The Devil's Gift/The Bloody Handed

4

I woke up in the middle of the night to Eddie's obnoxious snoring. Rain was pounding on top of the sheet metal roof. I look outside of the foggy window and see tracks of rain drops slowly sliding down. The wind echoes through the trailer like a tunnel. I couldn't sleep, not anymore. I wasn't a heavy sleeper like Eddie was. I slowly get up from his embrace, slowly sliding his arm from around me. I see him readjust himself accordingly, still sleeping.

I get up and walk down the hall. Everyone was sleeping, but one person.

"Robin?" I whisper. She looks at me and gives a wave. "What're you doing up still?"

She points outside of the window. "This. But I'm kinda happy it did. I love storms. Especially camping."

I nod and smile remembering a time we had to live in our car and tent for a whole month. I remember storm after storm, rainy day after rainy day. The frustration of tracking mud into your semi clean and dry tent, struggling to find comfort. "Yeah, I'm familiar with storms as well." I sit beside her and look at the sleeping beauties. "I just can't sleep through this. Too much of a light sleeper." I tuck my hair inside of my shirt.

"Me too. Honestly, it surprises me how heavy of sleepers they are." Robin yawns.

I pop open the fridge and see what snacks they took from the gas station. There were colas, chips, sweets... "Now I see why they say don't let men do the shopping." I dig out a handful of junk and show it to Robin.

She rolls her eyes. "It's like they're children still." She laughs.

All of a sudden, there was a loud clanking outside. It sounded like someone threw a brick onto metal. Robin and I exchange glances.

"You think that's the rain?" She points out of the window and raises an eyebrow.

"No. I don't think rain weighs several pounds to make that noise." Robin stands up and I look out of the window, rubbing the condensation away with my hand. "I think it's coming from the East.. to that.. gas station. We should go check it out." I look to her and she gives me a slight hesitation in her glance.

"I mean.. alright, but shouldn't we wake up the others?" She swallows.

"No, we will be fine. We aren't going anywhere. Just bring a weapon just in case." She nods as she reaches over and grabs a metal pole from by the kitchen area. It must have been from the impound lot. I grab one similar, and we quietly exit the camper.

The thudding of the rain was uneasy to my hearing now that I knew something was out there. But what was even more uneasy was the thud thudding coming from the LED sign we examined earlier. Lightning flashes, illuminating the area.

"What the hell even is this?" Robin says panicked.

"I'm not sure. But it's not normal." I look around us as rain drenches my clothes and hair.

"Us girls can handle it. We are definitely under estimated." Robin says jokingly.

"Yeah, who needs men?" I laugh in return.

"Obviously not me." She says.

The thudding continues to grow closer and closer as we approach it. I nod to Robbin as the red flickering light blinds us. We start to look behind it, then all of a sudden something big jumps right on top. It didn't even take me a second to realize it was a spider except a hundred times it's original size.

I look to Robin. "Run!" We immediately turn and start to bolt for the RV. I hear the spider make a squealing noise as it chases after us, it's legs pounding into the mud.

"What the hell is this thing!" I ask.

"I don't know. It looks like one of Vecna's new freaking monsters!" I yell.

"What the hell are we going to do?!" She screams to me, breathing heavily.

"I don't know!" We continue to run and to no avail, it catches up. I notice Robin suddenly disappear from beside me, almost being forced. Something catches onto Robin's ankle, drawing her back. I stop and turn around to see a web entangled around her whole leg. She starts to scream and grasp at the mud and grass.

"Stay the fuck away from her!" I take the pole and start to hit it and stab it's legs. It screeches in retaliation. I take her pole and reach it down to her. "Grab it!" She grabs onto the pole with both hands, being tugged back. She tries to kick it at it, but it doesn't budge. "Watch out!" I yell to her as I draw the metal pole back. Thunder claps in the sky and I hear our names being screamed from coming from the direction of the RV. I draw my arm back and launch the pole forward, right into its eye.

It falls to its side, making the worst dying noise possible. Robin grips at the mud and crawls away, kicking spider webs off of her. She stands up and runs to me, while the others are running to us from behind. I walk up to the thing, and take my pole out of its head, the squelching sound uneasy to my ears. I stab it again, then again, then again. Each time it squealed I stabbed it. It needed to die, and there wasn't any chance I was going to let it even breathe one more second. Robin comes up besides me and does the same. I could feel goop splash onto my face and arms and the rain wash it off.

"Robin! Clary!" We both turn around.

"Oh- hey boys." Robin says with a smile.