Anybody But You

130

Chapter One-Thirty

Vibe: Trouble by Elvis Presley

"We have to cut the strings!" Alice bit back a curse, feeling Talia's blade slice into her forearm; avoiding a swift knee to her stomach. "Aim above them—fuck that hurt."

Testing out her theory, Alice blindly swung her dagger over Talia's arm in the seemingly empty air. She felt the resistance before hearing a small snap—one of the many tangled strings breaking.

"Clever girl," the recognizable melodic voice sang lowly, "Normally it takes someone until their friend becomes collateral damage to figure it out." Serephin hummed as Alice caught a glimpse of her spidery tall figure behind Talia.

Her eyes glowed red through the lace with what seemed to be maliciousness. It was impossible to miss it.

"We've already been through this, old lady," Alice spat out of her furled lips, "I notice things quickly." Using her whole body to push herself onto her toes, she sliced through air—cutting all the remaining strings in one go before yanking Talia away from Serephin's reach. "Think you can remember how to repeat those moves and go gut some corpses so George can save Charles?" Alice hurriedly asked the scared girl without taking her eyes off the witch.

Talia reluctantly exhaled shakily. Her face turning hard as she quickly nodded. Giving Maggie a desperate look, Maggie managed to slice down a couple of corpses recently freed of the webs—giving Talia a temporary pathway to Creepy and the others. With one last pleading look for Maggie to stay safe, she took it before it was swallowed up again.

"Old?" Serephin laughed with distracted bitterness; her mystical eyes burning into Alice's as they stood before each other—only a few strides away.

She was even taller than Talia—Alice craning her head up to meet her eye. "You can try to hide all you want with that depressing veil, but I see the wrinkles." She smirked before wrapping her arm in Maggie's and spinning them around all without leaning on her out-of-commission limb, "Think you can take the old hag?" She asked Maggie, breaking the remaining strings on the corpse in front with her blade before it could swing.

"Yeah, I got—what the hell?" Maggie muttered as she stilled not even a blink later. "Where...? How? Where the fuck is she?"

A laugh sounded out around them—Serephin's silky voice surrounding them as they leaned against each other's backs. The army of puppet corpses began to enclose around them.

"This doesn't seem great for us." Alice whispered, "Can I ask you something before we die horrible horrible deaths?"

Maggie laughed darkly, a bit weakly, "Can't wait to hear what you're curious about... ask away, nutjob."

Nodding, Alice readied her blade as the corpses all stood in wait. With her voice still in a whisper, she finally spoke in a very serious matter, "So... sex without a penis, huh? What's that like?" She broke into a giggle, her lips pulling into a childish smile.

"I knew it! I knew you were going to ask something stupid and I still took the bait! I can't believe that's the last thing i'm ever going to hear!" Maggie hissed, blaming herself as Alice laughed loudly at her expense.

And then the puppet corpses launched into an attack.

It was like fighting off a tsunami wave with a fork. And then, just as a blade nearly touched her neck, they all stopped moving.

"Child, listen to me." Serephin's voice boomed down.

With her heart beating without rhyme or reason, Alice's eyes slowly travelled upwards towards the sky—finding Serephin balancing on her now visible silver webs as her skirt pulled in between her legs from the wind.

Except there was no wind.

"You are doing too much." She forced out of her teeth, her red eyes glowing brighter than before. She almost sounded desperate. "None of this is worth it."

It took Alice a moment to gather her thoughts, her mouth dry as colourful and creative profanities filled her brain. It was like glowing energy surrounded her—lived and breathed in the very particles in the air. "I won't stop even if I die." She promised.

Crouching down on the string holding her up, Serephin came closer to Alice. Her golden black skin twinkled in the red as her intense eyes stared into Alice's "You think death is the worst thing that could happen?"

With her eyebrows furrowing, she finally pushed the blade holding her captive away. "Maggie, I hereby relinquish my 'nutjob' nickname to this whacko."

No reply came back. Not even a disappointed sigh.

Spinning around, she grabbed Maggie's shoulder—her hand going directly through her body. Stumbling back in shock, she suddenly found herself face to face... with herself.

"What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the—"

"A spider weaves webs." Serephin continued with an annoyed sigh as Alice's mind broke into tiny shards of pieces. "What is time if not a carefully woven web? And you've gone and tangled it."

~*~*~

A.N.

Yeeesss that power. Serephin just keeps bringing it and I love it. Ugh. We getting into the thick of it now... *cue backyardigans*

Thank you for reading, will be back with songs shortly (wifi is now up and running!). Thanks for your awesome support ❤️