part0049

Gouts of blood jettisoned from her mouth, spilling down her nude and gnarled body as whatever lay in her belly scratched and clawed. Rachel’s ribcage burst with a violent crack, several white bones tearing out through her skin like branches on a long-dead tree, ichorous fluid spraying Ana from across the room.

Rachel’s stomach ruptured in a welter of gore as a stalk-like protrusion tore its way out, then another, and another. She jerked, her body a useless marionette, the thing inside her the dreadful, chuckling puppeteer.

The legs — eight in total, of course — unfurled until they rested on the wooden floor, now slick with blood, loose intestines slopping around as the boat rocked. It tried to raise itself up, weak with the exertion of birth, its host body now a flat, lifeless husk with vacant eyes that stared at Ana through a mask of horrified anguish .

Someone was coming down the stairs.

She ripped her eyes away from the monstrous creation just as Chakrit’s uncle stepped into the room. He saw Ana and raised the shotgun, finger hovering over the trigger, before becoming aware of the scuttling presence in the corner. He swung the weapon towards the ruined mess of Rachel.

The gun slipped from his hands, hitting the floor and going off, blasting a hole in the wall right between Ana’s knees.

The spider, growing with each passing second, was as big as a dog. It flung itself towards the man, cloaking his face with all eight legs, muffling his cries.

The legs dug in, tiny claws burrowing into the back of his head, splitting the skull. He slumped against the wall as the spider sank its fangs into his neck, the arterial-spray painting the walls a dark crimson.

Ana leapt over the body of Chakrit’s uncle as he gurgled and wailed, the spider feasting on human flesh for the first time, and hit the stairs running, relying on sheer adrenaline to carry her up. She burst through the hatch and felt the sea air on her face, then turned and slipped on the pool of blood seeping from the shredded remains of Chakrit’s neck, the stump of his vertebrae jutting out between the gristle.

There was no time to mourn.

The boat lurched back and forth as Ana struggled to her feet, cursing herself for not picking up the shotgun. Her mind raced. The pug bayed at her from the far end of the boat. She crawled towards him, away from what was left of Chakrit. The wood behind her creaked and splintered as the spider made its way upstairs. She searched for weapons, scanning the deck. Chakrit’s lighter was still tucked in the waistband of her panties, but how could it be any use against the abominable thing coming up the stairs? The pug stood next to a large wooden crate. Perhaps she could get some wood and set it on fire?

She didn’t know much about spiders, particularly giant ones, but she assumed they were as flammable as any other living thing.

She slid her way over to the crate, ignoring the plaintive wail of the dog. A huge rusted padlock swayed from the lid.

‘No!’ she cried, hammering her fists on the box. She tried to prise it open; even a single thin plank was better than nothing. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the creature emerging, obliterating the narrow staircase as it reached the outside, already the size of a grown man. It spotted her, the feet clicking madly on the deck as it scurried forwards, ignoring the pug and launching itself towards her. Ana kicked away from the crate and the spider crashed into it, smashing it apart, small blue sticks rolling out and across the deck.

The spider lurched unsteadily before coming at Ana again. A wave crashed into the side, sending both of them off-balance and the dynamite skittering across the deck. Ana lunged for it, outstretched fingers grasping at thin air as the sticks rolled one way then the next, her own feet, wet with blood, struggling to find maintain contact with the slippery deck.

Of course not. To do so would mean certain death. She would be killing herself again, only this time there was no one to save her .

The pug had stopped barking and was cowering near the broken staircase. She couldn’t blame him.

The spider approached, its legs wobbling slightly.

Well, it has just been born .

The boat tipped, and the dynamite came rolling back down towards Ana. She stooped and grabbed one as the spider made its move, hurtling towards her. She threw herself onto her back, legs sticking up in the air, pressing into the spider’s abdomen and keeping it at bay. The legs gouged at her, lacerating her already brutalised skin. She had the lighter in one hand, a stick of dynamite in the other, and a gargantuan flesh-hungry spider on top of her. She flipped the lighter open and tried desperately to get it to catch a flame. The spider brought a muscular leg down on her forearm, pressing it to the deck and putting the dynamite stick safely out of reach, betraying a malevolent intelligence behind the hundreds of tiny eyes. She struck flame with the lighter and held it up to the creature’s stomach as it slathered drool from its jaws.

The creature’s belly squirmed and undulated and Ana knew what was coming next. A hand, soft and red, tentatively reaching out, emerging up to the elbow. It found Ana’s wrist and gripped it, pressing hard with its skinless thumb. She heard her ulna snap and she roared in pain, the lighter dropping from her now-useless hand, the fleshy digits keeping hold of her as the soggy tissue parted once more and the bulging sac of a head appeared. This one had more definition to it; a mouth, a nose and two black holes where the eyes should be. The mouth opened, unleashing an ear-splitting shriek that vibrated in the pit of Ana’s stomach. The Upside-Down Man released her arm and reached for her throat. She moved her head, snapping her own mouth shut, trying to bite the creature, her own animal instincts kicking in.

Suddenly the pressure on Ana’s good arm abated, and the hand on her neck slackened. She turned her head and saw the pug with its jaws clamped firmly over the spider’s leg, scrambling backwards like it was determined to tear the limb clean off. The spider shook its appendage, but the little dog clung on fiercely, even as the spider slammed it into the deck.

Ana had one chance. She brought her free arm up in one fluid motion, slamming the stick of dynamite into the Upside-Down man’s gaping mouth. It went straight in, the end bursting out the back of his head and wedging in tightly.

The spider waved its leg one more time, propelling the small dog overboard and into the ocean. It was only a second, but it was all the time Ana needed. With the spider momentarily distracted, she grabbed the fallen lighter with her good hand, flicked it and held the flame to the dynamite. It caught, the fuse sparking into life and she kicked with all her strength, pushing the spider back just far enough for her to roll out from under it.

The Upside-Down Man groped for the explosive, unwilling to go near the burning fuse. Ana ran, her bare feet smacking off the deck. She reached the rail and threw herself over as behind her the spider exploded. The heat of the blast scorched her back as she sailed through the air, splashing into the sea in a colossal belly-flop, followed closely by a rainstorm of blood and limbs spattering across the surface. Drifting under the water, she saw the yellow dinghy and swam for it, breaking the surface for a moment, in time to see the fire raging across the deck of the fishing boat, the fuses of the loose dynamite sticks catching and sparking. She ducked back under as they went off, explosions blasting across the boat sending wood and metal firing across the sky and into the sea, eradicating any trace that the boat had ever existed.

It was quiet under the water, mercifully so. In a way, Ana wished she could just stay there forever, cocooned in the tranquillity of the ocean, nestled in Mother Nature’s womb.

She bobbed her head up and looked to where the boat once was. The craft was destroyed and whatever remained was sinking fast and taking her sister’s body with it. With her last gasp of strength, she swam towards the dinghy, now floating freely, the rope that had bound it now a frazzled cord that trailed through the sea.

She reached the rescue boat and hauled herself up, fighting through the pain of her broken wrist. Wrapping one bruised and cut leg over the edge, she dragged her body up and flopped down into the dinghy, utterly spent.

Something scratched at the boat, clawing violently at it.

‘You can’t still be alive,’ breathed Ana.

This was it then. Even after all that, after blowing it to smithereens with dynamite, it still came for her, a waking nightmare that crawled on eight wretched legs.

‘Come and fucking get me then,’ she sighed.

She lay there, unable to move, squinting into the sun, waiting for the half-burnt spider to clamber on board and finish her off, dragging her down into the fathomless depths.

With a splash it finally forced its way out of the water and landed in the dinghy. Ana closed her eyes. Small feet padded their way over to her as Grub the pug let out a sad whimper and curled up next to her, his wet fur soothing against Ana’s aching, scalded skin. She put an arm over his shivering body and wept beneath the glare of the sun.