Tabitha (32 page)

‘Tell me what
you n-need,’ Liv said desperately. ‘I’ll bring it to you. Tell me.’ Tabitha
could only gasp at the words though. They wouldn’t come. All she could do was
keep crawling for it. For life.

‘She needs the
spider!’ said Liv, opening the gate to pull the corpse inside with a clatter.
Tabitha dragged her body up to it, and held its wounded head to her mouth.

‘She’s drinking
the blood, through the bullet hole,’ Liv told them, as Will closed the gate.
Tabitha drank at the wound like a baby on a bottle, curling her body around the
corpse. She started to feel her legs again, as she gulped down the blood like
silver milk. Her spine moved and clicked back into place. She felt full,
suddenly. Tripping. Thoughts raced; gunshots of colour. A lightning
kaleidoscope filled her head with bleeding rainbows; liquid pyrotechnics and
inkblot supernovas. All the world was silver; all the world was peace. The high
wrapped around her, an electrostatic bath; a
forcefield
soul hammock. Tabitha rolled over on her back, and felt her own spilled blood
on the ground against her arms. It was the same blood as that spider. She
dabbed her hand and licked her fingers. It tasted just the same. Exquisite. She
watched the sky. The stars were stabbing through the dusk above; celestial
pinpricks of light that flared and tailed as she moved her head. Faces appeared
on either side of her as she stared up from the cobbles. She smiled. She knew
those faces. They were calling her name, like a distant dream. Waiting on the
far side of her glassy psychedelic trip.

‘Tabitha?’ said
Liv, stroking her hair that was slick in the silver puddle of blood.

‘I’m ok,’
Tabitha said quietly, smiling at her friend. They held her hands, Liv and Will.
She hardly felt their hands touching hers, but she knew they were there holding
on. It was the faintest feeling, just a hint of a touch. She felt her
heartcore
reacting to the spider blood. Charged and
lubricated; stimulated into frenzied repair.

‘How are you
feeling?’ said Will. ‘Does it hurt anywhere?’

‘Just my whole
spine,’ Tabitha croaked. ‘Liv, let’s not talk by the gate again.’ Liv smiled
and sobbed, kissing her head. Will called to the others to come out and help
her inside. Chris couldn’t be around her though. He ducked back into the keep,
with the image playing over and over in his head. The way Tabitha looked when
she was feeding on that spider. Like an animal on a kill; like something
possessed. A vampire, that’s what she was. Draining the life out of that thing
with a fierce intensity, hellish and feral. One day soon, that could be him she
was feeding on. It could be all of them. The thought crept in and filled his
head. She was just like the spiders, and no one else could see it.

27

Tabitha gasped and woke from weird
dreams. She found herself in Liv’s room in the dawn light. She happily fought off
Laika’s frenzied attentions, and felt bandages tight around her middle. She
untied them and peeled off the absorbent pads from her back, stiff with dry
silver blood.

‘Thank god,’
said Liv, sitting on the floor beside her. Tabitha jumped to see her there in
the morning gloom.

‘Have you been
there all night?’ said Tabitha, swinging her feet down off the bed.

‘Of c-course,’
said Liv, smiling. ‘I wanted to m-make sure you were alright. No one slept a
wink last night.’

‘Thank you,’
said Tabitha, hugging her tight and kissing her cheek. ‘Thank you for looking
after me. All the time.’ Tabitha took Liv’s hand and coaxed her up from the
floor, and guided her by the shoulders to plonk her down on the bed.

‘You’re sleeping
today,’ Tabitha ordered.

‘You’re sure
you’re alright?’ said Liv, while Tabitha pulled the bed cover up over her.

‘I’m fine,’ she
said gently. ‘Sleep, you.’

‘You’re up! How
are you feeling?’ said Natalie, wiping the table down as Tabitha came
downstairs with Laika.

‘Incredible,’
she replied, grinning. Natalie hadn’t expected her to be walking around so
soon. She certainly hadn’t expected a hug.

‘Nobody could
sleep last night, we were so worried,’ said Natalie. ‘We couldn’t get the twins
to stop crying.’

‘I’m sorry for doing
that to everyone,’ Tabitha replied. ‘It was a stupid place to sit, by the gate.
I should have known better.’

‘Oh god no,
don’t apologise,’ Natalie replied, handing her a cup of water. ‘I’m just glad
you’re alright. You’ll have to see the twins.’

‘Where are they,
in the garden?’ said Tabitha, pushing the door open on a gorgeous morning.

‘Tabitha,’
Natalie called to her quietly. ‘We were all really scared for you last night.
Jim was crying.’

‘Oh god,’ said
Tabitha. ‘It must have been bad. But I don’t remember half of it, to be
honest.’

‘It was the most
horrible thing I’ve ever seen,’ said Natalie. ‘And I’ve seen some messed up
stuff. It’s probably better that you don’t remember it, actually.’

‘I’m sorry you
had to see it,’ Tabitha replied awkwardly. She didn’t know what else to say.
She wasn’t in any great pain; she hardly remembered the grizzly details.
Everything that happened was a blur of shock. There’d been fierce pain, and
then nothing. She’d passed out and woken up with a feral hunger she’d never felt
before; bloodlust. And then a sudden burst of silver light as she drank the
spider, when the world had blown into twisting colours like ink in water. She’d
felt so full and high and tingly-intense after her
bloodmeal
that she could have
orgasmed
. Maybe she had. After
that she’d slept like a baby, and somehow the whole ordeal had been worth it
just to sate her sickening hunger.

‘Tabitha?’

‘
Hm
?’ she snapped out of her daydream and found herself in
the kitchen. Natalie was looking at her.

‘Are you ok?’

‘Oh yeah, fine,
thanks,’ Tabitha said absentmindedly. ‘Just… a bit of a flashback, that’s all.’
Natalie looked pained about it; she needn’t have. Tabitha couldn’t remember
feeling this good before. Like someone had turned up the colour and the
sharpness on life, all the way to the top.

‘Sorry, what was
I doing?’ said Tabitha, hanging around in the doorway.

‘You should go
and see everyone,’ said Natalie. ‘Especially the twins.’ Tabitha nodded in a
smiling daze, and wandered outside.

‘Hey you two,’
she said, walking down into the garden with Laika in tow. Grace and Robert ran
over as she sat down on the grass, and hugged her tight.

‘We thought you
were going to die,’ Grace said quietly.

‘Will said you
wouldn’t though,’ Robert added. ‘He said you had special powers.’

‘Have you got
special powers?’ Grace whispered in her ear, like a close-guarded secret.

‘Yes I do,’
Tabitha whispered back, smiling at Grace’s look of surprise.

‘What special
powers?’ said Grace, desperate to find out.

‘She’s got
healing,’ Robert said knowingly.

‘Yep,’ Tabitha
replied, showing off the hole in the back of her top. ‘Look. No scar.’

‘Just mental
scarring for the rest of us,’ Will joked, walking over from the wall.

‘You saved my
life,’ said Tabitha, getting up and hugging him tight.

‘Well, technically
you
saved your life,’ he replied, smiling at Jim and Paul coming over.

‘We just stopped
all the life leaking out of you.’

‘You did make a
bloody mess though,’ Jim chipped in. ‘I was up all night scrubbing that
courtyard. Don’t you ever do that to me again, lass. Frightened the life out of
me, seeing you like that.’

‘Sorry Jim,’ she
said, looking up into his tired old eyes. She gave him a tight hug.

‘I’m so glad
you’re alright,’ said Sylvia behind her, coming down the steps from the wall.
‘We were so worried.’

‘Thanks,’ said
Tabitha, giving her an awkward hug. There was something off about her, though.
Like she was holding back; distancing herself. Tabitha supposed she shouldn’t
be too surprised about that.

‘How are you feeling?’
said Chris, coming down from the wall. It was a cursory question though,
nothing more. No trace of concern in his tone. A formality.

‘Much better,
thanks,’ she replied. ‘Hungry though. Really hungry.’ She couldn’t miss the way
Chris stared at her then. He couldn’t hide his feelings to save his life. He
looked afraid of her.

‘Yeah, we
thought you might be hungry,’ Will replied warmly. ‘We kept the spider for
you.’

‘It’s round the
back of the keep here,’ said Will, as if it was completely normal, walking with
Tabitha down the circular path from the garden. Tucked away around the corner
was the dead spider that attacked her last night, sat in a pool of dried silver
blood on the cobbles.

‘Is there
anything you need?’ he said, watching her approach it.

‘Oh, no thanks,’
she said with a smile.

‘Well, I’ll
leave you to it then,’ he said brightly, awkwardly, and walked off back round
the corner. Tabitha looked at the metal corpse at her feet, and felt a surge of
hunger inside her. It was a primal hate and a nervous lust; some strange new
feeling she’d never felt before. Any kind of etiquette she’d felt obliged to
maintain flew out of the window. She threw herself down on the dead spider and
ripped its armour open, and sank her teeth into stringy white muscles. She bit
down with a fibrous creak and sucked at silver blood. A cold deliciousness
filled her mouth, like juice bleeding from the flesh of an orange. A liquid
thrill, tasty and potent. She gulped it down, gasped at the perfect taste, and
quickly went back for more. How long had it been since she’d kept a meal down?
Two weeks? Three? She drank another mouthful of bliss and threw her head back,
staring at the bright blue sky with the taste of life on her tongue. Orgasmic.

‘Oh I’m sorry, I
didn’t realise you were here,’ said Sylvia in surprise, getting a good eyeful
before she turned to walk back around the corner.

‘Yes you did,’
Tabitha called to her. Sylvia stopped and looked at her, affronted. ‘You knew
exactly what you’d see here,’ said Tabitha, sitting back on the path with
silver blood coating her chin. ‘Was it the kind of
freakshow
you’d hoped for?’

‘I’m not here to
judge anyone,’ Sylvia snapped.

‘But you do it
anyway,’ Tabitha countered, getting to her feet. The blood’s silver-glass
psychedelia
changed the world as she looked around. She
felt her core thriving on it; easing her muscles and blowing down her fears
like an old brick wall. Horny voltage peeled away her old nature, until she
felt her new
self deeper
inside. She’d had enough of
Sylvia’s matriarch routine, standing there staring like a grim nun. All her
righteous distaste and bulletproof snobbery.

‘You know, it’s
a shame you can’t try that silver stuff,’ Tabitha told her with a sensuous
tone, licking her lips slowly as she walked over. She got up in Sylvia’s face.
‘Because it’s so, fucking, good.’ Her lips dripped silver. Her gold eyes
smouldered under blood-red curls. Nervous, Sylvia edged back a little. Tabitha
studied her face; that look in her eyes. ‘Say it.’

‘Say what?’
Sylvia replied, backing up a step.

‘Whatever you’re
thinking about.’

‘Nothing we
haven’t already discussed,’ she said awkwardly. ‘Just stay away from my
family.’

‘They’re not
your family,’ said Tabitha, wiping the silver blood off her chin. ‘And any
problem you’ve got with me, come out and say it. I don’t like the way you look
at me.’

‘Well, I don’t
like the way you look.’

‘How do I look?’

‘Feral,’ said
Sylvia. ‘Unnatural.’ Tabitha grinned.

‘If only you
could feel what I feel,’ Tabitha replied quietly, holding Sylvia’s stare.

‘Tabitha!’ said
Will, running back round the corner. ‘It’s the spiders, they’re outside!’

‘How many?’ she
said, leaving Sylvia standing there. Will looked terrified.

‘All of them,’
he said.

‘Oh my god,’
Natalie muttered, watching the silver swarm from the curtain wall. They’d
massed on the field below, a chittering horde of fifty at least.

‘What’s
happening?’ said Robert, looking up at everyone on the wall.

‘Come inside
now,’ said Sylvia, taking Robert and Grace by the hand and leading them back into
the keep. ‘And you, Natalie.’

‘I’m staying
with them,’ she replied. Sylvia stared at her; Natalie looked defiant. ‘I want
to help.’

‘You’ll help
them by coming inside, out of the way,’ Sylvia told her.

‘If Natalie
wants to fight, we’ll gladly have her,’ Will chipped in, looking to Paul.

‘But she’s too
young!’ Sylvia protested.

‘I’m nineteen!’
Natalie shot back. ‘And I’ll do whatever I like Sylvia, thank you!’

‘Natalie,’ Paul
warned her.

‘What?’ she
replied, watching Sylvia hurry the twins inside and shut the door. ‘No one
tells me what to do. Especially someone I’ve only known a few weeks.’

‘I like her,’
Liv muttered to Tabitha. The group lined the wall and watched the horde with
morbid fascination. The spiders had come for them in force.

‘I’ve seen them
massing like this before,’ Tabitha told the group, nodding at the spiders down
in the field. ‘They swarmed when they were chasing us through town, but this is
different. Now they’re coming together to hunt us.’ She thought back to the
horde that had scuttled down across the motorway, storming the village over the
distant field. She’d just brought the car to a standstill, and watched them go.
It was all she could do.

‘We can set
fires down there and kill a few at once,’ Will suggested, watching the spiders
scuttle and lurk on the field.

‘It won’t work,’
Tabitha replied, remembering the crashed fighter jet. ‘I’ve seen one
sitting
in a fire before. It didn’t even flinch.’

‘We’re safe
behind the wall,’ said Chris, looking for someone to agree. ‘We don’t need to
do
anything. They’ll find out they can’t get to us, and they’ll leave us alone.’
Tabitha noticed how shaky his voice sounded.

‘That’s n-not
going to work,’ said Liv. ‘They’ve been here before and given up trying to get
to us. If they’re back now, then that means they’re d-determined to get in.’

‘Liv’s right,’
said Jim. ‘They’ve come back here for us. They’ll try to get up over the wall.’

‘So they’re here
for a fight,’ said Will, watching the silver shapes. ‘Well let’s give them
one.’

‘What do we need
to do?’ said Paul.

‘We’re getting
the riot gear on,’ said Will, nodding at the keep. ‘And the shields too. Paul,
Natalie, you go with Chris. He’ll show you how to use the assault rifles. I’ll
keep an eye on the spiders. The rest of you… you know what to do. Just be ready
when it starts.’

‘Come on girl,’
said Tabitha, leading Laika upstairs into Liv’s room. ‘You stay here now. Stay.
Good girl.’ She stroked Laika’s head, and looked into her mismatched eyes. ‘I don’t
want you running out there playing hero, dog face,’ she told her softly, while
she reached for her belt and hunting knife under the bed. ‘We both know how
that turned out at the petrol station.’ She ran her fingers over Laika’s scar
on her side, where her fur was growing back. ‘Be good,’ she said, leaving Laika
whining as she closed the door. Her riot gear was hot and awkward to move in.
Better to have it on, though.

As Tabitha
headed back downstairs, Robert and Grace looked up at her with frightened faces.
Sylvia was fussing over them, trying to read them a book. She paused to wipe
some dirt from Robert’s cheek with a tissue from her cardigan sleeve.