Chapter 8: History of the Arachnoid
"How come you didn't want Ash to come?" Caitlin asked.
"You know how she is when it comes to spiders," Melissa replied. She started imitating Ashley in a rather high-pitched voice. "Ah! Melissa or Gloria, kill that spider! Oh my God, it's a spider! AHH!" She returned her voice to normal. "That's all she ever does when she sees a frickin' spider. Hell, it could be microscopic spider and she'll freak. I always have to kill even the tiniest of spiders. Or she'll ask Gloria to do so. So, I'm going to let her find out herself. It's for the best."
She seemed to be pleased with her choice. "I think there's more to this," Gloria said.
"Ok. It's for…fun." Melissa grinned.
"What did she do?" Caitlin asked.
"Goddamn it dude! I just wanna scare the living hell out of her! G wanted to do something like this on a specific show," Melissa returned. "So…now we have our chance."
"Coolio," murmured Gloria with a smile.
"Guys…can we get to business?" Jessica prompted.
"Alright," Melissa said. "Let's get into the history of the arachnoid shall we? I'm only gonna tell you once so listen up, people! So open you're damn ears! Arachnoids existed five million years ago. They hunted in packs like animals of today like wolves. They spit acid to kill their prey and sometimes used these big long pincer fangs to inject lethal venom. But eventually, the population became too large and it caused a major problem. The more that was born, the more food that was needed to sustain the entire population. Their population was increasing each day. There were only two clans of arachnoids: the Nerubians and the Crypt Fiends. There's only one distinct difference between the two. While both are spiders and have their upper bodies in an upright position, the Crypt Fiends have purple fire-like markings and the Nerubians have green fire-like markings. Anyway, back to the population issue. So many, many arachnoids were hatching from eggs each year. Mind you, spiders create an egg and within several days, it hatches into thousands of spiders. Food started to become scarce where they were living, causing them to move to other places. But one day for some reason the Crypt Fiends believed that the Nerubians were taking more food than they needed. They believed that the Nerubians were trying to kill them off so they could have all the food for themselves. The queen of the Crypt Fiends even believed this. Her name was Gloria, actually. Yes…odd, but true She had a ferocious temper and was feared by all. She declared war on the Nerubians; therefore, causing another ancient war called Warfare of the Spiders.
"The Nerubians weren't prepared for battle. The Nerubians were very peaceful while the Crypt Fiends were very ferocious. Anyway, the Nerubians fought nevertheless. The two arachnoid clans fought for more than three years. But soon, the Nerubians fled to another place, but this time underground. Even with the victory of war and lots of land for themselves, the Crypt Fiends started to die because there wasn't enough food for all of them. They had to think of a way to save their kind. Though they weren't mammals, they can still sleep for God knows how long. So they too dug underground and slept for thousands of years, waiting for food to come back. Though as years went by and food returned, they seemed to not be ready. But someone has awakened them prematurely and has gotten to kill again. It's probably the same person that released the hellhounds."
"Coolio! I still can't believe that my name is from the Crypt Fiend's queen," Gloria said.
"Mel, why is it that you go into such a long story when really all we need to know in how to defeat them?" Caitlin wondered.
"Well, we gotta know what happened in their past so we can figure out why this particular person chose them and why their dangerous, right?" Melissa answered.
"Not exactly," Caitlin disagreed. "We just need to know how to defeat them and what they can do. You're just a know-it-all."
"You know what? Shut up!" Melissa growled.
"So, what are we going to do?" Jessica asked.
"Well, we'll need to go back to the mall," Caitlin responded. "We still don't know how many of them there are!"
"Caitlin's right," agreed Gloria. "We'll have to go back and make sure. We'll get Ashley, but don't tell her what we're going against. If she asks, say 'It's a monster.' ok?"
"Okaaay….but what if she asks what monster?" Jessica asked.
"Then say… 'It's a monster that we don't know about'," Melissa replied. "Point is, don't not tell her about fighting arachnoids."
Everyone nodded in reply. So tonight when everyone in the mall was gone, they'll have to go against one of the ultimate predators…and make sure Ashley doesn't go berserk when she sees one.