by Stuart Jaffe
Roni paused, and she smiled inwardly when Gram did not take the opportunity to speak up.
“As we tried to leave, the two of you showed up,” she said, gesturing toward Gram and Sully. “You bullied your way into our mission, joining without being asked, and Gram took over as if we were all one united group.”
“I did not,” Gram said, crossing her arms tight. “I am the team leader, and I saw half of my team leaving on a mission that had not been sanctioned. I knew enough about how pigheaded you could be, so I didn’t dare try to stop you. But as a responsible leader, I could not let the two of you go off without support. That’s why we were there.”
“It doesn’t matter why you think you came. That’s not the point.”
Placing his hand on Gram’s back, Sully said, “She’s right. We were not asked to join, and though I agree that you and I had the best intentions at heart, we have to admit that there really were three teams along on this journey — Roni, Elliot, and the third team, you and I.”
Before Gram could get started again, Roni spoke louder. “After we reached the Isle, after we had entered the book and discovered the horrible truth of what the hellspiders had done, our missions were over. I have acquired the kyolo stones I sought, and Elliot found that there was nobody left to apologize to. He buried the relic and bid his farewell. But now we had the hellspider to contend with — a new mission that none of us wanted. And it’s in a part of the cavern that probably isn’t even our jurisdiction. Yet here we are.”
In a strong voice that suggested not only agreement but also encouragement, Elliot said, “You have done an excellent job of detailing out how dysfunctional we have been. And as you point out, the hellspider is out there. Whether or not we have jurisdiction, as you put it, does not matter. We are here, and it is our duty as members of the Parallel Society to protect the caverns — thus, protecting our world.”
“I absolutely agree. That creature is out there and it must be stopped. We all now know that it will take a functioning team to succeed. So, I propose we do just that — form a new team. One that works. The four of us can come together as new. I tried to be part of the Old Gang, but I’m not. I wasn’t there for all those decades, going on adventures with you, facing terrible creatures with you, and celebrating victories or mourning our defeats. I can’t be part of that. It’s too far set in stone. But, if we agree now to form a new team, then the four of us can reorganize and begin our mission against the hellspider as one.”
Lowering her hands, Gram said, “How do you propose we do this?”
“We start over as equals. No history, no assumptions based on past missions, we forget what we know of each other, and give each other the benefit of the doubt. Now, I’m not talking about some fairytale amnesia or anything like that. What I am suggesting is that we rely on each other’s talents and ignore what we assumed to be true about each other. The three of you think you know me. But you don’t. You can’t. I barely know myself — how can I, when part of me is missing? You think you know each other, but you don’t. You only know each other in terms of the Parallel Society. If we can give each other a clean slate, I think we’ll be on our way to forming a strong team together. And our first step towards that must be electing a new leader.” She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help it — she looked right at Gram. “Not you, not me, not unless the team decides it.”
With robotic motion, Gram turned her body to look at each of the men. They shriveled under that stark gaze. Roni did not blame them. Change was always difficult. And in the case of the Old Gang, the three of them had well–defined roles to play. Gram had led for so long that the idea of willfully giving it up was a purple cat riding a dinosaur — it made no sense.
But Roni believed that certain instincts could override the comfort of habit. In this case, the instinct of survival. “We can argue about this all day. You can try to intimidate the boys, but none of it will change the situation.”
“I was not —”
“You might not know you did it, but you did. It doesn’t matter. The fact is that none of us will get out of here alive without the others helping. We have no choice but to form a new team. It’s up to the three of you. You decide. Either give up your old way of seeing things, of doing things, of the way you think, or we die. What’s it going to be?”
With her accusations plainly laid out, Sully and Elliot looked at the ground. Gram stared at them, perhaps expecting one or both of them to turn to her, to ask for forgiveness, and to pledge their support towards her. Then Gram’s face changed. It softened. Not as before — not filling up with grandmotherly warmth — but rather with understanding. Roni could not believe her words had changed these three titans of her universe.
She could almost see Gram’s thoughts as if they were written in a bubble over her head — the Society comes first. She saw Gram watch the shame on the boys’ faces, and Gram seemed to recognize her role in the current situation. Probably didn’t want to admit that Roni had been right, but part of her clearly accepted the truth of Roni’s final statements.
Patting her chest, Gram said, “Okay. I agree. Let us form this new team.”
Sully and Elliot nodded as well. They tried not to exude relief, but there was no mistaking the change.
Elliot walked over and put his arm around Roni. “You are a smart and brave woman.”
Sully clapped his hands. “Here, here.”
“Boys,” Gram said. “Let’s not inflate this girl’s ego.” Sully and Elliot chuckled, but they also ceased with their praise. Gram continued, “Since we’re going to start a new team, then as has been pointed out, we need a new leader. So who’s it going to be?”
Not wanting to lose momentum, Roni jumped in. “It seems to me there is only one good choice.” She pointed to Sully. “You’re the only one who’s been impartial in this whole mess. I came for the kyolo stones, Elliot has a whole personal history with the Book on the Isle, and Gram had her own mission in all of this as our previous leader. You, however, have done nothing but support us all. For that matter, I would not be alive at the moment if not for your little golem.”
Sully pushed his glasses up his nose. “I don’t know about this.”
Elliot laughed. “I agree with Roni. You are the best choice. And you would hem and haw for hours if given the opportunity to weigh this decision out. It is a good thing you are not the one who gets to decide who leads.”
Gram added, “You have my vote, too.”
“Then it’s settled,” Roni said. “Sully is the leader of this new incarnation of the Parallel Society.”
All eyes turned toward Sully. Smacking his palms against his knees, the old man stood with a grunt. “Very well.” He walked over to Roni and gestured for her to take his seat. “I will accept.”
Gram chuckled. “Oh Lord, I think I feel a little relief. It’s kind of nice not being the one in the hot seat anymore.”
Sully smirked as he thrust his hands into his pockets. Standing with his slight stoop, he reminded Roni of a politician — not the sleazy kind, but rather somebody like Churchill who could rally the troops and get an entire country behind him. She hoped.
“The first mission of this new group is obvious,” Sully said without a hint of shaking in his voice. “We must either imprison or destroy the hellspider. I would like to hear from Gram and from Roni details about the previous two attacks that you were involved with.”
As Roni opened her mouth to speak, Gram puffed. “I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, dear, but as the only one here with true experience leading, I must point out that going over what we already know is only wasting time. That hellspider is out there, and it doesn’t need to go over everything to figure out how to come after us.”
Elliot sat up to the edge of his rock. “You are not the leader anymore. Sully is. If he thinks it is worth our time, then we will go over the details of the previous attacks. Besides, you were the one who taught me that it never hurts to take the time to organize thoughts and acti
ons.”
Gram stared at Elliot, her eyes wide, her head pulled back, and one hand unconsciously reaching toward her cross. “I was only trying to offer a suggestion from my experience. But if our new leader sees things a different way, then that is the way we will do things.”
With as much detail as she could recall, Roni went through the events as she had witnessed them. She told of the way they had first encountered the hellspider in the courtroom. She outlined the way the creature moved, how it disrupted all the books, how it suffered from fire, and how it inhaled the smaller versions of itself. She went on to share her recollection of the second assault. As she detailed the abuse she had endured, she caught Gram cringing. It always felt good to see the grandmother side of her come out — even if only for a moment.
When she finished, she looked toward Gram. “Did I miss anything?”
“Not that I can think of.”
Rocking back and forth on his feet, Sully kept his head down and his brow furrowed. His tongue poked out from time to time wetting his lips. He said nothing.
After a few minutes of this, Gram said, “What are we doing? Is he simply going to stand there or do we have a plan?”
“Patience,” Elliot said. “You have never really spent enough time watching him create a golem in his workshop. This is how he thinks. Give him a moment.”
As proud as Roni felt for both Elliot and Sully, her impatience matched Gram’s. Perhaps it was a family trait. Thankfully, she did not have to wait much longer.
“This room you call the courtroom — it has only one exit, yes?”
“Only one we can use,” Roni said. “The hellspider came in and left through a hole in the ceiling.”
Sully’s head snapped up, and he had a spark in his eye. “I know what we’ll do. We’ll need more stones, and of course, that courtroom. And unfortunately, one of us will have to lure the hellspider out.”
Though nobody said a word, Roni knew that task would fall to her. She would be the bait.
Chapter 22
Roni stood in the middle of the humming cave. It’s low ceiling and numerous books lodged in stone pressed down harder than before. She envied Atlas who only had to carry one world. The Parallel Society dealt with so many worlds, so many universes.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. When Sully had presented his plan, it sounded strong. Perhaps Roni would have supported anything the old man said — after everything she had gone through to reform the team, part of her didn’t want to undermine Sully’s newfound authority. Yet if they failed, it not only meant the end of her life, but probably the end of numerous other worlds. That seemed a great deal to heap on the four of them.
But if not them, who? They had not seen another person in the caverns. And while the Old Gang had told her that Parallel Societies existed in one form or another throughout the various universes, she had seen little evidence of it. Not that she doubted them, but those groups were not here. They might be doing great work within their own universes, but that did not solve the problem of the hellspider.
That trouble belonged to the New Gang.
For the tenth time, Roni checked that her laces were tied tight. She did not want to trip while running for her life. Although Elliot had given her a clean bill of health, she wondered how quickly her body could jump back into action. The others had gone through Elliot’s healing in the past, and they seemed comfortable and secure with his approval. However, they were not the ones standing in the middle of a cave waiting to be attacked by the hellspider.
All four of them had examined the path Roni would have to run. They cleared away anything that might trip her up — every stone, every root, every twig. With a clean route and a solid plan, everything would be fine. Provided she could run fast enough. And if she couldn’t — well, she had memories of her previous encounters with the hellspider.
Naturally, because life loves to be cruel, those horrible memories were the ones she could not get rid of. She could feel each strike to her body, and she could bring to mind the way the hellspider threw her. She could feel the heat radiating off its body. And those red eyes — those she would never forget.
Her father had been right. He had warned her — had tried. But it was difficult to believe words coming from a man institutionalized. And that made her wonder why he was there in the first place. A dark thought entered her mind — could Gram have had her father committed as a power-play? No. Roni didn’t want to think so poorly of Gram. Besides, Gram had supported this new gang — with a few harsh comments and some grumbling thrown in, but she did come around. She was not a power monger. It must be difficult, having always been the one in charge, having always had the responsibility — letting go could not have been easy. Gram liked to control things, but she wasn’t cruel. Certainly not enough to put her son-in-law into an asylum for all these years. Certainly not cruel enough to deny her granddaughter the chance to be raised by her father.
Her thoughts could not change reality, though. Her father was institutionalized. Yet, he had spoken the truth about the hellspiders.
Strange. She had been a child swaddled in a series of ever-thickening blankets — warmed and comforted by the lies that surrounded her. Now that the truth had been revealed — albeit only partially — those blankets had become a tangled mess which she struggled to clear out of. Only it seemed that each time she threw one blanket away, she found another waiting in its place. Unlike a tunnel of thought that shined light at the end to guide one along, Roni had the distinct impression that when she finally pulled away the last blanket, there would only be darkness.
She smacked her leg — these kinds of thoughts would get her nowhere. She needed to either concentrate on the moment at hand or, if that chilled her heart too much, she should dwell on whatever happy memories she could surface. As she pondered which option to take, the decision disappeared.
She heard the moan.
Once again, its deep-throated rumble caused vibrations in the humming air. Stepping out from behind a wall of stalagmites, the hellspider approached with its head brushing the ceiling. It took cautious steps. Its head turned from side to side as its eyes roved around the cavern.
Good. Roni liked that the creature remembered she could be dangerous. At least, she hoped that’s what made it so careful.
“That’s far enough,” Roni said putting out her hand like a police officer stopping traffic.
The hellspider halted and cocked its head.
Roni spotted the way its feet dug into the ground, ready to launch forward. She heard the way it controlled its breath like an athlete preparing for a difficult maneuver. Inhaling through her mouth to avoid the creatures distasteful odor, Roni said, “You are one ugly mother —”
She had only intended the insult to relieve her stress. But the hellspider reacted as if it had understood her. It reared back and bellowed its foghorn tones. The ceiling shook. The humming grew louder, and Roni’s head began to ache. She had no idea what the humming books could do, and she did not want to find out.
She didn’t want to hang around to be disemboweled, either. Speaking far braver than she felt, she said, “You haven’t killed me yet. Want to try? Come on you ugly piece of crap.”
The hellspider roared again, and this time Roni did not wait. She whirled around and sprinted away. From behind, she heard another angry bellowing followed by the rapidfire pounding of the hellspider’s legs.
As she raced through the tunnels, adrenaline poured through her veins. She could see the clear path with ease. Each footfall landed exactly where she wanted it. Sweat drained out of her, and she could taste the blood in her system as if it had to go through her mouth first. Though she knew it was all in her head, it seemed real enough. And anything that encouraged her to keep running, she would take.
When she zipped through the junction, she felt the corners of her mouth creep up. This might work.
The hellspider grunted behind. With any luck, it would be more exhausted than she was — so Roni kept running
.
Bursting into the courtroom, she saw the far wall moving up quickly. As planned, she put out her arms and kept running. Dear Rocky grabbed hold of her right arm and spun her ninety-degrees, lifted her off the ground, and eased her back down, slowing her momentum until she rested against the right side wall. Less than a second later, the hellspider crashed into the room, skidding to a halt in the center. Three legs pressed up against the stone chair on the platform. As it spun its head toward the back, a large golem made of stone stepped into the entranceway and disassembled into a mound of rocks that blocked the hellspider’s exit.
From behind a book pile, Gram stepped forward, planting herself between the blocked exit and the hellspider. In her hands, she held a book with the emblem for fire on its cover. “Remember me?”
Chapter 23
As Gram opened her book, Roni saw the new expression on the woman’s face — a mama bear protecting her cubs. Fire streamed out of the book as if from a flamethrower. The hellspider vaulted into the air but did not seek purchase on the walls — instead, it shot backwards, towards Elliot. Though several books burned on the floor, Gram had made it clear earlier that nobody should worry about putting them out. The books only held the rifts to the universes, they were not the universes themselves. Losing a book only meant that the fissures leading one universe into another would reopen. Not a good thing, of course. But an acceptable loss under the circumstances.