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"Truth be told-" Angel Dust spoke softly as he and Sir Pentious moved through the park shortly after the spider's brother raced away from the Hotel.
Blood spots told the two they were going in the right direction, claw marks slashed into the Earth hinting to them getting closer with every step.
"When we were alive, n shit REALLY hit da fan, he'd flee to da park, da playground to be completely frank wit you's and hide away. Only time he'd leave us, Molly n I!"
Slithering alongside the spider Demon, Pentious held his hands together and imagined what on EARTH was so bad that it made such a hardened man flee, leaving his siblings behind to fend for themselves with their Father and his abuse!
"Sometimes you's just kinda.. Let instincts take over, ya know?" Angel explained as if he read the snake's mind.
"He was never gone long, sometimes we'd even follow him. His favorite place ta hide is under da slide! Me n Molly Haha, we loved the platforms above da slide, we made it our castle~ Nissy was our guard!"
"You all sound very clossse, very, very close!" Sir Pentious hissed softly, seeing this and believing it without question.
In his time with Arackniss he learned that indeed, as hardest and emotionless that he acted, he indeed had a side to him to no one else ever saw.
No one that was, unless that one was Angel Dust and Sir Pentious!
"Hold-" Angel whispered and threw up a hand signal.
Pentious had seen Arackniss make the same one and knew to remain where he was, silent, observant whilst the other went further forward to take a look around.
He waited with baited breath, irises large to see all he could in the darkness beyond.
Upon the ground before him and the tracks that lead Angel Dust a few steps further told a story about a small wounded spider, clawing his way into hiding.
Hiding from what, only he could see.
-
"Nissy?"
The playground sawdust crunched underneath Angel's boot steps, his body lowered, signaling to the one he approached that he wasn't a threat.
Movement beneath the slide gained his utmost attention.
Panting with waves of pain trickled out alongside the motions let the little brother know he'd found what they'd been search for.
The past and its hiding place was indeed still present in the older ones mind.
"DON'T come any closer!" Angel heard and stopped on a dime.
Arackniss was not only scared, but pain was fueling his already trigger senses.
He'd strike without meaning to and run off again if he wasn't careful, if he didn't listen to the demands.
"Why didn't you's tell me, Tony?"
Shaking breath, a whimper of pain, Angel knew his brother was exhausted from his fleeing.
"Not beaten around da bush, but tell you what, Niss?" He asked back calmly.
"How much I look like HIM!"
Oh-
Angel lowered himself onto his belly and chest fluff before answering again, spying the small curled shape of his beaten down brother.
"Dat you look like Henrion? Cause I wasn't aware looks on de outside mattered!"
"Dats all ANYONES seen in me, Anthony! Not ME! HIM!"
"Da Soilder he made me out to be! His perfect Soldier! His personal Killer! A mindless machine that he used until I grew wise and he wasn't happy knowing!"
"We only saw YOU Nissy.." Angel breathed, crawling closer to the hidden spider beneath.
"To be fair?"
Finally, their eyes locked and Angel felt choked.
Blood drenched his shirt middle. His right arm and leg bent even worse, compensating for the marathon he'd done on them.
"No one else knows what Henrion even LOOKS like, Arackniss… No one but us two!"
"All they've ever seen in you is well, you! A lil charcoal colored spider wit emotional trauma just try'n ta start a new life!"
"Dats all they've seen in me~"
Angel felt his brother shifting back further and hurried out with a smile.
"Dey don't see da porn star I made myself here in Hell! Dey see Angel Dust! Da guy whose going to be Redeemed, da guy whose gotten away from his past and has been try'n ta make a better furtue for himself~"
"All I ssssee-" A tender hiss spoke up and startled Angel into jumping up.
"Is Aracknissss! My little Sniper, my hard working Ssspider~ The love of my life, the light in the dark~"
"Pent?"
"He couldn't stay away when I snuck out ta find you's~"
The two men watched as a scarred spiders face peeked out from beneath the tube slide and let his gaze travel over one then the other.
"Danger Noodle here wasn't haven any of de others ideas on how to find you's and followed me pretty danm well until he mentioned da park n why I was going inside~"
"I worried a moment as to why he wassss going that way until he brought to my attention that you weren't well and signs could be found where it wasss you'd traversed."
"A ssstory shared about how you enjoy the park~ And how the trailss confirming this asss we kept onward!"
"Your bleedin, Nissy.. Your really hurting.." Angel breathed, finally reaching out a hand towards Arackniss.
"Dats how we's found you's! You need ta come back wit us, back to da Hotel!"
"Back home, Dear~" Sir Pentious hissed before lowering himself next just to catch a glimpse of his little Spiders face.
"He's there-"
"No, he's not, Johnny!" Angel announced before taking his brothers left hand and giving it a little squeeze.
"Dats Arackniss you's sees! Dats a hearty motherfucker whose no longer taken the shit from his old Man! Dats Arackniss, da man who's broken away from dat life and stands tall, stands strong before a reflection of what he was made up to be!"
"It won't go away so easily my Dear-" Sir Pentious spoke softly, reaching for the others broken hand.
"But we're not going anywhere, he can't make us~ We're going to stand bessside you, beside Aracknissss as you overcome that Beassst and show him he'sss no longer in control~"
"You's gotta trust us first, Niss~" Angel whispered, smiling into his brothers remaining eyes.
"Trust dat what we see isn't HIM, but YOU~"
"Sssee all the hard work you achieve thus far, how far you've come and where it will lead~"
"Don't be scared anymore, Johnny~" Angel breathed, finally touching his nose to his brothers and beaming when he didn't flinch back.
"We're here~"
"And we love you~"
"Just come back home and we can continue overcoming this~"
"Together~"
The back and forth from Angel to Pentious to Angel and lastly Pentious left Arackniss weakly getting himself out from beneath the tube slide and into the half lit playground.
His broken body quaked. His eyes remained lowered. But his hands never let go of the ones holding them.
And at last, in a tired breath he accepted gently, "Together~"
Between the two Sinners, Arackniss was helped along on his own two feet until he no longer could stand it, then, for the first time ever, he allowed himself to take a helpful hand and get carried the rest of the way home.
To the relieved smiles of their family back at the Hotel~