The Diamond Spider

It took me a moment to crack myself out of my fear induced petrification before I began moving again, that same fear driving me to both rush out of this nightmare as quickly as possible and take the time necessary to not kill myself in the process. With a caution that was becoming uncomfortably normal, I carefully, slowly picked my way through the web covered tunnel, knowing that a single wrong step and I would not only lose my leg but alert that thing to my position. I’d like to say I had been in worse situations, but the only thing that comes to mind was bleeding to death on Alxhaustra’s floor. Which, I suppose, was arguably worse.

Being at the mercy of a mad scientist and being hunted by an intelligent spider-thing with malice so potent as to be felt in the air; oh what lovely places this new lease on life has taken me to. The threat of imminent death or the actuality of feeling your body go cold, neither are particularly fun.

Even above the sound of crackling flames growing closer, the inharmonious sound of that crystalline beast plucking its strings became forever embedded in my mind; if I lived an eternity, I would never forget that sound ringing out in the near silence and the terror it brought me. It felt as if each discordant note was plucked out on my very nerves rather than the unending sea of webbing around me.

The worst part of this web, save of course the danger it posed, was that it blocked my vision and made the whole place seem to blur together into a homogenous void; even with Paranoia telling me what’s around me much further than I could actually see, the feeling that every step took me nowhere slowly set in. It felt as if my whole world was nothing but the crisscrossing webs surrounding me and the oppressive feeling of a hateful eye sweeping about. I would have thought this some sort of magical effect of the webs if not for Sociopath telling me I cannot be emotionally manipulated by attacks.

It was extraordinarily disorienting, to the point that more than once I found myself drifting along towards a wall or partially reversing, only realizing either when Paranoia’s keen eye saw the walls moving the wrong way. My vision felt blurry and swam about slightly, the neverending black lines stitching themselves about all my sight seeming to twist themselves into shapes that hurt my brain. My thoughts, for as quickly as they raced through my head, felt fuzzier and fuzzier with every not-sigil I saw in the web.

A thought swam across my head as if coming from some vastly distant island through an ocean of molasses. It took me far longer than it should have to form each word of the thought piece by piece, but eventually the whole sentence swam into focus;

...The...

...webs...

...are...

...moving.

The long second it took for understanding to set in made my racing heart turn cold, the world snapping into stark focus as my whole world zoomed into the single web behind me that was vibrating ever so slightly. It began to vibrate more violently as several of its brethren joined it in motion.

My mind raced faster than my heart, the haze clearing from my eyes so quickly the notification of my Perception improving barely registered. Were I thinking clearly, I would have paused to consider if I had touched the web and see if that crystalline spider truly was heading towards me. As is, I skipped those steps straight to panic mode and began sprinting as quickly as I could without slicing myself to ribbons on the source of my fear.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Panic and disorientation are not conducive to safe conduct, and before long I was leaving a trail of blood from a dozen shallow cuts gained in my haste to escape from a threat that every drop hammered into my mind was definitely coming now even if it hadn’t been before. The thrumming webs hailing the dread creature’s approach grew louder with every moment until even the pounding of my heart was drowned out. My vision became so focused on what was directly ahead of me that had I not possessed Paranoia I surely would have sliced myself to bits on a thread I didn’t see. Fortunately, this tunnel vision allowed me to see a change in my razor filled prison as soon as it appeared.

It took my addled mind far longer than it should have to process exactly what I was seeing, let alone that I was seeing anything at all. While I no longer truly perceived darkness in the way any creature of my Earth did, my magic eyes could still tell that light was shining into this abyssal place from somewhere up ahead. Now, light could mean dozens of things, but the only one my dripping brain caught on to was change; either the tunnel is about to end in something bright or fires are racing towards me, either way something other than this oppressively sharp nightmare lay before me. My pace picked up even more at the hope before me.

And then I tripped.

Increasing an already dangerously quick run into a full blown sprint in an environment best traversed at a speed closer to partially congealed magma is not the best decision it would seem. I took one wrong step and left half my back foot behind, the pain and poor footing causing me to fall over and slide a few inches across the now blood slicked ground, losing a chunk of the skin off my back in the process.

HP -8

I lay there, gasping for breath for a scant moment before the thrumming of the webs around me splattered my own shed blood into my eyes, reminding me of the reason I was running in the first place. My desperate attempts to get back to my three remaining intact feet only resulted in me slipping over my own blood and winding up only injuring myself further.

HP -1

The thrumming came to an abrupt stop as I fell on my flayed open back, the sheer pain ending my attempts at movement for a moment. The silence proved even more haunting than the incessant noise had ever been and my body instinctively went very, very still. My every muscle pulled taut and I felt as If I had turned to stone as the reason why the webs might go quiet floated into my mind; the diamond spider had arrived.

Something I never expected to hear in this mad pit of mindless horrors met my ears as I tried to loosen my clenched everything; laughter. Laughter like a cold wind through a glass chime, tinkling in a way that felt like icy water slithering through my ears and leaving my leaking blood frozen. Laughter like the crowing of carrion birds watching a man succumb to his wounds so very far from home. Laughter like the buzzing of flies around a child too sick to see the dawn.

“Hmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhm… and as always the prey’s struggling comes to its inevitable end.” The haunting voice stirred me into motion, even my instincts knowing that staying still and hoping it won’t see me is unlikely to work when so very definitely spotted. A single bladed leg the size of my torzo lanced down next to my head, shocking me into stillness yet again. “Now now, no running; we wouldn’t want to spoil the meal with such bothersome chazing again, now would we?”

I spat blood in the massive spider’s sapphire eyes, causing it to flinch back a half step. That brief moment was just enough to let me regain my footing and start sprinting anywhere but here before an indignant roar heralded pain shooting through me. The spider slammed its leg into my side, knocking me over and paralyzing me with pain. I never got the chance to so much as contemplate getting back to my feet before two massive fangs slammed into my stomach and pierced almost all the way through me.

HP -4

There is nothing quite like the feeling of your innards being slurped up through two straws, but I most assuredly do not recommend it. It wasn’t just the unthinkable agony of melting, or the knowledge that I was dying that made it so horrible; it was the feeling of becoming hollow, of having some vital parts of me sucked out that made this a uniquely awful experience. My vision slowly faded to the deepest black I’d ever seen as my body began to deflate like a fleshy balloon…

HP -1

You are de-

HP +1

And then an almost equally horrible feeling of everything getting suddenly shot back into place slightly wrong flooded into me. My melted innards floated about within me, slowly solidifying as the spider’s massive, translucent fangs slid from my body even quicker than they entered. While my vision was still faded and mostly black, Paranoia was as vigilant as always, showing the sharp edged beast of a white so bright it nearly hurt to look upon rearing back on its hind legs and thrashing about. Its sharp legs sliced apart its own webbing as if it weren’t even there as the creature fell over itself, writhing and thrashing in seeming agony.

I watched as the creature’s fangs began spewing a viscous grey fluid all about, every drop staining it’s ebon webs the same dull colour. Before my shocked gaze the beast began desperately stabbing its own sternum over and over again, the stark white limbs coming out increasingly grey with each stab as it savagely tore into itself. Great bellowing shrieks filled the air as the creature began to run randomly about, tearing its intricate web to pieces and leaving a trail of blood that was increasingly more grey than the near glowing blue its initial stabs produced.

I blinked, staring slack jawed as webs came crashing down all around me, watching the spider run beyond my hazy sight, a trail of grey flesh left behind.

Title Gained: Deathwalker