by Hall, Andrew
As the sun sank in the sky, Will stepped outside and invited everyone into the keep.
‘A family that eats together stays together,’ he said brightly, holding the door open for everyone to come inside. Tabitha stroked Laika and led her into the keep after the others, walking in on excited chatter inside. The small dining table had been extended with a few more tables from the walls, and candles flickered on a bed sheet for a makeshift tablecloth. There was even tinsel taped up around the walls and ceiling, and the light and breeze of the summer evening still filled the room through the open door.
‘Will, it’s beautiful,’ said Liv, giving him a hug. Everyone was making the right noises as they sat down to their fresh stew, and Will was grinning. Even Laika had a good portion in her bowl.
‘Tuck in, everyone,’ he said happily.
‘Wait,’ said Sylvia, placing her hands together.
‘…Are we saying grace?’ Jim whispered to Liv. Liv shrugged.
‘What?’ said Grace, eating her stew open-mouthed. The table filled with smiles. Natalie shushed her while Sylvia waited to speak. ‘Jim said my name though,’ Grace protested, with a voice as high and clear as a bell in the sudden silence.
‘Dear Lord,’ Sylvia began. ‘Thank you for bringing us here to this safe place. Thank you for this meal, and for these good people.’
‘Amen,’ Paul joined in, smiling at the others around the table. ‘Personally I think God’s a load of rubbish, but anyway. Amen to the rest of it.’ The rest of the table grinned with him, watching Sylvia’s look of distaste.
‘We’re all entitled to our beliefs, or sad lack thereof,’ Sylvia replied, with a barbed tone. ‘Regardless. I’d like to thank William, and everyone, for taking us into their home.’ She lifted her glass of water to him. ‘It’s a big adjustment to make, to accommodate all of us. But we’re going to take the rough with the smooth, and personally I hope there’s plenty of both. Keeps things interesting.’ She winked at Will, and raised her glass. ‘To the Ghosts,’ she said. Everyone joined in the toast, and promptly dug into their stew.
Sylvia watched the table as they ate. She watched Chris in particular, and how he behaved. After speaking with him for five minutes this morning, Sylvia knew that he was a little shit stirrer. Unfortunately in her experience, shit stirrers did seem to have a good nose for the stuff – and they knew where it was coming from too. He certainly had a lot to say against Tabitha, and there was bound to be some truth in that somewhere. She could hardly forget her first meeting with the girl; a scene that looked for all the world like a feral human threatening her family. Nor could she see past Tabitha’s strange unnatural side. It was hidden away from view most of the time, with only the slightest hint that it was there. But she saw it nonetheless; a fleeting glimpse when Tabitha let her guard down. She saw it in the way the girl watched them eat, with a jealousy verging on hatred. She saw it in Tabitha’s reflexes, when she played catch with the twins. She moved too quickly, too fluidly. She was unsettling. Tabitha caught her staring, and looked at her. Sylvia held her gaze. Tabitha broke first and looked back down awkwardly, and took a sip of water. Victorious, matriarchal, Sylvia turned her attention back to her meal.
‘Tabitha doesn’t have any stew,’ said Robert, pointing at her bowl with his spoon. ‘Will, Tabitha doesn’t have any,’ he said.
‘It’s alright,’ Tabitha said with a smile. ‘I’m not really hungry.’
‘But you have to keep your strength up,’ Grace said with concern. ‘That’s what New Grandma says.’ She looked over at Sylvia. ‘Everyone needs to eat and keep their strength up, don’t they New Grandma?’ the table fell silent, lost in an awkwardness that no one knew how to break.
‘I’ll just be a minute,’ said Tabitha, getting up from the table and heading outside. Liv got up and followed her out.
‘What’s wrong?’ said Robert, looking around at them.
‘It’s alright,’ Paul told him. ‘Tabitha’s just not feeling well, that’s all.’
Outside Tabitha was opening the iron-barred gate in the wall.
‘What are you doing?’ Liv called over, running across the courtyard to stop her.
‘I need to go,’ Tabitha sobbed. ‘I don’t belong here.’
‘What? Why? W-What’s happened?’
‘You’re all so… fucking human,’ she said, wiping her tears away with her fingers. ‘Ow,’ she added angrily, looking down at her coarse metal hands that had scraped her eyelids.
‘Tell me what you’re th-thinking,’ said Liv, trying to hold the gate shut. ‘Tell me.’
‘I’m thinking I don’t want to die like this,’ Tabitha replied. She looked at Liv with stark teary eyes; yellow gold on bloodshot pink. ‘I’m so hungry Liv. It’s driving me mad. I’d sooner die fighting than starve to death.’
‘Then you’re giving up,’ said Liv. ‘Everything you’ve gone th-through to get here, and you’re throwing it all away because you’ve got it into your head that you’re s-starving to death.’ Liv took Tabitha’s hand and turned her away from the gate. ‘You’re s-safe here, Tabitha. You’re loved here. Don’t walk away from that. We’ll find a way round the hunger, somehow.’
‘It’s not just the hunger though,’ Tabitha replied, sliding down the gate with her back against the bars. She sniffled, snotty. ‘It’s the way people look at me sometimes. Like they’re sorry for me. Or like they hate me for what I am.’
‘Look, no one’s going to change what they think of you just because you d-don’t like it,’ Liv snapped, banging the bolt shut on the gate. The sound rang through the bars. She crouched down, and looked Tabitha in the eyes. ‘If you don’t like what s-someone thinks about you, tell them to go and fuck themselves and then walk away. Or I’ll d-do it for you, until you get the hang of it. Or, I’ll throw them over the castle wall myself.’ Tabitha laughed, and dabbed at her snot with her sleeve. Bats clicked overhead in the purple sunset sky.
‘Here,’ said Liv, uncrumpling a tissue from her pocket. ‘Clean yourself up. You’re a snotty disgusting m-mess.’ Tabitha laughed again, and filled the tissue with a crackling flow of wet snot.
‘Jesus,’ said Liv, cringing and looking away.
‘I don’t know what I’d do without you,’ said Tabitha, leaning back against the gate.
‘Well I know what I’d do without you,’ Liv replied. ‘I’d still have my last tissue and my last bloody piece of ch-chocolate.’ Tabitha smiled. ‘Come on, let’s go b-back inside,’ Liv told her. ‘And don’t you dare freak out on m-me like that again.’ Tabitha was just staring at her though, wide-eyed. Her mouth was opening and closing.
‘Don’t, you look weird doing that,’ said Liv. Suddenly her smile faded to a look of horror. Tabitha was gasping. There was a silver needle in her neck.
‘Oh god!’ Liv screamed, trying to drag Tabitha away from the gate. ‘Help!’ a spider on the other side was gripping her, with a claw buried in her spine. Tabitha only stared ahead, wide-eyed and gasping. Her body was jolting with the metal claw writhing in her spinal cord. Everyone came rushing out of the keep, yelling and screaming when they caught sight of the scene. Laika was frantic. Sylvia took one look at what was happening and pulled the screaming twins back inside.
‘Get her away from the gate!’ yelled Will, pulling at her other arm.
‘It’s inside her spine!’ Liv screamed, ducking away from a silver claw through the bars. ‘We can’t just pull her away, it’ll paralyse her!’
‘Do it!’ Will roared. Together they gripped her arms. Paul grabbed her legs, and they pulled her away from the spider with a snapping sound.
‘That was her spine!’ Liv screamed.
‘She’ll heal!’ said Will, getting them all back from the gate. ‘Tabitha, can you hear me?’ he said, shaking her shoulder. She was unconscious. ‘Just keep her on her side, make sure she’s breathing!’ he said. Sobbing, Liv held her hand to Tabitha’s gasping mouth.
‘Is she breathing?’ Will demanded.
‘I think s
o,’ said Liv, panicking.
‘Is she breathing, yes or no?’ he yelled. ‘Get your ear down and listen! Feel for her breath on your cheek!’
‘She’s breathing!’ said Liv, checking again.
‘Right, Chris, get your hand on this wound!’ Will commanded, pressing his own hand against the hole in Tabitha’s back. Her silver blood was already pouring between his fingers, puddling on the courtyard around his knees. ‘Chris! You need to stop the blood while I get a bandage!’
‘But it’s spinal fluid, it might be infected,’ Chris said nervously.
‘Fine!’ said Will, biting back his contempt. ‘You get the bandages! Second box down on the right, by the kitchen counter! Go!’
‘Back from the gate everyone, right back!’ said Jim, pulling Laika snarling and barking from the gate. ‘Natalie, go and sit down love.’ He took her hand and led her back inside. She was trembling; white as a sheet.
The spider lashed its tongue in through the bars, trying to reach for them. Jim came back out from the keep with a rifle, and took aim through the bars and shot the scrambling spider. It collapsed against the gate with a dead metal clatter.
‘Liv, how’s her breathing?’ Will demanded, keeping his hand pressed tight against the hole in Tabitha’s back.
‘It’s ok,’ she replied, staring at him nervously.
‘Take her hand, Liv. Talk to her,’ he said. ‘Chris, where’s those bandages?’
‘Here!’ he said, rushing back outside and fumbling one out of the packet. Will took it off him and unravelled it, and pressed it hard against Tabitha’s wound.
‘Liv, I’m going to lift her body up a second and pass the bandage through underneath,’ said Will. He heaved Tabitha’s side off the cobbles, and poked the bandage through beneath. ‘Have you got it?’
‘Yeah,’ said Liv, blinking her tears back. She took hold of the bandage and brought it up to meet the other end around Tabitha’s chest.
‘Tie it off for me Liv. Tie it as tight as you can,’ said Will calmly. Liv fumbled with the ends of the bandage, looped them round one another, and pulled them tight into a knot.
‘And another bandage,’ said Will, motioning to Chris. He pressed the second bandage pad against the first one, and he and Liv tied it off tight on top.
‘I think the bleeding’s stopping,’ said Will, taking his hand off the bandages.
‘Because it’s all come out already,’ Liv sobbed, looking at the silver pool around them.
‘She’ll be alright,’ said Will, pushing his palm back against the bandages. ‘As long as she’s still breathing, she’ll be alright. Liv, try to keep her on her side.’
‘She’s p-pushing against me,’ Liv replied in shock. Tabitha gasped a few silent words, and pointed at the spider’s corpse on the other side of the gate.
‘Don’t,’ said Liv, as Will tried to hold her back. Tabitha flopped down onto her front, and crawled on her elbows back towards the gate.
‘Tell me what you n-need,’ Liv said desperately. ‘I’ll bring it to you. Tell me.’ Tabitha could only gasp at the words though. They wouldn’t come. All she could do was keep crawling for it. For life.
‘She needs the spider!’ said Liv, opening the gate to pull the corpse inside with a clatter. Tabitha dragged her body up to it, and held its wounded head to her mouth.
‘She’s drinking the blood, through the bullet hole,’ Liv told them, as Will closed the gate. Tabitha drank at the wound like a baby on a bottle, curling her body around the corpse. She started to feel her legs again, as she gulped down the blood like silver milk. Her spine moved and clicked back into place. She felt full, suddenly. Tripping. Thoughts raced; gunshots of colour. A lightning kaleidoscope filled her head with bleeding rainbows; liquid pyrotechnics and inkblot supernovas. All the world was silver; all the world was peace. The high wrapped around her, an electrostatic bath; a forcefield soul hammock. Tabitha rolled over on her back, and felt her own spilled blood on the ground against her arms. It was the same blood as that spider. She dabbed her hand and licked her fingers. It tasted just the same. Exquisite. She watched the sky. The stars were stabbing through the dusk above; celestial pinpricks of light that flared and tailed as she moved her head. Faces appeared on either side of her as she stared up from the cobbles. She smiled. She knew those faces. They were calling her name, like a distant dream. Waiting on the far side of her glassy psychedelic trip.
‘Tabitha?’ said Liv, stroking her hair that was slick in the silver puddle of blood.
‘I’m ok,’ Tabitha said quietly, smiling at her friend. They held her hands, Liv and Will. She hardly felt their hands touching hers, but she knew they were there holding on. It was the faintest feeling, just a hint of a touch. She felt her heartcore reacting to the spider blood. Charged and lubricated; stimulated into frenzied repair.
‘How are you feeling?’ said Will. ‘Does it hurt anywhere?’
‘Just my whole spine,’ Tabitha croaked. ‘Liv, let’s not talk by the gate again.’ Liv smiled and sobbed, kissing her head. Will called to the others to come out and help her inside. Chris couldn’t be around her though. He ducked back into the keep, with the image playing over and over in his head. The way Tabitha looked when she was feeding on that spider. Like an animal on a kill; like something possessed. A vampire, that’s what she was. Draining the life out of that thing with a fierce intensity, hellish and feral. One day soon, that could be him she was feeding on. It could be all of them. The thought crept in and filled his head. She was just like the spiders, and no one else could see it.
27
Tabitha gasped and woke from weird dreams. She found herself in Liv’s room in the dawn light. She happily fought off Laika’s frenzied attentions, and felt bandages tight around her middle. She untied them and peeled off the absorbent pads from her back, stiff with dry silver blood.
‘Thank god,’ said Liv, sitting on the floor beside her. Tabitha jumped to see her there in the morning gloom.
‘Have you been there all night?’ said Tabitha, swinging her feet down off the bed.
‘Of c-course,’ said Liv, smiling. ‘I wanted to m-make sure you were alright. No one slept a wink last night.’
‘Thank you,’ said Tabitha, hugging her tight and kissing her cheek. ‘Thank you for looking after me. All the time.’ Tabitha took Liv’s hand and coaxed her up from the floor, and guided her by the shoulders to plonk her down on the bed.
‘You’re sleeping today,’ Tabitha ordered.
‘You’re sure you’re alright?’ said Liv, while Tabitha pulled the bed cover up over her.
‘I’m fine,’ she said gently. ‘Sleep, you.’
‘You’re up! How are you feeling?’ said Natalie, wiping the table down as Tabitha came downstairs with Laika.
‘Incredible,’ she replied, grinning. Natalie hadn’t expected her to be walking around so soon. She certainly hadn’t expected a hug.
‘Nobody could sleep last night, we were so worried,’ said Natalie. ‘We couldn’t get the twins to stop crying.’
‘I’m sorry for doing that to everyone,’ Tabitha replied. ‘It was a stupid place to sit, by the gate. I should have known better.’
‘Oh god no, don’t apologise,’ Natalie replied, handing her a cup of water. ‘I’m just glad you’re alright. You’ll have to see the twins.’
‘Where are they, in the garden?’ said Tabitha, pushing the door open on a gorgeous morning.
‘Tabitha,’ Natalie called to her quietly. ‘We were all really scared for you last night. Jim was crying.’
‘Oh god,’ said Tabitha. ‘It must have been bad. But I don’t remember half of it, to be honest.’
‘It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen,’ said Natalie. ‘And I’ve seen some messed up stuff. It’s probably better that you don’t remember it, actually.’
‘I’m sorry you had to see it,’ Tabitha replied awkwardly. She didn’t know what else to say. She wasn’t in any great pain; she hardly remembered the grizzly details. Ever
ything that happened was a blur of shock. There’d been fierce pain, and then nothing. She’d passed out and woken up with a feral hunger she’d never felt before; bloodlust. And then a sudden burst of silver light as she drank the spider, when the world had blown into twisting colours like ink in water. She’d felt so full and high and tingly-intense after her bloodmeal that she could have orgasmed. Maybe she had. After that she’d slept like a baby, and somehow the whole ordeal had been worth it just to sate her sickening hunger.
‘Tabitha?’
‘Hm?’ she snapped out of her daydream and found herself in the kitchen. Natalie was looking at her.
‘Are you ok?’
‘Oh yeah, fine, thanks,’ Tabitha said absentmindedly. ‘Just… a bit of a flashback, that’s all.’ Natalie looked pained about it; she needn’t have. Tabitha couldn’t remember feeling this good before. Like someone had turned up the colour and the sharpness on life, all the way to the top.
‘Sorry, what was I doing?’ said Tabitha, hanging around in the doorway.
‘You should go and see everyone,’ said Natalie. ‘Especially the twins.’ Tabitha nodded in a smiling daze, and wandered outside.
‘Hey you two,’ she said, walking down into the garden with Laika in tow. Grace and Robert ran over as she sat down on the grass, and hugged her tight.
‘We thought you were going to die,’ Grace said quietly.
‘Will said you wouldn’t though,’ Robert added. ‘He said you had special powers.’
‘Have you got special powers?’ Grace whispered in her ear, like a close-guarded secret.
‘Yes I do,’ Tabitha whispered back, smiling at Grace’s look of surprise.
‘What special powers?’ said Grace, desperate to find out.
‘She’s got healing,’ Robert said knowingly.
‘Yep,’ Tabitha replied, showing off the hole in the back of her top. ‘Look. No scar.’