Lullaby: The Itsy Bitsy Spider

by GingerJulie

When Lula moves to Argentina with her boyfriend, she never expected to realize he's the living worst and she hates him. She also never imagined she would be bitten by an unclassified type of spider that would mutate her into an arachnae. She has no idea what to expect of herself or of the people around her. But in her mutation she'll discover an inner strength she never dreamt of.

Lullaby: The Itsy Bitsy Spider

By Julie Monrad

Chapter 1: Meet your hero

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The crack in the ceiling looked like a spider clutching its body close to her home, so she couldn't sleep. She wasn't arachnophobic but who the fuck liked spiders? Her boyfriend. Her boyfriend liked spiders, so he didn't give a fuck about all the creepy crawlers quietly tapping their little legs forwards and backwards, scuttle scuttle in the night, just trying to get close to her body heat. Trying to crawl into her mouth. 8 per year…

He swore they're weren't that many, but what he didn't understand was that they came out at night. A claim he said proved she was being paranoid, but quite frankly it was just science. And god knows she knew more about the science of spiders than he did. He thought he was so clever, that he loved spiders, but he didn't know jack shit about spiders.

She did, that was the paradox or the on-the-nose existence of a phobic: you learn everything you can about your enemy. She needed to know exactly everything she needed to fear about spiders. If there was something she didn't know then when it happened to her it might come as a surprise. That would be much worse.

He pressed his body against hers, kissed her neck, but she couldn't take her eyes off that damn spider – or non-spider, who knew – above her. She so badly wanted to stop him, beg him to check what it was, but he would get irritated. He was tired of checking out every spider suspicion she had. But he was the fucktard that insisted they move for his job to Argentina to a spider-infested home.

Plop plop. The sink was dripping. He nibbled her ear. She stared at the ceiling. He tucked a finger behind her ear and brushed away her hair. The tips tickled her neck like an insect – or yes, a spider – might and goosebumps exploded across her skin and it was all she could do not to scream, push him away and check to ensure it was just her hair.

She scrunched her eyes tight. His hands were moving lower now but she couldn't stop thinking of what might be lurking, what might be just behind the headboard, what might be slinking beneath the bed. She bit her lip. His hands gripped her pussy. She inhaled sharply, which he took to be her excitement, but really she'd seen a little shadow of something across the room. How many legs did that creepy crawler have? It hardly mattered.

It wasn't as if spiders lived in their totally own world separate from all insects. Oh yes, she knew they weren't insects, but for all her very specific and in-depth knowledge, for all she cared they were just another shitty little insect. There was only one spider she had ever accepted. It was a teeny tiny little spider that hid in the corner of her kitchen windowsill. A trail of ants from where she didn't know crawled straight into its web, one after another, damned fools trying to save their corpses, give them their proper burial. Each little American ant, one after another, got caught in the spider's web. One after another the spider sucked them dry and their little shriveled corpses fell and littered the wood beneath its intimate home, its web. She watched in fascination as this tiny spider sucked itself silly. How did it do it? But that was at her old home, with her old boyfriend. Now she was in fucking Argentina with this self-absorbed research biologist who loved spiders and didn't understand why she couldn't get over her fear. Dick. What a choice.

On the whole she didn't hate Argentina. There was a lot of good stuff about the country. The steak, mostly mainly and only the steak, actually. She didn't give a hoot about anything else. But she grew up in cattle country and had wondered if she would ever find anything as good as what was slaughtered in her back yard, what cows she had drawn a knife across the neck of.

Her family didn't believe in only grass feeding, but a healthy outdoor life for their cattle with delicious boosts of corn and wheat and whatever else those beasts wanted. Their meat was delicious. They always won 4H shows and she never saw marbling on any other meat like that of their cattle. She wasn't sentimental and if she saw old Bessie right then and there she'd grab a knife to slaughter and skin her in time for dinner, and it was 4:00PM.

Their home was so dark at 4:00PM. It was at best, at any time of the day, a dim grey. She was convinced that's why they had an extra influx of spiders. She missed the sunlight. She missed natural light without having to subject her delicate pale skin to its peril. She could almost see the rays jetting down from the sky like laser beams straight onto her skin. She shook with fear. She could see and hear its sizzle against her skin. She was a victim to it. It would be her downfall. It would cook her and it would turn her rotten.

Sometimes she felt as if her blonde hair would counteract the sun, somehow change her skin's composition the way it altered – at last superficially – her hair. She would find a way to make it so, anyhow. She didn't know when or how, but she would.

Lula didn't have friends in Argentina, which left her feeling heavy inside, as if she were dragging around one of those weight sleds at the gym her college boyfriend loved, but every day someone added a 2.5 pound block. And that adds up.

All she could see was blonde hair, spiders and steak. Her hair hadn't been blonde back in the United States. It had been a normal, human color of mossy brown, but she'd renounced that girl, whoever she was. She didn't even have brown roots. She was religious that her hair would be sweetest blonde in the world. Like Shirley Temples curls bouncing around, so bright that even black and white television captured its radiant sparkle. Only of course it turned out some tacky wig blonde, something she'd seen a thousand times and told herself: I can do better.

4:30PM now. It was one of their days in bed. Lula found out too late that perhaps she and this boyfriend weren't a match made in heaven. Their common interests were not wide, they had differing temperaments, and even what had drawn them together, the sex, was dwindling. They still had weekly days in bed like this one, but she honestly hated them. She didn't work, they lived in a small village where she couldn't speak to anyone because of her language barrier, and during the week he worked long hours. She needed stimulation, she needed to go out to dinner, dance, see bright city lights, anything.

The closest city though, was two hours west. It was called Neuquen. When they touched down in the city, Lula thought they'd fallen into paradise. Then they drove out west, away from the tourist resorts and beautiful vistas into a village deep in the forests. It took only two weeks for Lula to turn woefully bored. The woods had gone from the exciting trails and endless adventures to the quiet, quiet landscape with horrible WiFi.

She rolled over and stared at Alberto. He was so charming, so good looking, and frankly, rather new. Today was their eleven-month anniversary. Hence the day in bed, sexing. They had gone two rounds, of which she had come zero times. It was a very slow anniversary.

Two days without her ex-boyfriend. That's all her doctor asked of her. He promised she would feel like herself again. She did not appreciate that insinuation, but she let it happen because she had places to go and simply could not stay in his office and argue her position of being a strong independent woman, no matter how upset, damaged and ravaged she felt by her boyfriend. She wasn't damaged, in fact, she was better than ever. Stronger because she did not let him tear her down. She would love until the day he died. Or she died. Given the stress on her mental state she believed almost whole-heartedly she would die by forty. Or at least she hoped to. Or maybe even earlier…

But she told that bastard boyfriend that she would be spending two days away from him, no communication whatsoever because frankly her doctor had told her it was the thing to do. She packed up a tiny bag, drove to her friend Tammy's place ten blocks away, clicked on the television and let it stream into her consciousness. She blocked his calls and his texts and never turned them back on. Three days later she reluctantly slunk back into her old apartment, packed up her clothes, sadly left the furniture and woe of all woe her mug collection up in the shelf – save one, her favorite one, a mug shaped like a spider, a big red hairy spider with black eyes and a crazy smile. She ducked out.

He messaged her on Facebook and she responded. She told him she was sorry but turns out the doctor was right. The minute she sat down at Tammy's and blocked his calls and texts, she felt a million times better. She knew that given the chance he'd convince her to come back, because he had so many times before, so she just couldn't see him, or text, or call, and this would be their last conversation.

And before he asked: no, she didn't owe him anything. Not jack-shit. Remember that time he lost his temper and called her a whore? Or that other time he'd lost his temper and forcefully thrown her against a wall and told her she was disgusting and if she thought talking to other men was so fun why didn't she just let their dicks in her mouth. It was all the same.

Alberto wasn't jealous. He was mild tempered. He was an impressive scientist, brilliant, gorgeous, sexy. It was the exact description of him she'd given to Tammy when they'd first met. Tammy had nodded and said, "well, okay but beyond the front page of his online profile, who is he?"

Lula knew. She could answer. But somehow she didn't love the answer, even though she definitely loved him. He was selfish, a bit useless, not that grateful, only sort of fun, and pretty decent in bed.

She rolled over and looked at his gorgeous face, the thing that had brought them together – and his body. "What do you want to do for dinner?" She asked. "We haven't eaten all day and it's almost 5:00PM. I'm so hungry, aren't you."

He shrugged. She was going to murder him if they didn't eat soon. "Okay, I'll get up and make us whatever we have."

She stood over the stove, avoiding the pops of the boiling marinara sauce when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She turned around to face him. His stared at her hungrily.

"I'm not hungry for spaghetti right now." He murmured and pulled off her boxers. She looked behind her as he reached his hands between her legs and frowned. That pasta would be ruined.

He still wasn't hungry. So she sat on their couch watching Sex and the City and eating what could only be described spaghetti and marinara for someone with a broken jaw. She spooned it into her mouth with a fork and sighed. Samantha was telling Carrie that sex was the thermometer of a relationship. Well then hers must be perfect. She slurped up more mush. They had sex once more before falling asleep.

Lula tentatively brushed her teeth, eyes darting around, waiting waiting waiting for a spider to come out the of sink. They did that a lot, especially in the morning. They slipped out from the sink drain as if they were nothing at all, just puffs of air. That's what it was. She ran out to the living room, toothbrush wedged between her gums and molars, wrote it down on a Post It and pressed it on the small table by the couch and the lamp. They were like small ghosts, that's why they were so terrifying, and he simply didn't understand. But she couldn't understand why Alberto didn't understand.

She scurried back to the bathroom, spit out her saliva-paste mixture and tidied up. She brushed her hair carefully, thoughtfully, the blonde dully vibrant under the dim lighting. She hated this house. Wasn't the perk of moving to Argentina supposed to be that everything would be cheaper? And therefore their money would go further, and therefore they could get a fantastic place not riddled with insects and lizards and whatever else this god-forsakenly tropical land had to offer. She hated tropical places.

Her fingers ran neatly through her tresses and tightly pulled back her hair into submission. She yanked hard and hooked her fingers rigidly so nothing moved out of place. Piece by piece she wove her hair into a Dutch braid, just like she had playing soccer way back when, or when she jumped up on a horse to follow her dad out to the cattle. She tilted her chin left, then right, and examined the gentle curve of her jaw. She leaned in close to ensure that those little pale whiskers by her mouth stayed little and pale.

In a practiced manner, she lathered on sun screen all over her body. It was January, hot as Satan's lair. She hit the big spots then gently spread it into the creases behind her ears, on her eyelids, on the back of her neck even into the very edge of where her hair and neck connected. She would not fall prey to this south-of-the-equator bull-shit heat. She had been born of a tough, All-American mother and father who never put sunscreen on in their life, their skin tough as leather, and then her father died. Melanoma. Well, he'd always told her to learn from others' mistakes. So she learnt from his.

Over the years after his death, her skin had gone ghostly white and her hair darkened until her mother swore she didn't recognize her own daughter. On the other hand, Lula was mad at her mother for so recklessly spending her life outdoors without sunscreen. Her mother's face would fall, hurt when they got into those arguments. When someone dies, she insisted, you don't stop living. Her father would never have wanted her to fear the freedom they had cultivated out on the plains.

"Lula."

She whipped around and saw him standing there, holding the Post It in confusion.

"It was a note. So I wouldn't forget. To make you understand. I fear spiders like people fear ghosts, because and maybe especially because I don't know where they're coming from. No one knows where they're going to come from. Or when!"

He shook his head, smiled sweetly, and Post It still stuck to his fingertips wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her in close. He was very handsome. A fantastic find by all means: renowned biologist, tall dark and handsome, sparkling white smile, sometimes funny, sometimes kind of sweet, and could whisper dirty phrases to her in Spanish in the dark heat of sex-making.

Her knees bent slightly as he tucked her pelvis into his. Her lips parted to allow his their space. Then a gentle suck, pull on her lips, fingers into her hair and gripping it slightly. He broke the spell by slapping her ass and whipping away as quickly as he'd come.

"Have fun on your run, beautiful." His white teeth sparkled at her as he slipped out of the bathroom. The Post It was in the trash by the sink.

As a little girl, her mother used to leave Post Its all over the house. In retrospect, she had – or rather, still did – have Attention Deficit Disorder. Her mind running at a million miles an hour and constantly changing thoughts couldn't keep track of what she was doing or had to do later, so she had gotten into the habit of writing things down and sticking them to the closest surface. Lula could naturally focus as if she were a normal person on Adderall, but nonetheless she'd grown up in a house of Post Its and she had gotten into the habit herself. It was perhaps one of the greatest things her mother had taught her. Besides how to love.

Her sneakers crunched as she slipped her feet into them. Mud and dirt were constantly caked into the seams of the shoes, causing them to creak until they got wet again from another dirty puddle, and then they would dry and creak again. When they had first arrived in Argentina she had done her best to keep her shoes clean, she even put them into the wash at the laundromat a few times, but eventually she had to give up. The city was dirty, the land was dirty. Literally. There was dirt everywhere. And when water hit that dirt, it turned into an inescapable mess.

Lula had never been a runner by nature. She was forced into it in high school soccer. In college she went to fitness classes offered at the campus gyms, and just ate less to keep her figure. But after her first week in Argentina, Lula quickly realized she didn't have much else to do. So for thirty minutes she ran. Sometimes an hour.

She pummeled down the dirt road, headphones just loud enough to block out all other noise. It was like being in her own movie, where the world swirls around you but you have your own soundtrack. She loved it. Then pain exploded in her ear drums as her headphones blared a horrible horn down the line. She ripped the earbuds from her head and looked down angrily at the phone's screen. Tammy.

Reducing the volume, Lula opened up the call from her friend.

"Hey, why haven't you returned my call yet?" Tammy's voice hurtled through the headphones.

"Hey friend. Love you so much, so sorry I've been so aloof."

"Yeah well I'm landing in a week. I need details!"

"Don't worry about anything. Alberto has a car. I'll pick you up."

"He has a car?"

"Yeah, the company just gave it to him."

"Jesus."

"Yeah, perks aren't bad."

"Where are you right now?"

"On a run."

"Did you put on sunscreen again?"

"Yes."

"I'm sending you this article on sunscreen. You have to read it. I'm serious. You're not just killing yourself, you're killing the coral."

"I'm nowhere near coral."

"Well my flight is landing by the coast so either I'm going to the wrong city or your full of shit."

"It's called a layover. I'm hanging up on you now."

"Okay, call me later when you're done with your run."

"Will do."

Without hesitation she picked up stride again. Time lost, heartrate down, she'd have to make up for it.

Lula entered the shop still sweating from her run. She retrieved the money from the zip pocket on her tailbone, or what her Pilates girlfriends back in Seattle used to call her "fanny pack". She'd once slipped on the slick stairs while exiting the studio and had a key tucked into that pocket. The searing pain of the metal digging into her tailbone took away her breath. She took a compact mirror to the site of the injury later and saw a giant mark. It had never quite gone away. Not an ideal mark to have to explain to future lovers.

She didn't like going into the meat market in this village. The man spoke only Spanish – which to his credit made sense if you'd never left your home town, but some days Lula swore he made it his mission to be as difficult to understand as possible. All she knew when they moved was her rudimentary high school Spanish. She'd never even spoken to an American Hispanic person before. At first it was fine because they lived in Neuquen where they regularly catered to American tourists and he was around. People knew English and if they didn't he was there to help.

But now, now they lived in butt-fuck-no-where so Alberto could collect samples every single fucking day. He walked out into the woods like some kid playing Indiana Jones and came back with the swagger of James Bond. She really fucking hated him some days. Especially the days when she was alone. Especially the days when he came back expecting her love and adoration.

"Three pounds," her mother's voice rang above her head. She kept stepping left and right to avoid her mother's swinging purse. The man at the counter looked skeptically at her. "That's a lot of meat lady."

Her face contorted. "You think I don't know what my family needs? I'm clearly not a young mother so I would back off and pray before God before telling me you think you know better than I do what my family needs." Her mother had always been a bit drastic, especially with men. She wasn't a hundred percent, certain, but her mother's repulsion with men almost bordered on the gay side. Perhaps in a different town and a different time Lula wouldn't have been born.

The man barked at her in Spanish. She looked up from what she had in her hand. She'd have to ask for an amount based on price. Her mother would be appalled. She never even tried to haggle with this guy, but she just wanted to be accepted by the community, maybe find a couple friends, create a life, actually speak Spanish. Five months: no luck.

She pointed at the beef she wanted, but he stared at her and insisted she say what she wanted, and say it right. Lula sighed and mustered her way through the sentence. In the end, he handed her something completely different than what she wanted, but it was beef, and she knew how to cook beef well any which way it came.

Lula skulked home in the shadows carrying a half-pound of beef. It was ground. Her mother would scold her. She should be grinding her own meat to make sure they didn't mix it with anything lower grade, try to cut their costs. She pressed her hand to her forehead, it was sweating. It was always hot now. Apparently when they had moved here it had been winter, even though it was summer back home. She'd been fooled into believing the weather was temperate. She loved it. Five months later she was ready to buy a ticket home to find some snow, or drown herself dead in their tub filled to the brim with ice water. Whichever was easiest.

She had neither bought nor brought a KitchenAid with a meat grinder or a simple hand-crank meat grinder like her mother had. She didn't want to buy anything "permanent". He promised her this was temporary. One year. Though some days she felt as if they were more temporary than his plan to stay there. She shook her, head, those thoughts weren't helpful.

Quietly shutting the house door behind her, Lula lazily kicked off her shoes and headed straight for a glass of ice water. She leaned against the counter, staring down the void as she drank.

Inhale.

She looked around. There was a spider on the wall across from her. She frowned and walked out to their back patio.

The tinkle of a ghost rang in her ears as she stepped outside. She had left her dog back in Wyoming with her mother, but Archie always followed her like a shadow. He insisted on being by her side unless there was a body of water, in which case he instantaneously disappeared in a large splash. She missed that idiot dog. It was so quiet on their patio. Some crickets and birds tried making conversation, but they didn't have much to say she cared about.

Then came the call two months ago. Archie had finally died. Her mother said he had passed in his sleep. But, when her mother fumbled to recount his burial, Lula knew a coyote had gotten to him. He'd been too old to run from danger anymore. Lula figured it was the only lie her mother had only told out of kindness.

Lula tapped her phone alive and Tammy picked up immediately. Her face was red and blotchy.

"What, did you just work out too?"

"Uh, not really. Darnel and I just, you know." Tammy winked.

"Well that's nice." Lula laughed. Tammy was alarmingly out of breath. "Like when you say just..?"

"Like he..we finished…you rang, and I picked up."

"Jesus you could have waited a beat and called me back."

"No. You're impossible to reach."

"Yeah, sorry."

Tammy was looking away from the screen. She tousled her hair and nodded with a small "mhm". Lula slunk down further into her chair. Her legs were tired. She sighed, yanked out her hairband and imitated Tammy's tousle. She drank her water and really tasted it, every icy cold microbe as different from that of Wyoming's as she could think.

Tammy looked back. "Sorry. Ren's just making dinner plans. He's really excited about this new Ugandan place downtown. Should be all right."

"That's nice." She was beginning to remember why she didn't often call Tammy.

"What do you want from the States?"

"What?"

"Oreos? Triscuits? Cheez-Its? C'mon there's got to be something."

"Oh I would die for Oreos. Thank you, that's so thoughtful of you."

"It's fine. You're in a bull shit country. I figured you'd need some of this stuff."

"How is Seattle?"

"You'd know if you came here ever."

"I've been gone five months."

"Exactly."

"Only five. It's expensive."

"I'm aware. I'm coming to visit, because I'm a good friend."

Lula laughed gently, tucked her hair behind her ear. "So, Seattle? All good?"

"It's rainy and disgusting as always. I'd like to remind you that you convinced me to move here. I insisted we go to San Francisco or LA-"

"LA was a terrible idea, and you had no chance of being a model."

"That's so mean. I can't believe you'd say that. I'm canceling my trip." Tammy teased.

"Please, you can't wait to get away from Ren."

Tammy smiled, looked over her shoulder.

"Did he hear me?"

"Yeah, he said 'good luck finding better dick'. Real romantic my fiancé."

"Your what? Did you just say-"

"Oh fuck! I wanted to surprise you when I landed! Ren proposed last night!"

"Oh my God! Tammy!"

"I know, I know I'm sorry, but also more sorry I blew my own surprise. Ugh whatever it was really great, he was so cute, got down on one knee like a little bitch-" A faint "HEY!" echoed from the background and Tammy smiled, "he told me so many sweet things. Oh gosh I didn't even say where we were, we were at the bar where we first kissed, which is a gay bar, remember, oh you remember! You were there. That night we each drank like a bottle before going out and wore matching 80s dresses. Who ever thought we'd get laid in those?" Tammy laughed, and while Lula chuckled sweetly, she found her throat tightening up.

Tammy kept on about the proposal. It was sweet, even in her crude recounting of his proposal, Lula could hear the softness in her voice. She was smitten, finally. Lula smiled and nodded along. She couldn't open her mouth. Suddenly she choked on her inhale. She touched her fingertip to her eye and through mucus and thick saliva gurgled out "I'm so sorry Tammy, I don't mean to cut you off, I have to go. I'm so happy for you! I'll see you soon!"

She hung up before Tammy could even respond and burst into tears. Her stomach ached with emptiness as her body shook and heaved. She gripped the glass so tightly she thought it might break in her hands, and she hoped it would. She hoped the glass would slice through her skin and she could see the red run out of her, thick, hot and fast. She wanted it to stain her clothes and the patio so she could look at it and tell Alberto, "see! Here! This is where I hurt!"

A tickle ran across her calf. Through her suffocating tears she looked down and saw a black spider with little hairy legs crawling up her. She screamed and hit it away. The glass fell and shattered on the ground. She bounded into the house and slammed the sliding door so hard it bounced back half-way open. She turned to quickly slide it closed, locked it and ran into the bedroom. She fell into their bed, sobbing, holding a pillow into her body, burying her face, feeling and tasting every hot salty tear that rolled out from her.

Alberto's hand gently rocked her awake. She hadn't remembered falling asleep. Her eyes reluctantly pried open. It was dark.

"Lula, are you okay?" He looked concerned.

"Yes of course." She sat up. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I can make dinner. I have beef."

"Don't worry, I already cooked it and ate it. I didn't know where you were."

"You didn't know where I was?"

"No, you weren't answering your text messages."

She paused. Her throat felt scratchy. Didn't know where she was.

"You ate all the ground beef?"

"There wasn't that much."

Her chest shook angrily. Ate all the ground beef. The full half-pound.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," she growled and lay back down, clutching the pillow back to her chest.

"Are you hungry?"

She rolled over, turning her back to him. "No."

He paused. "I hate coming home to you like this. You know that."

She clutched her pillow tightly. "Just go shower and come to bed."

"Aren't you going to shower? Your feet smell a bit."

"You know what. Great idea." She snapped up and stormed to the bathroom. She locked the door behind her. He knocked.

"You don't want to shower together?"

"No." She turned on the water and stepped in. It washed over her like the tears she wished she still had left in her.

She was "asleep" when he crawled into bed next to her. They hadn't been so hostile back home. They were great even. It wasn't his fault that she didn't have her own life here, her own job, her own friends, or even her own language. But wasn't it his fault? He wanted to move here. She moved here for him. Did he even ever say thank you? No, probably thinks that he did her this amazing favor by bringing her somewhere new to live. Oh look at all the pretty cattle. Wouldn't her mother be thrilled?

In fact, Lula's mother was livid when she left. She told her that if she had some god-forsaken bastard baby born off American soil she would never speak to her again. Then she hung up the phone. She called back a couple days, not to apologize but to talk normally. She asked Lula about the weather, how Tammy was doing, when was she going to visit, did she have a dog or any animal yet because humans are meant to coexist with animals. Her living was unnatural.

Lula awoke from a vivid dream of swimming. She often remembered dreams. She bounced out of bed, determined to have a good day with Alberto. She would love him as she meant to and begin positively. She sat up and looked at the clock: ten to seven. Alberto was sound asleep beside her and would sleep another hour.

Lula jumped from bed, yanked on her sports bra, lifting each breast into position, tugged her hair into submission, dressed for success, and ran out the door, sneakers crunching lightly. The sun slowly lifted from behind the trees. She breathed heavily through the already thickly humid air. Her lungs felt like toad skin, absorbing the world's moisture. She hadn't seen a toad in a very long time, not since childhood. But she could feel in her fingers the wrinkly coarseness of their skin, slightly tugging beneath her fingertips. She saw it hop in her mind. She missed those days by the driveway, chasing toads.

Her forty-minute loop took her 39 minutes. Minute changes add up to hours, her high school coach would say. Señora Ines, her neighbor, sat on the edge of her property and sold eggs each morning, her semi-wild dog slumbering at her feet. Her eyes were shut, but Lula knew she was awake. That woman saw everything through closed eyes, the result of raising twelve children, ten of whom lived to bear her grandchildren, and now those brats were her problem as well.

"I don't fucking know Spanish like you do, I'm not a fucking NATIVE SPEAKER." She was tearing at her hair, screaming, sure that Señora Ines and her family could hear them all the way down the lane but knowing it didn't matter – they didn't understand English. "I didn't grow up with Mommy-dearest speaking Spanish to me."

"Do you think for one second you could not act like such a child. Make an effort instead of staring at me like I owe you something," Alberto growled back.

Lula ran into the bathroom, slammed and locked the door, turned on the shower and hopped in to sob. She wanted to go home.

Señora Ines cracked open an eye at her approach and smiled at Lula.

"Hola, Señora."

"Lula, coma esta?"

"Bien. Vengo por los huevos."

"Cada dia."

"Casi."

Señora Ines reached below her with a heavy exhale, her arm barely finding the eggs at her round side. She probably weighed as much as Lula, but at four-foot-nine that went a long way around. She proffered six eggs. Her chickens must have produced a lot in the past couple days, for she regularly sold eggs to all her neighbors, and distributed them in what she found the fairest manner. She gave extra to Alberto and Lula, claiming she believed his work would bring their town prosperity, but Lula knew the old lady just worshipped his physique.

"Gracias. Mucho hoy. Cuantos por todo?"

"Lo mismo que siempre. No te-precupes." She waved her left hand generously and reached greedily with her right for Lula's money. Regardless of how many eggs she saved them, Lula felt certain the woman charged them the foreigner's rate. Everyone did.

"Gracias. Que tenga bien dia." Lula tossed her hand in the air and strode down the lane towards their little home.

She entered through the back patio, gently sliding open the door. She tucked her chin around the bedroom door frame, he snored peacefully in bed. His back spread alluringly across the mattress, one toned leg outside the sheets, the soft pads of his feet perfectly shaped. She sighed. He didn't even work out to earn that body. She sauntered into the kitchen and heated up an iron skillet and a kettle of water.

They used a French press out here. She loved the smell, the pressure beneath her hand as she slid down the press across the beans Alberto ground by hand with their mortar and pestle, but she found the bottom third of the coffee undrinkable sludge, made only for cowboys. She always hurried to finish her first cup before he did so she could get seconds still above the sludge level. He thought she just had a ravenous appetite for coffee first thing.

While the iron skillet heated up, she snuck into the bedroom and gently shook Alberto awake.

"Wake up. I'm making us breakfast."

He snorted. Lifting his watch off the nightstand he groaned at the time. His hand fell limply by the side of the bed and he nodded. She tiptoed from the room, and he followed suit just as she was emptying eggs from the skillet. He kissed her forehead. She hated that gesture. His lips always pushed her head more than caressed it, and what kind of couple kissed each other's foreheads? Sexless couples, that's who. And they still had sex.

She placed the plates and cups of coffee on the table, hers just a shade darker than coffee ice cream and his black as nights in the Argentinian forests. He looked up at her expectantly as she took her first bite.

"Do we have hot sauce?"

"I think so."

He stared at her.

"What?"

"I thought you might get it."

She stared at him. Had he always been like this? Silently, she rose from the table, quickly looking away from him so as not to lose her temper. She reached into the cupboard and pulled out the quarter-full bottle. He shook it generously over his eggs.

"What are you working on at the lab today?"

"I picked up some new insects out in the forest last week, and we are still trying to classify them. Today we are going to pull apart their bodies to examine each part separately. The legs are today. That's very important."

"Cool."

They masticated.

"I'm going to the store today to buy some extra food and toiletry stuff. I want to make sure that we have everything for Tammy's visit."

He nodded.

"I'm so excited to see her." She beamed.

He nodded. "Where is Tammy staying?"

"On our couch."

He looked up. "Why isn't she staying at a hotel?"

"Why would she? The closest hotel is two hours away."

"This place is rather small for the three of us, don't you think?"

"No?"

"Well, it is. But, since she's your friend, I'll make the adjustment. I need to collect more samples soon anyways and next week will be a full moon, which is good for night collections. I'll stay out in the jungle for a few nights."

Her nose unconsciously scrunched up. "Okay. Thanks, I guess."

"I'll miss you."

She stared. He never looked up. "Yeah, I'll miss you too," she said to her plate of food.

Days were too long for such loneliness. She began to understand Betty Draper in a way she never had back in the U.S. She felt insane waiting day-in and day-out for her man to come home. And she wasn't even sure she wanted him to come home most days. She returned down the lane from town where she had bought fresh steak for that night, a third bath towel for the house, a new fly swatter, some rice, and shampoo and conditioner.

At the fork in her lane, Lula hugged right to go back to Señora Ines' who in addition to her egg business made the best soap she'd ever encountered. Señora's screen door creaked open and Lula ducked her head to get through the frame. Señora's husband was not much taller than she, and he'd built the home with just enough room to spare for the both of them.

"Que quieres señorita?"

"Jabon, por favor."

Señora Ines nodded, but instead of going to the back of her home as she usually did, she set on a kettle of water and motioned for Lula to sit. Confused, Lula sat at the table. She wondered if that kettle of water was for the sharing, or if Señora felt she simply could not muster up the energy to fill Lula's jar with soap until she'd first replenished with tea.

Señora Ines reached over her sink, where from hooks on the cupboard hung different bundles of dried leaves. She carefully plucked three of the slightly elongated, greenish leaf, four from the flower-like purple bundle, and two from the yellowish flower. She placed them in her mortar and pestle and crinkled and crushed them into a reddish powder. She brought the mortar over to Lula and held it out for Lula to sniff. She did and was blown away by the myriad of sweet notes mixed in with a deep earthy tone. It smelled like the prairie after a summer afternoon rain. She smiled, tears in her eyes at the memory. Señora Ines turned away and returned to the hissing kettle.

She turned off the stove flame and pulled out three mugs. She set three tiny sieves atop each mug, spooned the herb powder into each, and gracefully poured the hot water over each one, a little into one, then the next, then the third, returning to the first, not overflowing so much as a single flake of tea.

A door slammed from the back of the house and thudding footsteps answered Lula's silent question as to the third mug. In from behind entered a woman Lula had never seen before. She was six inches taller than Señora Ines, but had the grandmother's unmistakable grey eyes. Lula had often wondered if Señora was just slowly going blind, but she now understood what appeared a curse was in fact a blessing of beauty.

"Hello." The woman's voice came thick, almost gargled. But it was English.

"Hello."

"Mi hija," Señora Ines beamed.

"Que bonita. Como ti." Lula smiled at the two standing proudly in the kitchen.

"My mother," her words were slow and focused, "say you live there…in the house…down the street" she pointed, and looking shyly over her shoulder at her mother and laughed. Lula smiled and scooched up to the edge of her chair, reaching her two hands out in gratitude as Señora Ines blessed her with the warm tea. So funny how even in such horribly hot, humid climate they were drinking piping hot tea in the afternoon.

"Yes. I do. I live down there with my boyfriend."

The daughter's eyes opened with understanding, and she turned to her mother and in almost a whisper said "su novio, no su esposo." Señora Ines nodded intently, her face contorted in concern.

Señora Ines leaned in towards her daughter and whispered something, brow furrowed, a quick glance toward Lula. Lula thought she looked down towards her stomach. Her hand unconsciously reached for the loose hanging shirt and gently pressed it flat against her stomach, as if she knew the question before it came.

"Ah, do you…marry, soon…your boyfriend?" The daughter asked. Señora Ines looked worried. Lula's face burned red hot.

Billie had his hands eagerly wrapped around Lula's waist and his tongue poked happily in and out of her mouth. He gently pushed her shirt upwards and Lula pulled away to stare at him, nervous.

"Can I take off your shirt?" He asked point blank.

She nodded slowly and let out a soft "yes". Hands shaking a little, he pushed her shirt up and over her head. She was blinded for a moment, but when she finally got her sight back she saw behind him her mother staring, livid. "Time to go home, Lula." She said flatly. Lula's face and body burned red hot as she quickly threw herself back inside the safety of the shirt and scurried down the wooded path behind her mother.

Lula nodded. "When we go back to the United States." The daughter reacted so slowly that Lula began translating, anxious from the look on Señora Ines' face. "Cuando fuimos–"

The daughter waved Lula silent and quickly answered in Spanish for her. Then she turned back to Lula. "I hope, please, that you not…offend…by my mother. She only means good." The daughter bit her lip, one hand gently on her mother's as Señora gazed up into her daughter's face, waiting for further reassurance.

"I understand, of course." Lula felt warm inside before having sipped her tea.

She looked around the home, really seeing it for the first time. She had entered only twice before, on other spontaneous trips for soap. Señora Ines had not been so hospitable those times, often shuffling quickly in and out, some animal feed in one hand as she paused from feeding to make a sale with Lula. Lula never took time before to consider the inconvenience she may have been causing this small, belabored woman. But in this moment so contrary to those, she saw her insensitivity.

"My mother, she talk of you to me." The daughter recaptured Lula's attention. "Say you strong, fast," she pointed to Lula's sneakers, "but say you look sad. Ask me to help talk to you."

Lula's eyes burned hot. Her throat grew tight and she tried clearing it gently. She looked down at her lap, unable to meet the radiant empathy in Señora Ines' eyes. "This," Lula choked, "this isn't my home. I miss…" she shook her head.

A small, rough hand reached out and covered Lula's. It was Señora Ines'. No judgment in her eyes now. "Presentamente, fuimos a l'iglesia."

Her daughter smiled. "We go to the church now. You come, yes?"

Lula gawked. She hadn't been to church since she was 18.

Still wearing graduation hats tilted on their heads, Lula and her friends began drinking with abandon. They kissed and grabbed at any skin near them, male or female. Until she found the boy she'd been mad over for four years. He leaned in, fingertips gently brushing away the hair from her neck so he could kiss her skin exploding with goosebumps. How did he know how to do that? He nibbled her earlobe and pressed his thumb into her hip and she knew without reservation she would lose her virginity that night. And she did, on the hood of his car, the cool metal snagging at her ass as he pumped her, much less skillfully than she would have imagined. He finished, and she wondered if she had to. She told him she had.

When Lula woke up the next morning on one of the large house's couches. Her mother stood over her, hands on her hips. "We're going to church," she growled. And they went. Her father sat waiting for them in the pews. She knew he hadn't been to church since her confirmation four years ago, and before that not since her communion. Her mother's lips remained tightly pursed the entire time. But at the ceremony's end, they went back to life as normal. God had wiped the slate clean.

"It's not Sunday." Lula justified.

"No, but Thursday the church have night service."

"Oh," Lula squirmed.

"My mother, she go get my father." The daughter smiled as Señora Ines left the room.

"Please," Lula began. "Como te llama?"

The daughter smiled at Lula's attempt at translation. "Alma. Fuimos mi hermana."

Lula's heart swelled. Sister.

The church was little, and only as they walked in and the ten-person choir filled the room with song did Lula realize should would hardly understand a word of what people were saying. She had been trying so hard the past five months to learn the local language, but people here were not in the business of Spanish lessons and had very little patience for the odd scientist's little girlfriend. They didn't even all love him, he spoke with a Dominican accent. And that did not go well with anyone. Woman gawked at him at first, but the minute he opened up his mouth they cringed.

The priest blessed each person that walked through the door. It took Lula by surprise. For the first time in months, as the priest passed his arm across her, and as she sat in the pew and listened to the rustling around her, as the priest stood up at the altar and without microphone began speaking, as the dust settled around her and danced in the beams of sunlight streaming through the small windows, she felt full. She wanted for nothing.

Though discretely meaningless, Lula believed she knew priest's message. In his tone, she understood: may life's fight bring us purpose and love. It wasn't a short message though, and his melodious voice began drifting her to sleep. Her head bobbed up and down painfully as she desperately tried keeping her eyes open. A small breeze came in from one of the church's broken window panels and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes.

She was home, the fall breeze coming in from house's open window. Her mother believed in fresh air, and on the last warm uptick in fall weather before the cruel cold of winter, her mother had opened up each and every window in the house. A warm uptick was an exaggeration by most people's standards. It was fifty degrees, Lula was huddled in a blanket on the couch reading, but as the sunlight shifted angles and lay upon her left cheek, she felt what her mother swore was the hand of God. She never took to her mother's Christine doctrine, but on mornings such as this, she struggled to disbelieve.

In her sleepy state Lula reached down and swatted at the tickle on her leg. Then a million alarm bells burst in her head a once creating white panic and she looked down at horror at the spider she assumed was by her foot, scuttling away. She scooped her legs up into her arms and whined pitifully. Alma and Señora Ines looked down in surprise and smiled at her fear. The congregation cat slunk away with a small hiss. Alma patted Lula's hand.

Lula rubbed her eyes and in the gesture saw something twinkle from the corner of her eye. She looked more carefully. From above her, in a slow methodical motion, descended a spider on its thin thread. From the rafter it lowered itself to destination Lula. Her nails dug painfully into her palm. She froze, eyes locked on the invader.

She couldn't stand up and make a scene. She could not simply shift left or right in a desperate attempt to avoid its landing either, as Alma and Señora Ines had her snuggly wedged into the pew's center. She whimpered softly. Alma glanced over at Lula and following her gaze saw the spider coming down. She smiled and patted Lula's hand. "No worry," she cooed.

No worry, yeah fucking right. Categories of spiders flipped through Lula's mind like a catalog. Given the size, the color, the spindly legs, worst case scenario it could be a Brown Widow, and she was not willing to have a Brown Widow take a bite. She was two hours from the nearest hospital, by dirt road. Alberto was god-knows where and she didn't know who else could drive a car. The spider was a foot above her now, she didn't have long to figure out her escape plan. The effects and infection from a Brown Widow could set in faster than that two-hour drive. Nerve damage, seizure, painful erection, anything was possible.

The church stood in song and Lula found herself swept up by the hand locks of Alma and Señora straight into the spider's path. She shrieked as the spider hit her shoulder and wrenching her hand free she tried to swat it, but it fell down the front of her shirt into her sports bra. She bit her lip so hard it bled to keep from screaming and cursing her small cleavage for leaving such a large entry point for the spider. Lula thrust her fingers up her shirt to release the elastic band from her ribs and the spider from her shirt. But as her fingers opened up the hatch a searing pain like a hot knife blade through skin tore into her nipple.

She screamed.

Señora Ines stood above her. "Hija!" she shouted at the opening of Lula's eyes. Lula could smell dirt and her head ached. Señora Ines was talking at a million miles an hour. Alma's face came into view. Alma leaned down so close that Lula could smell her hot breath. Her left nipple throbbed and she reached to it. Her fingers found the source of pain and it exploded through her breast and into her ribs. She tried to scream but it came out a pitiful gurgle. Tears slid down her face and she shook her head back and forth, no, no, no.

"You're okay." Alma cooed from above her.

Thanks for the update, I didn't realize I was totally fine, it's all in my head. Lula scrunched her eyes tight. She wanted so badly to take off her shirt and sports bra, but she could here scuffling around her. Bells were tolling. Was church letting out? She pressed her hand over her eyes. "Take me home, please," she whined.

The heat beat down heavily on her shoulders. Every step of the walk jiggled her breast just enough to send shooting pains down and through her chest. She struggled to breathe, her lungs felt taught and the air denser than normal. She staggered along beside Alma, who now noticing Lula's state tucked her arm underneath hers. There was a good half-mile left to their walk. Lula closed her eyes a moment and focused on the hot water rushing into her lungs. The whoosh echoed in her ears.

"Sabes," Alma began, voice soft, "some mortadas, they bring good. Maybe you have good mortada."

"Or a Brown Widow and this is how I die." The words escaped Lula's mouth without her realizing it. She carried on, unaware of the difference between her internal and external self. "I come to Argentina on an adventure with my decent boyfriend, paper-perfect boyfriend, totally unaware that we'd be living in the fucking tropical forest surrounded by poisonous spiders, which is his dream and my end. I was meant to die on the prairie, not in this swamp."

Alma listened intently to Lula and bore an extra ounce of her weight with every step. "You are not dying." It was the first correct English sentence Alma had spoken, and it cut clearly through the fog spreading through Lula's brain. "This bite...is…como se dice…buena suerte."

"It bit my nipple. That feels…" Lula exhaled heavily, "bad."

"We close."

A ringing, quiet and low at first began increasing in volume and frequency as they neared the lane to their homes. Lula could almost see the nature puppeteer snearing, a wide grin from ear to ear as he turned up the volume of the insects. Hum. Hummm. Hummmmm. Lula pulled her eyes tightly shut.

"Alberto. Please," she exhaled, inhaled, belabored, shaking, "find him. At the lab." Her toe hit something, and Alma, face craning up close to Lula's to hear her words, was not prepared. Lula fell down and the world shut off again. She would remember to thank the bug puppeteer for granting her a moment's peace.

Christmas music tinkled and popped over the department store speakers. Her mother drifted into sight holding a gaudy Christmas blanket, "isn't this perfect?" She held it up for Lula to examine. "Your dad will love it. I think it'll brighten up the room." Her hand ran down the bright red edge, little snowmen and reindeer bouncing around with music symbols dotting the emptiness. "Jingle Bell Rock", "Ho-Ho-Ho," "Naughty or Nice" and every other Christmas trope was written in cursive around the giant Christmas tree.

The room was empty, new but familiar. She knew a hospital room by its smell, so even before she was able to pry open her eyes she knew exactly where she was. She was alone. In movies people always had someone standing over them when they finally awoke. She did not.

She turned her head left and right as much as possible but her neck felt impossible stiff and it ached in protest as she tried to crane it around. Pressing her palms into the bed railings she pushed herself upright and tested out her core's rotation instead. To the right of her bed was a gliding table, and on it sat her cell phone.

Her body felt impossibly tight, as if in her sleep she'd been running. With difficulty, she twisted her body, slung her aching legs over the side of the bed and tested her foot on the ground. Sturdy. A surprise given how frail she was used to hospital patients being. Pressing a small amount of body weight into the ground, she reached for the table and slid it towards her. At a glacial pace, she returned her body back to the pillows. Everything felt wrong inside her, and why was her nipple burning?

The memory returned. She pulled the night gown away from her chest worried that in her slumber they had removed her breast, or just as horrible, she would see red streaks running in every direction away from her nipple like a sailor's sunrise. Red sky at night, sailor's delight, but red sky in the morning…

Her breast was porcelain as always, but her nipple had turned brown. She looked in confusion at the right nipple. Light pink, just as she remembered it. She looked back at the left. Brown. Brown? What the hell had happened to her nipple? She blinked, and blinked again. Perhaps she was seeing incorrectly, her vision was slightly fuzzy as it were, as if through a filter.

Two breasts and two nipples – however odd they were now – confirmed, Lula reached for her phone and clicked the home button. Nothing. She held down the power button. Nothing. The fuck? Who leaves an uncharged phone by a patient's bed? What good does that do anyone? And as if even in an Argentinian hospital anyone didn't have a fucking iPhone charger. Dipshits.

Lula haphazardly tossed the phone back onto the gliding table with a thunk. She shook her head, ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it away in confusion. Her hair felt as if it were clinging to her hand. She stared at her hand in confusion. Clean. She pulled a small bundle of hair in front of her and examined it closely. She couldn't see anything, but it was definitely sticking to her fingers. She ran her fingers down the strands of hair to examine the catch, and to her surprise, she heard a faint noise coming up from them. She did it again, pressing her thumb and forefinger a little more tightly together. The tinging got louder. One more time. The same thing occurred. Was she making music with her hair, or was she on morphine?

One solitary wire and needle extended like the umbilical cord they mimicked from her arm. She stared at the pack hanging from a metal pole. It had to be drugs. She dropped her hair and stared at the wall. She clucked her tongue and it echoed in the room. So, fucking, alone.

She wasn't sure how long passed before a nurse walked in, but eventually someone came to check on her. The woman practically jumped out of her own skin when her eyes connecte with Lula's. "Dios mio, dios mio, padre de santes…" she began muttering incoherently and shuffled out of the room. "Hey!" Lula called after her. She suddenly wanted to cry. So alone. Or maybe, maybe that incident was the drugs. Maybe it never happened…

Another nurse came into the room with the previous nurse cowering behind her, still muttering religious distress signals under her breath, flare guns practically shooting out from between her teeth. The second nurse's eyes widened just as the other's had, but apparently not ready to invoke the name of God approached Lula. "Perdoname, mirame por favor." She leaned in and with two fingers gripped Lula's chin. She turned Lula's head side to side gently. Lula kept her gaze on the nurse, then flickered to the first nurse huddled in the corner, then flipped her gaze back to the second nurse. The second nurse's eyes never left Lula's. She stared intently.

"Perdoname," she said again. From her pocket she fished out her cell phone and clicking on the flashlight function shone it into Lula's eyes. Lula instinctively whipped her head back and away from the nurse, but the nurse regained grip on Lula's chin and began muttering softly. "Tranquila, tranquila, tengo que ver sus ojos. No se mueve, tranquila, tranquila." Her voice came out as a soft hiss under her breath, reminiscent of the ASMR videos her first boyfriend used to watch. Even with her growing concern with whatever they were concerned for, she felt her heart-rate slow, her chest weighed down with calm and her arms slump slightly.

The nurse removed the light from Lula's eyes and abruptly exited the room. "Hey!" Lula called after her, as if after everything she had thus experienced her shout might result in some attention or answers.

A doctor strode through the room doors with both nurses and now a third in tow. Without any words he stepped to her bedside and leaned in to look at her eyes. He reached out his hand wordlessly and nurse two dropped her phone, flashlight already lit into his palm. He whipped it into Lula's eyes, and this time she remained in position. He stood stock still a good moment, only his eyes flittering back and forth. Then he snapped upright and without a word opened his hand releasing the phone into the air, the nurse barely catching it. He clucked his tongue.

He spoke rapidly to Lula, and from his words she believed she understood his name to be Doctor Romero…that was it. A fucking five-minute speech by the doctor of which she might have gleaned his name. He stopped and stared at her. Apparently his final words had been a question because he stared at her expectantly.

"No entiendo." Lula muttered.

Doctor Romero – or whatever – rolled his eyes and strode out. Two of the nurses followed him but the second nurse stayed behind and approached Lula's bed. "Familia?" She asked, kindly.

Lula lifted her phone and showed it to the nurse. "Problemo. No puedo llamar." She mimed plugging in a charger and the nurse smiled with a small nod.

The nurse exited the room quietly and returned a few minutes later holding three chargers. She lifted them for Lula to see, and while she couldn't believe the nurse did not just in good faith believe her own eyes that this was an iPhone, Lula pointed towards the iPhone charger. The nurse plugged it into a nearby outlet and then plugged in the phone.

"Vuelvo en diez minutos." She said and left.

Lula sighed and let her head rock back onto the pillow. She still had no idea what they were looking at in her eyes, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She could only guess that do to some fucked up reaction to the spider bite or some horrible fungus just lurking in the walls of her ancient home, she had onset cataracts. That would at least explain the fuzzy vision.

Time ticked slowly. She could acutely hear a ticking clock but was not sure where it hid. Her ears told her it was behind her head, but she still felt too stiff to turn and find out. She was grateful for the nurse's return. Regardless of how they treated her, at least she wouldn't be alone.

The nurse removed the phone from the wall and handed it to Lula. Lula touched the home button and the screen came to life. She blinked numerously while flipping through the familiar pages to find Alberto's number. The nurse stared at her concernedly but Lula pretended not to notice. She was fine, absolutely fine.

Alberto did not pick up the first time. Lula called him again. No pick up. The third time she called she left a voicemail. She closed the phone, and clutching it tightly in her hand squeezed her eyes shut tight. She did not want to cry in front of the nurse, but when she inhaled her breath rattled her entire rib cage and the nurse's hand was immediately on Lula's arm. Lula kept her eyes closed and relinquished one tear from the right eye. She exhaled heavily. He would call back.

Darkness came before Alberto called back. He was at the lab, back two hours away. He told her she'd been out for three days and he had returned the previous night because they were on deadline. She didn't ask anything more. She didn't want to fight. She just wanted a hug. But here she sat, completely alone in a sterile room with a catheter running out of her and some other clear liquid running in. The cycle of life.

Lula awoke before the sun rose, and she was glad to find that her eyesight was a little better than the day before. But as the room brightened, her vision deteriorated. She was fatigued, she told herself, and closing her eyes drifted back into sleep. She awoke to the gray light of night's arrival. She looked for her phone and saw it plugged into the wall out of reach. At least someone was looking out for her.

Nurse two reentered her room with a tray of food not long after all the sky's light had faded. The tray touched the table and Lula's hands unconsciously grabbed the food and tore it from its wrapping. She hadn't been aware of her own hunger, but the arrival of food awoke her appetite. Every bite brought further hunger until she was almost done with her meal, at which point her appetite abated only slightly.

As Lula licked the chocolate pudding wrapper clean, the nurse returned to the room and headed straight for Lula's phone. She handed Lula the device, but Lula shook her head no. What was the point, if he didn't give a fuck anyhow. The nurse shook it gently at Lula. No was apparently not an option with this woman.

Lula flicked on the screen and called Tammy. Tammy immediately picked up. She had headphones dangling from her ears and was hunched over the phone, looking discretely left and right.

"What's up?" She whispered into the microphone.

"Oh gosh you're at work, of course. I'm sorry. I'll call back."

"No no, what's up? Where are you? Are you okay?" Tammy lifted her glasses away from her face and let her eyes dart furiously around the screen. Lula didn't have time to respond before Tammy whipped the phone off her desk and hurried down the hall, the screen and audio a flurry of rustling and footsteps. Lula heard a door click before Tammy's face came back into full view. "Why are you in a hospital?" She demanded furiously.

"I…I'm not sure, actually." And Lula broke into sobs. Tammy waited, her eyes sympathetic, although Lula wasn't looking, and from her right, Lula felt the arms of the nurse wrap around her. She gathered herself and looked desperately at the nurse. "Porque…porque estoy aqui?"

The nurse patted her hand and pointed to Lula's chest. Lula nodded then turned back to Tammy. She took in a deep breath, held it, then explained: "a spider bit my nipple."

A laugh escaped Tammy's mouth and she quickly covered the culprit with a hand, clearly embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I'm sorry."

Then suddenly Lula laughed, and she laughed hard. She looked at the nurse with wild eyes and coughed from laughter. She could hear Tammy laughing on the other end, and the nurse kept her hand on Lula's arm, with a delicate smile.

"What do you mean a spider bit your nipple?" Tammy finally asked after they were laughed out.

"Oh gosh I remember I remember." Lula sighed. "So this woman Señora Ines – you'll meet her, she's lovely, I buy my eggs from her – she and her daughter somehow got me to go to church."

"Church?"

"Yeah, I know. And then while we're sitting in this dusty-ass church I look up and suddenly there's this big-ass spider crawling down its little spindly web. I'm like looking up at it and then Alma, Señora Ines's daughter sees me looking at it, and she thinks I'm being silly, and the bitch yanks me up out of the pew for a hymn straight into the fucking spider. So now I have a spider on my shoulder and I freak out – obviously. I tried swatting it off but because these woman have a death grip on my hands for this damn kumbaya, when I finally wrench my hand free to hit it I've like twisted in a weird way, anyways I'm not sure but somehow I knocked it down my shirt and I'm wearing a sports bra, so open cavern for the itty bitty titty committee over here and it goes straight for my nipple. Hurt so bad I think I passed out because the next thing I remember is waking up on the ground outside the church. And then I'm honestly not too sure How I got here. I'm assuming it's the hospital two hours from the village."

"Well, where's Alberto? He didn't explain all this to you?"

"No." Lula bit her cheek. "He's back at the lab right now. He said he was here for two days with me but I don't know, I was passed out."

Tammy's face scrunched up a bit. Lula wouldn't be able to hide these defects of Alberto much longer.

"Okay. Well are you okay?"

"I don't know. I can't ask any questions really because my Spanish is such shit."

"Haven't you been there five months?"

"Don't do that right now. Give me shit for not immersing myself later, not now."

"Right, sorry."

"I don't know what or how to ask them. All I know is that my nipple is brown –"

"As opposed to…"

"I have pink nipples."

"Lucky bitch."

"Well not anymore!" The two woman began laughing again. "Now, my left nipple is brown from the bite, and that concerns me."

"Sure."

"And they were staring at my eyes a lot earlier and frankly my vision isn't great. Actually, I'm going to bring the screen close to my eye, can you tell me if you see anything." She pulled the phone camera an inch from her eye and focused looking forwards.

"Honestly the connection isn't good enough. It's a bit blurry." Tammy said. "Sorry, but you really need to just try asking in English or Spanish and see if someone can answer you. There's got to be someone there that speaks English."

"I don't know, maybe, but this isn't exactly Rio, you know?"

"I guess. Well I'll be there soon and I can try helping somehow. But for now why don't you try getting a mirror so you can see what they're concerned about with your eyes."

"What?"

"I mean I'm surprised you haven't asked for a mirror or gone to the bathroom already to look yourself."

"No I meant, you're still coming?"

"I'm especially coming now."

"No, you really don't have to. It's such an awful long way and I don't want you to come to Argentina to just sit in a hospital, that would suck."

"I'm coming to Argentina to see you, not to see Argentina. And my flights aren't refundable so I'm definitely coming."

Lula looked down, she nodded quietly. "Thank you. I'll send you the address. I'm…I'm really grateful you're coming."

Tammy moved a little closer to the phone. The unspoken lashing against Alberto's absence weighed heavily on both their lips. Why not just say it? Lula shifted slightly in the bed.

"Look, my flight actually leaves in five hours, so I'm glad you called, but I need to get a little more work done before I fly out and you need to get some rest, but get me the address before you fall asleep!"

"I'll ask the nurse. She's right here. One second." Lula switched applications, pausing the video with Tammy, and passing her phone towards the nurse asked "por favor, escribe el addresso."

The nurse took the phone, her smile never fading, and tapped in the address of the hospital – or so Lula hoped. She looked it over once, and sure enough at the top it read "Hospital d' Santo Cristo". She sent the text message to Tammy and flipped back to the video.

"Well, I hope that's where I'm at because that's where you're going." She laughed gently.

"Look, I'll see you soon, so rest up and if you leave you have to tell me."

"If I leave I'll be at baggage claim waiting for you, but somehow I think I'll be seeing you here."

Tammy nodded. "Okay, love you. See you soon."

"Love you," Lula replied, and clicked off the phone.

Lula awoke alone to a text message from Alberto. He'd be coming later that afternoon after work to see her. He hoped she was feeling a little better. He had called the hospital to find out when she'd be released but they didn't know yet because they were waiting on some blood tests to come back, etc. She felt zero reassurance, and dropped the phone dramatically by her side and slumped over.

Then from her hip she clicked the screen alive. Eight AM. Tammy's flight was supposed to land at eight AM tomorrow. Another twenty-four hours in solitude. Lula closed her eyes and drifted away.

Around noon, Alberto sent a message he couldn't come that night as promised. Lula had expected as much, which made her anger even stronger. He was officially a giant disappointment. She flipped around on her phone for flights back to the U.S. But while she was busy doing so, an unfamiliar nurse came in and began speaking slowly in Spanish and pointing towards Lula's crotch.

Lula's face contorted in confusion and fear, but the woman gave a little touch and tug to the catheter chord and Lula immediately understood. She nodded and looked away as the nurse slipped it from her body. Lula moaned louder than she hoped at the discomfort.

Afterwards, the nurse motioned to Lula to right herself and helped Lula twist her legs over the side of the bed. She nodded happily at Lula's upright position and scurried around the corner to return with a walker. Lula laughed gently, she left the U.S. a spritely twenty-six and would return an aged eighty.

Gripping the handles Lula slid gently off the bed to find that she didn't need the support she or the nurse feared she might. Her feet, just a couple days previous when she'd reached for the table with her phone, held firm. Her legs felt taught, and as she looked at her forearms supporting a mild amount of weight, she noticed a thick vein running across her muscle. How much weight could she have possibly lost in these few days at the hospital?

The nurse led her to the bathroom so Lula could use the restroom for the first time on her own, and when Lula entered she took a quick self-conscious glance at the mirror. She sat down on the toilet with the nurse's help – though she felt strong enough to do it herself – and followed the nurse to the sink to wash her hands. She immediately looked into the mirror for a better look.

Staring back in the mirror were two eyes not made of irises and pupils or even a white eyeball but a solid black orb. In the mirror she could see her mirror image reflected in the eyes, and back in the mirror and so forth and so on like a scare house. Lula screamed bloody murder and bounded back from the mirror, straight into the door, concussing her head.

Pain seared through the back of her skull but she pushed the equally frightened nurse away from her as she tried to get closer to the mirror and a nurse and a doctor rounded the bend into her room. Lula gripped the mirror and shook it wildly as the doctor began shouting at her original nurse. The new nurse grabbed Lula's arms and tried to pull them down away from the mirror.

Lula shouted "No!" and with one swipe of her left hand pushed the nurse away from her. The nurse flung across the room and Lula screamed in agony as she felt her fingertips split open and watched with horror as sliver shot out from them. The doctor stopped yelling at the nurse and everyone stared at Lula in horror.

Lula began fiercely muttering "no no no no" and backing up further into the bathroom until not looking she tripped over the side of the bathtub and felt her feet disappear from beneath her and heard a crack.

The prairie grasses gracefully drifted side to side in the wind. The air was slightly crisp but the sun shone brightly and warmed Lula's skin. Her mother's arms were wrapped around her as they looked out over the creek to the dancing grasses, stretching out until they ran upwards into great mountains.

The cattle moaned behind them, their bells clunking loudly as they navigated around each other. Their horses snorted out small mites jumping up their noses and their tails whooshed and whipped away the flies. Lula's mother hummed gently, rocking their bodies side to side.

"Nine-years ago today you were born." Her mother kissed Lula's head. "It was horrible you know, child birth. And I was alone for hours because your dad had to round up all the cattle and George had gotten drunk and let them wander all over the place. Just me and this midwife. And I was hollering." Her mother laughed gently. "But eventually your dad made it back and he held my hand, kissed me and thanked me for being so strong and for gracing our lives with a new life." She chuckled. "Most romantic that man has ever been. But I swear when you finally decided to stop torturing me and just come out, he had tears in his eyes."

She released an arm from around Lula and touched her fingertips to her face. "He grabbed my hair and leaned in close and began humming this old song his momma used to get him asleep when he was a kid. Sweet sunlight, sweet sunlight, gone away and turned to night. We thank you for, this blessed day, and wish you back again to play. I left my love, on yonder hill, rose in hand, and dreaming still. Sweet sunlight, sweet sunlight, it's time for us, to say good-night. And when you rise to bring the day, please bring my love along this way. I don't know what came over him, but he just held my hair and hummed away while the midwife washed you off. And I knew then exactly who you were: our sweet Lullaby."

Chapter 2: Your Heroine Evolves:

Ran up the water spout

Sweet sunlight, sweet sunlight…

A loud midwestern voice echoed in Lula's brain. In her wildest dreams, Lula would have believed herself back home, back with people who had twangs in their vowels and never even knew how to say gluten-free, let alone what it was. If she were home she would have smelt a crispness defined by cool air and grasses. If she were home a soft lingering scent of burning wood would coat the back of her mind, like a constant caress. But that twang…

The more of her incoherent ranting she heard, the more the image of her friend solidified in Lula's mind. Lula pried open her eyes looking for Tammy, but the lights hurt her head. She shut them quickly and reached to her head to find the pain externally. She located the pain on the back of her head. Was that dried blood? She gently flaked it off under her nails and turning under the sheets to shield her eyes from the light saw red crusted beneath her nails. Blood.

She remembered. With a racing heart she remembered the eyes in the mirror, the fractals where should have been normal iris and pupil. She remembered in her panic trying to shake the image out of the mirror because it simply couldn't be true. She remembered the nurse trying to stop her and…

Lula looked down at her fingertips. There were faint red marks on the tips of her left hand. She pushed down gently on them with her right hand. They stung. She shook her head because no matter what she thought she believed it couldn't be true. Nothing can come shooting out of your fingertips, not even magic. She had done a lot of attempts at Harry Potter, Charmed, Hocus Pocus, and Sabrina magic as a kid so she knew that it just could not be done. But…

Tammy's voice was getting louder. Even under the sheets her head ached from the soft light. She was definitely concussed. She closed her eyes and emerged from the sheets like a reverse water submersion, even holding her breath a little as she came up.

"Tammy!" She called out, her voice trailing off at the end from the pain the force caused her head. "Tammy," she whimpered.

Footsteps thudded in the room. "Lula!" The voice echoed exuberantly. For a small girl, Tammy stomped around and shouted as if she were a giant. There were many traits Tammy had that led most people to stereotype Tammy as a lesbian, but all she'd ever wanted was that D. It never bothered her that people misunderstood her, because as an outstandingly loyal and loving friend, she found the same care and kindness in those she kept close, and it filled her heart more than any external perception could.

"Lula! You're awake!"

Lula put up her and squeezed her eyes tightly. "Please," she murmured. "My head," she exhaled softly, and rather than continue with the comment gently put her fingers to the back of her head, then tapped to where the headache was spreading through the top.

"Of course," Lula whispered, almost dramatically. "I'm so sorry. The doctor said something about you being concussed. But he also was saying all this crazy stuff that didn't make any sense–"

"Wait," Lula breathed. "How could you understand the doctor?"

"He was speaking English…"

Lula screwed her eyes tight but tears still brimmed beneath her lids. She dug her nails into her palms, trying to release the frustration below so it didn't explode from her already damaged head. "Why...why did they never send him in to talk to me?"

"Apparently he was gone until yesterday when he came into your room and that's the whole story he was telling me about you falling and concussing yourself and something insane about your eyes and stuff coming out of your hands. Apparently most of the nurses and the other doctors don't want to come in because they're worried you're a demon or some other anti-Christian bull shit. I told them clearly they had to be imagining all the symptoms…right?"

Tammy trailed off as Lula slowly shook her head. She couldn't speak for a minute. "Lula…?"

"Tammy," Lula breathed. "I want to show you my eyes, but I really can't open them in the light. Can you please turn off the overhead lights and please, please do me a favor: don't scream when you see my eyes. They're all sorts of fucked up…" a sob climbed up her throat but she swallowed it back down.

Tammy nodded and realizing the incongruity of it responded "yeah, of course. Let me just find the light."

Looking into her lap, mostly from fear of her headache, Lula slowly creaked open her eyes. A soft gray light from the window filled the room and it wasn't too bad on Lula. She allowed her eyes to open fully but before looking up reached out her hand for Tammy's. "Please, please don't scream. I can't handle anyone else screaming at me."

"Of course," Tammy whispered and slipped her hand into Lula's.

Lula looked up and Tammy gave a small involuntary gasp. But she didn't scream. She stepped closer and squeezed Lula's hand. "Well, you look weird."

Lula let out a snort of laughter that turned into a mixture of tears and laughs. "I know, I fucking know. I lost my mind when I saw myself in the mirror. I don't blame the nurses for not coming in I do look like some weird fucking demon."

Tammy laughed along with her. "You do, you really fucking do." Tammy reached her free arm around Lula's shoulders and brought her in for a tight hug. While Lula let out the last of her tears and laughs, Tammy held her close and gently kissed the top of her head. "Your hair is gross." She whispered to Lula.

Lula chuckled. "I know. This week sucks."

"Well frankly given my presence I thought this would be the best week of your life, but given the circumstances I'll let that hurtful comment slide."

Lula sighed. "Yeah."

"So about this stuff shooting out of your hand…?"

"I don't know!" Lula exclaimed and shut her eyes at the searing pain in her head. "Look." She lifted left her hand and showed the red dots on her fingertips. Tammy touched them lightly. "Ouch," Lula whispered and involuntarily yanked her hand back.

"They look like those pricks from donating blood, like the sample they take before." Tammy twisted Lula's hand.

As if on cue, the doctor Tammy had been speaking with walked in. He held a small plastic baggy outstretched in his hand. "This is the sample I was talking about. You can open the bag." He said, handing it to Tammy. Turning to Lula he introduced himself: "I'm Doctor Torres. I'm sorry our initial meeting last night was not so smooth." He smiled and Lula swore she immediately got a little wet. The man was gorgeous.

Lost in his beauty she stammered and forgot her odd eyes, staring straight into his. "I haven't yet had the opportunity to examine these infamous eyes, do you mind?" He reached into his pocket and extracted a small flashlight. Clicking it on he gently placed the side of his forefinger beneath Lula's chin and similar to the nurse guided her face side to side. He stopped suddenly and looking her directly in the eye said, "you can breathe you know."

Lula exhaled and laughed nervously. She wished he would stop smiling at her, she needed answers to her questions.

"Yup, you're an insect woman." Tammy said from behind Doctor Torres.

"What?" Lula exclaimed, suddenly searching for her friend. Doctor Torres moved away from Lula and looked almost irritated. "What the fuck do you mean I'm 'an insect woman'?"

Tammy looked at both of them surprised. "I'm sorry I thought everyone was on the same page here."

"She's been unconscious since my arrival," Doctor Torres said, as if that explained everything.

Lula began hyperventilating. "What…the…fucking…fuck…do…you…mean?" Chest heaving with what felt like her first panic attack coming on she looked angrily between Doctor Torres and Tammy, as if they had been conspiring against her, plotting to turn her into a mutant all along.

Doctor Torres reached into his coat pocket and handed Lula a brown paper bag. Having seen enough movies she flung it open and began breathing into it. Doctor Torres leaned in and gently guided her, "inhale, exhale, inhale" but his face this close to her only increased her anxiety.

"You just carry that around?" Tammy asked.

"No," Doctor Torres growled as he stood to face her. "I was prepared for this moment thought I did not plan on a blithering idiot throwing her headlong into a panic attack."

"I'm sorry I thought someone in this hospital might have told her these suspicions before, you know, me, the for as far as you know, total stranger."

"I've been here less than fourteen hours."

"Why is your English so good?" Doctor Torres and Tammy both turned dumbfounded to Lula, who bag still by her mouth had asked the question.

"What?"

She shifted the bag again. "Why is your English so good? And why weren't you here before?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it. "I'm from Atlanta." Then coming closer to her. "I'm sorry I wasn't here before. I know this whole experience must have been really confusing and terrifying. I was on vacation so no one could reach me. When I turned my beeper back on though and heard about you I came straight in. I want you to know how brave I think you are, and I'm so sorry you've had to go through this alone."

"Yeah, why are you alone?" Tammy demanded.

Lula shook her head. Lifted a hand and let it drop. Her breathing slowed in the bag. Why was she alone? "He's busy." She muttered. From the corner of her eye she saw Tammy tense up, ready to attack, but instead she came back to Lula's side and wrapped her arms around her once more.

"I'm here now, and I'm staying here until we sort this out."

Lula nodded in gratitude.

Doctor Torres interrupted. "Now, Lula, I do want to see the spot of the bite." Lula's face went crimson. "Please don't feel uncomfortable, I'm a professional and I just need to make sure it's not causing any infection to spread."

"Oh my god, the nipple!" Tammy exclaimed. Lula laughed.

"You're so thick sometimes, Tammy." Lula said. "Yeah, my nipple, duh."

"Let's whip out both of them and see the My Dog Spot nipples."

"I fucking hate you."

"Actually," Doctor Torres interjected, "I do need to see both. For comparison. Similar to if you had sprained your left ankle, I would need to see the right one to understand the starting point before I understand what swollen looks like for your body."

Lula nodded. "So, if you don't mind," Doctor Torres continued, "I'm just going to reach behind you and open up your gown, and we're just going to slip out your arms from the gown and take a look at what's going on, okay?" Lula nodded. "Do you want your friend in the room?" Lula nodded. Doctor Torres shot Tammy a hard stare. "Just, please refrain from speaking." Tammy rolled her eyes.

As Doctor Torres began examining her two breasts, Lula gave a little sigh and asked, "so, from Atlanta?" She felt like she was trying to make conversation with her Brazilian bikini waxer.

He responded without looking up. "Yes. But I went to medical school in California."

Lula nodded, and looking up found Tammy smiling like an idiot at her. Lula scowled at her, but Tammy wouldn't wipe that stupid look off her face.

"Well," Doctor Torres said standing up. "It's definitely an oddity, and I can see where you were bitten, but it's healing well. You can cover up if you like." Lula immediately pulled the gown back up. "The left nipple is a little stiff, as is the breast tissue around it, but we'll just keep an eye on that, okay? I am of course only concerned if you're thinking of ever breast feeding."

Blood rushed to Lula's face again. "I…I don't know." She stammered.

He smiled. "Now, Tammy if you could please hand me back that plastic bag, I'd like to talk about this sample with you, Lula."

Doctor Torres opened the bag and removed the thin stings. It stuck to his fingers but with great caution he pried it from his hands and placed it into Lula's. She held it in awe. It felt just like a spiderweb. For whatever reason she brought it up to her face and gave it a quick whiff. It smelled like her perfume. She backed away from it in surprise and looked up at Doctor Torres for answers.

"I can't say that that's spiderweb." He began frankly. "And I'm not going to say you're 'an insect woman'," he continued, shooting a nasty look at Tammy. "I can say that something has occurred in you from that spider bite. And what I have to apologize for is that I have no definite answers for what has happened to you or what will happen to you. I would highly suggest that information about your case accidentally fall into the fire. We aren't automatic with files here, so nothing has yet been placed into the online system. Anything currently recorded or found can disappear. And, I can keep looking into what has happened and is happening to your body, but if you opt into that, I want to emphasize caution. I would hate for you to become a government project, especially since we don't know what bit you, right?"

"I'm assuming it's a brown widow. It was brown. Skinny legs. I couldn't see its belly. I hate spiders." She didn't know why that last part was relevant, but it made Doctor Torres laugh and her heart fluttered at the sound.

"Well, this is what I can tell you. I've done daily calculations on your heart-rate, blood pressure, the usual monitoring. Your blood pressure has remained the same, but your heart-rate has decreased to the point that we worried you had died last night. 32 beats per minute. That is dramatic. Olympic athletes don't go below 50. Also, quite frankly, unless you have a history of martial arts training, what you did to our poor nurse – and don't worry, she's fine barring a need for ten years of therapy – your strength has, without exercise, increased. Especially astounding considering hospital patients tend to see large amounts of atrophy. My honest comments on these changes are that I am both excited and very worried. This could be an incredible life change for you, and exciting chapter, it could also mean some terrible downsides, including death. I have no idea, and for that I'm sorry."

She nodded morosely. "This is a lot."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Can you hand me my phone?" She asked Tammy. "I'm going to call Alberto, maybe if you can run a DNA test on my blood he can analyze it for anything bug-like."

Doctor Torres raised an eyebrow. "Clever."

"Yup, I'm a smart one," she said, tapping through her phone. She got Alberto on the phone and without much explanation asked him when he'd be coming to the hospital and if he could analyze some DNA samples. She was rather surprised he didn't ask any questions at that.

"He'll be here tonight." Lula said hanging up. "I'm hungry."

"I'll ask the nurses to prepare a food tray." Doctor Torres walked out and didn't return.

"How you doin'?" Tammy asked, pulling up a chair next to the bed.

"Really not good." Lula said flatly. "Not fucking good at all. I wasn't good to start with. I never said anything because I didn't want to look like an idiot after making this big move out there but frankly, Tammy, my life sucks. I have no job, no friends, I struggle with the language, my boyfriend is never around and really only has shits to give about himself, and now I may be some kind of mutant for like a day or forever. And when I say for a day, I mean because I could die. Whatever is inside me could act like a steroid and go straight to my heart and stop its beat. And he didn't say that but I know that's the reality. I know just enough to be afraid and it sucks."

Tammy scooched up on the edge of the chair. Lula stared at her fingertips with the red blood marks.

"Toby McGuire makes this look so simple, he wakes up and he's jacked and his life is awesome. But I'm waking up in a fucking hospital and I look like a freak. A. Freak. My eyes look insane and you know it. I'm going to have to wear sunglasses everywhere I go now. And it's a douchey look." Lula gave a small puff of laughter. "I just, I just wanted a break from this feeling of misery."

Tammy took Lula's hand and caught her gaze. "I'm so sorry you never told me about that other stuff, and I really wish you had."

"I was embarrassed."

"Yeah, and I get it. But we've been best friends since we were big enough to steal chicks from the neighbor's roost. You can and need to tell me this stuff because who else can you tell? And festering isn't an option."

Lula nodded. "I want to go home," she muttered.

"Then we will, as soon as you get discharged we'll go back to your tiny village, pack a bag and leave. Promise."

They quietly held hands until Lula didn't even realize she'd fallen asleep.

Tammy sneered at Alberto as he approached Lula's bedside and gently placed his hand on her thigh. She awoke slowly and her face went from confused to horrified as she blinked awake. Upon seeing who it was she immediately threw the sheet over her head.

"Tammy," her voice came muffled from the bed lump, "did you warn him?"

"No."

"Lula, what are you doing?"

"I don't want you to see. Not yet."

"What? Your eyes? I saw them a million miles away dear, I work studying insects and spiders for god sakes."

Lula lowered the cover but held a hand in front of her eyes. "Did you really see them or did you just get a glimpse? Because what they really look like is pretty nuts."

"I really saw them Lula. Lower your hand. I stare at your new eyes more than human eyes, you have nothing to be afraid of."

A quarter inch a time Lula lowered her hand away from her eyes and looked up into Alberto's face. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why he looked…bored? The muscles of his face were relaxed, he eyes a little unfocused as he gazed upon her, and his mouth drooped a little.

He reached for Lula's hands and pulled them far from her face. Alberto leaned in and stared into her eyes. He smiled gently and said "gorgeous." Lula smiled but from the corner of her eyes she could see Tammy roll her eyes and turn away. Alberto lifted his fingertips to Lula's chin and ran them up her jaw line into her hair. He laughed slightly as his fingers got entangled in the knots of her hair. "No shampoo or conditioner here, huh?"

"Well, did you bring any?" Tammy butted in crossly.

Without turning his gaze, he answered both women. "No. I'm sorry Lula, I didn't. But I can go out and get some."

She shook her head. "That's okay. I have a really bad concussion right now so I don't think I should get out of bed. But, well, I don't know, my head feels a lot better after my nap."

"I'll go get you some toiletries and a towel from the department store down the street." Alberto stood up and without addressing Tammy with so much as a glance walked out of the room. Tammy scowled at his disappearing shadow.

"Please, try to be nice."

"You know I've never liked him. Not that I've ever said it but I know you know."

"I know, but right now I need you two to get along. I need to get the fuck out of this hospital and I need him to take us in his car and I need you to not cause a scene. Tammy, you have a tendency to cause scenes, please don't do that."

"On the one hand I love you and so think I should cause a scene with that hair-grease concerned butt-wad. On the other hand I love you so I won't cause a scene."

"Thank you."

"By the way, your doctor is super hot and you should totally bang him."

"Tammy!" Lula laughed and it took her a moment to realize her head didn't hurt. She touched the back of it but couldn't find a scab. She frowned and asked Tammy to look at the back of her head for the injury.

"Oh I can't, your hair is much too disgusting." Tammy smirked.

"Shut up and just do it."

Tammy couldn't locate any sign of injury either. Lula looked at her left fingertips to see if they still had red dots on the tips. They did. She frowned. For a moment she had been hoping a new symptom was an unparalleled healing ability, but these little red dots dashed it away.

Alberto returned with a sack of toiletries hanging from his forearm as with his hands he furiously tapped away at his cell phone screen. Lula began to say hello to him but he lifted a finger to silence her and then pulled the phone up to his ear to answer a call. Tammy turned her head to Lula with raised eyebrows and large, wild eyes. Lula just shook her head no to Tammy's unspoken question. No scene.

Alberto hung up and plopped the bag of toiletries on Lula's bed. "I'm sorry mi amor," he said without looking up from his phone, "but I may have to go back in twenty minutes or so. There's just so much that needs to be done at the lab."

"What…wha-…why?" Lula stammered.

"We got these samples in and we really need to get them analyzed in a timely manner or we may lose the interest of the government. And they're very important samples. They represent a new understanding of the Argentinian eco-system…"

"I don't give a fuck about the Argentinian eco-system." Lula's voice cut Alberto off cold and clear. Tammy's head whipped around in surprise. "I am sitting here in a hospital bed that I have been stuck in for five…no six…I literally don't know how long because I have been unconscious for so much of it and you, YOU, were nowhere to be found. Do you know how scared I have been?" Shakily, Lula pulled herself to the side of her bed and dropped her feet to the ground. They held firmly beneath her. Her gown and her disgusting hair both fell around her in shapeless forms.

"Lula, mi amor–"

"Don't you "mi amor" me." Lula's voice shook. "If you amored me you would have been here! Sitting right there in that horrible chair waiting for me to wake up but NO! You were two hours away. TWO! And now, now when you could at least wait to take my samples back to your lab to study them and redeem yourself at least a little you're leaving."

"You're samples won't be ready for days."

A heavy pause hung over them as Alberto's response sunk into both women's psyches. Then Lula shattered the silence with a scream, louder than she'd even dared in their tucked away home down that dirt road. And as the scream erupted from her she felt the fingertips on both hands sear with pain as suddenly from her hand shot silver webbing.

The emission from her left hand hit the wall behind Alberto but that from her right landed at his feet. Alberto bent down and calmly touched the webbing. He picked up a small amount of it and twisted it in his fingers, watching it ball up tightly. From his pocket he extracted a small plastic baggy and he placed the ball and some more webbing from the ground into the baggy, then returned it to his pocket.

"What's happening to you is not a minute-by-minute blow, Lula." He spoke calmly and looked into her terrifying eyes. "This is who you are now. I'll see you tomorrow." And he walked out.

The next morning, Tammy took Lula and her walker out to the hospital's garden. Lula did not need or like the walker, but as Doctor Torres had told her, they had to keep her until she was fully stable, and there were a few tests still worth running.

Doctor Torres and the one nurse that could stand to look at Lula had begun her morning with a debrief on everything they did know about her. Her vitals were abnormally strong, her red cell count normal, but her white cell count was high, so they'd keep looking for whatever her body was fighting, but her DNA results would return soon from the lab, and he assured her they were in the hands of a discrete employee. Lula told him about her head, and when he examined the spot he nodded serenely and made a quick note on his paper.

"You don't look happy at how quickly I've healed." Lula said.

Doctor Torres's mouth twisted slightly before he answered. "Lula, did you know that from the minute we are born we begin dying? Our cells' need oxygen to exist but oxygen also deteriorates them. When you heal this quickly it could be a sign of something fantastic, something to strive for medically, or it could mean that your cells are using up oxygen faster than normal."

"You mean, that I'm dying faster than normal."

"Well, that your life span may be shorter than that of others, yes. I want to be positive for you about all these changes because they're scary and not understood, but because they're not understood I don't want to mislead you either. Day by day with this one, okay?"

Lula nodded.

"Why don't you eat and then get some fresh air." Doctor Torres patted her leg as he stood up and the heart-rate monitor behind her shot up. He looked back at it, then at Lula's crimson face, smiled and walked out.

He had been right that fresh air would do her good. For the first time in years she sat in straight, unfiltered sunlight. She sighed happily as the sun warmed her skin like a hug from a lost friend. Tammy sat still for a long time beside her before pulling her from her trance.

"So like, want to try some Toby McGuire shit?"

Lula laughed. She looked around to see that no one was near or could see them from some high vantage point. "Yeah, let's do it." She smiled. Then her smile faltered. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Okay, well we know that you've only shot this stuff out twice, right? And that was once when you were scared of the nurse and once when you were mad at Alberto, may he rot in hell."

"Not helpful, Tammy."

"Fine. Anyways, the point being that you had a lot of emotion, but maybe you can do it without emotion so long as you're really focused. Maybe it's like having your second ever orgasm, you have to remember how it felt right before you came the first time to make it happen a second time."

"Makes sense." Lula nodded then closed her eyes and thought carefully back to the searing pain in her fingertips. But it had been more than that. Her entire body had begun shaking, and within her forearms she had felt a strong tremble, like and interior earthquake.

Focusting on her two forearms, Lula searched internally for any sign of tremor, of life, and there, on the inside of her forearm, and inch below the hinge of her elbow, she felt something alive. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused on the small internal tremor, until it grew. Flexing her fingertips, she extended the internal pressure outwards until she felt a small, slithering inside her arm as if she had a parasitic worm. The cool slithering continued down her forearm and dramatically scrunching up her face she flicked her wrist like Toby MacGuire.

Nothing.

She flicked her wrist again. Nothing came out of her. Her fingertips didn't hurt and the cool slithering inside disappeared. She sighed.

"This is as difficult as getting your first orgasm."

Tammy snorted in surprise. "God, that's one way to put it."

"Like, I can feel like this internal tremor–"

Tammy laughed and gave a soft "yup".

"And I'm trying to focus and relax at the same time. But…" she sighed heavily, closed her eyes and tried to find it again. She kept finding that spot in her forearm, but it didn't feel as if that was its genesis.

"I just don't think it's going to happen." Lula concluded, flipping her eyes open.

Tammy laughed. "That is not the defeatist attitude you would have had towards getting and orgasm."

"No, if this was actually about an orgasm I'd probably end up lying that it had happened and move on."

Tammy and she broke out into laughter. "Well back in college sure!" Tammy teased. "But you're a wo-man now, and you get what you want." Lula kept laughing. It felt so good, like the first time she'd tasted air.

Lula closed her eyes and repeated the exercise again and again. Her breathing was irregular as she kept holding her breath in concentration, making her light headed and her forearms and fingertips were exhausted from all the flexing until Tammy barked at her to just relax and let it happen.

Lula sighed, she tried to clear her mind of the task. She thought back to the one meditation class she'd attended freshman year of college, back when Tammy forced her to try something new just about every week.

Point one: toes. Follow the lines from your toes across the top of your foot, where all the tendons disperse and conquer. Like a ribbon, allow that line to wrap around your ankles and slowly slither up your hamstrings. The ribbon pauses where there is tension and tickles that spot until it releases, then moves on. That ribbon will glide up into your glutes, and curve around your hips.

Lula's body was relaxing, sinking deeper into the bench.

Slowly, slowly the ribbon glides up your sides, into your lateral muscles. Allow it to enter your chest, and expand like the two balloons of your lungs. Let the energy fill your–

There. Under her left breast. It was a heat and buzz she hadn't yet noticed. She had forgotten the acute pain she'd felt in those two moments before. Pinpointing the energy, Lula tracked it like the meditation ribbon, felt it flow across her chest down both arms and burst from her fingertips.

Her right hand seared with pain as silver shot out, but her left hand felt just a soft stinging. She carefully examined the two hands besides each other and noticed the holes in the left hand's fingertips were no longer red, they were a light brown.

Tammy nodded. "There you go."

Lula was gasping shallowly and staring at her fingertips.

"I think," she breathed hard, not sure she wanted to make this diagnosis. "I think it's my mutant tit."

"What?"

"I honest to God think that my left tit is now only for producing webbing, not milk. I mean fuck, it looks so weird no way that change is just skin deep. And I could feel this weird energy coming from it."

"You sure?"

"I think it's just because that's where I was bitten. I mean, I don't fucking know though, do I? No one knows what's happening to me. My best bet is Alberto figuring out what's going on with me. And he just studies bugs all day." She ran her hand through her hair disconcertedly.

"Well, maybe for now you can just keep practicing and figure out what makes your body do what. Like learning to run and jump and all that as a kid."

"I don't know about this." Lula shook her head. "I feel like legitimately there is no good that can come of this, unless I can actually scale walls in which case I'm in."

"What about swinging from buildings."

"Doubtful. Look at this." Lula stood and in a quick stride reached the pile of webbing. She tried pulling it from the ground but it clung tightly to the pathway. She frowned and gave it another tug, and it came free. "Alberto pulled this off the ground like it was nothing." She said, carrying it over to Tammy.

"Maybe it's getting stickier, or stronger."

"Maybe." She passed it between her two hands, slowly twisting it into a tighter and tighter knot. "This is bull shit." She said dropping it on the ground. "My eyes look insane and frankly I feel insane. None of this feels real, I'm waiting to wake up from the gnarliest dream I've ever had. But it won't stop. And I feel pain. So…no need to pinch me."

Tammy placed her hand onto Lula's shoulder blades. "Let's get you home."

The weather was too nice for moping or sitting inside a stale hospital, so Lula and Tammy sat outside a while longer. They walked around the garden. Occasionally, Lula would close her eyes and trace the feeling inside her breast. She felt so overwhelmed by questions she wanted to sit down, but Tammy kept her moving. When the tension inside built up, she would let off a small puff of webbing. Little by little it was becoming easier and less painful on her fingertips.

Lifting her fingertips to Tammy's face, she showed her the small, reddish-brown dots forming. She explained the diminishing pain, guessing that the pathway was simply becoming more permanent, like that of a piercing.

Tammy tilted her head and pointed out the small brown hairs that had appeared on her skin. They were so fine Lula hadn't noticed them. Trying to not draw too much attention, when they circled back around the garden to the side of the building, Lula placed her hand onto its side and simply thought of what she wanted to do. She pressed her fingers in and gave a yank upwards, but her hand slipped. Nothing, no grip. She sighed. Maybe she didn't understand this part of herself yet, or maybe all she had was shooting out sticky stuff and weird demon eyes. Not every mutant is a winner.

When they returned, Lula took a nap that surpassed visiting hours. She awoke to an empty, dark room and a tray of food on the sliding table beside her. She was hungry but had no appetite. She turned over on her side and in the dark turned and tilted her fingers for examination.

She was by no means, Toby McGuire. Her webbing was different, but maybe if she kept working at shooting, she would be able to isolate each finger's shot, to create more intricate webs and nets. Or maybe, if she brought her fingers together, the fibers would entangle and create a strand too thick to just yank apart, which hopefully meant she could hang from it. She wouldn't mind being able to fly.

Rising out of bed, Lula stood against one wall of her room, closed her eyes, and tried shooting out a strand of webbing from just her index finger. It partially worked. The index finger let out a long strong strand, but the four other fingertips dribbled out some webbing as well. She rubbed her hand clean and restarted.

Lula kept at it for hours, entranced by what her new bodily functions. She counted up her new skills: she could shoot webbing consistently, she could aim, she had figured out how to shoot strands she could catch and hold or just a smattering, net-like shot.

Sitting back in bed to finally eat her dinner, Lula stared at the wall of webbing.

"You better be able to get all that off the wall."

Lula fumbled her cup of chocolate pudding in surprise. Doctor Torres stood in the doorway, smiling at her. She placed her hand over her heart in feign heart-attach.

"I was just thinking that before you scared the shit out of me."

Doctor Torres' teeth shone brightly through the darkness as he stepped further into the room. "Sorry." He touched the webbing with his hands and gave it a small tug. It didn't come off. He raised an eyebrow and turned to Lula.

"I'll figure it out." Lula cringed, wringing her hands.

"How you feeling?" He said, coming further into the room.

"Um, okay I guess. Little tired. Hungry. Like all the time but I don't have the appetite to match it. Really tired. Mentally. Physically. I don't know."

"I meant how are you feeling emotionally?" His eyes caught and held hers. "I imagine this has been a hard transition, not unlike that of patients that undergo severe trauma and wake up with disfigured bodies. I think the worst is always when their face doesn't look the same. Staring into the mirror and not recognizing the person staring back."

Lula nodded.

"But I promise, they all do adjust. Usually, people kind of forget what they looked like before, create a new association for 'themselves', and find love for the new normal."

Lula didn't look at him.

Doctor Torres quietly approached her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She kept her eyes down. "You are remarkable. Only you get to decide if that's for better or for worse."

At this Lula's eyes snapped up. His eyes, even in the dark, were magnetic. Then after a moment she gave a small laugh, dropped her head and said, "not your first time delivering this speech, is it?"

She heard his smile in his response. "Not quite. But every patient and every rendition is a little different." He patted her shoulder and turned away. "Just know that even if I don't completely know what's happening to you, I do understand." And like a phantom, he drifted out of the room.

Lula lay back down in her bed and stared at the ceiling. She had no idea who she wanted to be. She hardly knew before all these changes, and quite frankly found no answers in her current state. Her mother had always told her, "just be the best version of yourself". But if you didn't know who you were, then how could you know what the best version of yourself was?

Lula turned on her side and stared out the window. The lights of Neuquen shimmered.

Chapter 3: Your Heroine finds Her Enemy

Down Came the Rain

"You faxed the results to Alberto, right?"

"Yes. The human diagnostic took a look at them as well though, of course. But to be honest she couldn't make much sense of the changes. She said the only real change happened in the 23rd chromosome pair. It's the only different chromosome between men and women, basically the one that determines sex. Considering the huge amount of changes in your body it's odd that those are the only differences she found, but she's interested in the case and said she'd continue looking at it."

Lula rubbed her eyes with her palms. Doctor Torres placed his hand on her shoulder. "You can always come back if you need to."

"Thank you," Lula muttered, slipping on the sunglasses Tammy had surprised her with that morning. The past two days had been full of mistaken web-shootings, an accidental punching of a nurse that snuck up on her in her sleep, and a sleepless night of watching a fly buzz around her hospital room. Doctor Torres's smile hadn't lost its touch, but her senses were too dulled to feel much of anything.

Alberto was too busy to pick up Lula, so Tammy rented a car and had pulled it up outside the hospital entrance. Lula's body was stronger than she ever remembered. She kept accidentally slamming doors and throwing the rolling cart across the room, but her brain was exhausted. It was as if there were two selves fighting within her that she couldn't reconcile. Her trains of thought had become harder to follow but her instincts so much stronger. While trying to tell Tammy something she often was cut off by the smell of something or an unexpected motion that grabbed her attention and she couldn't stop it. Tammy was happily exploiting her troubles with small clips sent to her fiancée. Apparently they found her simply hilarious.

Lula quickly passed out in the car. Maybe it was finally leaving the hospital or the smell of Tammy so close, but for the first time in days she fell asleep deep enough to dream. Her ex-boyfriend stood with his back facing her. He was facing the ocean. She couldn't see it, but she knew it lay ahead. The cliff edge was a step away from where he stood. He cocked his head over his shoulder. He had a sneer on his face. "I wasn't your worst mistake," he said and then turning fully around walked past her with no further recognition.

The cliff called to her. Lula stepped forward to the cliff edge and looked down. She kicked off her shoes and bellied down. Without a thought, she scampered down the cliff edge. Colors of brown and green blurred before her and she dropped down into soft sand. The ocean stretched out before her, the sunlight spreading green across the sky.

"Lula! Lula!" The voice came from up on the cliff. Lula craned her neck, and the voice kept coming, louder, louder and louder until she surfaced and was staring at the car console. It was covered in a thin, intricate web.

"Fuck," she muttered and looked at Tammy who had a bemused look on her face.

"You're getting that off before I return this car because I am not paying for that," Tammy said, circling her finger to indicate the web. It sparkled gently in the sun light. "What were you dreaming about?"

"I…I don't know. It was weird." She lifted the sunglasses from her face and tucked them away into the side of the car door.

Staring out the window, Lula thought of getting home. She worried something would keep her from making it through security. The x-ray would pick up on whatever was going on internally and it would look too suspicious to fly home. Or maybe she'd go through security and the high frequency would cause her seize like Venom. She'd be surrounded, locked up, but for what? She couldn't stay here. She needed to get home. With her current strength, maybe should could make it up the coast running. Cross border after boarder under the cover of night. New adventure. Stay positive. That's it.

She opened the window and let the air flow onto her face. At eighteen, when she had been rejected from her seventh college, her mother wrapped her arms around Lula, pulled her head in with one hand, and kissed her forehead. "All you need is one acceptance, one success. And often, that's how God reveals your path." She tucked her head deeper into her mother's embrace and let out one, quiet tear.

Lula could still smell her mother, or at least how she smelt back then. Even working out on the range she put on perfume every morning. "I'm first and foremost a wife." She once told Lula. As a child Lula did not understand that. Her father would love her even without the perfume, wouldn't he? And why wasn't she proud of smelling like her hard work, her father was. The subtilties of womanhood and sacrifice were lost on Lula until she graduated high school and found herself surrounded by young women with beauty rituals she had never imagined.

After her father's passing, though, her mother stopped wearing the perfume. She said the scent reminded her of him, and she already had enough reminders, enough daily heartbreaks just looking around their ranch.

Dirt sputtered up into Lula's face. She rolled up her window half-way, but as she did so a tremor inside stopped her. She froze. Something was rumbling deep in the earth. It wasn't a rain storm. What was it? She waited. Tammy's voice echoed from somewhere far away, "Lula, you okay?" Her head shook no without her intending it.

The rumbling echoed in her chest so loudly she was sure Tammy could hear it building. It felt difficult to get air into her lungs. Her muscles tensed up and every local noise, the radio, Tammy's voice, the hum of the engine, they all turned into a solid white noise. Her ears were searching for something. Very faintly, as if in a tunnel, she could hear her mother singing. "There's, something." She vocalized through a tight chest.

The singing grew louder, just enough for Lula to be sure she heard it, then suddenly it stopped. Like emerging from a riptide holding her down, Lula could suddenly hear, smell, and breathe again. "You okay?" Tammy looked nervous. Lula nodded. After a moment she realized her hand was clutching the door panel. She opened and relaxed her hand while taking deep breaths, savoring the feeling. Finally rolling up the window, she noticed a shadow on the door panel. Running her finger across it she felt a small dent where her thumb had been. Embarrassed she drew away her hand and gaze from the spot.

"What was that?"

"I really don't know. I just…I have no clue what's happening to me."

They spent an hour on the dirt road, Lula directing Tammy with half-certainty. She had trouble staying awake, especially exhausted from the frozen spell earlier. Oddly enough, she felt happy to see the church at which she passed out. She pointed it out to Tammy and looked around as they pulled down her lane to see if Señora Ines was around. She noted Señora's house and her chair where she sat every morning waiting to sell their goods.

As they passed her house a loud ringing exploded in Lula's ears. Her vision went black. She felt a grip around her throat and a pain in her head. The world exploded back into form before her and her breath came back just in time for her to shout "Tammy no!" But she had already parked the car.

Lula and Tammy's doors were wrenched open and a hand grabbed Lula by her neck. Her body flew out of the car and she felt her back and head slammed against the side of the car. She screamed and opened her eyes to see a man leaning over with a clean-shaven face and cruel , black eyes.

At seeing her eyes his grip loosened in shock and she immediately thrust her face into his throat. He bent over and she kicked him hard in the crotch so he fell over. She heard footsteps and as if watching through virtual reality saw her focal point spin around to see a man barreling at her. She dropped low and thrust her should out at his hip level and thrust upward as he hit her, tossing him over her shoulder. As his body hit the ground Lula turned and kicked his head like a soccer ball, cracking his jaw and sending blood spurting from his mouth.

Lula pivoted to see a gagged Tammy being dragged into her house. She ran after her but as she approached felt her feet stop. She dropped to the ground and swung her leg out and around just in time to catch the ankles of a man who had been running behind her. He flipped forwards and she heard his wrist crack as he tried to buffer his fall. He rolled over and cried out in pain. She stepped in between his legs and as if completing a rainbow with a soccer ball twisted his leg with her feet. She heard his knee snap and bolted away as his cries became louder. How did she know to do that?

Tammy was in the house. Lula's feet automatically stopped at the door threshold. She crept around the side of the house and looked through the windows. A sharp ringing began in her ears. She scrunched her eyes shut and reached her hands out to the wall. Her arms and legs tensed up. Lula slipped. Her shoes slipped off her feet. The cool cement of the house's exterior filled her senses. She could smell years of rain and mud in the wall as she felt it fly beneath her.

Her eyes opened and she realized she was on the roof. "Holy fuck," she breathed. Lula bent low and crept to the edge of the tilted tin roof as slowly as possible. She craned her neck over the edge and saw a man staring at her shoes. He looked out in the woods and just as he began to look up she yanked her head back and kept flat down on the hot metal. Her the pads of her palms and feet stung at the heat of the tin roof.

Lula's breath slowed down. She had to think. She saw white as her body flew to the left and a bullet ripped through the roof to her right. They could hear her feet on the roof. She bounced around the roof but the bullets kept coming a half-second behind her position. Her eyes suddenly opened and saw crystal clear the tree with its large overhang three feet from the roof's edge.

Running to the edge of the roof Lula threw her hands out and felt sliver webbing shoot out from her hands. It spun into the tree limbs and thrusting her hands behind her Lula felt her body fly towards the tree's center. She realized too late that she had no landing plan. Her face smashed into the hard body of the tree with her body following suit. She groaned lowly into the tree and reaching to her face felt warm blood on her fingertips.

The crack of bullets caught her attention once again. She threw her hands up and yanked herself up the tree. Alert, her eyes searched for the danger she felt rumbling in her chest. It was quiet outside the house, but she knew inside Tammy was being held hostage. If she wasn't dead Lula knew she'd hear her screams of torture soon.

Lula could smell someone approaching. Her eyes snapped shut and she located the smell by the car. Her eyes opened and she saw a woman in a lab coat standing by the car looking inside. Two men followed her, guns in hand. The woman reached into Lula's open door and retracted with a fist-full of webbing. She held it up into the light and it twinkled. She said something to one of the men and he spoke into an earpiece. A moment later Alberto emerged from the house.

A sharp pang hit Lula's chest. What was Alberto doing? He extended his hands with an open plastic bag and the woman dropped the webbing into the baggy. No, no he wouldn't…The woman reached back into the car to pull more out. She was having trouble pulling off the samples primarily clinging to the console.

Lula knew she had only this moment. Looking around she spotted a thick branch behind the house. Imagining the trust she let loose a thick spool of webbing, bringing her two hands together, spinning the fibers. The spool hit the tree and she flew from her perch down to the other tree. Again, she forgot a landing plan and releasing one hand from the spool thrust out a hand to grab a closer but smaller branch. It bent under her weight but slowed her just enough. She let go and with both arms caught the initial branch. Small branches ripped into her skin and she muffled a moan. At least it was better than last time.

She dropped down from the tree behind its large trunk and snuck up to the back patio fence. Pressing her face up to one of the broken slats and through the large sliding door could see Tammy tied to a chair. One man stood by her but was vastly focused on the front door. Lula closed her eyes and listened to her other senses. It was quiet. This was her only moment.

Lula reached up and grabbed the top of the fence. She flung herself over the top light as a lemur and yanked at the back door. It was locked. The watch-dog-man heard her and whipped around. He immediately shot at her shattering the glass door. Fuck, fuck fuck. Without choosing to, she found herself flying through the falling glass. She felt small incisions cover her body and tucked her head as she rolled heels over head. She popped up and swung her left hand into the gunman's, sending his weapon flying and then threw a right hook into his face.

For a moment that lasted roughly forever, Lula felt her senses bombarded. Her ears filled with the sounds of scuttling so loud that her eyes slammed shut. She could smell them. Everywhere. Just like she had always told him they were. But now for the first time, she could see exactly where they were, not through sight, but from their smell and sounds as they ran up and around the walls. Like ghosts, they hid within the walls, waiting for their moment to emerge.

The scuttling stopped as footsteps filled her ears. She jumped behind Tammy and with unprecedented strength tore the rope in two. She yanked Tammy onto her feet and facing her whispered "run around the back, get in the car and drive," before throwing her through what was the door. Tammy paused and stared at Lula as a man's shadow appeared in the door frame. "Go!" Lula shouted and ducked rightwards into her bedroom.

Lula slammed the door behind her and heard it rebound off someone, but the gesture gave her just enough time to make it into the bathroom and close and lock that door. Lula flung open the window and then tore off her shirt, bounded up the wall and gripped her hands, feet and back to the ceiling. A smattering of bullets exploded through the door until she heard shouts. Familiar shouts.

"Stop shooting you fucking idiot." The voice growled. "What good is it if she's dead? Now go in and bring her out alive and unmaimed. You're a mammoth, the task shouldn't be difficult for you."

A foot drove the door inwards and the man stood in the entrance of the bathroom. Slowly he entered the room and picked her shirt up off the ground. He stared out the window a minute and then turned around and held the shirt out like an offering. "I think she went out the window."

A pause followed.

"Lorenzo, go outside and look for her."

Given that they wanted her alive, Lula believed she had the opportunity to take a risk. She released her legs from the ceiling and wrapped them around the neck of the man still holding her shirt. She flung him off balance backwards into the wall and as he stumbled upright in a dazed state she drove her foot into his jaw, knocking him out cold.

"Lorenzo! Return" She heard his voice call out.

Lula dropped from the ceiling and through the busted up door frame of their bathroom stared at Alberto. His eyes were cold. The woman in the lab coat stood next to him and upon seeing Lula's face shrieked. Lula smirked and shot a small amount of webbing onto the woman's face.

"Dear, be nice to her."

Lula's face contorted in anger and she blasted webbing from her fingertips across the entirety of the door frame. Then she quietly scampered out the window and around the house, just in time to catch Alberto's henchman running back towards the patio.

She shot a string of webbing around his feet and yanked them out from under him. She drilled her foot into his stomach and quickly pawing and rolling him across the ground spun him into a cocoon, leaving his nose free for breathing.

A slow clap yanked Lula's head upwards. Alberto stood between the broken boards of their patio fence. "Very impressive dear. You're much more powerful much more quickly than the others ever were."

Lula took a step back and glared at Alberto. "What do you mean 'the others'?"

"You are not the first person to be bitten like this. Didn't my mother ever tell you the tale of the 'Arachnid Prince'? Very popular with her generation. Considered an old legend by most, but the funny thing about legends is they usually hold some grain of truth, and I was just crazy enough to believe it."

Alberto stopped leaning on the fence and turning around pulled up a chair for himself. He sat down and propped his feet up on another chair, completely at ease.

"That story is what pushed me through my biology major. It's what drove me to study practical uses of Eastern medicine, hoping signs of that chromosome altering power would manifest itself somewhere. And then finally, I heard about a very special case here. And then another, and then another. In fact, there have been many incidents of arachna-sapiens. Some strain of spider getting especially ferocious."

"You moved us here for…for…this…" Lula looked down at herself in horror.

"Yes, and it's both pitiful and appalling that you thought I moved us here so I could go running into the woods looking for bugs. All those late nights or weekends I ran away saying I was going to pick up a new specimen, and you actually believed me. Truly miraculous. Well, just as my mother always said: 'those who believe truly, are truly disappointed."

Lula looked down. A year of disappointments stung her eyes. "We've been together so much longer than…than all this." She waved her hand across her body, the home they'd barely built together torn apart so quickly.

"I'm sorry. I have to take you now."

She looked up, eyes burning. Alberto's head cocked backwards and he took a small step back. Then a malicious smile came over him. "You are unique."

In the intact glass panel behind him. She only believed her reflection because of his reaction, but there they were, two red hot orbs burning where her eyes once were. She had to fight the urge to jump back herself. This is who you are now. She snapped her gaze back onto Alberto and with a smile to match his own she shot webbing at his face.

His muffled cry came out through the webbing and she blew him a kiss as she jogged away from the home and into the woods. Carefully, she crept through the woods to Señora Ines' home. Alberto never knew her well enough to guess that's where she would go, or that she'd even spent time there at all. He never listened when she told him about the eggs or the soap or even the dairy she brought home. He never listened at all.

Lula meant to creep up to the back of the house, but she heard a loud shout in Spanish and whipped around to see Señor Ines standing there. He was yelling at her so loudly she feared Alberto would hear and catch on to her location. She ran up to him and putting her fingers to her lips shushed him in as pleading a tone as possible. But he wouldn't quiet down and kept yelling at her and making the sign of the cross and spitting at her feet until a louder voice shouted back at him in Spanish, and looking over his shoulder Lula saw Señora Ines standing on their back stoop, waving her in.

Jogging over Lula saw Señora Ines's fear. It had been a week of this misery and yet Lula couldn't remember her eyes were by all standards demonic. But unlike her husband, Señora Ines didn't begin shouting our blessing or spitting, she reached down and pushed Lula's chin up with her finger. She gazed into Lula's eyes and clucked her tongue, shaking her head back and forth. She motioned Lula in and called out to Alma.

Sitting at the kitchen table, Lula cupped the warm tea in her hands. Her interior felt so cold. She thanked Alma for the tea, and the two of them stared at her for a minute. Señora Ines said something so softly Lula wasn't sure she'd heard her speak until Alma translated it.

"We are sad this happen to you."

More muttering. "We feel afear this happen to you."

More muttering. "And we are sad we no know a…como se dice, una solution." Lula nodded.

It took a moment for Lula to understand why they weren't afraid, but suddenly it all started to click. "Alma, do you know the story of…of…some Prince or something that was like this?"

Alma nodded, looking at her mother. She muttered something in Spanish. Señora Ines stared at Alma a moment and leaning back said "Bueno. Passa." Motioning her hand out across the table.

The story of the Prince, as Lula understood it, was that of an ancient Argentinian tribal prince who in a time no one remembered, decided his tribe needed to move farther out into the jungle to avoid the foreigners taking over the land. They went out into the jungle and built a new life, until one day one of the women, while foraging, was bitten by a spider no one recognized. She fell to the floor and did not wake up for three days. When she did awake her eyes had turned to black stones, and when the tribal doctor saw he out of fear drove a spear through her heart.

Over the years, more people kept suffering the bites, and when a little boy was bitten, the mother, worried the doctor would kill him, kept him hidden. One day he reappeared from their hut and showed abilities like that of spiders. The Prince, seeing the little boy, decided he was too dangerous and set out to kill him. But when he dueled attacked the little boy, the boy wrapped him in a tight webbing and promised to release him only if the Prince promised to let him live.

In awe of these new skills, the Prince declared the little mutant boy a gift from the gods. He told the people to find the spider that had bitten the boy, and beginning with himself, having it bite people in the tribe. He would form an army of these mutants and take back the land they had fled.

After being bitten though, the tribe surrounded him, convinced he would bring the wrath of the gods upon them with his new plan. They tried to bring him down, but with his new skills, so far superior than theirs, he outfought them. He left his attackers tied up to various trees and huts and posts, and finding the little boy hiding in his hut, took him and ran away from the village, never to be seen again. But to that day, the villagers of Argentinian forests kept watch for his return with the mutant army he intended to build.

Lula looked down at her hands. "My boyfriend, I think he wants to build an army, like the Prince."

Alma nodded. "We know he is scientist…and those scientist want you. They take from our town."

Lula stared at Alma disbelievingly. Surely not. "He…they…have already taken people from the village?"

Alma nodded. The others, he had mentioned them. Lula buried her head in her hands. She looked back up at Alma and put her hands out to the side. "I don't know what to do."

"Duerma aqui." Señora Ines said, pointing to a room off the kitchen. The world outside had slowly darkened, and Lula didn't know where to go.

It occurred to Lula the family might want to kill her, or worse capture her and hand her over to Alberto. For all her new skills she was still human, and she couldn't sleep in a tree like a spider. She wanted a bed, she wanted her bed, the bed that existed a week ago, the bed back home in Seattle, the bed back home on the prairie. But beggars only choose between worse and worst, so she would take the chance that they might want to murder her. Lula nodded woefully and slumped deep into the chair.

Señora Ines stood and removed a pot from the oven. The smell filled the room and enchanted Lula who watched in amazement as Señora Ines extracted rib after rib after rib from the pot and portioned them equally onto four plates. She then carefully ladled out a broth into four different bowls. Whatever Señora Ines had made drove Lula mad, and she stared at it mouth open. Señor Ines walked in just as she was placing them down on the table. He sat down at the chair and immediately pressed his palms together in prayer. Señora Ines and Alma did the same, and Lula followed suit.

"Nuestro padre gracias por todo los regalos de vida…" Lula closed her eyes and awoke to her head slipping off the side of her connected hands. Señor Ines finished his prayer. They each tore into their share of meat, pulling apart the bread Señora had placed in the center of the table and dipping it into the bowls of beef broth on the side. The food disappeared before Lula had eaten her fill. This week and day had completely drained her. Seeing Lula's drooping eyes, Señora Ines began shooing Lula into the bedroom, where she lay down on her bed and fell asleep.

A trembling in Lula's chest awoke her. It was dark out still and she couldn't see or hear anything. She closed her eyes hoping her hearing would tell her what she couldn't see. It was to her left, whatever the evil entity was. Outside the house, through the wall, a warmth, but something to fear. And then she knew.

Without thinking she dropped to the ground and rolled under the bed. A scratching at the window told her someone was trying to get in. Then the sound of a latch lifting and the quiet shuffle of the window rolling up. Feet touched the ground. Lula recognized those black shoes. Alberto was in the house. She closed her eyes and listened: a small, quiet beeping, getting faster and faster. Was he tracking her?

Lula kept her eyes shut tight and tried to decipher if he was alone or not. She couldn't hear any other bodies or voices, heartbeats or breathing. She knew it wouldn't take him another second to look under the bed and find her. She shifted slightly further back to the wall and pressed her back up against it. In one swift motion she hit Alberto's ankles with webbing and yanked as hard as she could downwards. He hit the ground with a thud. She scampered out from under the bed and over his body as quickly as possible. She punched his crotch as she floated over him and then hit him twice in the face. She webbed his hands together and his mouth shut, and before he could even attempt getting up she grabbed his tracker and slipped out of the window. He absolutely would not find her.

Chapter 4: Your Heroine Gets the Hell Out

And Washed the Spider Out

Wind whipped Lula's face as she drove down the lane. She could smell dirt and rocks and soot and impending rain. It was tempting to close her eyes and let smells lead her, but no matter how good she became, she didn't think driving would ever be the place to let smell be her primary guide.

Besides, Alberto's car smelled like him, and if she closed her eyes she would see him. The way he smiled at her in bed, the way he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, his twinkling eyes and big hands that each caressed an entire ass cheek. He was stunning, and charming, and wonderful.

He was also the devil.

Her eyes closed involuntarily. There he was. And then came a tear.

"I'm moving to Argentina."

Her mother hung up the phone on her. She wouldn't answer for three days. She had already moved to Seattle and only came home for the holidays. She had already forsaken the life they had built for the family on the prairie. And now with her un-American boyfriend she was moving out to Argentina, to what? Be his kept woman. Her mother and father had always been a unit, but there was no doubt in anyone's eyes that if he left she would be just fine. What about her daughter? Was she just some high-achieving man's arm candy?

She drove sixteen hours home her final two weeks in the U.S. Her mother had slammed the door in her face. Lula yelled through the wood panels that it was temporary. Everything would be fine. She was the daughter she had raised. She would come home and get back to life as they'd foreseen it.

Now…

Lula gripped the wheel tightly as tears forced themselves out of her eyes. Fucking bull shit. How could these freak-show-eyes even produce tears? Did spiders cry?

She wondered if he would find her. If he would call the police and suddenly a squadron of cars would be behind her car chasing her down. They'd surround her and pull out their guns. Even with her skills, how could she escape that? And then they'd see what she was, and either shoot her dead from fear or send her to some lab where they could tear her apart piece by piece until they understood every atom of her body.

She got so nervous her arms began to shake, and the car shuttered back and forth. Lula pulled the car off the road, far enough that cars coming down the road wouldn't see her. She jumped out and with her wrench-like fingers unscrewed the bolts on the license plates. She opened the trunk and inside, kept solely for her own sentimental reasons, were the two American license plates she swore she would get put back on his car the minute they returned to the U.S.

Running back around she screwed in the American license plates. Let them find her now. Or what if he was smart enough to know she was smart enough to do that and so would tell the police the American license plates because he was smart enough to remember them.

Lula shook her head. No. He wasn't nearly as smart as all his degrees and jobs suggested. He was a dipshit, and she was going to prove it.

The ride wasn't that long. Less than 90 minutes. Her instincts felt tight, fast, strong. She understood the purr of the engine and curve of the tires like never before. The ground spoke to her as she glided down the road.

Lula parked the car a mile away from the hospital and jogged over to the emergency entrance. She ran up to the fifth floor and couldn't believe her luck, Doctor Torres, right there, standing over the desk talking to a nurse. She wanted to bury her head into his chest. She walked down the hall and paused five feet from him.

The nurse looked up, shrieked and cried out "Diablo!" She stood and in a hurry reached for the phone while trying to cross herself over and over, spitting all over the counter. Lula ignored her. Doctor Torres turned and seeing Lula gave a small wry smile and reached his hand down to hang up the phone. "Tranquila." He told the nurse. Wide-eyed she slowly backed away and when she reached the opposite side of the desk turned and ran around the corner out of sight.

"Apologies," Doctor Torres said, smiling at Lula.

Lula smiled back. "It's my fault. You think I'd start wearing sunglasses by now."

"I think that'd be wise." He nodded.

"I need help." She said.

"Angry villagers with torches and pitch forks?"

Lula laughed. "Kinda yeah!" She said jubilantly. Then slowly she shook her head and running her hand through her mangled, greasy, dirt-filled hair said "my boyfriend tried to capture me so he could study me."

"Wait what?"

"He hasn't been studying bugs, he's been studying people like me. Going into the jungle to capture people, bring them to a lab and study them. And I loved him. I trusted him." She shook her head.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Me too." She inhaled a shaky, uneven breath. "This week really sucks." Her breath grew shakier, and slumping to the ground she buried her head in her hands. Doctor Torres' hand softly encompassed her shoulder. He said nothing, but just left his hand there, and for the first time in a long time, she felt heard. "And…and…and…" she bumbled, "I don't know where Tammy is. They tried to kill her."

Doctor Torres still said nothing. She let the final sobs out of her body, sucked in air hard, and held it close to her chest. She lifted her head and found him staring at her, waiting for her eyes. "I look like a freak." She muttered, seeing the reflection of her mono-color orbs in his eyes.

"You know what's rather amazing, is that when you first arrived, your eyes were jet black. Now, they look almost blue, like the sky right after the colors of sunset have disappeared."

Lula's heart jumped. She fussed with her hands and found herself speaking rapidly. "When I was mad, back when they jumped us at the house, they turned bright red. I mean bright red. I honest to God think some people might be right: I might be a demon."

Doctor Torres laughed. "No, but you are a mutant and one no one understands. But maybe it's like life in general, only you can truly understand yourself. Only you can truly understand your mutation."

Lula nodded. They sat there, connected for a moment.

"I need to find Tammy."

"Call her."

The answer was startlingly simple. Of course: Tammy had bought an international plan. Lula rummaged around in her pocket, found her phone barely alive, and called Tammy. Barely a full ring had gone through by the time Tammy picked up.

"Lula?" She sounded afraid.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm at the hospital."

"Oh God are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But where are you? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm at a hotel. I'll send you my location. Please come over. I was so worried about you. I'm so sorry I left I can't believe I did that I should have stayed–"

"Tammy. Don't. You know you shouldn't have. There was nothing you could do. I'm coming over. Send your location."

Lula hung up the phone and looked at Doctor Torres. He stared back into her eyes and reached for her hand. The energy felt explosive. She sat with electricity pulsing from her hands through her forearms for what felt like a short forever. She sighed and looked at her lap. "How do I know you're not just being nice to me so you can turn me in? Get your reward for finding one of the Arachnid Prince's lost children."

Doctor Torres smiled. "Who told you about the Arachnid Prince?"

"Alberto. And then my neighbor actually told me the story. I never thought Alberto would find me there, but he had this." She reached into her pocket, having forgotten the tracker was there. She held it uncertainly, then began flipping it around in her hands until she found the power button. Turning it on, it immediately began beeping. She sighed and tossed it into Doctor Torres' lap. She stood and walked away.

"See, as I walk away, the beeping will chill out a little." She kept walking. "But when I come back…" She looked behind her, puzzled. She was almost down the long hallway, Doctor Torres had become so small, but crystal clear, she could hear the beeping going off just as frequently. Doctor Torres was staring down at the machine, cradling it in his palms like a baby. His face looked forlorn.

Lula began walking back towards Doctor Torres. His chin popped up and he caught her eye. His lips and eyes were soft, as if all drooping downwards. She almost fell to her knees, desperate to hold his face, cradle his head, assure him it would be all right. That she understood.

"You're…" she said, slowly kneeling back down to sit on her feet, facing him dead on. He nodded. "But you said…" she exhaled, "nothing. You said absolutely nothing." He nodded, shrugged. She fell off her feet and to the side. Angry. What a fucking dick. All men: dicks. She snapped her gaze back on him, ready to skewer him. Ready to tidy him up into a ball of webbing, but she no longer knew if she'd win that fight.

"It happened when I was really young. Ten. I was here visiting my grandparents with my family, and my brother and I went playing in the woods. It was a village more north of here, but not too different than where you were staying. Anyways…I put my hand in a hole, you're never supposed to do that. And deep in that hole was a spider, apparently." He raised his right hand, and on the inside of his pointer finger was a brown spot, the color of the spider that had bitten her, the color of her nipple. She shook her head in disbelief. She'd missed it.

"I don't know. I'm not like you though. You're incredible, and different. I'm not particularly strong, I don't have your eyes obviously, I can't shoot webbing. I just, I can scale walls. I figured that out early and as a little boy it's awesome. But eventually I realized I had to just play it off as being really good at cool tricks. You ever hear of parkour? Yeah, I started that. A couple YouTube videos of me acting like a braggy little shit and a national phenomenon begins." He shook his head with a little smile. "It was nice to feel like superman."

"But you're an arachno."

Doctor Torres gave a loud "Ha!" and an appreciative nod. "I don't know why you're so different, but I am not surprised that your boyfriend wants to study you. I'm not sure you understand just how unusual you are. I've seen a handful of patients bitten by this spider, the rate is higher than anyone is talking about."

"As far as I knew the rate was nothing. Since when are arachnos real?"

"Who knows. The Marvel comic in was written after Stan Lee took a trip to Argentina. I don't know if Stan Lee even believed what he saw but he definitely saw something. You have to understand though that of all the cases I've seen, you're the only one that actually has the comic book capabilities."

Lula sighed. "Fuck that."

Doctor Torres cocked his head back in surprise, trying to see her face better. "What?"

"Fuck that. I don't want to be that special. I'm not that special for one thing. Nor do I want to be. I want to just have a decent life with a decent boyfriend whom I marry and go back to the U.S. to pursue my career in business management. I do not want to have to wonder if I'm accidentally going to punch someone in the face because they got too close or shoot webbing just because I'm angry or wonder if I won't be able to have a child – or normal child – and even if I do what if I can't breast feed it because all that will come out of this nipple will be like, more webbing or something. People don't want superpowers, they want heightened abilities, like you have."

"I don't know," Doctor Torres said with a sly smile. "Think of all the fun you could have flying around…or in bed…"

Lula's jaw dropped open, then she smiled and looked down at her lap. "I've got to get to Tammy's."

"I can take you." Doctor Torres offered, jumping to his feet and holding out his hand. She wished he hadn't left her side so quickly.

"You don't have to stay and finish out your shift?"

"No, It ended a while ago. I was just doing some last bits of paperwork. Come on, let's get you to your friend."

Doctor Torres' car was a sleek BMW with leather seats that conformed to your body as the engine purred on. He turned on alternative rock from the U.S. and hummed along to a couple songs. Lula held up her phone in his vision and helped read out the GPS instructions as they came along, and as the GPS lady did as well.

He drove quickly. Faster than most, but without any false moves. She wondered if his driving was the result of familiarity with the city or heightened senses. Then she realized how silly it was to just wonder and not ask. He was her only life-line. Her only chance of understanding even a little bit about what was happening to her. So she asked. The answer was as she surmised: a healthy mixture of familiarity and spidysenses.

Tammy opened the door immediately after Lula's knuckles connected with it. She reached out and grabbed Lula, holding her close to her body, suffocating Lula slightly in her bosom. Doctor Torres gave a polite throat clear to indicate his presence, and Tammy simply called for him to enter, not letting go of Lula.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so fucking sorry." She cooed into Lula's hair. "I can't believe I left you like that, when you needed me most."

"It's fine." As sensitively as possible, Lula pried herself out from Tammy's grasp so she could face her. "I really was fine. Apparently the new skills are quite good, especially once I was scared. It's like a whole new zone of focus not even kids doped on Adderall could know."

"But there were so many of them and they had guns."

"Oh, yeah, Alberto told them not to shoot me. He wants me alive so he can run tests on me. He's so dreamy. Best boyfriend ever." Lula sneered sarcastically. Tammy laughed and threw her arms around Lula again.

"We need to get you home."

"I don't have my passport. It's at the house."

Tammy and Doctor Torres looked at each other. "So we'll have to get you a new one. We'll call the embassy here, reissue you a passport, and get you home. Easy peasy." Tammy slapped her hands against each other for emphasis.

"Okay, but honestly, right now, I really just want to sleep." Lula said, her eyes wide.

Tammy nodded and indicated to the shower. "Why not freshen up first."

Lula practically ran into the bathroom. This would be her first full shower since having been bitten. She turned on the water and waited impatiently for it to turn ripping hot and then stepped into the stream. The heat of the water stung and soothed. She threw her head back into it and felt the stress and fatigue roll off her as she cleaned the hair grease and grit and grime from her body.

When Lula exited from the bathroom, Doctor Torres was asleep on the bedroom suite's couch, and Tammy was curled up in bed. Lula pulled on a pair of Tammy's shorts and a t-shirt and slipped into bed beside her. She tucked her head into the warmth of Tammy's soft stomach. Tammy gently stroked Lula's hair and then pushed her head aside and slid down so she was nose to nose with Lula.

"Quick question: how did Doctor Torres end up here?" Tammy whispered.

"I panicked and went back to the hospital after I stole Alberto's car and drove to the city."

"You stole Alberto's car?"

"Yes. But don't worry I switched out the license plates and parked it a mile or so away from the hospital so I shouldn't be traced to the hospital."

"But, Lula, just after everything that's happened, how can you be sure to trust him. I mean what if he just wants to turn you in for testing too?"

"I don't think he would."

"Right, you think but you don't know. Just like at the end of the day you didn't know Alberto would–"

"Please." Lula interjected. "Don't bring up the Alberto thing. He just…I never thought he would…he wasn't great to me but that's not the same thing. What he did just now was so horrible and I'll never be able to understand."

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry Lula." Tammy stroked her hair again.

"Besides, I found out at the hospital that Doctor Torres is an arachno."

"What? What do you mean? No he's not, he looks fine."

"Alberto used a tracker to find out where I had hidden for the night after I ran away from the house–"

"Where had you hidden?"

"Señora Ines'. She also told me the story of the Arachnid Prince. I'll tell it to you in a second, just wait. But he found me using this tracker that beeps like a treasure finder–"

"A treasure finder?"

"The thing, to find treasure with. The thing, the stick, the treasure finder."

"A metal detector?"

"Yeah that!"

"You forgot that word?"

"Just…Tammy! Okay so he found me using a tracker and I tried demonstrating to Doctor Torres that when I walk away from the detector it slows beeps, whatever, only it never slowed down. Apparently he was bitten by this same spider as a kid."

"I don't know Lula. I mean he's dreamy, and what a fucking story if you two could have arachno-babies together, but it's all just so convenient. And he really doesn't look like you or anything. And why's he a doctor, so he can find more arachnos as they show up like you did and then send them out for testing or create an army?"

"I would like to create an army." Doctor Torres' voice cut through the dark crystal clear. "But I don't really see that in my future."

Lula and Tammy clutched hands, tightly, not moving, hoping they had imagined what just happened.

"By the way, Lula, I also have great hearing. I should have said that earlier."

Lula released Tammy's hand and came out from under the covers. Tammy followed suit but Lula gently pushed her back against the bed frame and crouched up on top of the bed sheets. She couldn't exactly see Doctor Torres, but between vision and smell she knew exactly where his body was, where his arms were crossed around his body, and one leg crossed in front of the over as he leaned on the door frame like a babe-show. His posture and pulse were relaxed, but she waited for any hint of a change.

"I'm not going to take you to a lab for testing or anything. I did become a doctor because the small changes in my body fascinated me, and I wanted to understand our biology better. I actually have and MD-PhD. The PhD is in genetics. But, I just ended up liking practice more, and I really couldn't introduce the crazy arachnos stuff in the U.S. I have no idea how Alberto has done it here."

MD-PhD. Fuck this guy. No one was that perfect.

"I can leave if it would make you two feel better."

He always said the right thing.

"Actually, maybe if you could just come back in the morning. Just so everyone is more comfortable. I'm sorry, that's my oversight." Lula said, keeping one hand on Tammy's leg, as if to communicate.

"Yeah, of course. I'll see you two in the morning." Doctor Torres grabbed his things and left the room, the door shutting quietly behind him. Lula closed her eyes and let her senses take over, but she couldn't feel him anywhere. He really had gone.

She slumped back into the bed, shaking. She reached for Tammy's hand and gripped it tightly. It was hard to breathe. Eventually, still sitting up, she fell asleep.

Chapter 5: Your Heroine Makes a Run for It

Out Came the Sun

Sunlight poked through the hotel curtains. Lula's stomach rumbled painfully. She crawled out of bed and wobbled to the bathroom. She felt parched, but her stomach was so empty she couldn't even drink water.

Tammy had felt Lula stir and pulled herself upright in bed, ruffling her hair and flipping through her phone. When Lula came out of the bathroom Tammy gave a small involuntary gasp.

"What?"

"The news. It's just, they're reporting about a murder in the village, at your home. This is a picture of your home right?"

Lula arrived at Tammy's side in one step and snatched the phone. There it was, the little home, a dead body in front, apparently a dead body in the living room. Gun wounds. No webbing anywhere. A photo of the shattered back door and a body impaled on glass. They were all men in black. The woman had been spared apparently. Lula scrolled down. At the bottom of the page: her photo.

The photo was cropped. In it her face was serious, angry looking, as murderers should be. It was from St. Patrick's Day two years previous. They had been drinking on the street, she was imitating the cop that had pulled them aside and told them to stop drinking in public. Tammy had taken the photo. Her boyfriend before Alberto had been to her left, laughing, a tallboy in his hand. This photo only existed in her iCloud.

"He's hacked into my accounts." Lula shook her head. Immediately she ran to her phone and opened up her email. The inbox filled with the usual spam she just hadn't unsubscribed from yet. She tapped open the sent box. Nothing. She bit her lip. Tammy tried piping up but Lula put up her finger. She opened her trash. There it was. Subtle from the first line but something she surely hadn't sent. An email to Tammy, asking her for help. She'd done something terrible. Get her out of the country. Etc.

"He's implicated you." Lula said. She handed her phone over to Tammy.

Tammy's eyes scanned the email. Her brow furrowed. She dropped the phone by her side and stared at the small ray of light streaming through the window. They spent a moment in silence. "He doesn't want in you jail." Tammy finally broke the spell. "He just wants you cornered. He wants other people to find you for him."

Lula nodded.

"Lula, I need to know, though. Did you…"

"No. I didn't kill anyone. I don't think. I mean I knocked some people out pretty badly but look they all have gun wounds. I never even touched a gun. There's no weapon with my fingerprints…" Lula's thoughts moved on past reassuring her friend. "But now there's definitely no returning for my passport, it's a crime scene."

"Or now is the only time to return."

Lula's head snapped up. "What?"

"Think about it: he won't be expecting you to return. He's trying to pin you down, not draw you in."

"You're right. Fuck. Fuck." Lula bit her lip. "But say I do get my passport back, it won't even do me any good with me looking like some demon-freak and now being a murder suspect."

"People's appearances change, and we can get you some 'prescription' light blocking glasses. The passport is still valid. For the murder suspect thing I think we're just going to have to get to the embassy."

"Yeah, you're right."

Tammy nodded. "I still have time before my face is plastered everywhere too. I'll run out, get us some supplies and be right back."

"Supplies?"

"We can't be recognizable walking around. I'll be right back." Tammy grabbed her hotel key, wallet and phone and jetted out the door. Lula stared at the direction of the quiet click close.

Then she began screaming. A loud, irreverent, blood curdling scream. She turned to the side and drove her fist through the wall. The sight of her fist disappearing into a wall sobered her up quickly. She stopped, staring at her cut off wrist. With caution, she retracted her fist. It had a little blood on it, but already the cuts were closing up. Lula, did you know that from the minute we are born we begin dying?

A sharp exhale hit her teeth. How long had she been holding her breath? She looked at the broken wall. That would cost money she didn't have. She turned and fell backwards onto the bed, arms over her head.

"You're not going to be working?"

"No, Mom."

"That's not smart."

"Mom it's fine. It's just for the first month, while we transition. Someone needs to be in charge of getting the apartment together."

"It's an apartment, not the Taj Mahal dear. It takes two days tops to unload. Not a month. Besides why are you quitting your job? You have a good job."

"It's not making us happy."

"Us?" Her mother's voice shook over the phone. "I can't believe I'm hearing this." Her voice was suddenly distant and she clearly was speaking to Lula's father. Something somewhat rude. There was a muffled ruffle Lula knew all too well.

"Lula, don't quit your job." Her father's voice boomed down the phone.

"Dad, I know you guys are worried–"

"Lula." The tone of his voice stopped her dead. "This one isn't going to last. Move in, drag it out to the final moment, but don't lose yourself in the process. Keep your job." Then his face palpably drifted away from the phone. She wanted to reach out, to wrap herself up in his midsection and whisper "Daddy" like a little girl. How did he know?

He died before he saw Lula leave that rat bastard. Lula stared at the ugly ceiling of the hotel. She was glad he wouldn't see her now. Look how far she'd fallen from the girl he raised. She supposed, though, that he would embrace her mutation. She was turning into a stronger woman than she'd ever been, and if she could ever get home, it would be her greatest show of self-sufficiency.

Lula closed her eyes and remembered him. She let memory after memory of him pass through her mind. Snow shoeing up mountains, training foals, roasting entire pigs in pits of coal, reading at night, reciting poetry, running through the prairie with abandon, not a care in the world, not even of snakes or spiders.

The click of the hotel door awoke Lula.

"I'm back!" Tammy called out. "Sorry that took me so long but just so many things occurred to me while I was out, but don't worry your new look is going to be amazing."

"My new look?"

"I think it's time we embrace what's happening." Tammy said, hands on her hips. "You can either mope about what's happening or create the best version of it. And frankly I think it should be the latter. It's time for you to create your superhero image."

"What? Tammy, no. I'm not a superhero. I'm a fucking mutant that for all I know can't even get laid anymore because that hole has fangs in it or something."

Tammy rolled her eyes. "Stop pouting. Embrace it! You're amazing! Now I really did not see everything you did but I saw a lot before I ran away like a little bitch and what you did to those guys was unprecedented. You're a superhero, and I'm forcing you to realize it. Now take off your shirt and come into the bathroom. We're starting with hair."

"No Tammy, no." Lula said shaking her head. But Tammy put up her hand and in a softer tone asked, "what would your mother say?"

Lula smiled. "Pouting is about as good as a limp dick."

"Yeah, she sure as hell scarred me the first time she said it. And the second, and third time. But fourth time it started to rub off on me." She smiled. "Let's go."

Staring into her soft reflection coming off one of the painting frames, Lula sighed. It was obvious already that things wouldn't be the same. She stared up at Tammy and hung out her hand limply. "Okay." Tammy squealed with excitement and led Lula into the bathroom.

Tammy, smart woman, had brought back breakfast as well. Lula barely avoided choking as she drove the bread and jam down her throat, head tilted backwards over the bathtub as Tammy sprayed and washed her hair. Periodically, drops of jam fell from the bread onto her clavicle or jugular, but she was so hungry she just smooshed it onto her finger and popped it between her lips.

The smell of the shampoo brought back memories of summers as a kid when she and Tammy would ride bikes to the only pool in town and stay in until their skin turned pruny and the light began to fade. The would jump out and roll up in towels, giggling, and in nothing but sweatshirts and bathing-suit bottoms ride all the way home. They'd jump in the shower at the same time, still wearing bathing suits, suds up with Pantene – the fancy shampoo – and run hot water down their heads until the chlorine kinks ran out.

The process took hours. Tammy wouldn't tell Lula what she was doing. Lula would have fussed but all she could think about was getting out of the country and back home. She needed that passport. She needed to look different. She needed money for a flight. She needed her mom.

As Lula's emotions turned darker, a soft knock came at the door. Tammy finished tugging Lula's hair back in the towel and went to the door. Lula heard the click of it open and muffled voices.

"Look who's back." Tammy said without much emphasis either way.

Doctor Torres walked in behind Tammy and smiled at Lula. Shocked, Lula crossed her two arms in front of her bare torso, mortified that Tammy would let him into the bathroom while she was just in her bra.

"Hi," she cooed softly. "Tammy." She glared and said through her teeth.

Tammy shrugged nonchalantly. "He's already seen your weird nipples Lula, I figured this wouldn't be that big a deal."

Lula gave an embarrassed laugh. Doctor Torres took the hint better than Tammy and went to wait in the bedroom. From the other room he asked what they were up to. Tammy insisted they were up to creating Lula's new superhero persona. Lula just kept glaring at her friend with each new embarrassing moment.

A couple hours of waiting for dye to sit, rinse out, adding bleech, rinsing out, adding color, and more waiting passed slowly. Somehow, conversation between the two rooms never ceased. And Tammy was helping keep it going, something Lula wasn't used to seeing from her. Especially given the cold kickout Doctor Torres had received from her the previous night.

While Tammy rinsed out Lula's hair, Doctor Torres insisted on going out to buy lunch. He took requests and discretely stepped out of the room. Tammy stood two feet in the bathtub over Lula's head as she ruffled her hair with a towel.

"I can't believe you let him in here while I didn't have my top on!" Lula burst out at Tammy the minute he'd left.

"Look, I don't really trust anyone here right now, but he's our only point of contact that hasn't tried to screw us over, so I figure we should keep playing nice with him. He clearly has a crush on you, that moment didn't hurt us, okay."

Lula's jaw dropped. "I'm not sure where to begin, so let's start with: don't prostitute me!"

"Don't overreact."

"Secondly, I just…I just…it's so embarrassing."

Tammy stopped rubbing Lula's head and a small smile came over her face. "You like him."

"Of course I like him." Lula snapped. "He's drop dead gorgeous and feels like a knight in shining armor compared to the man who just betrayed me. It's fucking classic. This whole thing is a giant stereotype of girl gets saved. Now I want to be very clear that I don't need saving from a man. I've got you. Hashtag girl power. But…he's very good looking." Lula purser lips, and with a giggle Tammy bent down and kissed her friend's forehead.

"Sit up on the toilet. I need to dry your hair."

Tammy had always been the feminine one of the two. Her mother had insisted on good grooming, and she took her mother's lessons and applied them three fold. Lula always assumed that Tammy only took on more because as they hit puberty and her baby fat didn't wear off, she found other ways to feel beautiful than the stick figure magazine approach. Their high school had ten boys in their class, and eighteen girls. Competition for any male attention was steep. But Tammy didn't worry: she acted. That had always been her approach. Don't worry, do. She beauty book after beauty book, ripped out a million perfume adds from Cosmo Girl and hung it on her wall, she studied the art of beauty, and mastered it.

Then one July day after that freshman year, Tammy dove into the town pool for their first swim of the season, and as her head popped out from the water saw bronzer in a ring around her body. She pulled herself from the pool and ran into the bathroom to see makeup and mascara dripping down her face like a Dali painting. She felt mad. It was the last summer day she wore makeup, but her confidence never faded.

Tammy fluffed Lula's hair, pulling on the ends, examining her work with a smile. "Never lost my touch." She winked at Lula, then her face fell slightly. "You're still so gorgeous, but I do miss your eyes. They were the softest brown in the whole world, almost mossy. Ren even says so. Those eyes got me through some tough shit." Tammy looked down and dropped her hands. "Sorry. We've just missed you so much."

"We?"

"Yeah, Ren and I loved every weekend day you spent just sitting on our couch. Really made it feel like home."

Lula nodded. Darnel had always made it their space her space. Ren was the nickname Lula had accidentally created one night after drinking a bottle and a half of wine herself. The nickname outlasted the lifespan of the video Tammy had taken of Lula shouting "Ren get out of the bathroom I need it!" while Darnel stood behind Lula smiling with a thumbs up at the camera.

Lula took Tammy's hands. "Thank you." Her voice shook slightly. "For whatever the fuck you did to me."

Tammy gave a little sniffle and laugh, nodding. She looked Lula in the eyes, and for a moment look confused.

"What?" Lula asked.

"It's, it's nothing, I just thought for a moment that the color of your eyes had shifted slightly, almost as if going back to their original brown." She shook her head. Probably just wishful thinking on my part.

A knock at the door made them jump. Tammy quickly wrangled Lula's hair back behind her head with a hair tie so she couldn't see it. "No looking!" She yelled over her shoulder. She ran around the corner towards the bedroom, ruffled through a plastic bag, and running past the bathroom towards the hotel door threw something at Lula through the door frame. "Put that on or be seen topless."

Lula yanked the shirt over her head as she heard the door click open. It was a black, short-sleeved turtleneck shirt. It hugged every part of her torso, and between the slimming effect of black and the taught fabric she realized how much weight she'd loss, and yet she'd never felt stronger. Muscle is denser than fat.

"Look at our superhero." Tammy beamed. Lula's head snapped up to see Doctor Torres staring at her.

Lula had been anxious to look in the mirror, but Doctor Torres eyes lighting up quelled that anxiety. She knew then and there she looked perfect. "Nicely done." He said with a small nod of approval. "And better yet, I wouldn't recognize you for the world," with that, he held up a newspaper with her face on it.

The crushing weight of this morning returned to Lula's chest. There it was, the primary reason for this makeover: her wanted post.

"I like the top especially. You look threatening."

"Thanks." Tammy beamed, but Lula's face softened with disappointment.

"I don't want to look like a threat for the rest of my life."

"You look like a fucking badass." Tammy interjected, voice hard. "Now look at yourself already! No more moping. Moping is for mops."

Lula laughed at this and stood up. It was another of her mother's phrases. Something originally said in a fit of frustration with her daughter that became a habitual way of cheering her daughter up. She approached the mirror with a bit of resolve. She already knew what her eyes looked like, and that had to be the biggest shock. Tammy stepped in behind her and whipping the hairband out from Lula's hair yelled "voila!"

Her previous belief had been wrong. Lula was absolutely floored by what she saw in the mirror before her. Her hair was jet black until the bottom third which Tammy had dyed bright red. On top of the black shirt, the red was a stark contrast. Her body, especially in the tight top, looked wiry, with veins running down the length of her forearm. She had never before had much muscular definition except in her legs from running, but now she looked like an exhibit for the human muscular system. She might have looked ill, especially given how pale she was, but something about that dark hair and red flame tips brought her visually back to life.

Jaw still open in shock, Lula ran her fingers through hair. It was coarser than before. She assumed from the eye-watering amounts of bleach Tammy had used.

"Et, la piece de resistance!" Tammy said joyfully, and from her pocket she extracted a soft mask that looked just like the ones the incredible wore, only bright red. "I was thinking, for convenience and such, you could do this." She quickly pulled Lula's hair into a high pony-tail, and tied the ends of the mask into the hair bands so everything stayed level and still. She tucked her chin over Lula's shoulder and staring at her in the mirror asked tentatively, "what do you think?"

Lula smiled. "I look like a fantasy. Ha!" She gave a little laugh at that. "I guess I'm just not sure I want to live looking fantastical every day of my life."

"Well, you don't have to wear this get-up or the eye mask everyday of course, just when you're fighting crime." Tammy suggested.

Lula whipped around to stare at Tammy. "Fighting crime?"

"Yeah…" Tammy's voice trailed off.

"Tammy I don't want to fight crime. I just want to get home and find some way to live a normal life with a desk job like I always intended. Or at last resort move back to the ranch, make my mother's dreams come true, and hide my mutant ass in the middle of nowhere. I do not want to fight crime. We have people for that. Police officers. And I chose not to be one of those."

Tammy nodded a bit sullenly. "Yeah, I'm sorry I shouldn't have assumed. But at least for getting you out of this country and back home, let's call it fighting crime." Tammy's smile was so wide and childlike that Lula couldn't deny her, so she nodded in consent.

"For what it's worth." Doctor Torres broke into the moment. "I think you look really incredible."

A blush spread through Lula's cheeks, turning them iron hot. It had been her lot in life to blush easily, but as a tan child no one noticed much. Now, at twenty-eight, porcelain white from years of hiding from the sun, and a week into the most physically draining experience of her life, a drop of blood under her cheeks radiated like a sonar system. But she was tired of feeling embarrassed and ashamed and down trodden this week, and she just received a glowing review from a gorgeous man. She looked up at Doctor Torres and smiled, "thank you."

"Okay, and just spit balling here," Tammy regained control of the moment. "But what if – even for just this week – you went by some cool superhero name, like 'Spiderwoman'?"

"There already is a Spiderwoman." Lula sighed.

"What?"

"Yeah. I mean you'd know that if you ever read the Marvel comic books like you promised you would a million times, but whatever." Lula teased.

"Ugh okay, okay." Tammy clicked her tongue thoughtfully and drummed her fingertips together. "Spider-lady?"

Lula tried not to laugh. "No." She said with a wry smile.

"How about Octa?" Doctor Torres tossed in. "As a play on the eight-legged attribute of spiders."

"Mm, no." Lula smiled again. "Given that by God's grace growing extra limbs was not part of this mutation, I think I won't emphasize any other horrible attribute I might have obtained."

"We could do something on your eyes then, but like in a positive way." Tammy insisted.

"Nope. Not that either." Lula sighed and looked in the mirror.

"What was that story we loved as kids, the one with the three spiders?"

"Anansi?" Lula and Tammy turned in surprise at Doctor Torres' quick response. "Good story. My mom used to read that to me before bed."

"Same." Lula answered slowly, with a smile. Don't fall for him. Just don't.

"Right," Tammy continued on. "You could be Anansi."

"I don't know. I studied the classics in high school, I feel like I should just go with 'Arachna', or something obvious like that."

"Or what about something cuter, like 'Arachnie'?" Tammy suggested.

"I like that." Lula nodded in appreciation. "But I don't know. It doesn't feel quite right. I'd rather not push it right now. Can we just eat the food Doctor Torres brought back?"

"Yeah, sounds good Tammy said."

"Also, please stop calling me Doctor Torres." Doctor Torres interjected. "We're not at the hospital. My name is Jaime, or Jamie in the U.S."

Lula nodded. "I think I'll stick with Jamie. My Spanish isn't even good enough to attempt your name."

Tammy shook her head. "It's fucking pathetic. You've been here five months your Spanish should be much better now."

Lula's jaw dropped. "I can't believe you just said that."

"I can't believe you can't say anything in Spanish."

The two girls laughed and followed Jamie out from the bathroom and into the sitting area where he neatly arranged the smorgasbord of food he had bought. They ate happily, chatting about nothing serious or mutant related. They spoke about the U.S., the foods they missed, the customs, the music – the conversation mostly run by Lula and Jamie and spurred on by Tammy. They discussed Thanksgiving plans, Christmas, so on and so forth. Lula asked about Tammy's wedding, if they had a date for it yet and when her friend was going to finally ask her to be her maid of honor.

Lula ate her fill, much more than she had been accustomed to wanting for many years. But for the past week she'd barely had time to eat and her appetite had only been growing. She couldn't get Doctor Torres' warning out of her head that perhaps these were all signs of a shorter life span bearing down on her, ticking, ticking, ticking away. Her biological clock was quickly being redefined. Or…what if it was a sign that food sources and nutrients she needed were quickly changing…?

Towards the end of the meal, Jamie stood up and went to use the restroom, Tammy cleaned up the supplies and different superhero accessories she had bought and scattered around the room, and Lula began picking up the cardboard and plastic remnants of lunch. As she straightened up from cramming everything into the tiny hotel trash bin, the open slit of the window curtain caught her eye. She slid open the curtain and stared at the view before her.

Neuquen stretched before her, a myriad of light-colored buildings interspersed with vibrant green trees and parks, and behind it all, mountains stretching up and away into the skyline, inviting tourists from around the world to stay in glamorous chalets and ski down the hills in style. She smiled. The city lived just like that of Jackson Hole, dependent on hoards of rich tourists who seasonally changed the social landscape of the town and surrounding areas. They were the necessary evil of their lives, and even her parents depended on that niche market to keep demand of local grass-fed beef high. The tourist pricing of beef kept the local pricing of their product affordable.

But the sentiments of locals towards tourists were not novel to either town. It was a phenomenon known to many cities with natural resource attractions. She could still hear her father grunting at the expensive cars that rolled in from the airport Hertz through their valley and up the hills to the chalets. But for all their family did not have, he never once said a disparaging or jealous comment towards those tourists.

One day, as a small child, Lula asked who all these people were, coming into their town, and after a moment her father answered, "you remember your lullaby, with the man waiting for his love to come back with the sun?" She nodded. "Well, those people go up to the top of the mountain because they've lost their loves, and they're so hopeful their loves will return with the sunlight that they go to the highest point, desperate for the first rays of light. But see, your mother and I, we have all the love in the world, especially now that we have you, so we stay down here in the valley." And he gruffly patted her head with his large bear-paw of a hand.

She turned around to Tammy and said, "I know what I want to be called."

Tammy stopped moving and stared in anticipation.

"I was named Lullaby. Well, I am still Lullaby, and now…now I'm some weird. And the spider-lullaby is Itsy Bitsy Spider. So from now on, I want to be called 'Bitsy'."

One of Tammy's eyebrows rose up as they both came together. Her confusion was obvious. "But, I'm sorry, it's just…it's not very…imposing. 'Bitsy', that is."

"No. It's not." Lula smiled. "It's diminutive, and gentle. But it's also resilient and hopeful. And frankly, I've spent my entire life letting people outside my family diminish me, make me seem small, but what none of those people saw – especially not the men I loved – was that I have never been small in my life. I am big, and strong, and I will not be kept down. So, from now on my superhero name is Bitsy, and starting tomorrow, we're going to go fuck some shit up."

Tammy walked over to Lula, placed her hand on her shoulder and nodded. "Okay. Let's do this." Eyes connected, they smiled, and turning their gaze on the city expanse, they sighed.

Tomorrow. Sunlight, sunlight…

Chapter 6: Your Heroine Heads to Her Hell

And Dried Up All the Rain

Lula's heart pounded in her ears as they walked through the hotel lobby. Surely someone would recognize her. But no one so much as glanced at them as they walked out the revolving doors to the parking lot.

Rather than draw more attention to herself with the mask Tammy had bought her, she chose the pair of sunglasses she had brought back. There were two pairs, actually. The ones she chose were large, round, glamour glasses that Tammy had clearly intended for herself. The others were thin and rectangular, reminiscent of the sunglasses worn in the Matrix. As Lula took the round ones out of Tammy's hands, she reminded her that even as she was trying to embrace these changes, she did not want to become Tammy's fantasy superhero.

The pop of the Jamie's car doors opening pulled a sigh of relief from Lula's lips. She slipped into the front seat and slumped down. He looked at her and laughed. "You're all right." He insisted, hitting his push-start button.

"One day," her father said beaming. "There are going to be cars that don't need keys to start. They're building them now. You have a key, but all you have to do is push a button. The key just lets the car know it's okay to start. Pretty amazing, huh?" He never got one of those cars.

Buildings steadily slipped by. There was no traffic on the road. Lula found herself wishing there were traffic, that there was something to slow them down. She felt rushed, nervous. She didn't really want to get there. Because she knew, deep down inside, that something bad waited for them there. It would not be a clean entry and exit. Not even close.

Lula tried to focus on the music. Jamie was playing some American favorites from when they were all younger. It felt good to hear a piece of home. Lula tapped along happily, staring out the window as they rolled down the highway.

They were all singing Backstreet Boys as Jamie edged up behind a black car. His voice dropped out from the chorus. Lula looked at him as his voice faded out. Jamie was checking his mirrors and he eased into the left lane to pass the black car. As he did, Jamie looked past Lula at the driver of the car. They connected eyes. A ringing noise filled Lula's ears. She closed her eyes and focused on singing the lyrics. Who was that other driver and why was Jamie staring at him? It wasn't your normal fly-by glance at the slowpoke holding you up. Don't let him in.

Jamie rolled back in front of the black car and sped up. Lula swallowed hard as the ringing began fading from her ears. She kept singing, but she worried he could hear the nervous change in her voice. She looked back out her window to recollect. The black car was disappearing behind them. Perhaps she'd misplaced the reason for the ringing in her ears.

Jamie reached down for his phone and handing it to Lula asked her if she could send a text message for him. "To Aña, please."

"Sure." Lula pulled up his messages.

"Just please let her know I'd like to get dinner tonight at the restaurant with the red roof."

Lula nodded. "That's funny, my house…" she trailed off as she typed out the message. Her heart began racing. She had to slow it down, worried he could hear it.

"What?"

Lula finished the message, and with a shaky thumb pressed send. "I was just thinking that my house out in the village has a red roof. Argentinians seem to love that. Colorful roofs. It's nice." Her teeth were practically chattering with fear. Could Tammy sense what was happening right now? "Who's Aña?"

"My girlfriend."

Lula and Tammy both turned their heads to stare at Jamie. Tammy leaned her head over the center console and barked "your what now?"

He smiled meekly. "I know I haven't mentioned her before. We're kind of new. I'm trying to take things slow after my previous relationship."

Lula nodded appreciatively. Tammy gave a little "hm" and slouched back into her seat. Lula sighed with relief, perhaps that was all her new instincts were telling her. The warning was of a man slipping away, a different type of threat than she was conjuring up in her head. No matter, her plan was to just get home. Home. Home. Home.

The minute she and Alberto landed in Argentina, she'd felt like Dorothy following the Tin Man. Big-eyed and scared, clutching onto her carry-on like it was Toto, trying to run away from her. She stared at all the directions in the airport and sighed. Spanish. There was English too, clearly enough tourists came through here to warrant the second language. But all the advertisements, the chatter around her, the shops, they were all in Spanish.

As they approached baggage claim, Lula pressed her hand into Alberto's, and he smiled at her then shook his hand free. "Have to be ready at any minute." He said. She nodded and looked down at the ground. Then he pulled out his cell phone and began texting. Bags rolled around on the track and Lula watched as their bags passed them. Alberto was still typing on his phone. He slipped it away, and as the bags came back around he looked confused.

"I didn't see these drop."

"They already passed us."

"You just let them go by and didn't even say anything, or at least try grabbing them yourself? This isn't like the U.S., Lula. I don't want people stealing our shit. I can't believe you." He growled as he reached down and gruffly yanked the bags off the track.

Lula wanted to open the window and feel fresh air hitting her face. She hadn't been running in so long and missed the sensation of heavily inhaling fresh air and the small gusts of wind that sometimes rolled across her skin. She once told Alberto that sensation could be likened to the creation and existence of all life. He stared at her over his newspaper and said nothing. But Alberto liked driving with the windows open, too. Something they had initially bonded over in the U.S.

She cracked the window open and leaned her head gently against the window. Trees whipped by as the car jostled on the dirt road. Jamie was driving faster than she normally would on this road, but it was his suspension at stake, not hers. Her eyes wandered lazily about until in the rear view mirror a black car caught her attention. A small ringing began in her ears as she examined it. It couldn't possibly be that same car from before.

Lula carefully inhaled and exhaled, trying to keep her heart rate low. She was sure she felt Jamie's peripheral vision on her. She forced her eyes away from the mirror. Then, with great attention, she closed her eyes and let her ears take over. There had to be something this world could tell her, so long as she didn't fall asleep.

Keeping her focus on her heart rate, Lula tried to relax and listen. She didn't know what there was to hear, but she kept her eyes shut tight. The longer they remained closed, the louder all the noises around her became. The ringing wouldn't let up, but it did not dominate. The wind whooshing by her ears carried stories of birds, insects, people at a distance, the car rumbling behind, jostling with little control, struggling to keep up. She redirected her focus to inside the car. Tammy's breathing had a small wheeze to it, symptomatic of exercise induced asthma, and Jamie's breathing was steady, unwavering, unnatural.

She zoomed in. The muscles of his core and diaphragm were contracting in exactly the same way every time. She flipped back to Tammy, whose breathing oscillated, a little up, a little down, her heart rate jumping around in the same fashion. She flipped back to Jamie. Control. His measured breathing was intentional. And if she as a new arachnid could hear that, she wondered what he could hear in her.

Letting go even further, relaxing her hearing, she turned internally. Her heart was beating at 75 BPMs. He would know she was nervous. Her diaphragm was contracting exactly as his was: with precision. Shifting a little more in her seat for comfort, Lula kept control of her inhale, while letting her exhale ride freely. She didn't want Jamie to know she knew he was listening. For all that Lula trusted him, Bitsy was telling her something.

She opened her eyes again. They were nearing her home, and in the sideview mirror was the black car, dutifully following behind. She wished she could turn about face in her seat and begin discussing the oddities and the whole situation with Tammy. Then she realized in a way, she could.

Lula turned to face Tammy through the middle console and mentioned that they were getting close to the house. Tammy smiled and nodded. Lula listened closely, Tammy's heart was beating faster than before. She and Tammy held gazes for a moment, and very discretely, while jabbering away to keep Jamie distracted, Lula motioned with her index finger to look at the sideview mirror. Tammy's eyes didn't move. Instead, she responded with a miniscule nod of the head. She'd already noticed.

"Yes." Jamie said.

Lula's heart slammed to a stop. "What, Jamie?"

"It is the car from earlier."

Lula could barely breathe through her anxiety. "What's happening?"

"They're going to take you to the lab. They won't hurt you per se. But they'll want to study you, keep you locked up, turn you into something they can use."

"Army." Lula choked on the word.

Jamie nodded. "I wasn't one of Alberto's experiments, but that laboratory has been around since I was a child. You know that tattoo he got on his hand when you two moved here?"

"How did you know he got it when we moved here?"

"I guessed as much. All the scientists of that laboratory have it. It's the infinity sign with eight legs. They believe the possibilities for human expansion and evolution are infinite with this mutation. Little cheesy to be honest."

"But you're free?"

"No. I wouldn't be turning you in if they weren't keeping such close tabs on me. My brain is what they want, but they want your skills. Alberto has been non-stop contacting me since you stepped into the hospital."

They turned onto Lula's lane, and looking down to see Señora Ines' house. All that stood was a charred skeleton of a building. A scream rose in Lula's chest but she caught it in her mouth before it exploded out. She wanted to run down the lane to the church and beg for God's forgiveness and protection. Too late.

She took off her sunglasses to stare at Jamie. He was looking straight down the lane, his jaw muscle twitching. She had never even told him to turn onto this lane and the GPS had stopped working miles ago.

"Non-stop texting you." Lula sighed. "Alberto only has time to treat me as an experiment. And to you, I'm just a liability. Not even a person anymore."

He pulled up to the house. "I am sorry, for the record." Jamie said, turning towards her.

"No you're not." Tammy snapped from the back.

"I wasn't fucking talking to you." Jamie scowled. He yanked the keys from the engine and whipped them sideways into Tammy's stomach. "You're going to get the fuck out of here if you know what's good for you."

Lula and Tammy stared at him in shock.

"Like I told you Lula, you're special. Even relative to the fables, you're something else." He put his hand on the door. "I honestly can't help you, but you don't need it." He popped the handle then whipped around to Tammy one more time. "Don't be stupid. There's one hero in this car, and you helped build her. Drive away so she still has a friend she can dream of getting back to. She'll need it." Then he swung open his door and stepped out.

"No," Lula muttered like a small girl, tears pricking her eyes.

Lula was about to glance back at Tammy but a ringing exploded in her ears as the door flew open and a hand wrenched her out from the seat. She swung her free left arm at whoever was holding her and heard a crack. He was wearing a helmet. She screamed and reaching her hand behind his head grabbed the helmet and yanked it off. She then returned the helmet into his nose full force. He cried out in pain and releasing the grip of one hand covered his blood-spouting nose.

A hand grabbed her left arm and suddenly she felt metal mitts slide onto both hands and heard them lock. She looked in horror at what was happening to her. She turned her head and saw Tammy sitting in the driver's seat of the car. "Get out!" she screamed loud enough to burst her vocal chords.

The engine flipped on, Tammy pulled back and out of the driveway, tears running down her cheeks. Lula turned her head forwards, and there he was, neutral faced Alberto. He stared at her silently. Everyone around, even Lula, fell calm.

"I told you you'd never look good with black hair. That hasn't changed." He clucked his tongue. "Your eyes keep turning red when you look at me. Fuego."

Lula's tongue felt large with rage and too many words. Anything she said would just be a sputtering, incoherent madness. She looked away from him, shaking her head.

"In the van. Let's go." Alberto said.

They drove for fewer than thirty minutes down the main road. How could anything be so hidden in plain sight to her? Jamie sat one row in front of her. He never turned around, he just stared straight ahead. She hated him. She had no room for sympathy inside.

The van stopped abruptly in front of a small hut. Alberto and one of his henchmen jumped from the front seats and opened the two doors of the van. She followed the henchmen who led her into the hut by the chain connecting the metal mitts. She didn't even try fighting. She wanted to see what lay beyond. She wanted to see who Alberto had become, or perhaps always was.

Entering the hut, she saw nothing special. It looked exactly like a regular home: living room, kitchen, and what she assumed was a bedroom of that last door. A woman came forth from the kitchen with tea. She was young and beautiful. She didn't wear anything on top, just a wrap skirt around her waist. Alberto turned to Lula with a malevolent smile.

"I always felt that the indigenous way of dressing for women was much preferred. Remember? Too bad you never took to it. You could have been in the front instead of the back."

Lula smiled riley and shook her head. "Nah, my tits aren't nearly big enough." She said with a little laugh, staring at the woman's enormous breasts. She shook her head again and laughed bitterly. "I knew you thought my tits were too small."

"You're a 32-C." Alberto sneered. "You do the math." He turned his head back to the woman holding the tea. "Anyways, let's go. Enough chatter."

Alberto stepped forwards to what she had presumed the bedroom and unlocked the door. They followed him through the frame into an empty room only containing a set of elevator doors. Lula sighed. It was a clever set up, and surely she'd never be found.

The elevator went down two floors before reopening to a room that looked like a metal playground surrounded by plexiglass jail cells. They were test subjects, after all, and needed to be seen and monitored at all hours.

Alberto stepped out in front of the group and beaming lifted his arms wide and turned to face them, smiling ear to ear. "This is it, Dear. My escape from you. And now, I've generously brought you here. This is aptly named the playground. We know you all have more energy than most humans and need time to…have some fun." His smile became more of a sneer with each moment.

"Now," he said turning back around and pacing forwards. "Let's show you your accommodations. You should feel lucky you know someone on the inside. I'm giving you the corner room so you feel like you have a little more privacy?"

Lula looked around at the space. "How can you have a corner room inside a circular room?"

Alberto stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Don't be a bitch today, Honey. Just show some fucking gratitude I'm not immediately throwing you on the surgery table for dissection."

"What?"

"You're very unique. We really want to understand what's going on inside you."

"I thought you were trying to build an army."

"Yes, but you should think of your species as more like weapons to us than soldiers. And you can't use a weapon or build a weapon without knowing how it functions or is created. So, building from the ground up. The real pesky issue is that we didn't see which spider bit you. But, if you were worried that I've been lying to you this entire time, the truth is that I did spend a lot of time out in the forest searching for spiders. We're trying to decode which species in the genus of spiders that cause mutations cause your mutation. Anyways, enough blah blah. Here's your room. Lunch will be served soon enough, so just take a minute to get settled."

The henchmen walked Lula into the cell and giving her a small push to throw her off balance backed out of the room. She heard the heavy glass slide shut and a henchman click closed a lock.

"Wait, aren't you going to take my cuffs off?" Lula asked with wide eyes.

"Oh dear, no." Alberto smiled. "We're not stupid."

Lula stared at his face. He felt nothing for her. No remorse, no pity, no hurt or shame. Had he even ever loved her? She slumped down against the wall and buried her head into her knees.

The sky was bright blue, birds twittered above, flittering from tree to tree as they sought mates. Lula watched them, hypnotized. Alberto shifted slightly as he turned a page in his book. He gently cleared his throat. He reached down and stroked Lula's hair. "Your hair is like the sun today. Little golden sparkles and warm to the touch." She smiled and rolled onto her belly to look him in the eyes. "I love you," she said boldly. He leaned forwards and kissed her. "Yes."

Lula's head drifted backwards against the wall. She stared upwards at the corners of her corner cell in the circular room. She extended her fingers as much as possible in the cuffs. She turned them this way and that, trying to see if there was any weak point, and way to get them off. Someone slept in the cell next to her, but he didn't have cuffs. Maybe they'd take hers off eventually. Or maybe he couldn't shoot webs like she could.

She sighed and rolled onto her side. She couldn't see a way out of here. Henchmen everywhere, locked in a cell without any vents to slither through, there were two more floors she hadn't yet seen, based on the elevator buttons. She flipped onto her back with a sigh. This wasn't even that fancy of a lab, nothing like you saw in the movies. Not a single touch code or handprint activated entry point. All physical locks, bolts, keys, archaic stuff. Wouldn't it just kill Alberto to know she thought that, given the incredibly advanced lab he'd been working at in the U.S.

Lula ate her lunch that day by smashing her face into the tray and gnawing at her food like a dog, saliva going everywhere as she drooled into her tray. As much as it revolted her, it helped break down the bread so she could more easily take off bites. She got so angry half-way through that she started banging her cuffs on the ground as hard as she could and screaming. She expected someone to come over, yell at her to stop or try and kick her or something. But nothing. They just watched her lose her mind.

They didn't let her out of the cell that day. She crawled into her bed and lay there for hours, staring into nothing, unable to sleep or cry. The light never changed. It remained a constant yellow glow. She knew it was evening when another tray of food arrived. She stared at it. It felt as if she expended more energy trying to eat the food than it gave her. It sat there for what felt like hours until she decided to give it another shot. One bite in, she gave up and crawled back into bed with a rumbling stomach. She assumed that would be the least of the pains she'd encounter here.

Breakfast came, so she knew it was a new day. Unless they fed them meals at random hours to make them think it was a different time than it was. She kept waiting to see if anyone else was pulled from their cells for time at the playground, but none were. That being said, the guy in the cell next to her hadn't moved since she'd arrived. Was he even alive?

Lula sat on the ground, legs spread wide apart, the breakfast tray in between, and just stared at the wall. She was too tired to try and eat. Her mind was so quickly going numb, until she heard something. It sounded like scuttling. Keeping her head very still, Lula's eyes shifted in every direction very quickly. There it was, in the top corner of her cell. A little spider.

She approached it. Where had it come from? Wherever it had entered her cell from, that was a hole in her cell. And in a cell, holes are synonymous to hope. She watched the spider scuttle across the wall, and for the first time felt she could smell something she had never yet smelled. The smell generated a map in her mind. She could smell the spider's trail.

The moment when she had burst into their home in the village came back to her full force. It had sounded like millions of spiders scuttling about. Here, there was just one. But spiders never seemed as solitary as scientists supposed. They always seemed to have a hunch that other spiders knew something worth investigating, and so they followed each other. She closed her eyes and tried to let Bitsy, deep within her, find the spiders in the walls.

Her nostrils stiffened first, as the smell of the spider's trail intensified. Then the smell of another. Now a subtle scuttle. And another. She counted ten. Then like being blown back by a linebacker, the sound and image of a beating, constricting heart hit her so heard her eyes burst open and she gasped for breath.

Inhaling and exhaling heavily, trying to understand what she had just felt, she sat up and looking through her window saw the man in the cell beside her clutching his chest and pounding at the cell door. Slowly he fell to his knees. He was struggling to breathe. All clear signs of a heart attack.

Lula turned to her own cell door and began pounding and screaming. Help, he needs help. The words did not so much as reverberate. This place was meant to kill sounds. That's why it had taken her so long to hear all of this. It took too much concentration. She kept pounding on the door, periodically looking over, and before she knew it, he was lying still on his side. She closed her mind and listened with all her focus: nothing. Not a blip on the radar.

Struck by horror Lula stepped backwards and fell against her wall, sliding down to the ground, burying her head and sobbing. How could they treat people this way? How had he duped her? How had she ever fallen for someone who could do this to other human beings? How could she have given up everything she had back in the U.S. to end up in this hellhole? And for what? Love? Hadn't the love of Tammy and her mother and all her other friends and family been good enough? Why had she so desperately needed a man? Were her daddy issues that bad?

Closing her eyes, Lula opened her mind to listen once more. Maybe she could find some sort of love and kindness hidden within these walls. Perhaps some ghosts to be her friendly guides. She slunk down all the way to the ground and turned onto her back, staring up at the ceiling.

Lula lay in silence for a long time. So long that a meal tray slid in the door behind her. She didn't move. She heard them open her neighbor's cell and roughly drag him out. She remained still. A second meal tray slid under her door. She didn't move. Nothing but silence reached her. Someone banged on the cell door and yelled that she wouldn't get another tray unless she ate what was there. She remained still.

Nothing. Nothing reached her. Not even those loud intrusions really touched anything inside. She wasn't opening up, she was shutting down. Then quite suddenly, her eyes were shut.

Lula didn't understand why the sky was so pervasively grey. It not only coated the sky but crept down into Señora Ines' house. She was puttering around her kitchen, pulling together some tea. Lula sat at the table, waiting. Señora Ines tapped her foot impatiently and called something out in Spanish. Lula looked up expecting Alma to walk through the door.

In entered her mother. She gave a wry smile and then following her from the bedroom sprang what seemed like millions of little spiders. They ran past and around her, up the walls and the furniture. Lula opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. She kept trying, but nothing. Then she stood and caught her reflection. Her spider eyes were even bigger than normal and she had sprouted little hairs all over her face. She stopped trying to scream.

Looking down at the millions of spiders still spreading out across the room, Lula bent down and picked one up. She looked at her mother, who gave her a slight nod. Lula brought the spider to her ear. "We're inside."

The smashing open of her cell door surprised Lula awake. She sprang up only to find her arms being seized by two henchmen and stumbling out behind them. They gruffly shoved her into the elevator and stood before her so she couldn't see past their shoulders. The doors reopened and they walked out of the elevator without touching her. Her ears immediately began ringing, but on autopilot, more confused than anything, she followed them out into a new room.

Florescent lights made the room unbearably bright. There was very little in the room, just a chair. The two henchmen stood on either side and stared at a blank wall. Slowly Lula stepped further into the room and without instructions sat down on the chair. She stared at the wall just as the men were. The ringing in her ears persisted. They were waiting for something to come out of that wall. That much was apparent.

While quiet to others, the click of the hidden door behind them rang loud and clear to Lula. Focusing hard she listened for the noises that would follow, and the effort suppressed the ringing. Footsteps padded gently across the floor. The two henchmen's breathing stiffened. She inhaled deeply. It wasn't Alberto's scent, but it was someone important.

A loud whoosh echoed by Lula's ears as Bitsy flung her head downwards and the lead pipe swung over her. The motion quickly fluctuated into an entire tuck and roll at the end of which she kicked the chair back into whoever had swung the pipe. Bitsy found her feet and crouched, mitted hands in defense, and eyes locked on a woman in a white lab coat holding a metal pipe.

She immediately recognized her. The woman into whose face she had shot webbing. The woman groaned and looked at her leg where the metal of the chair had hit her. Gritting her teeth she grabbed the back of the chair and threw it at Lula who deftly stepped aside. It crashed loudly against the wall behind her.

"What's the point of that?" Lula snapped at her.

The woman contemplated the metal pipe. "To see your reaction ability."

"Why choose something that'll bash my brains in if I don't react correctly.?"

"To see how you learn. And pain is very good learning tool."

Lula stood up. "No, it's not." She said. "But if you think it is, I'd be happy to teach you a lesson or too."

The woman smiled cruelly. "You're impressive dear, but the fact is that you're very little without your webbing, and you no longer have that at your disposal."

"You aren't the judge of my abilities." Lula growled.

The woman smiled again. "Boys, I'll let you begin. Hold our new guest by her arms so we can teach her a thing or two."

Lula took a step back. "What's my name?"

The woman's brow twitched unexpectedly. "What?"

"What. Is. My. Name?"

"Test Subject 324."

"No. My name. Say my name."

The woman tilted her chin. "Boys, begin."

Lula took a step back as the two men advanced but never took her eyes off the woman. "You're right," she smiled. "How rude of me. I haven't asked yours."

One of the men lunged forward for Lula's arm but she stepped back swiftly and without breaking eye contact with the woman threw her metal mitts straight into his nose. He cried out in pain and stepping around him she kicked him hard in the back of the knees so he fell. She then lifted her metal mitts above her head and brought them down together on the back of his head. He collapsed. She looked back at the woman.

"What's your name?" Lula asked.

The woman looked angrily at the fallen henchman. Lula drifted her eyes over to the other man coming towards her in a low stance, arms apart and fingers spread, ready to catch. Lula stepped back and to the right. He followed, they were slowly circling. She spread her hands apart like his but the chain connecting the two mitts prevented her from surpassing the width of her shoulders. He gurgled a laugh at her.

Lula lost sight of the next couple moments as Bitsy took over. She found herself suddenly whipping around into a crouch with her two hands above her head as the pipe connected with the metal chain. She glared at the woman and twisting her hands past each other wrenched the pipe from the woman's hands and swung it across the room.

An arm wrapped around her neck and began cutting off her circulation. Blood rushed to her head painfully and her eyes felt about to pop.

"Your big bug eyes look even crazier than normal." The woman taunted her.

Lula brought her hands together and lifting her legs up and away swung the chain down where it whipped against his genitals and onto his lower back with a clink and thud. He hollered in surprise and his arm fell away from Lula's neck. Keeping her hands together she turned and whipped the chain into his head. He grabbed his eye dramatically and curled over into his stomach.

The woman took this moment to run to regather the pipe and Lula left the man to hunt her down. She was behind the woman before she could even grab the pipe off the ground, and so Bitsy kicked her in the butt and sent her flying head over heels. Bitsy stomped up behind her and kicked her in the stomach. She then pushed her shoulder over so she was lying on her back.

Bitsy sat down on the woman's chest and put her feet onto her arms. "What's your name hun?" She had trouble recognizing the sadistic, hateful voice as her own, but sure enough she felt it vibrate her vocal chords. Lula found Bitsy ready to take her prey. She'd pinned her down like a spider whose web has caught an insect and she was ready to eviscerate her.

"Go on, tell me. What's your name?" Lula dropped heard head between her knees and breathed the last of that sentence into the woman's mouth. The woman whimpered and shook her head no.

"No?" Lula cried out at her. "No?" She stood up and crushed her feet into the woman's arms as she did. "Don't want to be part of the conversation, huh?" Lula paced around the woman, furious. "See here's the thing. You didn't want to know my name, probably because you can't handle this. You can't really handle who you are here. You got pulled into this."

Lula stopped and suddenly realized Alberto with two other henchmen was standing at the door the woman had apparently entered from. And suddenly Lula understood. She laughed maniacally and clanged her mitts together in mock laughter. "Oh honey, honey, honey." She looked down at the woman with anger and pity. She leaned in close to mimic a whisper, but spoke loud enough to ensure Alberto could hear. "He's not even that good in bed."

Staring Alberto straight in the eye, Lula straightened up and stomped hard onto the woman's stomach. The woman coughed once and rolled over, trying hard to catch her breath.

"That's how we teach around here, isn't it?" Lula yelled as Alberto and his henchmen approached. She backed up until she reached the opposite wall. She tilted the chair upright and wedging a mitt between the bars hurled it over her head. Alberto and one of the henchman dodged to the side as the chair whizzed past their wide eyes into the other man. Lula laughed as it smashed into his face and fell straight onto his back, knocked out.

"That's how we teach isn't it?"

"Yes, and how well you're learning." Alberto said in a low voice.

Lula's eyes snapped angrily at him. "What?"

"Look at you, enjoying the sport of the fight. Reveling in his – their – pain. You are learning. You are becoming our army. You're becoming our killer."

Lula stepped forward toward Alberto and he quickly skirted to the side. She ignored him and bringing her hands together swung her chain into the jaw of the other henchman. As he reeled from the pain she brought around her foot into the side of his head with a crack. He too fell. She turned to Alberto.

"You're wrong."

"Am I?"

"Yes." Lula walked away from him and back over to the other woman. "We never finished here."

"Leave her be, Lula."

"No." Lula's voice was flat. "She has something to learn."

"Your issue isn't with her."

Lula's back tensed and she stood back up to stare at Alberto. "Yes, and no." Then she turned back to stare at the woman. "Because my issue is that she just tried to swing a pipe into my head. A couple times. But also, my issue isn't with her, because I don't even know her." Lula crouched down and waited for the woman to make eye contact. "But I see her. And when I see her, I see me. I see the girl that let you treat her like shit. The girl who let you dupe her. And man, do I fucking hate her." Lula's breathing quieted down. The woman looked so afraid. "What's your name?" Lula asked once again.

The woman's eyes flitted behind Lula's shoulder. Bitsy swung around and thrust her hands out just in time to connect with Alberto's chest. He stumbled backwards and his feet lost footing beneath him. She glowered at him as he fell on his ass. Then Lula turned back around and crouched by the woman.

"What is your name?"

The woman's eyes looked behind Lula again. But she knew Alberto was still lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling, trying to breathe just right so his neglected back wouldn't go into spasm. How many times had she told him to stretch, use a foam roller, practice yoga, do absolutely anything to help his back. But he never listened. And now look at him.

The woman opened her mouth a crack. "Ariana," she breathed.

Lula nodded. "Pretty." She kept nodding as she fully realized that the boyfriend she had given up everything for had been engaging in an affair with a woman named Ariana, and she was beautiful. "I'm Bitsy." Lula choked.

Standing back up, Lula looked around. Three unconscious, one possibly blinded in one eye, one nursing a lame back, and one huddled in fear. This was her wake. She feared it may one day be her legacy. She sighed heavily and looked at the open door Alberto had walked through. Then she stared at the elevator.

Stepping over Alberto, Lula went to the elevator and dug her elbow into the button. It slid open immediately and she walked in and pressed the button for the only other floor she hadn't seen. The door slid shut in front of the scene, and she found herself encased in silence.

The doors slid open graciously. She walked forwards into a dimly lit room, orange in glow. There were what appeared to be a million glass containers like the lid for the Beast's rose. Inside were sticks and leaves, with drops of water clinging to the interior glass which shot up from a mister located down below. Inside each container was a spider. Most of them very still.

Lula pressed her forearms to one of the glass lids. It felt cool and smooth like the top of a lake. The metal chain clinked gently against the glass, singing unhappily. She badly wanted to lift the glass lid. She wanted to lift each and every glass lid and see the spiders run in a hoard out of their cages. Lula's skin crawled just thinking about their creepy crawly legs covering the floor and God forbid: finding their way up her pant leg.

"Do you ever feel like you're going to jump?" Tammy asked her, staring down the cliff edge.

She and Tammy had been coming out once a month to Shi Shi beach for a couple years now. They stared down into the water in contemplation. Never before had they breached that topic, but Lula thought about it every time she stared down at that water lapping up against the edge. What if I were to just… And she would imagine one toe creeping over the edge and immediately feel goosebumps run up her spine and across the back of her arms like lightning.

"Yeah. Like…every time we come out here." Lula dabbed up a dribble of snot with her sleeve. It was getting cooler. "Does that make me suicidal?"

"No." Tammy responded confidently. "L'appele du vide. That's what French philosophers call it. And it's not just about jumping off cliffs. It's like…any sort of physical or metaphorical leap into an abyss that could lead to chaos or destruction, but you don't really know."

Lula nodded. "I feel like I want to do that with every aspect of my life, all the time." She dabbed away more snot. "Usually, I just figure I'm self-destructive. But if there's a term for it…"

"You are self-destructive."

Lula turned to find Tammy staring into her eyes. They held each other's gaze for a moment, then Lula looked away from Tammy back at the water. She sighed.

"It's okay." Tammy said, putting her hand on Lula's shoulder. "You're not 'jump off a cliff' destructive. It just feels like you're always getting in your own way of being the best you can be."

"You think I'm doing it again, now?" Lula kept her eyes on the water.

"Well," Tammy's voice had softened. "Maybe your Spanish will get really good. That'd be a big plus."

Lula stared at the spider clutching at its branch. A bit of mist spurted into the glass cage. She felt sure it was staring at her. Then again, if a giant was creeping into her glass home, she wouldn't take her eyes off it either.

Even in this low light, she could see a reflection of her dark eyes in the glass. Squeezing her arms tightly against the glass, she tipped the jar up just a touch. A strong smell of rain and leaves came out. It smelled like home. Lula tipped the lid back down just as the elevator dinged open, releasing two frantic henchman and a wide-eyed scientist she hadn't yet met.

Lula stepped away from the glass and keeping her arms down by her side walked straight past their shocked faces into the elevator. "I'll go back now."

They piled into the elevator behind her, and she couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a spider crawling across the counter.

Her meal came at what felt like the same time as always. She sat in her cell, the door locked behind her, gnawing away like a rabid animal at the food. Lula struggled to poor the water cup into her mouth, and when she was finished, she whimpered in hunger. The fight had taken so much out of her, and they'd given so little for her replenishment.

The cell door opened with a clang as a man came in with what looked like her mother's tree trimmers. He told her to put up her two hands and gruffly cut off the chain connecting the two mitts. It took a rather long time for him to get through both sides.

When the chain clattered freely to the floor, he reached down to pick it up and paused with his face by hers as he straightened up. "I saw what you did. Pretty incredible."

Lula stared in shock. He was speaking English. He was speaking. To her. "Thank…thank–"

"You seem to understand that everything, everything" he emphasized, looking down pointedly at her mitts, "has a weak spot." Then he stood up, tossed the chain over his shoulder, grabbed her tray and walked out.

Lula was unsure of how much surveillance there was there. But she knew she had been given a signal, a small amount of help, and she wouldn't blow it by staring at her metal mitts all day. Instead, she went back to lying down on her cot or sitting on the ground and just imagining what they looked like. In her mind, she turned the mitts this way and that, every direction for hours. Weak spot?

As a break, Lula practiced listening instead, letting the images come to her rather than creating 3D prints of her mitts in her brain. She could hear the heartbeats of someone two cells down. She could hear what sounded like eating, and masturbating. And then very quickly, she began hearing the scuttling. The scuttling grew louder and louder until it reverberated inside her head and Lula had to shut off her brain to keep from being overwhelmed.

Eventually Lula opened her eyes and held the mitts above her head. Everything has a weak spot. She snorted and let her head fall against the cell wall. She was getting nowhere.

She thought of her dream. Inside? Inside what? The walls? Lula looked over to the outer limit of the circular room and her cell. It looked like cement. How could they be inside there? Inside the building, upstairs? Had she already discovered the meaning?

Her eyes bolted open at the cell door opening. Alberto walked in alone. Lula turned drowsily, unsurprised.

"Lula dear." Sarcasm dripped from his every word, his smile horrid and cruel.

She sighed and leaned back against the wall, staring at him.

"That's all I get? It's a rather special visit from the head scientist and all you can muster is a sigh. Your manners never were very good. Little country bumpkin."

She chewed on her lip.

"Took off your chain. We never thought of it as you did: a weapon. Rather clever of you." He clucked his tongue and stared into the cell beside hers. The man lay still.

"You killed him." Lula's voice came out hoarse.

Alberto didn't move. "Is he dead then?"

"He doesn't have a heartbeat. So yeah, I'm guessing he's dead." Lula sneered.

"You can hear his heartbeat? Through these walls?" Alberto turned around. Lula froze. She'd given something away. Something he hadn't yet known. The left corner of his lip twitched upwards slightly.

Alberto approached her and crouched down so he was a little below eye-level with her. Lula tried keeping her face placid. She didn't know what he wanted. He gave her a big, forced smile.

"Lula, you know things about you that I can only guess at right now. Potentially wonderful things. Also maybe bad things. But you and I can't know that until we begin working together to understand you." He shifted his weight slightly. "But you see, I know things about you that you don't know. Remember the blood work and DNA results you had sent to us?"

Lula's lip quivered. The results that Doctor Torres, Jamie had sent to him. She should have realized he was too eager to send them to a fucking bug scientist. How many clues had she missed?

"We can help you. We can make sure you don't get hurt, or even better we can help you reach your full potential. We're just asking for you to cooperate a little. Stop attacking the scientists and henchman for example." He winked.

Lula stood in line waiting for a taxi. Ubers were still banned at the airport and she was resenting the backwards traction of slow business as rain trickled over the edge of her rain coat hood and a little bit down her shirt. The person behind her bumped her slightly and turning around in frustration, she was met by a beautiful smile from a tall, dark and handsome man. Her face twitched into a smile.

"So sorry. This line is just horrible."

"I know, and it's freezing out on top of it all."

The man bent down and said in a low voice. "How about we work together to get out of this situation?"

"What do you mean?"

Smiling, the man looped his arm in hers and dragged her to the front of the line. He turned to the people in front and the cab monitor with pleading eyes and said, "I'm so sorry everyone, but would you mind if we cut in front. My wife here, her grandmother is in hospice, and has so little time left. We're just trying to make it as soon as possible."

Everyone shuffled uncomfortably. The cab monitor rolled his eyes and said. "All right, get in this one coming up."

Shocked, Lula said nothing and as she ducked into the cab and looked back up at the man with the beautiful smile, he winked. Her heart fluttered for the first time at Alberto's beauty.

Lula stared at him, judging him, ensuring that he felt her measuring him with every ounce she had. Alberto had been a selfish liar from the moment she'd met him. She just hadn't pegged it as that. She wrinkled her nose and rubbed it with her right forearm. Her eyes wandered up to the ceiling.

"Why'd you bring me here, Alberto?"

"I told you. So we could learn how to help you, together."

"No." Lula pulled her feet up under her in a pretzel. She leaned forward, dropping her elbows on the mattress so her face was inches from his, eye-to-eye. "Why did you bring me to Argentina."

Alberto's face twitched. After a moment he dropped his gaze and stood up, staring her down. "I thought maybe we'd have some fun. Turns out that at every turn you've been a drag on my entire life here."

Lula swallowed hard. She could feel tears tickling her eyes, but she held his gaze. He did not get to walk away from this, from what he'd done. Still looking up at his angry face, feet tucked under her body, she said in an even tone: "Leave." She tried lifting her left index finger to indicate the cell door, but it was trapped inside his metal cage. Her body shook, but she kept his gaze.

Finally, he broke the silence with an exasperated snort and walked to the cell entrance. Before he opened the door and over his shoulder said, "Your attitude is exasperating." He stood upright and as he did the cell door opened once more. Two henchmen walked in with lead pipes in their hands.

Lula looked up at Alberto for explanation. "If you cooperate, you won't have to worry. We just need to learn a little more about what you can do. Get up and follow me out." He turned and walked towards the cell door.

Taking a moment to consider her options, Lula ultimately decided a trip around the lab wouldn't hurt her. She stood and followed Alberto like his shadow. He paused as they stood by the elevator and without turning to look at her said, "Seriously, don't attack anyone. We only give you so long as an adjustment period before making the adjustments for you."

A chill ran down Lula's spine. She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but given what she'd seen she was certain she didn't want to find out.

The elevator opened back up to that same white room with the chair, only the chair was different now. It resembled that of a dentist's chair but with straps and buckles. Still terrified, Lula got herself to sit calmly in the chair and accept the buckles clicking tightly over her arms by reminding herself that she was a commodity to them, one they would try to preserve. They needed her.

Those thoughts quickly left her mind when Ariana walked in with an razor blade in her hand. She stared at Lula and smirked. "Now this may hurt a little."

"What?" Lula looked around frantically for Alberto. He stood placidly staring at her, arms crossed. She tried shaking free but the buckles held her too tightly.

"Relax, Lula." Alberto said flatly. "She's mostly trying to scare you."

"Most…" Lula could hardly breathe. "Mostly?"

A scientist Lula hadn't seen before appeared behind Ariana with a clipboard. Ariana lifted the blade and slid it down the length of Lula's forearm. The cut was relatively shallow, but at the sight of her blood pooling and spilling from the little skin-river, Lula began panicking and shaking, trying to burst free. Ariana reached forwards and placed her hand on Lula's. She stared Lula in the eye which had a shockingly calming effect.

"Eight seconds." The third scientist said. Her head was down, scribbling on a form.

Ariana's head snapped around to the other scientist. "What?" She looked down at Lula's arm, and procuring a wipe from her jacket pocket, she ripped it open and cleaned off her arm. She stood and looked back over at Alberto and gave a small nod. He raised one eyebrow.

Lula looked between them. "What? What?"

"Quick recovery." Alberto said.

"Yeah, I know." Lula snapped back at him. "Jam – Doctor Torres is convinced it might mean I'm dying at a faster rate. That my cells are regenerating too quickly, so it's like I'm aging faster."

Alberto stared at Ariana, but her gaze was on Lula, and Lula swore she saw a note of sympathy in her eyes. "That is possible, yes." Ariana confirmed. Then standing up straight again, she turned to the other scientist. "Other arm."

Slice after slice was made into Lula's skin. They eventually also took out a square to see how quickly her skin would come back together. Three minutes. At first she cried out in pain at many of the incisions, but eventually, from irregular breathing, she became lightheaded and passed out. Alberto told her passing out for the rest of the experiments was probably the smartest thing she'd done since she'd entered the facility.

After what felt like hours, they gave Lula a snack, some sort of nut packet and a bottle of water. They then drew her blood for more laboratory tests. Then at the end, strapping down her right metal mitt tightly, a man appeared with a tattoo needle.

"You sure you want this?" Lula asked, staring at Tammy, face down on the tattoo table.

"Yes." Her voice came out muffled. "Some things deserve commemoration."

"It's just a show, though."

"It's a visual representation of the oppression of women through a generational time piece."

Lula rolled her eyes. The tattoo artist came in with a smile. She spoke in soothing tones while cleaning off the area right below Tammy's right shoulder blade. She explained what she would do first, and how it might tickle, it also might hurt, but if they checked in with each other regularly, they would get through it together in fantastic form.

Six hours later and a solid hour nap, Lula stared at the completed image of four Mad Men women: Peggy Olson, Betty Draper, Dawn Chambers, and Joan Harris. Their arms were linked and they stared off to the right, to the future, as Tammy insisted.

Lula breathed hard as the needle tickled and hurt the inside of her forearm, just above the cuff of the metal mitt. It only took about forty-five minutes, but when the man stepped away, she almost burst into tears. There it was, the infinity sign with eight legs. Branded as one of them.

"Perfect." Alberto smiled.

Lula refused to look at him. "Are we done for the day." She asked with a shaking voice.

"Yes, I think we are." Lula's head snapped forwards. It was Ariana who had answered her question, before Alberto could even say a word. She held Lula's gaze for less than a second before turning to leave the room. As she and the other scientist walked away, she called over her shoulder, "Boys, show some respect as you take her down. She cooperated."

Alberto's steps echoed as he exited through the door behind her. Lula kept her eyes closed, the tears held inside, and reminded herself that when she got home, she could have the tattoo removed.

Lula stared up at the ceiling as she felt the buckles loosen and come off. Ariana's face came back into view, and Lula was shocked to see her hands undoing her left buckle instead of the burly men.

"What's your name?" Ariana whispered, not looking at Lula.

Lula said nothing for a moment, not sure she'd heard correctly, or that the words had been said at all. A quick flit of Ariana's eyes up though confirmed she had heard the question.

"Lula." She whispered. "But if you ever tell this story, call me Bitsy."

Ariana's face tilted upwards just a touch, and Lula could see a small wry smile on her face. "The Itsy Bitsy…arachnae." She said in a sing-song tone. Then she disappeared behind Lula.

Two meals slid under her door before Lula got out of bed. She felt completely defeated and for the first time since the spider had bitten her, she had no desire to fight that feeling.

As she let go of her thoughts, she found that the sounds of the lab opened to her and she flipped through the catalog like television stations. She heard other arachnos being brought into the test room on the floor above, their screams shaking the walls. She could hear heartbeats around the room, and when she let them echo inside her, they formed a chorus of pulsing life. Illicit noises of sex, sleeping and shitting reached her from the area hidden behind that door everyone appeared from in the test room. At one moment, she was convinced some of those noises were Alberto, but she quickly blocked them out.

The channel she most frequented was that of the spiders two floors up. They were the furthest provider but with the clearest stream, which made her wonder if within her mutation there wasn't some sort of connection created between her and those eight-legged ghosts. Their movements and patterns began to fascinate her. From everything she knew about spiders' natural habits, these creatures had managed to sustain their routines and sense of time, even within these walls.

Based on her meals, Lula found the spiders were still most active during the night, as they would be in the natural world. They built their webs at night, wrapped the insects brought to them during the morning, and suckled their victims dry during the evening. Of the stomping, vibrating and plucking noises those creatures let off, she preferred the plucking. She would imagine the spider with long dark hair over its eyes and a wide leather band on it's right pair of legs, pluck pluck plucking away in front of a crowd of spiders licking droplets of gin flowing down strands of webbing connected from floor to ceiling.

She counted nine meals before someone entered her cage again. It was the same henchman that had cut off her chains and he was carrying sheets. He smiled discretely as he walked into the cell. He stood before her and asked her to please stand aside so he could change the sheets. She raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Sheet change?"

"Ariana sent the order. She mentioned seeing rashes on your body at your testing. Can't have you getting ill."

Lula stood and moved out of his way. She hadn't the faintest mark of a rash on her body. She thought of Ariana's eyes staring into hers. Everyone has a weak spot.

"You know what I always found funny." The henchman said as he shook the pillow into a case. "Everyone always says that the tooth-fairy left money under the pillow case. But my parents always left it inside the pillow case, because they insisted the tooth-fairy wouldn't risk night goblins coming in and taking it from under the pillow. Odd considering a pillow case isn't exactly a safety deposit box, and they kept telling me this story even after I started having consistent nightmares of goblins."

Lula stared at him. What the fuck was he going on about? Then he turned and smiled, still gripping the pillow tightly, and there beneath the pillow case, she saw the shadow of what looked like a tiny key. He turned back to the bed and placed the pillow down so the shadow disappeared.

He then lifted up an extra blanket she hadn't had before and draped it over the bed. "Ariana said you sounded a bit ill too. Can't have you getting sick." As he tossed the blanket up into the air she noticed a dark brown mark on the side of his forearm. It was the same color as her nipple.

"What happened to your arm." Lula asked.

Without pausing what he was doing, the man responded: "Spider bite." He smoothed out the blanket. "Not with the results of yours, though."

Results. It was clinical, calculated, from within the building.

"What's your name." Lula asked.

Done with the bed he lifted the dirty sheets from the ground and opened up the cell door to leave. Lula thought he hadn't heard or was ignoring her, but right as the door was closing his voice slipped through the crack. "Rick from Texas."

Rick from Texas. Bitsy's hero.

Lula lay down on the bed but wouldn't inspect the key just yet. She wouldn't blow either her or Rick's cover.

Later that day, one of her fellow arachnos was let out to play in the playground. It was a gender ambiguous human, and she wondered if that trait had been amplified by the mutation. Ze ran around hollering like a crazy person, jumping up, clutching the bars and swinging back and forth like a gymnast, or monkey. Lula curled up as close to her door as physically possible and watched ze enjoying zirself. Zir whoops and hollars calmed Lula. The sounds of freedom.

After a few moments, Lula closed her eyes and let the noises create all the visuals. She listened for every note of minute joy and freedom in zir voice. Then, an unrelated noise tickled her ears. Then another, and another. Signals were passing through to her very quickly and with ease. Surprised, Lula opened her eyes and looking straight into the corner of the cell in a circular room found the reason: a small crack in the corner.

Lula watched zir prancing about. Ze kept hollering and whooping until the henchman standing against the wall yelled at zir to shut up. Ze ignored him at first until he pulled out a lead pipe. That shut zir up.

It occurred to Lula that she hadn't seen any guns inside the laboratory. The henchman and Alberto had used them so liberally outside the lab that the contrast was striking. Then it struck her how much glass was in this facility. Any stray bullet and you have mass destruction and thousands of dollars worth of damage. Even their cell walls would crumble at the hit of a bullet.

She kept returning in her mind to the room of spiders. She knew that if all those spiders got out at once, they would scatter to safety, and food, and water. Surely those bugs could tell instinctively where safety was. They would know where to find the cracks to get out of this place.

Lula dropped her heavy metal mitts to the ground in frustration, and they landed with a loud thud. But the right one did not give off as crisp a sound as the left. She lifted it and looked at the seam where the two sides of the mitt connected at the keyhole that locked them together. There was a touch of light passing through.

She lifted the mitt and shook it hard by her ear. A very subtle rattle. But how was she supposed to exploit that? It was not very large and she had nothing small enough to pry it open with. She could keep banging it, but that would probably produce more noise than results.

Lula crawled into her cot and lay staring at the ceiling. Ze had stopped hollering but Lula could still hear her running around, jumping up on the bars, leaping over and over, swinging like crazy. Zir hands were free. Ze must not be able to shoot webs like Lula.

Lula heard the incident as it was happening. Ze had begun yelling out again as she freely swung from bar to bar. Ze sounded too happy for the henchman and he walked over with his bar and whipped it into zir knees as zir legs flew through the empty space. Zir hands slipped from the bar, zir feet kicked the air into swirls and ze exhaled heavily. The crack of his pipe on her knees reverberated past all the other noises in a way Lula had though impossible in these walls.

For all that zir knees were taken out by the henchman, ze began fighting with loud cat-like noises. Scrappy, angry, clawing. But crack after crack of his pipe on zir body slowly brought zir down until three other henchmen came running off the elevator and pulled him away from zir. They carefully lifted zir from the ground and brought zir away to where Lula assumed they would heal and brainwash zir.

The ringing of those cracks on zir knees echoed in Lula's ears. She examined the right metal mitt with its hairline crack. Crack. Something to slip through, and out of. A weak spot. But how? Then she remembered her tooth fairy. Lula went back to her bed and flipped over the pillow. She pressed her head down over the shadow of the key and rubbed her cheek against it to feel the outline. Small enough for a mitt.

Lunch came at its specified hour of the day. She ate it hungrily, put the tray in the back of her cell, and waited for the henchman to come back. When she heard the rattle of the lock, Lula kept very still until he walked past her cot to the back of the cell, trustingly. He bent over to pick up the tray and Lula sat up and slipped out of the cell.

"Hey!" the henchman yelled as he heard her feet.

Bitsy laughed maniacally and began running around the playground in large circles until he felt as if he might catch her. Then she cut sharply into the center and waited to see his cuts back and forth as he followed her around the bars: he was slow. She slowed down just so he could catch enough air to pull out his lead pipe.

Still zig zagging between the poles Bitsy spread her arms out wide and let ring the music of the metal mitts as she ran them against the playground set. The henchman chased behind angrily. She slowed down just enough for him to catch up and turned around simultaneously with the swing of his metal pipe.

Bitsy threw up her arms to protect herself and his metal pipe collided with her left mitt. She cursed under her breath and spitting at him, earned another swing of the pipe. This time it collided with the right mitt which shimmied and shook with deep, angry vibrations.

The noises were so ear-shattering Lula knew the whole laboratory would be down momentarily. The henchman swung the pipe at her knees and she deftly stepped back and let her right mitt block the blow. It wasn't enough but she could feel the hinge rattling between the edges of the mitt. She shook it hard and then running away from the henchman dragged her mitt behind into every bar until it clattered off her wrist to the floor, and from it flew the key she had so carefully dropped inside.

The henchman stopped in surprise and stared nervously at her hand. She wasn't sure he knew why they had mitted her, but he was smart enough to realize that it was on for a reason. Bitsy smiled maliciously in his direction. She tried to open her hand but it cramped painfully in protest and she screamed and shook it. She tried to press her fingers apart against a poll and it cramped again. She screamed and kicked the poll, looking at her hand as if it had betrayed her.

Lula and her father were walking through the woods, shotguns slung over their shoulders, leaves crunch beneath their feet. Suddenly Lula stopped and stared into the distance. Her father stopped and looked back at her. "What?"

"There's something in the distance, an animal or something, screaming."

Her father stared at her, unsure about this conjecture, but he followed her as she changed direction off the trail, something he normally wouldn't allow her to do. With every step the small screams and shrieks got louder. The sound of scratching grated at her ears. She shimmied between two bushes, the branches dragging against her body, and her father followed suit.

Behind the bushes they found the noise: a raccoon with its paw stuck in a trap. Its shrill screams of anger and pain dug into her chest as the raccoon kept desperately pulling away from the clamps digging deeper and deeper into its paw, droplets of blood already turning crusty and matted in its fur. Lula was so transfixed in horror she didn't see her father pull out his small handgun and shoot the animal clean through its ears. Lula shrieked and stared at her father.

He was shaking his head as he replaced the handgun into its holster. "The worst thing you can do to an animal is maim its paw." He bent down and very gently pried the raccoon's paw out from the cage. "If it gets away, then you've left it for dead. If it stays here waiting for you to return, well then you've crucified it."

She looked back at the man, seething with rage. For the first time she could actually feel her eyes turning red. Hot lava seeped up from her neck through her scalp into her eyes. Her hand had been curled inside that godforsaken mitt for so long she couldn't open it properly. They had tried to keep her down, to diminish her power, they had maimed her, and even if they wouldn't kill her themselves they would leave her for dead as one of their dispensable army bodies.

As those thoughts boiled up inside, the pain in her hand disappeared, and Bitsy shot webbing into the henchman's face. He screamed out as it covered his eyes, nose and mouth. A scream meant he could still breathe. She could change that. Her ears began ringing painfully but she lifted her hand again and the elevator opened. Alberto and five others filed out. You're becoming our killer.

Lula caught herself in the act, transforming into exactly what they wanted. She tilted her hand further up and shot once more, further covering the man's eyes. With one hand clawing at his face and the other reaching behind him, the henchman stumbled backwards until his hand touched the wall behind him. He slid down to the ground whimpering.

Shooting a strand at the mitt on the ground, Bitsy whipped it from the ground into the face of the front henchman. It hit him hard and his stumble backwards and scream caused just enough chaos for Bitsy to collect the key from where it had landed, jam it at the hole. It didn't fit. Her heart raced. It didn't fit. What was this key even for?

As fumbled with the key, the other henchman managed to get around the one clutching his nose and form a wide circle around Bitsy. She glanced in front and behind her, then locked eyes with Alberto. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly upwards, but his nose drew up into a sneer. She slowly rose to her full height and slipped the key into her pants pocket.

"Those red eyes." He clucked his tongue and let his mouth drag into a full-on smile.

Feeling movement behind her, Bitsy flipped her hand behind her back and shot towards the noise. Grabbing hold of the tail-end of the shot, she yanked down hard on the webbing and felt the thud of a large man reverberate in the ground. Without disengaging with Alberto, she doubled up on the shot and giving another pull, slid the man beneath her upheld right foot.

"You're getting stronger." Alberto said. His mouth remained in a smile but his eyes twitched ever so slightly. He was nervous, she could feel it.

"Tell them to leave." Lula said.

"What?" Alberto's head tilted in surprise.

"Tell your henchmen to leave. I don't need to beat the shit of out them. Spare them."

"You're getting full of yourself."

"I'm not. You don't have guns. They're slow and stupid and not as strong as they are large."

He smiled at that. "You always hated body builders."

"Get rid of them." She wasn't' going to be drawn in by his banter. The man under her foot moaned and she lightly stomped on his head, just as a reminder to remain seen but not heard.

"I don't think I will." Alberto shook his head slowly. "I rather like them here."

Lula rolled her head in frustration. "Fine, honey. Whatever you want. Just like it's always been. They can do your bidding. But me, I'm done."

Without hesitation, Lula turned around and faced the henchmen spread out behind her. Three of them. Their faces contained mixtures of cocky confidence and genuine fear. She nodded at her competition, but already she saw the outcome.

Her beginning move for the evening was producing quick shots of webbing into each man's face, except for Alberto's: she wanted him to see every moment. Even as some charged at her, her instincts caught on to the movements much quicker than they ran, and she twisted and turned as necessary out of reach, catching each and every one in the face with her web.

Once blinded, she ran behind them and with a mixture of grabbing and shoving, threw them into a pile in the center of the room on top of her second victim of the night. She then strung her webbing from one side of the playground to the other, kicking them down as they tried to get up, until she'd done enough laps with thick webbing over their huddle that they couldn't so much as army crawl.

A couple of them tried sliding out from underneath, but their noses were so quickly met by the toe of her boot that the others didn't follow suit. She stepped back and stared at the make-shift and quite honestly unimpressive spider prison she'd created for the henchman. It had gone quiet underneath there.

"I didn't recognize any of them." She said, looking up at Alberto.

He shrugged. "Their position has a high turnover rate."

"Can't imagine why," she retorted. She tilted her head away and looked at the cages surrounding them. "How many of them?"

"Six."

She raised an eyebrow and looked back at him. "Only?"

"And counting. Part of henchman turnover is due to volunteering for test bites."

"Volunteering?" She sneered. He shrugged.

Alberto looked past her at the cells. "A lot of people are let go with the promise that they'll be dragged back in if they don't help us with certain tasks in the outside world. Your doctor friend is one of them. Arachnos not worth keeping because frankly their mutation is so minute it hardly produces a transformation – if any at all."

He stepped forwards and stared at the arachno who'd been out before, running, frolicking, hollering, now quietly sniffling in pain and sadness in zir bed. Lula wondered how long it took to lose hope of leaving this place, let alone to dream of something even as small as ten minutes in the playground.

"I keep telling you, you're extraordinary. Something else." Alberto said flatly.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "You know what's fucking insane? That's the first time you've given me that compliment. And quite frankly you're supposed to think that about the person you love." Rage started heating up her insides again. She had so many lingering questions for him: was he a psychopath, did he ever love her, did anyone mean anything to him or was it all about his ego?

The lava bubbled over into Bitsy's veins, seeping simmering hot into her arms. She wouldn't stay here. She refused to become his prisoner again. Lula needed to release the heat filling her body. She turned toward one of the poles and letting out an enormous, high pitched, kettle-rivaling scream swung her left hand into the pole as hard as possible. She felt the lock rattle, compromised.

Encouraged, Bitsy began swinging her hand into the pole again and again and again while relentlessly screaming at the world. Suddenly, Bitsy swung and found her bare hand connecting with the pole. She yanked it back in pain, then looking at her hand and arm, and giggling maniacally picked up the mitt off the ground.

Bitsy turned back to Alberto, and with a viscous smile told him "I don't need you, you fucking shit-bag." She shook the mitt with a rhythm reminiscent of a threatened rattle snake.

Bitsy threw the mitt past Alberto's head, ran towards him and shoved him back against the wall. Stunned, Alberto lifted his arm in front of his face but she just shot at that instead, yanked his arm down, grabbed it with her free hand and twisted it behind his back. She went to knock out his knees, but suddenly Alberto thrust his free elbow back and nailed her in the stomach. The blow took away her breath and she knelt down in pain, struggling for air.

He turned to look down on her and laugh. "Please honey, don't hurt yourself."

It was a phrase he had repeated to her over and over again every time she tried to lift something slightly heavy or open a pickle jar, or anything that required a little more effort on her part.

Bitsy took over, and Lula was hardly even there for the ride. All she knew was that when Lula clicked back in, Alberto was on his out cold and her left hand clutched the metal mitt. Still panting from whatever had just happened, Lula grabbed one of the henchmen's loose pipes, ran to the elevator, clicked it open, and disappeared within.

Lula stared at the button. "L": Lobby. The indicative star next to the button. She pressed it but it didn't illuminate. She pressed it again. Nothing. Frantically she jammed her finger against the button again and again. When it didn't light up and the elevator stayed put, she felt her throat close up in fear.

Then Lula saw it. A key hole next to the button. Digging in her pants pocket, Lula slipped the key into the hole and turned right. It clicked into position. She pressed the "L" button once more and it illuminated. Relief washed over her and she fell against the side of the elevator.

As the elevator began moving upwards though, she heard a soft plucking. She pressed another button. The elevator dinged open, she dropped the metal mitt between the two doors and listened to them crash against it again and again.

Chapter 7: Your Heroine Gets the Fuck Out…Again

And The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The big breasted woman shuffled around the hut nervously as Lula appeared from the elevator. Lula stared at the woman and wondered guiltily if she'd see any of the repercussion of Lula's escape. She figured she owed the woman at least a moment of safety.

Turning to the elevator door, Lula decorated the frame with an intricate web. She dragged it over and across again and again until the sleek metal doors disappeared. All she saw was white fibers.

As Lula walked past the woman with the huge, bare breasts, she could still hear the singing of the glass cages in the spider room. She knew – and felt guilty – that some of the spiders would have died in her destructive attack on the lab, but she figured the ones that were free deserved to try and reach the light. Or bite each and every employee inside that lab.

Lula had taken a moment to lift open the cage she'd stopped at in her first visit to the spider room. She had fearlessly poked her finger out towards the spider and happily let it crawl up her finger and onto her arm. It paused there on the top of her forearm, and she felt as if they were making genuine eye-contact. They were inside her, she realized. Not the walls: her.

She said goodbye to that little spider, placed him far away from her smash trajectory, and began swinging the pipe.

It was dark outside, but Lula's new eyes handled low light rather well. The minute she smelt the fresh air, it became real. Her skin prickled with fear and her feet picked up into a natural and very quick jog. She tried running toe-heel as much as possible to quiet her steps, but it took too much of her mental energy, and she quickly slipped back into her old, fast and loud habits.

As a little girl, after watching Forest Gump, Lula dreamt of one day completing a monumental run just like Forest Gump did. A run that came because suddenly, one day, running was a part of her, something innate, natural, and necessary. Today was that day. Only unlike Forest Gump, this was the one and only day it would be.

Lula ran until she saw the lane for her home, and suddenly the entire disaster replayed in her mind. The drive into the lane, Jamie's apologetic yet unflinching face, the feeling of being snatched out of her car, the fear she had for Tammy, the guns, Alberto's unfeeling expression, and the empty shell of Señora Ines home. And of course, the thing that had started it all: her passport.

Taking a slight right, checking over her shoulder, Lula entered her lane. She jogged down it just as she had all those times before. It was how she had left Señora Ines' home for church: disgusting, sweaty, with crusty sneakers, and earbuds. As she jogged now, it didn't compute that those same shoes could be on her feet when everything else had changed so dramatically.

Her sneakers beat loudly against the ground. She feared that someone would hear. Nonetheless, when she approached Señora Ines' house, she stopped. She wondered how anyone could do that to their home. She wondered if Alberto had done it while they were all sleeping. Had anyone gotten out?

Sighing, Lula took a step forward to approach the home and as she did suddenly felt someone run up an grab her and her mouth from behind. She tried screaming and pushing but whoever was holding her was so too strong. She didn't understand: where had been her internal warning signal.

"Lula, stop. Stop." The voice was low and familiar. She slowed a minute until the voice continued. "It's Jamie."

At that name her eyes went wide and Lula began fighting with everything she had to get him off. He held on tightly and kept telling her to calm down but with every squeeze tighter of his muscles she panicked further. She tried twisting in every direction but nothing was happening. Quite suddenly she felt him release.

"Okay, okay." He whispered and took a step back from her as she whirled around. "Just don't scream. Seriously." He stepped forwards, and she took a boxer's step back. "Lula," he put his hands up by his shoulders. "I promise I won't hurt you but if you don't listen to me I can't help you either."

She paused and considered this. Lula was out of words for these tiresome, selfish men. What was the point in believing in any of them, and yet she couldn't afford to write anyone off. Any one of these people could be her ticket home. Any one of them could provide helpful information that would save her. Never before in her life had she been so powerful and so helpless all at once. Could Jamie be like the henchman in her cell: fulfilling his duties to entrap her while teaching her how to break free?

Lula stood still. Jamie's posture relaxed and he stood upright. Nonetheless, he kept looking over his shoulders. Listening closely, Lula could hear far off noises. Why weren't her ears ringing? She was supposed to have protective instincts. She shook her head. Maybe it would come. But nothing did.

"That does stop, overtime, if you let it." Jamie said.

Lula tilted her head, and straightened up slightly.

"The ringing. I had it too. I could tell you were getting those signals in the car because your forehead was pinching and your heart rate was spiking. Rather uncomfortable isn't it?" He relaxed his body further and took a step forwards. "It's just part of your body evening out. The two sides struggling to fit inside."

He took another step closer. She could see his eyes. She stood up fully, fists still clenched.

"There are only two guys out here. They wouldn't let me leave. I think Alberto knew you'd get out eventually." He inched closer. His body almost touching hers. "But guess what…"

He took another step closer, his chest pressed up against hers. She knew he could hear her heart racing and prayed he thought she was just scared…although that's exactly what she was. He lowered his mouth close to her ear, so that when he spoke his breath tickled her neck.

"I have your passport."

Lula jumped back and looked at him with surprise. He looked around again and reaching into his jacket and unzipping an apparently hidden zipper, revealed her passport. She snatched at it with ease and he laughed gently. She flipped it open and passed over the pages again and again. Each page, each visa, they were all intact, exactly as they had been. It was so relieving she didn't believe it was true.

She stared up at Jamie. He was still so fucking gorgeous. And here he was, handing over her freedom the same way he'd handed over her death sentence.

"Where's Tammy?" Her voice came out louder than expected, and a little hoarse. She'd done so little talking in the past however long she'd been trapped in that laboratory.

"Back in the city. She went to the embassy to clear the charge against you. Turns out she can't do it for you, but also turns out you don't have an arrest warrant out against you either."

"What?"

"There was a gun left behind with fingerprints on it from someone already with an arrest warrant out. Just get back to the city."

Light was starting to poke out from behind the trees. There was a crack of branches coming up from behind them. Bitsy quickly shot webbing into the branches above her and clambered up the tree. She had forgotten the incredible grip her hands had, those tiny hairs that did so much for her.

A man stepped out from the brush right behind where Lula had been standing. She craned her head to see if she recognized him. Nothing. Hoping to disappear, Lula pushed her head back into the trunk as far as possible and closed her eyes to listen.

Suddenly, she heard another set of feet, a quadruped. Branches scraped against its fur as it shoved its body through the same brush the man had come from. She poked her head over again and recognized Señora Ines dog. It sniffed around the tree intently. Lula pulled back her head and prayed the dog remain silent.

The man was asking about breakfast, if there was anything to eat. Lula could barely hear over the blood rushing through her eardrums, the reverberating pounding of her heart. Jamie proposed cooking the eggs in the fridge. They were gone the man confessed, a late-night snack. Jamie suggested they walk back to the house and scrounge around. The man grunted in agreement.

It almost seemed clear until the dog propped its feet up on the tree trunk and whined. The henchman whistled for the dog but it wouldn't stop whining or leave with him and Jamie. He walked up to the tree, glanced back at Jamie, and craned his neck up towards the tree.

"You see anything over here?" the henchman asked without looking back at Jamie.

"No, it's been quiet."

The henchman grunted and circled the tree. Lula held her breath and closed her eyes, praying to anything that would listen.

"You sure about that?" The insinuation was clear. The distrust. Lula listened, fearful the man would turn violent against Jamie.

"Yeah." Jamie responded. "Might just be a small animal or something. When was the last time we fed this guy?"

The henchman's posture relaxed and he turned back to Jamie with a little shrug. "Not sure. Let's toss him some scraps of whatever we cook."

"Sounds good." Jamie said, and grabbing the dog's collar, the henchman followed him out of the area.

Lula listened intently, calculating their distance from the tree. When they sounded a good two hundred yards away, she shimmied down. It was bright out now. Even with them being so far away, she worried they would see in her in the distance if she crossed their line of sight.

Ignoring the branches tugging at her new shirt, the rips in her skin she could feel appear and disappear within the same minute, Lula ran through the thick forest. She could see it thinning out near the main road when she heard a slight ringing in her ears. She didn't stop to find out where the warning signal was meant for. She kept going, legs going faster, arms pushing harder against her foliage road blocks. She growled as a large leaf hit her square across the eyes and as she plowed through it the ringing blinded her with pain until she heard the click of a safety.

Lula froze. Hand still plastered to the bridge of her nose, Lula slowly opened her eyes to see Alberto pointing a gun straight between her eyes. She stared dropped her hand and looked past the barrel into his eyes.

"I know you'll do it."

He nodded.

"Just, please. For fucking fucks sake please tell me how you keep tracking me down."

Alberto reached into his pocket and pulled out a silent but flashing tracker. Without a word, he pointed to his ears where a set of white, cordless earbuds sat. He loved his Apple products.

"Bluetooth upgrade? Most technologically advanced thing you guys have."

"Yes. And you don't even realize how advanced. This one only tracks you."

Lula opened and closed her mouth. She must have misheard.

"All we needed was one strand of hair to do it. But you gave us a whole blood sample. Remember that coming from the lab? Doctor Torres did all that work to make sure it got safely into the hands of your genius boyfriend." He smiled and dipped the tracker back into his pocket. "Not bad, eh?"

Lula didn't move. She stood silent and counted upwards by sevens. It was a trick her mother had taught her the first time she'd had blood drawn as a child: count up by sevens, and the scary thing will disappear.

Alberto's arm twitched, she had stayed silent so long his arm was getting tired. She smiled smugly.

"You know, if you had worked out even once like I told you too, your arm wouldn't be tired from holding a little gun."

"If you would for once just do what I told you to, I wouldn't have to kill you."

"Of course you have to kill me." She smiled. "You could never live knowing a woman could be better than you. Remember that time we went bowling and I kicked your ass? You wouldn't talk to me for three days. I should have broken up with you then." She bit her lip. "And so many other times before and after."

"Why didn't you?"

She shrugged. "I guess…" Lula's breath shuddered as she inhaled. "I guess I didn't want to admit I had bet on the wrong horse."

Her father's musk wafted into her nose as he moved, but Lula only burrowed further into his coat. The temperature kept dropping as the sun began slowly dipping down behind the mountains. Bug her father would stay here all night if he could, watching the horses power around the track. She couldn't see much past his jacket, but she could hear the snap of whips, the rhythmic, powerful thudding of their two-ton gaits, the air and snot flying from their noses as they shot out the dust that floated in the air like fairy magic, and the sound of her father whooping and hollering.

He grabbed her close and shook her little body as he hollered "We won baby girl! We won!" On the final race, he asked her: "Which is your horse baby girl?" as he held money out to their town bookie. She looked at the horses lined up at the rope and their riders standing beside them. There was a white speckled one who looked like a unicorn to her. She pointed.

At the end, when the big, dark brown horse crossed the finish line instead, she insisted she'd picked that one. Her dad knelt down and shook her shoulders gently until she stopped crying. "Hey, baby girl." He gave her a big grin. "Ain't nothing wrong with betting on the wrong horse. But there's a whole lot wrong with telling a lie, okay?" He kissed her forehead, wrapped her up inside his coat, and carried her home as the last ray of light disappeared.

"Hey." Alberto snapped at her, shaking his gun.

She'd been staring at the ground. Bitsy sighed and with the slightest motion of her hand shot webbing onto the gun and flung it from his hand against a tree. The gun went off and his face went red with rage.

"Are you fucking insane? You could have killed us! That's your fucking problem Lula, you never fucking think before you act. Do you know how much damage you left in my lab?"

Bitsy jumped forwards and threw a right hook into his face. Then a knee into his stomach. She twisted her fingers into his long, styled hair and yanked back his head so it was hard for him to breathe.

"We're done. You're not going to track me down. You're not going to try killing me. You're going to do the right thing and leave me alone, or so help me God I will burn down your lab and make sure you're inside while those flames eat it alive." Her voice caught. "Just like you did to Señora Ines and her family."

"I didn't do that." He choked.

"Don't fucking lie to me."

"I didn't. They burnt their own house down. More people believe in demons than you realize, Lula."

Bitsy dropped her grip and stepped back from him. That's how people saw her. How they would always see her. Her literal bug eyes, her abilities, her reflexes, her weird nipples. Everything about her was otherworldly, and possibly, underworldly.

Then taking another step back at him, Bitsy knocked him off his feet onto the ground. She kicked him in the stomach and reached into his pocket for the tracker.

Lula picked up the gun, tossed the tracker into the air, and fired. She hit it dead on. Then turning to a nearby tree, she fired round after round after round, watching the bark fly. She felt the kickback all the way into her chest as her heart pounded and slow tears rolled down her cheek. When the bullets stopped coming, she took in a large, snot-filled breath and turning to Alberto, whipped him across the face with the weapon.

He let out a pitiful scream. "Yeah, we're done." Lula sighed.

She looked past Alberto. The clearing was just beyond. Lifting her feet, Lula picked back up on her momentous run. She would make it back to the city, and she would make it back home, because if there was anyone who could love a demon, it was a mother.

Lula made her way to the embassy, and inquired about Tammy. Had she been in asking about her whereabouts? Did they have a contact number? She didn't have too many problems getting what she needed, because with a pair of stolen sunglasses on, she was back to looking like an attractive female, and there wasn't much an attractive woman couldn't get out of an Argentinian man – even the gay ones.

They let her use their phone, gave her a bottle of water and a pack of crackers. Stolen glasses or not, she still looked and sounded like a wreck. Arachnaes required just as much – if not more – water than regular woman. She got her voicemail. Left a message. Lula pounded the bottle and refilled it while waiting for a call back.

The call back never came. Instead, a frantic Tammy burst open the door less than an hour later and ran to the desk practically yelling about her friend with the big eyes, was she here? She'd received a call.

"Hey! Tammy!" Lula yelled with a smile.

Tammy's face bent into relief and then tears in almost the same moment. She ran to Lula and wrapped her in a hug so tight it pushed tears out from Lula's eyes. "You're safe, oh my god you're safe." Tammy's tears fell hot and fast onto Lula's shoulder. "I fucking thought you were dead. You were dead." Tammy's grip only grew tighter as the minutes ticked by until finally, Lula gently pushed her off, and wiping away Tammy's tears quieted her down.

"You did everything right. Everything. Stop crying. None of this is your fault. If anything I have you to thank. Okay? So stop it. Stop crying."

Tammy nodded her head and choked back the last of her tears. Lula smiled and reaching into her pocket said "look what I've got." Tammy's eyes went wide as she stared at the passport in Lula's hands. She put her hands over her mouth and laughed in disbelief.

"Oh my god. We're doing it? We're doing it, aren't we? We're going home. I'm getting you out of this country." Tammy quickly lost her composure again and flung her arms around Lula in a happy embrace. "Home. Home."

Just as Tammy had said those words, a man came up behind her and said, "Lullaby Hirsch?" Nervously, Lula turned around to see a man in a suit holding a piece of paper with her warrant photo and staring at her. "We need to speak to you."

"About what?" Lula stammered, knowing full well the answer.

"The warrant out for your arrest." The man sounded like he was trying not to sound sarcastic. Lula dropped her head to follow him, but he put out his hand in a way that blocked her movement. "Not you ma'm." Lula looked back to see that Tammy had tried to follow. "She needs to come alone."

Lula nodded and followed him into a small room. It wasn't metal, with one glass mirror in all the movie inquiry rooms. The walls were wood paneled and the table was made of some cheap wood as well. Her chair was a fold-out. She wondered if the each U.S. embassy was so under funded, or if Neuquen's was usually only used for lost American passports, and so didn't warrant the same pomp and circumstance as others.

"Please," the man motioned to the chair. Lula sat. "So, Lullaby –"

"Lula." Lula couldn't even believe it was her voice.

"I'm sorry?"

"Please, call me Lula."

"All right. Lula. You're lucky that you're inside the U.S. embassy instead of an Argentinian court house right now. We may be able to help you, but first – well, actually, first, did you know there was a warrant out for your arrest."

"Well, I figured there might be. Then my friend told me it had been taken care of. Maybe he was mistaken." Or maybe he's trying to get me into the hands of other authorities.

"Why did you figure there might be?"

She almost bit her tongue, she'd practically just admitted to the crime. "No, I just…I saw the newspaper article. With my name on it." She rubbed her forehead. "The whole story is so complicated." She gave an exasperated exhale and scratched her forehead.

"Ma'm, I'm sorry, do you mind removing your sunglasses while we speak. I need you to help me help you, here, and hiding in any way simply won't do that."

Lula rolled her eyes at the Jerry McGuire quote. She reached for the glasses then paused, her fingertips gently balancing the lenses off the bridge of her nose. "Just, look, this is part of what's complicated, okay?"

"What? The sunglasses."

"Well, my eyes, yes, so please remain calm as I remove them, okay?"

The man fidgeted uncomfortably. But Lula did as requested and removed her sunglasses, she kept her gaze down at first, but after a moment lifted her eyes to his. The man jumped back in his seat. He cursed rather loudly then lifting his hand up apologized for his reaction.

"I'm sorry. You asked me to remain calm. But can you please explain what happened, because your American identification records have you looking more…less…"

"I look like a normal human in my records." Lula said.

"Um, yes." The man cringed at his agreement.

"Don't worry," Lula waved her hand. "I've had worse reactions in the past two weeks. This is some reaction to a spider bite I got. Imagine how it felt waking up in a hospital after three days of being unconscious only to have nurses yelling that you're a demon. Not fun. Not so much." Lula said, curling her lips in.

"Well, um," the man stuttered a moment before regaining his composure. "This warrant out for your arrest –"

"I haven't killed anyone." Lula said. "But that was my home. And I was kidnapped there, and taken to a lab, where scientist work to study people like me."

"People like you?"

"People with these odd side effects to spider bites. I'm not sure what they really wanted to know or what their objectives were," Lula lied. "But I can tell you approximately where they're located, what the hut looks like, everything. They still have people locked up there. Someone needs to help them."

The man couldn't stop staring at her, and his posture was slightly sideways and leaning away from Lula. It took a moment for him to respond. His mouth opened and closed a few times then he shook his head and readjusted his posture to lean over the table.

"Look, honestly, I'm thrown off, because what you're saying sounds insane. But also you look fucked up enough that it could be true."

"Wow, thanks." Lula drawled sarcastically.

"I apologize. But, I'm trying to level with you. If what you say is true, then we can get some lawyers to get you acquitted without you ever stepping in court. But while we go figure out whether or not some mystery hut and lab exist, you can't leave the embassy, understood? We can't protect you if you leave."

Lula nodded. She understood completely.

"Okay, let's go meet with someone else and see if we can't get some details hammered out."

"Wait," Lula said. She dug into her pants pocket and pulled out the key from a world away. "You'll need this key for the elevator of the lab."

The man reached out and took it from her. His mouth dropped open and his eyes narrowed. She didn't know if his disbelief would work for or against her. Then he composed himself, nodded and thanked her. "Let's go." He put out one arm behind her and the other opened the door for her. As they left the room, she quickly slipped back on her sunglasses.

Tammy brought Lula a change of clothes, a blanket, and a pillow. She huddled up on the bench for the night. Tammy offered to stay the night with her, but Lula insisted she go home. She lay down for the night and found herself staring at the ceiling, again, just as she had in her cell. Her mutation had given her the power to fly and fight for her freedom and yet here she was, in just a new type of holding cell, still Alberto's prisoner.

Lula awoke to the embassy man gently tapping her shoulder. She was lying on her side facing in towards the wall and had a stream of drool from her mouth to the pillow. She tried her best to discretely wipe it away, but felt certain he'd seen it. She felt grateful that it had been this man to wake her. It gave her time to collect herself and slip on her sunglasses before she scared the entire staff.

Pressing her hand over the pillow's pool of drool, she sat up and looked at his smiling face. He had two coffee cups and handed her one. She took it with a mumbled thank you.

"Today will be a good day." He smiled.

Shoulders slumped Lula stared up at him. She hated him a little, but he was such an angel. She looked around in disbelief. Surely this couldn't be a U.S. government official. She cleared her throat gently and took a sip of her coffee.

"What's your name?" She asked in a hoarse voice.

"Thomas." A Christian name.

Christian's black hair was buzzed short. His shoulders were broad and his dark skin was smoother than untouched snow. He had a dazzling smile, just like Alberto, just like Jamie, but his jaw line was more defined than either of theirs. She dropped her head and slowly shook it side to side. Even with all these ordeals, with all the betrayal she had felt, she still couldn't help imagining the fun of unbuttoning this man's shirt.

"You're an angel, Thomas." She said raising her coffee cup towards him.

He patted her on the shoulder. "Thanks, Lula. I'll give you a little time to wake up before we start tackling your case."

Lula would have put money on her having been hit by a truck the previous night. Her body was horribly stiff with knots preventing her neck from moving very far side to side. A pulsing pounding flowed through her head. She sat very still for a moment, trying to internally locate each muscle, bone, and the aches that plagued her. The man walked away, assuring her he'd be back momentarily.

Tammy came bounding in with a tooth brush, another change of clothes, baby wipes, and deodorant. Lula loved Tammy for her thoughtfulness. She knew that being Tammy's maid of honor would be too easy, since Tammy was sure to plan the whole affair in a week. Then again, she realized, she hadn't yet been asked to be her maid of honor.

In the unflattering light of the women's bathroom, Lula shimmied out of her clothes. With the baby-wipes, she freshened up her neck, face, feet, arm pits, and undercarriage. She scrubbed out the past two weeks of plaque off her teeth. She slid into Tammy's clothes. They were all a little big on her, especially with the weight loss. From the bra she'd been wearing she ripped out the underwire, looped it between the belt loops of the shorts, and twisted the ends together until the shorts hung correctly on her hips.

The shirt, not a particularly low cut item hung so low on Lula's emaciated frame that almost her entire bra showed. She tugged the back of the shirt down and into a knot. The solution to keep her breasts hidden revealed the bottom of her midriff and the poor person's solution to her lack of belt. But staring in the mirror, she figured it could be worse.

Slipping on her sunglasses, Lula walked out of the bathroom with her armful of clothes and supplies. Tammy quickly shoved them into a bag with Lula and then pulling out a pen and a pad of paper from the hotel room began her efforts to solve the case. She spoke at a million miles an hour until Lula gently put her hand on Tammy's pen wielding grip.

"I'm sorry. I just need to think for a moment." Lula murmured. Tammy nodded and took Lula's hand. They sat silently as Lula considered everything that had happened.

She thought of her circumstances of the past week. The way in which she'd been thrown into a car and held captive in a cell without any alarm bells being sent off. Granted her only human connections in the country were Alberto and Señora Ines, who was so afraid of Lula she had burned down her own home.

"Did you tell anyone I was missing?" Lula asked Tammy.

"Yes, I came here. But there was no way to find you. I had literally no clues, and so I think when they reported stuff to the Argentinian authorities they ignored the case. It seems like human disappearance is so frequent here that they almost don't pay attention to it. They probably thought you were already –" Tammy trailed off.

"Dead. Yeah."

"That's so horrible though!" Tammy was getting riled up at the thought.

Lula patted her hand. "Don't think about it. I just need to figure out what to tell them here so I can get home." The memory of the dead man in the cell next to hers flashed in her mind. "But also I can't just leave those other people to just rot down there. We've got to get them to listen."

At that moment, Thomas came around the corner. "Ah! There you are. Ready to come sit down and talk with one of our other officers?"

Lula nodded. She and Tammy stood and followed him, and Thomas allowed Tammy to follow today. He led them into the same room as yesterday. Lula figured they didn't have an expanse of interrogation rooms.

The other embassy official was already sitting at the table when they entered. Thomas motioned for Lula and Tammy to sit down in the two empty chairs across from the man. There was a full water jug on the table and glasses. It appeared they intended this meeting to last.

"Hi, I'm Carl." The new man stretched out his hand to both Lula and Tammy. They shook politely but both returned their attention Thomas, waiting expectantly for more information.

"All right ladies, now you both have come in with a similar story, and the biggest issue is of course that, Lula, you're claiming you were kidnapped, but we also have an arrest warrant out for you. So, if you wouldn't mind going through what exactly happened again so we can get a better record of it, we'd really appreciate it."

Lula began her story at the hospital, but left out significant details about her mutation. She showed them her eyes, but never even mentioned any improvement in any skills or healing. She went into detail about the facility: the conditions, the treatment, the location, the spiders. She admitted to destroying the spider room. She told them that there were people still guarding her own home, which to her felt like proof that she'd been physically ousted. But at the end, the two men didn't seem blown away, if anything, they seemed underwhelmed.

"The issue, you see," began Carl, "is that we haven't identified a motive for them capturing you. You say that they wanted to study you, but why? Just because your eyes changed color?"

Lula squeezed her hands tightly together, tucking them between her knees and looked at Tammy. Tammy rolled her eyes slightly and then nodded, waving her hand towards men as if to say, "well, all right then." Lula nodded and took in a deep breath.

"No. There are other reasons." She lifted her right hand to scratch her nose nervously, then turned her hand towards the right wall and shot out a small web. The two men's jaws dropped.

"I think I can climb walls, like I've climbed trees no problem, but I don't totally know. Actually I did stick to a ceiling once, but I have no idea how I did that. The scientists don't either. All they really know so far is I can fight my way out and I heal quickly."

"You heal quickly?" Thomas said, his mouth sounding dry.

"Yeah." Lula murmured. She picked up one of their pens, and to their horror drove it into her arm and dragged. She cringed from the pain, but within thirty seconds it was all gone. Thomas had turned away and bent over, inhaling heavily to keep from vomiting, Carly couldn't seem to look away, and Tammy had her hand on her brow, looking disgusted.

"Jesus Lula, have some fucking manners." Tammy grumbled.

Despite herself, Lula laughed. "Apologies." She murmured.

"Well, yeah okay." Carl nodded. "So yeah, they want to study you. Okay, yeah. That makes sense." Though he was hardly making any sense now. He nodded and looked away. Lula used a napkin to dab up the blood spots that had landed on the table.

"Look," Carl said, glancing over at Thomas who was close to hyperventilating. "We'll make some calls, buy you two some lunch. Just sit tight, okay?"

Lula and Tammy agreed to stay in the room quietly. They were brought more coffee, a pack of cards, eventually some lunch which wasn't bad. They doodled on paper, talked about all the things they wanted to get back to in the U.S., and then Lula finally remembered to ask the pressing question.

"Hey, am I going to be your maid of honor, or what?" Lula demanded teasingly.

"Oh my god! Of course you are!" Tammy shrieked and threw her arms around Lula. "Do you actually want to talk wedding stuff though, right now?"

"Yes, please." Lula inhaled. "I just want to feel normal again. I want to talk about something that isn't my mutation or me or this whole ordeal."

Tammy nodded, then beaming practically shouted. "Well, okay then! I have so many ideas for the wedding, like the venue and food and cake and honestly haven't run any of past Ren yet because I mostly thought of it when things were really quiet here. I'm sorry does that make me sound like a bad friend? I know I should have been doing all I could to find you and I was it's just–"

Lula cut her off. "It's fine. Just tell me your ideas."

And the next two hours vanished as they went into dream scenario after dream scenario. Then horror stories of other friends' weddings: no open bar, first dance song being too cliché or too odd, first dance being super lame and choreographed or not practiced enough, speeches that went too long or too short. Really, weren't all the previous weddings just train wrecks? They couldn't wait to outshine them all.

When the men finally returned, they had smiles on their faces. Thomas dropped a file down on the table and stood proudly while Carl leaned against a wall.

"Good news," Thomas began. "You're free to go. Warrant dropped."

"Wha–" Lula fell speechless.

"Really?" Tammy continued Lula's thought.

"Yes ma'm. What I will say is that we very much believe your story. The moment we told the government official your story we got passed off to a higher up, and then another higher up, until they told us they were certain it was someone else who's fingerprints were on a gun at the scene."

Lula stared at him in confusion. Wasn't that exactly what Jamie had said? Only when she'd returned that hadn't been the case.

Thomas continued. "This isn't the first time such a mix up has happened. I would count blessings and just head home." He said with intention.

Lula nodded. She understood.

Then Thomas reached forwards and placed the key she'd given him back down on the table. "Americans fought for freedom, but the truth is no one is ever really free. Wherever you feel at home, that's freedom."

Lula stared at him. "Home." She muttered and nodded. He nodded back. Then Lula snapped out of the trance Thomas had put her into. She stood and reached out her hands to shake both of theirs. "Thank you so much, both of you. I wish you the best."

"Absolutely." Carl said with a nod.

When she reached for Thomas' hand, he held it one second too long and stared into her eyes. "Go home." He insisted. She nodded.

The two left the embassy and Tammy brought Lula back to her new hotel. Her ticket home had long passed and the two of them searched the best they could to find a flight that Lula could afford. But the fact was that anything more than $300 would wipe out Lula's bank, and she had gotten rid of her credit cards long ago, so all she had was that one account.

Tammy offered to help pay for the flights, spot Lula the money and when she returned and had a job back in the States, she could repay her. It was of course a well-intentioned gesture, but no matter how badly Lula needed it, she couldn't accept.

Uncle Gary, who was by no means actually related but was their next door neighbor, stood in the kitchen with his hands spinning a hat in circles between his fingers. He bit his lip and looked up at Lula's father who was leaning against the counter, staring him down while chewing a pen cap into distorted plastic mush.

"I'm so sorry, I don't have it now. I'll get it back to you as soon as possible. I really thought I'd have it by now but as you know with my wife getting sick and all that's really all I can do. I had to put this money elsewhere. It's not like I don't have it, I have it, it's just elsewhere." He kept fidgeting and his eyes caught Lula's staring up at him, bug-eyed beneath the table.

Lula's father shook his head and let out a small laugh. "You know, this is the time by when you said you'd pay me back. And gosh darn you don't have the best reputation in town, and I took a bet on you anyhow. But now I'm guessing that another month is going to roll by, and your dog's gonna have a broken leg, and that just had to get fixed. And the month after that your horses' shoes all needed redoing."

Lula's father shook his head and pushing off from the counter spun around and looked out the window.

"So, so, whatchu sayin'?" Uncle Gary said, looking up at her father's broad back nervously.

"I'm saying," he said turning back around. "That I'm guessing I'm never going to see that money back. And you're never going to see your friend again, because it'll be too awkward and frankly I don't like spending time with people who break my trust."

"Well, well…"

"You know, the only people you can lend money from knowing it ain't a loan is your parents. Well I guess that makes me your Daddy. And Lula," her father snapped his attention to her staring up from under the table. "I guess that makes Uncle Gary Brother Gary to you." Then he looked back up and stared at Gary long and hard. "But see, I never wanted a son. My little girl's all I ever needed. So why don't you go on and leave."

Lula crawled out from under the table when she heard the screen door slam. Her father picked her up and they stared out the window at the man walking down their lane. His arms squeezed tightly around her and he let out a long sigh. Uncle Gary had been coming over for dinner once a week for as long as she'd remembered. But it would be years before he ate with them again.

"No Tammy, I'll call my mom."

Tammy's eyes opened wide with surprise. For all the years she'd known Lula, Lula had never once admitted she was wrong to her mother. She couldn't imagine Lula picking up the phone and telling her mother: you're right. I shouldn't have moved to Argentina with this man I started dating less than six months ago and I shouldn't have done it without any source of income. The thing was, Lula couldn't imagine doing it either.

Lula wasn't ready or sure how to begin that conversation though, so they walked out into the city to grab a bite of food. Lula had her sunglasses on but found it hard to see. Neuquen's city lights at night weren't as bright as some back home, though she supposed with sunglasses on the only thing bright enough at night would be Time's Square.

They finally made it into a restaurant, and Lula couldn't see a thing. It was mood lighting for the evening, which made sense. Unlike her sunglasses.

She sighed heavily and told Tammy her issue. "What the fuck am I supposed to do for the rest of my life? Wear sunglasses all the fucking time? Be blind at night? Learn to use my hearing to navigate and walk with a fucking blind stick?"

Tammy reached her hand across the table and placed it on Lula's forearm. "Maybe our approach shouldn't be to hide who you are."

"It's never been my approach in the past. I've always been me, as I am. No makeup, nothing."

"Sure," Tammy responded flatly.

"What's that supposed to mean." Lula snapped. Tammy stared at her in surprise. "Again, my hearing is insane right now, so any tonal switch you have, I hear it."

Tammy laughed in surprise and tussling her hair said. "Lula, you've always been yourself, as your relationship defined you. You haven't been single since you were sixteen. And well, after your dad died, it seemed like you so badly wanted a secure male presence that you made any guy fit. Even when it tore you apart. So, you haven't really been just you in a long time. You've been 'just us'."

Lula stared at the table and slowly nodded. Tammy was right. The diagnostic didn't blow her away. The fact that it was so obvious to someone else did. But without saying a word, Tammy had carefully watched her and seen her grow into exactly that person.

"When we're done eating, I'll call my mom." Lula said. She never chewed so slowly in her life.

Lula's mother picked up on the first ring. It was about 6:00PM for her and she apparently was rushing out with a hot chuck roast to join friends for a pot-luck. Lula smiled at the memories of those gatherings. Too many kids and adults crammed into a room, adults standing awkwardly with plates, happily ignoring the kids running around their ankles, or the teenagers who had slipped away to play spin the bottle – after first emptying the bottle.

"Sorry Mom, but can we talk for a minute." Lula felt her voice shaking, and her mother could hear it crystal clear. "Lula, what's wrong?"

"Mom," she bit her lip hard, tasted a little blood, then opened her mouth and said, "you were right. I shouldn't have moved out here. I can't tell you everything right now, but I've had a couple medical complications, and I'm okay now, but I'm broke, and Alberto and I are broken up, and I'm desperate to come home. And I guess I'm begging you to help me buy a ticket home."

"Lula," her mother's voice was soft. "You know I'd pay a million dollars if it brought you back home. Send me the flight info, I'll buy it right now before I leave for dinner. But, you sure you're okay?"

Lula nodded and smiled, her heart swelling. "Yeah Mom, I'm okay. I'm real ready to come home though."

Her mother had never sounded so sympathetic or worried. Lula leaned back against the headboard and Tammy came out from the bathroom. She lay down on the bed spread and dropped her head in Lula's lap. They sat silently for a few minutes, staring out at the view of Neuquen.

"I like this hotel better than the last." Lula said softly.

"Yeah, I was hoping to get to bring you back to it." Tammy sniffled. "The embassy didn't want to hunt you down. They said they didn't go looking for people until after a week. Which seems a little insane to me. But I'm not from here, maybe tourists go on week binges all the time and reemerge from their stupor in full form. I would have told them you were kidnapped, but I just didn't know how to…"

Lula nodded and Tammy turned her face up to look at her friend.

"That's okay, Tammy. I don't know how to explain what I am now or what's happened to me either." She gently ran her fingers across Tammy's head. "You know what though, I'm so lucky to have you. I know I haven't always been there for you, but you –"

Tammy snapped up and stared at Lula.

"Shut up. Yes you have." Tammy said fiercely. "Lula, you have been there for me in my toughest times, even after you got your heart broken and I got fired, you made time for me. After your Dad died and my dog died, you fucking came to my apartment to comfort me. You were always telling me that I was beautiful and smart when everyone else at school was singing a different song, and frankly you gave me the confidence to be with Ren, and that relationship has changed my life, in so many ways." Tammy tucked her feet under her body to better stare at Lula. "You were always an incredible friend to me, you just weren't a good friend to yourself."

Lula sighed and reached her arms around Tammy to hug her. She sighed heavily and looked out at the twinkling city lights of Neuquen. They were just like the fireflies in the fields of Wyoming. Home, where she felt free.

After a moment, Lula sighed. "You're really not going to like what I'm about to say." Lula muttered.

"What?" Tammy said, stiffening.

"I have to go back to the lab."

"What the fuck are you talking about, Lula?" Tammy drew back, eyes narrowed in anger.

"I can't just let those other people rot there for testing, because even if they're set free they're still prisoners, like Jamie."

"Please tell me what you possibly think you can do about it? The government clearly condones that lab. They're trying to get you to leave the country so you'll stay silent. You realize that don't you. Thomas insisted we go home. He knows better."

"Yeah but it's not right."

"What the fuck do you mean it's not right? Lula, you know what I don't think is right? Risking the life I just promised to someone I love. I don't think that's right. I also don't think it's right for you to risk the one life that your mother has left to really love and hope for. She may not be all that affectionate, but she loves you so much. You can't let her down."

"But–"

"No! No Lula. We're going home. Our flight is in 36 hours, we're not missing it. Both our live bodies will be on that plane. Okay? Say you agree."

"I agree. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to rile you up."

"Okay, okay." Tammy said, her breath calming down.

Tammy lay back down and closed her eyes. She was tired, very tired. She had bags under her eyes and was more pale than usual. She would never say that to Lula or let her know the stress the past few weeks had caused her, but Tammy was run down. Lula sighed as she stared up at the ceiling. She would forever feel guilty for what she was about to do.

Chapter 8: Your Heroine Flies

Climbed Up the Spout Again

Neuquen's streets were not all well lit, and rather than try to get down bright streets with sunglasses, Lula slipped her sunglasses in her pocket and kept herself in the shadows, something she never would have done before her mutation.

She had never hot-wired a car, she didn't have time or energy to spare to run, and so she chose the only other option: the bus. The bus was slow and ran infrequently, but luckily there was a last bus that ran into her village right before midnight. Tammy had fallen asleep just in time for Lula to slip out of the hotel room and run down to the bus.

Lula felt guilty for leaving, for causing Tammy more stress, but she figured she could argue her justifications later in person. She just had to get back alive. For now, she'd left a note on the bed reading "I promise I'll make our flight."

Hopping up into the bus, Lula passed over her bus fare and settled in. She slipped on her sunglasses so she could relax under the lights. Eventually though, the driver flipped off the inside lights, and Lula could hear the other passengers falling asleep. One by one, their heart rates slowed and their breathing became soft and harmonious, like a lullaby.

Even with her fear and adrenaline, Lula struggled to stay awake. She worried that if she fell asleep someone would get on the bus that would recognize her, and she'd be ready for the taking. But of the infrequent stops the bus made, no new passengers had any recognition of her.

When they bus finally stopped in her village, she leapt out and immediately began running down the dirt road leading towards her lane. As she passed the church, she had an urge to do something completely new: pray. She stepped forwards, clasped her hands together and tried to summon forth some sort of prayer. But she found that she had no words.

That she couldn't come up with a prayer should not have surprised Lula. Everything she had ever heard about Christianity demanded that it come from your heart. And God just wasn't in there. But as she stood there silently for a moment, she thought of what Tammy had said, about the life she owed to those that cared about her, and in that thought she found her prayer not to God, but to Tammy. Her silent promise to return home.

She approached her old home from Señora Ines' property. The lights of the house were lit, and she could hear voices. A lot of them. Nervously, Lula crept out of the bushes and up to one of the lit windows. She could see about seven men sitting at her kitchen table, eating and drinking. The drinking she hoped was in her favor. Closing her eyes, Lula listened carefully, locating each heartbeat, she counted eleven in total.

As she let the channels flip inside her head, one conversation to the next, Lula heard a familiar voice. Jamie's. He was still here. Why hadn't he returned to the hospital? And then it occurred to her that if Jamie primarily worked for Alberto, did that mean he'd only appeared at the hospital at his bidding. How frequent were those "vacations" that he took?

The thought of the lies and the different levels of betrayal boiled Lula's blood. How dare these men believe that they could treat her this way. She didn't care about all the nuanced good wrapped up in the bad, the fact was that they had lied. They had promised her safety and kindness and what had they actually given her? Deceit and betrayal.

Anger built up inside her like hot lava, she could feel her eyes going red with rage. She tried desperately to slow her breathing, bring it down so she could think and strategize. Lula needed to be able to walk in and take their guns without killing them, but with every passing minute her rage grew.

Running around the house, Lula stepped through the hole of the broken back fence and glued herself to one corner of it, disappearing into the shadow. She watched through the glass door as the men kept playing cards and joking. Eight in this room, two in the bedroom – making out – and one in the bathroom.

Suddenly, she let out a sigh of exasperation. She wasn't a spy. She didn't have the skill set to take on eight men with a real plan. All she had was Bitsy. And she wasn't sure Bitsy was enough.

Then she saw Jamie stand up from the table, yell something about getting a smoke and slide open the door. Closing the door behind him, he reached for a pack of cigarettes and began clicking away at his lighter. Lula held her breath, terrified he would hear her. He inhaled deeply and tapped the ash off the tip of his cigarette.

"What are you doing here, Lula?" He said in a low voice, not moving or looking at her.

She didn't answer.

"I could hear your footsteps from in there." He took another drag. "You should be on a flight home. I told you your warrant would be dropped."

She still said nothing.

"When the lab set me free, they told me not to run away or they'd put out a warrant for my arrest. But anyone they figure is long gone, they just try and keep silent. Keep you grateful that you're out."

He tapped the ash off his cigarette.

"You're not actually stupid enough to come back and try to free the other arachnos, are you?"

She nodded.

"Well, do me a solid. Don't kill me while you're in the process. You won't need my help, so don't ask for it. You've got Bitsy."

He took a last drag of his cigarette, dropped it on the ground and crushed it with his toe. Turning, he placed his hand on the door handle.

"You could go back to the States." Lula whispered almost inaudibly.

He paused. Then slid open the door and slipped inside. He left it unlatched.

Lula knew he was right, she had to let Bitsy take over. She inhaled and closing her eyes let Bitsy's instincts overwhelm her. The first of which was to get away from this door. This wasn't her entry point, the bedroom was.

Leaving the patio area she ducked around the corner and peeked her head into the window frame. Now the three men were at it. She figured the others knew and were keeping out intentionally. Perhaps one or two muffled screams wouldn't be abnormal and wouldn't catch their attention. But she'd have to be quick. She'd have to enter through the bathroom, the door of which was left open.

To her luck, the bathroom window was left ajar, which given the number of men there, made sense. She shoved it upwards and hauled her body through, soundlessly landing on the ground. Bitsy peeked her head around the door and saw they were all now laying on the bed, their clothes and guns on the ground. All she really had to do was silence and bind them.

Ducking around the door, one of men saw her immediately, but she was quick to hit him in the face with webbing. At his surprised face and the appearance of her webbing the other two let out small shouts and jumped back. She quickly silenced both of them, shooting extra webbing at each of their faces for good measure.

Two of them tried frantically clawing off the webbing while the third dove for his gun. Trying to keep things as quiet as possible, Bitsy shot webbing at the third's body and running behind him yanked him backwards and onto the bed. One of the other two took this moment to try rushing her but she slipped out of his direction and flung him onto the bed as well. She quickly tied them down onto the bed and as she was about to tell them to simply remain calm, she heard the third one shuffle towards the door.

Bitsy was quick to turn and nab him with her webbing. She reeled him back and tied him to the foot of the bed. Breathing hard, Lula scrambled away from them for the guns. She checked all of them. They were slightly different than what her father had taught her to use, but she figured she could handle them just fine.

She sighed, shaking slightly, and turned towards the three. "Stay silent and I won't kill you."

Then Bitsy leaned against the bedroom door and listened. The other men were so loud and boisterous they hadn't heard a thing. All save Jamie, who knowing her next move had slipped into the kitchen. She so badly didn't want to have to kill anyone. It just wasn't in her to do so. Looking at the guns, she wondered if she could just maim, them, keep them down. And then looking at the guns once more, she realized she didn't have to do any of that.

Bitsy had three guns, two holsters, and plenty of ammunition. She checked that the bedroom door was locked, smiled at the men, and disappeared out the bathroom window. She just hoped Jamie wouldn't blow her cover too soon. She needed time to still make a surprise appearance at the lab.

By the time Bitsy ran to the lab, her stomach was growling and the sun was coming up on the distant horizon. One gun in hand, two holstered on her hip, Bitsy marched straight into the hut and found the bare chested busty woman asleep on her mat. There was a lack of drama to this Bitsy hadn't expected.

Reaching for the elevator button though, Bitsy suddenly heard a snap outside and turned around, gun in hand, just in time to see two henchman making their way into the hut. In her mind, Bitsy saw everything slowly, and in a way saw nothing at all. She dropped the loaded gun, which landed with a thud, catching the two men's eyes. They reached for their guns just as Bitsy shot out two thick strands of webbing and covered their entire faces. She knew they couldn't see or breath and so had very little time.

Incapacitating them, Bitsy tied them up back to back and then tore off the webbing from their eyes down to just under their noses. They began greedily sucking at air and stared at her with wide eyes.

"You'll be fine." She assured them, and picking up her gun once more, hit the elevator. Nothing happened. Then she remembered the key. There, right above the elevator button was a key hole. Reaching into her pocket she retrieved the key to her freedom, the key to her imprisonment, and slipped it into the lock. Twisting it, she hit the button once more, and it illuminated.

As the elevator dinged downwards, Lula realized she and Bitsy had little to no plan. She just wanted to destroy as much of the lab as possible and set free the other arachnos. But as the elevator doors were about to open, Bitsy heard about a dozen heartbeats right before her ears began softly ringing. She jumped to the side by the panel of buttons, knowing exactly what waited for her on the other side of those doors.

The doors dinged open, and immediately a round of silence gun shots went straight through the back of the elevator. Then there was silence, hesitation, and it was all Bitsy needed.

She caught the tip of the gun with a strand of webbing. It went off and went straight through the bottom of the elevator. Bitsy's head snapped up to the screen that flashed the floors. It was still on. She picked up the gun and held it in her left hand. She felt certain there would only be one person with one gun. She jumped in front of the doors and there in fact he stood, gun-less, with a group of henchman behind him, knives at the throats of the other arachnos.

"Welcome back." Alberto said with a sneer. "Come in, come in." Alberto said, taking a step back. "Something told me you'd return."

Bitsy stepped in but ignored him. The elevator shut softly behind her, but she was too busy examining what lay before her to notice was happened behind. Nine henchman behind Alberto, six with arachnos at their mercy. She flipped her attention back to Alberto, his right hand was twitching slightly. Without even thinking, she shot at his hand.

Blood exploded from the spot and she heard bone crack as the bullet pierced his skin. He screamed out in pain and looked at her in horror. She tried to stay composed but felt so shocked herself she had trouble looking calm.

"Don't reach for that other gun." She said, trying to sound calm.

"You had to shoot me to say that?" He screamed.

Bitsy glanced at the other henchman behind Alberto. Their postures had all gone slightly looser, less assured of what they were doing. She felt certain Alberto had promised them she wouldn't do anything drastic. She had felt certain of that as well. Shooting Alberto had some too easily for her comfort. She worried just what Bitsy might do without Lula restraining her.

"Tell them to go away." Lula said, staring at the henchman.

Alberto was panting, staring at his hand, not as brave as villains in the movies. She could tell he was trying to move his fingers, and wailed in pain as two of them managed to move. She shot through the tendons. He'd need surgery.

Bitsy sighed. "Drop your knives or I'll shoot you all in the head." The threat came without her meaning it to. It sounded insane. She couldn't possibly kill people point blank, could she? Not even if it saved the lives of the helpless?

Lula's mother brought over a cup of hot chocolate and curled up in a blanket next to Lula on the couch. Her father stood up from stoking the fire an picked lifted his mug to his lips, giving a loud sip on it as steamed in his face.

"So Lula, back to tonight's ethical question: you have eleven people on a row boat that can only sustain ten people without sinking. Do you push one person off so the rest can live?"

Lula slurped up a marshmallow and pressed her tongue to the top her of slightly burned pallet. She smiled and looked up at her father.

Bitsy lifted her gun and aimed it at Alberto's head. "Drop your knives, or he dies."

Alberto stared at her in shock. "Lula." He whispered. She didn't look at him. She kept her gaze focused on the henchman. They looked back and forth at each other nervously. "She won't do it." Alberto said with a shaking voice. She rolled his eyes. He was never meant to be a villain. He didn't have the conviction for it, nor for anything really.

"He's given me lots of motive to shoot him, wouldn't you say boys?" she said with a sneer. "Drop your knives, or he dies."

The men stood stock still. Lula redirected her gun and fired it into Alberto's foot. He screamed and fell to the floor as blood seeped from the top of his shoe. Two henchman dropped their knives in fear and the arachnos stood up and shoved them backwards. Bitsy looked around more carefully to see if she could see zir. She was there on the right, staring back at Bitsy, eyes narrowed. She blinked slowly like a hidden nod.

Lifting her gun back towards Alberto's head, Bitsy spoke loud and clear: "Guess he gets it."

She was about to pull the trigger when the elevator dinged open and a woman screamed "No! Don't!"

Ariana was standing in front of her, in front of him. She was trying to protect him. But he didn't deserve it. He never deserved a minute of the kindness Lula had shown him.

"I'd jump out myself." Lula answered. "That's the right thing to do." Her father nodded, then smiled and said. "I'd prefer if you made it home alive."

Bitsy lifted her gun and shot five rounds right past Alberto. The glass behind him shattered and came rolling down across the ground. She smiled as the men jumped back in surprise and the arachnos stood up. Slowly, Bitsy rotated and shot down each and every glass wall of the circular room, flawlessly switching between guns as needed.. They had made it too easy.

When she was done firing rounds, Bitsy realized she couldn't hear a damn thing. None of them could. Her ears rang painfully, throbbing, but for the first time, she knew it was a sign of winning.

Turning towards the elevator, Bitsy pressed the button and it opened. She made sure the key was still in the hole, pointed to the arachnos, and waved them through. She couldn't assure them anything when they left, but at least should would get them out. As if from a far-off distance, the ding of the elevator told Bitsy that they were free. Free from their cells, their tests, they're slow transformation into an army or indentured servant.

Alberto and Arian huddled together, staring in shock at the mass destruction around them. Everything they had worked for was gone. The spider room, the cells…and then it occurred to Bitsy there was one room she hadn't yet seen. Holding out the gun for protection, she hit the elevator button and while waiting for her chariot to arrive, she walked over to one of the henchman and shouted at him to hand her his metal pipe. It took a couple tries, but he finally understood and handed it over.

Stepping into the elevator, Bitsy watched the circular room with corners disappear for the final time. When they reopened, she was in the white room again. There was the chair she had first sat in, and there to the left was the door. She dropped the pipe between the elevator doors and walked over to the one room she hadn't seen.

Bitsy was happy to find that they had given as little thought to locking doors as they had to everything else in this laboratory. She pushed it open and found herself in a room full of computer screens. Most of them were wired to the security system, showing the entrance of the hut, the entrance to the elevator system, what had been the cells – just as she had guessed – and the spider and testing room. Everywhere was monitored. A couple of the other screens showed data, numbers, everything they had ever gathered on arachnoids.

Guessing that there was a stair well somewhere, Bitsy figured she only had so much time to investigate. She quickly searched through the system and found there was the data and analytics saved on the hard-drive, and what was saved in their desktop Google Drive. She rolled her eyes at the use of Google Drive for such sensitive and illegal material.

Bitsy was about to destroy the last of the lab's purpose by deleting all traces of information when she thought of something: there might be a day when she'd have to prove this place existed. She quickly shared the Google Drive file with herself and then deleted it from their records. Then she went into their trash, and deleted that.

For extra measure and unconvinced she could do more damage to her ears, Bitsy finished her clean out by shooting the computers. Everything that comprised the lab was gone, except for the scientists.

The wars in the Middle East had been growing, and for all the sense that Lula tried to make of it, she simply couldn't. She was busy arguing different sides of the equation with her father over a bowl of spaghetti when her mother groaned from the sink where she was washing her hands and came over to join them.

"Lula, honey." She let out a great sigh and stared her at her daughter point blank. "What I hate to have you understand is that there were always be bad people to fill the vacuum of evil. Just like there will always be a good person to fill the vacuum of righteousness."

The elevator felt like it was dragging upwards. Bitsy waited to the side of the doors opening, worried that perhaps the henchman would be waiting for her at the top, but there was no one. She dropped the pipe between the doors once more and ran for her freedom just as before.

"The most you can ever do for society is simply change the definition of evil to something less aggregious and the definition of righteous to something even more incredible." Then her mother loudly slurped her spaghetti.

As Lula hit the dirt road, the sun beat down on her skin. She tilted her face upwards into its rays and inhaled deeply. She couldn't wait to see her mother.

When Lula walked into the hotel room, Tammy rushed towards her with full intention to take a swing at her friend. But Lula threw up her arms in such a defenseless way that Tammy, for all her rage, took a step backwards. She receded into the room, breathing like a bull. When she reached the window, Tammy turned back around and screamed at the top of her lungs "You fucking cunt!"

Lula put her hands out, palms pressed together and profusely apologized, pleading with Tammy to forgive her. She'd only had good intentions, however selfish her selfless actions had been. Tammy kept snorting and stamping around and then glaring at Lula just shook her head.

"Just go fucking shower. You're disgusting and we're not missing this flight."

Lula did as told and slipped into the bathroom silently. She turned the water on to the hottest it would go and slipped into the stream of water. She watched, hypnotized, as dirt and grit slid from her hair and body past her feet and into the drain. Her skin quickly complained from the heat, especially as a large portion of it was burnt from her run to the town bus.

Stepping out of the shower, Lula wrapped a towel around herself and stared into the foggy mirror. For a few moments, Lula didn't wipe the mirror clean. Instead, she imagined what used to lay behind: the blonde hair, fuller cheeks, white eyeballs and mossy brown eyes. Lula.

Lula the woman that always gave more than she got. Lula the woman that silently mourned her father's passing, desperately trying to fill his void. Lula the woman that allowed people to determine what she deserved, instead of making those decisions and demands for herself. Lula, the girl who loved her friends and family so much, but never quite showed them.

After all this time, Lula was ready to see the woman that would stare back at her in that mirror. She didn't look like what Lula had hoped she might look like one day, but she sure acted like the woman she had dreamt of becoming. She was strong, kind, got what she gave, and when she left this room would honor her father's memory with his stories and would love with everything she had.

Lula walked out of the room to see Tammy sitting on the edge of the bed, bags packed and ready, and a steady glare focused on Lula. Rushing forwards, Lula wrapped her arms around her best friend and squeezed her until Tammy gave a little "uh."

"I love you, and I'm sorry. And I will always be here for you."

Tammy nodded and wiped away a tear. "Don't ever do that again. I don't really want you to be that kind of superhero. I just want you to be here."

"I know, I know." Lula muttered. She held onto to Tammy until she felt Tammy stir beneath her arms.

"We really should go." Tammy muttered. And with that, they picked up Tammy's two small bags, and headed out for the airport.

The coffee in Lula's hands had gone from hot to warm. She didn't mind. In this heat, she'd prefer it on ice, but somehow Argentina was slow to the mark with iced coffee.

Tammy was flipping the menu back and forth, moving her chin from palm to palm, undecisive. She didn't know what she wanted. Lula just picked whatever came with the most food. They were at an American style restaurant, with pancakes, eggs, sausage, all that. Only the eggs and sausage were much better than what you found back in the States.

"I don't fucking know." Tammy murmured.

"It's fine. We have time."

"I just, I don't know what of this will miss the mark and be disappointing, you know?"

"Yeah, but we'll be home soon, so what's one disappointing meal?"

"You know how I feel about breakfast."

"Yeah, I do." Lula laughed lightly. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, what did you tell Ren?"

"What?"

"You've been gone for three weeks now. You were only supposed to be here five days. What did you tell him."

Tammy set down her menu and fidgeted slightly. For the first time in three weeks, Lula stared at Tammy's left hand. It was bare.

"Oh my God, Tammy." She breathed. "Your ring? It's not on, is everything okay–"

Tammy waved her off. "No no everything is fine. I just took it off because I didn't want to lose it one week after getting it and I don't know everyone talks about the crime out here." She waved her hands back and forth.

"Oh."

"I just, please don't be mad. I told him you were having an adverse effect to a spider bite. Which is true!" She shot out her hand in early defense. "But then the longer we were out here and there was no sign of me coming home, well, I don't know, I didn't know what to tell him. So I opted for the truth."

"The what?" Lula stammered. She leaned forwards, frustrated she couldn't make Tammy feel guilty through her sunglasses, but she assumed the message was getting across anyhow.

"A version of the truth, anyhow."

Tammy closed her menu as the server's approach. It was a young woman with dark hair that was held back in a braid reaching to her hips, which was impressive, even if she wasn't quite five feet tall. Tammy looked at Lula expectantly.

"El ranchero." Lula said, passing up her menu to the waitress.

"The pancakes, please." Tammy requested. "And more coffee please."

The waitress nodded and walked away. Tammy looked back a Lula with a big inhale, which she held as a smile.

"They had huevos rancheros? I didn't see that on the menu."

"No, it was the one called Cowboy's Feast or something. I just said it in Spanish, sort of."

"Look at you, finally using Spanish when you're leaving the country."

"I'll take some classes when I get home." Lula said somewhat sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Anyways, tell me what you told Ren."

"Right." Tammy sighed. "I told him that you were having a very tough and shitty break up with Alberto. Which was true, and I kept telling him I'd explain more when we got home, which with every passing day was getting more difficult by the way, considering he's probably just wondering if I'm actually just having an affair with a Latin man and just not coming home."

"He said that?"

"No, but what would you think if your new fiancée had just jetted off to a Latin country where there's tons of sexy men and for some reason she can never give you a straight answer about why she keeps delaying her trip home."

"Fair enough."

"I don't know. I'll tell him whatever you want when we get back, but I needed your consent and definitely didn't want to say too much over the phone."

Lula nodded. Tammy shifted in her seat and made an uncomfortable face.

"What?"

"I want to use the bathroom but my legs are exhausted after that run down the terminal yesterday."

"At least we made the flight. Half-way home."

"Yeah but that terminal was like a mile long."

"Well maybe you should work out more." Lula teased, sticking her tongue out.

"Maybe you shouldn't run at fifteen miles an hour." Tammy said, exasperated.

Lula laughed and swirled her tepid coffee. She wondered where the server had gone. She looked at the small carafe of milk. It was less than a quarter full, she'd have to request more of that as well.

Her father poured out coffee into three mugs. Lula's mother was out at the barn mucking stalls, but she'd be in soon enough. He brought over two mugs and set them on the table. He took a moment fussing with the third, and confused Lula asked him if everything was all right. He mumbled something back over his shoulder.

When he turned around he had such a large and goofy grin on that she almost didn't notice the lit candle stuck to the handle of her mug. She tossed back her head and laughed loudly with a small clap of her hands.

"All right, here it is birthday girl." Her father set the mug down before her. "Sixteen, old enough to drink coffee. But don't forget your wish."

Her father wasn't a particularly romantic or sentimental man, but he loved birthday wishes. He believed that once a year, God gave you the chance to remember a piece of yourself you'd set aside: hope. Whatever that hope was for, it could give you the strength to great things. And so on the only day that God intended for you, on your birthday, you had the great opportunity to hope, and maybe even, to believe.

"You know, my dad always drank his coffee black." Lula spoke.

Lula didn't need to look up to know Tammy's expression: shock. She hadn't spoken about him after his death. It wasn't even just the pain that kept her quiet, it was that not a single word ever seemed to do him justice. But every day she thought of him, his words guided her, he was so far from dead, and yet she never got to listen to him talk about nature anymore, or confide in him some stupid thing her most recent boyfriend had done, or wrap her arms around him and disappear into his enormous embrace.

"He gave me a mug of coffee on my birthday, remember?" Lula looked up at Tammy, who was smiling and nodding.

"Yeah I remember, he wouldn't let you put a drop of milk or a little sugar or anything."

"I know!" Lula laughed. "God and his coffee was just sludge. Like if that's what people imagine when they talk about cowboy coffee well then they're right."

Silence fell. An angel is singing, her mother would say, when the room fell suddenly silent. It was her own, strange adaptation of a French saying.

"I noticed you didn't wear sunscreen yesterday on our run." Tammy said cautiously.

Lula nodded. "I really miss him, you know." Adjusting her sunglasses, she swept away a tear. She lifted the collar of her shirt and dabbed her nose with the inside of it. "He never, never looked scared. Not even when a fucking herd of cattle would begin stampeding at us. Not even when they told him he had five months max. I remember, he literally told the doctor: 'well, we'll see about that, College.' And then he lived another year!" She laughed and kept wiping and dabbing at her face.

Tammy reached out and placed her hand on Lula's forearm. Lula stared at her, she so badly wanted to lift her sunglasses and really see Tammy, but she wanted to get home without any issues more, and getting past security checks had been difficult enough, trying to run a story about lasik surgery on her eyes weakly fortified by a letter with Jamie's forged signature on it.

"I think he would have really liked this new me."

"Only because he just wanted you to stand up for yourself once in a while."

Lula curled in her lips. "Yeah. I know." She unconsciously tapped her spoon against the edge of her mug until Tammy put her hand over it. "Sorry."

"It's going to be fine, you know."

"It's not." Lula said, flatly, looking back at Tammy. "I look like a freak. And honestly maybe I'm better off without people–"

"You mean men."

"Yes, fine, men. Maybe I'm better off without men for a bit so I can focus on figuring out who I am, but at the same time, I'd like to get laid again one day. And maybe, maybe do all the other cheesy stuff in life like marriage, family, etcetera."

"You will."

"Sure if I find another arachno. Oh wait, I did. And he sent a lot of mixed signals as to whether he wanted me alive."

"Lula, there are people who maim themselves to look like literal cats. I'm pretty sure they still get married."

At this Lula laughed. "Yeah, at least I wasn't insane enough make myself look like this."

"Hey! Don't judge the cat people. They're just living a dream."

Lula laughed again. Tammy had always been able to change the mood of a room. Lula envied and admired her for it. "Ah Tammy, I need to figure out how to be more like you." She smiled.

"No." Tammy snapped. "Just figure out how to be more like you. It's like when people say 'oh I want her body', and it's like, 'well you're not getting it.'"

Lula put her hand up. "Tammy I know I know I know, I've heard that rant a million times. We get it, you have body positivity."

Tammy laughed and stepped off her soap box. Looking around, Lula didn't see any sign of the food coming. She stood up and excused herself to the restroom. Tammy muttered something about finding the strength to go when Lula returned.

Lula liked the Buenos Aires airport, which was good because they had four hours there. She wandered down the corridor slowly, staring at the different posters, the photos of gorgeous, bronze women running around beaches, the dark men with dazzling white smiles.

She thought of Thomas, stunning man with a stunning smile and what she imagined as an accessibly hot body. He had kept treating her so kindly even after he saw all her oddities. Even after she'd stabbed herself with a pen like a psycho. Maybe Tammy was right, maybe there would always be someone interested in her if she was willing to find him.

Lula was running down the school corridor when Tammy intercepted her. "Lula, where you goin?" Lula kept running down the hall into the girls bathroom and into a stall. Tammy followed her in.

"Lula? What's going on?"

"Michelle told Scott I like him." She sobbed.

"Um, so?"

"So! He doesn't want to say it back. He doesn't like me back!"

"Um, so?"

Lula pulled her face out of her hands and stared at the stall door. It smelled disgusting in here. She slipped her nose and mouth back into her palms. "How can you say that?" Lula spat. "Haven't you ever been rejected before? It feels horrible!"

"Lula, I'm the chubby girl. Of course I've been rejected before."

Lula bit her lip. Tammy was right. On multiple occasions she'd struck out before she'd even gotten the chance to go up to bat. Boys going out of their way to tell her they'd never date someone who looked like her. Lula reached forwards and unlatched the stall door. Tammy opened it and leaned on it.

"It's one dude in the smallest school in America. And frankly your opinion of yourself shouldn't change just because he doesn't want to make out with you. Your opinion matters, no one else's."

Lula stared idly at her hands as the power blower whooshed them dry. She left the bathroom and noticed their gate had finally changed to their flight. She looked at the board, transfixed by the words. "Buenos Aires a Dallas". And from Dallas a flight to Jackson Hole, where her mother would be waiting for her.

She fidgeted with her sunglasses, still not adjusted to seeing the world through dark lenses. She lifted them up on top of her head and saw a couple people who were walking by flinch back in fear. She dropped them back down. The world wasn't yet ready for her transformation.

Behind the kiosk was a large window with a rather incredible view of the mountains stretching away from the city. Lula walked to it and stared outwards. Her mother had told her not to lose herself in Argentina, not to give herself completely to Alberto. Lula smiled. She hadn't. She gave a small cringing smile at the memory of the bullet exploding through his hand. He deserved it.

Lula narrowed in her focus on the mountains. They were so different from the ones in Wyoming. Closing her eyes, she thought of the mountains back home, untouchable beasts of the world rising from the earth. They were nature's reminder that for all its power, mankind was infinitesimal. And when Lula finally stood in their shadows once more, she'd know she was finally home. She was finally free.