Chapter Thirty-Seven
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ALEX

𝙰𝙻𝙴𝚇 𝚂𝙲𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙼𝙴𝙳 𝙰𝙶𝙰𝙸𝙽, 𝚂𝙲𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙼𝙴𝙳 𝙸𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙸𝚂𝙷, 𝙲𝙷𝙸𝙻𝙳𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝚈, 𝚂𝙾 𝙻𝙾𝚄𝙳 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙲𝙷𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙾𝚁𝙱 𝚆𝙴𝙱 𝚂𝙷𝙾𝙾𝙺 𝙸𝙽 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙿𝙾𝙽𝚂𝙴.

  Mama's Boy grunted and cast a shield around his body. The semi-transparent bubble materialised and sliced the thick spider web, leaving it to hang off his shoulder like a loose piece of clothing tattered from battle.

  "Move—!" Scarlet grabbed Alex by the shoulders and lunged off the stairway. They hit the ground hard, a pile of rubble scratching Alex's cheek in the process.

  The giant spider shrieked again. Down came a mighty wad of spider excrete, thick and yellow and acidy. Alex wriggled back on her hands and knees, panting, her heart pounding against her chest. Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, but her body had heated up so much that they may as well have turned to vapour before exiting the sockets.

  Scarlet stood up and pulled Alex to her feet. "Run!"

  A swatch of tremendous spider goo spat over Mama's Boy's bubble and curtained the outside until he was no longer observable. The layer of acid seemed to meander around the glassy outside in systematic tempo, as if it rotated cleverly with a sentience of its own, as if it were composed of molecules that knew exactly where to move and what to do. It was truly beyond frightening.

  After that, it took less than five seconds for him to break the barrier and leg it, following at first Scarlet, who had already been heading that way, and then Alex, who was for a short moment frozen with fear.

  She snapped a glance at the giant orb-weaving spider once more and then shrank away, lagging behind Mama's Boy and Scarlet, keeping a close watch on the monster's next move. And then, as if expecting them to run, the next move arrived.

  Up ahead where the deep crack splitting from top to bottom was, from which they had entered, another web spewed out and covered the gap. It was so thick and steely that it almost solidified in the space of a couple seconds, and with a sound so engrossing as if to confirm it.

  Scarlet halted, cursed, and then backed away, looking up at the monstrous creature. Mama's Boy turned around, too, and for the first time, Alex had witnessed an undercurrent of murky horror capture his face in a grimace. His mouth was open, and his eyes were wide and glassy. The pupils were heavily dilated, taking up almost as much space as the whites.

  And then, loudly, he said, "Mama! MAMA!" There was a quaver in his voice weighing as much as he did.

  The spider shrieked again, but this time instead of shooting another swathe of acid, it creepily wiggled down its web by the opisthosoma and delicately centred itself at the bottom. A feminine yet deep growl hummed from its fangs. The two cherry-red eyes glowed with a viciousness so daunting and unparalleled that even the depths of hell would quiver, even the devil would wonder who would make such a monster, even God's heart would beat loud enough to bring a week-long hurricane to some of the sunnier parts of the world. Some of the brightest. On Earth, or in this abhorrent land.

  It had to be a spider. A fucking spider!

  But there was no use complaining; she had to act quickly. She felt a pang of emotional pain strike her chest, and then she raised her hands, trying to summon any surrounding water in the vicinity. Try as she might, she couldn't. There simply was no water in this cave. Even the stalactites didn't seem to drip, and across the expanse of twists and turns was nothing but dry rock.

  BOOM!

  Alex snapped her head back and saw Scarlet trying to burst the thick spider webs from the gap, and Mama's Boy joined her in this attempt. Not a chance. All that ringed out was an episode of stringy music vibrations. She could have listened to them peacefully had this been an ordinary incident, had there not been a bug the size of a bus metres from her, had they not been trapped in this cave.

  Mama's Boy hurried away from the webs and stood alongside Alex. "There's no use! We have to fight it!"

  Another shriek, and this time a jingle of bars hitting against each other sounded out, echoing into the labyrinth beyond.

  Cautious, Alex felt her sternum. A large pocket of air was caught in there. She stood back a little.

  "He's right, Alex," said Scarlet, and even though she was just as scared, she had an arm wrapped around her. "We're with you, don't worry. We can take it. You killed that dragon, this is lightwork." The fact that she had been hissing the words out certainly didn't help in delivering the message, though it was enough, Alex decided.

  Although her fear didn't really subside, she understood that this was life or death, that there was no other way around this, that it had to be killed. This wasn't Chrono or a dragon, but it was still a creation, it still had weaknesses, it wasn't real. Wasn't real like how anything else in this world wasn't real. It was all a game, thought Alex, and the people were all that remained of substance. And that fascinated her more than anything, comforted her even.

  Her heart dipped a little bit, but only slightly. The prospect of having to take down a giant alien spider was a hair-raising one.

  Sucking in a deep breath, Alex watched as the spider growled and slowly approached them from the other side of the cave. The green essence from the top of the stairs still cast an oblong of light over the interior, though it was no way near as bright as it had been minutes earlier, thank God.

  Stop using his name. He caused all of this!

  "Okay!" breathed Alex, and all at once her hair, lips, and eyes glowed blue.

  Mama's Boy touched Alex's shoulder and suddenly his features became blue as well. "Split up," he commanded. "We'll take it from the sides! Quick! Move!"

  "Agreed." Scarlet whipped to the left-hand side of the cave, expelling herself forward with a white orb of light.

  Mama's Boy dashed headlong around the right side, his brown trench-coat blowing behind him like a flag. His blue braids did the same, tapping off his nape when he eventually came to a stop.

  And Alex, still unnerved, walked forward, planning what to do next. Her mind cleared up a little, and an idea pried its way inside:

  The acid. I can control the acid if I catch it on time, but that's so risky . . . What if I can't and it hits me in the face and my skin burns off? A small gash in the hand, sure, that'll heal. But a whole wad of acid? Jesus Christ!

  But Jesus wasn't here, as much as she believed in him.

  The spider began pacing towards her with those thick, hairy legs, tapping on the cave floor with uneasy patters, ruthless to the ears as chalk against a board. Then it paused, drew back its body, preparing to unload a massive dollop of yellowish-green excrete, and then, it did. The liquid glided through the air with moderate velocity. It made it about halfway towards Alex when she raised her hands and froze it.

  "Good idea!" Mama's Boy said.

  And from the left side came a large rock the size of a truck-wheel. It shotgunned through the air and struck the monster in its thick-skinned body. It tumbled over for a moment and sporadically brought itself up on all eights again. The rock struck the ground and resounded through the cavern like a gong in the distance.

  Following this, Alex drew back the acid and hurled it towards the monster. It splashed on its semi-translucent skin and whipped a streak of subdued fire at its eyes. It fumbled and panicked away, screeching horridly, banging into the wall and almost stomping over Mama's Boy. He manoeuvred himself in time and circumvented the creature's walk. A cairn of rocks slipped down from the ceiling and punched the top of its body. Then Alex realised, its eyes were no longer red, they weren't even visible.

  Did she blind it? Her mouth gaped open. She might have been wrong—she likely was—but there was a chance she was right. And that would make things far, far easier.

  But her theories about whether it was blinded or not had been cut short. A thick web snapped forward and grasped Alex around the shoulders. She screamed and tried forcing herself free, but within seconds the webs had hardened and her body felt like it was trapped in steel wire.

  Shit! Shit! Shit!

  Through her mouth came a hissed half-breath. Then another. And another. She frowned. This was it. Death. The creature would reel her in and gobble her up and she could see once and for all whether God really was waiting on the other side. She'd be able to see if it really was just darkness on the other side.

  Her thoughts silenced, and her two-tone eyes almost shut.

  Phoenix, I'll be back in the arcade with you soon. We'll play all day, all right? You can show me how to get really good at Ghost Chaser, you can bring me to the virtual-reality zones so we can play all the bootleg, underdeveloped works-in-progress. Then I can tell you that I feel something for you.

  The spider, screaming in agony still, reeled her in slowly.

  There's a sixty-seven per cent chance God exists, Alex, Phoenix said.

  Really?

  Sixty-seven, and it's probably a lot higher.

  Sixty-seven? Sixty-seven sixty-seven sixty-seven sixty-seven sixty—

  "Alex!" a voice yelled. It was Scarlet's.

  From the periphery of her vision, Alex witnessed Scarlet hurry across the cave next to the spider. She raised her palm, getting ready to blow it against the wall, but the monster whipped its leg forward and whacked Scarlet to the side. She whirled through the air until striking the opposite side of the hollow. A mote of dust and debris slipped over her body as she groaned in pain.

  "SCARLET!!!" Alex's voice swept the cavern and shook the air. Even the orb web that permeated the ceiling seemed to wobble and dance to the sound. Her eyes flew open in gut-wrenching panic. She couldn't let Scarlet die. She couldn't let the only person she cared about die to the hands (or legs) of this monstrous creation. She just couldn't!

  Then she saw Mama's Boy—saw what he was about to do. He raised his arm and formed a gooey spear at the end of a shaky forearm. "Let her go, you ugly bastard!"

  The spear shot ahead and pierced the monster's skin. It recoiled and swung Alex across the cave before the web snapped and she skidded along the ground. She stopped, abruptly, when she struck the step of the staircase. She still couldn't move her arms, but at least she could run.

  Mama's Boy stood there bravely, but after recomposing itself, the spider lunged to take a bite out of him, to perhaps swallow him in one gulp.

  "NOOOOO!" Alex screamed, and her eyes glowed violently with blue fire. The webs entrapping her from shoulder to shoulder seemed to weaken, and one by one, the bars snapped.

  He saved me . . .

  Alex didn't realise this until the deed had been done. Until the monster had torn into him. Until—

  But the spider was struggling; it couldn't move, and it tried desperately to drag itself away from whatever it was focused on.

  Alex watched with a touch of hope, marred by shock and terror, as the monster squirmed. Her eyes quickly averted to Scarlet, who picked herself up off the ground. Alex ran over to her. "Are you okay?!" she asked, panicked.

  "Don't worry about me," Scarlet said, and then she pointed towards the spider.

  Alex then trained her sight on the stairway leading up to the portal.

  "We need to leave," Scarlet said. "We can't save him now."

  "But—"

  "There's no buts, Alex! Look! He's dead! Gone! We need to move, now!" For the first time ever, Alex had heard true panic in Scarlet's voice. She was honest, and she was smart. She knew what was best.

  But he saved me. He saved us both. He . . . he wants his mama . . . just like we all do . . .

  Scarlet grabbed Alex by the shoulder and guided her towards the steps. Alex wordlessly went along with it, keeping her eyes on the spider that seemed to be stuck on tearing into Mama's Boy.

  She shivered. It was a terrifying sight, one that would perhaps haunt her dreams forever, even if she made it out of here. A tear slipped down her cheek, and then she was full-on bawling. She did her best to hide it, but she could tell that Scarlet had noticed this emotion.

  As they hurried up the stairs, the spider's shrieking grew louder and louder, and the stalactites on the ceiling fell down one by one. They struck the ground viciously and then collapsed into large chunks of rock. There was nothing that could be done. Mama's Boy—no, Braeden had sacrificed himself so that they could both live. And for that, Alex was eternally grateful. She wiped her tears away as she and Scarlet reached the top.

  In the centre of the platform was a portal, unsurprisingly, with a green-white spiral in the centre, circling in on itself like a whirlpool. It was almost the same as the Spiral outside, though it had been much quicker and easier to perceive, not to mention much, much smaller. A loud thrum sang from within, slightly muted by the screeching and web vibrations.

  Scarlet pulled Alex in close in a sort of motherly embrace. Alex could feel her heart race through her chest. And then, without saying a word, Scarlet looked back, and so did Alex. After that, Scarlet put one leg forward and dipped into the portal, bringing Alex with her in the process.

  Alex closed her eyes as the green glow seized them. She expected to feel a liquid sensation as she entered the portal but found that it was no different than falling through a bottomless pit at incredible speed. Air escaped her lungs.

  I'm sorry, Braeden. I'm so, so sorry!

  Then everything went dark.

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