Johnny had nearly given up on pleading, and couldn't even bother to struggle. His body felt like one great throbbing bruise rippling from his head to the flats of his feet as the soldiers were forcing him to trudge between them in the dark. His arms are still cuffed behind his back. The things were those hinged kind, slightly chafing at his wrists and straining his already sore shoulders. He stared at the ground in front of his feet almost blindly, still not quite able to believe this. This was happening for real. After all the crap he's been through, he's getting brought down just like that.
What was Mavis gonna think? They have his stuff. His gun and his stuff. They checked his bag. He hopes they haven't damaged the needles. What if something in there broke when he fell? He still needed that. Mavis still needed that. She still needed him. Crap, what would Mavis think, when she comes back and finds the place empty? But why did she have to leave him in the first place anyway? Why would she do that? What was she thinking? What if she never comes back at all? No, no, she wouldn't do that, she needs him. But what if she won't come back, or if she can't come back? What if something's happened to her? Happening to her? What if she actually found - he doesn't want to think about that. He doesn't like to think about it, but she probably needs him right now. Right NOW.
C'mon, spell, why the hell aren't you working?!
Mavis probably needed him right now...
"Please...?" he mumbled again, and his voice felt gross in his mouth. He was thirsty. "I wasn't doing anything, man. Y-you can keep the gun, you can keep everything, can't you guys just let me go...?"
He was given a harder shove at the shoulder, making him wince.
"Just keep walking," one of them answered, "Anything you say to us is going to be held against you."
"Oh." For a moment it was quiet, until Johnny spoke again. Maybe he was just tired, but the joke spilled out without him thinking, "Selena Gomez."
One of the soldiers snorted, shoulders jerking in a surprise laugh, before shoving him more gently, and Johnny grinned weakly, slightly relieved. Yeah, he was alright with this. Even at the end of the world, there was still a sense of humor in it. The light-hearted moment was very brief, as he gritted his teeth when there was a sudden hit to the side of his head, harder than it had to be, and he nearly stumbled, stunned by pain that made his ears ring. "I said just keep walking," the other one repeated, roughly keeping him from falling, sounding irritated both at Johnny and the other soldier for laughing. Johnny barely heard through the ringing in his ears, grimacing angrily against the pain in his skull. "Being a smartass isn't going to help y—"
Suddenly they stopped, making Johnny grunt in surprise.
In the sudden silence, they all heard it.
Out there in the darkness, someone else had laughed.
The laughter was suddenly cut off, stifled, and then Johnny heard and felt the motions of the soldiers around him readying their guns.
". . . Well, damn." someone out there muttered, and then figures exploded out from the darkness to come down on Johnny and his captors.
"Ambush!" the soldier roared, shoving Johnny to the ground, and he yelled out in pain as he met the asphalt, unable to break his fall, the impact making his arms go in ways they shouldn't, feeling like he'd strained his shoulders. Ow. For a moment he was sprawled out on his face in the midst of the cacophony, vulnerable, useless, and awkward, until he managed to roll over onto his back, watching dazedly, eyes wide, now vulnerable, useless, and slightly terrified. The main thought circulating crazily through his mind was that this was just stupid. What was going on with people? It was complete chaos: gunshots, muffled by suppressors, and flashlights and shouting, whooping, grunts and screams, wild shapes in the dark, the sounds of hard objects hitting padded bodies. Humans fighting humans. These people didn't look as efficient as the soldiers, though the small patrol looked like they were getting overwhelmed by the group's sheer numbers. Johnny felt himself get kicked and shoved around by the melee, almost getting trampled over, before scraping back desperately on his cuffed hands to get away. A soldier came out from the fray towards him, grabbing Johnny up by the front of his shirt and quickly dragging him away from the fighting until the sounds of it were far off and muted.
"You." the soldier snarled at him - the voice sounded muffled and strangely watery through the facemask - before slamming him against a wall.
"Woah, woah...!" Johnny whimpered, struggling to keep his balance.
"You are with them, you planned this," the soldier choked at him over his stammering, slamming him again, "How many more of you are there? Tell me."
"I'm not, I-I-I'm not, I swear I didn't—!" Johnny got cut off by the punch across his face, feeling his teeth scrape together and his head snap to the side with the force of it, and he thought he'd nearly bitten through his tongue. He spat, jaw aching, tasting blood, dizzy from the pain, "Hguh...?"
"That is my team out there," the soldier told him harshly through the ringing in his ears, shaking him, forcing him to focus. The soldier's breathing sounded ragged, barely controlled. "Understand? So you're going to call your friends off, you're going to come with me, and you're going to tell me," the soldier punctuated this with another blow to Johnny's stomach, letting him sink to the ground on his knees to gasp for air, "Who else is around here, names, locations, or this is going to end for you right here..."
"I...wfh..." Johnny wheezed desperately as the soldier took out a gun. "W-wasn't..."
Spell? C'mon, any time now?
"That doesn't sound like a name..." the soldier warned, pointedly taking off the safety catch.
Cl-click.
Johnny's eyes widen even as he struggles to breathe.
Spell? Now? Please?
. . .
They'd left the 'nursery', with Mavis sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor again, slouched with her elbows on her knees, while Old Lady huddled nearby, sitting uncertainly on her web, watching the vampire with a barely concealed anxiety, the tips of her forelegs gently plucking at random web strands, the spider equivalent of a human picking invisible lint off of their clothes.
"Would you like some more water?" the spider asked, breaking the silence, and Mavis blinked and quickly shook her head, "No, thank you, sorry, I'm just..." She tried to search for the right word before propping her chin on her hand tiredly. "I'm just thinking..."
"Oh."
There was another stretch of silence before Mavis spoke up again, "How many are there?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Your eggs," Mavis elaborated carefully, "How many do you have?"
"Ohh," the spider responded happily, clearly pleased by Mavis's curiosity, "There are five hundred and fourteen of them."
Mavis paled, her expression hidden from Old Lady, "Oh, woah..."
The spider giggled self-consciously, "Don't be rude, dear. I'm pretty sure that's a healthy number for my kind. I'm not certain that they'll all hatch, of course," she confessed with a sad sigh, shifting thoughtfully on her legs, "But for now it's so sweet to watch them dreaming, and for now I make sure to let them all know that I love them."
"You talk to them?" Mavis guessed, raising her head, judging by the spider's behavior with the cocoons.
"And sing to them, yes, and tell stories to them too, yes," Old Lady confirmed, "I remember my own mother's voice, so I'm hoping that they'd remember me, too."
Mavis shifted, uncomfortable, fingers drumming on her knees, "What...happened to your mom?"
"I... Well, no, truthfully I don't remember," she admitted, "Though I can guess what happened at my hatching, and I know what will happen with theirs."
Mavis glanced uneasily back to where the 'nursery' was.
"What's gonna happen?"
"With my little ones?" Old Lady settled more comfortably on her web, almost excitedly, "They'll hatch in the springtime, when the world gets warm enough for them, and there will be enough little things for them to eat. They'll be a little bigger than your hands, I think, and they'll have such adorable little eyes and legs and - oh, I do wonder which ones will be like their father?"
Mavis blinked, "Like their—?" Then she immediately felt stupid, "Oh." Of course, if the Lady had eggs then there had to have been... Mavis looked around again, suddenly anxious, looking for another large, looming shape in the dark, "Um, where is he? What's he like?"
"He's...he was the sweetest man." Old Lady sighed, and Mavis looked back at her and felt guilty. Oh.
"I'm sorry." she murmured.
"No, no, it's fine now," the spider reassured her, "It's just, before our children, he was the nicest thing to happen to my world, I - I never thought I'd get to meet someone like him." Mavis listened to that new note in the spider's clicking voice, a nostalgic tone, watching the way she gestured gently with her legs. "Charming, understanding, agile, he could spin the most beautiful webs and stories alike, and, well, we were two of a kind, really, alone in the world together." Mavis thought she could understand that a little. Old Lady chuckled fondly, "But I'm sure you don't need to know the details of that."
Despite her uneasiness, Mavis felt some sympathy for the spider, "What happened to him?"
"Oh, I ate him, dear."
Mavis stiffened, eyes wide, the sympathy abruptly plummeting like a lead weight to her guts. She what now? The spider seemed to slump a little in memory. "We both knew it was coming, really," Old Lady murmured, sounding wistful, "It was after that one night, when we knew for sure that I was carrying, and it was just so...special. He was so kind, too, so understanding, and so, so sweet... I miss him so much sometimes, but then I see our children, and then I don't feel so lonely."
"You ate him?" the vampire exclaimed, still in slight shock. Of course they were spiders, but still...
"You mean you don't do that?"
Mavis simply stared, "Um, no, not exactly." she admitted uneasily.
The spider seemed bewildered at that. "Oh. How, um, cute... Well, with us it really was like in the old times when such a thing was much more common, necessary; at the time there wasn't nearly as much to eat. I felt bad, but like I said, he was so understanding about it, insistent even, so kind, so kind, so, so kind, right to the end..."
Mavis didn't know what to say to that, instead opting to look back towards where the egg sac was.
"Five hundred and fourteen." she remembered.
"Oh, they won't all make it, I know," Old Lady told her, seeming resigned, "You know how babies are, I'm sure it's the same for most species, willing to put anything in their mouths. Some of them will eat each other, I think, and they'll probably mistake me for food, too, the poor, silly dears." Old Lady laughed warmly. "But I won't mind it, no. I'm just happy to know that, with me and everything I've saved for them," she gestured proudly to the web and its cocoons, "My children won't go hungry..."
In Mavis's mind she imagined the city overrun by spiders, blanketed in webs and strung with corpse puppets and cocoons, and she almost felt sick again.
Ho-ly rabies...
. . .
"You...have six seconds to cooperate..." the soldier warned Johnny again, coughing.
"Five..."
The soldier raised the gun over Johnny's choked, half-formed words, following him when he tried to shift away, scraping back desperately on his seat.
"Two..."
"W-wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait...!"
One moment Johnny was looking into the barrel of a gun, the next thing he knew was the sound of a gunshot, his own scream catching in his throat, screwing his eyes shut and his whole body painfully tensing up - but the bullet had chipped the brick just next to his head, something harshly stinging his ear, pain basically washing through the left side of his face. When he opened his eyes a bunch of these other guys were dog-piling the soldier into the wall and were currently beating the soldier up right in front of him. Johnny watched, stunned, still catching his breath, feeling his whole body shake with adrenaline, when suddenly the dude in the motorcycle helmet was standing over him, staring down at him, hatchet still in hand. In the dark it looked like there might have been something dripping from the axe's edge. Johnny stared blankly back through the ringing in his ears, before Motorcycle Helmet suddenly caught up the front of his shirt, dragging him up.
"Ow, h-hey, again, ow, ow...?" Johnny protested weakly, now being forced to stand before he was let go, staggering back on shaky legs. "U-um, thanks...?"
The guy gestured something at him, seeming irritated, standing just a little shorter than he was, and Johnny shook his head, trying to clear away the ringing. Something warm and wet was dripping down the side of his face, gross and annoyingly tickling, but he couldn't lift his hands to wipe it away, thanks to the cuffs, which were really getting to him now, "S-sorry, what...?"
"I said no thanks to you," the man said, with a surprisingly deep-sounding voice for his size, "We had a good cover until you made me laugh. But...still, you did make me laugh. You're funny." Motorcycle Helmet told him, almost conversationally, "Ah, sorry about earlier. I only meant to rough you up a little bit back there, you know. With all your sneaking around, I thought you might've been one of the soldier's spies..."
Johnny stared, incredulous, "Swinging a freaking axe at the back of my head is roughing me up a little...?"
Motorcycle Helmet shrugged, resting the axe in question on his shoulder, "I missed, didn't I? So, while we're here, you're clearly not one of ours, and I really don't think you're one of theirs. Unless you're very good at playing stupid. So, whose are you?"
"I'm, um, nobody's?" Johnny laughed tiredly, flexing his hands in the cuffs, thinking his arms might look a lot like chicken wings by now. Whatever was running down the side of his face was starting to dry a little, he felt it crusting and sticking to his skin as he made an expression. His ear was stinging. "Ow, geez, look, not that I'm not totally grateful and all? But I've just been having a really, really bad day..."
"This seems to be the season for really bad days," Helmet observed, "So, what're you doing out here by yourself? You a neutral?"
"I don't even know what you're talking about, man," Johnny protested, looking around the guy uneasily to see those other guys still beating up the soldier, who looked kind of more than unconscious by now, and he swallowed, nervous, "Um, with them, uh, is-isn't that there kind of a little overkill?"
"Eh?" Helmet guy looked to what Johnny was seeing. "Oh, for— Hey, hey, hey, boys, knock it off. Leave something for the freaks, would you?"
"Freaks?" Johnny wondered aloud, as the others reluctantly backed off after giving a few more vicious kicks. The soldier wasn't moving.
"You know, freaks? The monsters?" Motorcylce Helmet elaborated as the group began to scatter off, quietly chatting, largely ignoring them, "The spooks, the creeps, whatever you like to call them. What rock have you been hiding under?"
Johnny shrugged awkwardly, wincing at the toll this took on his shoulders. Yup, his arms were definitely chicken wings now. "Um, aren't you gonna get in trouble for that?" he asked, motioning with his head towards the unmoving soldier, who was maybe still breathing, "Or you are gonna help him or—?"
Motorcycle Helmet barked out a surprised laugh, "Ohh, man, you are funny! You should know evidence never sticks around these days, or at least," he chuckled, "Give 'em enough time, not enough remains to be properly identified. Some of the freaks are scavenger types, yes? So it is easy for the soldiers to label anything as a 'freak accident'..." he continued to laugh.
Johnny swallowed, very disturbed, making Motorcycle Helmet stop and tilt his head in realization.
"Ah. You were, uh, you were not joking." Helmet Guy noted uncomfortably. ". . . Hey, this here, we saved you from him," he gestured to the broken pile of soldier with his axe, "Remember, just a minute ago he was going to shoot you in the head. These bastards are all ready to shoot anyone who does not follow their stupid rule, no matter if they're humans or freaks. The only useful soldier these days is either one that can't shoot anymore, or is smart enough to stay out of the way. And this, this kind of thing here, this doesn't normally happen, alright?" he insisted when Johnny still looked unconvinced, "We were just going to follow them, stay out of the way, but you blew our cover, got that?"
"Sorry, man." Johnny mumbled, leaning against the wall, trying to ease pressure on his arms, still uncomfortable, "So you...what, y-you work with monsters?"
"Oh, hell, no," Motorcycle Helmet spat out, shocked, "What kind of crazy—? Those things are worse than soldiers. They are not human."
"Uh...huh..." Johnny was stunned, a sick little feeling of dread starting to curl in his stomach.
"You really are something," Motorcycle Helmet muttered after a beat of silence, seeming as stunned as he was, but seemed to shake it off. Another guy was coming back with Johnny's backpack, which Helmet gestured for him to set down, while another was still rummaging the soldier's stuff. Looting. "Look, you seem like a pretty decent kid, so you can go on your way. But I'll be honest, you must've been pretty damn lucky to be lasting as long as you have. Want my advice?" Someone tossed Helmet a key of some kind, and he spun Johnny around, who felt him start to mess with his handcuffs, "You should - ah, what's your name?"
"I'm Jonathan." he offered automatically, staring numbly at the brick wall in front of him, even in the dark seeing where the bullet had lodged into it.
The guy seemed to be taking his time unlocking the cuffs.
"Okay, Jonathan. You seem a tough enough kid, surviving a fall like that," Helmet Guy swatted him gently on the back to emphasize, making Johnny stifle a yelp of pain, "And with your luck you might be useful some day. But Jonathan, my advice is that you should consider joining our group, whenever you're interested. Everyone has a place there. We're going to be what is left standing after this whole mess settles down, best way to go these days, stick with the strong, the sure-minded, the ones willing to adapt, those are the ones who will survive." Motorcycle Helmet then told him the name of a street that he could wander around. "Someone of ours might spot you there. When they ask, just tell 'em that the Easter Bunny sent you, yes?"
"The Easter—? What?"
"Code words, genius, code words. You got it?"
"Easter Bunny, y-yeah."
Motorcycle Helmet clapped him firmly on the shoulder, giving it a what might've been friendly shake, making him wince again at the soreness, and Johnny finally felt his wrists get freed. He started rubbing some life back into them, turning to face the, well, his rescuer. "Um, thanks again." Johnny said reluctantly, still unnerved, holding his shoulder. "Er, what's your name?" he looked the guy over, "And what's with the helmet anyway, I mean, it looks cool and all, but how can you see in that thing?"
"I like the helmet. And as for the name, live long enough to join up and you might find out." Helmet Guy replied cheerfully, starting to walk off with the rest of his group. "Thanks for the laughs, Jonathan. Oh, and one more bit of advice: you may want to think about getting away from here, you'll be standing next to freak bait soon enough. Try to stay out of trouble now."
And just like that, in a matter of moments Johnny was on his own again in the alley, stunned, aching, and disturbed.
He finally reached up in an attempt to brush the dried sticky stuff off his face, wincing as he acknowledged that, yeah, that was totally blood. He followed it up gingerly, until he reached his ear, where the blood was still wet and runny, cooling in the air, and then—
OW.
Fresh pain put white spots in his vision as he cupped his ear, feeling more of that painful stinging in the skin on the side of his head, simple pain now coming on him in a fresh, hot wave in the wake of an adrenaline letdown. "Crap, crap..." he hissed, bringing his shaking hand away to try and see that wet warmth on his fingers, but it's still too dark for him to see it. Craaap...
He does his best to ignore it, just wiping the stuff off on his pants, looking down at his backpack, and from there to the soldier. Oh.
"Hey..." he uneasily says aloud, his voice sounds a bit too loud now in the lonely dark, he crouches down, speaking more quietly, "Hey? Are you...are you dead...?"
The soldier shifts at his voice, and he hears a watery groan behind the facemask. Crap.
"I-I'm gonna help you up, just," he struggles to pull the guy into a sitting position against the wall, hearing the soldier's muffled yell of pain, "Sorry, sorry, sorry..."
Johnny does his best to look him over. The soldier's breathing is ragged, watery, and the way he's sitting does not look good. Johnny almost lifts up the guy's facemask, but a gloved hand roughly swats his questing one away, barely a weak tap, but Johnny backs off anyway, guilty.
"Yeah, total overkill." he mumbled unhappily. "I-I'm sorry about all that..."
". . . 'uck . . . you . . . smartass . . ." the soldier manages wearily, in a voice sounding like gargling glass.
Now Johnny recognized the voice, this was the soldier who couldn't take a joke.
Johnny frowned, "Hey, you didn't have to shoot at me..."
He looks around uneasily, maybe some other soldiers would come help this guy?
"I know someone who can help you," he tells the soldier, "Hey? You awake? I know someone, he's a doctor, Dr. Jekyll - yeah, I'm not joking." He told the soldier the location of Jekyll's hospital as he began rummaging through his backpack, "He's a creepy guy, but he can help you out, when you can find him." He discovered with relief that his packets of gummy bears hadn't been stolen. Cool. Johnny puts a couple packets on the soldier's lap, when he hesitates.
He could help the soldier to the hospital himself, but...no, he still had to look for Mavis. Mavis... Geez, he didn't know what kind of state he'd find her in anyway. She might need... He looked through his backpack again, hopeful that maybe he'd packed some—?
No, just the needles and a couple of IV bags, they're all still good, but none of them have any blood.
He glanced uneasily at the soldier, looking between him and an empty IV bag.
. . .
No.
No way.
No, no, that was a bad way to go down, volunteers were fine, but that was crossing a line, Johnny.
He didn't want any trouble.
No trouble, no, nope, just move on, nothing to see here, just gonna move along and go find/rescue his vampire girlfriend-wife.
Right.
He almost zips the backpack closed, but then stops halfway.
. . .
"I didn't want trouble..." he muttered aloud, over the soldier's rasping breathing, "I don't. Alright?" He slowly unzips the backpack again, "I...I normally wouldn't do this, b-but I'm looking for someone, and-and she's really important to me, right? And I don't know what's she's gonna be like when I find her, and...and no one else is..."
This is the best chance he's going to get, if he's going to get anything.
He tries to ignore the soldier's feeble struggles this time when the guy realizes something's going on, the guy's in a bad enough shape that it's easy to grab the arm. The guy might have a broken rib or something, since it's hard for him to use the other arm. The sleeve's too thick to push up, so Johnny manages to cut the sleeve open instead to get to the right site, trying his best to be careful about it.
"Sorry, sorry, I - j-just hold still, would you? This'll only take a second..."
He should stop. He shouldn't be doing this. He really shouldn't be doing this.
"Please..." the soldier whimpers, and Johnny hesitates. Then he frowned again, taking out another packet of gummy bears and putting it with the others, like an apology.
"That's what I said, too," he pointed out quietly, "And honestly, I'm having a really bad day. And you didn't have to hit me, and you didn't have to shoot at me. B-but this isn't anything personal, alright?" The soldier didn't answer, just seeming to stare at Johnny, and he looked away, "I'm sorry, man. This'll only take a second, I only need a little."
Just this once. He's only going to do it just this once.
From there on he tunes the soldier out, making sure to do it right, alcohol and everything, paying careful attention as the blood begins to fill the bag, his hands are shaking. A little. He's only taking a little. Just a little, just a little, it's just a needle, it's just blood. It barely helps when he pretends this is Marcus.
In a way he's a bit relieved.
Sorry.
He's a bit relieved, and a bit disturbed, about how easy this is.
But this is the only time he's going to do it like this.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
. . .
The whole thing takes six minutes...
. . .
There was another stretch of silence eased by Mavis drinking some more water that Old Lady had given her.
She purposefully took her time with it, trying to think. This could be bad. Come springtime this city would be home to five hundred and fourteen hungry little spider babies. Unless she - but no, she couldn't do that. She shouldn't do that, they were still just babies for crying out loud, and there's no telling what Old Lady would do, and Mavis couldn't just betray her like that, but if she just left then things would... She couldn't just leave this alone. But what could she do? Think, think, think, Mavis...
What would Dad do?
What would Dad—...
Dad...
That...there might be something.
If this could work...
She lowered her web cup and cleared her throat.
"There...are humans all over this place," Mavis began to tell the spider, clearing her throat again to get rid of the junk, yuck, "And what I'm thinking is, well... It's not really a safe place here for your kids, is it?"
"Perhaps not for most of them," Old Lady answered nervously, "But I-I'm sure some of them would - ooh, no, no, no, I don't like thinking about it, sweetie."
"I...I know of a safe place," Mavis went on, standing up, "I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's a hotel, Hotel Transylvania? No?" Faced with the spider's simple, polite stare, Mavis continued, not minding, "Well, it's where I'm from, it's, well, it's sort of like a haven, it's peaceful, out of the way, and right now it might be like the safest place for monst—well, um, for arachnids and monsters and humans."
"For...? Oh, my. You mean, actual humans and others together?"
"Yes. And-and it's got a forest around it too, a big, dark forest," Mavis continued, smiling, getting animated, accidentally collapsing the cup between her hands, spilling the last sips of the water, but she was too excited to care, absently shaking the remains of the webbing off her hands, "Big forests with lots and lots of animals and things and stuff for you and your kids to eat that aren't humans, and-and the hotel can feed you too. My dad owns the place, heck, he made it. It-it's past the Barrier but - we could go there, couldn't we? You and your kids can go there and it'll all be okay, it'd be so much better than around here, we could do it."
"Oh... That...does sound quite lovely, sweetheart, yes," Old Lady said hesitantly, "But...there is the Barrier with those bad, horrible humans, and with my children..."
"No, no, really, I think we could," Mavis insisted, "My boyfr—eum... My husband, he's a human, but he's got—"
"A human?" Old Lady sounded startled. "You married a human?"
"Yeah, long story."
"Goodness..."
"A-anyway, he's got some magic. Can't really do much with it yet far's as I can tell, but maybe he and you and me could do something. Your webs, his and my magic, my shadows. M-maybe we could sneak over or around the Barrier somehow, I don't know, but we could work it out."
"The sac is a precious thing, too precious for what you're saying, and it can't be moved so easily as that." Old Lady clicked sternly, "My children. It is dangerous, and I will not endanger my—"
"I have my magic." Mavis persisted, and then frowned, concentrating, and the air tinged a faint, violet-gray around her hands, which she began to raise, already feeling the strain of effort. She hadn't done this often with anything bigger or heavier than maybe a full paint can. She wasn't nearly as strong or as controlled as her Dad yet. But if...she...tried...
"What are you...? Oh!" Old Lady chittered in alarm as the same tinge of magic colored the air around her, before she was lifted off her web a foot or two into the air, legs flailing awkwardly as she spun ponderously through the air. "Ohh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear, ohh...! O-o-okay, th-that's enough now, child!"
Mavis did her best to gently lower the massive spider, finally bending over with a gasp when Old Lady was safely back on her web. Hands on her knees, Mavis felt the tension in her hands, that sense of stress in her core, slightly shaking, already worn from just a few seconds of that, frustrated, and just the thought of trying to handle something so delicate and cumbersome as a giant egg sac was a headache, but...
"I-I can practice..." she assured the spider, catching her breath, "Y-you can make me a big thing of webbing, the same size and weight of the sac, a-and I can practice on that, a-and when I'm ready, if you'd let me, th-then I can carry your children out of here, I promise I can do it... I-I'll be very, very careful..."
Old Lady looked quite shaken, huddling on her web while regarding Mavis with all of her eyes.
"What are you...?" she finally murmured quietly, before asking, "What is your name?"
"M'name's Mavis Dracula," she breathed out, having to sit on the floor again, "Nice to meet you..."
The spider seemed to freeze a little, legs stiffening. "Oh." She was quiet for a moment. Mavis looked over at her curiously when the silence stretched, watching the arachnid start a little, causing a few web strands to twitch, "Ah, I mean, that's a...that's a lovely name, nice to meet you, too, sweetie..."
Mavis asked, "You ever heard the name before? Dracula?"
"It...doesn't seem very common." Old Lady admitted politely.
Mavis laughed a little, feeling wistful. "No, I guess it's not."
"On your father's side, or mother's side?" Old Lady asked.
"My dad's," Mavis told her, before shuffling awkwardly on her seat, "My, um, my mom died when I was a baby."
"Ohh, no..." The spider clicked softly, sadly, "I'm so sorry, dear."
The vampire shrugged, a little uncomfortable again, "It was a long time ago, it's okay now." she tried to reassure her.
"Do you remember anything about her?" the spider continued, actually sounding a little hopeful. "Was she pretty?"
Mavis gave a small laugh, "She was beautiful, everyone tells me, and I've seen pictures, so, yeah, she was..."
"What do you remember?" Old Lady persisted.
Mavis was quiet for a moment, biting her lip - sometimes singing, warmth, dark, safe embrace, pine trees and fire - before shaking her head, clearing the thoughts away, "Not much." She looked at the spider again, "My dad could tell you more. You could meet him, you know. He's kind of weird, but I bet he'd be happy to take you and your family in, he's just like that." She turned on her seat so she could look at Old Lady straight on, crossing her legs, hands on her knees, rocking child-like with the movement, "Come with us?" the vampire beseeched the spider, "Please?"
"But I - oh, now, you stop that," the spider huffed, not quite able to meet Mavis's eyes, clearly torn, "Trying to sway a poor Lady's heart like that..."
Mavis said nothing, simply keeping up the best level of a pouty bat face she could manage, doing her best to look lost and helpless, which wasn't all that hard to do.
Old Lady fidgeted uneasily on her web, pluck, pluck, plucking at its strings, before she finally sort of shooed her forelegs at Mavis, "Alright, alright, enough of that, you shameless thing." She seemed miffed, but there was some warmth there, too, again that motherly tone, "I'll...I'll think about it, yes? Yes. Give me some time, a little more time, yes?"
Mavis nodded, relieved, at least she hadn't said 'no'. "That's okay, yeah, thank you." She stood up, brushing off the seat of her pants and her knees, straightening her jacket, smiling at the spider, "Yeah. Then I can go ahead and go get some practice on my end while you think about it, alright?"
"Oh? Y-you mean you're leaving now?" Now the spider looked a little upset, crawling down her web towards Mavis, "You're leaving already?"
Mavis raised her hands quickly, backing off a step, "No, no, I'll be back, and we can talk about this more then," she promised hurriedly, "It's just, my human, my husband, Johnny, I left him alone at home, and he might get worried if I'm not there, and I'll need to talk about this to him, too."
Old Lady stared thoughtfully. "Oh... Well... Maybe, ah, maybe you could bring this human to visit me next time you come over, then?" she asked hopefully, "It'd be very nice to meet him. If he's your husband, I'm sure he's very sweet..."
Mavis swallowed, her throat still feeling dry, a fresh, harsh reminder flooding like cold water in her mind as she looked again at all of those cocoons in the spider's web. Then the thought of that one, bloody, emptied cocoon made her stomach turn and twist in knots again.
Johnny probably shouldn't see this...
"Um, no, uh, sorry, I'd really like to, but," Mavis struggled for words and with her guilt, "He's busy a lot, and, um, I don't want you two to meet until you're definitely sure you want to come with us, you know how funny humans are," she laughed nervously, "I-I just think it's better that way..."
"Oh... Well, if you're sure. Y-you will come back, won't you?"
"Yes, I promise," Mavis assured her, now remembering what she was dealing with, carefully backing towards the door, "I'll be back tomorrow night."
"But are you sure you don't want to stay a little longer, dear? I could tell you a nice story." Old Lady now insisted kindly as she backed away, her many eyes dark and glistening, focused, following Mavis on carefully placed legs, almost stalking-like. "And there can be some bad things out there for such a sweet thing like you, and you look a little tired, yes, you must be tired. Maybe you should take a little nap here before you go?" the spider asked, "I can make you such a comfortable place to sleep..."
"Uh, no, I'll be fine, really, thanks. That's really nice of you to offer, but I, um..." the vampire told her, now feeling blindly behind her for the door's latch, "Um..." before with a quick thought and a crook of her fingers the latch slid open by her magic, and the door shifted to the side just enough for Mavis to squeeze through, and with relief she smiled brightly at the spider, "There, see? Already got some practice in."
Old Lady's eyes watched her silently, almost sadly from beyond the door, her legs just clutching its edges, raising her a little off the ground to see Mavis better, and Mavis scratched the back of her head awkwardly, backing off a little more.
"I will come back," she reminded the spider, "Tomorrow night, okay?"
". . . Alright, dear," Old Lady sighed resignedly, "I'll be here. You be careful, sweetheart, a-and remember, there are bad humans, so be very careful..."
"I will, don't worry." Mavis promised her, just glad to be in the open air again, "Good night, Lady."
"Good bye, Mavis."
Mavis then turned and jogged lightly up a wall until she could reach the roof, and from there she finally went homeward. She's seen too much tonight to want to see any more. She's found too much tonight to want to continue her original search, at least for now. Anxiety and a tense sense of hope still thrummed strongly in her chest. She knew she would get at least a slight relief from it once she saw Johnny again. They had a lot to talk about.
. . .
Old Lady wouldn't shut the door, watching until the vampire was completely out of her sight before closing it and scuttling back to her web, gently touching the occasional cocoon she passed, before turning around to look over her home and her 'charges'.
"Ah, my... She's such a kind child, isn't she?" she asked them, and was a little disheartened when they didn't answer, because of course they were asleep. It had been so nice to talk to someone. "Such a busy day, yes..." she decided to herself, before going back to the nursery, approaching its 'cradle'. "Hello, hello, there, little ones..." she chirred softly to the little shifting shapes she could see in the egg sac - they were so cute when they dreamed - and she settled in carefully, partially holding it to her with her forelegs, gentle to not disturb the structure.
"Mommy has a new story for you all today, would you like to hear it?" She waited a few beats before laughing quietly, "You wouldn't believe this, but that vampire I showed you? She is called Dracula of all things, like in the story your grandmother told me, isn't that just funny? And she's married to a human, too, of all things . . . No, no, Mommy's not kidding. I'm sure she'll tell us more about it when she comes back. But I still do wonder how that came about? So curious, yes. Hmm... Ooh, maybe this is what happened." She shifted again, getting more comfortable for storytime, raising her voice so that the ones sleeping outside could hear, she never wanted to leave anyone out.
"Once upon a time..."
