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Too little, too late do Thorne and Zac get away from the spider-beast when it is in front of, having outmaneuvered the pair by use of its mirror. But rather than emerge entirely, a singular horrible claw strikes out of the mirror at lightning speed. The carry is enough to spare Thorne its wrath- Zac is not so lucky. In one fell swoop with a sickening crunch, the limb pierces Zac's torso and slams him to the ground. The tile beneath the claw breaks, the appendage having broken enough skin and bone to emerge on the other side. Blood trickles down Zac's body- unfortunately alive, no, why is he alive- as the claw slowly pulls its captured prey into the mirror. The rest of the group can only look on in horror as Zac is devoured, alive, by the monster. What little of a carcass is left of him, when he is finally dead, is wrapped in webbing and tossed away.

"You thought it was enough to save him, to act all brave and tough in front of the people who don't know you better. Don't know what a filthy mutt you are," the spider taunts Thorne, all eight eyes set upon the painter.

"You'll never be good enough. Once a mutt, always a mutt. The blood's made you so bad, you couldn't even save a child."
--

As Zac is pulled into the mirror, dying, there is a voice only he hears. It is sorrowful, sobbing and sad.

Zac, Zac, no. No, I'm sorry! It wasn't supposed to be this way! She stole them, she stole them from me, THIS WASN'T ME! I was just trying to save m-

Whoever it was, whoever he thought it was, it is gone.

He wakes up elsewhere.

Leila was shocked into silence by the sight of it. In just an instant, Zac had been reduced to another body. Just like the countless she had seen and worked with in her life. And also just like -- years ago, the headlights casting shadows through the snowflakes and the smoke, tinted by sputtering flames and blood on the intersection

-- surprisingly, the noise of bone-cracking and gristle-smacking as his limbs flopped further into that craggy mouth snapped her out of it, and she covered her mouth and gagged on a mixture of vomit and terror. Was that it? Was Zac really dead?

Just like that, she'd ******** it up, and Mercer was gonna be so pissed. She could do nothing.

"One little puppy dog, gone gone gone," The mocking voice of Lucas teased, laughing. The spider turned to look at the remaining trio, prepped to lunge--

And froze. Almost like it had been paused.

"Be careful, PLEASE! This wasn't how this was supposed to happen! You're all being tricked," a feminine voice cries out from the spider. If Zac were here, he might recognize it. Leila, too, has an inkling she has heard this girl before.

But no. It couldn't be.

"Get out, don't listen to it, DON'T LIST--"

The spider snaps its jaws shut. Regaining its momentum, it skitters awkwardly out of the mirror, only for Alexis's attempts to stab it falling short. Rather than attack, it frantically works to regain its ground. Lucas's voice returns.

"What I want is to get rid of that dog," he snarls angrily, waiting. Watching.

"Absolutely worthless brat."

(( So hey, basement team! Elk is in the midst of traveling, so I'm going to extend your time limit to whenever they're home and more able to post without falling asleep. This is an extenuating circumstance, so no penalty this time!

Get home safe, elk! ))

You're all being tricked.

Thorne stuttered on the concept of it - his mind reeling as the spider hissed at him again in Lucas's voice, etching gouges into the thin precipice he stood on between aware and gonegonegone - nightmare and reality. What had the ability to trick like this? Because it knew - and it had Lucas's voice -

Leila shouted at him. His head snapped to her, wild-eyed, hungry, and he forced himself to anchor his entire focus to her. His legs shook, and he was terrified, and no matter where he looked, a shadow flickered in and out of view. But then Alexis was there, shoving him back, stepping in front of him. Doing what he should have been able to do in the beginning. Thorne stumbled, breath hissing from his throat.

A trick - what trick - his mind sang, and his eyes flicked wildly to the shadow in the dark - the shadow that -

Wasn't there.

"Thorne, you're in a flashback - "

And suddenly the words were in his head. And he blinked and saw Lucas, but not with the edge of his fathers smile, not telling him his place, not - not doing what this spider was doing -

He saw the living room of the other mans apartment. Smelled blood and salt and sweat in the air. "--You're okay--" the memory of Lucas - the real Lucas - was saying. "You're okay. You're here, you're with me, and you're safe."

And it was that - the realization - that this thing, this creature, this monstrosity, could talk with Lucas's voice and say things it shouldn't know to say, but it wasn't Lucas. It wasn't, and it wasn't his father either. It was just another monster under the bed. Real, and deadly, and cruel, but nothing else.

Thorne remembered telling Lucas that he wasn't the real threat, and he was right. His expression shifted, nothing but the pain of tearing away from the flashbacks, the shadow, the ghost of his father snarling as the boot came down and down and down. But he turned to Alexis and Leila and his mouth opened as he stepped back towards them, forcing every part of him to stay grounded in their presence, to ignore the words of the spider, the spider itself. Let them hold him down with their words and their touch. He could fall apart later - later. But not now.

"I'm sorry - I don't - I'm sorry," he said, his voice like gravel, "Let's find a way out."

No more. No more, nomorenomorenomore.

Thorne could do nothing. Nothing but watch, nothing but shout or scream or swear and swear and swear as Leila became the next victim. This is your fault, his mind screamed. And he believed it. But not long enough for it to make him stop moving, stop going. One left. One left. His entire body shook with horror, overloaded, his senses burning from everything he felt, saw, smelled, heard.

But he forced himself to move.

Thorne didn't say anything, he couldn't or he would stop and retch and scream and cry. He grabbed Alexis by the arm and hauled them both away from the spider.

But he made damn sure to start breaking every single mirror along the way in some desperate, wild attempt to stop it from coming after them as fast as it was when it had all of its little ins and outs.

But he had nothing to use but his hands, and he could feel the screaming agony of the glass snarling and cutting through his skin and knuckles with every glass that shattered beneath his frantic punches.

"Break them," he snarled at Alexis. "Keep running and break them!"

"TWO PUPPIES LEFT!" The spider screams from its hideaway. It strikes a leg out at the remaining two, but misses. It is frantic now, its mirrors being broken. It has less opportunity to wait, and hunt, and strike. All of the voices are gone. It is a woman's- the one from before- but she sounds gleeful. Manic. Why she is so happy, you cannot comprehend.

The spider is losing, after all. Isn't it?

There are shards in their knuckles, crunching under their feet, and all Alexis can think about is I have to destroy these. They'd normally fancy themself more of an independent operator, but they'll make an exception for this time: imminent death has a way of bringing out the cooperative in people.

They kicked the closest mirror as hard as they could, biting back a cry when it reverberated all the way up through their leg, but watched it shatter into glimmering nothing all the same -- it was good they'd worn tough shoes, otherwise the largest shard would have gone all the way into their foot.