𝕕𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕖𝕕 𝕘𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕤: 𝕒 𝕓𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕘𝕣𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕗𝕒𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟜𝟜: 𝕊𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕄𝕖

The next time El opened her eyes, she felt the coolness of the tile floor against her cheek. Neon lights flooded her cloudy vision as she strained to survey her surroundings. When her vision came into full focus, she could make out a chain of stores lining the wall opposite her and more on the second and third floors. She trained her gaze downwards, finding her wrists and ankles tied together with multiple zip ties. She focused her attention on the zip ties, attempting to undo them with her mind when her neck suddenly snapped up uncontrollably, as if by another force.

"Don't move." Darcy walked around and knelt in front of El, placing a strip of duct tape against her lips. "He doesn't like it when you move."

El stared up into Darcy's cold, dull gaze, unable to move or escape from Darcy's control. El's eyes moved to study the 0, 1, and 3 tattooed on Darcy's wrist, her eyes widening in recognition. Darcy followed El's gaze to her tattoo.

"I am just like you. But unlike you, he will spare me."

The floor shook beneath El, like a giant heart beating under the tiles. Thump. Thump. Thump. El tried to turn her head to find the source of the quaking, but it was no use; she could only move her eyes. El glanced upward and found a giant, eyeless monster made of a rotten, fleshy substance and six long limbs peering down at her through the glass ceiling. El's eyes widened, her breathing erratic as the spider monster climbed atop the glass ceiling and broke through, landing in front of her. El squeezed her eyes shut from the broken glass and rotting stench from the monster. When she felt brave enough to open an eyelid, she found the monster's face in front of hers. She tried to scream, but her lips were sealed shut. In response, the spider monster bared its teeth and roared at her.

"EL!" Mike's voice filled the mall as a burst of color exploded on the monster's back.

Darcy dove, shielding El's body with her own as what appeared to be fireworks began exploding all around the spider monster, some meant to harm it, some which left burns on the spider monster's limbs. Darcy and the spider monster shrieked in pain as more fireworks left sparks of color. Darcy clawed at her skin while the spider monster threw itself against the stores of the mall in an attempt to extinguish the flames on its back.

El felt her limbs relax, a sign of Darcy's distraction. She rolled away, taking shelter underneath a table in the food court as she used her mind to remove the zip ties. Mike's voice rang through the mall, calling for El, but she didn't dare move from underneath the table. She crouched underneath the table, watching the chaos unfold in front of her.

She watched as Billy darted from his place on the second floor of the mall, focused on Darcy.

She watched as her friends stopped launching fireworks at the spider monster, now weakened and partially burnt.

She watched as Billy reached Darcy, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and whispered something in her ear.

She watched as Darcy slowly but surely returned to herself.