Where Are The Children?

12

VAL

"Jamie?" 

Jamie's eyes widened at the sound of Jack's voice "No, Jack! you have to go!" 

"We're not leaving you here kiddo" 

"No, leave me here, please" he muttered, his voice sounding drowsy. 

Val took a deep breath, steeling herself as her eyes fell on the pitting red longitudinal scar extending from his shoulder to his pelvis. The skin surrounding his wound was in an ugly violet-purple shade. She shuddered, desperately stopping herself from hurling out the contents of her stomach. 

"Who did this to you?" Jack whispered

Jamie shook his head and pushed him away "Jack, just go! It's dangerous!"

"No" he shot her a look "What are we going to do?"

"be the lookout," She told him, helping Jamie up. "I know how to deal with this"

She grabbed the disinfectant she had from her belt and shot the teenager a pitiful look. "open your mouth"

He obediently opened his mouth and she placed a towel in. She nodded "Bite it"

"How do you know that?" Jack asked her

She shrugged "Experience"

He raised his brow "Where would you get that experience?"

She wore her gloves and began drenching the gauze with disinfectant. "Eyes forward, Jack. We don't want spiders coming"

She placed her hand on his. "Jamie, this is going to hurt. But please do whatever you can to not scream"

The kid nodded and she began disinfecting his wound. She could see his thin body squirming underneath the disinfectant. "Just a little bit more," she told him soothingly "We need to disinfect it to avoid infection"

She disposed of the gauze when Jamie's hand grabbed her wrist, his nails digging into her flesh. "Jamie, I know it hurts but-" She faltered, her blood growing cold at her being face to face with a pale white humanoid spider descending from the cave roof. The creature opened his eyes, its blue orbs staring straight into hers. 

Val felt her stomach drop. The creature was too familiar. She tightened her grip on her gauze, her breaths were shallow and fast. She knew she had to lunge at it. She had to.

She wanted to.

But she was stuck on the ground, her arms and legs felt paralyzed, almost immobile. It was like she was chained to the ground. She just stared at it, unmoving as it opened its mouth, revealing its pangs and releasing the stench of blood and decaying muscle tissue. 

"Witch scum"

The hairs on the back of Val's neck tingled at the creature's whisper. She felt her heart beating fast against her chest, her muscles tensing. 

That voice. 

That fucking voice.

It all happened too fast. Without thinking, a guttural cry slipped past her lips. She yanked the staff from Jack's hands and began bludgeoning the humanoid creature.

The creature screamed, about to fight back when she continued to hit it. She couldn't think as she delivered blow after blow. All she knew was that she wanted the creature to drown in its own transparent foul-smelling mucus.

"Hey, Val?"

She didn't respond.

The creature wasn't moving but her anger was still overflowing.

She continued to hit it with Jack's staff, making sure that the head was turned into mush. Thoughts filled her head. She can feel her jaw hurting. She didn't even realize that she was clenching her teeth so tightly. Those 2 words may be simple but it sent her hurtling on a trip to memory lane. 

A hand suddenly grabbed her arm. She turned and saw Jack staring at her. He pointed at the creature "It's dead"

She stared at the smashed skull of the spider then at Jack. She instantly dropped the staff, her eyes wide.

She cleared her throat "It surprised me"

He raised an eyebrow "I surprise you all the time and you never bludgeoned me to death"

She rolled her eyes and wipe the goo off her face, still shocked "One of these days, I will. so tread lightly"

He chuckled about to turn to Jamie when an image made him stop in his tracks. They stared at the spider's back, swelling into a huge balloon and suddenly ripping into two. 

What happened after that was too fast for Val to even process. All she knew was that she saw the spider's back rip open, They didn't bother to watch what happened next. 

Jack instantly carried Jamie and they began running through endless corridors, only led by a half-conscious teenager's directions.

 She could almost hear the humungous insect legs scurrying down the corridors, probably searching for them. She gritted her teeth, throwing her dagger at the white thing dangling in front of them. She can never get over how it whispered to her a while ago. After greeting one face to face, She was sure she won't sleep tonight.

 Val glanced at the back, making sure that Jack was still with her. A bolt of white appeared in her line of vision. "look at the front!" Jack snapped

"I was just making sure you're still behind me!"

"I am behind you! Go to the right!"

She stopped in their tracks at the sight of the swirling vortex. She hesitated, unsure about her decision of diving in. She shot Jack a look "What do we do? Do we jump in?"

"I don't know! You have that thing! What does your gut tell you?" He responded, still looking back for signs of the humanoid things

"We are being chased by spiders" She panted, gritting her teeth "Right now, my gut is telling me you are going to fucking die here!"

He shook his head in disbelief and tried to shake Jamie awake. However, the kid was already asleep. Val stared at the teenager. She can't blame him for fainting. That wound must've been painful to tolerate especially when there's a group of monsters hounding you.

"No, don't wake him up. He needs rest" she told Jack, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Jack held her hand "Then I guess we just have to jump in"

She hesitated "that's a really bad idea"

"Well, we ran out of good ideas long ago"

She pursed her lips and then nodded "On three?"

He rolled his eyes and jumped into the swirling portal.

She glanced at the back then at the portal, her thoughts racing and her feet unable to move a step forward when a hand suddenly shot out from the portal and yank her in by her collar.