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fandomtownies2016-12-09 08:42 am
hollowed-queen.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomtownies2016-12-09 08:42 am
The Woods in the Preserve, Friday Afternoon
Karla could sense new people on the island; new minds brimming with life and vitality. Slow, stupid minds that hadn't yet grasped the horrors that were waiting for them in the dark. What a pity. Soon so many of them would die, prey for the predators on the island. As one of those predators, Karla smiled--with her real face, not the soft, fleshy one she put on for company.
And then started getting ready for company. So many scrambling new people, frightened and disturbed by the dark, dreariness around them. And so she set new webs, tangled ones, making her section of the woods seem less grim, just a shade brighter. Not too much, or the trap would be obvious, but the kind of thing that would make people move towards her without thinking about it, shift left instead of right, head down instead of up. The kind of decision that seemed random but was influenced by hundreds of subconscious factors. And beyond those webs, she laid her real ones, the thick and fibrous ones, sticky, the kind that clung and wrapped and held until she decided to come out and relieve her pantry of its burden.
Come to her, little insects. Karla was hungry.
And then started getting ready for company. So many scrambling new people, frightened and disturbed by the dark, dreariness around them. And so she set new webs, tangled ones, making her section of the woods seem less grim, just a shade brighter. Not too much, or the trap would be obvious, but the kind of thing that would make people move towards her without thinking about it, shift left instead of right, head down instead of up. The kind of decision that seemed random but was influenced by hundreds of subconscious factors. And beyond those webs, she laid her real ones, the thick and fibrous ones, sticky, the kind that clung and wrapped and held until she decided to come out and relieve her pantry of its burden.
Come to her, little insects. Karla was hungry.
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Wasn't it fun? Wasn't this great? New people, old people, good mornings and good nights!
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Sometimes those memories made her want to bite off the little doll's heads. Other times, like now, when the prospect of gorging herself on new flesh pleased her, she enjoyed the visits.
"Hello, little one," Karla said with a smile. "Found any new playmates yet?"
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Then they mimed a kick--that sent them spinning around in the air, much to their delight--and giggled more.
Yesterday had been a good day, even if they'd gotten the order of events wrong.
They drifted closer, offering Karla the feather to inspect. Pretty, wasn't it?
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They could still play with what was left! Promise!
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Always interesting, though, which was why Allu-Nika kept coming back. They hated being bored.
Making an inquiring noise, they pointed at the places beyond Karla’s territory. Out there? They wanted someone from out there?
That’d be awfully hard. Allu-Nika’s attention span was pretty terrible.
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She had enough bits and bobs from previous victims to bribe a small doll with.
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But the idea of a present, a shiny thing, was an alluring one.
They made a questioning noise, pointing at their feather. It was theirs.
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"But this way, I know you'll come back," she said. "You get awfully forgetful sometimes, little ones. If I gave you your feather, what would stop you from wandering off? And we can't have that."
Because Karla was hungry.
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But… but… their feather!
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A noose made of spider-silk flew out towards Alluka, visibly sticky.
"Good girls get their feathers back. And a present besides. Your choice, little doll."
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With another flail of their arms (how dare she?!), and an imperious stamp of their feet (she had better keep her promise!), they floated in quickly to pat their feather and then moved even quicker to pat Karla's face (fine, fine, they would do what she wanted) and then flew off.
Their giggling had started up again before they ever made it out of the clearing.
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Allu-Nika was still suppressing their giggles as they made their way through the preserve, making a big point of hiding and a show of listening carefully. To Karla, in Karla's den they'd rung the happy sound of tiny little bells since Karla would know what that meant.
And hopefully she wouldn't show until the girl, Ringo, was closer to the den, closer to one of the big, sticky webs.
Allu-Nika hid behind another tree, peering around it, then looked back at Ringo to make sure she was still there.
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They waved for Ringo to be silent, gesturing wildly even as they nodded, making the crying faces again.
They were almost there! So close!
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They floated back to pat at the girl reassuringly.
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Not awake, see?
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"Maybe we should hurry, then?" The sooner she found whoever it was, the sooner she could get out.
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Allu-Nika nodded and sped up a little, still making sure to dart from tree to tree, so that the girl would think she was being sneaky and safe and good.
They were almost at Karla's den.
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And she was remembering some of the little tricks you needed to use to make AirTrek work properly out in nature like this. It was much better suited to hard surfaces like concrete, but dirt and trees had their own sorts of hard surfaces.
"Are we getting close?" she asked hopefully.
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Allu-Nika flew in tight, anxious little circles.
In there. That was where the hurt person was.
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Besides, Karla couldn't eat her. It would be very bad if she tried.
So this was okay!
Allu-Nika checked to make sure the girl was still following and then ducked just inside the cave.
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But she was following, she could hear and feel the ground beneath her wheels change from grass and dirt and fallen leaves to hard stone as she crossed the threshold.
"I hope it's not too far."
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They made a distressed noise and did a loop around Ringo's head, fluttering deeper into the cave.
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Well, cold-blooded anyway. In as much as she still had anything resembling blood. But soon a nice, hot meal would warm her right up.
This was too easy. Too, too delightfully easy.
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"In here..." Karla called. "Further back, against the wall..."
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"I was running away from a monster," Karla said, whimpering. "And my foot got wedged in between some rocks and I fell and hit my head." She sniffled. "I can't get free and I'm so cold."
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As for the webbing, it was too thin for Ringo to really notice it, and she was too focused ahead of her to really think about how quickly things seemed to be getting dark.
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Her face rose up out of the darkness, a little higher than Ringo's head. "You didn't see any monsters around, did you?"
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But hiding their giggling took a lot of work, since it was their usual state of being, and they only had so much attention span.
Besides, they'd gotten someone here. They'd done what Karla had wanted.
Their giggling burst out, uncontrollable and sinister and cheerfully malicious in the near total dark.
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She scrambled back a couple of feet, on the defensive as she tried to get a better look at whatever it was that had been pretending to be hurt.
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"Hello," she said, grinning. "Good job, Allu-Nika. A very good job indeed. I'll feast for days on this one."
A feather floated in the air towards the little doll, accompanied by a length of lace.
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Cuddling their feather against their body, they inspected the lace happily, giving a little chirp in thanks before fading out of the cave.
Some of Karla's webs were scary, after all, and while they might come back and play after Ringo was dead, they had more important things to be concerned with.
Namely, feathers and lace.
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She pressed her heels back, setting her ATs internal motors spinning. Because she was pretty sure she knew the answer to that one.
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There was a pile of dried out husks by the entryway that illustrated what she meant.
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Without moving otherwise, Ringo twisted her ankle slightly and sent a sharpened ribbon of steel whipping toward the giant spider-woman fast enough for it to crack out a little sonic boom. Once it was in motion, she began rolling backward, hoping she could get to the cave's exit, but not willing to take her eyes off the monster in front of her.
She wasn't really sure what she expected, which was why she did it. She wasn't inclined to get into a fight she could avoid, but she did need to know what her chances were if she was going to formulate any sort of plan.
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She twisted slightly and surged off to one side, trying to dodge that lunge. And then she spun back the way she'd came in and accelerated toward the exit. Except hadn't there been more light coming in when she'd arrived? She hadn't been inside for that long, so why did it seem like less of the light from outside was making it in?