A/N: Arachnophobes have been warned.
'When I was a little girl, I had a fear of spiders…'
Amélie Jacques, ten year old daughter of chemist Julian Jacques and housewife Ada Jacques, was completely bored out of her mind. She had just got back from school, and her mother was busy with buying groceries while her father was still at work.
She laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling.
'What to do, what to do…'
They didn't have a TV, she didn't own any video games, and her parents hadn't given into her cries for a phone. She could sleep, but really, what ten year old sleeps? Not her, that much she's sure of!
Wait.
Amélie got up from her bed. Her feet almost automatically walked to a very specific door in the house. It was a door that her mother very strongly said to not enter.
Amélie loved her mother, really. She was kind, beautiful, and a multitude of other things that made her proud to call her her mother. Honestly, it made her wonder why it took her father five years of dating to propose to her, if Julian's stories had a grain of truth to them.
Amélie shook her head. She was getting distracted. When Ada had warned her, she had the coldest stare she had ever received, completely unlike her normal personality. When she asked her father, even he had the same look of confusion and slight fear as he shrugged.
Right now, it didn't matter.
She didn't care about the consequences of her actions. She was curious and bored, as any child would be in her position.
Her hand closed over the handle of the doorknob. She turned it. It wasn't locked.
Strange, someone else would think. Wouldn't a door that you didn't want people to enter be locked? The thought didn't reach Amélie.
Slowly, she opened the door. It made a great screeching sound, as if it hadn't been opened in a long time. If the smell was of any indication, then this was the truth. It smelled like someone mixed rotten eggs and vomit, then added sour milk just to tip it off.
It made her want to go back up. But she didn't come this far just to fail.
She rushed back to the kitchen and grabbed the nearest stool. It was a little over her own height, so it was both scary and exciting when she climbed it to reach above the fridge.
There. The emergency kit her parents always kept in stock. It was a rather large box, and contained the basics: gauze, emergency medications, etc. There was one thing that she needed, however. The gas mask. It was something her father wanted to always be in the house, as he frequently uses chemicals in the little garage that they have.
She strapped the mask onto her small head. A bit loose, but it would keep the smell out, and that was all it needed to do.
She went back to the door, and she couldn't smell a thing. Good. She walked forward, the wooden floor of the long hallway making squeaking noises. She needed to hurry before her parents got home.
Strange, someone else would think. The hallway shouldn't exist, since the house was not big enough to accommodate it. The thought didn't reach Amélie.
The hallway seemed to go on for the longest time. As she went on, Amélie saw the walls start to darken, as if they were rotting. She could feel her heart start to beat a bit faster every step she took.
She was afraid. Of what, she didn't know. Is it what she would find at the end? Or just the general atmosphere of the hallway?
For what seemed like hours, she walked. Sweat dripped from her forehead. She needed to see this through the end.
"Just a little further," she found herself talking to herself.
"Amélie?"
She stumbled in her step. It was her father. Had he come home and followed her through the open door? She was in so much trouble! She turned around, prepared to run back to avoid further punishment.
The exit was right there, as if she hadn't walked forward.
"Amélie, what are you doing?!"
Julian appeared from the doorway, "D-Dad, it's not what it-" Something crawling on her arm stopped whatever she was about to say.
A spider.
"I told you to not open that, didn't I?"
Another voice. Her mother from behind Julian. A soft noise, then Julian choking. Blood slowly poured from his stomach, "...Ada?"
Her father's body crumpled in a heap. Amélie screamed in terror. What did her mother just do? She looked at her face.
Cold. That was the only way to describe it. Ada took a step forward, right over Julian's body.
Amélie ran.
Not outside though. She ran through the hallway once more, hoping to get away.
This time, the hallway ended, and a room that looked like a research station. Test tubes were placed across the two tables, while pieces of paper with notes were strewn everywhere. Amélie forgot her absolute terror, and let curiosity get to her.
She picked up the nearest note and skimmed through it.
The test subjects were…uncooperative to say the least. I had to subdue several of them via hypnotism just to get them to follow me. Regardless, my research has been proven true. By my estimations, my overall physical capabilities have increased by a factor of three. It won't be on par with say a Servant, or a Dead Apostle, but enough to give senior Enforcers and Executors trouble if need be.
Those fools will regret the day they forced a Sealing Designation on Ada Jacques.
Pain. Then, darkness.
Amélie awoke standing up. She frantically looked around, the moss ridden walls around the rather large room dripping moisture. As she tried to move forward, clinking and something bound around her wrist stopped her.
Chains. She was chained to the wall while standing. What was happening?
"Why didn't you be a good girl and listen?"
As if she were nothing but a shadow, her mother came from her left. In her left hand was a jagged knife, something red dripping from the tip.
Behind her, being dragged unceremoniously, was the pale form of Amélie's father.
The girl could feel something fall down the side of her face. A sniffle. She was crying. For the first time in a while, she was crying. This time, how however, there wasn't a father to comfort her, and not even a mother, seeing how Ada looked on passively.
"W-Why?" Even to her, her voice sounded weak, "You told us that you loved us!" The dam broke, and Amélie started crying harder. Tears dripped on the stone floor in a seemingly never ending stream as her cries echoed throughout the room.
Ada raised the knife high, and Amélie screamed louder. The knife fell down.
A chunk of the wall broke off.
The girl blinked away the tears, as she stared in confusion. The woman that once was her mother just stabbed the wall, but for what reason?
The answer came soon after. Spiders, hundreds of them came crawling through the hole and started to cover the older woman's arm, then her entire body. Soon, she was covered in nothing but spiders. Slowly, methodically, she drew nearer to Julian's body.
With an inhuman shriek, Ada bit into his neck while more spiders came and started to wrap their webs around him. By the end of it, Amélie could do nothing but stare in horror as her father's web-covered body was carried to a similar looking pile in the corner of the room.
It was then that she noticed something. She wasn't wearing her gas mask. Her primal fear had dulled her senses, but now that she knew what was there, the smell coming from it only heightened.
The smell of decomposing bodies. A smell which she is sure to be a part of soon enough.
She cried even louder.
She didn't want to die. She wanted her family back! She wished that she never opened that door in the first place!
"...years ago, I found out something,"
The spider-covered woman didn't turn around as she spoke. Instead, she opted to stare as the bodies were swarmed by baby spiders.
"I found out that blood is the key to everything. Specifically, human blood." Suddenly, muffled screaming could be heard. Amélie looked where it came from. A hole that she didn't notice on the ceiling, leading up to who knows where. Something moving fell through it, the muffled screams following it.
It was a boy, no more than eight years old, with his hands, feet and mouth bound by webs. His face was filled with fear, while tears and snot could be seen dripping on the cold floor.
"However normal humans can't harness the power of blood." She grabbed the boy's head harshly, "I then delved into the Makiri Mysteries about Insect Manipulation." She turned his head sideways, as if she were inspecting some foreign dish.
"Instead of using worms, though, I used something more…useful." Again, she bit into the boy, and Amélie could see how the his struggles slowed down, and the light in his eyes faded away.
"Why are y-you telling me this?"
The woman stood up straight and looked in her direction, "Why?" She stalked towards Amélie, "It's because you were supposed to be a part of it."
"You see, some species of spiders are known to cannibalize their spawn."
Amélie's eyes widened. She tried to break free from the chains to no avail. She needed to get out of here, NOW.
"Ten years of patiently waiting…I wonder if it will have been worth it?" The spiders covering her face peeled back to reveal that Ada had grown several more eyes, and her jaw had new appendages sticking out of it.
Amélie closed her eyes even as sobs wracked her body. She could hear the sound of footsteps come nearer.
"Well, you're gonna have to wait a lot longer then."
A gasp. More footsteps.
"Sealing Designate Ada Jacques; under the authority of the Mage's Association, you are under arrest. Submit quietly or face the consequences."
"Association Dogs!"
The sound of what could only be hundreds of spiders crawling.
Heat, almost scorching.
"...I see."
Guttural screaming. Then silence.
"You heard her little monologue earlier. Make sure that no spider within the area is left alive."
She heard someone approach, "Trace, on." she him whisper, and in the next moment, the bindings on her wrists were open. She almost collapsed on the ground in relief.
"Are you alright?" She opened her eyes. A white haired man, with a dark skin tone, and eyes that were golden. She nodded once, not trusting her voice.
"Sir, standard protocols dicta-" A young man came from behind him. Further back, she could see a burnt body being covered by a white cloth.
"I know what protocols say, rookie. I think that those protocols don't exactly say something about children of Magi." The white haired man sighed and looked towards her, "I think I need to explain a few things, eh?"
Twenty minutes later, and Amélie's head was spinning. Her mother was a user of Magecraft and a criminal. The people here were what amounted to the police and had just...killed her. One question remained, though.
"If she was planning to kill me…why chain me up?"
At this, the man smiled sadly at her, "I may not be an expert on the matter, but I think that it's because she didn't really want to." Her eyebrows scrunched up, "What I mean is no matter how you may try to deny it, if you spend ten years looking after someone, you'll grow to care for them."
"I...I don't understand."
"I didn't expect you to." He continued to smile at her, "Now, do you have any relatives that can take care of you? I'll have someone take you to them."
She nodded.
Shirou Emiya sighed in relief as Amélie finally left the vicinity. While he may feel guilty about hypnotizing the kid to be calmer and more compliant, it was for the best. Still, it was for the best, though the willpower of the girl, to even be able to ask a question through the hypnosis was startling.
His poker face was still the best when it came to situations like that.
"Sir, all species of spiders in the neighborhood have been exterminated. Orders?"
"Extend the extermination to a forty mile radius, but be careful about traps. Jacques was a Designate for a reason after all."
The Enforcer saluted and proceeded to gather several others before leaving. Shirou was left to his thoughts. What he told the girl was all true. He suspected that Jacques had purposely left the door to her Workshop unlocked, knowing that her child would eventually open it. By opening it, the Enforcers had been alerted to a Bounded Field being activated in the area.
Julian was a strange case, however. When he used Structural Analysis on the body, he found that the man had stage four lung cancer, and what his wife did by killing him was more of a mercy than anything. If he were to guess, the woman already knew this and, due to general distrust of modern technology, decided to kill him before he got any treatment.
All in all, everything pointed to Ada Jacques wanting to be caught, but due to the inherent pride of Magi, refused to simply surrender.
Just another day in the field.
A/N: Meant to post this yesterday, but a killer migraine didn't let me. Also, there's Shirou. Yay.
Neema Amiry, I sent you a PM a week or so ago, and you didn't reply, so yeah, I don't know if you actually read it or not.