A soft breeze drifted into the cave through the newly created opening, setting the remnants of the cobweb swaying. Some light finally came through too, illuminating the spider's blades buried in the ground where the bird had been just moments before.
It had done it—the bird had reopened the cave exit. Now Kai just had to get the hell out of there.
Pushing himself through the exhaustion and the wounds, he tucked his phone into his pocket, braced himself to run, and his feet left the ground. All he wanted was to lie down and close his eyes, rest, fall asleep and wake up in his bed. But if he hesitated now, he could probably rest—wake up, though? That would never happen again.
Kai ran, stumbled but didn't fall, kept running. There was only one problem—he'd have to pass by where the spider was, and it was no longer anchored to the ground. No, that was the big problem. The other problem was… worse?
The cave was riddled with cobweb threads. Apparently they had moved around more than Kai realized during his fight with the bird while he was weakening the entrance.
He wasn't just running—he was lurching around, dodging debris and woven traps. The spider growled and launched its charge toward him like a vehicle at full speed.
Could he use his flashlight again? No—there was enough light in the room now to reduce the contrast. It would probably affect it, but not as much as before. Besides, he didn't have time to pull his phone out again. It seemed like he'd just have to rely on himself. Great—his specialty…
All of a sudden Kai found himself face to face with the spider, just a couple of instants from being turned to pulp or cut in two. He spun to one side, waiting until the last possible moment.
He managed to get out of the body's trajectory, but he'd still have to deal with the reach of its blades.
But…
In the blink of an eye, a tremor ran through his body and his legs gave out again, buckling under his own weight as they surrendered to the fatigue. Thanks to this, the chitinous blade passed just a centimeter above his head—but it left him completely exposed to a second attack.
And that was exactly what happened. The spider skidded to a halt just a couple of meters from Kai, then raised its blade. Kai rolled, moving barely a meter away and managing to avoid another wound. The spider closed in as he tried to get up, and in a desperate move Kai threw himself to one side.
That was the mistake that doomed him.
Kai didn't look where he was throwing himself, and a moment later he felt himself come to a stop in mid-air, his feet suspended above the ground. Something had him stuck from his side, and the more he moved the worse it got—he knew exactly what it was. He had jumped straight into one of the spider's traps.
That was it. It was over. His new life in another world hadn't even lasted 24 hours. It was actually more surprising that he'd lasted as long as he had—but well, it didn't matter much anymore.
He readied his knife, but one arm was pinned in the cobweb and the other was about to be, and the spider was already on top of him. It wasn't worth the effort.
Even though his mind had already given up, his body kept fighting and twisting—in one last desperate thrash he tried to kick the spider, but it was useless. It dodged that pathetic move and in the same motion drove its fangs into Kai's thigh.
It was agonizing—a penetrating, impossibly sharp pain. Kai felt embarrassed that vaccine needles had ever hurt him at any point in his life. This was a new level of pain, something he had never experienced before. A raw scream tore from his lungs as the fangs forced their way into his leg, shredding and wrenching apart both skin and muscle.
At some point during the struggle the knife found its way into one of the creature's eyes, but all it achieved was making the spider thrash and making the pain in his leg flare even worse. He pulled the knife out, made a few more pathetic attempts, and then his own arm gave up and he put the knife back in his pocket.
'Better this way—at least it won't look like I even tried…'
Luckily—if that word could even apply here—his leg was still attached to his body. Uncontrollable tears ran down his face as he felt a foul foreign liquid invading his body, traveling through his veins and arteries from the open wound.
Kai was on the verge of collapse. The pain nearly made him black out. But it was even worse when the spider pulled back. The sensation was agonizing—even the brush of air felt like his skin was being torn off and his flesh ripped apart.
Kai looked down in a slow, heavy movement. Seeing that hole in him brought on a flood of new feelings he couldn't even begin to put into words.
He began to lose control of his limbs, as if they were detaching from his body. He felt nothing from his fingertips to his chest; from the waist down he had lost all feeling. Or he would have liked to—even the effects of the venom didn't take the pain away completely.
His vision blurred more than it already had and his mind began to cloud over little by little.
He took one last look at his leg and smiled faintly.
"Damn… I liked these pants…"
And after that, his consciousness faded slowly until all his senses went dark completely, leaving Kai simply floating there in that room the same way he had arrived in that cursed empty void.
***
She had finally managed to escape—though in a rough shape. She hadn't forgotten her revenge. She would come back and finish off that eight-legged piece of trash.
But she couldn't do it now. Even having made it out on adrenaline alone, she could barely keep herself airborne. She was lurching through the air with one wing fighting not to fold. She could use her power, sure—but it wouldn't last long and she'd probably end up far more exhausted than she already was.
She took one last look at the cave. Would that boy be okay?
…
Why should she care what happened to him?! The bastard had used her as a soccer ball—the fact that they'd worked together to escape was already more than enough.
The sun warmed her feathers, and for the first time in hours she allowed herself to think that she was still alive—though it probably wouldn't be long before nightfall. She'd have to find somewhere to recover and rest in peace.
But before that she needed to eat. She was starving. If she didn't die from her wounds in the next few hours she'd probably die from an empty stomach.
She wasn't in any condition to hunt, but she had no other choice. The easiest thing she could think of was to go to the river and catch some fish—and even that would probably be a struggle.
As she drew closer to the river, her eyes landed on some large rocks along the bank. Not on the rocks themselves, but on what was sitting on top of them. A backpack, a fruit and a rope, as if someone had abandoned them there.
A thought crossed her mind then—could they be that boy's?
Shaking her head she pushed the thought aside and began to descend. As she came down, a chill ran through her body and she looked back at the cave in the distance.
In the end she managed to catch several fish—it had taken more out of her than she'd expected, but she had her food.
Carrying the fish in her beak, she brought them up onto the rock and began to devour them, staring fixedly at the backpack. She shifted her gaze to the coiled rope.
It couldn't be. A tingle ran through her body. Why on earth was he using that as a rope? Of all things, he had to use one of those vines…
With a wary look she slowly sidled away, taking her food with her.
She also eyed the fruit with longing, but held back—she had no way of opening it without blowing straight through it. In the end, giving in to curiosity, she clumsily tugged at the zipper and began to rummage through it. Each object she pulled out left her eyes a little wider.
This backpack, these objects, and earlier—what he'd used to light up the cave… clearly a phone. So he was also…
But why does he still have these things?
Settling to one side, she finished her meal, then curled up beside the backpack. She would wait for that boy to come back.
Even though she didn't like the idea of wasting daylight hours, she decided to sleep until he arrived—she needed it anyway, and she'd wake up when he came back.
Suddenly, a violent jolt pulled her from her sleep. She looked around on high alert, but there was no one there. Apparently she'd just had a bad dream… But wait—no one? She looked up at the sky; judging by the sun's position, several hours had already passed.
Where was the boy? Why hadn't he come back? What if something had really gone wrong?
She shook her head, driving out those thoughts, and hesitated for a few seconds—she couldn't believe what she was about to do.
With a resigned spread of her wings, she set off back toward the cave.
***
Everything was black again. Once more Kai felt absolutely nothing. Had he returned to the void? No—he had just died, he still remembered everything. But what did that even mean? Why did Kai still have consciousness, or memories?
So he really had returned to the void. Maybe that place was what had always existed after death, or maybe he'd go back to his original world after that entity laughed at him for not lasting a day.
'Haaahh… I don't want to hear that thing again…' he sighed mentally.
Kai felt resentment toward the entity, but he didn't want to confront it yet. No—it wasn't just that. In that moment he didn't want to do anything. He just wanted to float eternally in that darkness. It was a boring kind of afterlife, but he didn't even want to complain about it.
Wandering aimlessly forever was the fate of losers, and he was one of them. He always had been.
…
Good God, why was it taking so long to show up? Was this part of the humiliation—making him wait around like an idiot? Kai didn't want to talk to the entity, but having to wait for it like this was annoying. And his back was killing him—the position he was in was uncomfortable to say the least.
He sighed, and in doing so coughed violently. His ears hurt; the sound of some kind of pulse every few seconds was drilling into his head. Little by little the rhythm increased—very slowly—until there was practically one pulse per second.
A burning heat flooded through him.
Kai twisted and felt something severely restricting his movement, as if he were trapped. But worst of all were the stabbing pains that shot through his body every time he moved.
Kai didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was this a miracle or a joke?
He was still alive.
Alive being a generous term…
Unfortunately he knew exactly where he was. The spider had sealed him in one of its cocoons like someone storing leftovers in a container.
'But seriously… why am I not dead?' He raised an eyebrow.
Kai had no idea what had happened with the venom, or the fever, or the blood leaking out of various holes in him—but for some reason he still seemed to be breathing.
Actually, he did know what had happened with his fever—it was still there, after all.
Having that fever in such a small space with barely any air… It was the worst sauna in the world. In both worlds he'd been in, in fact. Though he didn't know if saunas existed in this world…
He was exhausted, barely able to breathe, practically crippled, and sweating enough to have dried out three bodies' worth of water.
But he was still alive.
"Screw you… you piece of shit spider… I'm still alive." He forced himself to mutter.
Kai laughed, which set off a worse cough than the one before.
He dragged his hands toward his pants, contorting his joints painfully. He felt around blind until he found his pocket. He reached in and pulled out the knife, unfolding its somewhat worn blade.
It was time to get out of that stupid cave.