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Breathing had begun to feel like a chore the longer she stood there. The steady pounding of her heart sounded like a timer, counting down the minutes until Melly would become the monster’s next victim. A spider woman was fascinating to the brunette on surface level. Someone who was clearly human but somehow had embodied an arachnid in its entirety. She loved it, or she would have if the situation wasn’t so dire. She had watched in horror as the spider woman ripped a man to shreds right in front of her.
Melly hadn’t formally known anyone on the team. She had met the man briefly, he was named Mike and he seemed alright. A man with vibrant blonde hair and bright eyes. His demeanor intimidated Melly a bit, but she hadn’t said a word. They were going to survive together. That was what Mike had said. However, Melly had watched as the spider lunged towards him, striking him down with her wooden spindle of a leg. It wasn’t bad at first, it just looked like he fell. Then she enveloped him in a thick silk, Mike simply wriggled around. Until he didn’t.
It was a sick action, but Melly hadn’t been able to tear her eyes away. The sound of rushed typing and mashing of buttons had been replaced by an ungodly squelching. Slurping. She had watched as the cocoon ceased any movement and the spider woman unhinged her jaw. If she had formerly been human, she certainly wasn’t anymore. Melly watched in disgust and earnest as the spider woman devoured the lump of silk and flesh that had formerly been Mike. She only bit down once, when she had reached the head. Crimson red oozed out of the slik, dripping down the spider’s face until she covered it with her mask again. Mike’s head rolled across the earth, landing near a locker.
Curiosity got the best of Melly, she cautiously crept towards the half wrapped head. She crouched beside it, gently placing her hands on either side of Mike’s head. Half of it had been eaten away by whatever was in the silk. Skin had eroded, leaving pink splotches and exposed tissue. It made Melly wince. She knew she should be decoding, but her morbid fascination had bested her then. Mike’s blue eyes stared back at her, lifeless and dull. “Sorry…” She mumbled. It was the only thing she could think to say. If Melly had been paying attention she could have defended Mike. Taking one hit for him wouldn’t have ended her. She knew it wouldn’t have because she was fully healthy. Not a scratch on her. However, the longer she let her hands come into contact with the silk, she could see the leather of her gloves becoming worn. As if it was eating away at her gloves. It made Melly wonder what exactly was in the spider’s silk. She wasn’t a normal spider. But then again, what had been normal since she had come to the Manor? Everything seemed so warped.
This meant there were only three of them remaining. Melly tried not to let Mike’s death get into her head. In reality, it hadn’t. At least not emotionally. It was a gory sight, one she hadn’t wished to see, but she had. That was that. Melly’s grasp tightened on her net, desperate to familiarize herself with something. She ran towards the nearest cipher, dismayed to see no one else was there. She felt alone. Melly had never been a social butterfly, but she wanted to spread the word. She could only do what was right now. That would have been to decode. So she tried.
“Get out of here!” The words made Melly jump, and as if the words had triggered it, her heart began to go a mile a minute again. Who had said that? She trembled as she grabbed her net and began to run off. She heard the direction the voice had come from and took off in the opposite direction. The voice had belonged to none other than one Miss Demi Bourbon. The woman had never struck Melly as someone who was fast, but she didn’t want to doubt her. Melly realized how selfish she was being, running and hiding. She had always been on the run, looking out for the next person who would hurt her. Being comfortable meant being vulnerable. There was no way she would allow herself to be vulnerable ever again. Demi was sprinting, but she looked like she was slowing down. Her chest heaved, and Melly hid behind a green pallet.
Was it wrong to hide? She didn’t think so. It was easier to look out for herself than another woman. Or man. Anyone else would do the same. Mike had tried his damndest, but Melly hadn’t seen him defending anyone else. She could only watch Demi take off in the opposite direction, saving Melly from a direct encounter with the hunter. Her heartbeat slowed as she allowed herself to plunk out random keys on the cipher machine, hoping to finish decoding in enough time. Her tongue ran over her teeth as she continued to type. Her breathing had become a bit unsteady and anxious, as if she was expecting the worst. Why wouldn’t she? She had just seen that thing eat mike. Why would she have eaten him? As long as no one else fell prey to the monster’s jaws, Melly could get through this. She heard a loud groan in the distance, a scream really. Demi had been struck. Melly tried to keep typing, but she wondered if she should go after Demi.
It was her or Annie. Melly didn’t really want either of them to go after Demi. Annie was lovely, and Melly valued her existence too much. The intelligent and selfless Annie. Annie would probably go after Demi, but Melly hoped that she didn’t. She pulled away from the cipher in an attempt to hear where the hunter was, but she couldn’t. That just made everything worse. It was hard when she couldn’t tell where the creature was. She quickly went back to typing, feeling relief wash over her when it flared up, showing that she had successfully finished decoding it. Yes! She had done it! Now it was on to another. However, she heard a blood curdling scream as Demi was hit once more. Melly lightly placed her hands on the side of her helmet. As if to cover her ears, though it was a fruitless effort given where her ears were. Beneath her helmet. Melly tensed up, trying to see where Demi would be chaired. Or entombed in that acidic silk… The latter was a terrifying thought, and she could only hope that she didn’t meet the same fate as Mike.
Maybe Demi had time left. Had she already been caught? Mike had done his fair share of rescuing when the twisted game had begun. He had gone in once to save someone, then again to save once more. The second time was how he had gotten struck, and then a third time had killed him. However, when she heard the sick gurgling sound as well as the sound of the ground hissing, she knew that Demi had been consumed by the spider woman again. This time though, she hadn’t seen it. There wasn’t the same sickening crunch of teeth against bone and flesh. So maybe she hadn’t been eaten. Melly didn’t want to see wherever Demi’s remains lay, she tried not to think about it. She and Annie were still around. So they had to try to get through it. There were only two ciphers left. Tightening her grip on her net, Melly stood up straighter and began to run off towards the closest cipher, luckily it was unfinished.
“Focus on decoding!” Was the cry that Melly heard, she glanced up and saw Annie running past her. The woman gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze as she ran past. Why wouldn’t Annie stay? Sure they had two ciphers left, but they were safer together. There was safety in numbers. Still, Melly didn’t rush after Annie. She knew that the other woman was simply trying to complete the other cipher. That way the pair of them could be out sooner than they knew it! Melly continued to clack away, trying to focus on everything. Taking in both the skill of having to decode and the whereabouts of the hunter. God, why did it have to be so confusing? She tried not to dwell on how frustrating it all was. Instead she rapidly cranked things out. That was when she heard Annie scream.
“The hunter is near me!”
No. No! She couldn’t lose the other woman. Melly tried to type faster, praying that she would alert the hunter to her location if she finished the cipher fast enough. Her hands trembled as she quickened her pace, feeling herself tear up as Annie screamed out. Fuck. This wasn’t fair. She couldn’t lose Annie too. She had already lost Demi and Mike, granted she wasn’t the closest to either. It still stung. It still hurt her so badly, she couldn’t do this. Pulling away from the cipher as she finished it, Melly abandoned her net as she ran off to find Annie. The blonde woman had cried out again, and Melly knew she had been downed.
Everything felt eerily silent. She couldn’t see Annie, nor could she see the spider woman. Melly tried to find a place where she could hear that thing and her whole body would feel tense as her heart rate spiked to an unhealthy place. She couldn’t find it though. “Annie!” She screamed, unbothered that the hunter may have heard her. “Where are you?” That was when she heard more gurgling like when Demi had passed. When Mike had been consumed. Fuck. Fuck! There was no way she had lost Annie too. Melly’s eyes watered as she looked around, but then she saw it. The cocoon was still intact. She sprinted towards the cocoon where Annie lay, trying to comb through the spider silk to rescue the woman. “Come on,” she hissed under her breath. She could feel the silk eating away at her leather gloves, but she didn’t care. That was just something that may happen. “Come on Annie.” Alas, the woman was already dead. Melly felt her heart stop for a moment. That wasn’t fair. No, she couldn’t be the only one left.
As the spider woman crept towards her, Melly didn’t move. She wanted to die now. She wanted the other woman to destroy her so she could be reunited with her teammates. However, as the spider woman stood behind her, she was only struck once. Melly waited for her to kill her. She waited. She hadn’t moved, but neither did the spider.
The spider hit her once more, and Melly felt the unbelievable pain of getting beaten nearly to death. However, the spider picked her up and began to drag her across the hard ground. Melly was grateful for her helmet, knowing if she hadn’t had it it would have only added to the pain. Was she even alive now? Perhaps she was already dead. Life was only a dream now. Why didn’t this stupid spider just kill her? Her eyes watered as stones dug into her now exposed arms. Her coat had become tattered, everything she was wearing was torn up and a mess. She had been dropped at some point, next to a metallic red door in the ground. The spider woman stood above her, staring down at Melly.
“Go,” she said. “Go and tell them about what happened. None of you will ever stop me from winning, it’s better to not even try.”
The words from the woman made Melly ache. She really would never be able to tell the others. For her team was already dead. Though she had always been good at looking out for herself. So why didn’t it feel good this time? She was being let go. She was being freed. Not out of pity, out of disdain and warning. The spider nudged Melly with her leg towards the open cellar door, until she pushed Melly in.
When she fell on the cold hard ground, Melly gasped. The door slammed shut above her. She had won, but why? She wished she was dead. Oh, how she wished she was dead.