Thanks for being patient, everyone. I am always so happy to think that people like this story, and that it means a lot to some people. It means a lot to me, also- so I promise that I won't ever stop with the Spider until it's all done.
That being said, though, Covid-19 has really destroyed my time for writing due to a bunch of reasons you can probably all guess.
This is sort of a placeholder, then- it'll set the scene for the action to come.
Thanks again, I can't tell you how much your liking my story means to me. Stay healthy and safe!
-Immanuel
Anna took a bite of her apple and scanned the sky.
Another one was up there now. There was more and more each day.
She stood under an enormously tall apple tree, much higher than one would ever grow on Earth. She looked up through the thorny branches, trying to estimate the height of the tree that sheltered her. This one was a couple of hundred feet tall, she guessed, but there were taller ones in the garden behind her.
Anna tossed her apple aside, and reached up for another, being careful to avoid the long and sharp thorns that jutted from the branches, hidden amongst the leaves.
But she didn't bite into her apple. Instead, she watched the Red Eyes soaring above, watched it dip and swoop with wind currents that she could not feel below. She saw its tail lashing angrily back and forth in the red sunlight.
She shuddered, remembering the barbed tail stabbing into her, remembering the poison spreading through her veins.
"Another one?" May asked from behind her.
"Yes."
"More and more. It won't be long now, I don't think. Have you seen the woman?"
"I don't think so."
"The Red Eyes are dumb animals-
she
is the danger."
"I hate them."
May seemed surprised.
"Why?" the older woman asked. "You should feel sorry for them. They are only predators that were too successful for their own good, and having destroyed the other creatures in their environment, have now turned on each other."
"So?" Anna asked.
"Well, that is what our people are doing- that is what humans are doing. We've eaten the Earth, and now we turn on our own children."
"Are they the only things that live here now, then?"
"No," May said, thinking. "There are some other predators that live in the skies, larger creatures that only land on the ground to lay their eggs. They lay their eggs in the enormous obsidian cliffs that overlook dead oceans- or at least they did, last time I saw that. But while those other things kill Red Eyes from time to time, the Red Eyes destroy those eggs like they do everything else. Soon there will only be Red Eyes, and they will kill each other until they are all gone, and then there will be nothing left."
"Except for you, though, May. You'll be left, with your garden."
May looked up at the sky and saw another Red Eyes had joined the first one. She shook her head.
"I don't know if myself or my garden will be left."
The two women heard a loud shriek from behind them.
"Look out," Anna cried, pushing May and herself up against the apple tree's trunk.
One of the Red Eyes was diving out of the sky toward them, its wings lying flat across its back, its claws outstretched, tail stiff behind it. Its eyes were narrow slits, focused on the prey.
"OK, OK," May was whispering.
Anna wrapped herself around the small woman, shielding May with her body.
The Red Eyes soared in low for the kill.
The creature screamed out suddenly, in pain. A branch of the tree had shifted, blocking the Red Eyes. The creature flapped its wings, impaled on sharp thorns.
Anna stood up, and watched the tree wrap the struggling creature up in branch after branch, tightly.
The leaves covered the animal up, but Anna could hear it scream in pain, weaker each time. She could hear the wings beating, slower, slower, as the creature struggled.
Apples fell from the tree, gentle thumps landing on soft grass.
Soon, there was nothing except the sound of weak claws scratching ineffectually into strong wood high above. The leaves shook, then fell quiet.
Black blood dripped from the branches high above.
Anna took a bite of the apple that she had been holding the whole time.
"I think you might be OK," she said, looking up into the leaves and branches as the blood dripped down below.
******************************
Amanda put the car in park and stepped out into the cool night air.
She pulled a little map of the grounds from her jacket pocket, consulted it under the dome light for a minute.
When she knew where he was laying, she got out of the car. It was time to say goodbye.
Her boots crunched on the cold gravel as she walked, looking at the names on the stones. Overhead, a full moon shone brightly behind gray clouds. She walked briskly, pulling her jacket close.
Finally, she got to her destination, the moonlight bright on the fresh cut stone, the smell of freshly turned earth in her nostrils. A set of plastic flowers were staked to the grass.
What a small stone, she thought. Maybe I should have bought a bigger one. It looked bigger online.
But what does it matter.
John Allen Claire,
the stone said. There were some numbers that Amanda didn't like to think about, too close together for a father.
I wish you could have met your child, she thought. I think you would have been a good father. I think that would have given you the direction you needed in life to put the hurt behind you, to settle down, to learn to hope again.
You needed some hope. You grabbed at what you could from me so desperately- you needed me so much-
She stiffened in the wind, looking around. Someone was here.
Fuck, she thought. I should have known.
She looked back at the grave.
"I loved you," she told him. "I won't let anyone hurt our child. I'm going to destroy the man who killed you, so your child and me can be free. I promise. I won't let anyone hurt us."
She wiped a single tear from her cheek.
"Oh, I wish we had more time," she whispered. "Just a little more."
She turned away.
Back to work, she thought.
He was leaning against his squad car parked next to hers.
"Hello," he said as she approached.
"Officer," she said curtly. "I was hoping not to be disturbed here tonight."
