The Devil's Gift/The Bloody Handed

4

I lift up the metal pole, the black blood from the spider dripping down. I spit on the ground and look up towards the rain. This was the closest to a shower I've had yet.

"Are you girls crazy?!" Dustin exclaims.

"Yeah, are you crazy?!" Steve throws his hands up.

"I think the real question is.. what the hell is that thing?" Eddie points at the dead monster in disgust.

Nancy walks to us and looks at it. "It's obviously a spider. One this size though? I'm not so sure that's.. exactly normal." I kneel down and poke at it with the pole. It lazily shifts. Robin picks at the webs off down by her ankles.

"You know what this means?" I ask looking up at everyone.

"That there's big ass creepy.. ass.. spiders crawling around now.. from Australia?!" Eddie screams.

Robin looks at me and her mouth drops as soon as she realizes what I was about to say.

"This means that Vecna has learned how to summon his creations in this reality." I sigh and slick my hair back with my hands. "This isn't good. Not at all."

"We need to start. Tonight. It's about four in the morning so it's close enough to daylight." Steve says. "We have to stop this before it gets worse."

"Couldn't agree more." Dustin says. He looks to me and to the spider. "But we should see what Clary can do with her.. mojo."

"We can't just sit around and wait!" Steve exclaims.

"No, but Dustin has a point." Nancy agrees. "We need to know a little more about what she can do before we go into this mess blind sided- this can be a huge advantage."

"We- we can't put her at risk like that!" Eddie says walking home to me. "No way, José." He shakes his hands.

"Alright, Mom and Dad calm down." Dustin says.

"Mom?!" Steve exclaims.

"Dad?!" Eddie exclaims.

"Yes, both of you. You act like parents." Robin laughs. "You gonna ground us?"

"I'm fine, Eddie. Dustin and Nancy have a point. If we go in blindsided this could be it- we kill ourselves and the whole population while we're at it. We don't even know if it's just these big ass spiders."

"On top of that, Vecna seems to be striking deserted and rural areas. Nothing central to the cities yet, from what we know." Robin says.

"Alright. Where do we start?" Steve asks with his hands on his hips.

"Oh, the mom stance." I say with a laugh. He points a finger at me shaking his head.

"We need a library nearby or somewhere where we can do some deep digging and research." Dustin says.

"Alright then let's head out before another one of those.. things come out." Eddie says nervously.

We immediately pack into the RV and start to drive into the closest town possible. It wasn't hard to find a library, but the issue was that we didn't know how long it was until the next town. We had no map. Just luck. Eddie sat beside me making sure I wasn't scathed. He suddenly was extremely protective over me as if I was made of glass.

"I'm fine, promise." I laugh as I brush off his wandering hands.

"Okay that may be, but not up there!" He taps on my head. I roll my eyes. "There you go rolling your eyes again, Gregerson. What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking, check it out and see." I shrug my shoulders.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" He frowns.

"I didn't even expect to encounter it. I was originally looking for snacks and talking to Robin, but you boys bought a whole bunch of junk." I give him an I'm always right look.

"Okay, but you still could have gotten me and told me you were going to try something stupid." He rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah." I wave my hand and laugh, messing up his hair. "I'm fine, Goldilocks."

He snaps his head to me, in disbelief. "Goldilocks?" He puts a hand on his chest in a joking manner.

"You like?" I raise my eyebrows.

He grins in response. "Love it." He flicks my forehead and gets up, stretching out and walking away to Dustin. Robin walks over to me.

"I'm guessing you guys made up?" He nods her head towards Eddie.

"Yeah, we did. I admit I was a little too heated so I apologize-"

"Don't apologize. Men are dumb! That's why I like women." She says proudly. She then looks at me worried. "Those scars though.. they're pretty brutal. Do they hurt?" She points.

I slightly lift up my shirt and drop it. "Nope." I shake my head. "I did most of my healing in the hospital I suppose. I woke up at the right time because 90% of my stitches dissolved. I wouldn't be able to move if I still had them in. When I was at Eddie's the night before we met you guys I took a hot shower- it kind of stung, but-"

"Shower?" She smirks raising her eyebrows, leaning in. "Please do tell."

"Yeah, no." I laugh. "I took it by myself. Eddie and I aren't.. exactly there yet." I shake my head.

"Aww.. what a shame." She says disappointed.

"Alright, you guys ready? Found a place.. I think." Steve calls out. Robin and I look at each other and nod, climbing down the RV steps.

It was a small town that looked like it was built in the 1800s. Everything was original, rusty, dusty, and outdated. Signs were faded and you couldn't even read the labels on them.

"Are you sure anyone even is alive anymore?" Eddie grimaces.

"There's cars.. so there has to be." Nancy says.

I walk over to one and wipe the paint, my finger leaving a mark. "Yeah, but if so then they've been parked here for a while." I wipe my finger on my shorts.

We all walk towards the building that said: "LIbRY" on it. I supposed it said library years ago.

"Well guys, welcome to the middle of nowhere." Dustin says.