Rebirth - The Beautiful Fallen (20 page)

             
We ended up walking up several flights of those stairs, beings there was no elevator.  Finally coming to the end of one of the dark hallways, Norma opened the door to what was apparently her apartment.  Inside was somewhat dark as well.  Stepping in, I could see that there wasn’t a whole lot of furniture, and what was there was old and worn.  I didn’t even see a television.  Near me, there was one window that was covered by an old green curtain that looked pretty worn.  Even the grey carpeting on the floor was stained and worn looking.  All in all, this place looked like a terrible place to live now that I was there.

             
Norma turned and smiled at me as we stood in the middle of the living room.  “Give me a few minutes.  I must make sure it will be ready.” She said, quickly slipping herself through a curtained doorway near us and into the room near us.

             
I looked around for a moment, trying to snap my mind out of the hypnotic state it had somehow gone into.  Just how did I end up there?  I never would’ve just agreed to go somewhere with a complete stranger like this, let alone someone that I could sense now wasn’t human.  Did she somehow hypnotize me?

             
Finally getting myself to move, I slowly looked at the dilapidated apartment around me.  Everything was quiet, say for a few odd scratching sounds here and there.  Mice maybe?  It wouldn’t have been that unheard of for a place like this.  Looking at my watch in the dim light, I realized now that another half an hour had passed since I’d walked in there.  What in the world was I doing?  I needed to make myself get out of there.

             
And yet, I still couldn’t make myself leave.  It was like that hold was still on me.  Moving without any real thought, I walked over to the curtained room near me.  Touching the tattered looking white curtain though, I brought my hand back in disgust.  All at once, my mind snapped back out of it.  Looking at my hand, I realized that it was covered in something sticky.  Almost like a web…

             
All at once, a loud clicking sound resounded through the room.  It actually made me jump .  Quickly looking around, I realized that it had come from up over my head.  It sounded like a series of clicks against a hardwood floor.  “Norma?” I called cautiously.  I reached up and held my pendant tightly.  The room was eerily silent as I stood there.  "Saffron..." I whispered in desperation.  I was getting scared now…

             
All at once, I felt the pendant in my hand get very warm.  “Get out of there!  This is not a place for you!” I heard Saffron order.

             
I jumped, running into the webbing over the door and screaming as it tangled up in my hair and onto my dress.  I actually had to fight to get myself out of it.  But as I did, I suddenly felt like I wasn’t alone.  Something very big was coming down behind me.  Slowly, I turned my head.  And to my horror, I saw large, spider like limbs reaching for me.  Somehow, I managed to pull myself all of the way out of the webbing and run to the exiting door.  I threw it open, running out to the stairwell.  But as I hurried down there, I realized that I heard the clicking sounds again.  They were following me, and fast.  Glancing back, I could barely believe my eyes.  It looked like a cross between a woman and a giant spider bounding down those stairs after me.  I quickly brought out my wings and jumped down the rest of the way, gliding to the lobby and out of one of the side doors.  I slammed it shut as hard as I could, then turned to run.  But suddenly, I felt something wrap around my shoulders, binding my wings.  I fell backwards as it pulled tight, but somehow managed to land on my side to protect my wings.  I had the feeling that if I’d fallen that hard on my back, I could have very well broken one.  Looking down, I stared in horror as I realized that it was a long piece of webbing wrapped around me.  That thing had just caught me!

             
Struggling as hard as I could against it, I looked up again to see the creature slowly walking over to me.  It was huge, and towering over me as it got closer.  For the first time though, I realized that this wasn’t exactly like a spider.  It was a woman with several eyes and long arms and legs like a spider’s.  The woman’s face was all too familiar too.  “Norma?” I heard myself say in disbelief.

             
“Are you surprised?” she asked me.  I could see what looked like a smile crossing her face, revealing the fangs lining her huge mouth.  “Looks as though your dear daddy couldn't block my spell on you after all.  How lucky for me.  You walked right into my lair.”

             
So that was what I'd felt when my pendant got warm after I started talking to Norma.  Saffron had been trying to stop her from putting her spell on me.  But he wasn't strong enough then.  I whimpered a little bit as she drew closer, actually singing softly.  “
Will you walk into my parlor?  Said the spider to the fly.  Tis the prettiest little parlor that you ever did spy…
”

             
I turned my head away, shaking hard now.  "Help me daddy..." I heard myself cry.

             
But as I thought she was going to strike me, a bright light suddenly come from my chest.  Norma jumped back, hissing a little.  The webbing around me shredded with the light, and I quickly moved to get up and onto my feet.  Around my neck, the pendant continued to glow brightly.  "I won't allow you to make of meal of my precious daughter.  You've underestimated me for my confinement.  But I'm seeing to it now that you pay for that indiscretion.  You should feel lucky you ugly bitch.  If I was free, I'd tear every limb from your filthy body.” I heard Saffron say.

             
At that, Norma backed up.  She actually looked frightened.   The pendant continued to glow brightly, and all at once, I saw her look over at the top of one of the buildings.  Then, she leapt back.  To my surprise, something hit the ground where she’d been standing.  Within seconds, someone landed between us.  I could barely believe my eyes.  “Chris?” I said.  Where in the world did he come from?

             
“It’s about time you showed yourself.  I’ve been keeping myself up for the past five nights hunting for you.  You cost me my date too, and that's really pissed me off.” Chris said, holding up his sword at her.

             
Norma hissed at him, jumping back up onto one of the ledges and crawling away quickly.

             
Chris just watched her for a moment, then turned back to me.  “You sure know how to attract trouble, don’t you?” he said.

             
“It’s not funny.” I pouted, pulling the remaining webs off of me.  It was taking a lot of effort though.  They were really sticky.

             
“You’re lucky you know.  If he hadn’t stepped in and pulled some strings, I probably wouldn’t have gotten here in time.  You really need to watch yourself more.” Chris said, helping me remove the remaining web strands.

             
“Okay, already.  Seriously, I’m not in the mood for a lecture right now.” I told him.

             
Chris just patted my shoulder.  “All right.  I get it.  But you need to come on.  We’ve got to find that spider before she gets another hiding place.  I’m sick of looking for her every night.” He said.

             
I just stared at him.  “What do you mean we?” I asked.

             
“Just what I said.  I’ve been hunting this thing for five days now, and I’m not going to lose track of her now.  And beings that you’re here, you’re going to help me catch her.” Chris replied.

             
Oh what luck I was having.  I couldn’t help but think that.  “Seriously?  Why me?  I can’t even fight that good yet, and you want to me help you catch that thing?” I asked him.

             
“Do as he says Ariana.” Saffron ordered from the pendant.  “It’ll do you some good to face something now.  You’re not hiding forever.  And I trust that you’ll make sure she doesn’t get hurt too badly, isn’t that right Christoff?”

             
Great, so now my father was on his side.  My day had just gone to hell, figuratively speaking. 

             
Chris reached over and took my hand.  “Come on.  You heard him.  Besides, I don’t need you to fight it.  I can handle that much.  What I need from you is to help defend against it.” He told me.

             
I really hadn’t thought about that until then.  It probably would’ve been the more logical thing to think of when I’d first ran from her.  I was a strong defender, and probably could’ve repelled her webs.  But I’d been so scared that I’d panicked.  I guessed that showed my age again.  I was still just a baby compared to Chris.

             
The two of us quickly took to the sky to go after Norma.  It wasn’t that hard to follow her at that point either.  She was bouncing from roof to roof, heading toward the abandoned warehouses towards the edge of town.  “How in the world is no one noticing her?” I had to ask.  I should’ve been wondering about us too, but I was too focused on our current monster.

             
“It’s a talent when you’re like this.  You can make the mortals tune you out.  Norma’s put that all around us now because she wants to escape.  That’s also why she’s staying so high up. So that none will get in the way.” Chris explained.  He frowned slightly as we watched her.  “I want to catch her before she gets into those woods.  If she makes it there, we’ll lose her for good.  And that will only make it worse with as hungry as she is.”

             
“Just how are we supposed to get her?  She’s huge!” I said.

             
“Trust me, the bigger they are, the easier they are to take down.  Just watch my back for me.” Chris said, forming a bow and arrow out of black electricity from his body.  As I watched, he stopped and took aim, sending one of the arrows flying down towards the giant spider woman.

             
The arrow hit one of Norma’s legs, and she quickly jumped down, slamming into the side of one of the warehouses.  A large dent was left there as she pulled herself back up.  Thankfully, the place was deserted, so no one was hurt. We came down and landed a few feet away from her.  I landed myself on a stairwell to another warehouse, and Chris on the ground.  He aimed another arrow at her.  “Stop running.  I know you’re not this much of a coward Norma.” He told her.

             
“Brave words from a damned child.” Norma responded.  “You think I didn’t know you’d try to come after me?  Even when it’s none of your concern, you try to hunt me down.”

             
“You broke some pretty important rules here Norma.  I know you’re well aware of that.  Spiders are not supposed to hunt the mortals.  And you’ve been keeping a pretty good diet of them here in the last three weeks.  Shadow Wing or not, I can’t stand by and let you continue doing that.” Chris said.

             
“I do what I have to.  If it wasn’t for you bringing that pretty little girl here, I would have had ample food.  But you brought her here, and now they come and scare the food away!” Norma said, snarling at me.

             
Scare the food away? I thought.  I didn’t have the first clue as to exactly what she meant by food there.  Obviously, she was a spider according to Chris.  Maybe she hunted smaller things other than humans, possibly from the other side.  But why would I have scared those things away?  Or, better yet, what did I bring there that scared them away?

             
Chris didn’t look too impressed though.  “Is that why you made her a target?  You know that if you tried to feed on a Shadow Wing that it would kill you.  Our blood would be poisonous to you.  Not to mention that if her father was free, he would've torn you apart for what you've already done with her.” He threatened.

             
“I had no intention of feeding on her.  I simply wanted her out of the picture so that I can eat.  You brought her here, and them.  They scare away the food.  I’ve made too good of a home here to have to move on because of a bunch of heretic angels!” Norma declared.

             
“You should’ve just moved on with your food.” Chris muttered, changing his weapon back to his sword.  I watched as a surge of electric wind blew out from when he swung it.  Norma herself quickly jumped away onto the side of one of the nearby walls, her legs digging in with each step she took.  It left huge holes in the mortar.

             
As for me, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing or hearing.  Her words played again and again in my head.  She was angry at us for scaring away her prey.  And even more precisely, she was angry at me for being there.  When I came there, the food was driven away.  Could that have been from what was trying to come after me now?

             
I didn’t get much time to think about it though before I had to move again.  A large piece of webbing came flying at me, and I barely got away from it.  The web piece itself actually left a large crack in the wall.  I leapt up, landing back on the ground, and quickly forcing my shields back up.  Thankfully, the black flames repelled the next piece of webbing that was hurled at me.

             
Chris quickly moved in front of me again, striking them back at her.  “I said that’s enough!  Retreat for good or I’ll have to get rid of you!” he warned her as he took a few steps towards her.