Between The Doors. Wes Peters

Gerardo threw his head back in laughter. To Andrew and Nick he was only a speck standing atop the great tower. Still, his voice carried. It was thin and hateful, as it had been when the old man had tried to take the gun from Andrew in the sewer.

      “You have led your friends to an unfortunate end, Joe Freeman,” St. Gerardo said. He stood at least twenty feet above the wooden tower, which was only tall enough to reach the clock face. Nick gasped, and jumped off his horse. The plump redheaded woman stepped in his way.

      “Let me get through there!” Nick cried. “My friends are in there!”

      “No way,” said the woman. “No way you’re going near that tower.”

      “It’s time to pay, old man,” Joe Freeman said. Andrew squinted and saw a butcher knife in the man’s hand.

      “For your bar?” St. Gerardo asked.

      “Yes!” Joe replied.

      “I suppose I should pay for that,” Gerardo said, unable to hide his laughter. “All right! Come up here and make me pay.”

      “You better pay!” Joe returned.

      “I said I would,” the wizard returned.

      “Well good,” Joe replied. “You’ve got to pay—that’s house rules.”

      “I see. And you’re the house?”

      “Yes,” Joe said. He began to shout. “Boys! Roll it forward! Heave!” The wheels creaked into motion, and the wooden tower began to roll forward on the downhill slope to the Time-Table Clock Tower.

      “You’re the house,” Gerardo said to himself, though his voice was still audible through the square. “And the house is sin.” His yellow eyes burned in the afternoon light. The wooden tower closed in.

      “No!” Nick cried, and ran around the plump woman. She couldn’t stop him. Andrew leapt off the horse and sprinted after his friend.

      “Consider this your penance, Joe!” cried St. Gerardo. He threw both hands into the air, reaching for the hazy sky above. Nick stopped short, watching silently. Andrew nearly ran into him. Then the manhole beside them exploded.

      If Andrew hadn’t acted quickly, the spiders would have gotten Nick. He grabbed his friend and pulled him away, back toward the horse as the humming of a thousand subterranean beasts approached the surface. Around the square every manhole cover had popped into the air. The spiders emerged from the holes, free at last from the dark sewers. Andrew had thought there were a great many when he was in the sewers; now he saw there were thousands of them. They made their way to the wooden tower as it crashed against the clock tower.

      “Come on Nick,” Andrew said, breathing heavily. “We’ve got to go. We’ve got to go now.” Nick didn’t move. He watched paralyzed as the black mass enveloped the Joe Freeman’s tower from all directions. The beasts flew through the cracks of the old wood and swarmed the inside of the tower. In a matter of seconds the base of the wooden tower was black. Andrew saw the fluorescent and colorful markings on the spider’s bodies were invisible in the daylight; like the hipster graffiti, these only showed in the dark. Now the spiders were pure black, no longer hiding what lay beneath their colorful markings. Screams began to rise from inside the wooden tower. The image of the dozens of young people inside the tower, prey to the spiders, made Andrew’s head spin.

      “They’re trapped!” the plump woman said. “Oh god, they’re trapped!”

      “Let’s get out of here Nick!” Andrew said, directly into Nick’s ear. Nick did not respond. He was watching Joe Freeman. The man in the orange suit had not said a word. At first he had looked down at the feast below him, but presently he burst into action. He took a running start and leapt for the Clock Tower.

      He missed. Joe smashed into the side of the clock tower and bounced off an arch beneath the clock face. He landed on a ledge a few feet below, his body bruised and beaten. Andrew saw him try to move, but all he could do was twitch. Then Andrew saw the wizard.

      Where did he come from, the boy wondered. In all the commotion, Andrew had quit watching him. Now St. Gerardo danced on the same ledge Joe Freeman lay mangled on. As Gerardo leapt over to Freeman, Andrew grabbed Nick once more.

      “Nick,” Andrew said. “Look at me!” It was no use. Nick was transfixed by the horror enveloping his friends. He could’ve been in that tower with them, Andrew knew. Prey to the spiders.

      “Observe carefully, boy!” came the thin voice again. Andrew looked up and saw St. Gerardo, standing over Joe Freeman. “Took a real close look at what you’ve gotten yourself into!”

      “Nick, look at me.” Andrew said. Nick blinked and met his gaze. The two boys stared at each for a moment, and Nick nodded.

      “You’d be smart to run away,” Gerardo called, throwing his hands in the air like a circus clown. “Both of you boys! Before things get ugly.” Andrew couldn’t see his face, but he could picture the ugly grin Gerardo was wearing. “But leave your gun here. Give it to me, it’s mine.”

      “Let’s go,” Nick said. He made his way for the horse. Andrew followed.

      “Where are you two going?” the plump woman asked.

      “To safety,” Andrew said, without turning. He mounted the horse, and sat behind Nick. “You’d be smart to leave town, lady.”

      “Maybe I will,” the woman muttered. She saw the gun protruding from his shirt. “You’ve got a gun?”

      Andrew nodded. The woman nodded nervously. “Kill him,” she said. “I don’t know who you are or where you’re from, but when you get the chance you should kill him.”

      Andrew said nothing as Nick turned Home Sweet Home toward the gates of Sunsetville. Yet Gerardo wasn’t done. He called again: