The spiders were everywhere. They crawled in through the windows; practically squeezed from underneath the classroom door, and some were even making their way out of my classmates' schoolbags (how they managed to find space between all those books is a mystery to me. I couldn't even fit a pencil case in without having to make some serious compromises with my back).
'It'll be fun, Wanda!'
'You need to socialize more, Wanda.'
'Stray animals do not count as best friends Wanda.'
All lies, especially the third one. This wasn't fun. This was the exact opposite of fun. The shadows danced across the wall, screaming expletives as the spiders stared at me with beady eyes. Somewhere in the distance, I felt a hunter's gaze on me.
The corpse in the rightmost corner of the classroom didn't help matters much. Just another body I'd left in my wake. Alice Kimberly, killed by spider-bite while trying to get her water-bottle. More blood on my hands.
A pang of guilt broke through the walls, and the shadows managed to slip in once more.
We must flee, now!
Where? Where could we run to? The light from the windows faded away as the spiders covered the entirety of the glass panes. My classmates were outside, getting ready for gym class. No one left to save me.
"What do you want?" I said, eyeing the arachnids warily as I calculated the odds of reaching the door alive. Considering that I was backed into one corner of the classroom with the door on the opposite side...they weren't good. Only two options remained. One was unthinkable. The other?
Not much better. But I made a promise.
I knew they were somewhere nearby. Could I negotiate? I had to try.
"Show me to your master."
Are you mad?
Do you think you can reason with these creatures?
You fool, what have you done?
Stop this madness at once!
Set us free!
This was the calm. Now came the storm.
***
A Week Ago
It'll be fine, Wanda, I thought, repeating this again and again until I felt like I could actually believe it.
Look, all you need to do is convince Dad not to send you to a public school. How hard could it be?
I nodded, mustered my courage, and walked into the dining room. I'd planned this all out in advance, obviously, and decided to start off simple. Bold and confident, the book had said. Bold and confident.
I walked in.
"No," I said to him. There was no need to sugarcoat things.
Dad arched an eyebrow as if this was a hostage situation and I was in no place to negotiate.
"I think you mean 'yes'," he replied, calmly sipping his coffee like in every movie with high-stakes negotiations.
Was this a hostage situation? I'll leave that for you to decide
"There's no need for me to go to public school," I told him. "I'm learning just fine at home, as you can attest to on my prefect scores on every test you've given me."
"First of all, you got a C in French, so I wouldn't exactly call your scores 'perfect'. Second of all, this isn't about your scores Wanda. You need to learn to socialize if you want any chance of being a healthy individual. Now, I'm not saying you need to make a thousand friends or reach a hundred thousand subscribers on your YouTube channel-"
"I have friends!" I blurted out.
"Stray cats and dogs do not count as friends, Wanda. No matter how adorable they are."
"You're my friend!"
"Wanda, you're sixteen. Dad's supposed to be the enemy, remember? What about all those cringy coming-of-age movies we've watched? You must've picked up something."
My nose wrinkled.
"If by 'something', you mean a sudden urge to puke and purge my brain of all the needless drama that comes with high school, then yes, I did pick up something. It's called brain sickness."
He sighed.
"Wanda, please. You know this is for your own good-"
"You're seriously pulling that card again?"
I know I shouldn't have been so hard on him. Ever since Mom died...well, he'd been trying his best. And not knowing how it'd happened probably didn't make it any easier. But I couldn't risk causing another incident. I just couldn't. Not after what happened last time.
I paused, took a deep breath, and tried not to scream my lungs out.
"Dad, I know you care about me. But me being around other kids isn't-" I trailed off, noticing the faint outline of something in the corner of the room. Something that looked vaguely human. Something that looked...alive.
I felt the ice beginning to form in my blood.
"You being around other kids isn't what?" Dad said.
"Wanda?"
"Wanda!"
"I-I need to go," I muttered. "Need to get ready for school."
"Wanda-"
"Dad, please," I said, staring straight into his eyes. Apart from his hair, they were the only other things I had inherited from him. A pair of eyes the color of sapphires. They were infused with weariness, as if he'd seen so much he couldn't bear anymore of it.
I couldn't help it. I turned away and walked back to my room.
I tried not to fall apart when the thing in the corner waved at me.
***
I remember the feelings I got from the school. A thousand eyes on me, dissecting my every move. Each time, I felt the shadows' fears as if they were my own. Their horror. I ignored it. What else could I do?
Sometimes, I wonder why it waited so long. Maybe it just wanted to toy with me? Maybe it needed to make sure of what I was? It doesn't matter. Just another day as Wanda Solace. The girl with evil in her blood.
Where was I?
Oh, right. Negotiations with a maniac I didn't know.
The door swung open.
"Fascinating," the hunter told me, the bugs on the floor scurrying away before the bug with two legs could squash them. He walked forward, the darkness of the spider-covered windows barely giving me a chance to see him properly. A strange symbol had been stitched into his jacket.
Three claw marks.
"It shows regret for the life it's destroyed," he said, craning his neck as if trying to get a good look at me. "Almost as if it is capable of feeling remorse."
He chuckled mirthlessly, picking out an impossibly long sword from his coat pocket. I tried. I really did. I tried to calm down my beating heart. It was fine. Everything would be fine. I hadn't done anything wrong.
I stopped deluding myself once I realized what the sword was.
"S-silver," I said, taking a step back. Except there were no more steps to take. I was backed up against a wall. I was surrounded.
Surrounded by spiders and a creature that killed things like me for fun.
"You are familiar with the metal, yes?" he said, more of a statement than a question. He cocked his head, peering at the pendant that hung around my neck with his unseen eyes. I gulped. I didn't have a choice.
"Expert craftsmanship, I must say. I can smell the Hyssop from miles away. Hides your power, right?"
Could I control it? What if they were set free? Could I risk letting go?
"The others call me nuts, wasting time talking to you things rather than just killing you outright, but hey, all the best people are mad. Take it from me."
I didn't have a choice.
"What are you going to do to me?" I said, focusing on the shadows in the corner of the room. The darkness, sadly, had given me plenty of material to work with.
"Oh, a little here-and-there," he told me, pulling out a second, shorter blade from his pocket. "A bit of mutilation, some delightful vivisection-" (cliché much?), "- and of course, the pièce de résistance, your death!"
"Oh, really?" I asked shakily, clenching my fists as the shadows began to take form. The spiders were too busy watching their master to pay it any attention, but I knew it would need a few more seconds. Seconds I may not have had.
I didn't have a choice. I didn't have a choice. It replayed in my head again and again, like some broken music-player.
"What were you expecting, girl? A cake for your final feast?"
I sighed.
"I guess I was hoping you'd be a bit more chivalrous. All the best people are mad after all."
He chuckled.
"This job is stressful. I save the madness for after the deed is done. It's what's kept me alive these days."
I nodded. Sweat built on my brow. I just hoped he didn't notice.
"So you really aren't going to let me go?"
He shook his head.
"Sorry, part of the job."
I nodded again, trying not to gasp in shock as the darkness took on a new shape. Instantly, a wave of vertigo washed over me. I felt as weak as a bird without its wings, watching the wolf-sized tarantula clamber up the wall and onto the ceiling. A few more seconds and I wouldn't be able to stand.
"I'm sorry too."
What happened next was too fast to process. The spider jumped onto the hunter. Screams of shock and rage erupted from his writhing form in their fight. Silver flashed and monsters roared in agony.
It just wasn't the monster I expected.
Set us free. Now! Before it's too late!
I didn't answer them. I just watched as the hunter stood once more, dusting his coat. The creature was nowhere to be found. It hadn't been strong enough. Met with resistance, it had simply faded away, returning to the darkness from which it was made.
"I expected, hrrk, I expected more," the hunter said, raising himself to his full height as he cracked his neck back and forth.
"How-"
He didn't respond. He didn't do anything in fact. He just screamed and clutched at his heart, as if he were beginning to asphyxiate. The spiders screeched in agony, flipping over in every way possible like fish out of water.
Behind him, a young brunette with brown skin stared unblinking, her smile spreading from ear-to-ear. I wanted to scream, to get her to stop. To do anything but that. Maybe you think I'm weak, but nobody deserves to die at the hands of...whatever she was. Whatever I am.
I guess "aberration" would be the best word to describe it.
Satisfied with the hunter's reaction, she turned to me and said:
"Come with me if you want to live."
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