The Spider Pt. 24

"Wake up, sweetie. Wake up."

John gently shook Amanda's shoulder. She blinked her eyes at the light, at first slowly, then quickly as she came to.

"John?"

"Yes. It's time to get up, darling. We have to go! We have to take a little trip today."

"Why, John?" she asked, yawning. "I'm so tired. I don't know why. I sure have been sleeping a lot lately."

"Yeah. Yeah. There you go- up on your feet. There you go."

She stretched herself out. The sunlight caught on her long blonde hair, gleaming, twinkling. She looked like an angel when she woke up sleepy, John was thinking. I could look at that glisten for the rest of my life.

Which won't be very much longer if we don't get the fuck out of here, he knew.

"Is there any coffee, John?"

"We'll get you some! Sure! We'll probably just pull through a Starbucks, OK?"

"Why can't we have some here?"

"Let's just get to the car. I have our bags packed. They're by the front door, and we'll just get the car loaded and get you that coffee, OK? I love you."

"I love you too," she said, her eyes wide open as she realized what was happening. "But you have got to tell me what's going on!"

"In the car," was all he said, putting his hand on the small of her back and gently pushing. He forced a fake and plastic smile onto his face. "Are you hungry? We can get some Mexican! I haven't had Mexican since I don't know when."

"What are you talking about?"

"Maybe some margaritas!"

Amanda looked back at John, blinking.

Get a grip on yourself, man, he thought to himself. You're babbling. Try to appear calm, for fuck's sake.

He pushed her down the hallway, and past the kitchen. As he passed, he looked briefly at the cups that he and Lynda had drank their tea with earlier this morning. He wondered if he would ever see her again.

He had the feeling that he wouldn't.

******************************

John opened the front door of Lynda's house, and he and Amanda stepped out into the bright sunshine of a crisp winter day.

He dropped the bag he was holding in shock and halted in mid-step. Amanda walked into his back, and stepped around him to see, gasping at the sight.

There was a ring of police cars around Lynda's house in the street, forming a tight barrier, lights flashing in disorienting circles noiselessly. A dozen or so police officers stood behind the cars, their weapons drawn and pointing at the couple.

Above them, a helicopter buzzed and circled ominously.

"Step away from the door," an officer commanded through a megaphone. "Step into the light, with your hands above your heads."

John and Amanda looked each other in the eyes briefly.

John put his hands folded over his head and stepped into the lawn. Amanda followed.

"Get down on your knees, keeping your hands above your head," the officer continued.

They got down on their knees.

One of the officers stepped out from behind the barrier, and made his way over to where the couple knelt on the cold lawn. Overhead, the helicopter was deafening.

The officer looked familiar to John.

"Hello," the officer said as he approached the couple, his hand on his holstered weapon. "Do you remember me, John? I'm Officer James Candy, I visited your house a little while ago with my partner, Detective Stern. Do you remember?"

John nodded his head.

"Of course, you don't live there anymore. Is that right? It caught on fire?"

"That's right," John shouted above the helicopter.

"If I remember correctly, Detective Stern and myself were visiting you because your warehouse also burned down... is that right? And there were some people killed during that fire?"

"You know, that's right, Officer," John said, attempting a casual smile. "I've had some bad luck lately."

"I guess so," Officer Candy said, and he squatted down in front of the kneeling couple.

He looked Amanda in the face, and then gave John a deep look afterwards. Finally, he broke into a wide smile.

"I need you both to be honest with me," James Candy said, smiling deeply. "This isn't any time for your fucking games. People are getting killed- your employee, Lynda? She might be one of them. She called me and told me that she had been threatened."

The smile dropped from John's face.

"I watched her have a conversation with Detective Stern on streamed video," the Officer went on. "And when we went to check your office, she's nowhere to be found."

"I don't know-"

The officer cut John off.

"Have you seen Detective Stern anywhere around here today?"

"No-"

"What about that woman who was here in the City- the TV called her the Power? Have you seen a woman who looks at all like that?"

"No." Amanda also shook her head.

"Where were you two headed to?"

"We were going to get some coffee," John replied. "Maybe some Mexican food."

The officer took a glance at the porch, where John and Amanda's packed bags were laying.

"You certainly pack a lot for Mexican food," he said, standing up. He waved to another officer to come over, and unclipped his handcuffs from his belt.

"Something is coming," Amanda said.

"I gave you a chance to be honest with me," Officer Candy continued. "I guess we can talk at the station."

"Officer-"

"Something is coming!" Amanda yelled out.

Startled, both men turned to look at her.

"Something is coming," she went on. "Something very dangerous, and very sick. Whatever it is, it wants to hurt us."

She turned to John.

"I don't want to be here when it comes," she said. "I shouldn't be here. None of us. It wants to kill us."

"What are you talking about?"

Behind Officer Candy, a cry went up from the other police behind the barrier of police cars. They were pointing at an object in the sky streaking towards them.

"Oh, God," Amanda said. "It's here."

She stood up, waving at John to stand up also. He did. Officer Candy put a hand out to halt them, but like the rest of the officers, his eyes were on the dark streak coming towards them.

The helicopter rotated around in the sky to get a view of the object as well. None of the people on the ground made a single sound as they watched the object get closer.

Almost faster than could be seen, the object crashed to the ground. It was a woman, landing and taking a knee. Her silver hair streamed behind her as she pulled herself up to her full and imposing height on the lawn.

She stood up, and pointed a finger at John.

"John Claire," she said, a gruesome and hollow voice. "You will come with me."

"What do you want with him," Amanda yelled over the helicopter as John shook his head.

"That's not important," the woman said. "If you don't come with me, John Claire, a lot of people could get hurt. That woman, next to you. She could get hurt."

Officer Candy moved to stand in front of the couple.

"I don't need to hurt you, Officer. I haven't been ordered by my Master to hurt you, or anyone else here. And if you get out of my way, I want have to hurt you. I won't have to hurt anyone else. I just need John Claire to come with me."

Officer Candy shook his head.

"Don't make me!" the woman shrieked, waving her arm indicating everyone. "Don't make me do this! If I killed her, I'll kill you too! I'll kill each and every one of you!"

The officers behind the cars pointed their pistols at her. James Candy made eye contact with one of them, and nodded. At his silent command, two of the officers broke off from behind the barrier.

"You killed Lynda," John said, a simple statement of sadness.

"Fuck!" the woman screamed.

The powerful woman took a step towards the couple hiding behind James Candy. The officer unholstered his pistol, and pointed it at the woman.

"Don't take another step forward," he said.

She did.

Officer Candy fired at her, missing. Overhead, a gunshot rang out from the helicopter, where a sniper was positioned with a long and powerful rifle. The bullet struck the woman.

"Fuck," she screamed, falling to a knee. "You hit me in my fucking neck!"

She stood up and looked at the helicopter above.

"I am so fucking tired of being shot today," she said under her breath.

She raised her arms to the sky.

In the blink of an eye, she erupted into the sky, a screeching rocket of fury and power. She fled directly at the helicopter, smashing through the entire cockpit in an explosion of metal and glass.

The sniper jumped from the height, his arms flailing as he fell. The pilot of the helicopter was not so lucky. The woman flew through the helicopter, which sputtered, tilted sickly on an unseen axis, out of control, and crashed into the street. The sound of the metal screeching and smashing into the pavement was deafening.

The officers on the ground were stunned, momentarily motionless. Quickly, though, almost as one, they began to fire their pistols at the intruder, most bullets missing her as she flew, some finding their mark yet not slowing her in the slightest.

The woman flew low to the ground, and lifted one of the police cars up into the sky. The officers continued their barrage as she pulled the vehicle straight up, lights still spinning like a garish light show.

She flung the vehicle at the barricade, the squad car smashing into the others. The officers scattered, fleeing the wreckage. She flew low, grabbed one of the fleeing officers by his arm, and threw him as if he was a child's toy onto the neighbor's yard, where he crumpled into a heap as he landed.

The Fist lowered herself to the ground once again in front of Officer James Candy, still shielding the couple.

He pointed his useless pistol at the woman.

She took a couple of quick steps towards him, grabbing him by his arm, and flinging him out of the way like a rag doll, over a dozen feet away. He crashed to the frozen ground, where he laid, motionless.

The Fist paused, breathing heavily. She glared at John.

"You're coming with me, motherfucker," she said. "I hope he kills you and kills you slow. I hope he lets me kill you."

Amanda stepped in front of the man she loved.

"No," she said quietly.

The Fist walked menacingly towards the slim woman.

"And what are you going to do about it, bitch," she said in a low voice.

Amanda took a step back.

"I'll break you in two," the Fist hissed.

"No!" John yelled, and shoved Amanda out of the way. "No."

"John!" Amanda yelled.

He turned to her.

"I'll go with her. I can't let her hurt you. I love you. Don't ever forget that I love you."

The Fist put her hand around John's upper arm. The police were scrambling to regroup, yelling orders to each other in the distance.

"Good choice," the Fist said. "Looks like you can live for now, sweetie. If you're lucky, you won't be important enough for my Master to send me to kill later."

"I said no," Amanda told her.

Blinding light erupted from Amanda's eyes, forcing even the police to put their hands up. A stream of cold and electric looking light burst from Amanda's face, shooting into the Fist. The Fist's whole body seized, as if in a spasm, the light lifting her into the air, jerking and convulsing.

After a brief while, the light flickered out, and the Fist fell to a heap in the frozen lawn, releasing John.

John ran to Amanda, putting his arms around her.

"What was that," James Candy said.

The Fist got up to her knees behind the three.

"We have to go," Amanda told the officer. She could hear the yelling of the other police as they ran up to the small group.

"No-" Officer Candy said.

But then the two vanished. As if they had never been there at all. Simply... gone.

He looked all around him. Nowhere.

What the fuck?

The Fist was on her feet now, standing quietly.

The officers surrounded her, some with their pistols pointing at her.

"You fucking idiots," she said. "Always getting in my fucking way. I try to help you, and you get in my fucking way, each time, every time. I'm so fucking sick of police men. I'm going to enjoy this, boys."

Two of the officers pointed long weapons at her.

"You are under arrest," James Candy told her.

The Fist laughed, a shrill and cruel laugh.

"I'm going to kill you," she said low and quietly, a simple statement of fact. "You never should have interfered."

"Now!" Officer Candy barked, and the two policemen holding the long weapons pulled the triggers.

But instead of bullets, the weapons shot out gleaming lengths of silver material that looked like nothing more than metallic lassos. One of them caught around the Fist's arms, looping around her and pulling taut in an instant. The other found its way around her legs.

The Fist stumbled to the ground.

She lay there in the frozen grass, struggling against her silver bonds. Some of the officers kept their pistols on her as she screamed and kicked, flexing her strength against the restraints.

"You can put your guns away, boys," Officer Candy said. "You can see they don't hurt her. If these restraints don't hold her like he said they would, there won't be anything stopping her from killing us all."

But none of the officers put their weapons away. They stood there, in the cold, shivering and watching the woman scream, threatening to kill them, howling about how she would kill them, one after the other.

The bonds held.

With a sigh of relief, Officer James Candy knelt by the woman. She looked up at him, with murder in her eyes, her lip bleeding from where she had bit through it.

"As I was saying, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent-"

"You won't be able to keep me," she spat. "He'll come and get me out from wherever you put me, and when he does, I'm going to beg him to let me rip your beating heart out of your chest. You are looking at your own death, Officer!"

"-you have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney..."

******************************

John laid his oversized menu down on the table.

"We'll start off with a pitcher of margaritas," he said. "Let's go top shelf- Hussong's, if you have it, and Cointreau."

The waitress nodded and went off to order the drinks. A basket of warm tortilla chips rested on the table next to the salsa. Dreadful Mexican music filled the air.

"You OK, sweetie," he asked Amanda, reaching across the table and putting his hand over hers.

"I think I might throw up again," she said. "I don't know."

"It's over now," he said, patting her hand.

"Is it?"

"Well."

He looked at his phone.

"For now, anyway. Nice trick you had, making us invisible to that cop so we could run away."

"Yeah."

"There's a lot about you that I don't know you can do," he said, dipping a chip in the salsa. "Eat."

"There's a lot about me that I don't know I can do," she said, and smiled wanly.

"Right. I think we're going to have to find out exactly how powerful you are."

The margaritas arrived. He poured her a drink over the salted rim, and slid it across the table.

"Go ahead and drink," he said. She had a sip. It tasted good. Warm, and relaxing.

"Look at the two of us," she said. "Happy hour margaritas."

"It's nice, isn't it?"

She nodded, and took another sip.

He looked at her, across the table.

"This is what I want," he said quietly. "I don't want anything else. All I want now, for the rest of my life, is you, and happy hour margaritas."

She smiled back, the warm glow of the tequila spreading to her cheeks. Or maybe she was blushing.

"And I promise you, Amanda, that's what we are going to do. We are going to get out of this, and we are going to go far away, and we are going to be a normal couple, with a yard, and a house, and we are going to have happy hour margaritas whenever we want. I don't want anything else in the whole world. All I want is you."

He poured himself a glass, and took a deep sip.

"But she'll be after us again, sooner or later," he said. "And if not her, then whatever her master is will come or send something else. We are still being hunted. It's not time to celebrate yet."

He looked at his phone, scrolled through his contacts, and hit a button to make a call.

"We are going to need some help," he said.