Spiderweb
Chapter 2- Blood
He slipped on a patch of ice, and for one agonizing moment, feared he would fall. But he managed to painfully regain his balance, awkwardly skidding on the snow-covered slope.
His muscles were starting to fail him, and Draco knew he would soon collapse, torn by overexertion and injuries.
He was getting dizzy ...
The brutal beating of his heart inside his chest, his exhausted muscles, the shock, blood loss ... He gritted his teeth.
Surrender was not an option.
Before him stood the trees of the Dark Forest. Closer, closer as he ran. Soon, he saw well enough their twisted branches like skeletal fingers covered in thorns. The mist swirled around gray trunks covered by moss and black bark, crawling languidly in the dark and the cold light of the moon, which could barely penetrate the first tree line.
Beyond it darkness was absolute.
Unpredictable blackness that seemed to contain a thousand insect whispers, hollow murmurs, broken hisses. Death and agony, floating in stagnant, humid, air.
He felt his breathing quicken even more. A shudder violently swept the curve of his spine. The temperature seemed to descend, as he approached the place.
Behind him, the screams were becoming stronger, more violent, more urgent.
'They are afraid to follow me into the dark forest.'
Their terror, betrayed by the desperate barrage of spells.
Light rays and explosions, illuminated the night, trying to stop him at any price.
He zigzagged wobbly, barely dodging them. A feat more the result of luck, and the nervousness of his attackers,than of his exhausted reflexes.
His eyesight began to mist, Draco's head throbbed painfully, like something bloated and clumsy. But he didn't allow his pace to slacken. If he could reach the forest and hide in the fog, perhaps he could lose his pursuers. And if he didn't disturb the woods too much, perhaps they will not feel threatened enough to attack him.
A near impossible possibility. Noone who had penetrated beyond the edge of the damn place, following the closure of its frontiers, had survived.
It was a bad choice against another even worse.
And before being captured, tortured, broke down to the last bit of himself, and forced to reveal the secrets of the order ... He chose this. A way to die way to faster and less painful, than that which awaited him at the Dark Lord's hands. And one that wouldn't endanger his loved ones.
He passed the first line of trees, running with increasingly weak legs, and began to delve into the strange atmosphere without loosening his crazy pace. Stumbling against roots he could not see in the dark, slipping on snow and ice, about to collapse from exhaustion.
"Stop it Malfoy!"
The roar behind him was accompanied by a violent explosion, just half a meter from where he was. This time the spell was more powerful, driven by fear, and the desperate longing of the launcher.
The blast threw around rocks, pieces of bark ... snow powder that blinded him for a moment. As the strength of the impact threw him against one of the trees, with the force of a monstrous sledgehammer.
His spinal cord collided with a sickening sound of broken bones. His skull creaked ominously. His palms, in an attempt to cushion the blow, tore against the bark, spilling hot blood on the snow, and imprinting the red mark of his hands on the wood.
His left arm gave a howling whiplash of pain, and he would have screamed, had the impact not ripped away the oxygen from his lungs.
He moaned softly, as his body slid slowly down the bark to collapse in the snow. An icy mattress that eased, if marginally, the burning pain that consumed him. His eyelashes fluttered erratically, about to fall unconscious.
His brain seemed about to stop.
The blade of pain too aggressive for such battered housing.
His whole body was shutting down. The only clear feeling in the haze of agony, was feeling the wet snow that melted slowly against his cheek.
But…. the crunch of the footsteps of his pursuers, the sound of their sadistic laughter, the rustling of their robes...
'Dammit Draco, stay awake!' He shouted inside to wake himself.
Draco blinked, just getting back to reality.
"What do you think we do with Malfoy?" someone asked in a voice that reminded him, of something stale and dirty. "Why don't we have some fun, before handing him over to the Dark Lord?" Lust dripped from the words, like putrid mire. The chorus of nods and vulgar comments, made Draco frown in disgust, but he did not move, could not.
Hands grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, turning him, until he was left lying on his back, on snow and ice. Around him, like a pack of miserable jackals, he felt the presence of six Death Eaters.
The black robes silhouetted them against the white snowy atmosphere, and the shadows of their hoods, hided their faces and masks, making of them strange creatures, with barely any features, beyond the sharp curves of their lascivious smiles.
He offered them an icy stare.
Draco had spent years knowing this day might come, and had not sacrificed so much and fought to this point, to collapse now.
"Well, well, it seems he still has pride ¿e? We'll fix it fast" The closest jester kicked him hard, making the blond man take a sharp breath, struggling not to cry out.
Definitely he had at least one broken rib.
Then, metal shone suddenly, and the icy cold night lambasted his skin when the Death Eater ripped his robe in half. A cut that opened the fabric from his neck to the base of his pubis.
He cursed inwardly.
In his haste to escape from Malfoy Mannor, he barely had enough time to put on the robe. And unfortunately, under, he did not wear anything more.
'If I survive this, I will not sleep naked again.'
"What a delicious morsel. Dont you think?" For his unpleasant voice, Draco knew he was not more than thirty years. Cruel laughter erupted around him. That idiot, really, had made himself into the impromptu leader of the group.
"Come on! Teach him who's boss!"
"Tame him!"
"Let us hear his screams!"
At his companion's words, he puffed out his chest with undisguised pride, anf leaned over him.
Draco gave him a dirty look. The putrid breath of the man touched his face.
"Anything to say Malfoy? Or has the cat eaten your tongue?" he laughed at his own joke, while the others chanted obscenities, unaware of the subtle hand movement of the blond.
He had spotted his attacker's wand, poorly stored in the pocket in the heat of the moment. If he stretched a little more ...
Something moved in the darkness behind the Death Eater.
Draco squinted. Something ... something ... there was something in the fog. It moved languidly, lazy. He looked around. No one else had noticed, too absorbed in their triumph. He looked into the shadows again. As seconds ticked, there were more and more of those strange movements.
He felt his breathing quicken again, and his lungs painfully press against the sharp edges of his broken ribs.
'Idiots! They have forgotten where we are!'
"Malfoy Wh …?" his terrified gaze must had caught the notice of the man... too late. The movement behind them, solidified into thick bushy roots of long spines, sharp as pikes. The first attack curled around the man looming over him, in a fast movement like a that of a snake.
The roots surrounded his torso, thorns tearing the soft flesh of his stomach. Blood splattered the snow violently ... and the Death eater's guts gushed atop Draco.
A waterfall of disgustingly sticky, hot and red, organs.
Still squirming, trying desperately to escape, roots ripped the man off of him, dragging him into the darkness. His howls lasted a moment longer, then they went out with a muffled chirp.
The others shouted.
'Too late.'
Chaos erupted in the clearing.
More roots came from other trees, but this time the Death Eaters were ready. For what they were not ready, it was for acromantulas. Huge spiders the size of small dogs or horses, which took down the branches hidden in the dark.
They fell down on the invaders with jaws dripping in poison. Spitting sticky webs, trapping them, devouring them alive. The horrible screams of their victims filled the clearing.
Draco could not stop shaking.
Three more fell in the first assault of spiders. Their howls ignored by the two companions who were still standing. Too busy trying to escape.
A cutting spell reached one of the spiders, severing two of her legs. Her greenish blood melted the snow beneath her as she emitted a strange high-pitched sound of pain. Half hiss, half squeak.
The Death Eater smiled victoriously... maybe too soon.
Long, elegant, powerful spider legs, climbed down behind him. Draco held his breath as the new arachnid came to the light of the moon. His chitin, dark and shiny as obsidian, spectrally reflected the light from the night star. His powerful jaws, shiny with poison, clicked. The rest of spiders gave way to him, respectfully, retiring in a wide circle, expectantly. He was as big as a small dragon, and his long, powerful legs, had no trouble in knocking down the intruder.
The Death Eater rolled, terrified. Casting spell after spell at the gigantic acromantula. But his curses dissolved on his chitin, as if they were water.
The arachnid lifted one of his legs ending in sharp points, like blades, and impaled him from side to side, as a scholar impaled pins in his prized collection of insects.
The man gave a single torn howl ... and went limp.
The last Death Eater, terrified, completely surrounded, unable to escape, mad with despair, raised his wand ...
"Avada Kedavra!" he cried shakily. Green lightning struck the large acromantula ... and dissolved in the air.
Finally, l wide-eyed, the man raised his wand one last time ... and his body collapsed on the floor. He had preferred suicide to be eaten alive. Draco did not blame him. Having had his wand with him, he might have done the same.
Spiders launched with squeals, to devour their prey. Crunches from bone, squishy sounds coming from flesh and muscle that tears, the smell of blood, the last small desperate cries of agony, of those who were still alive, filled the small clearing.
Now he was the only one still alive.
Draco knew it was only a matter of time that some of the spiders came for him. And he knew he could not escape.
He exhaled shakily. The pain, the shock of what had happened, fatigue ... he seemed unable to stop shaking, and began to feel his head heavy, like stuffed with cotton. Gradually his mind was fading. He blinked languidly, grateful. At least he would not suffer if he fell unconscious.
Small, new, snowflakes, began to fall. Slipping quietly into the night, slowly covering the bloodstains. Touching his fevered skin in delicate strokes.
A gust of breeze ruffled his hair.
Immediately, the huge acromantula straightened, tense. He raised his head as if he had sensed something. Draco saw his jaws click once, nervously. And he turned his head toward him. His bright green, intense, deep, eyes, nailed on his. There was in them a strange intelligence, that made the blond shiver.
'A spider with green eyes?'
The creature turned on his legs, and moved cautiously to halt in front of him. Looking, studying him.
By then, Draco was so tired... The spider bowed his powerful head, poison impregnated jaws brushed his neck. They were cold and slippery. He could not help shaking even more.
"Malfoy?"
Finally darkness engulfed him.
To be continue
Note: Here we go, starting with the dark themes bit by bit. It will be getting darker as the fic goes on, I thought I should warn you... Again. Just so you know… no one ends hating me for the things that are to come. _ :)
And if you are reading it with your heart full of evil glee, welcome new happy reader. Hope you enjoy the ride.