The truck limped off the collapsing highway, metal groaning and sparks flying behind it. Big Jim's knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
"KENNA—TELL ME WHERE I'M TURNIN'—I CAN'T SEE A DAMN THING!"
Kenna wiped blood off her cheek and pointed ahead.
"Left—LEFT! Into the tree line!"
Jim jerked the wheel.
The truck veered off the highway and bounced violently down an overgrown dirt road, branches slapping the windows.
The silver hatchling perched on the cocoon hummed like it already knew they were safer.
Kenna exhaled shakily.
"…Cyrus better not be dead."
Jim snorted.
"He's half-spider, half-werewolf, half-electric monster. He ain't dyin' today."
The truck plunged deeper into the forest.
No cars.
No people.
Just darkness and fog swallowing them whole.
Kenna whispered:
"Please… let Benjamin be okay."
A sudden pop of displaced air.
Benjamin's body dropped out of thin air—
—straight into a field of soft moss.
He blinked once.
"…Candy?"
Silence.
He tried to get up—
then the glitter spell hit him fully.
His eyelids drooped.
His muscles went limp.
Benjamin muttered,
"I just… wanna sleep…"
And he collapsed face-first into the moss, snoring so loudly a raccoon 30 feet away flinched.
He slept like he'd been hit by a tranquilizer dart.
Where he landed?
A strange circle of ancient stones.
Glowing faint purple.
Silent and waiting.
But Benjamin didn't notice.
He just drooled into the moss.
Back on the fallen bridge, glitter still drifted in the air.
The Spider Sisters staggered out of it one by one — dizzy, angry, and covered in sparkles.
Veira
"WHAT—THE—ACTUAL—HELL—JUST—HAPPENED—"
She scratched at her glitter-covered skin like a madwoman.
Arachneon
Her lightning sparked violently.
"My venom… turned PINK. PINK!"
Nysessa
She licked glitter off her lips.
"I TASTED HER MAGIC. IT TASTES LIKE COTTON CANDY AND SIN."
Narya
Her voice shook.
"She clouded my predictions. The timelines are… scrambled."
Thara
The Brood Mother rose slowly.
Her hood dripping black webs.
Her eyes burning white-hot.
She looked at the direction the truck escaped.
Her voice broke the air:
"CANDY.
WILL.
DIE."
The ground trembled.
The spiderlings shrieked in unison.
A wave of black web rolled outward as if the earth itself obeyed her.
Then Thara hissed:
"Find the hatchling."
The sisters screeched and leapt into the shadows.
The hunt restarted.
But this time?
No lust.
No confusion.
No distractions.
Only rage.
The forest road narrowed into a tunnel of twisted trees. Fog rolled low across the ground, brushing the truck tires like fingers trying to grab hold.
The engine coughed, sputtered—
and finally died.
Big Jim slapped the steering wheel.
"I KNEW the drop from that highway did somethin'! My poor girl—she ain't built for flight!"
Kenna scanned the woods nervously.
No spiders.
No glitter.
No sisters.
Just silence.
Then the shapes of tall stone pillars appeared through the fog.
Kenna whispered,
"…Dad. Look."
A massive brick wall rose out of the forest, covered in vines, moss, and dark claw marks.
Twisted iron spikes lined the top.
And behind it…
A shadow.
Huge.
Three stories tall.
A house.
Or what used to be one.
Windows boarded.
Roof slanted.
Front door hanging crooked.
A long-dead mansion lurking like a ghost.
Jim swallowed hard.
"…Nope. Nope, I don't like haunted houses."
Kenna pulled the cocoon and silver hatchling close.
The baby spider glowed softly, almost… protectively.
Kenna stepped toward the wall's rusted gate.
"Jim… it's safer than being out here."
Jim scoffed.
"Girl, the HOUSE might eat us!"
Kenna raised a brow.
"What? Like, literally?"
Jim pointed dramatically.
"LOOK at it! Every horror movie EVER said: don't go in!"
The silver spider on the cocoon chirped twice.
Kenna smiled faintly.
"He says we should go inside."
Jim threw his arms up.
"Oh GREAT. Now we're takin' advice from a SPIDER."
But he helped her push open the heavy gate anyway.
It groaned like a dying animal.
They walked up the overgrown stone path, dead leaves crunching beneath their feet.
Kenna approached the door.
The silver spider crawled up her arm and tapped the door with one tiny leg—like a knock.
The door creaked open by itself.
Jim shrieked.
Kenna whispered:
"…Well. That's not comforting."
But she stepped inside.
Jim, muttering prayers, followed.
The house swallowed them whole.
Far behind them, the forest exploded in a burst of lightning and broken branches.
Cyrus crashed through the trees, still in his half-spider, half-demon form.
Eight golden eyes scanned the ground.
His tongue tasted the air.
His claws dug into the dirt, sensing vibrations.
He murmured:
"Kenna…
Jim…
Where'd you go…?"
He sniffed again—
found the scent of engine oil, silver magic, and fear—
Then bolted forward.
Trees bent out of his way.
Roots snapped.
The forest howled as he tore through it.
He stopped at the abandoned brick wall, chest heaving.
He placed his clawed hand on the iron gate.
"…Kenna."
His eyes widened.
There—soft, faint—
A silver sparkle.
Baby spider silk.
He pressed his palm to the metal, sparks dancing along the iron.
"She's in there."
He pushed the gate—
The vines writhed.
The metal groaned.
And the gate slammed shut behind him.
Cyrus flinched.
He turned, confused.
The forest went silent.
No wind.
No bugs.
No sisters.
Just the looming house.
Cyrus whispered:
"…Okay. That's not creepy at all."
He stalked forward, lightning crackling off his limbs, ready to kill anything that moved.
He reached the door.
It was open a crack.
He stepped inside.
The door closed behind him with a click.