by Stuart Jaffe
There was no room for debate in his tone. Perhaps Gram agreed with him, too. She bent down and picked up the cane with a gentle touch. As she handed it to Sully, she said, “Of course. We can’t leave him here alone, and I can think of no better than you to protect him. Roni and I will handle things just fine.” She looked at Roni, and with a doubtful expression, she said, “Isn’t that right, dear?”
Roni could barely open her tense mouth. “Absolutely.”
“Then let’s go.” As she stepped toward the West passageway, she turned to Sully. “Give us at least a half hour. If we don’t come back —”
“No need to finish that,” Sully said. “We’ve been down this road too many times. I know what to do.”
Flashing a warm smile, Gram said, “You always make me proud.”
As she headed down the tunnel, Roni followed. That final comment buzzed in the air between them like a World War II bomber waiting to drop its payload. Roni had too many emotions juggling within her. In the end, she shoved it all down to be dealt with later. Those bombs had to drop sometime. But for now, they had a hellspider to find.
Chapter 16
For such an old woman, Gram sure could set a strong pace. Though they only had their flashlights to see by, it was enough for Roni to catch the anger in her grandmother. Fine with her. She had just as much anger and more to spare.
Before they had time to boil over, the tunnel ended with a wooden door. Gram inspected the door from top to bottom with her flashlight. She then placed her hand on the wood, followed by an ear. Looking back at Roni, she shook her head. “I’m not picking up anything.”
“You have another power?”
“Lord, no. I only mean I don’t see anything, I don’t feel anything, and I don’t hear anything. If it’s not safe to open the door, I’m not getting any indication.”
“I guess we’ll just have to try our luck.”
Brushing her sides with her hands, Gram said, “Unless you, perhaps, read something in Waterfield’s journal that might help.”
Despite all her anger and frustration, part of Roni recognized how difficult it must have been for Gram to admit she needed the expertise of the researcher. It didn’t change the overall problems, and it didn’t solve their troubles, but Gram’s passive admission eased the pressure. Even if only for a little while.
“Waterfield never got this far. Remember, for him, the Book on the Isle led to a paradise. He had no reason to go exploring further. And he lacked the support of his teammates.” She hadn’t meant to throw that jibe, but once it was out, she could do nothing more about it.
Gram flinched but covered it up by turning to the door. “Then it’s like you said. We’ll have to take our chances.” She reached for the handle.
They walked into a ballroom-sized space with piles of books making mountains along the sides. In the center of the room upon a stone platform awaited a chair carved in stone. Either a throne room or a courtroom — Roni couldn’t tell which. The carvings on the walls and the architecture of the platform had a distinct flavor to it — like something dwarves made in a Tolkien novel.
Their footsteps echoed in the open space, and Roni breathed easier now that she had escaped the tunnels. The air smelled stale. Sharp too. Roni thought that odd. Running her flashlight beam across the ground, she discovered the source of the odor — old droppings from above. Arching her ear upward, she listened for the telltale squeaks of bats or batlike creatures. She heard nothing.
“Whatever caused this mess,” Gram said, “it happened quite a while ago. You can see how dry it all is. And fresher business doesn’t dry out the air.”
Roni fought back the urge to throw up. “We’re breathing crap?”
“Dear, we’ve been breathing it for days now. Not a lot of air circulation in these caverns.”
Roni clamped her mouth shut. But breathing through her nose only intensified the foul odors. Not breathing seem like a poor choice. She opted to switch back and forth, a few breaths at a time — she would’ve preferred a gasmask but never saw one in the supplies Sully and Elliot had packed.
Gram played her light over the book piles. “Looks like we found the missing books.”
Looking closer, Roni spotted torn chains still hanging from the spines of several books. “Great. We’ve confirmed that this is where the creature’s taking those books, and that means we’ve done a good job of reconning the situation. Let’s go back, get Elliot and Sully, strengthen up, and return here when we’re ready to fight.”
“Not yet. We only know that this is where the books have been stored. We don’t know for sure that your hellspider is what brought them here.”
“It is not my hellspider.”
“I don’t see any of those large round marks on the ground. Do you? Anything to indicate the hellspider.”
“Are you saying there’s some other kind of creature out there that’s stealing these books?”
Gram shrugged. “We have to stay open to all the possibilities.”
They walked deeper into the room, and Roni sensed greater pressure from the large open space as she neared the chair. More likely a courtroom, she thought. Facing judgment while sitting in that chair surrounded by this huge space would be maddening.
Once on the platform, she had no doubt the room had been set up to intimidate. “We shouldn’t be here,” Roni said.
“Nonsense. We are the Parallel Society. It is our duty to be here.”
Roni’s skin prickled. She thought she heard something — a rustling of clothes or bristling of hair.
Gram turned in a slow circle. “I don’t see any other doors or passageways out besides the one we used. Unless these hellspiders can squish their limbs like an octopus, I don’t see how the big one would be able to get through the tunnel.”
As the answer hit Roni, so did the sound — a deep breath like a foghorn, rapid clicks like an amplified centipede. All from above. Oh, shit. Shrinking under her suspicions, Roni raised her light to the ceiling. Gram’s light joined in, and they moved along the uneven surface searching for the source of the noise.
“We should go,” Roni said even as she continued searching.
“Not until we’re sure.”
“We know exactly what’s up there.”
“Really? Tell me then — is there just one or a hundred up there? We have to know what we’re facing. Then we go.”
Several feet from the end of the room, they found it.
The hellspider clung to where the wall and ceiling met, blending in with the rocks and crevices formed by the cavern. Too far away for Roni to get a clear idea of its size, she could see enough to be sure of one thing — this one was definitely bigger.
Roni put her mouth to Gram’s ear, and softer than before, she said, “We need to leave right now.”
Keeping her light on the hellspider, Gram eased back, quiet step by quiet step. Her breathing quickened. Roni followed, her chest tightening until she remembered to breathe. She inhaled with an audible gasp and snapped her hand over her mouth.
With a shaky beam, she brought her light upon the hellspider. Two large, long legs unfolded out of the crevice and clamped onto the ceiling. The creature pushed and emerged from its hole. Hanging upside down, it gazed upon them with horrid red eyes. Roni stood still like a mouse caught between the paws of a cat — knowing it needed to break for freedom but terrified that the cat would pounce.
It held its stare, and she had the passing thought that the hellspider might have been as surprised to see her as she was to see it. However, she did not think any form of amicable understanding crossed between them — indeed, she had the distinct impression that the hellspider was sizing up the form of threat she posed. Still, there was an instant, the briefest of flashes, in which Roni thought perhaps the hellspider decided there was no threat. In that sliver of time, she saw the creature inch back towards its crevice in the ceiling.
But then Gram released one of her chains.
Roni snapped her attention toward the gentle rattle as
its echo amplified throughout the room. Gram grabbed the loose end to quiet the noise, but it was too late. The hellspider’s limbs stiffened as it cocked its head toward the new sound. It raced across the ceiling, chunks of stone dropping to the ground where it released its footing. In seconds, it had reached the front of the room, crawled down the side, and blocked the only exit.
Gram faced the hellspider, feet in a wide stance like a gunfighter at high noon. The hellspider shifted on its numerous legs and glowered down upon them from its ten foot height. Roni’s feet became as solid as the stone around them — she couldn’t move.
She had seen monsters before — the creature Darin had become, a giant hand reaching out of a book, and most recently, the three small hellspiders. But she had never set eyes upon such a truly monstrous creature. Its sheer size pulled it out of her memories of scary stories told late at night.
Having so few memories to cling to, she marveled at the idea that this ten foot colossus could bring forward one of the darker images within her. Even as her heart pulsed with uncertainty, another part of her, a part rarely touched upon, sparked. That same part of her hopeful enough to send her into these caverns searching for kyolo stones. That part of her determined to get back to her world so that she could use the stones to unlock her memories — hopefully.
Gram twirled the chain at her side. The hellspider swayed as if locked in strong air currents from its height.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Gram said even as she set one foot behind to brace herself. “But you don’t belong here. If you let me, I’ll help you. If you can show me what book you came from, I’ll send you back there. If you don’t want that, that’s fine, too. There are other worlds I can send you to where you’ll do no harm. The choice is yours, but that is the limit of your choice. You do not get to stay here.”
If the hellspider understood a single word she spoke, it never showed it. Roni, however, caught Gram’s response — a slight drop of her shoulders. Disappointment. Perhaps even a touch of regret. But not enough to stop her from attacking.
Like a stagecoach driver whipping her team of horses into action, Gram snapped out her chain at the hellspider. For one glorious second, Roni saw the future unfold before her. She saw the chain grab into the heart of the creature. She saw how Gram’s magic subdued the creature. She saw the strength of her grandmother and the way the old woman never faltered as she sent the hellspider into a book she held.
But that was all in her mind’s eye. None of it happened.
As the chain sailed forward, the hellspider moved with astonishing speed. It snagged the chain out of the air with one leg and took control with two more. Moving with grace and agility, it rolled its body toward the left with a ferocious motion that rippled down the chain. Gram never had time to react.
Power released from the chain, up Gram’s arm, and sent her flying across the room. She slammed through a pile of books and crashed to the floor. As the books opened, the mayhem began.
Storms clashed within the room. One book sucked air into it with tremendous force while another blew air out shoving over a pile of books. In front of Roni, an open book spewed out rain and hail into the air with such force that she could hear it rattling upon the ceiling. Another book culled all of that water and ice back into it. Lightning flashed out of one book while the howls of strange creatures echoed from another.
The hellspider worked its way around the raging winds in its effort to reach Gram. Wiping the rainwater from her face, Roni found her legs. She rushed across the room toward her grandmother.
“Close the books!” Gram whipped out chain after chain trying to lock down the open universes.
Roni pivoted to the right and started shutting the covers as she passed them. But for every book she closed, the strong winds knocked open two more.
The hellspider crept along the wall working its way up and over piles of books. It paused to observe Gram’s movements. Like an astronaut in zero-gs, the hellspider pushed off the wall and sailed across the air. Roni could see the trajectory. The hellspider would land right beside the stone chair, and it would be in a perfect position to attack Gram.
Flashes of light and heat burst toward her right. An open book spit out plumes of fire and smoke. Roni leapt over, plucked up the book, and pointed it at the space where she expected the hellspider to drop.
Fire shot out of the book. The cover vibrated in her hands, and the heat built up against her palms. She had a brief moment of satisfaction when she saw understanding cross the red eyes of the hellspider. It knew the trouble it was in.
As it landed in a sea of fire, Roni heard the creature shriek. The sound of its pain brought her own pain to the forefront of her mind. Her hands felt as if they were on fire. She dropped to her knees, determined to keep that book open as long as it took to protect Gram. Tears streamed down her face. She opened her mouth and roared her anguish. Through blurry vision, she finally saw the hellspider escape back up the wall and toward the ceiling.
She dropped the book using her elbows to close the cover.
“That one,” Gram said, pointing toward a book that threw large puffy white snowflakes into the air.
Roni scurried toward the book and plunged her hands in between its covers. Cool air and icy flakes soothed her immediately.
Leaning back, Gram’s face turned red as she struggled to tighten a chain around one book while a winged-beast flapped and thumped an escape attempt. “When you can hold that book of fire again, let me know. It’s all we’ve got so far that’ll work.”
Though Roni said nothing, she gaped at her grandmother’s cruelty. Knowing the pain Roni had just endured, Gram made no effort to locate a different book to utilize. Or simply let the hellspider go. They did not have their full team, and they had sustained injury. They were in no shape to continue the fight. Besides, the hellspider had been hurt, too. It sat on the wall licking its burns. It showed little interest in them anymore. Yes, they needed to capture it and place it in a book, but Roni thought it would be better to regroup, reorganize, and then return.
Huffing and sweating, Gram tossed aside the latest chained book. She paused to kiss the cross around her neck. “Now, Roni, while we still have a chance.”
A ridiculous statements — they had no chance.
The hellspider lumbered across the wall toward the back, hanging above a tall stack of books that had managed to stay standing. Stretching toward the pile with one of its back, singed legs, it snatched a book off the top. With a deft maneuver, it tossed the book into the air and caught it with its front legs. Holding the book out the full length of its legs, the hellspider opened the cover.
A mild breeze puffed out against the dark hairs on its face. It squinted, and for a moment, Roni thought the hellspider would do its work for them. She could see it simply walk into the book and all would be well. But she knew that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
Emitting a deep, grinding noise, the hellspider’s neck elongated towards the book. Roni flinched backwards, her hands breaking free from the soothing cold. The creature opened its mouth. And continued opening its mouth, unhinging its jaw like a serpent, until its orifice measured twice the size of its normal head.
While Gram continued to chain down books, Roni watched the creature inhale the air of the book. The wind whipping around the edges of the cover howled like a ghost. The hellspider widened its mouth, and the wind it inhaled strengthened. Roni wanted to ask Gram if she knew what was happening, but she didn’t dare turn away.
Another hellspider, this one small like those Roni had fought alongside Elliot, now burst forth through the book and hovered in the air between book and mouth. It lasted only seconds, but Roni swore she saw an odd look on the new hellspider’s face — perhaps confusion, perhaps fear. Flailing its many limbs around like a rag doll in a hurricane, it tumbled into the mouth of the larger hellspider.
A snap of the jaw. A snap of the cover. All went quiet.
Lifting one of its burned legs, the hell
spider watched as its blistered skin healed. Roni glanced at her own reddened hands — they would take weeks to heal, at least. Though she could not be sure, she swore the hellspider appeared to have grown as well. Not much — perhaps less than an inch — but enough to be noticeable. With its newly healed leg, the hellspider reached down to swipe another book.
“Fuck that,” Roni said.
With an enraged warcry, she swept up the fire book and sprinted toward the hellspider. The creature took no notice of her, occupied by its own healing process. She reached the bottom of the pile of books that towered above and began climbing.
Progress slowed as half the books she stepped upon slipped beneath her feet to tumble toward the bottom. Turned out that a pile of books did not create the sturdiest of structures. Too many wobbled like her heart. What began as a bold reaction settled firmer into self-doubt with each step higher. When she passed the halfway point, Roni wondered how much range the fire book needed. The sooner she could open it onto the hellspider, the happier she would be. But her calculations were unnecessary. The hellspider had noticed her.
It scrabbled down the wall and onto the top of the book pile. Roni heard Gram’s chains shooting out and wrapping up books as they fell to the ground.
“Come on a little closer,” Roni said. “Come on now. I’ve got a little something for you.”
She climbed up another book, and the hellspider reared back, hissing and clicking. Moving sideways like a crab, it dropped down several feet and narrowed its red eyes on the perch beneath Roni’s foot.
“Oh. Is one of your friends in there?” Risking a fall that would end her, Roni scrunched down and picked up the book that held the hellspider’s interest. It had a green leather cover and weighed more than the fire book.
The hellspider sidestepped again, dropping lower, almost parallel with Roni. Clearly this creature wanted to leap forward and grab the book, but it had learned a healthy appreciation for its foe.
Holding both books, Roni could not decide what to do. Part of her wanted to burn the creature as before. Part of her wanted to burn the green leather book. But as the hellspider inched closer, the answer clarified before her.
