Threads Of Fate

Chapter 1

I lean my head against the window of Gary’s sleek black Mercedes and look at the passing scenery. It’s a dark cloudy night, the windows are dotted with the beginnings of an autumnal shower, and my guilt is eating me alive.

“Looks like there’s a storm coming,” I say, breaking the silence.

“Yup,” Gary says, he turns on the wipers, and they swipe at the sparse droplets on the windshield.

I hear the distant crack of thunder, and quickly say, “I don’t like thunderstorms.”

I shift in my seat to face him. “I’m really sorry about this, Mr. Edwards,” I begin. “I could’ve gotten a taxi or used a ride share app– you didn’t have to go through the trouble–”

“Rhianne, really, it’s fine. How were you to know that your car would break down outside in the parking lot?” he says. He raises his thick salt and pepper eyebrows and smiles at me.

“Yeah, but I feel so bad. We’ve been at work for almost ten hours, and now you have to take me home.”

“Eh, what’s another hour of civic duty?” he says, smirking.

I sigh, and Gary pats my hand. “I’m only teasing. Really, Rhianne, it’s fine. After hours, we’re not just boss and employee; we’re friends. Friends take care of friends. Isn’t that your motto? Speaking of, I told you a hundred times to call me Gary.”

“You’re right. Sorry Mr.–,” I quickly correct myself with a bashful smile, “I mean, Gary,”

He laughs again, and I relax a little more into my seat.

I refocus my sights on the view outside. The city’s lights slowly drown out, and all I can see are tall trees and twists of the road beyond the raindrops on the windows. The rain begins to come down with a vengeance, growing faster and more relentless with each passing second and the wipers fight desperately to keep up.

There’s barely anyone else on the road, and as we continue, I notice that signage grows few and far between. I look down at my hands, folded neatly in my lap, wring them together, then give the dashboard clock another glance. It’s only eight-thirty.

I shouldn’t feel this anxious, and yet, I do. I lick my lips and glance at Gary.

“Uh, Gary,” I venture hesitantly, my voice just above the tinny pattering of rain against the car roof. Gary glances at me quickly in the rearview mirror, and then his eyes fall back on the road ahead.

“This isn’t the way to my house.” I go on, a little more sharply now. “Maybe you should turn on the GPS. I don’t want you to get lost.”

Gary snorts. “Relax. This is a shortcut. I take this way all the time to get to your home.”

I furrow my brows, trying to think back to the last time I invited him over. I can’t dredge up a memory of it.

“I’m sorry, when have you been to my house?”

His silence makes the short hairs on the back of my neck stand.

“When have you been to my house?” I repeat.

He only continues to stare forward. “Do you remember when you came to Visionaries to work for me?” He asks offhandedly, catching me off-guard. “I do. It was one of the best days of my life. You were so impressive during your interview. I knew I was going to hire you. And over the years, I never once regretted the decision. Not once.”

I watch as the number on the speedometer increases from forty miles per hour to sixty. The click of the locks makes me jump in my seat, and I suddenly feel claustrophobic. I can’t find any words to say, so I keep quiet. Gary doesn’t seem to notice, because he keeps on without pause.

“It didn’t take long for me to fall madly in love with you.” He chuckled harshly. “And you rejected me.”

“I don’t date people I work with. It’s a rule of mine…Besides, you’re my boss, and I’m not comfortable with that.” I wonder what happened to the traffic. I search the other lanes, but they’re empty.

“Rhianne, I never once questioned your rejection until you flirted with me.”

“I’ve never flirted with you.” I try to keep my indignation— and disgust— out of my tone.

He turns and faces me. The gray of his eyes is so dark they make him look soulless. “Two years ago, April 17th, you complimented me on my tie. Your exact words were, ‘Good pick. It goes well with your suit.’ One year ago, July 24th, you called me Gary for the first time.” He closes his eyes, causing the car to swerve slightly. “The way it rolled from your lips left me hard all day…”

A shiver goes down my spine. I open my mouth to say something, but I’m so flabbergasted I shut it again. Did he just say what I think he said?

“…From then on, I knew you were mine, and I always protect what is mine. I followed you home every day to make sure you were safe…and alone.” His thin lips curl into a smile that makes my stomach drop. “You knew I was there. I know you did. That’s why you always undress in front of the window, behind that sheer curtain. You wanted me to see that perfect body of yours.”

His hand reaches out tremblingly before he rests it on my thigh giving it a squeeze, I jerk away from him, but he only grips tighter. “Tinkering with your car was my play in our game, but how about we skip the song and dance we’ve been doing for two years and get to the point? Things have gotten dicey at work, and we need to get out of town for a bit.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you— ” I gasp. “Don’t do this. If you take me home right now, I promise all is forgiven. I won’t tell anyone. We can just go back to how things were.”

“But don’t you get it? I want you to tell. I want you to tell the world how good I made you feel. I want you to show them you’re mine.” He yanks the wheel to the right, and the car careens from the road.

Slamming his foot on the brake pedal, he halts the car a mere moment before it collides into a tree. All I can hear is the sound of the rain and the beating of my own heart. In the seclusion of the woods, he unbuckles his seatbelt and faces me. Meanwhile, I pull feverishly at the door handle.

“Knock it off!” he screams, reaching for me.

I swat at his beefy hands, but he easily catches my wrist, yanking me across the seat. “Stop, Gary! Please!— ” Recoiling from him, I try to twist out of his grip.

“I said fucking knock it off!” he shouts, drawing his hand back.

The sting of his slap sends my face snapping to the side, and my head rings. And for a moment, everything in me is frozen, and my brain can’t form a single coherent thought. I can taste the coppery tang of blood, I feel it pooling from my nose. Tears fill my eyes, but I blink them away.

“You think you’re better than me, huh? You think I don’t deserve you? I made you. You are nothing without me. Maybe you need a reminder of that.”

He unlocks the door and rushes to the passenger side before I can react, and he wrenches my door open, pulling me out by my hair into the rainy night.

I try to claw my way away from him, but he throws me onto the sodden earth. My head slams against a stone, and the world around me seems to fade.

“Rhianne?”

His words are muffled, and he swims in my vision, I can barely make out his expression.

“Rhianne?!” Gary’s hands fly to his mouth, and he fumbles to find my pulse. I feel myself fading, but I fight it.

“Rhi-ahhh!— “

It takes nearly all my strength, but my foot connects squarely with his groin, and I watch him crumple over.

“You bitch!” Gary rasps, holding his crotch.

I scramble to my feet, but in my disorientation, the entire world moves in a crooked circle. I stagger forward and fall on my hands and knees onto wet leaves, dirt and gravel, but I use them as leverage to push myself up to my feet once again. Thoroughly drenched and covered in dirt, I take off into the blackened woods.

“Help!” I plead as I draw further into the darkness. Leaves crunching behind me tell me Gary isn’t far behind, and he laughs wildly in pursuit.

“I love this new game!”

My heart is pounding out of my chest, and my lungs burn with every breath I take, but I can’t stop. My feet splashing in the puddles, I race deeper into the woods.

All at once, a flash of lightning illuminates the forest like a camera flash; the trees become stark silhouettes against a dreary sky.

“Help! Please, help!” The sound of my yelling is swallowed by the heavy rain, whipping wind, and the bone-rattling boom of thunder.

Gary’s footfalls are moments away now, and I can almost feel his breath on my neck.

Please…someone…please help.

I think a silent prayer to myself, but I’m not sure to who. Just as Gary’s hand grabs a fistful of my hair, I feel my feet lose purchase of the ground beneath me; it loosens and splits, crumbling beneath my feet like it’s made of sand.

Before I know it, I’m tumbling down, with Gary following after.

My heart in my throat, I scream. My arms flail wildly as I try to find something to grab onto, but I slam painfully into the ground hard on my back, the air driven from my lungs. Crashing into the ground, it’s every bit as painful as I imagined. I cringe and suck in my breath, my body racked with pain.

A loud bang follows, just inches from me, as Gary falls into the pit shortly after. He doesn’t move.

I’m sprawled on the ground, gasping for air. To lay down, and not get up might be the kindest thing to do, but I know I’m not quite out of the woods yet.

“Gary?” I say, my voice emerges from my throat hoarse and pained.

No answer comes.

“Gary?” I try again.

Nothing.

Trying to adjust to the darkness, I blink several times, squeezing my eyes shut. I drag myself up from the ground as quickly as my aching body will allow. I strive to see in the pitch blackness of the place, but as the clouds shift overhead, a soft ray of moonlight allows me to make out a dirt-covered wall beside me.

I look down at myself. I’m covered in wet dirt, my clothes torn, and bloodied. My entire body aches from the fall, but I’m alive.

Just as quickly the clouds converge like a curtain dropping on a stage. All is in darkness again. I can’t make out most of my surroundings, but it seems we’ve landed in a pit. It’s relatively drier down here; the air hangs damply, heavily, thick with the smell of earth and nitrates.

My hands grope blindly along the walls of the place to find a steady foothold, a rock, a vine, anything. My searching fingers soon discover something hard and curved, and I smirk imagining it to be a tree root. Grabbing hold, I test some of my weight on it, but it shifts in the dirt wall, causing me to lose balance. I stagger back from it but my hand comes away sticky and with much effort.

Wonderingly, and still half dazed, I open and close my hand, feeling a clinging substance reluctantly stretching between my fingers as I pry them apart, almost like stretchy sap-covered hairs or vines. I wonder at what I just touched, I try to wipe my hand clean against my torn pencil skirt, and it very nearly adheres. I’m forced to rip my hand back, with a shuddering breath.

Something feels so wrong about this place, and I begin to wonder where I am in earnest, and as though in answer, there is a sudden and momentary flash of lightning. For a moment, I can make out the walls that surround me, and ice pours through my veins…

“Oh my God.”

The pit extends far beyond, and behind me and Gary, far above us too, but what lines the pit is truly horrifying:

Shredded clothing. Bones. Disturbingly familiar-looking shapes, swathed, cocooned, in thick layers of a fine white fabric substance. And lacing the walls, miles of silvery threads.

Spiderwebs?

Recognizing the impossible material, I want to scream. Nothing comes out.

Worse still, a sound carries in the darkness just a few short feet away.

“Fuck…”

It’s almost a relief to hear that it’s only Gary. I can just barely make him out, struggling to sit up.

Gary groans in pain. Finally, having come to, his silhouette rises to his feet. I hear a jangling of car keys before a thin beam of yellow light cuts through the darkness. For an instant, I’m grateful Gary is here until I remember he just assaulted me and likely has plans for worse.

I back away several steps and away from the light, my hands raised to shield my eyes.

“Rhianne?…Well, at the very least, I still have you here with me…it looks like I haven’t lost everything. I would have taken you with me, Rhianne, we could’ve lived a beautiful life together, but you don’t seem to want that, which means I’ll have no use for you after tonight. At the very least, this is the perfect place to leave you to rot if you continue to disrespect me.”

Damn it. I guess not even circumstances can change Gary’s priorities.

I retreat a fair distance from him before he redirects the beam of light elsewhere. He shines the mini flashlight along the walls, lingering on what I’ve just witnessed but not quite understanding what he sees. I can see it in the faint light; his hand is shaking.

“Where am-” But Gary’s sentence breaks as yet another noise whispers through the darkness, a faint crackling. Following the sound with his flashlight, the beam lands at a far corner, where something shadowy quickly slips from view.

“Christ!” The flashlight drops from his hands, made clumsy in his fear. Keys and all fall to the ground in a cacophony of jingling; and all is lost to darkness once again.

“What was that?” I whisper in a harsh breath, wondering if I’d seen anything at all.

“Shit…shit!” Is all Gary says, fumbling around for his keys.

And then we both see it.

Red eyes peer back at us from the abyssal dark, and contortions of bone fill the night air.

Gary stumbles backward, and keen, rubied eyes follow his every movement.

The next part happens in slow motion, as though in a nightmare.

I watch as an enormous long pointed appendage amasses from the darkness. Black and lacquered, reflecting the faintest moonlight, it plants itself firmly in the earth.

Gary is staggering back, his heel accidentally kicking the car keys; they skitter, then bounce off into the darkness, lost.

Several uneven shafts of moonlight reveal the scene unfold before me. Gary’s eyes bulge at the sight of the other. He can’t speak. He can only watch as the creature reveals more of itself. The sight of another black leg, and then another, make his face lose all color. He turns and locks eyes with me, the fear on his face making my own double.

He opens his mouth, but no words rise from his throat. Instead, a loud gargle pierces the silence. I feel a scattered spatter of warm liquid across my face and clothing, and I damn near hyperventilate.

Shakingly, Gary looks down at his chest. Velvet blood pools and stains the ground as the creature’s leg twists inside of him. It pulls Gary from his feet and brings him several feet into the air.

Blood pours from his open mouth, and he wraps his fists around the wrist-thick, serrated appendage that holds him impaled and suspended, to no avail. His grip slips off the creature like it’s coated in oil.

“H-help me,” he chokes out to me, twisting towards me in the creature’s hold, but I can only sink to my knees, my legs having lost all feeling.

Gary is easily pulled towards the creature, toward the dark body that seems to absorb all of the light. It lashes band after band of silk webbing around him, the shiny threads glistening like silver stripes in the otherwise steady tapestry of shadows and darkness. Gary’s legs kick spastically in the air, but hauntingly, the creature runs another dark appendage down Gary’s horrified face in a final caress.

Its almost calm, deep growl comes back to me: “Hush, be silent now.”

I watch on, horrified.

It lifts him higher, twining the fine threads in a wide sheet around and around his legs, working quickly to cocoon him compactly, like its victims in the walls. And sickeningly, I hear hollow cracking sounds, like a branch snapping in half, as the creature twists and pulls and tightens, seemingly only finding the fruitless struggles of its food amusing. The flailing Gary screams as bones are broken, but the sound is soon choked back down his throat. Gary’s screams are silenced in an instant. The creature quickly wraps the last of the silky substance over his head, then continues to envelop him until he is silent. until he is still.

Gary’s tightly cocooned form is hoisted on a silken rope, slung up, and secured in a high corner.

Sick to my stomach, my gaze lowers to my hand, covered in the unknown substance but now also dotted with dark blood, realizing it is the very same substance Gary is enshrouded in. I can’t get the image of Gary’s face, his cries, the sound of his breaking bones, out of my head.

And now the creature approaches, its slow and heavy footfalls sounding out as it turns, like it’s looking to me, as though noticing me for the very first time.

In a blind panic, I turn away from the horror of the thing before me and begin to crawl on all fours. I don’t see a way out, and I don’t know where I am going, I just go.

Time slows.

I don’t want to look up and face the creature that I know scales the walls above me. Quaking, I lift my head, my scream is amplified by the walls around me as it lunges directly at me.

Chapter 2

Encased in the darkness, I shut my eyes tightly and hear the heavy thud of the creature land in front of me, blocking my path. I wait for the singe of its fangs, or the pierce of its leg to sink into my flesh as it did Gary. I cringe against the cool bare earth of the pit.

“You shouldn’t be here…”

He? It definitely sounds like a he, speaks again, and there’s something almost elegant in his voice, a slight accent, barely noticeable, that I cannot place.

No — fucking— duh, I shouldn’t be here.

I’m so terrified my voice won’t come at all, but after several attempts, I eventually manage: “L-Let me go, please…” I can’t hold back my shudder as the words finally break free from my lips.

The creature doesn’t answer for a time. Finally, it responds: “What is your name?”

I raise my head but can’t make myself open my eyes to face the enormous monster in front of me.

I open my mouth to answer, but the only thing that comes out is a choked sob. Trying again, I stammer: “R-Rhianne…please, I– “

The creature doesn’t even allow me the chance to beg for my life, it simply says back, voice soft: “Rhianne? A pretty name.” My name sounds almost like a caress on its lips, and it is silent once again.

For a pretty meal, I suppose.

I don’t dare voice the thought aloud, I don’t say anything. It takes a step closer and my lungs seize, my thoughts scatter like leaves in a storm. I can only kneel in fear while its silhouette towers over me, so much so that I am forced to squeeze my eyes shut and face my knees.

“A-are you going to eat– ?” I can’t bear to finish the sentence. My breath rushes out in a silent scream as the creature’s leg jabs into the ground next to me and draws nearer, scraping along the dirt and stone ground.

“Should I eat you?” He sounds almost amused.

I shake my head desperately. “But, you’re a monster– and I thought-“

A deep exhale drifts down from above me, and I open my eyes. It’s still too dark to make out his features, silhouetted and still mostly lost to shadow. I can only see that he towers above me (whether I’m sitting or standing), his hulking body, and spider-like appendages surrounding me like a cage.

“A monster…” He chuckles, and the sound is hollow. I detect something thoughtful, but also sad in his tone and guilt hits me instantly. “It is not the first time I’ve been given that name. I have no plans to harm you. Interestingly enough, from your screams earlier, I doubt I am the only monster you’ve encountered tonight.”

My eyes travel to the dark wet patch of dirt where the earth has drunk deep of Gary’s blood. Did he think he had saved me? Then again, I suppose he has.

“D-Do you have a name?” I ask, now unsure of what to say.

“Me?” His tone is almost one of surprise, and a low rumble of laughter follows. “I suppose I have many names, among them ‘Monster’.”

“I’m sorry– I shouldn’t have said that–” My face burns with chagrin, but then I wonder why I should feel this way at all.

“No need to be…I don’t blame you. Under these circumstances and most any other, to you, I would seem quite…monstrous.” He pauses. “I am called Sephtis…”

“Sephtis?” I repeat, from far above me, I sense he gives a nod, and the faintly red glow of his eyes dances. I then realize how utterly stupid it is of me to be doing this. I’m talking to a giant, man-eating spider-being in a pit, with absolutely no means of escape.

He claims he doesn’t plan to hurt me. I reason. Gary claimed to want to help me…he didn’t have the intention of hurting me either. Until he did, and planned on hurting me far worse…

“If we are done with the pleasantries, I would like for you to leave, Rhianne.” The lacquered foreleg that had stabbed the ground beside me, slowly rises before my face and I flinch back, only to realize, that Gary’s keys now hang from its sharp-clawed end, flashing silver in the limited moonlight. He’s offering it to me.

“Oh.” I cup my hands together, and with a resonant jingle, he drops the damp, cold key ring into my waiting palms.

I crane my neck to peer up at the hole that I’d fallen through. The trees above stand hunched over the opening, releasing their rainwater from their overhanging knobby branches and exposed roots in a steady drip.

A ray of moonlight shows me how far I’d really dropped. Tens and tens of feet, it’s a wonder I didn’t break anything. It’s a wonder I’m still alive.

“I can’t get out of here,” I say softly. My eyes widen in the dark when his silhouetted form bends into a bowed position from high above.

“Then, I’ll take you,” he says gently. I remain rooted to the ground. The broken bones, and cocoons of the dead surrounding me are seared in my mind, and knowing he is the one responsible makes it almost too unbearable to look at him, to be so close. I feel sick.

“I have told you already that I have no interest in eating you. I have no desire of anything from you, but for you to leave…as quickly as possible. If you wish the same, you have no choice but to trust me.” He remains bowed, waiting for my approach.

This was true. If he wanted to devour me, he could’ve made quick work of me like he had Gary.

Reaching out through the darkness, my hand grazes something long and silky, but not sticky.

Is this hair?

I grip onto it, and he lets out something like a muffled hiss. I yank my hands back in apology, “Sorry!” I say, self-consciously.

I tentatively reach out to him again, and I feel him lower himself to my level. My fingers glide across smooth bare skin; it’s hot but not scalding, his warmth is somehow reassuring. At my touch, I hear him deepen a breath that he’d been holding.

I feel the gentle rise of a heaving chest, its firm give beneath my fingertips, then the deep ripple of abs… my hands trace his shape, following crisp angles of defined musculature. This close, there is no missing the sheer size of him. Standing before me, he’s taller than any man has the right to be, given his long segmented spider-like appendages.

But on top, he feels human…what the hell?

Sephtis snatches my hand, halting my investigation.

“Please,” I hear him say tightly, “take my hand.”

I can tell he’s trying not to sound impatient, but it’s slightly condescending. I grip his strong, much-too-human hand, I’m hauled from the ground and just about tossed over his shoulder onto his back. And now the differences are made much more clear. His top half is almost identical to that of a man, is that of a man’s, but his bottom half is where I really see–and feel it.

It’s spider-like in every way, chitinous and hard, with a thorax, a bulbous abdomen, and eight thick, long, spidery legs that held him in the air, just as he was. This part of him is covered in what I can only guess is a smooth exoskeleton, as dark as the deepest shadows. The overall effect is unsettling, but also strangely intriguing in a twisted sort of way.

I feel my own heart quicken as he begins to move, and I clutch him around the waist to keep from losing my balance. His muscles tighten beneath my grip, and he quickens his pace.

“Hold on tightly,” His voice is still calm, but now it has an edge. We rise and fall across the uneven ground until he begins at a steep vertical incline and begins to scale the dirt walls of the pit, and I feel my stomach drop. My grip around him tightens, I keep my head down, my face buried in his slick dark hair that flows curtain-like down his back. His scent is earthy and rich, a strange mix of woody and spice I can’t quite put my finger on at the moment. It’s a pleasantly dizzying aroma.

We’re moving exceptionally fast, and the light of the night sky increases, revealing the pale skin of his shoulders, veined with what looks to be thin black markings and of which I realize, there are four. And four arms, one pair set below the other so that there are two upper and two lower. As he scales the wall, he brushes aside the occasional debris, or broken tree limbs snagged on silvery webbing with his hands, or a long clawed foreleg. I try to get a view of his face, but the sharp line of his jaw is all that is visible to me from this angle.

Almost reaching the top of the drop-off, he jerks to a halt. “You will have to go the rest of the way alone,” he says. “I cannot leave here.”

“But, why?” I breathe before I can stop myself.

“That…is none of your concern.” He says, and there’s a sharpness to his tone. “Grab the root, and climb up. I’ve taken you as far as I will go.”

Sephtis’s movements are quick, as he points to a hanging root above me. Despite his proximity, I still can’t get a clear look at him, and my curiosity burns. Despite it, I release him and grip onto the root above me. The earth loosens slightly, and I wonder if it will hold.

“It will hold.” He assures me as though having read my mind.

Anchoring myself, I feel strangely reluctant to leave him— he feels much more sturdy than these flimsy roots. He makes the decision for me when he carefully lowers himself beneath me and leaves me to dangle from the thick hanging tendrils. After a moment of probing, I find a foothold and secure myself there.

I quickly glance down, but it’s only to glimpse the head of dark sleek hair sink further from sight, receding back into the deep recesses and shadows of the crevasse below.

I climb up until Sephtis is far in the distance. Pulling myself up, I just manage to shimmy over the edge of the pit and roll onto my back, on damp earth and grass. Finally, I release a massive breath of relief. I can almost hear the quiet slink of him below, then again, he could be long gone already.

I sit up, peering over the ledge into the vast darkness below, and call out to him all the same:

“I’m sorry you can’t leave!” I say, “No one should have to be alone.”

No answer comes back, there is only the deathly silence of the abyss.

I pause and bite the side of my lip. “And thank you for, in your own way, saving me…”

Again, nothing.

I’m sore, soaked, dirtied, and drenched, but far too grateful to be alive to care. I sigh, gingerly managing to pull myself to my feet and look around.

The rain has stopped. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but it looks like the earth has been churned over around the area where I’d fallen. There are indentations and cracks, and a few trees have toppled over.

I take off into the night, back in the direction I’d come from. High beams stretch through the woods before me, the light is a beacon in the dark, a welcome sight, and my heart lifts in my chest when I realize I’ve made it.

The car’s doors are still hanging open. I walk around to the passenger’s side and push the door closed, then sling myself into the driver’s seat, throwing Gary’s things onto the floor, and turn the key. The engine sputters but comes to life.

The dashboard clock reads after 10PM. Wrapping my hands around the wheel, I look towards the woods again, then shake my head. I pull out onto the main road, throw the car into drive, and accelerate.

But what– rather who I found in the pit, Sephtis, is what I can’t stop thinking about. Definitely not a man, but not quite a beast.