The Impossible Basement
Part Four
"Are you listening to me?" She could still hear his voice through the door. "Oh, of course not! Why should that come as a surprise?"
Jane, balancing little Sophie on her hip, tugged Aaron slowly down the stairs with her. There was a faint glow from the nightlight at the bottom of the stairs, but beyond that, the basement was completely dark.
"No!" Aaron cried with each step. "There's monsters down here!"
"There's a bad man upstairs, Aaron," Jane said. Sophie started to cry. Jane raised her voice to be heard. "And there are no monsters down here. I've told you that."
Aaron ripped his little hand out of hers and hugged the railing. "No!"
"Aaron Marshall Tillman! You get down here right now!" Jane didn't even realize she sounded exactly like her mother just then.
"Aaron, listen to me!" the man said, voice muffled behind the door, but urgent. "You're right, there are monsters down there."
That, of course, caused Aaron to start sobbing.
"Oh, you are so getting arrested, buddy!" Jane shouted up the stairs. "I'm calling the cops right now!"
"I will call the cops for you if it means you open this door and get out of there!"
Between both Sophie and Aaron, Jane could barely hear what the man was saying. "Yeah right!" She yelled back up the stairs.
Jane turned around, back on her hunt for the phone. She paused for a second as she looked around the basement. Were her eyes playing games with her? It looked like the floor was shimmering, moving, as if it were alive.
Shushing Sophie to no avail, Jane switched the toddler to her other hip. She took a step further into the basement. Her head brushing against a spider web. Twitching, Jane batted at the air. Her fingers caressed something soft and warm.
She looked up.
Two large, beady eyes were staring at her. Worse than that, two fangs glimmered in the dim light.
Screaming, Jane stumbled back onto the stairs.
"What's wrong?" the man pounded on the door. "Get out of there!"
A shadow, darker than anything she had ever seen, slowly untwisted from the ceiling, long feelers inching toward her. Something growled.
Strangling a scream, Jane turned, running as fast as she could up the stairs, grabbing Aaron on the way. She dropped his hand just long enough to unbolt the door, fling it open, and push them all out of the basement. The man took a few steps back, clutching at his face where she had hit him with the door.
Jane slammed it shut behind them.
"What. Was. That?" she asked. She spun to the man as if he were the reason for the monster in the basement.
Sophie was still screaming in her ear and Aaron clung to her leg like his life depended on it.
The man righted himself, still rubbing his nose. "Ow, by the way."
Jane glared at him. "Answer the question!"
"All right, but first..." the man put a finger to his lips. "Shush."
Miraculously, both the kids stopped crying.
Impressed despite herself, Jane blinked. The man smiled, cocky.
"What did you see?" he asked.
"Well, there was this giant thing..."
"No, not you," the man waved his hand, cutting her off. He walked in front of her, smiling down at Sophie. "What did you see?"
Sophie started to babble unintelligibly.
"Oh, I see," the man said, nodding. "Big scary thing with legs. Never good."
"You're kidding me, right?" Jane said, momentarily forgetting what was in the basement.
The man just shrugged. "Kids tend to notice more things than adults."
"I could have told you that." Jane raised her eyebrow. "Besides, she's only one."
"I speak baby. Don't I, Princess Butterfly?"
Sophie, of all things, giggled.
"Besides, I doubt you noticed the swarm while you were down there. Too busy screaming, wasn't she?" He winked at Sophie conspiratorially.
"You can't-" Jane started, but quailed under the expectant gaze of the man. What good would arguing with him do? "What's down there?" She asked instead.
"Ah. Yes. Well, if the sonic screwdriver is correct," He grinned at Aaron who watched the laser pointer with interest. "And it usually is. Just so long as there aren't any hair dryers running…" He looked around dubiously. "I'll sort that later. But it looks like you've got a bit of an Arthropoda infestation."
"So…what does that mean?" The name didn't sound familiar, and she felt like she would have remembered something like a Godzilla with fangs, even if she hadn't always paid close attention in biology.
"Oh, well. It's an alien."
"Aliens?" Aaron sounded like the idea was even less appealing than monsters.
"Oh, not to worry. They're perfectly harmless. Well. Mostly." He ruffled Aaron's hair cheerfully. The way he said 'mostly' made Jane nervous. "Just think of them like warm cuddly spiders."
Aaron's eyes grew wide as saucers and even Jane felt a heavy lump form in her throat. The man noticed their fearful expressions and made a face.
"Oh, I've got that wrong haven't I? Spiders, not cuddly. Still on the scary list…" He trailed off, making a mental note. "Forget the spiders then. Think of them like…warm cuddly rabbits!" He grinned. "With eight legs. Sometimes. And fangs. And they're capable of being, really, quite large when there are enough of them." He opened his arms wide to imply the scale. "Just a bit poisonous. They only feed on void energy though, not to worry." He smiled reassuringly. "Of course, there is the, occasional organic matter…oh. Never mind." He scowled.
"There's a giant spider monster in my brother's basement?" Jane said in a high-pitched voice.
"Basically." He admitted with a frown. He clapped his hands together and pointed to Aaron. "Now, you're a brave lad, I'm going to need you to take your sister for just one moment." Jane was alarmed at how quickly Aaron was willing to trust this stranger. She reluctantly handed Sophie over, not sure what he intended.
"Now…what was your name?" He was smiling at her in a placating kind of way that worried her.
"Jane. Jane Tillman" The door to the basement rattled a little and she heard what she thought were claws skittering across the wood.
"Lovely, it's nice to meet you. Now Jane. I'm going to need you to do your very best not to scream.,." he said delicately, and then she realized he wasn't looking at her face, he was looking lower. If she wasn't half-terrified already she might have called him a pervert. But once she looked down, she realized his focus was elsewhere. He was looking at the red sticky stain on her shirt.
There was a rather uncomfortably large spider pressed against it. Its legs fluttered along the shirt, clinging to the fabric. The edges of the thing were still blurry, confusingly hard to make out.
Except now she was close enough to see why, it didn't really have edges. This wasn't one giant spider, it was dozens of them, all somehow linked together. Her shirt was covered in tiny spiders that were intelligent enough to look like a larger one. Tiny alien spiders. That sometimes fed on organic matter.
"Oh shit." She mumbled, unable to breathe enough to scream.
"Swear jar!" Aaron helpfully reminded her.
Jane ignored him. "Get them off me!" Her hands started shaking and every instinct screamed to brush the tiny insects off.
As if knowing what she was about to do, the Doctor grabbed her, holding her arms down. "Don't move," he warned. Jane's muscles tensed. "Don't scream. You'll just aggravate them."
"And then what?" she asked, voice shaking. The giant spider kept slowly crawling up the front of her shirt. The long legs whispered against the thin fabric. Now that she knew they were there, she was acutely aware of each step it took, inevitably leading to her face.
"If they're aggravated, they'll attack. Which would be very... not good." The Doctor released her taking a step back. "Now... just stay still. This may feel a bit... weird." He pulled the green laser pointer thing out of the inner breast pocket of his coat and pointed it at her. She tensed as it started whirring.
Her skin felt like her entire body was covered in static electricity. She felt all the hair on her body stand on end. The spider burst into not dozens, but hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny black little spiders. The dots ran down her body to the floor, scattering to the basement door, disappearing beneath it.
Sighing in relief, Jane relaxed. "That wasn't so bad."
Aaron and Sophie started to giggle. Even the Doctor was biting back a smile. The three of them were looking at her... no, they were laughing at her.
"What?" she asked.
"Auntie Jane, your hair is sticking up!" Aaron said before bursting into a fit of laughter.
Jane looked to her right where there was a mirror next to the front door. Aaron was right; she looked like she just got electrocuted.
"What? How?" She tried to smooth down her hair to no avail.
The Doctor cleared his throat. "Arthropoda don't like static electricity. You might not want to touch a doorknob or a person for about five minutes, though. Give it a chance to dissipate. Now!" He clapped his hands together. "I suggest you all go somewhere not here. How about ice cream?"
"I'm not leaving," Jane said, turning away from the mirror.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Why do they never listen? Think of the children, Jane!" The sentence seemed to surprise him. "Oh, that is not something I thought I would say. Again." He shook his head. "It's not safe here. For you or them."
Jane hesitated, looking at Aaron and Sophie. They probably should leave. If that... those things in the basement got out... "I thought you said they were harmless?"
"No, not really... but..."
"You said they were like bunnies," Aaron added.
"Right, but..."
"Then why should we have to leave?" Jane asked, hands on her hips. Her attempt to look imposing failed due to her hair still floating over her head.
The Doctor flailed. "All right! I lied. They're very dangerous! They like to eat little kids for supper!" He stomped to the front door. "Now, if you will just leave..." He opened the door, took a quick look outside, and then shut it again. He leaned his back against it like he was trying to prevent someone from entering. On second thought... let's go upstairs."
"Why?" Jane asked, stomping over to the window. She looked outside.
The front yard, the sidewalk, even the walls of the outside of the house were covered in tiny black dots. And smack dab in the middle of the yard... a giant spider. There must have been thousands, maybe millions of them out there.
"Oh you're joking." Her stomach was feeling all sorts of queasy.
"Upstairs then? Yes? Now would be preferable." The Doctor was pushing Aaron up the stairs, along with Sophie who was tucked in his arms. The Doctor saw Jane was still glued in front of the window, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene outside. It was some kind of living nightmare.
"Jane? Will you be joining us?"
"You." She finally spun from the window, leveling a glare at him.
"Yes. Me. Upstairs. Let me know when you're ready for the big words again." He gestured impatiently. She crossed the room, but instead of following Aaron she stopped in front of the Doctor and aimed her finger like a weapon right at his nose. She felt the sharp spark jump from her skin even before she made contact. If the lights had been out, she probably would have been able to see the bolt.
"Ow!" The Doctor jumped back, clutching his nose. "What was that for?" he asked in an irritable way. Already her skin felt less crawly. She ran a hand through her hair, assured that while it was still a bit of a mess, it wasn't completely vertical any longer.
"This is all your fault." She accused him. Aaron was waiting at the top of the stairs, watching them both with some alarm.
"My fault?" He asked her bewildered. Sophie gurgled in her brother's arms. "No no, princess, I want to hear what she has to say." Jane realized he was pretending to talk to the baby again. He was completely insane.
"Yes, you, with your…baby talking, and general weirdness! And your bow tie!" She added as an afterthought. "You were with those things on the train andin the hospital. They've been following you and you brought them here!" She felt quite satisfied with the logic of her argument, even if it didn't sound as impressive out loud.
"I'll have you know my general weirdness has absolutely nothing to do with it," he said severely. "In fact, they've been following you because you're covered in void stuff from whatever is going on in that basement of yours. I'm only trying to help sort it, but so far all I've got is a rather bruised nose to show for it." He frowned. "And bow ties are cool."
"Following me?" She said in a small voice. She hated the idea that she could have put Marshall's kids in danger. What was she going to do? How could she possibly explain all this to her brother? What if something happened? "Oh god." She whispered.
"Well, no. Sorry. Not exactly." The Doctor sensed her dismay and his annoyance faltered. "I mean, they were already here. There's a rather large pocket of void energy in your basement, I think. You've got some on yourself, so a few stragglers followed you, but…well, they're rather minor when you compare them with the rest of the swarm." He shrugged.
"Oh." If he had meant his words to be reassuring, he had failed. She could think of nothing good in relation to the word 'swarm'.
"Not to worry," He grinned cheerfully. "I've got a plan."
"Oh good. What do we do?"
"Er…well. I'm still working on the specifics-" He faltered, avoiding her gaze.
"So, what you're saying," She sighed and gave him a sharp look. "Is that you don't have a plan?"
He opened his mouth to protest, but then thought better of it. "Basically. No."