“This is going nowhere,” Derek added, sitting back like Tammy, with the rest of us following his action. “Looks like we’re going to be stuck in here through the day, after all.”

“What if more spiders come this way?” Tanda asked, sitting straight up.

“Then I will kill them,” Fala replied, in his human voice, causing all of us to look back his way. “I should have at least grabbed the pants.” ***

Cates was the first one to the huge spider’s chambers, he first saw the dead spiders, then he saw Fala’s clothes thrown down on the floor. “Fala! Renee!” he called out in his deep, gruff voice. The others filled the room with Sydney stepping back up a few of the steps, not believing his own eyes.

“Where could they have gone?” Garvin asked, moving one of the dead beasts with his foot.

“Through one of those,” Cates replied, pointing up.

Fala held his hand up and turned his head back the way we came. “I heard something,” he said, then barked; it was all that I could call it. That’s when we all heard the echo of someone yelling, “Come back this way!” I think we all cheered, as Tammy grabbed Fala’s leg, telling him he might want to take the back again, so his butt wouldn’t be up in anyone’s face; namely hers. Jacob was up on Cates’ shoulders, looking into the holes that had marks showing that movement had recently gone through, then began calling out, and that was what Fala had heard. I was right behind Tanda and Derek and even past the glow of our own torch I could see the light shining from the opening of the hole, and the beautiful face of Jacob smiling in at us.

“Leave you alone for a few hours and look where we find you,” he said, hopping down from Cates’ shoulders, so that Cates could help us down. “What were you thinking climbing into this creature’s resting place?”

“We were thinking we would find another way out, after the wall shut,” Derek said, dusting the webs and dirt off of his knees, cleaning his hands at the same time.

“Count yourselves lucky. Most who encounter these creature’s domain, do not live to tell about it,” Cates said as he took Tammy into his embrace.

“Oh they tried to make us a part of this place forever, believe me,” she replied, wrapping her arms around him.

“Two things, what are they, and how the hell do we get out of here?” I asked, nervously looking up at the other holes.

“Its' family is known as the wolf spider. These are a mutant form that is much like their smaller kin, only these hunt without the use of a web,” Jacob explained, leaning down by the one that tried to hunt me. “It is said that these were only heard of in fantasy, but Cates and I found ourselves in their midst many years ago, in the underground lair of an enemy to our old master.”

“Any idea why they would be here, along with those,” I asked, pointing at the baby cribs.

“There’s a room behind those, with a table used in hospitals, or a table much like them, to help a woman give birth. The biggest difference with this one is the straps that hold the woman down, are there to keep her by force.” Tammy explained, as she walked closer with Cates.

“Not to mention the number of bodies that have to be in those piles of bones,” Derek added. “And I’m sure you’ve already seen these.” Then he squatted down by a pile of the smaller bones that were mixed with an odd powder-like substance.

“The owner of these kept them fed well, and must have used them to scare whomever into submission of his ways,” Jacob said, running his hand in the bottom of one of the cribs. “From the size of these I would say they were more like the owners pets, than merely inhabitants of his lair.”

“Can we leave now? I really want to go back up,” Tanda fumbled with her blade, nervously looking up at the holes that we saw nothing come out of. “Do you think there may be one for each hole, Jacob?”

“More than likely when they were placed in here. But, with the looks of things, it has been some time since this area has been used for the feeding of these being, so it would be possible that most have died by now.”

“Unless, they have a way to get out and go feed…right?” Derek asked, walking back to the group.

“True, but I believe more would have converged on you had there been more. They are a graphic hunter and when hunger is their foremost thought, they will hunt as one,” Jacob responded, looking back up to one of the holes.

“So how do we get out of here?” Tanda asked, a second time.

“We go back the way we came,” Cates replied, releasing Tammy and pulling Tanda’s tiny form closer to him. “That door won’t be a problem for me, sweetheart.”

“Then can we please go? I mean right now, I don’t want to be down here anymore,” she said as her lower lip began to tremble.

“Tanda, are you alright?” Garvin said, going down on one knee in front of her.

“No, brother I’m not. Yvette used to tell me that the giant bugs were going to eat me one day, if I didn’t do as she said…and now it’s coming true.”

“When did she tell you these things?” he asked, picking her up like a small child.

“For years after they took us from our home. She knew I was afraid of them, especially spiders. Remember the night she locked me in the wooden box, for not brushing my hair?”

“I do. I will never forget it.”

“I screamed, because I felt something crawl across my leg. It was then that she began telling me of the giant insects.”

“Let’s get her out of here,” Derek said, nodding at Garvin and taking Tanda into his arms. “No one’s ever going to hurt you again.”

Tanda wrapped her arms around his neck and up the stairs they went. The rest of us followed, with me and Tammy feeling two feet shorter for not paying more attention to her and letting our own fear blind us to hers. I told Jacob about the tiny bones in the desk drawer, and he explained that the owner must have kept them for souvenirs, having to take them before the spiders took the victim. He then explained that they would not still be as hard as they were had they been collected after the spiders had their way, or they would have been brittle like the others. I was floored, well beyond shock, to think that anyone; be it breeder, normal, floating creature, or anything else; could be cruel enough to cut the fingers off of newborn infants while they lived, or otherwise. It had to be the most morbid things we had witnessed, and something I wished I had never asked about. Now I had the vision of tiny babies screaming out as some horrid insect mutilated their bodies, with the one that was supposed to protect them lying dead on the floor a few feet away. ***

Cates and Fala were now sticking blades into the cracks of the second wall where it split and were trying to pull it out enough to get a grip on to push it down long enough for us to escape. Garvin, Sydney, and Tammy were rummaging through the room, when Garvin dropped what looked like a photo frame after he looked at me, and stepped back. The wall was halfway down when I started walking over to see what he had found, and why it had bothered him so much that he dropped it the way he had. Garvin stepped in front of me, and told me that we need to hurry.

“What did you find, Garvin?”

“Nothing, it’s not important.”

“It was important enough to make you look like you saw a ghost,” I replied, trying to move around him.

“It is best if we just leave,” he said, grabbing both of my arms.

“Take your hands off of me, right now,” I demanded, looking him right in the eyes, and he released me stepping to the side.

I leaned down and picked up the square object, and my mouth hit the floor. It looked like a plaque of some sort, but it was the name inscribed on it that turned my world upside down. ‘Philip Vegee Lebrun’, was the name that looked back at me. I began wiping the black gore off of the rest and uncovered a smaller painting much like the one we had seen on the wall. It was, indeed, the same man. Martin had lied to me about his father being a rich French aristocrat that Yvette had killed when she took advantage of him. I felt a hand on my shoulder and just knew it was Jacob.