Here you go!
Arachnophobia
Alana sat in the parlor as she heard Nexie descend down the stairs and into the kitchen. She rolled her eyes and continued reading the medical journals she recently bought. A day and half had passed and Diana refused to come home along with Jules. Alana felt something was off but she couldn't tell what. She didn't understand the hate she had for her cousin, she was angry all the time. She heard Nexie go back up stairs and slam the door.
She continued to read, she wasn't sure how long had passed until she heard a knock on the door. Lately, time seemed to blur together, day and night passed quickly as the two stayed in the house. Neither trusted the other and it was getting worse and worse each day. Getting up she walked over towards the front door, unlocking all four of the locks, the doorknob lock, the deadbolt, the chain and the holder for the wooden plank she would place a cross the door for extra protection.
She opened the door cautiously and peered. On the other side was someone she wished she didn't have to see "What do you want?"
She watched at Godric, Eric and Pam stood on the other side. They observed her carefully, "You don't look well." Pam said quietly. Dark eyes glared at the blonde, in a cold and calculating fashion. She stood still, guarded and silent as she held the door blocking the entrance.
"Can we come in?" Eric said in a bored tone.
"Why? So you can take my cousin and run off again." She snapped.
"Let him in Alana." Turning her head, she was met by the angry stare of Nexie on the stairwell. Opening the door she turned around, "Shut up."
"Don't be so bitter you old haggy bitch."
Alana growled, "I'll stop being bitter when you stop breathing and are six feet underground."
"I'd like to see you try." Nexie walked over and said close to her face.
"I'd like to try." The older mermaid challenged.
Pushing her hand off the door way, the three vampires walked in to see the house in a terrible state. Broken ceramic littered the floor, all the shades were drawn leaving no light except for the indoor lighting. Alana grabbed a bottle of wine and pulled the cork out with her teeth. Through half drunken from last night, she still smiled as if it was new. Nexie stared at her as she came out from the kitchen, "I didn't say they could come in." Alana said in a monotoned voice.
Nexie shrugged and smiled sadistically, "No one ever listens to you anyways."
He eyes shifted towards the trio, "Get out."
The three stood there not moving, "We need to talk." Eric said with a stern look. He made his into the dinning room noting the dirty dishes all along the top. "The maenad, the one who came to town, placed a curse on you."
"He's lying." Nexie turned to Alana.
"No, I am not." Eric said in an annoyed fashion, "Your mother flew down here with your sisters. They are working on reversing the curse as we speak."
"You called my mother? How pathetic." Alana said sadistically. Eric chose to ignore her comment and continued. "It's called Tithonus's curse. When placed it-"
"-I know what the curse does. We don't have that. Now get out." The older mermaid said sharply. "We aren't leaving you. It's for your safety." Godric said in a smooth voice filled with authority.
Nexie scoffed, "Yeah because giving yourself up to humans is a safe thing to do."
Nexie turned to her cousin and spoke in their ancient tongue, "We need them out of here."
"Don't you think I know that? I don't trust them." Alana hissed back.
"They're lying. Lillian would never come here to help them."
Alana began pulled off her sweatshirt to reveal her patchy skin along with her tank top, speaking in urgency they knew none of them knew their account tongue, "What do you think they want with us." She began scratching her chest rapidly.
Nexie shook her head, "I think- I think they want to kill us." Alana's eyes widened.
"What?"
"Look at them, They want to trick us and pretend to help us and once we let our guard down, they will slaughter us." Alana eyes peered over to see Eric and Godric in a deep conversation as Pam played on her phone.
"Tithonus's curse, rarely used by anyone but is deadly drawing out episodes of paranoia and aggression, and soon resulting in death." Marina said as she read from her books. "Did you know that many believe that the curse was placed on the people of Roanoke, the first colony in America. Whether its true of not is unknown. It's a plausible theory. Some say the people of the colony mated with the natives or gone into hysteria killing one another."
"So in other words they went batshit and killed everyone and our sister and cousin meet the same fate. Charming." Cleo spoke in a dead panned voice. Marina sat a the table in Fangtasia surrounded by books. Her hair was golden blonde which contrasted against her sister's icy blonde colored hair. Marina was the perfect mix of her mother and father, her features screamed her father's genetics while her other attributes such as her hair color were the same as her mother's. She was much more bubbly than her sister Cleo, who was the spitting image of her mother in every way possible.
Marina was the know it all of the family, always spewing facts that were unknown and always had to outsmart anyone and everyone, where as Cleo was the braun, calculating and manipulating people into doing what she wanted. Then the baby of the family, Alana was the heart, the one who believe in all things good. As children the three were fairly close but as they aged they distanced themselves. Cleo liked her isolated lifestyle and moved to be a talent agent moving to London, following her mother's path. While Marina, became a school teacher and married her long time lover, Lucas and soon gave birth to a son named James and the newest addition to their little family, Amira. She stayed in Greece, close to their family's clan.
Cleo stood sticking at the age of 35, her prime but her true age was mere years older than her two sisters. Marina on the other hand looked as if she was just entering her adult years, she looked young and lively at the age of 20. Godric looked at her confused, "What's the origin of this curse?"
"Oh well, it's a rather intricate story."
Rolling her eyes, Cleo looked at Godric, "Well you've certainly started her up."
Ignoring her sister's comment she began, "Well legend has it he was the son of the King of Troy," Eric sat alongside his maker after getting off the phone with Pam. After she reassured him no one killed themselves or each other yet, as she babysat the two cousins. "He fell in love with the goddess of the dawn, Aurora. He never failed to leave his bed while it was still dark, to watch her coming. And she loved him in return. One day she flew up to the king of the gods and begged him to give her a draught of nectar to allow Tithonus to become immortal. She forgot to ask for his youth to stay intact, as the years went on he withered away, never dying but sickly. In hope to relieve his pain she turned him into insects and released him onto earth, to roam freely."
Her fingers played with the edge of the page, clearing her throat she continued, "The curse is based on that very legend. It has been said that the insects released mayhem, people collected them and hid them so no one would ever suffer at the hands of Tithonus. But when bitten by one of the insects, a venom is released causing this hysteria. His paranoia with getting old and his frustrating demeanor with aging all are symptoms. The headaches and itchiness are part of it as well. Those who aren't immune become fed up and lose their minds and without a target to focus their anger on, they kill one another."
"Well, how do we stop it?" Eric said in an annoyed tone. "We can't let them kill each other."
"Well, if we knew how, we would be stopping it, Viking." Cleo snapped.
"Actually there is a way."
All there heads snapped to see Lillian standing at the doorway. "How? I've searched everywhere?" Marina questioned.
"Fret not darling. The answer is simple, actually doing is the hard part. You have to kill the bug."
Cleo scoffed, "Anyone know an exterminator?"
"It appears in the form of a grasshopper or a spider. Since I was told they were bitten, it's most likely a spider."
Godric looked at her with confusion, "So you kill the spider, you kill the curse?"
"So I've been told, Death."
Cleo looked around at the group, "Is anyone ignoring the fact that if we go in that house, we may run the risk of getting bitten."
"Lana?" Sam opened the door and entered the house, he could tell it wasn't good from the state of the house. "Alana? It's me, Sam." No one answered, "Nexie?"
Nexie appeared around the corner and placed a sword by his back poking him, he turned around quickly to be greeted with it near his abdominal area. "Whoa, Nex, it's me." Nexie's eyes were hauntingly dark as if she didn't recognize him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to check up on you guys, Eric told me about Tithonus curse. I wanted to make-"Sam was quickly interrupted with a swift hit in the head. Falling down, Nexie looked at Alana who stared and held a pot in her hand.
"What did you do that for?" Nexie shrieked and pointed to him.
"He- he knew. He knew about the curse, he was in on it too."
Nexie looked at him, "What do we do with him?"
"Tie him up."
Alana looked inside the pot and rolled her eyes, "Dish. Dirty." She pointed towards it.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Pam shifted uncomfortably and hissed from the feeling of her silver chains, "Did you guys really knock him out?" She asked in an annoyed tone laced with boredom.
"Shut up. He knew about the lie you told us. He was going to kill us." The purple haired girl snapped at her.
"Of course he knew you fucking idiot, he was guarding the outside and if he didn't hear from me in a while, he was suppose to check up on me." Nexie continued tying him with rope. She muttered to herself continuously as she hit her ear. "I know that... I'll get her next... Piss off." She whispered to herself.
"You'll get who next?" Nexie stood up and turned around, "What? What are you talking about?" Nexie attempted to compose herself and act clueless but Alana didn't buy it.
The T.V. blared in the background as she approached her, "Were you going to kill me?"
"What? No, no."
"After all that I have done for you, for us..."
Nexie's eyes wondered towards the T.V. screen behind Alana, "Kill her. Kill her before she kills you. You know she will." The man on the T.V. taunted her while giving the forecast.
"Can you stop watching television for five fucking seconds?"
Alana pulled Nexie out of the trance and caused her to snap back into reality. She looked back at the T.V. to see everything back to normal, "1 to 2 inches of rain is expected in Baton Rouge the next two days. I'm Dan Mueller with the weather, back to you Diane."
"Unbelievable." Alana shook her head and walked out of the music room that was adjacent to the parlor.
Nexie followed her out, "What are we going to do with them?"
Alana didn't turn around, she stood there staring at the ground. "Hello?"
Nexie eerily walked towards her cousin and stopped when she turned around. "I'm so hungry."
Nexie walked back, "We have some cantaloupe left.."
"Not for that."
Nexie darted the other way, passing the music room, "Nexie! Come on!" Alana ran after her and stopped, hearing the door slam and lock shut. Pam could see her knife in her hand, she knew exactly what she had planned for Nexie. Alana's head snapped towards Pam and walked towards her, Pam immediately knew the minute she had her share of life force she would be almost indestructible.
"What's wrong?" Alana taunted, "It's okay. I'll save you for last." She watched as Alana inhaled Sam's scent and brought a leg over him in order to straddle him. Pam knew how this would play out and she wasn't happy that she was forced to babysit two psychopaths.
Sam began to come to, "Lana?"
"Shhh." His eyes opened wide to be met with Alana's glowing orbs, he shook his head. "Alana. Stop. You won't be able to control yourself, you will kill me."
She shifted herself against him, and maybe in any other moment it would've undoubtedly attractive but at this moment he was actually fearful.
"Alana cut the shit out." Pam yelled. Ignoring her she leaned in to kiss Sam.
Pam had one chance to stop her and she knew just the thing that would bait her, "You are just like Nexie, you never think." Alana turned to face her with angry eyes, she gripped her knife and threw it at Pam who bared her fangs at her. Watching the blood curiously she got off of Sam. She leaned towards Pam's arm, her tongue lapped up the blood. It tasted like sweet ambrosia but Alana was quickly pulled out of her trance.
"Oh my gods. Pam?" Alana looked up startled. "What the hell?"
She heard Nexie scream in the other room. "Nexie!"
She quickly stood up at ran towards the basement door. Running down the stairs as fast as she could she was pushed into the mini bar of the family room. Too focused on the fact she landed on glass, she heard the door slam."Nex?"
Pushing up from the counter she looked up at the stairs and banged on the door loudly and could hear Nexie laughing. "Nex, it me. I think were under a curse. I'm going to get us out of here." She turned around and huffed.
She spotted the house phone and quickly dialed Eric's number.
"It's their house."
Eric clicked the green accept button and put the call on speaker phone. "Eric?"
"Alana."
"Eric! She locked me in the basement. Nexie is still under the curse."
"You aren't?"
"No, Pam's blood must have pulled me out of it." Eric continued to watch the house with everyone listening to their phone call.
"I'm coming in."
"Northman, you cannot do that." Cleo advised. "The curse is still on there. For all we know this could be a trick. We have to assume everyone in there has been bitten."
"Cleo? What? No, Nexie is the only one under the curse. What am I suppose to do down here?"
Lillian grabbed the phone and spoke into it, "Alana, listen carefully. You are the only one who can reverse this curse."
"How?"
"You have to kill the spider. It will try to attack you again because you are no longer under the curse."
Alana looked up at the corner of the basement ceiling, there it was staring at her, "It wouldn't happen to look like a giant black widow about the size of my hand, would it?"
"You would choose me over her, right guys?"
Pam rolled her eyes, "For the hundredth time, yes. Now can you untie us already?"
Nexie swallowed and scratched her head. She began taking of the silver binds on Pam's hands and feet. Alana began screaming and banging on the door, pushing herself out of the chair, Pam ran to open the door. Alana ran out and threw the phone at the massive spider that crawled on the wall. "You have to kill it. Kill it!"
Nexie didn't seemed to pleased with the fact Alana was out from the basement. Grabbing Sam's gun from his holster and she pointed it at Alana, Pam edged towards Alana causing Nexie to laugh, "Wooden bullets. I wouldn't get so close."
"Pam, the curse, the source is the spider. You have to kill it." Alana whispered towards her. "Nexie, it's me."
"Yeah I know. That's why I'm going to enjoy this." Alana darted and ran behind the opposite side of the stairwell, Nexie missed her shot by a hair as she pulled the trigger. Alana eyed the bullet fragment in the wall. "Oh fuck."
"Come on don't be such a wimp."
Pam scurried to find the spider but, it was out of sight. "Fucking greek curse bullshit. I swear, Eric is better make this up to me big time."
"No...no.. Shoo! Fuck, fuck, fuck." Pam turned around to see the spider crawl up towards Sam's leg as he stayed there still tied up.
Pam searched around and found the sword Nexie wielded around earlier.
She could hear Nexie getting closer to Alana. "You know, it's been a nice run but we need a big finale." Nexie said as she rounded the corner to Alana.
"Nex, stop. Please."
Grabbing the sword, Pam cut the large spider in half, ultimately killing it. She watched as it fell from it's legs. She turned to hear Nexie scream, "Oh my god. Holy shit."The gun trembled in her hands. "It's over, it's over."
Alana embraced her cousin as Godric and Eric were the first to come into the house. Pam turned to look at them with an angry expression, "You fucking own me big time."
Eric smirked infamously and walked over towards her, "Expect nothing less."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I wanted to pull the trigger. I actually wanted to. I almost shot you." Nexie shook her head at her cousin. "And you know the worst part of it all?"
Alana looked at her cousin with questioning eyes, "It was a spider, this was all because of a spider." She laughed as Alana nodded, "It's okay, we are all good now."
But Alana's statement didn't put either one at ease.
