Crawlers

10:31pm

Ben - still sitting on Lisa's legs - stared at the creature, utterly revolted. He thought of the way Lisa had been behaving earlier in the evening when he'd last noticed her: the way she'd been rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped around herself. Herself, and the thing that controlled her. 

'But,' said Samantha, 'that means it must've had its teeth in her the whole time!' 

'That's horrible!' wailed Lauren. 

'That's rank!' agreed Samantha. 

'That must be the way these things work,' put in Jasmine, trying to keep everyone on track. 'Maybe they bite you on the back of the neck if they can. But if they need to hide, if they need not to be seen, then...' She gestured downwards. 

There was a long silence. 

'But what are we going to do with her?' asked Josh. 'We can't just... keep her like that - can we?' 

'I tell you,' said Hugo. 'She's a lot stronger than she looks.' 

'We could tie her up,' said Lauren. 

'What with?' asked Ben. 

'I can hear you, you know,' said Lisa, making everyone jump. She grinned up at them, shook her head, and in a completely normal voice said: 'Idiots.' 

Everybody looked at each other. 

'You can't resist her,' Lisa told them. 'In fact, why do you even want to?' 

Nobody answered. Looking at Lisa, nobody knew what to say. 

'She has given me strength,' said Lisa. 'She has taken all my weakness and my hate and she has turned it into love. That's why I did what I did. That's why I want to stop you trying to fight her - because I love you.' She smiled. 'Yes, even you, Samantha. I love all of you, because she loves me.' 

'Who?' said Jasmine. 'Who are you talking about?' 

'The Queen,' said Lisa. Tears trembled at the corners of her eyes. 'The Queen loves each and every one of us. Soon you will all feel her love, the way I do. I'd do anything for the Queen. Anything. And soon,' she repeated, 'so will you.' 

'This is too weird now,' said Lauren. 'This is freaking me out. I don't want to hear it. Make it stop!' she shouted, pointing at Lisa. 

Samantha reached down. 

'Wait!' said Jasmine. 'No!' 

Samantha grabbed the crawler and pulled it from Lisa's body. With a soft, wet sound that Ben found unforgettably repulsive its long twin probosces came after it. 

The creature's legs were now dangling from between Samantha's fingers, twitching. Samantha looked thoroughly disgusted. But Lisa's eyes had now rolled up in their sockets. She lay there like a discarded rag doll. 

Hugo put a hand to Lisa's neck. 

'Is she...?' asked Jasmine. 

'She's breathing. Pulse is slow, but steady,' said Hugo. He sat back, looked at Jasmine and shrugged bleakly. 'I learned first aid with the cadets,' he explained. 'But she needs a doctor really.' 

'Great,' said Jasmine, infuriated. 'Great!' She rounded on Samantha. 'What were you thinking? You could have killed her!' 

'And Lisa tried to put one of these things on you,' Samantha reminded her, gesturing with the crawler. Held from behind, its rubbery legs grasped at the empty air. 'Now, where shall I put this? Unless you'd like to hold it for a while?'