Sunny September, part eleven. Failure. Christopher.

  We return to the party where nothing has changed. The party goers continue to rave like maniacs and the DJ continues his sermon oblivious to what was happening under the same roof as him.

  We turn to head past the stairs where Homer Simpson had gon missing on our way to the garage, our eyes scanning every high, drunk and horny teen we pass. Fortunately none of them have any spider legs from what I can tell.

  We encounter one of the sisters and immediately go on guard.

  She stands infront of the door to the garage as if guarding what lies beyond, staring at us with obvious anxiety.

  Her demeanour leads me to believe that she’s not currently influenced by whatever hellish force had overtaken them, and I cautiously step forward to yell in her ear, “let us inside. We want to help you free the people trapped in the garage.”

  Her face grows pale as if she’s been caught red handed before she yells back in my ear, “how do you know about it?”

  Before I get the chance to speak further Okimoto shoves her to the side and boots the fucking door down like we’re swatting the place. He yells but his voice is eradicated by the constant stream of pop and rap remixes.

  The sister immediately flies into a panic and starts hyperventilating.

  After entering with the sister and staying by the doorway to calm her down, I watch Okimoto storm around the cocoons drawing forth his Swiss knife before searching each one for the first familiar face, startling the other five sisters in the process.

  Realising that one’s missing, I grab the one with me who’s now holding the broken door closed, presumably to stop the other party goers from seeing what’s happening inside of here.

  I pull her close and yell in her ear a second time, my words barely beating back the music. “Where is your sister?”

  She shrugs helplessly.

  I realise that it must be the one that Trevor ferried off somewhere that’s now missing. I don’t know if they’ll all turn at the same time or if they turn randomly.

  I decide to forget about the missing sister and look back at the cocoons before venturing deeper amidst them.

  I squeeze past two sisters, one squatting with her arms spread out palms up as the other successfully frees a boy from his prison of silk. He falls into the sister’s arms still asleep.

  I weave my way further passing over the faces I don’t recognise intent on freeing Daqwan first.

  After passing over three more, two that are strangers and one I choose to neglect recognising him as a kid that snitched on me for cheating on a paper back in middle school, I run in to Okimoto who’s got an unconscious Daqwan slung over his shoulder.

  “I’m heading back out to see if I can wake him up.” He yells.

  I nod and continue past him now searching for Germain.

  I come to find him right up against the corner in a cocoon that’s spread out over the wall and ceiling.

  Seeing the outline of his body positioned horizontally against the wall I sigh wondering how the hell I’m going to go about freeing him.

  I slowly rip away the webs at his feet. They’re tougher than regular spider webs, the texture is closer to string requiring mild exertion to rip one and moderate exertion to rip several at a time. I eventually rip enough of this crap away that his own body weight overpowers the rest of it and I find myself stumbling to catch him.

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  I dig the silky remnants out from under my finger nails before throwing the unconscious boy over my shoulder.

  The hair on the back of my neck stands and I look behind me instinctively.

  I see a septuplet staring right at me in a trance.

  “Shit…” I say my curse once again swallowed up by the beats a wall away.

  Just a look at her and I can tell that whatever ‘it’ is has taken ahold of her again, and presumably the others too.

  Not playing around I draw forth my gun while moving down along the wall to create distance.

  She takes steps towards me as I back away but stops when I aim right in between her eyes, her eyes that start to shift and divide again.

  My pace accelerates and I start counting each footstep for some reason.

  I know that the door to get out is along this wall. I just have to keep moving backwards while warding her off with my weapon and everything should go smoothly.

  She tries to follow me with a twisted expanding grin, her movements only slowing when I click the safety off. She isn’t able to close the distance but still presses on as if I’m just that fucking irresistible. I’d be flattered if I wasn’t scared shitless.

  I look behind me to the approaching door careful to keep my gun on her.

  My heart drops, the sister I left by the doorway is there, still holding the door closed, her face no longer distraught but now euphoric as she looks right at me.

  In whatever state they’re in they still seem to be somewhat competent since they don’t attack when I aim at them. I wonder if I can switch my aim to the one at the door to make her fuck off and let me out.

  I look back to the one following me and terror pulls my pants down, my heart racing. She had closed the distance in the instant I looked away. She retracts her hand that appeared to be inches away from grabbing my gun. Now she smiles in my face, her lips deforming into fleshy pincers as her eyes protrude from the sockets with dozens of conjoined pupils.

  Terror pulls my skin off as I realise that I would’ve been utterly screwed if I kept my eyes off her a second longer.

  I cancel an impulse to hit her with my gun and stamp out my instinct to kick her down. I dare not retaliate against them as I fear it might accelerate their transformations. I know they overpowered Okimoto who’s just as strong as me so I know a physical altercation is something I must avoid at all costs.

  Right now I’m in a particularly bad situation. I have my eyes on this one but the one by the door still lingers. There’s also the four others that still lurk among the cocoons.

  I stop not daring to get closer to the sister by the door. If I can ward them off with my gun for long enough they might return to normal giving me a chance to flee with Germain.

  The sister I’m facing stops too, speaking something I obviously can’t hear.

  She then clutches her stomach before jerking as she gags. I watch in disgust as long thick and wet streams of webs slip out of her mouth and on to the floor.

  She grabs them and spreads the bile and holds it out infront of her while smiling at me with more dripping from her mouth.

  So that’s how they make the spider webs? It’s repulsive, one of those sights you immediately regret seeing.

  I start to panic and yell out threats that are beaten down by the music that seems to be getting more oppressive by the second.

  As if god himself is laughing at me I’m suddenly embraced from the side causing me to drop Germain. He goes down as the bitch tries to wrestle me to the ground. I ram the barrel of my pistol down her throat as I’m pressed up against the wall, buckling as she forces me down with strength that grinds down my bones into sand. I don’t know if I can shoot her… she’s just a girl…

  For some insane reason, I think of what will happen when the police find her body. Why now of all times do I have such rational thoughts? It’s exactly like earlier in the backyard.

  The situation is dire and I sense the other two converging on me but I still maintain my restraint hoping to god that they buy my bluff. They don’t.

  She, the one fighting me expels her slimy white filth all over the barrel of my gun, engulfing my arm in thick webbing.

  At this point I lose all restraint and fire. It does nothing. I can feel the webs clog up the barrel rendering my only weapon against them useless.

  I’m… screwed.

  I still fight to keep myself standing throwing punch after punch that just bounces off of her. I can’t even use my strength as the wall behind me limits my range of motion forcing all my punches to do more damage to my mental health than to her. It’s like I’m fighting under water and all my movements are restrained by the crushing weight of the ocean.

  The one from the door grabs my arm restraining it before pulling my head back towards her as the one that was following me sweeps up my legs.

  I fight without any ground to stand on. I fight alone as futility crumples my body.

  The one yanking back my head hovers over me and forces her tongue down my throat, taking advantage of the fact that I started screaming at some point. She then throws up a torrent of webs into my mouth, and down my wind pipe and into my lungs causing my body to explode with involuntary spasms as I drown in her vile wave of webs. I gasp for air but there’s no space for it so I just suffer until everything goes black.