A Spider-ific Story

Chapter 5

"I will show you strength, daughter," the prince said, snarling. "Now, let's make you human again."

His eyes glowed red, hungry. Corabella didn't want to know what he was hungry for, exactly. Lacey grew pale, if a vampire could grow more pale. She backed away until she hit a wall.

"You can't make me human that way," she said, and he laughed.

"It's okay, I won't do anything. Just let me taste your blood."

They were words she thought she'd never hear, spoken by a monster. But there it was, repeated again and again as he circled around her, and then he made a sudden lunge at her. Lacey dodged it and ran for the door. She managed to get out of the room before he caught her.

Corabella ran after her. "Why did you decide to do this again?"

"My life is worth nothing if I do not have a soul."

"You're too righteous for the rest of us." She sounded derisive, even to herself.

"I am not a monster. I merely have to believe that I am and it is enough."

She ran down the hall and rounded a corner into a hallway with a sink.

The door was right there. Behind the door, the monster was waiting for her.

"There is no peace," she said.

"What do you know of peace? What are you peace, peace? What has the world to do with the peace of a vampire? It's better than this."

She was interrupted by the crash of a lock being ripped off a cupboard, and the monster leaned out and spat into the cup. It was full of syrup, sugar, and honey. And blood. She did not know where it had come from.

"Drink," He demanded, his eyes darker than she'd ever seen them. "Drink."

"It's honey," she said. "I don't-"

"Then drink."

She looked down into the cup. She wanted her soul back. So, she did.

The taste was disgustingly sweet.

She drank all of it.

Her heart began to beat. She tried to swallow, but the floor was rushing up at her and she was in a room with concrete walls that would fall on her if she moved.

Her arm was covered in blood.

The monster, her father, was nowhere to be seen.

"What are you?" She whispered, terrified.

"Humanity is what is wrong with this world. You've gained a soul, and lost perfection."

"I'm was never perfect. Just flawed. I never meant for any of this to happen."

"You believed in me enough to save Satoru's life, a thing that had no idea what it was doing. He's the monster."

"He's an idiot, more like than anything else."

"It's true." Her father smiled, all sharp canines.

She realized that he was still standing in the center of the room. His eyes were the same color as her blood. She swallowed. "I don't know what's wrong with me, but I promise you I will try to do better next time."

"There will be no next time," he said. "You will die tonight."

She was afraid. "You're a monster. You're a vampire."

"Look at me."

She glanced at him, and was surprised to see no change in his appearance. No mask, no cape. He seemed as he had when she'd first seen him. "This body has no soul. It will simply die."

"Oh, you have a soul now. What did you think the potion was?" He grinned wider, like a crescent moon. "You will die, and die painfully."

"I'm not going to die, I'm-"

"It's no more than you deserve. And don't worry, your body will be donated to science."

Her blood began to burn in her veins. "What do you mean?"

"The ritual tonight will be your demise. Then what will your monster of a man think? The only thing he loves, dead before he could try to save her."

"It won't hurt me, death is painless---"

"Not hurt? Your hands. Your neck. Your skin. A flesh-and-blood man can never feel what a vampire can. Your skin will burn. The energy that gives a vampire her strength will be pouring into your body, but it will be dying, dying, dying, and when it is finished, it will turn to ashes."

She was crying. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why do you think? It is better for a man to have no soul and to feel than to have one and be empty."

She thought of Satoru, and felt a pang of regret. "He will come for me."

"After you betrayed him? Dashed his hopes of love? He will never return."

"No, he won't." She screamed.

He laughed, and it was not a cackling laugh. It was cruel, vile, mocking. "He will."

She was trembling, trembling. She felt the tendrils of red climb up her body. She was alive. She had a soul. And tonight, she would die.

(*)

Corabella wasted no time, but after she heard the prince declare that his daughter would die that night, dashed after the tiniest spider, heading for home.

Satoru needed to hear what would happen to Lacey.

He needed to know. Corabella ran, out of breath, her legs aching.

And she came to the spider palace.

It was a gothic, intricate affair, full of carved stone and intricate metalwork, yet devoid of color. Her eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, but she could see nothing now.

"Why did you come."

A voice, not her own.

She was afraid, and was so sure that she would die that she couldn't help but reply.

"To save her."

The voice came again, quiet, calmer. "She doesn't understand what she did to me."

Satoru stood, slowly, before her. He looked different, his face rough and rocky, in sharp contrast to her own smooth complexion and blonde hair.

Corabella stepped towards him. "You are a spider king, Satoru. You do not understand what you asked of her."

"To love a monster?"

She went silent. He had no idea what it meant to be a vampire. He loved the undead, he loved Lacey, but he could never see the world through her eyes. She bit her lip, and the air felt like ice around her.

"No," she said, "To live enslaved."