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“Bathe him. Feed him.” Nilani gives me a wolfish grin. “And tomorrow, we’ll do it all over again.”
Sibbie leans down to plant a soft kiss on my parted lips. “Oh the fun we’ll have with you.” The girls turn to each other, ignoring my presence as Rika unchains me from the wall. The other three, Sibbie, Diedra, and Nilani, are all over each other, mouths and tits and fucking spider legs. But I can’t focus on their lust-fueled threesome at the moment. I’m too busy trying to figure out what the hell just happened to me.
My gaze drops to Rika, who has silently shifted back into her human form. She unchains my wrists from above me, catching me as I collapse onto her. My vision blurs in and out as I’m hauled out of the feeding chamber. I catch a glimpse of another man, his body being used by other women, other spiders. How many of these monsters exist down here? How many other men are trapped? And how the hell am I going to get out of here?
I don’t know how much time passes, but the next time I open my eyes I’m in a new room. Steam fills the air, the scent of sulfur accompanying the heat. I’m barely conscious as my body slides into the hot water below. We must be in an underground hot spring. Rika sits behind me, leaning my back against her. We’re both silent as she uses a rag to wash the spilled blood from the four sets of puncture wounds across my body. I wince as she rubs the fang marks above my groin. The pain from that wound is particularly awful.
“Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve fed. I was too rough,” she apologizes in soft tones. The next time her hand sweeps over my chest, I grab it. She tenses behind me as I turn to face her.
“You’re one of them.”
“Yes.” She pulls her plump bottom lip between her teeth. I hate that even now, with my anger and betrayal blooming, I find her so lovely.
“What exactly are you? Answer me.” My muscles have softened in the warm water, but my mind has sharpened. Rika opens her mouth to speak but closes it again. It’s several minutes later before she finally explains.
“You’ve heard of Jorogumo?” I nod. “No one is certain how the original Jorogumo came to be. It’s rumored that magical abilities were gifted to an orb weaver spider the day it turned four hundred years old. She was given the ability to transform into a beautiful woman when she wanted. She used this gift to lure men down here for many years and eventually she created more of us.”
“So you haven’t been this way forever?” I feel a small surge of relief knowing she hasn’t always been a monster.
“No. I came to Japan as a tourist, to sightsee and visit my mom’s side of the family.” Pain shines through the depths of her soft brown eyes. “But I was taken. Just like all the other girls. Jorogumo doesn’t care where we’re from. She doesn’t care how old we are or the color of our skin. She and the elder weavers, those who are more powerful than I am, need a steady stream of new girls to take in Jorogumo’s curse. Once they get you down here, there’s no way to escape.”
“Why? Why do they need more girls?”
“To bring them fresh meat, of course.” She gives a halfhearted laugh that’s more than a little out of place among her dark words.
“Why don’t they go get the men themselves?” A fury roots itself inside me at the thought of the life they stole from the woman in front of me. Surely those honeyed eyes didn’t always reflect such sorrow.
“They can’t. Not anymore. The curse has a price. It requires blood. But the more blood you consume, the more your humanity slips away. After hundreds of years, they can no longer transform fully into a human. Their yokai bodies are their permanent form now. That is why they need new girls, girls who can still walk above as people. And once those replacements lose their humanity, new girls will take their place. It’s a cycle that will repeat itself again, and again, and again.”
My body shakes with anger. I should hate this woman, and yet all I can think about is getting her away from here. “Why can’t you leave this place? Help me escape and I can hide you, keep you safe. I have the means to set you up with a whole new life outside of here. You haven’t transformed fully. You still have time.”
“It’s not possible.” She shakes her head.
“What about your family? They may still be looking for you, desperate to know what happened to their daughter.”
“They’re not.”
“How can you possibly know that?” My voice booms, echoing across the stone. “They may be desperate to know what happened to their little girl. They—”
“They are all dead,” she cuts me off with a whisper. Tears pool in her eyes.
My stomach drops. “The other yokai killed them?”
She shakes her head, sighing deeply. “Nothing so sinister. I don’t know exactly how they died. All I know is they are dead. I’ve been down here for more than forty years. My parents were in their sixties when I was taken. Wherever they are, whatever life they had without me, it’s over now.” The tears spill over, running down her cheeks. Despite my distrust of her, I raise my hand, using my thumb to brush her tears away.
“Even if your family is gone, why do you do it? Why don’t you run away?” There’s an aching in my heart too prominent to belong to a stranger.
“I need blood to survive. How would I handle that on my own? If we don’t bring back men, we’re killed. Maybe I’m just horribly selfish, but I haven’t wanted to die badly enough to stop yet.” She hiccups a small sob. “And I’m sure that’s the curse talking. The monster within me wants to live. It loves to feed and hunt. I just wish I didn’t have to hurt people. People like you, Everett. I really am so sorry.”
Her skin is so cold beneath my palm. Even in this hot water.
Sadness hovers thicker than steam in the air. “Why would you tell me all this?”
“Because you’re never getting out of here, Everett.” There’s a resigned truth in her words. My heart picks up again. She’s confiding in me, knowing damn well I’ll never be able to tell anyone. Unless...
“We can find a way out of here. With your help—”
“There’s no leaving this place. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be. Hope is too dangerous a flame to keep burning in a place as dark as this” Her tears stop falling and a hollow resolution takes their place in her eyes. “Come. We need to get you fed.”
