Chapter 5 - “Reddish Herring.”

Arath walked carefully down the staircase in the basement to meet the shaking Druvy, still gripping the handle of a kitchen knife with webs falling off gently to the ground. This immaculately incompetent son of wealth had never before caused someone to identify him as a threat but Arath had no idea what to make of the connection between the young man and the now released ghostly prisoners.

“Hey man, what’d you go and do that for? Why the hell are you in my grandma’s house?” Arath asked.

Druvy looked at Arath with wide eyes and a quivering lip, “I…don’t know…I was called here…by the thing in those webs…” He replied.

“Huh? How’d it call you? It was wrapped up tight.”

“I heard it speak to me but like, in my brain.”

“In a human language?”

“What do you mean? Of course. What else would it be?”

“A new voice in your head comes in and the first thing you do is come running to it?”

“I don’t think I had a choice. It’s like I was being forced to come along.”

“So it told you which one it was in? What about the rest?” Arath took another glance to make sure he first observation was correct. Every last one was cut down with no trace of anything inside.

“That thing opened the rest…and then it ate each one.”

Arath turned back to Druvy, his eyes now wide and vibrating inside his skull.

“I opened up the webs and it fell out, walking like a baby horse. I yelled at it but it ignored me and used its claws to open the other sacks. Then, it bit into whatever was inside with a really gross chomping and slurping sound. Then it looked at me, I was so scared that I couldn’t move. I could only piss my pants in fear. It’s like I was a tiny child again and the monster had finally come out from under the bed. I could only await my fate as it started to grow meaty shreds of flesh that wrapped around the before exposed bones.”

“It finally looked away from me with its newly armored form and leapt through the wall, fading into the bricks like a fog. Why I was the one to see its brief but unholy buffet, I have no idea yet here I am, awaiting the answers, waiting to see if I unleashed something that will bring doom to other innocent people. Please, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Ah man you pissed in my basement?” Arath looked down to the now slightly faded yellow stain on the floor.

A door creaked loudly upstairs.

 “Ah damnit, did I leave it unlocked again?”

Arath heard the voice of his uncle upstairs, coming into the house talking to himself after a long shift at the bar of playing tunes and entertaining the patrons. Uncle saw the door of the basement ajar and went to check who was down there as Arath was normally asleep by this time, despite being a night owl himself, and grandma was always asleep shortly after the sun went down.

“Boy, what’re you still doing up? Oh, you’ve got a friend over huh. Wait.” Uncle stopped himself to think.

“It’s him Uncle.” Arath replied.

“Oh shit, is that so? How are you feeling kiddo?” Uncle asked.

“Huh? I’ve never met you guys before. Why are you acting like you know me? I think I’ve seen you around school before though.” Druvy replied.

“Wait what happened to all the cocoons?! Arath, why did you bring him here.”

Uncle began to sweat in every place that he had the pores to do so because at this point, he figured the secret was all but out. There was officially a witness to the weirdness that had invaded their lives and without a reasonable explanation, this type of rumor would wreck their lives or put them straight into the scope of the strangely curious or worse, on the internet.

“Druvy here let them all out. The new guy apparently speaks telepathically.” Arath informed.

“No, I said he spoke to me through my brain.” Druvy replied as informed as ever.

“Why would he do that?!” Uncle replied excitedly.

“I just want to go home! I don’t know why I even came here but I don’t want any of this!” Druvy began to panic. He was accustomed to a lackluster and lazy lifestyle, only guided by immediate dopamine rushes from refreshing social media feeds and flipping to the next fifteen second video on his phone. He lived in an alternate reality that comes with being terminally online so something based in reality was enough to knock him off center. Now forces beyond reality were right on his footsteps and Arath and his uncle were forced to push him along or face the potential reverberations.

“Hey kid, don’t worry, we’re on the same side. We know just about as much as you.” Uncle assured the frightened Druvy. “But you gotta promise to keep this a secret between the three of us.”

“Fine. I just don’t want any more of this stuff. I’ve had enough trouble at school with the paranormal studies club today but my Dad is taking care of them. I’d hate to ask him for help again because of whatever’s happening here. He’d be so pissed.”

Uncle and Arath looked at each other confused, turning the gears in their minds to think about how they avoided Druvy’s attention when they were in the gym as well. Regardless of the fact, Druvy had already told his father about the others and Arath was now connected with them. Druvy’s dad was an all-powerful business man with connections that only being filthy rich can get. To be on his bad side meant they’d be up against forces just as powerful as the supernatural.

“Let’s get him back home, nephew. We’ll worry about the rest later.” Uncle said, Arath nodding in agreement. They walked Druvy to the front door,  he was still clearly on edge and twiddling his fingers in anxious anticipation. As the three approached the front door, a gentle tapping noise filled the air. Someone else had beat them to it.

Uncle and Arath looked at each other, both shrugging their shoulders, neither of them expecting another guest on this odd evening. Druvy shrank even further into himself, now on the verge of total collapse from fear and dread.

“Druvy, don’t keep me waiting any longer.” A woman’s voice said from the other side of the door.

“Alaria!!”Druvy shouted before running to open the door himself. A tall woman wearing a formal suit was standing there with her hands now in her pockets, her expression unamused. Her eyes were half open and the bottom of her lip punching out just enough to show her annoyance. She had bushy auburn hair that was bound by braids and bands to suppress the fluff.

“Whose that Druvy?” Arath asked but Druvy had already ran to her side, hugging her from the side without reciprocation.

“Your dad is going to kick your ass, kid.” Alaria said sternly, her gaze turning to Arath and uncle. “I don’t know what y’all were doing here this late but it won’t happen again. Luckily your phone GPS alerted the house security.”

“We didn’t invite him here either.” Arath said, uncle bumping him from behind to not talk to the suited visitor.

“Then what were you doing here Druvy? Who are these people?” She asked.

Druvy looked conflicted with Alaria staring him down. He was a young man of weak convictions and the night's events had him already saturated with conflict, he could only spill what was inside his mind at that moment.

“There was…a monster. But these people don’t have anything to do with it.” He turned and winked. “It was just in their basement.”

“Is that so? Mind if I take a look?”

“No way. He must have just been sleepwalking. We’ve had enough guests tonight.” Uncle deflected.

“Maybe you should show her the webs. Alaria can definitely help us.” Druvy tried to convince uncle.

“It’s too late. Grandma’s already asleep and you broke into our house. Whatever you were hallucinating is not our problem. Just go home and get some rest.”

Alaria looked at the two men inside the house, unamused at their fictitious detour. She had hardly moved a centimeter since the door opened, holding her composure to a strikingly fixed position.

“It’ll just be a moment. Druvy’s father will want to know if he’s gotten into something that he shouldn’t have. He’s a very good boy with a bright future, some blood-related people might say.” Alaria said and began to try to let herself into the home but uncle stood face to face with her, blocking her from moving any farther.

“Hey lady, we’re not the type to call the cops but I can tell you this, you ain’t getting into this house.” Uncle said.

She looked into uncle's eyes, as stonelike as she had been throughout the interaction, and her hair burst out of the braids that had held them so tightly before. Tiny particles of light bounced into the air behind her like a glittery balloon had just popped, then in a sudden rush, all the particles were blown by an invisible gust to move inside the house. Each of the specks had moved around uncle and Arath and moved forward towards the basement. Both of them turned to see where the mysterious dots were moving towards but as soon as they had turned back to Alaria to ask what she was doing, she had begun to walk forward, between the two,  the men unable to move to impede her progress. They tried to protest her intrusion but even their mouths were unable to move. Arath wished he could only move his hands out of his pocket so that the spiders could come to his aid but it was a denim prison, sealed by an outside force.

She walked straight to the basement and down the steps, exploring the now untangled webs with their secrets long gone. Her mysterious ability was evidence enough of her supernatural capabilities but beyond her power was the same spiritual perception that Arath and uncle had come to know. She only spent a moment there before coming back to the group stranded at the doorway. By then she had seen all that she had to know to understand where the situation was going.  

“Druvy, looks like your father will finally be pleased with you for once. Let’s get you back home.” She turned her gaze to Arath and uncle. “Let this be the only time we meet. You’ve played your part and any further curiosity will lead to answers that are not worth their cost.”

The two visitors walked away from the house and got into a black sedan, driving off into the night as Arath was finally able to start to move again.

“Damnit. We’re in deep huh.” Uncle said.

“Yeah. What a psycho.” Arath replied.

“I like crazy but this might be somewhere near the limit. Maybe passed it.”

“I’ve got free time.”

Uncle took a moment, staring into the now empty street and sighed, bowing his head. “Yeah, me too. Let’s just hope grandma is still asleep.”