He replied nonchalantly; the threat of them dying didn't affect him at all. If anything, he was still a little peeved that he would be missing out on getting experience for killing Derrick himself.
——
"Belle…just leave me…ther-there's no point anymore…there never was."
"Wha-what? What are you saying? Com-come, 'URGH' on!" Isabelle's voice trembled, her words muffled over by her sobs fueled from desperation. "We can, we can get through this. Sobs Look! That person is just over there! If-if we can get him to help, then I'm sure we'll be fine."
As of now, the bird was still attending to Noah while Isabelle continued her efforts to retrieve Derrick. But no matter how hard she struggled or what she said, Derrick remained unresponsive. Those lifeless eyes and limp body were a clear indication that he no longer had the will to fight anymore. Isabelle was met with a profound sense of helplessness, unable to find the words to reignite his will to live. She tried mentioning Noah in hopes that the idea of being saved would give him hope; from their view they could see how he was safe from harm under the tree's shelter. Yet when she mentioned him, she was met with an even deadlier silence.
But that silence ended when they heard the birds' deafening cry, this time its destination was heading in their direction. Maybe it was the fear, or maybe it was the irritation of not being able to get the meal it wanted. The bird's cry sounded extremely loud and petrifying. Derrick, who had been completely silent from before, raised his head, his vacant eyes fixated on the bird, knowing that the looming monstrosity signaled his death.
"You know…you're too good for me." Isabelle was taken aback by Derrick's both sudden and unexpected confession. She could recall every interaction she's ever had with him, she's always seen him as the strong and dominant of the two; hearing him say that he was unworthy, considering his pride, truly caught her unprepared emotionally.
"All this time, I felt that I deserved everything, the attention, the beautiful girl, money…I deserved it all. And yet here I am, weak…and about to die yet here you are, unwilling to abandon me…I'm pathetic…you don't deserve to die with a guy like me…just get out of here…" To anyone listening in, it would appear as if he was conveying his true feelings to his loved one before his demise. If Noah had heard him, he would assume that the guy just regretted dying; otherwise, he would've never admitted this to her if his position were any different.
Derrick's vulnerability was able to deeply stir Isabelle's emotions. Despite his insistence for her to abandon him, she found herself unable to tear herself away. Every attempt to lift him to his feet was met with an even deeper desire to save him. However, her efforts were stunted from the heavy wind blowing against her followed along with the heavy impact announcing the bird's landing.
The budding feelings she held a moment ago disappeared from existence. Seeing the creature up close was vastly different from merely glimpsing its silhouette. Initially, she found her voice trapped in her throat, her heart threatening to pop from the rapid beating induced by fear. As the bird took a step forward and spread its wings in a display of intimidation, her mind stirred, panic took over, her desire to live overwhelming her sense of love. Her first thought wasn't to ask her boyfriend who she depended on all this time. Her mind created the image of the person who didn't show any signs of remorse for leaving them out to die to come save her.
"Ahhh! Get away! Stay back! Pl-please save us! I-I-I'll do anything!"
She continued to scream in Noah's direction. She watched him as he turned towards his spider before bringing his attention back to her. At first, she thought that he was commanding his spider to come to their rescue. But when he faced her direction again and noticed the spider still hadn't moved…She realized too late that he wouldn't come. Maybe it was the fear of death, but now she could clearly remember what he said before he tossed her. "I'm not desperate enough to die for you just to receive your healing." She wanted to break down and cry. She didn't want to die like this, but she didn't want to leave Derrick to die alone either, not after what he just told her.
Plop!*
The sound of an object falling to the ground next to her snapped Isabelle out of her daze. She didn't immediately turn to the source of the noise since the first sight that obviously caught her attention was the vulture-like creature standing before her. It was when she lifted her head further, drawn to the direction where the object was dropped from. The sight of the bird's predatory beak caused her body to freeze. She didn't want to believe it; her mind and body were no longer in sync with one another. She was overwhelmed with fear, and yet the fear of what was in the bird's beak concerned her more than the bird itself.
Her daze prevented her from noticing the droplets of liquid falling from its beak. It was when something warm yet wet fell upon her face that her mind began to stir. Her memory reflected back to the object falling to the ground. Slowly she turned her head to look towards the source. Her mind was telling her not to, but her body continued. She felt that she wouldn't accept it if she didn't see it for herself. And then she screamed.
——
"HahaHA! In the end, she still abandoned him! You see that! That's why humans can't be depended on!" Noah began projecting his inner feelings unknowingly. He didn't want to believe that there were kind and loyal people in this world, not after all he had to suffer through. He ignored the fact that she didn't decide to leave Derrick's side until the end. But his spider didn't know that; it was being led on by Noah's words and took a mental note of human selfishness.
Noah watched on while Isabelle continued to scream his way. At first, the scene was almost comical, but the sight of her tear-streaked and snotty face, coupled with a stain developing through her pants. He began to feel an uncomfortableness in his heart. He's seen people die before; sometimes it was quick and other times it was bloody gory, and he could easily watch on, unfazed. But not now, he felt she didn't deserve to die, at least not this way.
The days when he wished for someone to save him from his loneliness, he saw the type of savior in her and yet why did he never meet anyone like her to save him then? That's probably why just her actions and presence alone ate at him, but unknowingly it still was able to reach his estranged heart.
"Sigh…this isn't fun anymore! Can you go and get her already?" Originally he spoke with a tone as if he was throwing a tantrum but gradually it turned dark and empty.
"?" Through the bond, the spider could tell its master was addressing it, but that confused it even more. 'Weren't they going to let the human girl die?' It felt that it just couldn't understand him sometimes, just like the monster hiding in its master's stomach. Nevertheless, it still complied. The jump would be farther than it jumped before but it wouldn't be a problem for it.
A jumping spider can easily jump 10 times its size and can even jump up to 50 times that in extreme cases. The spider was close to about 4ft all around which meant that it 'should' be able to jump 200 feet or in better estimates, 66 yards. The distance was just enough if not more to be able to reach the woman who was struggling to gain more distance from her predator.
The spider made its way a little ahead of Noah before it put itself into a leaping position. Unlike before where it only had to jump a shorter distance, its legs appeared to bulge as it applied blood pressure to its back legs. From Noah's view, the scene was more interesting than the one from earlier, and just before the spider jumped he happened to spot a thread shooting through the spider's rear and attaching to the ground. The thread was almost as thick as his wrist. He wasn't sure what the spider planned, but he was eager to see.
Whoosh!
The takeoff was unnaturally fast. Before Noah's eyes could register, the spider disappeared. He was left only to feel the air generated by the spider's launch brush against his eyes.
A small trace of fear crept into his heart. He wasn't afraid of his spider by any means, in fact, he was in complete awe of it. But! 'I'm sure other spiders should be able to do this too…I don't want to imagine an army of large spiders jumping through the air at once.' To Noah, it appeared that no matter how much otherworldly powers humans may obtain, nature will always be frightening, even more so when these same creatures could gain intelligence. A fear he hoped wouldn't come to pass anytime soon.
This thought gave him a new outlook on this new life that he wasn't taking seriously enough.
'It appears that I shouldn't only strive for strength to retain my freedom…but also to survive.'
Fwooosh!
His time to mull over the unforeseeable future ended when he heard the sound of the evolved vulture taking to the air again. It was most likely in pursuit of Isabelle, who was running for her life. Well, you could say it was running; the scene was spot on when compared to a Jason movie; the sad girl stumbled over herself at least three times by now. Luckily for her, the reason she was even still alive was that the vulture was finishing off its recent meal, that meal being her loved one.
Even so, his dead body couldn't buy her a lot of time. The bird was larger than the body itself, with a beak that seemingly could easily tear through concrete let alone bones. It hungrily scoffed down chunks of Derrick's body yet it wasn't appeased. Vultures were known to mainly eat dead bodies and after treating itself to live fresh meat, it wanted more.
Because of its impatience, instead of taking to the skies, it used its wings to 'jump' a noticeable distance to reach its target. It licked its bloody beak while in mid-air, fantasizing about the delicacy of its recent meal and the chase of its soon-to-be treat. But its excitement was for naught; Isabelle fell again. This time she didn't get up; she was mentally exhausted, and each time she fell the fall took away more of her will to go against that exhaustion.
She couldn't scream; her voice was dry and hoarse from the constant screaming and crying since the chaos began. Through all the extensive crying she's gone through she was an utter wreck. With her blurry eyes filled with tears, she felt the sky cloud over her. Fearfully she assumed the worst and that it was also her time to join Derrick, but she was still unwilling! Yet her body wouldn't move; only a hoarse whimper escaped her lips, a sound grating to the ears but depressing to the heart.
'Nonononononono…' She closed her eyes when she felt the shadow embrace her. She was so afraid that she didn't realize the hairy sensation that rubbed against her skin nor the many 'limbs' that held her in place.
Just when she felt that she was grabbed she was then jolted through the air. The sudden movement caused her head to snap backward from the momentum since whatever grabbed her took no care of securing her neck.
She had the urge to scream, but the sheer speed they were going prevented her from doing so. Despite her efforts to open her eyes, the resistance of the overpowering wind against her face prevented her from doing so.
Boom!
She felt the sudden impact of landing before her horrified mind could create any unstable speculations. She heard a voice that she would never guess she would be relieved to hear.
"I told you not to go back, didn't I?"