Dreaming in the Dark

03

Ange jumped up from her chair and went at him with a spoon. Clouds caught her in a web of knives, gently pressing her back into her seat and managing to leave her with only a small scratch on one cheek.

"Now now," he said. "No need for that."

"We do get to eat first?" Dez said.

"That's something," Jo nodded vigorously.

"You're idiots," Ange said, simmering.

"I should tell you that I lied," Clouds said.

"About what?" Jo asked.

"My name isn't Clouds." He frowned deeply, even with his eyes. "It's actually Spiders. I trick people like that because the words are so similar. You never know if it's one or the other until it's written down."

"Thank you for telling us the truth," Jo said.

"I am not going to eat that soup," Ange said.

"That's quite all right," Spiders said. "You'll be hungry soon enough, and I have all the world to wait."

"You mean you have all the time in the world," Jo said.

"No, I didn't," Spiders smiled toothlessly at them all, one eye deliberately winking

Ange was angry; at the man, at the others, and at the whole situation. It wasn't fair that she would be treated this way, and didn't she deserve fairness? It wasn't as if she'd had a long and happy life. The idea that she'd woken only to be eaten by this spider-man was unforgivable, only she wasn't sure who she wasn't supposed to be forgiving. This Maker person. He was the one who said it had to be this way. Thinking about it made her head hurt. And the worst part was, she actually really did want the soup. It smelled delicious.

"I want to talk to the Maker."

"Hmm?" Spiders had returned to humming, it was a familiar tune. "I'm afraid you can't do that. No one can. He's locked in the castle. Locked himself there since the beginning of time."

"That's stupid," Ange said.

"The very beginning?" Dez said. "How could he lock himself away at the beginning of time, and still be able to make everything?"

"Oh," the eyes blinked scatteredly, "I suppose he made everything before the beginning. That's what Makers do."

"Before the beginning?" Dez was scornful behind her raven wing curtain. "That's not possible."

"Well, for as long as I can remember," Spiders said, "things have been this way. When I was made, I know that was in the beginning. And I know there couldn't have been anything before me, because there wouldn't be a me to see it. So that was the beginning of time, when I was born. The Maker was in his castle already."

"That doesn't make any sense," Dez said.

"I've got it!" Jo raised her hand. "Time couldn't exist before you were there to observe it, because time only exists by being observed. So the Maker made everything in no time at all, and that's where he lives."

"What?" Spiders said. "That's not it at all."

Ange threw her soup in Spiders face, dousing his many eyes in steamy liquid. He shouted in alarm, and his bladed hands spun helpless pin-wheels as he tried to blink away the pain.

"Run!" Ange kicked over her stool and went for the door, but the touch panel wouldn't respond to her even when Jo came to try.

"Tricksy witches!" Spiders shouted. "I'm going to eat you." He flashed his knives, red eyes swollen in a blistering face. "Saintly quislings!" he shouted. "Vigorous muskrats! You tricked me with talk! You'll drink this soup down with a knife to your throat, or I'll slit your throat and pour the soup down!" He grabbed a full bowl and stalked toward them.

The girls split in three directions. Dez ran around to the passage that had brought them there, only to find it sliding shut. Jo ran the other way, while Ange bulled straight ahead with a spoon. Spiders was so surprised by the assault that he spilled the bowl he was holding. It had a sweet and savory aroma that made all of their mouths water.

"You can't eat me!" Ange panted out as she battered Spiders with her spoon. She was so ferocious that the monster took several moments to realize he wasn't being hurt. He disarmed her with a flourish that sent her utensil into the cauldron of soup. She was cornered with her back to the fire, his knife points surrounding her.

"You will eat the soup," he said, "and go to sleep. Then I will eat."

"No!" Ange was defiant as only a child can be.

Dez and Jo hit him in the back with their stools. Unbalanced by his own metal arms, he fell forward into the cooking fire. Ange threw herself to the floor to avoid being carried with him. Spiders had been wearing loose robes that caught flame immediately. He thrashed and screamed in the blaze as they retreated to the opposite side of the room by a vent grate.

Suddenly, the fire swirled into a vortex with its center at the monster's toothless mouth. With a sucking noise, it vanished into his throat. Spiders was burnt and bubbly, but his knives still flashed.

"I'll eat you first this time," he said.

The touchpad by the far door sparked, and it slid open. A black-visored warrior in powered armor stepped heavily into the room. He moved with the whir and squeal of hidden machinery, inner workings protected by oversized plating. He was holding a silver sword hilt, and from that hilt extended an unsword. Its blade devoured everything, even light, so that it was outlined in the absence of color, but was otherwise invisible.

Seeing this new adversary, Spiders turned and screamed a cone of fire. The space knight walked through it and began methodically destroying the knives.

"Come on!" Jo had pulled the grating off the vent. Whether this knight beat Spiders or not, she didn't want to be around when the fight was over. He didn't look kind. "Let's go!"

She was the first one through.