ALEX

𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴𝚁, 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙷𝙰𝚅𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙶𝙾𝙽𝙴 𝙾𝚅𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙽 𝚃𝚆𝙸𝙲𝙴, 𝙼𝙰𝙼𝙰'𝚂 𝙱𝙾𝚈 𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝙾𝙵 𝙰𝙽 𝙸𝙳𝙴𝙰. He wrapped them both in a semi-transparent bubble, willingly of course, and pushed them over the balustrade. They shot down with neck-breaking speed, and when the crystal shattered, Alex came rolling out, panting intensely. She was relieved, for a time relaxed, and when she swept her gaze over to Scarlet, she registered that she had been feeling the same way.

  She was smiling and breathing heavily as well.

  Before they could say anything, Mama's Boy dipped off the wooden platform. He landed about fifteen feet from them.

   Alex shrank back, startled, her hand digging into the thinning, ultraviolet grass. Her beanie was resting on her stomach, and when her shock subsided, she threw it on, picking herself up off the dirt.

  Scarlet gasped, then laughed. "Are you all right?!" she asked. She took a few steps towards him to investigate.

  The semi-transparent shield surrounding his body didn't fracture; instead, it disintegrated into a trillion black spots.

  He brushed himself off and stood upright, back straightened, clearing his throat. "I've had worse. What about you guys?"

  Alex joined Scarlet, shoulder to shoulder. I didn't feel anything. The anxiety she'd been experiencing about this whole situation had eased a tad bit. She knew she had a high threshold for pain, and she was certain this could in some way support her. Against monsters, for example. Both creatures and people.

  Thunder sounded far, far behind them—so far in fact that the lightning wasn't even visible. Perhaps it had been over the cliff from which they had initially jumped. Alex didn't know, and most importantly, she didn't care. Right now, there was one thing on her plate: finding that gateway.

  So, she urged them to waste no time and find that cave. They all journeyed through the heathland wet with dew, paying attention to all sorts of different rocky formations. The misty atmosphere permeating the bottom remained for another hour or so. During this time, Alex had gotten thirsty and drank from a nearby lake. She stuck her hand into the water a little fearfully at first, worried that another monster would pop out from this precious lagoon and rip her arm off. But nothing like that happened. At any rate, she thought it apt to take more care when approaching new areas.

  Scarlet and Mama's Boy joined her, both parched and dry-eyed. They made no discussion during this time; only looked towards the Spiral's everchanging scintillating shine. It had segued from a humble blue to a fiery orange by the time they left the area of rocky formations, the ones connected by wooden bridges. The clouds thinned out eventually, unveiling a black watery sky through which faint lustres shone. Streaking across the cosmos was that same dazzling red nebula Alex had witnessed upon arrival. It caught her attention fondly for a moment, made her think about the conversation she and Scarlet had over the car ride. What do you wanna be when you grow up?

  Was that what she asked? Or was I dreaming?

  Either way, it was a relieving question. The sort that warranted hope. It struck a chord with Alex's heart, and for that, she was eternally grateful.

  I'll probably hug my mom and dad and never let Phoenix go. We'll play at the arcade for hours and ask questions about the universe and complain about life. I'll tell him how I really feel, how much I care about him. Because honestly . . .

  Her eyes bubbled with tears.

  . . . honestly, life's too short for 'what ifs' and 'maybes'. Sometimes you have to just say it. We all do eventually. And if we don't . . . well, if we don't, then we'll experience true loneliness. Someone else will do the deed before you and suddenly you regret not having said anything at all. I sure wish that hasn't happened already. Surely not, I've only been gone a couple of days . . . I think.

  She was smiling now, smiling in that amazed way one does after discovering that all their worries were pointless. Her feet despoiled chunks of mud from the well-cut undergrowth. Through the woodland—meshed with an expanse of blue canopies and foliage—came the jackstraws of the Spiral, now glaring into her eyes like the beams of a mellow sun.

  Looking up, averting her attention to the pathway ahead, a small escarpment plunged into the ground all rocky and lifeless. Vegetation failed to climb over its dominant stature, acting as a horizontal wall that extended farther than the eye could see, and in both directions, no less.

  A spark of hope, ever-so-small, scratched across Alex's face in the form of a grin. She sighed and rushed ahead. At this point, her feet were killing her. Over her nape and poking out from the beanie, a sheaf of fine hair blew back. Above, the wind whistled, catching her ears in an eerie fright. For a second, she thought it had been a person calling out from over the mountain, but she shook this thought away, like how one shakes away an embarrassing memory, and swung around a nearby trunk.

  "Wait up!" Scarlet panted loudly. She hugged herself and shivered.

  Alex looked back, her grin gone now. Lips parting to reveal those two front teeth, she yelled, "Sorry! This looks like a cave!" Again, she had to raise her voice to stop the wind from masking it. "I'm just really cold!"

  "Is there a way inside?!" Scarlet hopped over a fallen bough and almost tripped. She regained her balance in time, not because her reactions were quick—even though they were pretty fast—but because Mama's Boy had caught her by the back collar of her black jacket. He was expressionless as always, his eyes glazed over a lack of sleep. Since his fight with Scarlet and Alex (if you wanted to call it a fight), he never put on his mask and ski goggles again. Maybe he lost them, maybe he got sick of them. Whatever the reason, it made him look a lot more friendly, less like Chrono and more like an acquaintance.

  A friend, I guess, thought Alex.

  Yeah, a friend.

  Alex surveyed the escarpment from first the left side and then the right. Deep cracks and pointy boulders were sticking out from the rock. No sign of an entryway. She snapped her head back, finding that Scarlet had been right behind her.

  Alex jumped a little.

  Scarlet placed a hand on her shoulder, said, "Nothing?" and leered at the escarpment. Her eyes followed the same procedure as Alex's, going from left to right.

  Mama's Boy took a step towards them and a branch snapped beneath his shoe. He bent down and ran a finger through the soil, and then, with curiosity, said, "These y'all's footprints? They are, right?"

  "Well," said Scarlet, voice laced with that undercurrent of disregard and interest, "they probably are. Who else would they . . .?" She paused abruptly. Unfolding her arms and bending her knees until eye-level with Mama's Boy, she placed her hand alongside the print.

  Alex backtracked and looked over Scarlet's shoulder. There was a shoe-print in the ground all right, but it was far too large to belong to any of them. More than that: there were multiple footprints, alternating in twos up towards the righthand side of the escarpment. It took some focus to fully visualise them, but they were no doubt there, marked with muddy motes in the thin ultraviolet grass.

  Scarlet snapped her head up towards the escarpment and squinted, following the trail with her eyes. And then with her feet. Alex lagged behind, and Mama's behind her. Over the top of the escarpment winked an orange spiral so vibrant that Alex had to cover her eyes completely. This sudden brightness appeared out of nowhere—perhaps it was about to change into another colour again. It was pretty frequent, after all, happening every hour or so.

  "Wait up!" yelled Alex, shivering. She ran up alongside Scarlet and trained her sight on the marks in the grass. They dwindled more and more until eventually vanishing, and from that point onwards, there was nothing. No more leads. A silence impressed itself upon the three of them, and then Scarlet broke it with a shout: "In here!"

  In where?

  In there! Slicing down the escarpment wall, which extended some two hundred feet above, was a dark crack the width of a door. It tapered upwards until closing off completely. Alex was surprised she hadn't recognised this gap right away—she reckoned she was too busy paying attention to the small details on the ground.

  Scarlet ducked and swung inside the aperture. A film of darkness swallowed her in shadow. Alex promptly followed her inside, and Mama's Boy did the same.

  They made it a good twenty steps inside before he gave out: "I can't see nothin'!"

  An orb of yellowish-white light popped out in the hazy darkness, leading the way. It was sitting atop Scarlet's palm. "Better?" she said, and her voice echoed hard.

  "Hm." He nodded. Again, another echo. It cycled three times before fading.

  Along the walls were thick spiderwebs that looked like cotton wool. Alex's heart thumped. She hated spiders, hated them with a burning passion, and in this world, they could be giant. Okay, relax. You killed a dragon for Christ's sake! Spiders are the least of your problems. God . . . help me.

  "Must be a pretty big spider," said Mama's Boy, as if reading her thoughts and using them to craft a pang of terror with which to strike Alex.

  It worked. Alex squeaked, "I really hate spiders!"

  "Not surprised. Coulda guessed it." Mama's Boy's tone was non-existent as usual.

  Alex slowed down to a ground-munching pace and gaped at him unstintingly. What was that supposed to mean? The scowl that had for a short time manifested on her face faded. She scoffed and watched him pass her out. Dickweed.

  Continuing through the tenebrosity, which wasn't letting up by the looks of it, Alex glued her eyes to the yellowish-white orb, disciplining herself from thinking about spiders. Try as she might, she couldn't do it. The webs just seemed to keep getting thicker and thicker, to the point where they covered the walls in lengthy wads.

  She inhaled deeply as she tried keeping up with Scarlet and Mama's Boy. Eventually, thank God, a similarly bright light appeared before them. It stood there in the distance of the cave as a vertical line lit solely by a faint green glow.

  "Up here!" Scarlet's footsteps hastened and then steadied. Alex ran after her, desperate to escape this nightmarish space.

  Is this it? The gateway?! Hey, can you run any faster, Scarlet?

  There was a rattle of more footsteps, and Mama's Boy powered on. Green smoke wafted out of the aperture, so thick Alex could almost taste it. A smell of something strange—gasoline?—floated through the crack and pried itself into her nostrils. She could see its vapour manifest as the light in front of her grew more vivid. A whirring sound leapt into her ears, not unlike UFOs from those '80s science-fiction movies. If there's any spiders on me, I swear to—

  But her thoughts cut off. After she observed what was on the other side, her anxiety diminished. They stood in a giant space, rampant with stalactites and pillars, jagged edges, and tunnels that twisted farther down into an expanse so deep and shadowy that it looked like a labyrinth. There were so many directions they could take, but what caught the periphery of her vision was what had been most fascinating. On the far right side was the main source of the green glow. Squared in on all four sides were stairways leading up to a flat surface about the size of a house floor. She had no idea what was on top—it had been far too tall—but whatever it was, it was bright. Bright like a star.

  Scarlet shielded her face with her forearm. "I think this is it."

  "The gateway?" asked Mama's Boy, and by that point, Alex had realised that the whirring sound had grown. It was becoming difficult to make out what he was saying.

  "Yeah!" yelled Scarlet. She walked towards the steps.

  Eyes watering, Alex placed a hand on Scarlet's shoulder, holding on as if scared for her life. She couldn't see where she was going, and unlike in the darkness, an orb of white light couldn't solve this.

  The green luminescence transitioned to white upon approaching the first step, and suddenly the glow dwindled to a flicker. There was still enough light to make out their surroundings, but even the whirring sound faded, which confused Alex. Had they done something wrong?

  The two paused, realising that they no longer had to cover their vision, and exchanged confused glares with one another.

  Mama's Boy approached from behind.

  A long silence filled the cave. Alex used this time to survey her surroundings more clearly, and so did Scarlet and Mama's Boy. Across the walls were thick clusters of webs, silky and spooky. She had expected the webs, but the eggs . . . the giant green eggs that stuck to the walls . . .

  She kept her vision on the collection of spider eggs, followed them up along the walls until . . . until . . .

  "JESUS CHRIST!!!" she screamed.

  A squishy sound whizzed from above, and down came a monstrous spiderweb. It struck Mama's Boy's left arm and he fumbled in a panic.

  Alex froze as the creature on the ceiling of the cave squirmed in its mighty orb web.

  A spider. A colossal spider. It was larger than a bus, with semi-translucent skin exposing its viscera, tinted black and red. Eight bulky limbs wriggled out at its sides, leading up to the head, upon which two cherry-red eyes glinted green. A pair of muscular fangs shifted in and out of its mouth, and within seconds, unleashed a spine-chilling shriek.