Of Silk and Death.

Chapter 23

Inside the crowded elevator, I stared at Peter, who still looked a bit disheveled from his stay inside the spider woman's cocoon.

"Are you alright?" I asked, "Did she wound you?"

"I'm a little traumatized, but I'm fine," Peter said, still peeling cobwebs from his suit.

"How did the date go? I know George and I failed, but did it go alright before it all went awry?" I asked, curious.

"Yes. In fact, I managed to delay her attack for a few minutes," Peter told me. "But then you never arrived, and the only ones who came to my help were Reginald and Isaac. How is Isaac, by the way? Before I was cocooned, the creature threw him against a wall pretty hard. Is he dead?"

Reginald shook his head.

"Isaac escaped," the young man said. "But I don't know where he went."

"He's downstairs. The front desk clerk called one of the in-house doctors to come and look at all the emergencies from tonight," I said, and Peter stared at me, confused.

"Emergencies? Besides Isaac?" He asked.

I grinned, embarrassed, and gestured with my hands, trying to explain. But after a few seconds of awkward silence, I just admitted to the mistake I had made.

"Minnie fell from the ballroom balcony tonight. It was my fault. I locked her there," I said.

Peter raised his eyebrows in surprise and then gave me a worried look.

"Jesus! I hope she's okay," he exclaimed.

Father nodded with his head and whispered she was alright, ensuring us that it hadn't been that bad of a fall.

"Do you think the party's still going?" Peter asked.

I shrugged but told him it probably was. Besides the show Minnie had pulled, nothing terrible had happened in the ballroom.

"All I know is that the music was still going before running upstairs," I said. "I'm pretty sure not many people know what's happening."

"Better for us," Father said, with his eyes closed. "We don't want people to know about this."

After talking amongst themselves, one of the coppers turned to us and indicated what the plan would be. I was to lead the police toward the machine room. The men then would liberate Will and Officer Lawson from their imprisonment, and after exiting the room me and the two victims and I would be carried to the hotel clinic. At the same time, the rest would go back to the pool to finish the creature.

"One of your colleagues called the station for reinforcements," I told him, remembering that the officer had used the front desk phone to call the station. "I forgot to tell you, I'm sorry."

This made the coppers take a moment to think and then went back to whispering to each other, probably reorganizing their ideas with this new information.

After a few conversations, the policeman turned to us again.

"Well, if reinforcements are coming," the officer said, "We think all of you should go to the clinic to check for wounds while we finish the creature off."

He also stated with great authority that after the night's events, only police personnel would be authorized to talk about it. Everybody else would be forbidden to do so, with the chance of possible legal repercussions if we did.

We all agreed.

"Yeah, man. We got it," Reginald said, pressing his hand on the axe like a cane. "Nobody wants to end up in a straight jacket."