Arachna

Kaela gawked at the manhole cover. All of that, just for those two idiots to get lost in a sewer.

“Is everything okay?” Derek asked, knocking her out of her trance.

Kaela didn’t look at him, but the concern was evident in his voice. “Yeah… just wondering why Lance decided to go down there with him.”

He’d probably decided to go down there at the last minute, a chance to be alone with Eric, to discuss her attempt at getting information. She shook her head. No—no, she trusted Lance. If he couldn’t tell her now, he had a reason.

Still, she rolled the thoughts around in her head as she tapped her knuckle on the back door of the Rose. Whatever they were hiding, it had to be bad. Or embarrassing. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, shivering as the cold air settled in her bones. Derek leaned against the wall next to her, looking out at the street.

Kaela knocked again, and this time, she listened.

Nothing.

Derek’s eyes swam with worry as they shared glances.

Kaela rested her hand on the doorknob and pushed.

It swung open easily.

Time froze. The color drained out of the world, all melting together into nothing but gray.

She was on her knees. She was screaming, but it was muffled like she was underwater. Her screams were loud and piercing, but not enough to break through the cotton in her own ears. She only stopped to breathe, each gulp of air twirling her stomach in circles. Derek was at her side, his arms around her. She wailed louder than she knew she could, screamed for the bloody bodies scattered across the floor to get up and tell her they were pretending.

Blood had pooled everywhere, soaked into the carpet, and the bodies—some were riddled with bullets, others torn apart or crushed.

She cried and screamed. She couldn’t stop. As hard as she tried, the sirens in her heart went off, over and over. Derek dragged her out of the Rose, but she kicked and screamed.

“You have to snap out of it,” he said.

Kaela couldn’t stop screaming. She could only hear the shrieks bouncing around in her own head, overpowering Derek’s attempts to calm her down. They were in the alley again. Her back rested against the cold brick.

“If you keep screaming, they’ll hear us.”

Her screams turned into sobs.

Derek removed his hand from over her mouth, and her sobs regained their clarity.

“It’s my fault,” she cried over and over, trying to stay quiet. “It’s my fault. It’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not,” Derek said.

Between every attempt to calm her down, Derek’s eyes darted in every direction, as if scared that Caleb’s men would burst through the walls. At any moment, they could come barreling in to kill them. She couldn’t let that happen, so she closed her mouth and swallowed the screams that kept banging at her throat, demanding to be released.

Kaela tried to stand, only to fall to her knees. Her heart raced, and her stomach turned. The ground swayed beneath her. She had to get control of herself. She could mourn once Caleb was dead at her feet, she told herself. But the sobs still came, and Derek wrapped her in a tight embrace.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

She shook her head. “I can’t… I can’t do this.”

“We should get out of here.”

“No,” Kaela pushed him away. “We have to see if Malcolm is still here. Or George. We have to know what happened.”

“Let me go in there.”

“No!” Kaela hissed. “I’m going too. I need to see if anyone’s still alive.”

Derek opened his mouth like he was going to protest, but the look she shot him changed his mind.

Kaela sat there for another few moments. “I just need a minute.”

“Take your time.”

Kaela breathed deeply, choking on some of the sobs that tried to escape her. After a few moments, she clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and stopped her sobs. “Okay… let’s go.”

Derek helped Kaela to her feet. Her knees were weak, and her head ached.

This wasn’t human. Whatever had done this was a feral animal. She stepped inside, and a puddle of blood splashed beneath her feet. She gagged.

They maneuvered around the bodies, avoiding the stares from the wide-open eyes of the corpses that were intact. The smell of the coppery tang of blood poisoned the air. They splashed the scarlet puddles with every step despite their attempts to step over it.

Blood painted the walls. Kaela called for someone, for any of the girls to come out and reveal themselves, to tell them what had happened. But every man and woman that Kaela recognized crossed a line through her mental list, rapidly shortening with each body she passed.

When she stood in the middle of the waiting room, she stifled another sob. “Caleb was definitely here.” She looked around at the mangled bodies then at the bullet-riddled ones near the entrances. Caleb’s swollen arms flashed in her memory.

“Caleb killed them. Tore them apart with his bare hands…” She pointed at the bodies near the doors. “He had his men waiting outside to shoot anyone that tried to escape.”

“Jesus, Kaela,” Derek said. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not as sorry as Caleb’s going to be.” Kaela looked around at the bodies, some in worse shape than others. “I’ll never let this happen again.” She looked down at the closest body, twisted and broken into an unnatural shape. Kaela knelt down and closed the girl’s eyes, wishing she had the time to do the same for the others. “Rest…”

Faint voices spoke beyond the walls. Kaela perked her ears then looked at Derek.

He heard them too.

One of them was rushed. Malcolm, for sure.

Kaela seethed as she recognized the other voice.

The voices came from just down the hall. Kaela took a step, then another, Derek close by. She inched farther down the hall until she pinpointed which door they were coming from. Just when she thought she could hear what the voices were saying, they halted.

Then someone said, “Come in.”

Kaela’s blood ran cold. Her heart skipped a beat, and when she looked at Derek, he offered only a shocked expression.

The person spoke again. “Don’t bother trying to hide. I’m afraid my hospitality does not extend to asking twice. Now, come on in before I have to go out there and retrieve you.”

Kaela balled her fists and composed herself. How could he murder innocent people just to get at her? Tears built up in her eyes, but she wiped them away as soon as they touched her cheeks.

Derek tensed. “We need to run.”

“Go ahead,” Kaela said.

She touched the dagger hidden at her leg. The smallest of comforts. What did Malcolm say could kill them? Beheading?

She could manage that.

Kaela took a deep breath, likely the last she would ever have, and said, “Get out of here, Derek.”

Derek hesitated then stepped closer to her. “I’m not leaving you.”

They shared a look for a lingering moment. Determination was set in Derek’s eyes.

“Are you sure?” Kaela asked.

“I’m sure.”

Kaela pushed the door open and stepped in. Bodies were scattered all over the room, blood covering the walls.

Caleb was sitting on the bed in the center of the room, the satisfied smirk on his face as sickening a sight as the bodies around him. Malcolm was sitting next to him. He twitched like he was being zapped every other second, his eyes blinking rapidly.

“I did some redecorating,” Caleb said with that smug smile. Trying to rile her up, just as he had in the alley.

She would afford him no such pleasure, even with her heart screaming in agony. Derek stood behind her, his presence a comfort.

The knife strapped to her leg was also a comfort. Its cold steel dug into her. She would stab it right into that smiling mouth and cut every last tooth from it before she died so that nobody could ever see that disgusting smile again. If the drug could heal them like Malcolm claimed, they would grow back within the day, but it would be worth it as long as she got the opportunity.

“How rude,” Caleb said, shifting in the seat. “I never knew you had my poor brother slaving away in that cold basement. And on a cure, no less?” He clicked his tongue, and Kaela nearly lunged to slice it out. “Funny that you would even consider it as such. This!” He gestured to himself. “This is a cure!” His eyes went wild, and his veins glowed brighter. His composure broke, and as he breathed slowly, he built it back up.

“You…” Her voice broke already. Kaela couldn’t think straight. She kept avoiding the bodies everywhere. She couldn’t allow herself to look at them, not if it meant showing weakness to Caleb. Not this time. She could mourn later, once she’d ripped his eyes from their sockets. “How did you find this place?”

Caleb shook his head. “I’m disappointed to hear you ask that question. I can find you wherever you go. It may take some time, granted, but I will do it eventually.” He met her eyes, and it took everything inside of her not to attack him. “I suppose you do deserve an answer, however. I’ll throw the puppy her bone since I did rid you of an entire business. After all, this is only the first of many I will destroy.”

She nearly threw up again. That was all he could see of what he’d done—nothing but an end to her business, not the slaughter of the people she saw as her family.

“Thanks to the nanobots, I can sense when he is nearby, like a… a homing beacon, you could say. When I drove by this establishment, I sensed his presence.” He chuckled lightly. “I thought I’d drop by for a visit.”

“He lies,” Malcolm said. “Found me bec—”

Caleb whirled his head toward Malcolm, his tone laced with fury. “Let’s not ruin the surprise, dear brother, hmm?” He leaned back and crossed his legs, which brought his foot onto a puddle of blood. He didn’t seem to care, entirely relaxed in this setting. “To my great surprise, none of the workers here seemed to know what I was talking about when I requested him.” He laughed. “Well, I admit I got a little angry and went on something of a small rampage. Go figure, I find him in the basement, and he tells me he is working on this ‘cure’.”

He was no longer a man, Kaela thought, but a monster, influenced by the serum. It was her fault, then—her fault that everyone was dead, her fault for letting Malcolm stay here, cure or no cure.

Kaela dug her nails into her fist then leaned back slightly against Derek. God, she wasn’t sure she could’ve done this without him here.

Kaela averted her eyes from Caleb’s smug face and directed it at Malcolm. He hung his head and wrung his hands. Nervous and twitchy, with no sign of calming down.

“What did you do to him?” Kaela asked.

Caleb put a hearty hand on Malcolm’s shoulder, making him flinch. “I did absolutely nothing. Though I suppose I shouldn’t have allowed him to see that gruesome sight. All those people being slaughtered, it upset him.” He stared at her for a long, lingering moment then leaned forward, demanding her full attention. “Aren’t you wondering where my men are now? I’m sure you noticed the bullet wounds.” He grinned. “I ordered the rest down into the sewer to go after Eric and the other boy with the long hair.”

Kaela’s heart fell to her stomach, and she went slack-jawed before she could stop herself. Her whole world was shattering into nothing. Caleb had lured them all to stand on his rug then pulled it out from beneath them to reveal a spiky chasm beneath.

Derek’s breath caught. From behind her, she felt him tense so hard she thought he would tear a muscle. She shouldn’t have let Lance and Eric go down there.

“How did you—” Derek started to say.

But Caleb held his hand up. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“You don’t care if they kill your own brother?”

Caleb hummed as he looked at his reflection in a puddle of blood. His face lit up. “No, not really.” Caleb drew a knife and sliced Malcolm’s head clean off.

Malcolm’s head rolled forward to Kaela’s feet, his shocked expression permanently etched on his face. His body was still for a moment then fell forward, landing in a puddle of blood. Purple blood poured out, mixing with the blood of her girls.

Kaela couldn’t breathe. Her vision darkened, and her balance tilted. Derek put a hand on her back, and the cold of the knife on her leg called to her. The room filled with a sweet smell. Bile rose to her throat. As Malcolm’s body lay lifeless on the floor, so did their chances of developing a cure.

“Poor brother,” Caleb sighed, slicing the knife across his palm. “His only wish was to live forever. Shame he never accounted for decapitation.” He laughed. “Poor bastard even admitted it to me. The nanobots can repair nearly anything, but growing a head back?” He sliced his other palm, pointing the knife at Kaela.

Kaela put a hand to her chest. She couldn’t help it. Her chest ached and twisted, and her stomach writhed inside her. Derek paled.

“But as I was saying,” Caleb continued, throwing the knife into the back of Malcolm’s body, where it sank in with ease. “I don’t necessarily care if my brothers die anymore. Malcolm was working against me, and Daniel shows no signs of becoming strong like he once was, and even if he did, I can’t risk him trying to take his men from me. Besides”—Caleb’s fingers danced, and the blood spilling from his hands danced along with them, shifting and moving in the air—“I’ve become much more powerful these past few days. I’ve learned a few more tricks, as you can see, so I don’t need my brothers any longer.”

Kaela stepped back. This can’t be real.

“Now, you see, I find it very important that you all die. All of you… But Eric is my priority. He had the nerve to come to my building and threaten me in front of my coworkers. I don’t appreciate being disrespected. Even worse, he escaped my grasp.” He stood from the bed, and the smell of copper returned, mixing with the sweetness.

“What do you want from us?” Derek asked.

“Glad you asked, my boy.” Caleb adjusted his tie. The blood floated above his head, steadily leaking from his palms and rising into the air. “You two are quite resourceful. I would like to offer you both the chance to join my side. All you have to do is take the drug.”

“Like hell.”

“The only alternative is death. So, what’ll it be?”

As much as he claimed to hate Eric, Caleb acted just like him. A performer on stage.

Something shifted at Caleb’s feet, and Kaela gasped as Malcolm’s blood rose from the floor slowly, dancing and shifting until it also floated above Caleb’s head.

Caleb raised an eyebrow, then a laugh escaped him. “Well, well, well… isn’t that a fascinating discovery? I suppose my brother’s untimely and permanent death allows me control over his bots.” Another laugh left him as the large cloud of blood floated above him. “Thanks for the inheritance, brother.”

Caleb took a step closer to Kaela and opened his mouth to say something else.

Kaela raked her nails across his cheek, right over his eye. He shouted in pain, turning and bending over, his hand over the wound. When he turned back to her, his one eye glowed, and the wound healed in seconds. It might not have done much, but it sure felt good.

“You stupid bit—”

She slapped him again, harder this time. When his head turned, she drew her knife and stabbed it into his neck. Derek charged, tackling Caleb. They fell to the ground, splashing red and purple blood all over themselves.

Kaela wrenched the knife, slicing it farther into his neck. Just a little more, and his head would come off. Caleb gurgled blood.

Kaela yelled as she wrenched the knife even farther. Derek fought and struggled to keep him down.

Caleb yelled up at the ceiling, and his veins flashed with blinding violet light.

The blood floating above him slammed into Kaela and Derek. The liquid reached her eyes, her nose, her mouth. She choked and coughed with every attempt to breathe. Derek choked somewhere beside her. Blood blinded her and stung her eyes. Another strike of the blood knocked her back, and she slammed against the wall.

Caleb coughed and sputtered for a few moments, but then his voice returned to normal. He was calm as he spoke but out of breath. “I was going to blow this building sky high anyway, so I suppose I’ll have to leave you inside it.”

A snakelike tendril slid around Kaela’s arms and legs, and the blood pinned her against the wall. Panic seized her heart as she struggled in vain.

“But you fought like hell, so I’ll give you that.” Caleb laughed, and his heavy footsteps clunked out of the room.

The blood removed itself from her mouth then her nose, and she gulped air down, the smell of honey forcing itself down into her lungs, the taste of metal coating her tongue.

How could he have such control over the blood? Seconds passed, and the blood removed itself from her eyes. She blinked until her vision cleared, her eyes burning. Derek was pinned next to her, gulping down air and coughing.

Kaela struggled against her binds. Dark-purple ropes tightened against her arms and legs. He’d solidified the blood? But how?

“Kaela,” Derek said, still getting his breath back. “Stay calm, okay? We can get out of here.”

Kaela struggled harder against the blood rope, swearing and crying and scanning the mangled bodies of her girls. Every face that was still intact stared off into the distance. Their faces were painted in horror, and she could only writhe in her own anger and rage for having allowed them to feel that fear, to go through the horrors Caleb had made them endure.

Then she watched as the rest of Malcolm’s purple blood pooled around his headless body. Their one chance at a cure was spilled across the floor, headless. She struggled more against the ropes, but the raw stench of copper and honey gagged her. After a few more vain attempts to escape, she stopped. A sob escaped her.

“I’m sorry, Derek,” she whispered, tears trailing down her cheeks. “I’m sorry for getting you in this mess.”

Derek struggled, fighting to escape his bonds. He knew it was useless as well. The hopeless glint in his eyes told Kaela that much.

He looked at her and shook his head. “Stop being sorry for everything. You did all you could.”

Kaela let herself breathe. Foul as it was to smell, she breathed the air in, savoring the last few mouthfuls she would have before it was all over.

Malcolm’s spreading blood reached another pool of blood. Red blood.

At first, it seemed like nothing more than a trick of the light, but Kaela blinked then blinked again. Malcolm’s blood spread through the pool of red, almost contaminating it, as if the nanobots within sensed the red blood cells and hunted them down like prey.

Malcolm’s blood moved on its own, consuming the red blood. Something awakened within her, a familiar comfort she’d thought she’d lost—hope. Its broken body presented itself before her, bruised and shredded but still intact. Just enough for one last push.

An idea clicked inside her head, and she reached for it. One last thing. She would try one last thing before they died.

Kaela craned her neck to her arm, raised above her head. Her neck popped and crackled, but she stretched farther. She clamped her teeth into her arm and bit down. Pain tore through skin and muscle. She screamed, but the sound was muffled. The pain only encouraged her to bite harder until the taste of copper filled her mouth.

Kaela sucked a mouthful of blood from her arm then spat it onto one of the ropes. It joined with the purple blood, slowly disappearing within the confine.

She dipped her tongue once again into the stream of blood sliding down her arm. She spat again, then again. She collected more and more blood and spat it desperately at the rope. Tears filled her eyes as pain sliced at her arm.

As she moved to gather more blood, the rope gave a little. It softened. She smiled at Derek, surely terrifying with her scarlet teeth.

“Kaela…”

“Don’t ask questions. Just do it.”

Derek shook his head. “Aw, hell.”

He craned his neck and bit into his own arm, and together, they spat blood onto the ropes holding them. Finally, the rope of blood around her hand loosed just enough for her to wriggle it out. She laughed at the sight, joy flooding her body. Then anxiety as a sound caught her attention, a repetitive beeping somewhere beyond the room.

She squeezed her arm, coaxing even more blood out, and wiped. She spread the blood all over the rope. From her arm to the binds, she continued until the next rope loosened. She wriggled her hand free and fell forward, her ankles still pinned against the wall. Her breath quickened and rushed as she smeared the last two ropes with blood until they loosened. She fell to the ground, splashing into the purple blood. She wiped her face and held back a gag as she reached for her knife. She held the dagger in her hand, savoring the comfort it brought.

Kaela threw the knife to Derek, who already had one hand free, and he cut at the ropes until he was out of his bindings.

“You hear that beeping?” Kaela asked.

Derek paused then nodded.

“We’ve got to get out of here now before this whole place blows.”

Kaela and Derek burst from the room and scrambled through the halls. The beeping was louder, sounding from behind the walls. How long did they have? Minutes? Seconds?

Of course Caleb had put the bombs on a timer, to add insult to injury and burn them in her own business, surrounded by the bodies of the people she’d worked with and grown to love. Hatred moved her forward until she finally twisted through the halls and reached the side door.

Kaela swore as she tripped over a body and landed in a pool of blood, splashing crimson onto her face. She paused, staring at her red hands. It took everything she had not to scream. Derek grabbed her and helped her to her feet as she stole one last glance at the bodies of her girls, her employees, her friends.

With a desperate push of her body, she flung the side door open, and the ground shook as a force threw them against the brick wall of the alley. Waves of flame shot from the side door, narrowly missing the duo. Heat scorched Kaela’s side as the flames licked much too close to her, even as Derek shielded her with his body.

Kaela helped Derek to his feet, and they ran. Her body ached from the impact. It didn’t matter if Caleb was waiting again, or if he had men sitting nearby. For all she knew, he expected them to escape. But as she sprinted into the street with Derek, no men rushed toward them. No mysterious figures watched them from the roof.

How did he get away so fast?

They crossed the street and slipped into a dark alley. Derek coughed and sputtered, leaning against the wall, and Kaela did her own share of coughing, trying to rid her lungs of the foul smell staining her insides. She sat on her feet, tears flooding her eyes as the building she’d worked in and managed for years erupted in flames, along with all her friends.

The sign at the front of the building flickered out and shattered. Smoke poured from within, and the fires spread greedily. Her heart sank into her stomach. Everybody in there was gone, and they wouldn’t be identifiable once the flames finished their job. Sirens sounded in the distance, but by the time the fire department arrived, it would be too late. That was, if they weren’t also under Caleb’s influence.

Everybody in that building might as well have died by her hand. She was just as much at fault as Caleb was, and that was fine. Because she would find him. The more he took away from her, the less she had to lose, the less she had to live for. He would die by her own bare hands when she got the chance. He would find them again with some other diabolical plan to tear them apart, and she would be ready.

A warmth brushed her side, and Derek was there, a hand on her back.

“How’s your arm?”

Kaela brushed his hand away, gently. She couldn’t accept his sympathy, not after how she’d let him go in there with her.

As the Rose collapsed with a loud rumble that pained her ears, all she needed was Caleb, dead before her—better yet, crumpled before her, broken, pleading with her, begging her to show him mercy.

She wouldn’t.