Author's Note: Hello my freaky darlings. Technically a week and day late, but perhaps I need to get into a bi-weekly schedule. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Jen - Harlequin really is a gossip. He's so fun to write.

Read and Review and don't forget to join the discord server!

Trigger for mentions of gore in this one.

Chapter 50

Arachne

Annalise followed Harlequin's directions, purposely ducking between alleys and the open street to avoid monsters.

The "house," if she could call it that, reminded her of Winnie the Pooh's house.

She flinched in embarrassment. She didn't think the owner would appreciate such a comparison.

A large tree, ancient and twisted, was the body of the abode with an ornate dark red carved door set on copper colored hinges and angled slightly down. Like a cellar door, but prettier. It was a very wide door, more square than rectangular, with a push latch handle instead of a doorknob.

Anna knocked. She heard a muffled call to come in. Or at least that's what she thought it was.

"Hello?" she said, pulling the outward opening door. She immediately ran into a dozen spiderwebs overlapping each other as she stepped down a small stone and mortar stairwell. She sputtered as the spiders got in her face and she felt them crawl into her skull through her socket. The scratching noises and the sensation of crawling on the inside of her head was an immediate "nope" no matter how much she actually liked spiders. She screamed. Or yelped, really.

She heard a distant neighbor call out a laugh-filled compliment for whoever the scarer was, but Anna was too busy trying to shake the spider out of her head.

The poor spider slipped through into her mouth, and she spit it out, coughing and shuddering. There was a leg stuck between her teeth.

The seven-legged spider scuttled away up the stone wall of the house's entryway before disappearing into another tangle of webs.

Anna shuddered and caught her "breath." She popped off her skull and shook it a few times, eyes closed and pushing through the nausea of the movement as she juggled it and the fabric bolt.

She heard a noise and opened her eyes, meeting at least eight more, dropping the bolt.

A massive spider was staring at her, upside down from the ceiling at the entrance that opened into a larger room beyond the sloping hallway. It was about the size of a small car. Its body was a matte black, and the legs were glimmering turquoise at the toes that shimmered in the lamplight from behind it while the rest of the legs were black with red segments at the joints. Its abdomen was a bit slender but still held that plumpness that most spiders did.

There was no movement for at least a minute.

"I, ah, brought this from Harlequin Demon's shop," Anna said, putting on her head (wincing at the click) and picking up the bolt of fabric she had dropped in her panic. "I didn't squish anyone, did I?" She fidgeted, desperately hoping she didn't accidentally kill another monster or any of this creature's children.

The spider stared at her but didn't speak, not helping Annalise's anxiety about the situation. It gestured behind them with one hairy leg and moved out of the way.

Anna wasn't willing to assume this monster couldn't speak. She skirted around and got her first look at the shop that supplied some fabrics that made up the clothing of Halloween Town citizens.

The doorway may have been in a tree, but the rest of the house was mostly underground, with roots making up the ceiling and well-placed glass windows letting in orange-grey light from above. In the very center of the room was a large stone brazier set in the ground with a fire already glowing and casting more warm light. Beyond it, a small metal spiral staircase curled up into the hollow trunk of the tree.

There were dozens of looms of various sizes, some small and set on desks next to tools she didn't know, others taller than Anna and closer to the walls. Several spinning wheels were set up around the room, and just as many barrels and vats with different colored liquids took up more space. And yet there was room to move around so long as you didn't mind running into spiderweb.

Spiderweb covered everything, dressing the walls and ceilings in white lacy cotton candy. It was beautiful how the light caught on the threads.

The monstrous spider fell off the ceiling, landing with a scraping thud and startling Anna. It reached for a large piece of cloth hanging on a polished root that resembled a curtain rod near the small hallway Anna just exited.

Anna stiffened at the sound of exoskeleton cracking, and the spider made odd quiet screeches as one foot touched the cloth and shifted.

She couldn't look away even as the exoskeleton melted away to human skin and the spider's legs shortened until they had morphed to fingers. The head grew like a balloon as some hair fell away. All the while, Anna watched as the spider navigated the cloth around itself even as her form changed in what seemed to be a painful manner.

Before long, the skeleton was looking at a woman with soft black hair that slicked back, black pupilless eyes with six black spots set like freckles on her cheeks. Her wrists, elbows, and ankles seemed tattooed with a stripe of red and the last knuckles of her fingers were turquoise. She wasn't wearing anything except the cloth and remained barefoot.

"May you hand me that zoster?" she asked with a light accent Anna couldn't tell was Spanish or Greek.

That was more because she knew what a Spanish accent sounded like, but a friend when she was alive (she couldn't remember who) had mentioned that Greek accents sounded a lot like Spanish.

Anna looked at the desk the lady was pointing at but saw a woven wide belt and a bunch of tools and bowls. Which was the zoster?

"The belt," the lady said.

"Oh," Anna handed her the object and watched as the woman slipped her arms into sleeves created by edges of the fabric sewn together and wrapped the belt around her waist.

The dress in place, she walked past Anna to pick up a long thin leather string from a bowl which she used to put her hair up as she spoke.

"And who might you be?"

"Annalise, ma'am."

"The newcomer."

Anna nodded, she glanced back at the doorway and shifted, "I didn't hurt anyone, did I…"

"What? Oh, no, most spiders are not sapient." To prove so, she snatched one off Anna's shoulder and popped it in her mouth. It crunched between the not-quite-human teeth, and Anna watched the yellow juices slick the woman's mouth for a moment.

"Most?"

"I have the Trick to telepathically control spiders," the woman explained impatiently, even as her eyes lit with a bit of amused pride. "I can't control them if they make the decision to have their own will and awareness and break from me. In that case they are employees if they don't decide to leave. Say hello, Ester."

"Hello, dearie."

Anna followed the small and distant-sounding voice to a small black widow watching her from the lip of the bowl where the zoster previously was.

"Oh, hello," Anna replied, making a note to be very careful where she stepped anyway.

"If a spider yells at you, listen," the woman said with a smile that sported slightly pointed teeth beneath her inky black eyes. She gestured for the fabric in Anna's hands.

Anna passed it off and stood by curiously.

The woman unfurled the fabric from the thin wood board it was wrapped around and set the wood aside before stuffing the fabric into a three-foot-tall barrel of water. She then poured some kind of powder out of a jar. It sizzled as it touched the water. The woman stirred the fabric around with a large ladle. Immediately the dye began to leach out of the fabric and float to the top, thickening as the woman hummed.

"Dinner tonight," she said to Annalise. As if that explained. "As soon as I get the dyes out."

Anna blinked. She squinted a bit, taking in the woman's chiton, the spider features, the Greek lettering carved into the brazier and etched into the looms. She tried to make out the images woven into the purple trimmed cloth the woman wore, but her movements made the threads and folds shift and Anna didn't dare stare at the complicated pattern with all its imagery and little silver-and-gold-threaded people too long.

"Are you Arachne?" the teenager asked, deciding she needed to be blunt.

"That's my name."

"Are you the same Arachne that Athena turned into a spider after you beat her in a weaving contest?" Anna clarified.

Arachne looked at the skeleton with a bit of pleasant surprise.

"I beat her then? Is that the version you've heard?"

"That's the version I liked more," Anna said with a nod. Her eyes roved the room more, taking in the wispy beauty of a workshop completely neat and well-kept but covered in webs. No one would see something like this in the real world—dustless strings of silver.

She shifted a bit, still too paranoid about stepping on someone to walk around.

"Ah, flattery's natural to you. You really are Jack's blood."

Anna didn't turn her head to look at Arachne, though her unseen eyes shifted toward the woman, unsure how to respond. Her posture pointed another direction as she froze.

"Sore subject then?"

Annalise didn't answer immediately. "A bit, ma'am."

"Polite too! Well, I will not apologize," Arachne said bluntly. "Not for an observation. You better get used to it."

"Used…to people comparing Jack and I?"

"That too. But also me not caring about others' sensibilities if I wish to tell something how it is. I've been so kindly told I'm arrogant and rude. It's no coincidence I have little respect for those who say that."

"Ah…"

"Usually Harlequin, or whoever he manages to rope into his chores—" Arachne snorted. "—sets the delivery by the door. I don't like being interrupted."

"Oh. My apologies. Harlequin wanted me to bring more fabric back. I can come back…later?"

"Waste of time. Sit." Arachne gestured at stool near one large loom.

Anna pinched her face—probably in confusion, she decided for herself—but she sat down as she tried to sort her thoughts. The stool clearly wasn't made for someone of her height.

Arachne didn't seem to be one for conversation. She worked away, walking around the studio to do various jobs and essentially ignoring Annalise.

The faint crackle of the fireplace was intoxicating and Anna knew she was lulling into a sleep long before she actually did. She resisted as long as she could. She didn't think the spider was the one responsible for the drowsiness, but rather the stress and the fact another rest day was coming soon. The timing was a little off in her opinion, but she couldn't figure out why at the moment with her heavy skull and eyelids. She was too tired.

The soft footsteps in the dirt as the spider lady steadily walked around her home didn't help matters.

Then the sound changed from the crackling fire to birds. The scent of earth and damp and spice shifted to fresh dust after rain and flowers she couldn't identify.

The pain came next. It hit all at once.

Annalise cried out as she jerked away from what she thought in a moment of stupid panic was molten lava splashed at her face. She hit her head back hard on the rough bark of a large tree-the outside, not the smoothed hollow inside of Arachne's tree-and a scream ripped from her charred vocal chords.

She writhed in the dirt for a moment as she slid down with her back, the tree bark peeling off layers of flesh. The wet dirt also worsened the seeping wounds she did not miss!

She screamed in frustration and pain.

"I thought I was done with this!" she shouted with a broken voice. She knew that Reaper was listening. She knew! "This isn't fair! I know now! What's even the point of this!"

She could barely speak and in a fit of chill air passing by she curled up into a whimper, trying her best to ignore the pain. The shock made her realize how numb or how immune to pain she was as a skeleton. Some senses were sharper, like her sense of smell and hearing and even the pressure in the atmosphere, but she didn't have flesh to burn or blood to boil. All the pain she might have as a skeleton was in the joints or the hard matter of bone itself. But here? HERE?!

She moaned again. She was going to pass out. She needed to, but she couldn't...

"What else do I need to see?" she cried, trying her hardest not too. Her tears hurt so much. Somehow she tasted salt and blood as they flowed down the burned and blistered gashes in her face. She tasted something else and a morbid thought came to the conclusion it was probably her eyes.

"Shhh. Give me your hands, Light."

Anna didn't bother questioning where Chakis came from as the Reaper knelt into the moss before her. She hadn't seen the imposing being change posture from her rigid stance before. Why was she even thinking about that right now?

Shakily she tried to grasp the grey lady's outstretched hands, recoiling from the breeze and mildly shocked when it seemed to also recoil.

My apologies. A voice whispered from the rustling leaves. She had heard that voice, or voices, before.

The Wind pulled back a little further, leaving a cushion of still air around her while the grass a yard away fluttered.

She flinched expectantly when the raw nerves of her palms were touched by the Grim Reaper. The tension flowed out of her hands as the soothing chill of Chakis' hands took her by surprise.

The blessed numbness spread up her arms and tingled through her skin. Anna froze as the Reaper kissed her on the forehead and the soothing spread from there as well.

The pain was still excruciating and left her breathless, but it was tolerable now.

"Thank you," Anna said wetly, though she wasn't sure if that was because of tears or blood.

Why does it hurt so much more than the last time?

"Death is relief," Chakis said gently. "Take your time, Light."

Anna was allowed to pretend to catch her breath for a moment. "Why am I here?" she eventually demanded.

She could have sworn Chakis looked amused.

"Questioning the wonders and mysteries of your nature?"

"If this is my nature, then yes," Anna retorted. "What does that even mean? Aren't I done? I saw what Jack did. That was the lesson."

That familiar anger that flared every time she had to think about Jack and what he did came up again.

"Were you here to learn a lesson?"

"I..." Anna stammered. "Wasn't I?! Wasn't I here to learn what Jack did to me?"

"Were you?"

Anna growled in frustration, but the Reaper wasn't phased as she stood up, looming over Annalise like a temple pillar.

She stared down expectantly. "You've assumed I've brought your consciousness into the past for your benefit of learning the truth. But the truth is not always so simple."

There was an inkling of Anna that didn't want to move out of defiance. It was some childish idea of "revenge" against the Reaper who talked in circles, but she'd take what she could get. "What now..."

Chakis offered a thin hand to the spirit. "For now? You observe. You listen. You avoid damaging time as much as your mortal mind and soul will allow."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means me and my kind are not bound by linear cause and effect of the mortal perception of time and existence. You must grasp this quickly."

"Must I?"

"You don't have a choice, Light."

Anna blinked, confused by the ominous words but kind tone. "What is that supposed to-" She cut off, looking at the space before her and to the sides in further confusion.

Chakis was gone.

"Okay. Be that way, I guess," Anna said. She flinched as the cool air touched her flesh again.

I can't comprehend her cause for bringing you back, but hello.

Anna really had to strain to hear the Wind, but hearing any words at all surprised her.

"I can hear you more clearly now, Sir Wind." If being in the strange mix of antiquated manners of Halloween taught her anything, it was smarter to be polite at first.

Sir? There was a laugh. Ah well. It's possible something happened between us in your time that heightened your senses. Or the Reaper's presence affected them.

"I can't really think of anything."

Perhaps it is best you don't. I am of earth and this world and as such bound by the passage of time, unlike your Reaper. Any memory you recall from the future would mean nothing to me.

"My Reaper?"

The Wind chuckled.

Anna frowned, disturbed she didn't have anything specific to look at. She settled for taking in her surroundings.

Greenery. Thick moss. Wet air and a mist that hung inches over the forest floor. It was daytime; she was sure. It was very quiet.

"Where did she go?"

I wouldn't know. You're not the first soul I've seen dragged by the whims of an Angel of Death. But I do know that they always come to fetch you, eventually. The reasons always vary, so I'm afraid I can't assist you much.

"Thank you for the offer anyway," Annalise said, still politely. She gingerly touched her arm and flinched at the sensation. Even slightly numbed, everything still stung horribly. It was a more minor complaint, but there was the fact she was practically naked too. She needed to find a covering of some sort if she could stand it touching her flesh. "Can you at least tell me what year it is?"

There was silence and she worried the Wind had left.

Year? Do you wish for the Roman calendar, perhaps? It's around the twelve-hundreds, I believe. A millennia and two centuries since the founding of Rome.

Well, that was...useless. Anna knew that all that "Before Christ" and "Anno Domini" stuff was figured out way after the Romans fell. But she couldn't for the life, or death, of her remember when Rome was supposedly founded with reference to the modern calendar. She had to be at least before the Middle Ages, right? This was frustrating. History used to be her best subject.

"Thanks...You recognize me?"

I'm as neutral a party as—what did you call her—Chakis? Neutral. But I pay attention. The Lantern Bearer has made many enemies.

Anna paused in her surveying. "The Lantern Be-"

His name in life was Jack.

"Yes, I know," Anna said, a little more snappy than she meant. "Sorry. I-I know. I just never heard that...title."

Hm.

Anna tried not to overthink that response. "Do you know what I'm...uh...supposed to be doing?"

Not a clue. Fair fortune be with you.

Anna got the sense she wasn't going to get much else in the way of answers.

"Thanks. It's nice to properly speak to you."

Likewise, Spirit.

Anna frowned a little at the name as she studied the small clearing Chakis had left her in. The blood and puss that slicked and crusted her sparse skin made even the simple, thoughtful shifting on her feet agonizing. Part of her hated her apparent ability to deal with it, even through the gritted teeth. She was going to break her jaw if she had to keep this up.

What now?

Arachne glanced over to where the skeleton had drifted off into a fitful sleep and startled at the empty space on the loom stool. She frowned and set down the shuttle she was using to finish off a length. There was only one obvious exit, and she didn't think the girl was stupid and rude enough to go wandering in the spider's home. And yet she surely didn't leave.

Still wearing a dangerous frown, the weaver straightened her chiton and headed to the spiral staircase and upstairs. She had a few choice words for Jack about his "granddaughter" already, if the rumour and the girl's confirming reaction was to be believed.