part0039

Ana swept the torchlight left and right, looking for an exit, somewhere to hide, anything. She thought they were heading back in the direction they had come from, but in the dark it was easy to lose your bearings. The ground was uneven, stalagmites jutting out from the ground like knives.

Leaving the infernal beast and the gruesome noises behind, they ran into the beyond, unable to find the exit, or a wall, or anything that might indicate a way out. Lost in the eternal nighttime of the cave, Ana felt like falling to her knees and screaming.

A weak voice. A croak. Instantly recognisable.

Ana whirled on the spot, the beam lighting nothing but glistening webs stretched taut above her like white rainbows of horror.

‘Keep talking Rach, I can’t find you,’ she said, the panic manifest in her voice .

‘Over here. I’m over here.’

She listened, shutting out the awful noise of the creature. Rachel sounded exhausted, like every word was an immense effort. Ana knew the feeling.

She swung the torch, the light catching something on the ground.

A pool of blood, dark and tranquil.

She ran towards it, looking up above her, not caring if she tripped and fell.

There she was, suspended above them on the web, drenched in sticky red fluid.

‘I found you!’ shouted Ana, her heart pumping like she had just snorted several lines of cocaine.

‘Keep your voice down,’ barked Chakrit. ‘I cut her loose.’ He wrenched the torch from Ana and pointed the beam at the web, identifying where it angled downwards to its lowest point. Ana had no time to react, finding herself in darkness as Chakrit raced out of sight. In her mind, the cave was closing in.

‘We’re gonna get you out of here,’ she said, hoping she was right. The web moved, one corner dropping. She could see the light in the distance, hear Chakrit’s panting as he raced to find another accessible part of the web to sever.

Where was the spider?

What had it done to Lisa?

Ana reached up to Rachel. She could almost touch her sister’s foot. She wanted desperately to feel her, to truly believe they were together, and that escape was within their grasp. With a loud snap another corner of the web broke, Rachel falling further, dangling in front of Ana. Like Lisa, she too was naked and drenched in blood. Ana grabbed her sister by the waist, her face pressing into the girl’s belly. Rachel cried out in pain as Ana tried to tug her free, the web beginning to give way.

Then it did, depositing Rachel on top of her sister. They fell to the ground together, entangled in each other’s limbs, both crying now, joy or terror or madness; neither was sure, nor convinced it mattered.

The cavern lit up, the clouds far above them dispersing, allowing a single beam of moonlight to flood through the hole in the ceiling. They lay still, Ana holding Rachel.

‘Is that your blood?’

‘Some of it,’ replied the dazed girl, her words slurred and indistinct. Nasty red welts scarred her bare back where the web had held her. Ana searched for Chakrit’s torch and saw it coming towards them.

‘We’re getting you out of here.’

‘It won’t let us leave.’

Ana stroked her sister’s blood-soaked hair.

‘It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’ll never leave you, Rach. Never.’

The torch was getting closer, the beam flashing wildly from side to side.

‘Run!’ screamed Chakrit. ‘It’s right above you!’

It’s not that Ana didn’t believe him. It’s just the perfectly natural human instinct to want to look . Like if someone shouts He’s got a gun and instead of dropping to the floor you have a peek first to see precisely who has the gun.

It’s why she looked up when she really shouldn’t have.

The spider was descending, coming for her. For an instant she was eight again and back in the wardrobe in her grandmother’s house, unable to move, unable to breathe, her body stiffening. It was even bigger than she had thought. It looked large enough to crush an elephant in its putrid, bleeding legs .

It didn’t matter. She just hoped it would be quick.

Turned out Rachel needn’t have bothered saving her life last year. It was simply delaying the inevitable.

‘No!’ yelled Ana, the enormous spider slinking down towards them on its white silk cord, thick jets of blood pumping from the gash on its belly. She watched as its legs folded back on themselves again, those strange long fingers breaking through the body, turning to fists that tore the spider’s underside apart, a shower of plasma erupting from the dangling monster. She saw her own reflection staring back at her in the creatures eyes, her face scarlet with someone’s blood.

She found her final hidden reserve of strength, clutching Rachel under her arms and dragging her backwards, away from the creeping menace. It dropped quickly, landing hard on the rock and blocking the light from Chakrit’s torch.

‘Chakrit!’ shouted Ana.

‘Get out!’ he called back.

The spider hesitated.

‘Can you move?’ said Ana to Rachel. ‘I need you to move.’

‘I can do it,’ she replied. It was all Ana needed to hear. She yanked Rachel to her feet, took her hand and ran, their bare feet slapping off stone, never once stopping to look back. Chakrit was yelling something in Thai. Distracting the creature, giving them a chance to escape. Ana wanted to cry but she didn’t have time. He was a fucking hero.

She didn’t know where they were going, but she could see a light source ahead of her. The corridor with the flaming torches?