Title: The Spider and the Fly

Author: Femvamp

Fandom: American Horror Story - Asylum

Disclaimer: American Horror Story: Asylum does not belong to me. It belongs to Ryan Murphy, FX, and other people who are not me.

Spoilers: Everything during the season is fair game...so up until Madness ends.

Note: I don't have a beta so all mistakes are mine. Please tell me what you think.

"Will you step into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly;

Lana Winters had always been an ambitious person. It served her well most of her life. It allowed her to attend a prestigious college instead of getting married straight out of high school, like most of her friends had. It had gotten her noticed over male colleagues even though she was almost always relegated to the "woman sections." of the paper she worked at. Most of all it got her Wendy.

Lana had resented it greatly when she had been warned off the Bloody Face story like she was just some poor pathetic woman who was only good for getting the water for some man. She was just as good, if not better than the men who worked for the paper. All she needed was a chance to prove it and the Bloody Face story was her chance and she was not about to let it get away from her.

"'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy;

The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,

Walking into Briarcliff had been easier than she thought it would be. Pretending to want to do a story on the bakery was a simple thing. She had asked around and found out that the Monsignor in charge had designs on advancement and an article on his bakery would be just the thing to get him noticed. Vanity was such an easy thing to play off of. It was almost too easy.

From the outside Briarcliff looked like any other building. It almost looked like the elementary school she had attended and the childlike patient who handed her a flower made it seem all the more so; but the young nun who met her outside the building pulled her away and warned her of danger. It was only inside that Lana got the full force of darkness that resided in the building. It was only when she started walking up the winding staircase did the full force hit her.

And I have many curious things to show you when you are there."

She didn't see the Monsignor during her interview but she hadn't expected to. Instead she spoke with Sister Jude the head nun. From what she had heard it was really Sister Jude who was in charge anyway. If anyone could get her an interview with Bloody Face it was her.

"Oh no, no," said the Fly, "to ask me is in vain;

For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

However the interview had gone from bad to worse and Sister Jude had shut her down cold. The one thing Sister Jude had allowed her to do was watch as Kit Walker, the one everyone thought was Bloody Face: the killer of women, was brought into the asylum. That was it. That was all. After that Lana was shown the door.

"I'm sure you must be weary, dear, with soaring up so high;

Will you rest upon my little bed?" said the Spider to the Fly.

Sneaking back into the asylum that night had been easier than she thought it would be. The young nun who was named Sister Mary Eunice had been outside doing something she wasn't supposed to and Lana had used that to her advantage. She searched for Kit Walker but hadn't found him instead she found something else and must have hit her head because when she came to she found herself restrained to a bed and Sister Jude standing above her. It didn't take long for Lana to realize what had happened; what Sister Jude had done to her.

"There are pretty curtains drawn around, the sheets are fine and thin;

And if you like to rest awhile, I'll snugly tuck you in!"

Lana was a fighter though and wasn't about to let Sister Jude get away with having her committed. She had no idea that things could get worse. Sister Jude used electro shock therapy to try and make her forget about her plans to expose Briarcliff. She had tried to escape twice but nothing good had come either time.

"Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "for I've often heard it said

They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed!"

The one shining light in the dark and evil place had been Oliver Thredson. The one person who gave her a sliver of hope of getting out of Briarcliff. He tried to give her a fake cure for her homosexuality. Lana knew there was no cure but out of desperation she had agreed to try. It had failed as badly as she thought it would and she thought that he would leave her to rot in Braircliff but he got her out anyway.

Said the cunning Spider to the Fly, "Dear friend, what can I do

To prove that warm affection I've always felt for you?

Then she had found out that Oliver Thredson was the real Bloody Face. He had gotten her out of Briarcliff only to put her in a whole new kind of Hell; a worse hell. A hell where he wanted to play some twisted Oedipus fantasy.

I have within my pantry, good store of all that's nice;

I'm sure you're very welcome - will you please take a slice?"

Everything had been planned out perfectly in his head. He had talked to her like she was equal part his mother, his wife, and his interviewer. He wanted someone to tell his story to. Someone to understand. It all made perfect sense to him so Lana played along. She had no choice at least at first. She let him touch her in all the places she had never let a man touch her before. She said all the right words. She made all the right gestures. It was all for one purpose. Just one.

"Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "kind sir, that cannot be,

I've heard what's in your pantry, and I do not wish to see!"

She bided her time and when the moment came she escaped. Her luck did not hold out though and before she knew it she was in a car with another maniac and things went bad again. Then she was back at Briarcliff.

Of course Oliver had followed her, she was a loose end. Her luck finally turned and she was able to capture him and get a confession mostly due to the fact that she had found out she was pregnant. A horrible discovery that she had tried to change but the baby growing inside of her was strong and wanted to be born so she had no choice but to let it.

She did however get a chance to kill Oliver. It came later, once the tape she made of him confessing to the Bloody Face murders got out. Once she got out of Briarcliff. She had gone to his house and sat in his chair and waited. Waited for him.

I have a little looking-glass upon my parlor shelf;

If you step in one moment, dear, you shall behold yourself."

After Oliver's death she wrote a book about him that wasn't completely true but wasn't exactly a lie either. Lana knew she could have told the whole truth and people would have still read it but she wasn't sure they would have understood. She wasn't sure they wouldn't have gotten lost in the small things like her sexuality or even worse found some weird sort of romanticism in Oliver's obsession with her. That is why she made it look like Wendy was only her roommate and added a victim to Oliver's list. She needed them to understand. It was her story. Not his.

"I thank you, gentle sir," she said, "for what you're pleased to say;

And bidding good morning now, I'll call another day."

Kit had shown up during one of her book signings wanting her to live up to her promise to expose Briarcliff for the pit of vipers it was. Lana had wanted to but it was just the wrong time. She had books to sign and interviews to do. Why didn't Kit understand that? He was happy with a normal life, she wasn't. Lana had never wanted a normal life. Exposing Briarcliff could put that in jeopardy. She just wasn't ready to risk it.

The Spider turned him round about, and went into his den,

For well he knew the silly Fly would soon come back again;

But times changed quickly for her. Everything changed in the blink of an eye. Lana realized that her future wasn't in the written word but in television. That was her in. That was how she could expose Briarcliff. A picture was worth a thousand words and words would never have been enough to describe Briarcliff.

So he wove a subtle web in a little corner sly,

And set his table ready to dine upon the Fly.

It was even too much for even her to bare. It was worse than she remembered. The state had turned even the pit of hell she remembered into something far worse. At least the nuns had kept order. This was just chaos. What she had found inside Briarcliff was something even she could hardly describe.

then he came out to his door again, and merrily did sing,

"Come hither, hither, pretty Fly, with the pearl and silver wing;

She did describe it though. What she described went on national television. It got picked up not only by her network but many others as well and soon she had fulfilled the promise she had made years before. Briarcliff had been closed down. It wasn't enough though. The people who had run it. The people who had made her life hell were either dead or had moved on. Lana still felt there were things she had left to do.

Your robes are green and purple, there's a crest upon your head;

Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are as dull as lead."

After she had exposed Briarcliff she set her sights on the people who ran it. The Monsieur who had turned his back on someone he had considered a confidant and a friend and turned her into a lunatic and then left her forgotten in the walls of her own asylum. That was an unforgivable sin and that was only one of the sins he had committed. People want to believe the best in men of the cloth but they are still men, temptable; and this man had been tempted by his own ambition and had failed that test. Lana had no remorse or sympathy for him and what had happened to him.

Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little Fly,

Hearing his wily, flattering words, came slowly flitting by;

The shutting down of Briarcliff and the destruction of then Cardinal Timothy Howard had been the beginning for her and her new career as a powerful force to be reckoned with. It was also the beginning of changing times. She no longer had to hide who she was and started to be open about who and what she was. No one cared at least not as much as she thought they would. She kept her private life private and that is all that mattered to everyone.

With buzzing wings she hung aloft, then near and nearer drew, -

Thinking only of her brilliant eyes, and green and purple hue;

There was one lie in her first book she had never corrected. The lie about her son dying. She had corrected the rest over time. Wendy had been her lover and not just her roommate. Oliver Thredson had never brought another victim into his secret basement. The baby lie was the only lie she had managed to keep.

The only lie she had insisted was true. She had done it partly because she wanted her son to have a normal life; away from the stain of his father. Away from the stain of her. Mostly, though, she did it because she didn't want to be reminded of the things she did. She had put Briarcliff behind her and she wanted it to stay there.

Thinking only of her crested head - poor foolish thing! At last,

Up jumped the cunning Spider, and fiercely held her fast.

That was not meant to be. She knew that the moment the police showed up at her door and showed her pictures of her grown son. She knew what he wanted. She knew he would be coming for her. Lana recognized him the moment she saw him. That was why she finally confessed to the lie during the interview. After so many years; she finally told the truth about her little boy.

He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den

Within his little parlor - but she ne'er came out again!

Her little boy, so much like his father. Lana wondered what Oliver would have thought of him. Oliver had hoped that Johnny would have inherited her pluck but it seemed he hadn't. He also didn't inherit Oliver's skill as a surgeon or a psychiatrist. Lana was sure Oliver would have been disappointed. Johnny might have tried to follow in his father's footsteps but he failed miserably.

And now, dear little children, who may this story read,

To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne'er heed;

Even a gun to the head was a show of failure and where Lana knew she had won the battle. Oliver had hated guns. Lana however had them hidden in several places in her home; some of them registered some of them not. Lana knew what Johnny wanted to hear just like so many years before she had known what Oliver had wanted to hear, and again she had said the words. All the right words. All the right gestures. She had taken the gun out of her sweet little boy's hand. The little boy who had his father's eyes. Eyes she had looked into so many times and saw nothing but darkness. She looked into Johnny's eyes...

She was wrong. He was nothing like his father.

She aimed the gun at his head.

Unto an evil counsellor close heart, and ear, and eye,

And take a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.

And fired.

Poem is called "The Spider and the Fly" and is by Mary Howitt