Afraid of The Light

Knowing what I needed to do first, I sprouted from behind the rock and ran as fast as I could. After dodging a few slashing blue whips and the venomous biting of spider fangs, I finally collapsed at Chester’s side. Nearly out of breath, I carefully leaned him over so I could access the lock on his ankle restraints.

Nothing I was doing was working. I couldn’t get the lock to release. Which made sense considering I had never picked, let alone seen a lock like this before. I began to panic, and Chester took notice.

“You have to leave it alone,” Chester said as an intense battle between insect, sock, and misfit objects brewed around us, “There’s no use wasting any more time on me. The others need you. Polk needs you. And don’t forget about Derrick. I’ll be fine. I’ll find a way out. I’m pretty sure I can break through the chains anyway.”

I wasn’t sure if that last sentence was true or not. Was he strong enough to break out of the restraints? Or was he just saying that to trick me into leaving him? Either way, my choice was made for me when a pair or sharp pincers drove themselves deep into my spinal fibers. Pulling me away from Chester, and into the heart of the battle as a prize to rally the rest of the troops to victory.

The horde of bugs immediately erupted with crazed elation, and began to fight with a newly found intensity. The socks which had been healed were struggling to obtain any ground and I was about to be torn apart by hundreds of sharp teeth. Luckily, the loyalty among spiders was nothing compared to their loyalty to Arly.

Fighting and arguing over who got to bite the first chunk out of my Celtic’s logo, allowed Polk enough time to shoot the largest, and last arrow he had. It landed a few feet in front of me, and erupted with an intense surge of light. I covered my eyes with my hands, but the glare was strong and I was forced to wait until my eyes readjusted back to the darkness. Once they finally did, I watched as scores of black spiders and red ants fled from where Polk stood over me, smoking with scorched wounds on their flammable hides.

“Afraid of the light,” Polk said, as he stood at the ready with two glowing blades, “As horrifying as this place is, there’s something poetic about it. What do you think, Lucky?”

“If we ever get out of here, I’ll give you my answer to that question.”

Polk smiled, put down his blades, and helped me to my feet.

“What was the plan here, Polk?”

“There was no plan. Soon after we arrived and detained Arly’s three guards, we began searching the grounds for anything we could defend ourselves with. I led the internal and underground searches, while Murphy and Chester searched the surrounding area. We were about to end our final scan when one of the batteries stumbled across a hidden tunnel, camouflaged to the naked eye by thick webbing. The pathway was purposely mined and it was illuminated with tiny shards of glass. Each shard was in turn reflecting a single light source coming from the opposite end.”

Three spiders and four ants suddenly charged at us, being driven by the snapping whips of two dark socks. Polk halted his story and picked up the two illuminated blades, and handed me one.

“The blades will burn the insects,” Polk began, “But they will heal and transform any sock or inanimate object back to its original state.”

“Where did you find such a weapon?” I asked, hesitant yet eager to know the answer.

“In the tunnel. It’s what we found at the end of the path.”

This was my first experience at hand-to-hand combat so I followed Polk’s lead. Watching how he dodged and spun his body to land powerful blows to the thick thoraxes of the insects, I mimicked his moves. I quickly got the hang of the dance, and found myself landing blow after blow to the relentless bugs.

Driving back two spiders and two ants each, Polk and I stared down the two dark socks. They cracked their whips and we glinted our swords. As one, we each used our unique differences to flank the socks. Polk tucked in his arms and legs and rolled right, I dropped to the floor and used the millions of fine fiber tips running through my body as legs to help me slither across the ground with tremendous speed. The cruel spell binding the dark socks to Arly must have weakened their reflexes because I was able to plunge my blade deep into the gray sock’s cotton lettering. I looked to my left and saw that Polk’s sword was also plunged into the other sock’s stitching.

We removed the blades simultaneously, stepped back, and watched as the transformation took place. The darkness dispersed from their fibers and they were once again returned to their natural, comforting and cozy state.

“What happened?” The sock with the faded Martha’s Vineyard logo asked, as it took in the horrors of the dark space.

“You were lost. You both were,” I responded, making sure the other sock decorated wit small dinosaur images also heard my voice, “But you have been found.”

“Where are we?” Dinosaur sock asked.

“I will explain everything once we get back to the sock drawer. Right now I need you both to pick up one of those blue spears and help free that mouse from his restraints.”

They both looked at the mouse, the battle, then back to me. They were stricken with fear and confusion.

“That mouse is family. He will help us get home. I need you both to trust me.”

The word, family, seemed to get their attention. Or maybe it was, home. Either way, both of the frightened socks found their courage, raced over to Chester, and began working on freeing the mouse from the cruel chains.

Although we were making progress on balancing the odds, the battle was far from over. Polk was already driving back a trio of feisty red ants while the rest of the good socks and misfit objects used sticks, small stones, and abandoned blue whips to fight back the hive. I, on the other hand, was reunited with two old friends.

Arac and Hnid had met me in the center of the battlefield. They looked angrier than before, and thick, gooey saliva dripped with an unsatisfiable hunger from their fangs. Arac, the smaller, black jumping spider hopped to the left, showcasing his warrior skills which he did not reveal to me during our first meeting. Hnid, the larger, black Wolf spider, scurried to the right, using the landscape to her lengthy advantage.

I stood my ground, and raised the electrified sword into an attack position. Unfortunately, the power source which had fueled the sword to begin with seemed to have reached its limit. The blade started to flicker in my hands, retracting into nothing with every spark.

Being one of only two weapons formidable enough to defeat the spiders, I needed to move fast and use whatever energy was left before the light went dark. A quick glance over at Polk revealed that his blade was also facing the same demise as mine. We were running out of time.

A piercing crack, followed by a tremendous boom suddenly shook everything around us. The spiders were momentarily caught off guard by the noise because they didn’t know what it was. I did. Except it also meant that Derrick and Ellie would most likely be returning home soon to escape the harsh rain that always followed city thunder.

Using the distraction to my advantage, I took my chances with Hnid instead of Arac and his quick reflexes. At first I thought my attack had been successful and damaging, but once the illusion wore off I realized that my blade had found the flesh of a tree trunk instead of Hnid’s thorax. With the diminishing blade stuck within the thick bark, Hnid crawled from around the opposite side of the trunk just above my head and cackled at her cleverness. She trapped me in a web without actually using any webbing.

Before I could think, she was on me. Her eight legs pinned me against the trunk, and her fangs repeatedly struck at my back, tearing away fibers with every strike. I tried to free my sword arm, but the light had nearly faded back into blackness. The weapon was useless.

Just as Hnid was about to tear out the final green fiber of my Celtics logo, she gasped in tremendous pain and screeched a slimy plea of submission. She got no such reprieve. Falling back from the tree trunk, landing in a pile of my own mangled fibers, I watched as both Murphy and Harry wrangled the large spider with two blue whips.

Letting fear drive her motivation, she writhed and fought the two socks with everything she had left. Unfortunately for Hnid, the combined strength of both Murphy and Harry was too great for her flexor muscles to overtake. The more she fought, the deeper the whips embedded themselves into her hairy thorax.

Arac heard his sister’s cry and leaped through the air with pinpoint precision. Using his silk-spun dragline as a weapon, he cleverly wrapped the webbing around Harry’s eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. With all of senses subdued, Harry released the whip and began tearing away the layers of the silk.

Murphy braced for what came next. Hnid violently yanked her thorax as hard as she could back and forth until the blue whip snapped. Murphy was flung through the air and landed in a pile of burnt cotton strands and ant legs. Hnid crawled back to her high perch, then began circling us from above.

“You alright, Murphy? She’s coming back.”

The big sock sprang up quickly, “Get that whip.”

Behind me was the whip Harry was holding when Arac ensnared him in a silk mask. I dove through the air and slid across the ground, scooping the hilt of the blue whip into my right hand. Murphy was sprinting towards one of the trees, yelling at me to do the same. Harry was now being aided by Polk, who was simultaneously keeping Arac at bay, so I followed Murphy into the forest.

“What’s your plan?” I asked, breathing heavily and keeping my eyes peeled up at the branches.

“To catch a spider by its toe.”

After he explained what he meant, we quickly found the right tree with the right amount of low hanging branches and stood with our backs pressed against its trunk and waited. Just as Murphy predicted, Hnid fell for our bluff and descended from the branches above us.

“Now!” Murphy yelled.

Matching each other’s movements with precision, we stepped away from the tree and used the strands of torn fabric from each of our backs, which we secured to a couple of the low hanging branches, to retract ourselves up into the air. Then, with the help of a lot of luck, we both lashed out our blue whips and lassoed three of Hnid’s legs. From our perches, we quickly wedged the whip’s hilts between the branch and main trunk, then used the excess string from our bungee line to secure the whips in place.

Thrashing uncontrollably in our trap, Hnid squealed and howled for help. Arac heard her cries but he was too busy battling Harry, Polk, a couple of friendly socks, and an angry mouse to do anything about it.

She spat at us in an inaudible language and snapped her fangs so hard that one of them actually broke loose.

“It’s over, Hnid,” Murphy said, “I’ve outsmarted you this time.”

“You really think this will hold me?” Hnid hissed, “Once I break free from your ridiculous snare, I am going to tear every last fiber from your bodies. You’re going to be nothing but string.”

Her threat was frightening, and I believed every word. But we didn’t need the trap to hold forever, just long enough for us to make our escape through the tunnels.

“She’s crazy,” Murphy said.

“I don’t think she’s crazy, " I responded, “She’s just devoted to the wrong cause.” Hnid snapped her fangs at my sentiment, forcing a second fang to chip away, “Alright, maybe she’s a little crazy.”

Exiting the forest we rejoined our friends on the battlefield. The number of turned socks was now in our favor, yet a few still remained loyal to Arly. The smaller spiders had mostly fled, yet a decent number of ants remained. The ants, loyal to a fault, had interlocked themselves together yet again, except this time they didn’t form into a throne. A pulsating red and black wall of thoraxes and legs cut Arly off from the rest of us. Her brigade of honor guards fell into formation in front of the shield wall and prepared themselves for the next fight.

Looking left and right down the front line of our small army, I tried one final time to plead with the queen mother, “The insects have poisoned your mind, Arly. The darkness which thrives down here has consumed your heart. You don’t belong here.”

“I belong nowhere, you foolish little green sock. And that is why I am going to allow this darkness to spread everywhere.”

Arly was suddenly lifted higher into the air by the aid of her ants and addressed her fighters, “Kill them all.”

Before they had the chance to pounce, a tremendous wave of light emblazoned everything. Repeated thunder reverberated around us and the insects immediately retreated back into the darkness of the forest, taking their leader with them, as fast as they could to avoid touching the light.

Once the light finally settled into a dimmer, light burgundy aura, we were all able to take large sighs of relief. Arly, and all of her remaining forces were gone. I took a quick peak to the east, and instantly shivered to the core when I didn’t see Hnid suspended within the trees.

“Does anybody know what just happened?” Murphy asked.

Everyone looked just as perplexed as the next, except Polk.

“It had to have been the light veil,” Harry said, “It somehow increased its range of illumination. We’re at Arly’s lair. It’s the deepest within the dark space I’ve ever been, and now for the light from the veil to penetrate this far? Something must have weakened its integrity. Only severe cracking could allow such light to travel so far.”

“But what?” Murphy asked.

I noticed Polk before anyone else did.

“It must have been from when I made those light weapons,” Polk said.

“How did you make them?” Murphy asked.

“Where did you make them?” Harry interjected, before Polk could explain.

All of the other misfit objects began frantically asking their own set of questions and the situation quickly fumbled into an energized state of panic. Thankfully Chester had enough brute influence to silence the premature mob, “Quiet!”

No one said a word.

Chester stepped aside and allowed Polk the platform to address his case, “I made them in the tunnels. At the end of one specific tunnel, Arly and the ants have mined out an entire section of the light veil. They were closer to escaping than we thought. So since I was short on time, I used one of their digging chisels to break away sharp slivers of the light veil to use as weapons. I had no idea if they would work but I was at the end of the road and needed to use what I had. Luckily for us, they’re all afraid of the light.”

“Then that’s our way out,” I said, energetically, “If we all continue to mine that section of veil together, we should be able to break through it.”

With no one opposed to the idea, and the echoing of insects returning from the darkness to test the dim glow of Derrick’s Christmas lights, we all looked to Polk, who was looking at me, to lead the way.

“Don’t look at me,” I said, “You’re in charge, soldier. Lead us home.”