"What's taking so long?" Romeo whined as he leaned a generous portion of his body weight on Banksy. Banksy resisted the urge to drop Romeo on the floor and leave him for dead. "Come on, where is Lilith?"

"She's getting ready. You know how… Widows are?" Banksy said, barely paying attention to his own words as he led Romeo through a veritable labyrinth of hallways that ran under the manor. Just when he was sure he wouldn't ever be able to find a way out when he finally found a staircase.

Unfortunately, the staircase only led down. Despite this, Banksy decided to risk it. After all, what went up eventually came down, so it stood to reason that whatever went down would eventually have to come back up.

With effort he managed to drag Romeo down the stairs. With each step the air seemed to become thicker and the path grew dimmer. Banksy quickly found himself nearly blind and fighting to breath, but still he pressed on until he finally reached the bottom of the staircase. Narrowing his eyes, he gazed into the darkness but was unable to see more than a few inches in front of his face.

"S'dark down here," Romeo said as he slipped form Banksy's grasp and crashed to the floor. Banksy let him go, leaning against the wall and working to keep his breathing even. It was almost impossible to think straight, with the terrible air and the darkness and Romeo's constant blabbering.

Romeo….

"Light!" Banksy jerked back into motion and reached out to grab at Romeo. "We need light"

"I know. It's dark."

His hands finally found Romeo’s shoulder and he gave him a good shake. "Light you idiot. Make light!"

"Make light?" Romeo blinked. Then he blinked again. "What?"

Banksy nearly kicked him, but the pain in his foot from earlier had yet to fade and he managed to keep himself from lashing out. "Romeo. You are a lightning mage. You can control lighting. Use your magic. Make Light."

"Oh. Right." Romeo slowly lifted up his hand. Sparks played across his fingertips before his entire hand lit up with cackling bands of overlapping energy that formed into a single solid orb that floated just above his palm. Rays of light expanded from the orb and both boys were forced to look away for a moment as their eyes adjusted to the sudden change.

"Good work," Banksy said as he pulled his arm away from his eyes.

"Yeah…" Romeo said slowly as he looked at Banksy, then at the orb, then back to Banksy. "Wait, what the hell? Why are you in my room?"

"What?"

"Why are you in my… wait, where am I? Is this dirt? Why am I sitting on dirt?" Romeo lifted up his free hand, rubbing his fingertips together to dislodge the dirt that had clung to his fingers. "Banksy? What is going on? Why does my neck hurt?" Romeo reached up and touched his neck, quickly pulling his fingers back and staring at the blood that stained his fingers. He looked up at Banksy. "Did you fucking stab me? Just because the Widow Black liked me more? That's low, even for you. And I don't mean that like you are short. Which you are."

"Oh good, you're back." Banksy sighed. He offered his hand and Romeo tentatively took it. "Your magic must be burning off whatever is messing with your head. Do you remember anything?"

Romeo rubbed at his head. "The last thing I remember the Widow Black was whispering in ear and then…. Aw man, did I get blood over my shirt? I really liked this one, I was going to keep it. Servilia said she would take it out of my pay if I ruined it, too."

"Romeo, I need you to concentrate. Lilith, the Widow Black, what do you remember?"

Romeo's head tilted to the side. "I remember…"

Banksy leaned forward. "Yes?"

"I remember thinking I love her," Romeo said serenely.

"Okay, so not back completely," Banksy said softly to himself. "Alright, well she locked both of us up so it's safe to assume she might not love you back. So why don't we get out here and we can figure that out later."

"Or, or, or," Romeo held up a finger. "We go find her."

"Right," Banksy said. "Well, your magic doesn't seem to be working anymore so let's try something else."

"Hmmm?" Romeo asked as his eyes began to glaze over.

"Pain," Banksy said before he smacked Romeo across the face with as much force as he could muster.

The clap of his fist against Romeo's cheek echoed loudly and the orb in Romeo's hand extinguished. For a moment the two were left in complete darkness before the orb returned with far greater intensity.

"You little shit!" Romeo yelled, all sense of serenity gone, as he lunged at Banksy who quickly took a step back. "That really hurt. I'm going to kill you!"

"Calm dow-ah!" Banksy let out a surprised cry as he tripped over something in the dark and landed roughly on a somewhat squishy and extremely sticky substance.

"Smooth." Romeo gave him a pained grin as he held the light over Banksy. "That's what you get for sucker punchin… Ah, shit, is that a dead body?"

"What?" Banksy turned his head and found himself face to face with an extremely pale face. The high-pitched scream was out of Banksy's mouth before he could catch himself. "Romeo! I'm stuck."

"On what?" Romeo said as he increased the light and moved it closer to Banksy. The young thief was sitting on what seemed to be a large white pouch "What are you sitting on?"

"I have no idea!" Banksy flailed until he finally managed to pull himself free, along hundreds of tiny strands of the strange white material.

Romeo snatched a handful from Banksy's back and held them up. "Is this…?"

Banksy took several second to compose himself, roughly shaking his head and clapping his hands together a few times for good measure. Nodding to himself he returned to the body.

"He's not dead. He's got a pulse, but it's slow." Banksy said as he pulled his fingers away from the man's throat. "I think he's sleeping."

"That's a deep sleep," Romeo said as he rubbed the strands off and held both his hands up and increased the strength of the light. "Considering he's sleeping in giant spider web."

Banksy had no reply as the entire room was illuminated and he realized it was not a room at all. It was a cavern, one that had been dug straight into the earth. The walls and floor were lined with thousands upon thousands of strands of spider's web. Spaced around the floor were what seemed to be hundreds of large white pouches. It only took Banksy a few second to recognize them as egg sacs. He had seen them in the corners of decrepit buildings before, though far, far smaller. Beside each egg sack was, what Banksy guessed with a sinking feeling, was a previous guest of the Widow Black.

"Well, we should probably leave. Now," Banksy said as he stared down at the web, realizing many strands ran back up the staircase they had come down. "I'm pretty sure they're going to know we came in here.”

"Probably," Romeo said as he lowered the light and returned one hand to his neck. "You know, I'm starting to remember something. I'm pretty sure she bit me on the neck. I know it hurt really bad, but right now I… I can't seem to care. Isn't that weird? I feel like I should go see her or something. Maybe she can explain. Or bite me again. I mean, it only hurt for a little bit…"

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Yeah, how about we consider that later," Banksy said as he grabbed Romeo by the arm and dragged him back up the stairs.

"Alright, sounds good," Romeo said with uncharacteristic compliance.

Though Banksy didn't know the exact path he needed to take, he had memorized the turns he had taken earlier and knew where he didn't want to go. He would just have to hope that it would be enough to lead them to safety.

The sudden thundering of footsteps that echoed down the hall gave him a deep doubt that safety was anywhere close and they came to an abrupt stop as the hallway in front of them was suddenly filled with the manor guards. Banksy actually recognized one of them. He was one of the men they had been sent to find.

Pushing Romeo back, Banksy peered around the corner, watching the group carefully. One of the men turned to say something to the other and in that moment, Banksy saw it. Just like Romeo, he had two large wounds on his neck. Though they had begun to heal over, they were still fresh enough to notice.

"Well, that solves that mystery," Banksy muttered as he glanced back behind them. Running wasn't an option. He still didn't know enough of the layout to plot a successful escape. That only left one option. "Romeo?"

"Yeah?" Romeo asked. His eyes had begun to glaze over again.

Banksy felt a slight twinge of regret for what he was about to do. However, he reasoned if Romeo was healthy, he would have gladly agreed to it regardless. Hell, he might have even been the one to suggest it.

"Those men are trying to stop you from reaching Lilith," Banksy said, pointing at the guards.

"Oh," Romeo pushed off from Banksy and staggered towards the guards, lightning cackling over his fists. "Is that so?"

"Yeah… But don't kill them! She doesn't like killing!" Banksy added quickly as the first guard noticed Romeo. He let out a shout to the others before charging towards Romeo

"Anything for my love!" Romeo cried as ducked under the first punch and slammed his shoulder into the man's chest. Using his greater size, he bulled the guard forward, using him as a ram to knock into the rest of the group. “Shockwave!”

The smell of burning hair filled the hallway as Romeo allowed his magic to flow freely into the guards, chaining it from one man to the next. In a matter of seconds Romeo was the only one standing, and he wasn't doing a very good job at that, his enter body swaying dangerously from side to side. Banksy quickly grabbed him, but could only just manage to hold him up as Romeo went limp.

“Oh, come on.”

He started to shake Romeo awake when he heard a new sound coming from down the hall. A steady click, click, click, that he instantly recognized as heels against stone.

Eyes wide Banksy managed to drag Romeo down the hall and turn the corner just as the Widow Black appeared in the hallway. Keeping Romeo pushed back and away Banksy chanced looking around just the edge of the corner.

With a soft tut the Widow Black stopped over the pile of incapacitated guards.

"Oh dear. This just won't do," she said softly as she snapped her fingers. In a moment a man appeared at her side. He was dressed different than the other guards, with a black cape slung over one shoulder and a few pieces of light armor adorning his body.

"My Lady." He bowed. "The manor is under lockdown. No one comes in or goes out. I assure you this matter will be dealt with soon."

"Dal, you do know why you are here?" Lilith asked quietly as she toed one of the guards with her shoe.

Dal nodded. "I am here to train your men, my Lady. As ordered by-"

"Exactly," she cut him off. "Yet here they are, completely incapacitated."

Dal was silent for a moment. "My Lady, as I have told you before, if you would allow me to bring in men more suited for the position-"

"You were to train my men. Men completely loyal to me. A task that should have been easy enough," Lilith took in a sharp breath. "But apparently that is too difficult for you as two of them have escaped."

"I will have them captured at once," Dal said, bowing his head.

“We had an arrangement, you see. I allowed your presence because of that arrangement, and because I respect your master. However, it seems you are unable to uphold your end of the bargain. That leads me to lack the ability of those who sent you, you see?”

“My Lady, I can assure you that this is nothing more than a simple mistake. With enough time I will be able to resolve it. There is no need for your doubts.”

"If only it were so easy," Lilith said, her voice dropping an octave. "I believe my use for you has reached its limit, Dal."

There was a second of hesitation between the two before Dal reached for the sword on his hip, but was not fast enough as Lilith slammed him against the wall. Immediately her mouth went to his neck and the wall behind him was splattered with blood as she bit down. Dal let out a gurgling cry and managed to pull his sword free from its sheath, but it was a futile effort as thin, black spider leg burst from beneath Lilith's dress and pierced through his arm, pinning it to the wall. The sword clattered loudly to the floor.

From his hiding spot, Banksy watched in horror as more legs uncurled from the dress and Lilith's features began to melt and reform.

Suppressing a gasp Banksy pulled his head back behind cover and turned to look at Romeo, relieved to see he seemed to be himself, at least for the moment.

"Romeo, are you, you?" Banksy asked as softly as he could.

"I think so.”

"Then I need you to do something." Banksy swallowed hard.

"What?"

"I need you to fry her."

Romeo looked down at his hands. "Ah."

"I know you might not want to do it, but I need you to do it, and I promise if you do, I'll let you punch me in the face as hard as you want. I won’t even flinch."

"That's a good deal," Romeo said. "But… I don't think I can do it man. I think I love her."

"She did ruin your shirt."

"Oh, right. Good point, the bitch is toast," Romeo said before he turned out into the hallway with Banksy in tow.

Though his steps were unsteady, he quickly stumbled his way to Lilith. She turned her head just as he reached her, her multitude of eyes focusing on him.

“Evening, Sweetheart!” Romeo managed to say as he stumbled forward and crashed into her. As his hands made contact with her body, a large flash of lightning exploded from his body, encasing them both in a brilliant, cackling dome of light. Inside, Lilith let out a long wail before going silent as the light faded and Romeo tumbled back into Banksy’s arms.

Lilith’s body remained standing for a moment before slowly pulling free from the wall, allowing Dal’s body to crumple to the floor, before she joined him. Her long, black legs twitched ever so slightly before curling up as she ceased to move.

"Did you get her?" Banksy peered around Romeo as they slowly crept forward.

"Yeah," Romeo said as he came to a stop above Lilith, staring blankly at her mutated form. "You know, she doesn't look that bad, actually. I mean, the whole spider lower half thing would take a bit of getting used to, but her face is still pretty. Even with the extra eyes."

Banksy didn't feel like trying to talk sense into Romeo at the moment. He gave him a small push towards the wall. "We need to go."

"Yeah, I know," Romeo said reluctantly as he leaned heavily on the wall for support.

Banksy started to take a step forward when his feet were suddenly slapped out from under him. Landing hard on his stomach he cracked the his chin against the ground. Technicolor spots burst in his vision as he rolled onto his back just as Lilith pounced on him, her many legs wrapped around his torso. Her mouth opened wide, exposing a number of very long fangs. On instinct Banksy swung his hands up to protect his face and Lilith froze.

"Where did you get that?" her voice was raspy as she grabbed his hand, staring at the ring on his finger. "Oh, you think you are clever, don't you girl?"

Banksy did not know whom Lilith was talking to and he did not care. "Romeo!"

Banksy closed his eyes and tried not to think about just how painful what was about to happen would be. As it turned out, extremely painful as Romeo slammed both his hands against Lilith's back and unleashed a long, steady stream of electricity that easily passed into Banksy as well.

Lilith screamed, her body shuddering violently as she suffered the worst of the attack. Romeo gave her a healthy kick to the side, knocking her off to the side.

"Time to go!" Romeo said as he grabbed Banksy's smoking arm, yanking him from her grip and dragging him back up to his feet. Together they stumbled forward, following the path Lilith had come from until they reached a staircase. With effort they managed to reach the top. Romeo slammed the door shut and Banksy clicked the lock into place

Banksy was the first to fall down to the plush carpeted floor, noting the fact that they had finally made it back into the manor. "This is bullshit. I want to go back to being a janitor."

"Look. I'll be the first to admit it… That could have gone better. But I want you to consider," Romeo said as he rested his hands against his knees, his chest heaving. "It could be a lot worse. Look at it this way, at our wedding, we'll have a really great meet-cute story to tell."

"Romeo, I'm pretty sure she was going to eat that guy." Banksy crawled over to the wall so he could lean against it. He willed his heart to slow down so he could just think for a moment. The blood running down the side of his face was not helping.

"So, she's a bit of a fixer upper."

"She's a giant shape shifting spider, Romeo."

"Every relationship has issues."

"She is going to feed those people to her hatchlings."

Romeo shrugged. "So, they're big issues."

"What did she do to you?"

Romeo fell down beside him and let out a hollow laugh. "I don't know. But it sucks. My head is clear for like a minute and then… poof, all I can think about is Lilith."

"I think it's your magic."

"Eh?"

"It's like when you were working on creating the dual magic bombs. One cancels the other out. Whenever you use magic, I think you're burning off whatever she used on you, but whatever is in you is stronger than your magic."

"Great. Well, do me a solid," Romeo said as he leaned his head against the wall. "When we get out of this, don't tell anyone this stuff happened. It would ruin my reputation."

"Don't tell anyone I screamed when I saw the body. Deal?" Banksy offered his hand.

"Deal." Romeo said, grasping his hand tight. "So, what's the plan now?"

The sound of quickly approaching footsteps answered that question and Banksy struggled back to his feet. He held out a hand.

"I guess we fight."

Sparks began to dance over Romeo's skin as he took Banksy’s hand. "Fine by me."