Crawlers

10:25pm

'What was that?' asked Ben, over the sound of more music from Samantha's phone. 

'What was what, now?' Josh asked back, annoyed. 

'I thought I heard something.' 

'I'm surprised anyone can hear anything with this racket,' grumbled Hugo. 

'No, really,' said Ben. 'There was a thump. I think it came from next door. I'm going to check on Jasmine.' 

'I'll bet,' said Samantha, and Lauren snorked again - which distracted Ben for a crucial second as he got the door open. 

'Whoa,' he managed. 

From Ben's perspective Lisa and Jasmine were lying across the doorway, one on top of the other. Lisa's face twisted round: her curtain of hair parted and her staring eyes met his. Without pausing her attack on Jasmine for a moment, she let out a screech. 

'Eeeeeeeeeeeh!' 

'Oh crap!' said Ben. 

Numbly, his movements feeling horribly slow and uncertain, he grabbed for Lisa's arm, her right, the one holding the crawler - and pulled. 

Lisa's arm was small and thin but her muscles felt like steel hawsers. Ben heaved back, and succeeded in lifting the crawler away from Jasmine a little, but even with her upward force added to his own he was fighting Lisa for every millimetre. She was still shrieking: her head thrashed from side to side, whipping flecks of foaming spittle in all directions. 

'Uh, help?' said Ben. 

'Get out of the way!' Hugo bellowed back, shouldering past him through the narrow doorway. 

Ben, knocked sideways, lost his grip. But now, for once, Hugo was taking charge. He bent down, hooked his beefy arms under Lisa's, and - with a strength that left Ben staring - hauled the struggling girl upright, off Jasmine, and back through the door into the main room. 

'Grab her arms,' he grunted as he lowered Lisa to the floor. Robert and Josh did as he said, pinning them out from her body. Still Lisa struggled. Still she twitched and thrashed and bucked. Ben just stared. 

'Get on her legs, Ben!' warned Hugo, snapping him out of it. 'Sit on 'em. Quick!' 

When the four boys had finally managed to restrain Lisa, there was a pause. 

'So,' Jasmine asked Ben shakily, from beside him. 'you still don't believe me about a traitor in the group?' 

Ben just looked at her. 

Jasmine could have milked the moment. She could have made more of being proved right, and how much danger she'd just been in. But crowing wasn't her style. 

'Are you all right, Jasmine?' asked Hugo, before Ben remembered to do so - making Ben feel like even more of a spare part than he did already. 

'I'm fine,' Jasmine lied, feeling her face and wondering if the marks of Lisa's fingers were still visible. Then she noticed that everyone was looking at her again. 

'Well,' she added, gathering herself with an effort, 'first things first...' 

Both Hugo and Robert were kneeling on Lisa's right arm, keeping the arm straight out from her body, but the hand still held its burden: the crawler's legs were still twitching. 

'There was a bin in here earlier,' said Jasmine, snapping her fingers. 'That rubbish bin, the metal one - anyone seen it?' 

'Here,' said Robert, pointing. Hugo nodded to indicate he had Lisa's arm under control himself for now, so Robert stood up, grabbed the bin, and made to pass it to Jasmine. 

'OK,' said Jasmine. 'Robert, isn't it?' 

Robert nodded. 

'Turn the bin upside-down and put it over Lisa's hand - the one with the crawler. Quickly now. We don't want her suddenly trying to throw it at us or something.' 

Looking extremely dubious, Robert did as Jasmine asked, squatting down on the floor. Now the rim of the metal bin lay against Lisa's wrist. Lisa's hand and the crawler were concealed beneath it. All the while Lisa's head continued to lash from side to side. 

'That's good, Robert, thank you,' said Jasmine. 'Now, no matter what happens next, I want you to be ready and watching. If Lisa lets go - if the crawler even tries to escape - I want you to trap it and make sure it doesn't get out. OK?' 

Robert nodded again. 

'All right,' said Jasmine wearily, 'then I guess it's time to find out if the rest of my theory was true too.' 

Except for the snarling sounds that Lisa was still making, the room was now silent. Everyone in the group was either staring at Lisa or watching Jasmine, hanging on whatever she was going to say next. 

'I need a volunteer,' she announced. 'Samantha? Lauren? It's got to be one of you.' 

'Why?' asked Josh. 

'We have to assume that what's happened to Lisa isn't her fault. We've got to treat her with whatever respect we can. Because now...' Jasmine paused. 'Now we've got to search her.' 

'No problem,' said Samantha, stepping forward. 

Lisa froze. She fixed Samantha with a stare, bared her teeth, and her snarling sank to a low growl in her throat. 

'Where do I start?' Samantha asked. 

Jasmine bit her lip. But it had to be done. 'Lisa's blouse,' she said. 'Open it from the bottom buttons first. But carefully,' she emphasised. 'We don't know what you might find.' 

Samantha nodded. Reaching a hand to either side of Lisa's waist she tugged at the blouse, gently untucking the white material until it came free of the waistband of Lisa's pleated grey school skirt. Then she unfastened the bottom button. 

And stopped. 

'Oh,' said Lauren, looking down over Samantha's shoulder. 'Oh, that's just... wrong.' 

The blouse had parted to reveal, not Lisa's stomach, but something else. Its rubbery, semi-translucent flesh was a parody of Lisa's skin. Its long legs with their thin lines of red at the joints quivered slightly, as if it knew that its secret had been discovered. 

It was another crawler, squatting on Lisa's belly.