
Before I can finish, she throws herself at me, knocking me down and landing on top of me. She bites down hard, slicing her teeth through my neck, but I manage to reach up and grab her throat, trying desperately to pull her away even as she chews through my flesh and starts draining my blood.
“Stop!” I gasp, as I feel her fangs digging down through my chest, scraping against my collarbone. “Abby...”
“I won't let you try to hurt it!” she screams. “I can still feel Damos in my head! He's too strong, I can't push him out! I have to protect the demon in my belly!”
With renewed anger, she bites down against my neck and starts frantically drawing as much blood as she can.
For a moment, my mind starts to go blank. It's as if my body has suddenly lost all will to fight, and I know deep down that no matter how hard I might struggle, there's no way I can ever beat my sister in a straight battle. She has so much more experience, and she also spent all that time training with Oncephalus at Jagadoon while I was simply studying the Book of Gothos. Maybe this is how it's meant to end, with her killing me on a burning plateau, in the ruins of a land that lies a thousand realities away from the world I used to call home. Maybe I was never more than a footnote in Abby's story.
“I thought you were brave,” Maisie's voice suddenly whispers in my ear, sounding distinctly unimpressed. “I thought you actually had guts.”
Abby bites down harder, drawing more and more of my blood into her fangs.
“I can't fight her,” I whisper, turning my head and looking across the rocky plateau as the mountain rumbles ominously. Flames are burning all around us, and I can feel myself slipping away. “She's too strong.”
“She's not too strong,” Maisie's voice hisses. “You're just giving up again, the way you gave up before.”
I close my eyes, waiting for the inevitable, but finally I imagine Maisie sitting on her bed at home. If I die here like this, my son and daughter will never know what happened to me. As far as they'll be concerned, I just became a drunk and one day I vanished after an argument.
I can't let it end that way.
I can't let Abby do this to me.
Summoning the last of my strength, I reach up and grab my sister's shoulders, slowly forcing her back until – at last – her fangs slip out of my neck. Immediately filled with a new sense of strength, I push her away and get to my feet, and this time I'm able to step out of the way when she lunges at me again. Grabbing her arm, I pull her back and then twist her around, slamming her to the ground before placing my right foot against her throat and pushing down.
“I won't let it end like this!” I tell her firmly. “Whatever he did to you, we'll undo it!”
“You can't!” she hisses, her voice filled with venom, as if she's barely even herself anymore. “You're too late! The child is inside me now! It's part of me!”
“I'll find a way,” I continue. “I won't abandon you again, not after last time!”
Reaching up, she tries to push my boot away, but this time I'm the one who has a little too much strength. After a moment, however, I step back, not wanting to hurt her.
“He changed you,” I tell her. “I get that, but it's okay, we can change you back.”
“The child is mine!” she snaps, clutching her belly as she takes a step away. The ground beneath our feet is rumbling now, and fresh cracks are appearing. Whatever energy escaped from the final demon's dying body, it's still working its way through the plateau. “You can't take it away from me!” she screams. “Damos was right! He got into my head and he showed me the truth! He's still -” She lets out a pained gasp. “I can't force him out,” she stammers. “I'm not strong enough.”
“Abby, please...”
“There's a scream,” she continues. “It's constant, it's at the back of my mind...”
“You need to listen to that scream,” I continue. “That's the real Abby Hart, it's the Abby who knows this is wrong. It's the Abby I'm going to help!”
She lets out another gasp of pain, but it's clear that she's struggling to escape the influence of Damos. Clutching the sides of her head, she takes a step back.
“Let me help you,” I tell her, edging closer as I hold out a hand. “Abby, let me -”
Suddenly she screams, and I swear I've never heard another living creature in such agony before. The scream is something primal, something from the very depths of her soul, and she bends over for a moment as if she can barely keep her body under control.
“Abby,” I say firmly, “you have to -”
“Abby is gone!” she shouts, staring at me with the blackest eyes I've ever seen. “The weak Abby, at least. I'm the strong Abby, the side of Abby that's going to raise this child and watch as it takes its rightful place! The other Abby can scream as much as she wants, but I'm not foolish enough to give her power again. She's a weakling, a failure! She let her human side interfere too much, but Damos divided my soul in two and now the vampire side rules. Let the human Abby rot!”
“You don't mean that,” I stammer.
“Damos didn't want me for my human side,” she sneers. “It's the vampire Abby that must serve as the child's mother!”
Hearing a faint groaning sound from nearby, I turn, half-expecting to see that Damos somehow survived the blast. After a few seconds, however, I spot a ravaged humanoid figure on the ground.
“Emilia!” I shout, hurrying over to her. As I kneel next to her ravaged form, however, I'm shocked to see that she's a bloody, pulpy mess, with her chest torn open and her guts glistening in the flickering light of nearby flames. The slit on her belly has been destroyed, leaving the spider's eight-eyed face torn apart, while her body seems to have stopped midway between the transformation from spider to human, with several of her spider legs still attached to her torso. When I turn to look at her human face, I realize that there's something in her expression that I've never seen before, at least never in her eyes.
Fear.
“I thought...” she gasps. “I thought if I changed back, I might undo some of the damage I suffered in my spider form. That was the theory, anyway.”
“We're getting out of here,” I tell her, looking down at her torn belly and chest. “We'll go somewhere so you can heal.”
“Not this time,” she whispers. “My venom sacs are destroyed, and without those I can't... Can't recover...”
As Abby comes to stand over us, I reach down and try to slip my arms under Emilia so that I can pick her up. When I finally manage to grip her properly, however, I start lifting only to find that her body is almost split in two. When she lets out a cry of pain, I let go, helpless to do anything.
“Did I save her?” she continues. “The rocks were coming down, I saw that Abby was going to be crushed. The fire was reaching my venom sacs but I had time to save her.” She winces, and I swear I can see the life draining from her eyes. “Damn it,” she mutters, “I'm the last of my kind, I should have had a better death than this.”
“She's right here,” I reply. “Can't you see her?”
She turns and looks past me, but one of her eyes has been crushed and the other has a pupil that seems freakishly large.
“I can't see anything,” she whispers. “I can hear you, but I can't see. I'm blind.”
“Pathetic spider,” Abby sneers. “I'm glad I get a chance to watch their miserable species slide into extinction.”
“She saved your life!” I shout, turning to her. “You and that rotten baby in your belly!”
“I'd have survived anyway,” she replies. “A vampire needs no help from a spider.”
“Let her be,” Emilia gasps, grabbing my hand. “Remember the spiders. Not just me, but all of us. Remember how great we were, and how we trashed Gothos. Build a little statue, if you get the time, but f
or God's sake get the likeness right.”
“If there's any way to save you,” I stammer, “I'll find it.”
“Aw,” she says with a faint, pained smile. “That's cute, honey.”
Before I can reply, Abby kneels opposite and takes Emilia's other hand, and suddenly her expression seems more concerned, with tears in her eyes.
“I don't know how long I've got,” Abby tells her, “but the other part of my soul will be back any moment. We're going to get your out of here, Emilia. No matter what it takes -”
“You're sweet,” Emilia gasps, “but I liked evil bitch Abby better. She's a lot sexier.” Reaching down, she fumbles with her hands and starts feeling her ravaged belly, before taking hold of the stem that leads to one of her spider legs. “Oh yeah,” she whispers, “now that's what I always wanted. A good-looking corpse and -” Suddenly she lets out a pained groan that lasts several seconds. “You guys are gonna be... so bored... without me...”
With that, she winces again and then lets her head tilt back.
I open my mouth to tell her that everything will be okay, but I know it's too late.
“She died for me,” Abby whispers, as tears roll down her cheek. “She came back and she died for me. She's a spider, she should have hated me with every atom in her body, but instead she gave her life to save mine. I don't deserve that.”
Too shocked to speak, I carefully close the eyes on Emilia's human face, as the ground beneath us shudders and loud cracks can be heard nearby. From above, there's the sound of the mountainside heaving as its weight shifts, and the fires seem to be burning brighter than ever.
“This thing has taken control,” Abby stammers, clutching her belly. “My soul has been divided in two, and soon I won't be able to stitch them back together. Absalom warned me about this once, he told me I was letting the two sides grow apart. Now Damos has taken advantage of that and he's driven a wedge between them. I think I've forced him out of my mind, but I can't trust myself.” She looks down at her belly. “I have to kill this thing. It's one of them, it's a demon and if I let it live, it'll rise up and destroy all other life.”
