In the dead of night, Annie got up from her bed to check in on Daniel. Her body was used to this type of rhythm, so she didn’t even need an alarm clock to wake up at the same time every night. But that didn’t mean that she was wide awake.

Bleary-eyed, she stumbled over to the bathroom, flipped the switch and cursed when the light didn’t come on.

It was not as if Annie had never experienced any power outages, far from it. So it was not as if she had not lived through days without the conveniences provided by the electrical grid. But in all of those cases, she had had flashlights, battery-powered appliances and, in the worst case, a car with which she could drive somewhere that did have power.

But there was more to the current situation. While there always was uncertainty when the utility company would be able to fix the grid, everyone knew that it was a matter of hours, perhaps days. There was no such expectation now.

Sure, some people still thought that the current situation was temporary, that this was a dream, perhaps an EMP blast, or something else strange, but that things would go back to normal. They had to, right?

But Annie felt it in her bones. This was it. There was no going back. They had to deal with this reality or… or die?

Annie shivered slightly, despite the stifling heat in her room.

And then the remembered Mike, his face frozen in a rictus of pain, bloody wounds on his chest. And while Annie was no stranger to injuries, even bloody ones, she had never experienced first-hand the mindless violence that was all too common in some parts of the world and even in the US.

Only, it had not been mindless.

Annie was not a rocket scientist, but she could read people, which is why she usually got along well with everyone, at least everyone she wanted to interact with. But Big Pete… he was giving her the shivers. The term ‘psychopath’ immediately came to mind. She had seen the type before, in mental wards and prisons, and also, sadly, in some of LA’s high society. Not that she was part of that. Her parents had frequented those circles and dragged her along a few times. But she had no interest in the fake smiles, pretentious celebrity-wannabees, and ass-licking that was all too common there.

And the backstabbing.

That was the worst part.

No, she had consciously decided to leave that world behind and help others in need.

It was her calling.

Her parents had not liked it, so they had cut her off - the black sheep of the family, the pariah.

Annie shrugged her shoulders, put on her cheap plastic slippers, and shuffled out on the hallway. Daniel’s room was just a couple of doors down the corridor.

Immediately, she noticed that something was off.

It was just too quiet. Usually, she would hear Daniel’s snoring at this point or the groaning when he was caught in one of his frequent nightmares.

But it was eerily quiet and just felt… abandoned.

Suddenly scared, Annie rushed into his room, fearing the worst. But she was not prepared to find nothing. No trace of Daniel.

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My throat felt raw as if I had been screaming, and my head hurt like hell.

Probably another nightmare, it wasn’t the first one.

But why was it so dark? I always had a night light on… The only thing I could see was a sliver of light somewhere above me. I had no idea what that was, though. Perhaps some streetlight shining through a gap in the shutters onto my bedroom ceiling?

“Annie?” I croaked.

I needed water.

And a fucking aspirin, or five. This headache was killing me.

I tried to moisten my lips with what little saliva I had.

“Annie!” I shouted again, this time somewhat louder.

But there was no response. In fact, it was eerily quiet – there was neither the humming of the air condition nor the fridge in the kitchen, no ticking of the clock, or scrabbling of the mice in the attic. And there was no traffic noise outside at all. It was as if… and then, with a flash, I recalled everything that had happened – the transfer; the panic and rage I had felt when being abducted; the despair when falling head forward down into the ravine and the pain of hitting my head.

So where the fuck was I?

Heaven? Too dark for that. Hell was out as well, because there was no fire or heat, even though my headache was spot-on in the pain-department. So what did that leave me with? Either some other form of afterlife, or, and much more likely in my estimation, at the bottom of a deep, twisting canyon, or in a cave.

I had been in some deep slot canyons back when I was still able to walk, and some of them only allowed a sliver of light to come all the way down to the ground. But usually, that sliver was more elongated. The spot of light I could see was kind of round. So my money, not that I had any, was on some type of hidden cave and I had crashed right through the ceiling.

How I had survived the fall, I had no idea though.

Dumb luck, probably. That and the fact that I had been unconscious and was a quadriplegic to boot, and hence as relaxed as possible. Supposedly that reduced the risk of injuries. I almost had to chuckle at the irony of it.

Not that it really mattered, because I was alone in a freaking cave somewhere in the middle of nowhere. In other words, I was screwed, no matter what.

As if things weren’t bad enough, I suddenly heard the clacking of something on stone, edging closer. It was a faint noise, only audible because of the complete silence in the cave. And even then, I might have missed it, if it was not such an irregular pattern – a short sequence of the quick tapping sound, followed by complete quiet and then a slow and even fainter noise.

I strained my eyes to see something in the dark but could only make out the faint outline of rock illuminated by that tiny window to the sky. Involuntarily, a soft whimper escaped my lips. This was like a nightmare – alone, in the dark, no help around, and something was approaching. And there was nothing I could do.

Soon, my worst fears became a reality - a giant fucking spider got briefly illuminated by the sliver of light. At first, my brain didn’t comprehend what my eyes had just seen – which was not that surprising, since it had a dog-sized body, with huge, furry legs that allowed the creature to dash across the rock.

Thoughts frantically raced through my brain. ‘Shit. Ok, keep calm, Daniel. Spiders don’t attack people unless they get scared. And why would they, right? We are too big to be their prey… unless they are the fucking size of a pony! Fuck, fuck, fuck.’

Stay quiet? Or scream? Not sure what was better, I did something in between - more like a groan perhaps. The spider paused for an instant, but then skittered closer again. For a moment, it hovered above my head, seemingly smelling or tasting or feeling vibrations or whatever the fuck spiders do. And then it moved on to my lower body.

And I totally freaked out.

Ever seen a quadriplegic freak out? Well, it is kind of pathetic. I tossed my head around, screaming as loudly as my raw throat allowed me to, and… well, that was about it.

And the spider didn’t seem fazed at all. Somehow, it had figured out that I posed no threat. Well, perhaps if the spider put a leg next to my mouth, I could bite it, but that was all. And the idea of biting into a giant spider leg was almost as scary as whatever my imagination told me the spider was going to do to me.

However, it turned out that my imagination was not up to snuff. Rather than wrap me into a cocoon or dissolve parts of my body to eat as I had morbidly imagined, the giant arachnid cut open my arm with its huge chelicerae, lowered its abdomen over the wound and pushed a mass of spider eggs into my body. Once done, the spider rapidly moved away.

Holy shit.

I needed a plan and quick! I could already imagine little spiderlings hatch in my body and eat their way out. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn that I felt them already starting to squirm around in my flesh.

So, what did I have going for myself? Well, I was still alive. Beyond that… not much. I was tempted to scream for help but knew it would be a futile waste of energy and time.

I needed magic, like fucking right away – healing magic like Annie’s or perhaps some type of fire magic to burn those eggs before they could hatch. All I had was mana vision, though. But maybe I had some, yet, undiscovered abilities? I mean, that silver mana had to be good for something, right? I had given it a half-assed attempt before, trying to figure out some of my hoped-for super-powers, but maybe it was time to get serious. My fucking life depended on it, literally.

Feverishly, I looked around with my mana vision activated, trying to spot some way out. Alas, all I could see was some faint outline of the rock and an indistinct cloud of dark, pulsing energy in my arm - the spiderlings, I figured.

Which raised some questions… if I could see mana in the spiderlings, why did I not see mana in my own body? Perhaps these spiders were different, magic creatures or some shit like that. But maybe I did have that energy in my own body, but just couldn’t see it. Or, I didn’t have any in my body, which then begged the question of why not.

Also, how did the mana go and do what people needed it to do?

I had observed a flow of energy from Annie’s chest area, to wherever the mana was needed. So could I perhaps nudge that energy from my own chest area to do the same thing? Did I even have any such energy? I couldn’t see my chest, but perhaps I could ‘feel,’ for lack of a better word, the energy inside of my body.

Worth a shot.

I tried to get into a meditative state by focusing on every muscle in my body, which, sadly, was restricted to the facial muscles in my case, and slowly relax them, one by one. From what I remembered of those self-improvement videos I had watched, you needed to find complete peace within yourself and ignore all outside stimuli, to achieve another level of self-awareness.

Hard to do when you are freaking out about spiders eating you from the inside.

God, I hated that yoga hippie crap. Not that I thought it was ineffective – plenty of studies had shown that it worked. It just had never been something for me.

Despite my misgivings, I could feel my internal awareness slowly increase. Immediately, I began noticing areas filled with a shimmering silver nimbus - little diffuse clouds behind my eyes, around my face, and in my neck. And then, when I tried to ‘reach’ further down, I encountered a barrier that my mind couldn’t cross – right at the point where I had broken my neck those four years ago, my mind was abruptly stopped in its track.

Furiously, I pushed with all my will against the rubbery barrier, but all that did was to intensify my already pounding headache. The barrier felt like a layer of rubber, absorbing my pressure with ease and then simply bouncing me back.

After minutes of ineffectually pushing against the barrier, I had to admit defeat. It was hopeless. Once more, my injury threatened to thwart me, and this time, it would be my end.

No. Fucking. Way.

Not without a fight.

I was not a quitter; never had been, and never would be.

But apparently, brute force wouldn’t do. I had to develop a different approach.

If pushing didn’t work, maybe I needed to create a tool, some force multiplier or focus. If mana could be molded somehow, perhaps I could shape it into something useful.

Looking inside of myself, I imagined the little clouds of what I assumed to be silver mana to gather from all over and pressed it into the formed of a bullet. At first, I struggled to keep the mana in the shape I desired, but eventually, after much cursing and mounting panic, I succeeded.

When I pushed the bullet with all my might against the barrier, the bullet burst into mana fragments and the blockade slightly deformed under the impact. My elation was short-lived, however, because the barrier rebounded back to its original position within a split-second.

With an angry snarl, I gathered the mana again and formed another bullet, slamming it against the barrier – with exactly the same effect. After another five attempts, I had to admit the futility of my approach.

If a bullet wouldn’t work with such a rubbery material, perhaps something with more of an edge would do the trick, something that relied less on impact force and more on sustained pressure focused on a tiny surface, targeting to puncture or cut, rather than rip.

This time, I tried forming the mana into a wedge with a sharp point, instead of a bullet and pushed that against the barrier. There still was a bit of a rebound, but at least I felt that I was getting somewhere with this. And indeed, I could see a tiny blemish in the previously pristine barrier.

I adjusted the wedge and included little grooves in the surface, mimicking the design of a drill bit. This time, rather than pushing the wedge with all my force against the barrier, I focused on making the mana drill turn rapidly once the tip touched the little blemish from my previous attempt. And indeed, after some harrowing minutes, I felt that the mana drill started digging deeper into the barrier.

And then, suddenly, without any warning, the barrier shattered into tiny little shards that rapidly faded out of existence.

Instantly, my awareness flooded the rest of my body - I could now see my chest area, the laborious pumping of my heart, the lungs struggling to draw breaths, bruises, and even fractured ribs from the fall.

And there, in my right arm, was a pocket of dark energy slowly churning. With a start, I realized that it was not one mass, but that there were lots of tiny circles, each one about the size of the tip of my pinky – almost certainly representing the little spiderling.