part0041

The light was getting stronger. Ana already knew this wasn’t the way she had come in. This light was steady, not flickering, and cast a deep red glow that spilled out through a small opening in the wall.

‘Where’s Paul?’

Ana considered the question carefully. ‘He’s safe. He’s waiting for us at the boat.’

‘Yes. He rescued me.’ That was all she wanted to say on the matter. Luckily, Rachel asked no more questions, and they soon found themselves at the entrance to another tunnel. A way out? Ana hoped so. It was like a fucking anthill in here. Rachel stumbled, and Ana helped her upright again. They were both exhausted.

‘Through here,’ grunted Ana, putting Rachel’s arm over her shoulder and holding it tight. The ceiling was low, and both girls had to stoop to make it through.

‘I don’t feel well.’

‘I know. But we have to keep going.’

‘No, inside. I’m burning.’

‘Please Rach, we have to go before it comes back.’

Ahead of them the red light glowed like a beacon. But was it bringing them to safety?

They rounded a corner and Ana stopped, almost letting Rachel slip from her grasp.

‘What the fuck,’ she gasped.

She paused, taking in the absurd details. The angular walls, the sharp corners and clean, straight lines, the marble floor. It was the ultimate incongruity in this cave of hopeless nightmares, a man-made chamber nestled in a subterranean cavern.

Towards the back of the room the ceiling curved upwards into an arch, reminding Ana of a cathedral. Intricate carvings lined the walls, depicting a variety of sinister creatures that sent her already fragile mind spinning at the ghastly implications. Stone pews faced away from the entrance, separated by an aisle, each one bedecked in detailed carvings. It was the work of disturbed master craftsmen. Hieroglyphic words engraved on the walls meant little to Ana, carved as they were in some obscene, ancient tongue.

The aisle led to a huge circular pit, from which the scarlet light emanated, highlighting the ethereal dance of the vaporous mists that rose from within, and beyond that, set into the wall, were seven doors of solid oak.

She sat Rachel down on one of the monolithic stone pews. The blood on her skin was drying and forming a hardened shell that cracked as she moved.

‘Stay there,’ she said, as if Rachel had a choice.

She ambled down the aisle in a grotesque parody of matrimony, her eyes fixed on the circular pit.

Strange bas-relief sculptures watched her from the walls, the work exquisite and chillingly lifelike, though bearing little resemblance to anything that had ever set foot on this planet.

Ana shuddered as she drew nearer. The light was coming from below. How many levels could this hellish dungeon contain?

‘You okay Rach?’ she called back.

‘Yes,’ came the weak reply. ‘Hurry. It burns.’

Against her better judgement, Ana quickened her pace, wearing her trepidation like a funeral gown. The pit radiated heat like an out-of-control furnace and she stepped to the edge.

There was a crashing sound as the tunnel wall started caving in, rubble tumbling to the ground and rocks breaking.

The spider had found them, and now it was trying to get through.

This chamber was important in some grand cosmic scheme, but she wasn’t going to find out why, not today, maybe not ever. She had to get back to Rachel and get them out of here. She refused to let Rachel die. She couldn’t let her die. The thought was the only thing keeping her going.

As she turned back towards her sister, something caught her eye, deep in the pit, and she looked down, catching a fleeting glimpse of what lay beneath. A glimpse was all she needed. Any longer and there may have been no coming back, zero chance of psychological recovery.

It carried on forever, like looking through an inter-dimensional telescope to a realm where madness ruled and sanity was the stuff of fantasy. Deep in the pit of her frazzled brain, it registered with her. She had seen this place before.

The great vista stretched out over the horizon, a maddening collage of cyclopean buildings rising from smouldering ruins, the spires and obelisks scraping reddened skies or rising up and out of sight, the whole place coated in thick webs, the screams of those caught in them echoing across aeons, time nothing more than a sick joke played on the eternally damned. The spiders — hundreds of them — waited with damnable patience, perched next to their prey, some feeding, others simply watching. They lined the pit all the way down, an army of sentient monsters, their eyes hungry with mad desire.

The last thing she saw before she turned away from that half-glimpse of another place and time was a solitary spider leg emerging from the clouds and coming to rest on a cathedral, the ground quaking, the stone structure collapsing on top of the unseen congregation, the beast’s colossal form thankfully hidden by the perpetual storm clouds. It must have been hundreds and hundreds of feet tall…

‘Ana, it’s coming!’

Her vision spiralled, and she stepped backwards to prevent herself toppling over into the pit.

Dazed, she turned to Rachel.

Rachel shuffled her way towards Ana, her eyes wide with fear.

‘Ana, it’s breaking through the walls.’

‘Okay,’ whispered Ana. Then, louder, ‘Okay!’ She willed her legs to work, carrying her away from the pit and towards her sister.

Rachel fell, Ana catching her in her open arms. The walls shook. One of the carvings, a hideous beast resembling a winged octopus, split up the middle, a black snake slithering towards the high ceiling before splitting in two and continuing its journey.

‘What are we gonna do?’ she asked Ana.

Rock crumbled overhead and crashed down next to them, dust clouding before their eyes as dirt and earth poured in from the widening fissures.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, her eyes darting frenziedly around the room.

Two sinewy legs poked through, raking deep grooves in the ground, the spider scrambling for grip as it forced its way through. The walls didn’t look like they would hold out much longer.

‘What about down there?’ said Rachel, pointing towards the pit.

‘No. There’s nothing there.’

The spider hauled itself through the gap, its shroud catching on the rocks and tearing free, the exposed musculature of its foul body throbbing and pulsing in lurid symphony. The sides of the tunnel gave way as it dragged its grotesque frame into the chamber.

Ana stepped in front of Rachel.

‘Go away!’ she shouted as the spider crept towards her, the blank, lifeless eyes locked onto their target. ‘What do you fucking want?’

One leg lashed out, catching her in the stomach and launching her across the room. She smacked into the wall and dropped to the floor like a rag doll. Ana picked herself up, head swooning in delirium, her vision swimming in and out of focus. She put a hand to the back of her hand and it came away slick with dark blood.

The spider raised itself, towering over Rachel. The round egg-like belly squirmed, the muscle quivering and parting as the familiar red hands spread the flesh apart and a figure — it wasn’t a man, not really — writhed his way through. This time though, he emerged fully, stepping out of and away from the spider. He stood on wobbling legs as the now-empty vessel behind him shuddered and froze, a ship without a captain.

The bleeding man staggered towards them like a toddler, shoulders swaying, knees buckling, head lolling from side to side like a puppet with its strings cut. He weaved his way over the treacherous terrain until he stood mere inches from Rachel and slumped down onto one knee before her. It looked like he was about to propose. He held out one drooping, gory paw and placed it gently on Rachel’s stomach, rubbing it across her belly with the soothing caress of a lover. Then he lifted his sagging head back and issued a laugh that chilled Ana to her very marrow. From somewhere — she thought it may have been from deep within the red pit — came another laugh, a high-pitched cackling. Then another, and another, until the cave was alive with mocking, cruel howling. The man stopped abruptly and looked at Ana through the black pits of its eyes.

She stood her ground, fists clenched and wiped away a solitary tear.

‘I’m not afraid of you, you fuckin’ wee bastard. I’ve killed hundreds of your friends over the years. Fucking stamped on them, washed them down the plughole, whatever. Is this your revenge? Huh? Come on then, you cunt. Come on!’

The bloody, monstrous figure stood a moment, then walked backwards, following the trail of his own blood towards the body of the spider. He turned and faced it, then entered the bulging sac of its belly, partly disintegrating as he did so, chunks of meat hitting the ground.

Seconds later, the spider awoke, raising itself up. It pivoted, turned and left, bundling its way through the gap, leaving Rachel and Ana alone in the chamber.

Ana stood, speechless, trying to process what had just happened. She looked at Rachel, at the bloody handprint on her belly. Her swollen, inflamed belly.

A distant cry. ‘Ana?’

‘Hurry, we don’t have much time!’ He emerged into the chamber, staggering on his damaged legs, somehow dripping wet. Ana ran to Rachel first, lifting her, escape at the forefront of her mind.

‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘Where did it go?’

‘Distracted. Come on!’

‘I thought you were dead,’ said Ana.

‘Almost. Hurry!’

They navigated the damaged tunnel towards the main cavern. The giant funnel web was ablaze with fire, the whole place lit up like a Christmas tree in Hell. The spider perched beneath it, howling in rage as centuries of work crisped and melted before its many eyes, the cocoons sizzling and popping, showering the creature with thousands of tiny flaming spiderlings. They were dead before they hit the ground. The fire spread across the web like a fuse on a stick of dynamite. It was almost hypnotic to watch.

Chakrit held the torch that had caused the carnage, dodging the flaming debris that rained down from above.

‘This way,’ he said, beckoning them on. ‘I found a way out!’

They ran, following Chakrit’s lead until Ana could see the flames playing across a rippling surface. Water!

‘In here. A tunnel,’ panted an out-of-breath Chakrit. ‘Should take us out.’

‘Should?’ asked Ana doubtfully. She could hear the dreadful clicking of the spider’s feet echoing through the cavern, could see its shadow darting about the remnants of its web, its home .

They stopped at a pool by the edge of the cavern, Chakrit plunging in, heedless of any potential dangers. He floated there as Ana lowered Rachel into his waiting arms. The cold water caused Rachel’s eyes to briefly flicker open. She looked at Ana and smiled.

‘Thank you,’ she said.

The smile died on her lips. Ana saw something in her sister’s eyes. Fear. She seemed to be looking through Ana, or beyond her. The realisation hit her and she prepared for the inevitable. Chakrit saw it too and called out, but it was too late.