2

Spider Venom

 Laura had woken Grace up that morning--most likely the young lady she had raised, her daughter, has woken up early. Every day since her real mother had given custody to her. She thought it was a habit and daily routine that drove the child. But when Grace Narroway hadn’t come downstairs, Laura marched up the steps to a sleep talker. The child was spun in the blankets, pillows thrown across the room. She was calling people, people she should not know, let alone recall. First it was Lizeth, Laura had assumed it was a typical nightmare. Then came Josh, her father, the one she never met. Was never meant to know of.

 Grace went further calling and screaming Alice, Marcus, and Dan. The name she thought she’d never hear again, less from Grace’s lips. Dan, the offspring of Leon and Cecilia. Silent tears began to emerge in Laura's soft dark eyes. Rocking the hysterical girl awake her eyes flew open. Saying a rather normal sentence despite the fact, what had occurred, “I’m late.” Like the rabbit from Alice in WonderLand.

⚞☣⚟

 Fifteen minutes late, I stood outside Mr. Cash’s class. Better late than never. I opened the door my satchel bag thumped my partly naked leg. Today I chose to wear a purple dress, violet to be exact. The fabric extended to my knees. I should’ve worn other shoes than my sandals.  Good thing there was no strict dress code for shoes. I hastily ran to my seat. Shocked I stopped midway. Corey had returned and was absorbed in a complete conversation with Dan. They acted like they knew each other for years. Rebecca-witch sat annoyed, she moved seats next to me. Dan must be real good at persuasion. Considering that now, I’m sitting next to Rebecca-witch.

 Corey glanced at me beneath black strands of hair, the bangs made him look like some steampunk kid if he had the right outfit. He went back to talking to Dan as I sat down next to a snotty Rebecca who pretended to know what the boys were talking about smiling at every word. I had enough to worry though, Mr. Cash came over to my seat. Expecting criticism arriving late, he did not. A thin sheet of white paper was placed on my desk instead. The words Report printed in Times New Roman spit into my face. I hung my head back behind my chair, a day with a couple of team playing students wouldn’t hurt much. Forgetting about the assignment I went back to my dream, no more like a nightmare.

 The world was cloaked in an never ending darkness,  and a faint outline of the moon reflected off the damp floor and back into the darkened sky. I saw my mom in a thick fog. Forest trees swayed from an anonymous wind but didn’t touch me or my mom. Aside from her was a man -  his hair slightly curly, dark as night. He touched my mom’s shoulder, gently grasping  her attention from whatever she was doing. Soon enough, people began surrounding her coming out of the forest trees, their faces undefined, blank like a sheet of paper.

 My mom began to cry. Her voice cracked sorrowfully in pain, same with the man. The entities were telling them something they had to do. His lips moved in words unspoken. One of the people’s head twitched at this. Eventually, the man screamed at them blocking my mother's body at their outstretched hands. A knife was shaped in one’s hand, in an instant the face features developed. From the undefined crowd his eyes an ocean blue, hair blonde… it was Dan.

 Lizeth cried as Dan struck the man down to his knees, blood that should’ve been red turned into dust. Slowly the man was gone evaporated completely. Dan moved his motivation towards Lizeth. I watched my mother clutch something in her hands wrapped ever so gently in cloth. Following behind my mother I tried throwing rocks at Dan, none touched him.

 My mother stopped at a fall. Dan already at her back pointing the blade at her. She stifled a cry. Out of anger, I flung myself at Dan. His body finally grew attention to me. Lizeth was gone and so were the trees, entities, and winds. Fog filed the ground, expecting Dan to strike me dead I peered up.

 It wasn’t Dan… but the man protecting my mother.

 “Are you going to start?” Dan stood before me stealing the paper from my desk. He brushed his hair back, a habit I saw and knew it was.

 “Cor have any idea who we should do the report on?” Dan spoke, he’s already given Corey a nickname. Are they boyfriends now?

 “There is one, in my neighborhood, a guy named Mike who lives right next to me. He sort of goes on these long vacations though, but he’s back now,” Corey took out a piece of paper and pencil writing his address down.

 “Why don’t Cor and I pay a visit to this Mike guy and you both can work on the website write-up portion,” Dan suggested going back to his chair.

 Rebecca-witch titled her head the other way and in her most disdainful voice said, “I have better things to do.”

 She got up and Dan stopped her, “If you feel that uncomfortable with her then Cor and Grace can do the investigation on Mike. We can do the website project together.” What a sap.

 Corey appeared to despise that idea but agreed to it anyways.

⚞☣⚟

 A hot drink was passed over to me, the one with caramel and coffee mixed in that brought a sweet flavor to my taste buds. Miriam wore a blue t-shirt with shorts, cute sandals hung from the front of her toes. It was a nice break from school, the atmosphere still had that gloom to it. The icy clouds drifted over my head sending the darkness down on the vacant mall. Rarely anyone came near the huge place on weekday afternoons.

 This is the last place where blood sucking zombies harvested. They were all annihilated the time the cure came about. Gun bullets marked the buildings outer perimeter, the dust-colored air said the definition war times. The times Dylan and Laura refuse to tell me.

 “You aren’t angry at me are you? I didn’t know Dan could be so cruel,” asked Miriam, her unsureness making me laugh.

 Friendship with Miriam was always easy. The moment kindergarten came, it was like love, at first sight. Peas and carrots, in other words. We’d play on jungle gyms, draw together, talk on the phone for hours (Dylan sure got angry at that one), and hunt down restricted areas. Ones like the abandon mall. Where the layers of zombie infection were at the most high. There was nothing to worry though, thanks to my mom finding the cure.

 Has Dan ever had friends?

 “No, Dan was probably made a bona fide jerk the day he was born,” I answered more to myself. The sun was setting and I knew I had to meet Corey by Mike’s. “I…”

 “Got it. Have your date with Corey,” teased Miriam.

 A sharp blush appeared on my face. “His not my boyfriend, just a classmate.”

 “I know, but prom is right around the corner. I don’t want you to be by yourself that night. Corey seems like a nice guy. I mean you can try to get Dan, but like you said he’s a bona fide jerk.” This hit me, Miriam was right, prom was right around the corner. But the last thing I needed was a boyfriend. Dylan and Laura had already earned enough money to send me away to a college. It’s like they didn’t want me around, and keeping a boyfriend here while I was away didn’t suit my needs. But maybe they didn’t want to have kids in the first place, and I was burden to them.

⚞☣⚟

 I headed to the lit up, evanescent house. Lawn gnomes guarded the crabgrass from the dead grass their shovels pointed in the air. Stepping up to the house’s front door, Corey by my side was wearing a jacket that said “Boss of Biking”. Miriam was right, Corey was nice. He’d offered me a ride on his motorcycle the moment he saw me walking alone down the street. Given I was scared,  since this was my first time riding a motorcycle. First it was a burst of sudden speed, the one you could only feel on a roller coaster about to drop. I waited for it, anticipated it, then a calm feeling came over me. The wind in my hair felt magnificent, the drop never came.

 Corey rang the doorbell. Ending my thoughts.

 The elapsed green door opened and a man came into view. His clothes were prestigious, as was his scowl. Each button was painted in gold up to the red scarf he wore around his neck. He held a mug filled with what smelled like coffee. A scar rounded that of his jaw down to his neck. It looked translucent in the light.

 “And what do I owe my company this late at night?” Mike, I assumed, held his wrist in his hand like he was studying the time. It’s 5 p.m. doofus, I was about to say. But held back, the look in the man’s eye glimmered as he saw me, almost reminiscence.

 Corey replied, “We’re here for a quick interview for our school project. A thousand pardons, that I didn’t inform you sooner. But if…”

 “Not at all come in,” he motioned us inside.

 Taxidermy tools were laid out in the living room. Mike’s a taxidermist. This creeped me out, the room was filled with realistic featured animals. No doubt he hunted them and did that horrible thing laid out before me with his evil instruments sprung across the table. Mike noticed my face twist.

 “Don’t worry I don’t perform taxidermy as often as I use to, the tables clean. I actually set them there to be sold later.” I wasn’t sure I believed him.

 Corey held a squirrel stuffed in the right palm of his hand. “Did you do taxidermy when the zombie apocalypse raged in?”

 “No, I was a kid in New Orleans seeking to become a technician. You’d be amazed how I survived the zombies.” His accent rolled off his tongue with ease.

 “You’re hispanic,” I stopped myself half way, Mike had the deepest frown on his face.

 “Something I rather not talk about. If you here to scrounge up my past, there’s a website I built based on my adventures. Don’t savor my slip accent, I didn’t mean to show it. If you don’t mind, don’t bring it up again.”

 Mike went to get some refreshments, leaving Corey and I comfortably on the couch. The fabric was so soft like a warm puppy after being blow dried. Corey kept studying the animals some I’ve only seen in pictures. Except for one, the one Corey’s eyes returned to every minute.

 This animal was deranged. Not at all animal like from the beginning. The body was naked adorned in what looked like zebra stripes. The skin itself was a sick gray tint while the stripes were a bloody red making it appear cut up revealing the animals innards.

 Standing by Corey I grazed my hand across the strange animal. It snarled stuck in an inanimate poster.

 “This was once a bear,” Corey said. His face mere inches from its sharp teeth shown below wrinkled lips. “This is what happened when the affection came out of control. Mutation got out of control, Mikes been salvaging mutated species.”

 It took me a second to realize there was only one mutated animal in front of me. Mike had more? “Corey is there something you're not telling me?” My eye caught his disdain for the creature.

 “How horrible to be mutated? The pain they must go through. I’ve been coming here when Mikes not home, he brings these things. Can you imagine a whole ecosystem like this, lost in the virus? Beast against beast, now with this cellular monstrosity its whoever is subtle to the virus. Who can develop  faster and assimilate to the new invader running through their blood. Thank you.”

 Again it took my brain to process what he was thanking me for, the cure. “No my mother was the one to find the cure not me.”

 He shakes his head, “Grace I know you don’t like to be praised, but who else can I thank. It’s not like your mom’s around for me to gratify. People admire you because when they look at you they see your mother. If the apocalypse were to happen again, you’d be the leader. Hell, I’d follow you if it ever came to that. So stop putting your head down in class, stop acting like a nobody. I want to see the girl who use to sneak under the fence in the third grade.”

 I sucked in my breath. The smell of a hot summer day where the wind blows and air is as sticky as a caramel candy left in the severe sun melts. Miriam and I were sweating hot in the pelting sun, the teachers refused to let us in.  I recall clawing the grass, dead grass in hopes the green plant would cool my blistered hands. We had played on the jungle gyms that day, I had swung myself  to each bar like a monkey. Poking the bubbled skin I winced.

 The school didn’t have any outdoor water fountains. Trees were vacant within what seemed a hundred miles. Across from the school was a hose blocked by a fence. A fence with a missing part at the bottom. Wanting the water so badly, I had dug the ground to the point my hands bleed from the open blisters.

 All the kids said I was crazy. But they craved the water as much as I did or else they would’ve stopped me. Pulling myself under the fence, my dress accumulated the dry dirt. For some reason it felt much cooler outside the suffocating school. I raced to the burning water hose, I yelped from the excessive heat the moment I laid hands on it. Thinking of a way to reduce the heat I turned the valve.

 Hot boiling water gushed out of the black snake tube. It took five minutes of me getting burned by the scalding water to assume a fine temperature. Dragging the hose to the front fence I sprayed the water over. Kids jumped and screamed in laughter. A boy with shaggy dark hair smiled at me. It was until now I realized it was Corey. He looked about ready to crawl under the fence to help me hold the hose.

 When the bell rang causing a very angry neighbor behind me and enraged school staff. Reliving that moment made me a hero in the kids eyes, but a threat to the authorities. Are heroes like that to?

 I grasped the fact Corey sees me as a hero. People venerate me, even Dylan and Laura. Even if that means breaking the rules. Just how far would I go to be my mom, or better yet, how far did she go?

 Thinking about yesterday I asked, “Does Dan like movies?”

 Corey laughed whole heartedly, “Where that come from? Never mind don’t answer I have an idea. But to be honest I don’t know? Dan is like Mike, he’s mysterious. I know the same amount as you do, Grace. That’s what brought me here in the first place.” He scrunched his eyebrows together, the hard glow of sunset made him look like a prince on fire.

 Each and every light hit his face in all the right angles.

 “There’s something more you're not telling me.”

 Corey was about to answer when Mike came in with a tray of sandwiches. Grilled cheese sandwiches to be exact. In between the melted cheese was cooked ham. I crunched the toasted sandwich with my teeth, I’ve never been adventurous in food. The sensible idea in putting ham inside a cheese sandwich startled me.

 “What would you like to know that won’t send me to jail?” Mike joked as he relaxed on a recliner, feet weighed by the table.

 “Since you made clear that we can’t. as you say, ‘scrounge up the past,. how about now? After everything you’ve been through how can you live with yourself?” Corey asked eyes still on the creature.

 Mike went on and on, on how he felt terrible for the other people he was around that succumbed to death after the apocalypse. More than once I dazed off into the rooms corners, letting my boredom obliterate my focus. This was always the same response cliche, Dylan had said those lines far too many times for me. “Can I use the bathroom?” I interrupted him.

 “Down the hall, first door on the left,” he told me. Engaging the conversation again with Corey as I lead myself down the hall.

 It wasn’t five stars to say the least. Smells of rotten trash I guessed. I didn’t want to use the restroom, I wanted to browse around his house. There got to be something of valuable information here. Passing the first left hand door I made my way down the hall. Three other rooms and an upstairs. If I were to hide anything of worth I’d place it where no one would know or guess. Like under the floorboards, but that didn’t mean I was going to rip each and every board out.

 Making it to a right hand door I peered inside. The room was empty. Not a single thing, no furniture, closets, or windows. There wasn’t even floorboards, Mike you seriously need an interior designer. Trying not to make too much noise to arouse Mikes suspicions I quietly but quickly checked the other rooms. All of them the same nothing. Where does this guy sleep? My only option I headed up stairs, the floor boards not making one sound.

 And right where the entrance was suppose to be, right where a hallway of some sort was suppose to welcome me, nothing. I was welcomed by a solid white wall. I could hear Mike mumbling down stairs. If Corey had explored this house more than once, where were all the stuffed animals did I come to an empty side of the house, was there another hallway?

 Hurrying back to them I found them still engaged in conversation to my relief. “Took you long enough. Got lost in the bathroom?”

 I smiled awkwardly, stupid. One of Laura's quotes struck me, ‘don’t ever show emotion when you undercover’. It’s great having parents that work for the government. “I… I liked what you did with the sink counter.” Stupid, stupid , stupid.

 “I know cost me a bit.” Mike took a sip of his cup.

 I sat down holding my hands together while Corey gave me an odd look.

 “That will be all for today,” Corey stood up still eyeing me queerly. He made way toward the door, the sun had already left the sky. That means its probably five forty, I had at most an hour and twenty minutes before they closed visiting hours at the hospital. My mom infinitely came ahead of everything else in my life, I’d sell my soul to see her up and about again. Even if she’s crazy.

 “Corey if you need anything else stop by sometimes.” Mike watched me closely, “Grace, try to stay out of my business.”

 I felt my face turn white, had he known that I searched his house. Yet, he probably meant my poking at his accent.

 After he closed the door Corey and I walked down to his bike, “You look pale. Are you alright, did you see them?”

 “There were no other stuffed animals,” my voice sounded off. They had to be though? “All the rooms were vacant.”

 Corey looked stunned, his own face vacant like the rooms. “You sure? He had tons of those things laying about in every single room. YOU’RE LYING!”

 I jumped scared. Corey's face was in a flood of frustration . What had I done to get him this angry? “Why would I lie about that?”

 “Sorry,” Corey says uncomfortably, “Can we talk about this tomorrow?”

 “Wait, you said you investigate Mike’s house every now and then right?” I asked.

 “Yes.”

 “I want in next time,” I requested.

 Corey smiled, “And here I thought I’d never see that little girl again.”

 But he didn’t smile for long once I smacked him.

⚞☣⚟

   “You’re running out of time Dan,” Neo was poised on the recliner. The wind from the plants outside blocking his face, illuminating his red eyes.

 “I know all I need is one more day and I’ll get her alone,” Dan was frustrated he had failed again. And all of it was because he wanted to please some girl.

 “Tomorrow then. If not I’ll personally kill her myself and I’ll do it my way.” In Neo’s hand was a small vial filled with black liquid. Dan was completely petrified, he knew what that did. Did Neo really have to go that low for all his faults?

 “Fine tomorrow it is.”

Author's Note

Rough Draft. Remember unlesss it's a catastrophic mistake.