Chapter 74: The Last of Her Line

Emily ran for her life.

The forest blurred around her as she sprinted between ancient trees, roots grabbing at her boots and low branches clawing at her clothes.

 Her lungs burned. Every breath felt like fire.

 The bundle strapped tightly to her back bounced painfully against her shoulders, but she refused to let go of it.

She had carried it too far.

Lost too much.

Sacrificed too many people.

Behind her came the sound she dreaded more than anything.

Skittering.

Thousands of tiny clicks blended together into one horrible noise. It echoed through the woods like a living nightmare.

The spider was coming.

It always came.

Emily dared a glance over her shoulder and immediately wished she hadn’t.

The monster crashed through the forest behind her.

It was enormous.

Its body towered above fallen logs and boulders. 

Eight black legs stabbed into the earth, shattering roots and leaving deep holes in the ground. 

Crimson eyes glowed beneath a crown of twisted chitin. Long white fangs dripped with venom that hissed whenever it struck the ground.

Worst of all was the face.

The thing had an actual face.

Not entirely human, but close enough.

Its features shifted constantly, almost as if dozens of faces were trapped beneath its shell. Sometimes she thought she saw her mother’s face. 

Sometimes it was her father’s.

Sometimes she swore she saw her own.

The creature let out a shrill scream that rattled the leaves overhead.

Emily nearly stumbled as she dodged out of the way of wooden debris.

“Just gotta keep going…” she mumbled to herself.

Her family had been running for years.

Generations, perhaps.

No one truly knew when the nightmare had begun.

The oldest records spoke of a massive spider that hunted the her bloodline.

Whenever it was killed, it returned.

Each time stronger.

Each time smarter.

Each time more difficult to stop.

Her grandfather had supposedly slain it with enchanted silver.

Three years  later it returned with armor-like plates covering its body.

An adventuring guild had once trapped it inside a collapsing cave.

A year later it dug itself free.

A mage had burned it to ash.

It came back with a flame retardant carapace.

Every victory became another failure.

Every hope became another funeral.

At first people had tried to help.

Knights.

Hunters.

Mercenaries.

Entire guilds.

But eventually the cost became way too high.

The spider left devastation wherever it went.

Villages burned.

Roads became abandoned.

Entire settlements disappeared after attempting to protect them.

People stopped opening their doors for her family .

Stopped offering shelter.

Stopped answering requests for help.

The curse had become theirs and theirs alone.

Now only Emily and her younger brother had remained.

Everyone else was gone.

A lump formed in her throat.

She couldn’t stop.

Couldn’t think about it.

Couldn’t cry.

If she did, she’d die.

The skittering behind her grew louder.

The spider was gaining on her.

A shadow passed overhead.

The monster leaped.

Emily threw herself around a corner between two large stone formations as the spider flew past.

Then she screamed.

Not because of the spider.

Because two people stood directly in front of her.

A young woman with silver hair.

A dark-haired man beside her.

In the distance she saw an obese creature goofily wiggling as it tried to get its head out of a large sack.

Emily nearly collided with them.

“Run!” she shouted. “Run! It’s coming!”

The pair blinked.

The woman immediately looked concerned.

The man looked fairly confused.

Emily pointed frantically behind her.

“It’s right behind me! You have to run!”

The spider rounded the corner.

Stone shattered beneath its weight.

The creature rose to its full height and released another piercing scream.

Trees around them trembled.

A few remaining birds exploded into flight.

Emily expected the strangers to panic.

Instead the man scratched the side of his head.

“Oh.”

That was all he said.

“Oh.”

Emily stared.

The spider lunged.

Everything happened at once.

Dark energy flowed across the man’s body.

A strange black-and-red glow wrapped around his arm. The air around him distorted slightly as though reality itself had become uncertain.

For a split second Emily thought she saw another shape standing behind him.

Something enormous.

Something monstrous.

Then it vanished.

The man stepped forward and…

The impact sounded like thunder.

A shockwave burst outward across the forest.

Leaves erupted from nearby trees.

Dust exploded from the ground.

The spider simply ceased to be a threat.

Its massive body was hurled backward with impossible force. 

Black blood sprayed across shattered stones as the creature crashed through multiple trees before finally slamming into a cliff face.

The entire hillside shook.

Silence followed.

The spider twitched once.

Then stopped moving.

Emily couldn’t breathe.

The monster had survived armies.

It had survived legendary adventurers.

It had survived master mages.

This man had ended the fight simply by backhanding it.

The woman laughed softly.

“You hit too hard again.”

“I know but atleast it is in one peice!”

The man sounded embarrassed.

Embarrassed.

Emily felt like her brain had stopped working.

The strangers approached her carefully.

The silver-haired woman smiled.

“Hello! My name is Selene.”

The man raised a hand.

“Gene.”

Emily simply stared.

Finally she managed to speak.

“You… you killed it.”

Gene glanced toward the distant corpse.

“Oh.”

He looked genuinely surprised.

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

Selene gently placed a hand on her temples and sighed.

“It’s okay. He is a bit of an idiot but he means well. You are the first actual person we met since arriving here.”

She extended her hand,” Nice to meet you!”

The simple kindness almost broke her.

For years she had been running.

For years she had watched people die trying to save her family.

For the last years she had lived in fear.

Now the spider monster was lying motionless against a cliff.

Tears filled her eyes.

Without meaning to, she began telling them everything.

The curse.

The running.

The deaths.

The endless fear.

Gene and Selene listened quietly.

Neither interrupted.

Neither doubted her.

When she finally finished, the forest had grown silent.

She was sitting in a chair and holding a cup of warm broth. 

Gene folded his arms thoughtfully.

“What’s your name?”

“Emily.”

She hesitated.

“Emily Muffet.”

The reaction was immediate.

Gene froze.

Selene looked at him.

Gene looked back at Emily.

A strange expression crossed his face.

Recognition.

Confusion.

Shock.

All at once.

“Muffet?”

Emily nodded slowly.

“Yes.”

“Are you really a Muffet?”

“…Yes?”

Selene groaned softly.

“Oh no. I think he recognizes something.”

Gene ignored her.

His eyes widened.

“What?”

Gene immediately looked excited.

Emily felt like she was losing her mind.

Finally Gene rubbed his forehead.

“Okay. There is a story but there isn’t much.”

He looked back at her.

Still smiling, he looked strangely familiar with her name.

As though he had heard it somewhere before.

As though he knew something she didn’t.

Emily swallowed.

Then asked the question that had been bothering her since the moment he spoke.

“How do you know my name?”

Gene’s smile instantly became nervous.

Selene started laughing.

And for the first time in many years, Emily forgot about running.

Because she had a feeling the answer was going to be very strange indeed.