We were being followed.
I’d caught glimpses of it at the edges of rooftops, the movements starkly noticeable against the backdrop of a red pulsating sky. Perhaps verticality had been finally cemented in my mind as a way to get the jump on your target. The glimpses told me our stalker was too big to just be a normal person, which meant it was either an Aberrant or the Goblin being furtive.
I thought back to my encounter with the myth-like man whose voice was thunder. Right, so it’s an Aberrant then.
In some ways it was a relief to finally spot some antagonist in the night. Our trek towards the apartment tower had otherwise been devoid of conflict. Gunfire still sounded out from other parts of Old Town, but we’d managed to slip past these pockets of the Rings. It seemed that the other H.E.S.P. units were not getting so lucky.
Zola came close and murmured in my ear, “Do you have a plan for when we reach the tower?”
I kept my eyes on the sky and my voice low, “What do you mean? You were there when we discussed the details with the H.E.S.P. squad leaders.”
“I do not trust these men like I trust you. They have not earned it. I would caution against placing our hopes in them to deliver us to victory.”
Mac came to mind, dressed just like the soldiers around us. “I don’t know. I think they’re committed to the goal of saving Sillwood.”
Zola spoke even quieter. “You do realize why they are calling you the Wickerman, right?”
I flexed my fingers covered in familiar white bone. “I thought the reason was pretty self-evident.”
Zola shook his head. “It is not just your appearance. They have a suitable sacrifice. Someone to run into the fire first, to draw the worst retaliation before they have to enter the fray themselves. I saw the soldiers that smirked as they said that nickname.”
“I agreed to the plan. It doesn’t matter what they think of me. I just care about getting Nell out of danger.”
Zola didn’t respond for a moment. Then he asked, “Do you think she would approve of the Wickerman?”
Irritation flared. “Listen, Zola. I can feel her constantly through the Tree. Just a constant, endless stream of dark emotions. Ripped free from her heart and amplified for the whole city to hear. She doesn’t have the ability to worry about me right now. Maybe once we are finally free of Organ, then maybe we can worry about sucky nicknames. But she is suffering right now. That’s all I can hear.”
Besides, I thought secretly, even if I don’t like it, it kind of fits.
“Try to imagine if the roles were reversed,” Zola said, not backing down.
“I don’t-”
“Try. Because I do not know the two of you as well as you know yourselves, but my hunch is that Nell wants to take on a share of your dark thoughts as well. If you truly care about her, you will let her. And you will respect her wishes and start caring about your own well-being.”
I shot him a look. “Why are you getting so involved all of a sudden?”
Zola’s intense expression faltered and he looked away. “I do not like to see you hurting. That is all.”
My chest felt tight. Everything twisted up inside into a big ball of anger and hurt feelings.
“Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And I promise you I’m trying, but there’s also an Aberrant stalking us and I have to deal with it.”
Zola’s expression fell and he glanced upwards fearfully, hunching his shoulders like he was protecting his neck. “The one we ran into before? The spider-thing?”
“Maybe.”
That felt too convenient, unless the Crushing Spider was stalking me in particular. That led to a train of thought previously unconsidered. Looking back, there were times when I was the only person around, when it made sense that an Aberrant would choose to target me. I had been mostly alone facing Squish, the Tongue, and the Pianist. But what of the Aberrants in the city where human victims were plentiful?
This line of thought also drew me into speculation about why Aberrants held hostility towards humans at all. Was it merely a matter of warped brains, twisted beyond humanity? That didn’t seem right. While the creatures seemed relatively simple-minded, the hatred in their expression seemed frighteningly intelligent. And some were even capable of limited speech…
“There’s an Aberrant stalking us from the rooftops,” I declared loudly to the rest of the squad. That caused more than a few of the soldiers to glance upwards, despite their discipline in covering other angles of attack. “For now, it seems to be waiting for an opportunity to strike. Be vigilant.”
“Affirmative,” a soldier responded as we continued to move slowly towards our destination. “Do you have a plan of attack?”
It was worth testing my hunch. “I’ll be bait. If I’m right, it’ll attack me when I’m alone and I can lead it back to all of you for an ambush.”
I ignored Zola’s stare burning holes in the back of my head.
The H.E.S.P. soldier nodded and with a series of quick hand signals they communicated with the six other soldiers in the squad. They all stopped and melted into the darkness of the nearby buildings, even the metal of their guns didn’t catch the light, painted matte.
I stepped into a side alley and moved down it, refraining from glancing upwards as my fingers traced the brick wall to my right. Tiny branches emerged from my fingertips, finding support in the gaps between the bricks. I didn’t have any sensation to feel in my antlers, it was more a matter of visualization as the branches spidered upwards in my mind and reality followed suit, growing a lattice up the wall and then extending a short ways above my head, all the while keeping the bones as small as I could without risking the whole thing breaking.
I waited patiently, ears straining to differentiate the surrounding silence and distant gunfire. It helped that my hearing still felt weirdly fresh.
Crack.
My legs drove me forwards like it was the signal at the start of a race. The ground behind me tremored and brittle pavement cracked as the thing landed where I had been a moment before. That was confirmation enough without looking that I was dealing with the Crushing Spider. Perhaps because I was more sober than I had been during my first encounter with the Spider, I smelled it for the first time. The salty scent of blood mixed with what I could only compare to the smell of saliva when it dries on skin.
I glanced behind me, only momentarily seeing its eight white-tipped legs ascend to the roofs as if pulled up by a puppeteer.
Banking right, I moved parallel to where my own ambush waited to be sprung, then ducked into another alley. A shadow blocked out the moonlight as metal clanged. I raised my eyes to see the Spider perched with some legs bracing against the walls while some rested on a fire escape. The terrible faces in its hooves were looking at me, mouths agape like newborns awaiting food. Its side still bore the claw marks where Zola had scratched it with his nails. It almost hurt to fight against my urge to run, faced with what was clearly a predator that had just me on its mind.
The faces chittered.
Yet even as its full form was revealed to me, it remained where it was. One leg dropped down, probing closer to me. I stared at it, repulsed and confused.
The Moth had spoken, even without a proper mouth. Was it possible that I had made assumptions about what Aberrants were capable of understanding?
“Why me?” I asked it.
It didn’t respond.
I flinched as it shifted its position slightly, its alien musculature visible under its skin making every twitch threatening. But it didn’t strike. It was content to just watch me for the moment. That was almost more unnerving. A change in behaviour I couldn’t explain.
The Tree pulsed and my anger flared. “I don’t have time for this! Fuck off!”
Then I turned and fled.
I could hear it now, skittering on the rooftops above my head. It had been silent before, but it was as if I had actually provoked it. I reached our chosen patch of shadow and skidded to a stop.
All sounds of pursuit fell to silence and I knew it had leaped. Without hesitation I acted, not running but leaping with Locust Legs. Twisting in the air, I saw it land briefly at street level before jumping again. My feet found the lip of the rooftop. I was already Shaping for a second jump.
It landed on the rooftop next to me, its front two limbs waving in the air. The torso that sat on its top like a black marble bust twisted as if it regarded me with an invisible expression.
I could only think of one way to beat this thing.
So I waited, heart pounding as it once again lifted eerily into the air as if it weighed nothing. But I knew how it would drop like a boulder to crush its victims.
Release. I leapt up to meet it in the air, soaring high above the rooftops. I flew on a collision course towards it, aiming for the point just before it reached the apex of its jump, where it would change its weight like flicking a switch.
A terrifying limb stomped towards me. But there was no weight behind the motion. I caught it, pulling myself up onto its wide back and wrapping my arms and legs around it. We came crashing down, landing halfway off the side of a rooftop, the hooves scraping the bricks as it found purchase. I Shaped sturdy bone, weaving it into the upper segments of its backmost legs. It scrambled to try and reach points that the legs could balance on with my added weight on its body and found that it couldn’t move them properly.
I felt the muscles ripple under my chest, preparing for another jump. I had seen the timing. I was good at replicating things like that. Now. I hauled back, throwing my whole weight towards the back legs. While the hooves could balance well, they didn’t grip things like hands did. The balance was thrown off and the Spider toppled from the rooftop.
It landed upright despite my efforts, hooves digging deep into the road.
Zola darted out from a shopfront, reaching up and dragging his fingers along its flank, criss-crossing his previous work but deeper this time.
The Spider fell without a sound. It landed on its side, legs jerking in the air. I jumped, breaking away from the cuffs I’d Shaped onto it. Zola backed away too and on cue gunfire illuminated the scene.
Nightmarish limbs flailed towards the sky as if cursing the red orbs above as bullet after bullet bit into the monster. Then they curled inwards, growing stiff. The chittering ceased.
H.E.S.P. was already emerging from their ambush spots, readying to continue forward as if this was just an everyday setback.
Zola was breathing heavily, fingers crimson on one hand. He absently touched it with his bandaged fingers.
I approached the Spider. “I made a promise to remember people like you,” I said to the corpse. “To remember the person before the monster. I hope that the strength you give me will help assuage any guilt that might be left in that mind. I’m using it to help people you hurt.”
Then, overcoming the anxiety of being watched by the soldiers, I feasted, pulling every last drop of flesh into myself. The memories came faster each time I did this. A Ring member. But that was just one facet. That wasn’t where his emotions lingered. A girlfriend. He loved to make her laugh and hated when she used him. A mother that called him horrible things. He hadn’t deserved those names then, but that he grew into them until they were a comfortable shield against the world. Hurt. The crushing hurt that would never be remedied, like a festering wound. Hurt that had to come out somehow.
I shook myself free of the memories, compartmentalizing them how I had before. I will remember all of you, I promised. But I would remember myself first.
Following after Zola and the squad, I continued to process these thoughts.
Until we arrived. A short distance away the apartment building loomed. It beat like a heart, the Tree making its walls seem alive. An occult tower, reaching towards the terrible things that weighed heavily on the sky.
A light flashed from an adjacent building, blinking twice in exact beats. A soldier in our unit responded with a signal from his own flashlight. Two more lights repeated the signal from different positions around the building.
“Breaching in two… one…”
I had been anticipating this moment for so long. And to finally be here, suddenly I felt dread. Had something changed in the time we had been apart? Had I really been trying so hard to seek out Organ because I didn’t want to be alone with my own thoughts?
I needed out of this nightmare and I knew the rest of Sillwood needed it too.
Time to go in.