TriNymphs - Chapter Fifteen - What Sharp Pincers You Have! (Disclaimer on my profile)
Lyssa was shackled to a rusty hospital operating table, water leaked through the stone ceiling and landed on her foot. The table slowly filled with water until she was floating in it slightly and it started to pour over the edge.
The man, who she assumed had stuck her in here, had just left the little rectangular room. He seemed somewhat familiar, but Lyssa could not place him. Her mind was foggy, the result of muggle anaesthetic. She gave up on placing the man, for now, and tried to remember what had happened before she woke to find herself in this dismal place.
She remembered being in the library. The rest of the school was out at the Quidditch game. Quidditch games were the only time Lyssa was completely alone, Chelsea wouldn't miss them and couldn't very well guilt Alex into staying with her when she wasn't. Lyssa was secretly happy for the time alone. She liked to brood about things, and Chelsea always attempted to make her think happy thoughts.
She remembered turning around, because she heard footsteps. There was no one there, she waited for a while, searching the area before her intently. Then there was a footstep behind her, she snapped her head around to see who it was, but there was no one in sight.
She only got one glimpse of the utter deserted-ness of the library before something smashed against her head and everything went black. The headache she got when she finally woke up from her dream was a bitch.
It held no clue that she could see as to the identity of the man, who kept his face covered by the baggy hood on his cloak. He had left the candle on a small table next to the only door out of the room. It was made out of metal, and was, by far, the most sturdy-looking thing in the room.
The candle flickered and only lit half of the room, Lyssa strained her neck to see the wall closest to her feet, which was the only one completely visible. There was nothing of interest, except a small hook next to the door, on which her regular clothes were hanging. She was now dressed in hospital attire, and felt sick when she realized this, because she did not change into this herself.
The wall on her right is partially lit, there was nothing over there either except for the chains coming from the wall. Lyssa had seen those earlier and surmised that this used to be a dungeon, but the chains were rusted, like everything else in the room, and so probably hadn't been used in decades. At least.
There was an odd smell, like chalk, and Lyssa turned to try and see the other side of the room. It was buried in shadows, which her eyes briefly battled against. And lost. She sighed and let her head fall back onto the table, just as the door screeched open.
Chelsea and Alex ran screaming through the forest, being chased by hundreds of many legged beings. When they first walked into the clearing they had both been frozen with fear. Alex had recovered quickly and was more terrified of the giant carnivorous spiders then of what her sister might do to her later, so she ran screaming through the forest.
Her screaming snapped Chelsea back into motion, and she followed suit, running after her sister. Though she didn't scream, because with her mobility had come a small bit of common sense. If you scream while you run you wont be able to run as far, therefore Alex would tire out before her.
She didn't have to out run the spiders, just Alex. Mind you the fact that she had a head start wasn't helping; but, Chelsea was in far better shape though from years of Quidditch training while Alex went into the next village and bought smoothies. She quickly caught up to her sister, then passed her.
They had been running about fifteen minutes now, and were near the edge of the forest almost back in the clear open space.
Or they would have been if Alex had gone running and screaming in the right direction. Around the time Chelsea passed her, Alex had realized this. Unfortunately, now that she was closest to the acromantula there was no chance of her being able to turn around.
She screeched up to Chelsea, "Open your damnable portal already!"
Chelsea, who had by now also realized they were going in the wrong direction but was unable to turn and find another route realized that this was indeed, a good idea.
She concentrated on a spot twenty steps in front of her, a portal behind her would do no good. To her at least. The original plan had been to make a portal to Dominic's house in hell. Unfortunatly panic had taken over Chelsea's mind and she instead made one to beside the lake, deciding anywhere but here was good enough. She concentrated to the point of having a headache, and after ten seconds that felt like a millennia, the portal opened, right as Chelsea tripped over a tree root and face planted the ground. Ten steps to safety
The door of Lyssa's rectangular prison screeched open and her captor entered, face still concealed. All but the bottom part of his face was hidden in shadow, his face -or what she could see of it anyway- was wrinkled and lined, he looked old.
His mouth was in a smirk as he slowly advanced toward her, taking his time in creeping her the hell out. He stopped when he was behind her head, and she lost sight of him for the most part. However, he was kind enough to hold the enormous needle he pulled out of some pocket in his cloak above her head for a moment so she could see it.
He grabbed her by the hair and roughly pulled her head up, he stuck the needle into her spine, and she screamed. He held it in place for about a minute while it filled with spinal fluid, then walked over to a small table -out of Lyssa's sight- hold vials of variously coloured potions.
He added the spinal fluid to some of them, and made notes on which colour they turned. "Ah," he said to himself once he had finished, "You'll do perfectly."
Lyssa was strapped down on the table, hyperventilating as he walked towards her. She thought to herself, "I haven't got a snowballs chance in hell."
Alex caught up to her sister a second after she fell, Chelsea's ankle had been twisted and it hurt like a bitch. Alex ran in front of her and pulled her up, just as the first acromantula reached them and lunged for her leg.
"Help me walk, I'll shoot spells at them," Alex nodded as Chelsea kicked out at the front spider with her good leg. Alex wrapped her arm around her sisters waist, supporting her as they walked backwards and shot spells as fast as they could. Unfortunately, being first years, they hadn't learnt many good ones.
"Wingardium Leveosa," Alex shot several of the spiders in the air, on at a time, dumping them onto their scurrying kin. Nothing the two did slowed the acromantula for long, having eight legs apparently made it very easy for them to right themselves, and get detangled from the others.
Just when they were about to come upon them in masses, the sisters stumbled backwards into the portal, landing on their butts. Chelsea closed it the second they got through, cutting one of the lead spiders in half and letting two others through. They both made a beeline for Chelsea's wounded leg. Alex quickly got up and went to jump on one of them, and squish the damn thing.
She would have too if there hadn't been an explosion from the middle of the lake, sending a mini-tidal wave over the land and sweeping the two terrier sized spiders away. Once they got their footing on land again they scurried back into the forest, giving up on the hope of having one human each for supper.
It wasn't worth drowning, since the lake was apparently attacking them too. They grabbed their dead kin's front half for supper and hurried off for a quiet place to chow down.
Chelsea had given up on moving, and was lying face down on the muddy ground. She was beyond caring what caused the mini-tsunami. She had held her breath when it had gone over her, whilst holding onto the ground so she wouldn't get swept into the spiders.
The wave was gone quickly and she didn't have too much trouble holding her breath for the majority of the time. Alex, on the other hand, was standing up and didn't need to worry about it as the wave had only gone to her waist.
The water seeped back into the lake as Alex stared at it curiously. All thoughts of their sister was temporarily wiped from their minds as they simultaneously thought, "I am not getting into that, I've had enough action for today."
Just as they thought that, Alex saw a shadow-esque shape rising to the top of the lake. It stuck it's top end above the water. Alex backed away a step from this weird looking thing as it slowly advanced toward the two.
She was debating whether to leave Chelsea or not.