The neon lights of Havenport pulsed with a rhythmic flare, casting rhythmic stabs of pink and electric blue against the damp, wet pavement. At night, Havenport was a city that never slept, but tonight, the air felt heavy, a certain fog some might say, as if the darkness pressing against the streetlights was thicker than usual.
"Ahhhh! Oh my god," Adrian howled, her laughter cutting through the hum of distant traffic. "That beer was lethal!"
She stumbled, her weight crashing unceremoniously onto her friend May's shoulder. May winced, bracing her feet against the sidewalk to keep them both from toppling into a large, dirty trash bin.
"I think you overdid it, Adri," May gasped, readjusting her hold on her coworker's waist. "You need to settle down… please. We just have to get you to the apartment." The glowing neon washed over the friends as they moved onward.
Adrian scoffed, shoving herself away with a burst of drunken energy. She struck a jagged, theatrical rockstar pose, sticking her tongue out at the glowing signs above. "You are so fricking boring! Have a little fun for once, damn it!"
She reached out and slapped May's shoulder with a wet thwack, her giggles echoing down a narrow, trash-strewn alleyway.
"No, you're boring," May muttered as she stared down a random alleyway.
Deep within the mouth of the alley, the darkness shifted. It wasn't the movement of a shadow, but something physical, a multi-jointed twitch. A wet, clicking sound vibrated in the air, a rhythmic chittering that went unnoticed by the girls.
"I'm boring Adri?" May exclaimed, trying to make sure the partygoer was still thinking
"Yeah, YOUUUUU!" Adri pointed a wobbly finger, her head rolling forward as her eyelids fluttered. "Ehhhh… what is one to do with you?"
"Nothing, I suppose," May replied as the girl kept walking. A peculiar mist began to gather while the atmosphere grew unusually dense.
A faint noise buzzed in May's ear.
"Flesh"
May turned around as she saw a strange figure, but couldn't make out what it was. One thing was for sure: it was oddly purple, and as May blinked again, it vanished.
"Did you hear that?" May exclaimed
Adri spun around, her expression a mask of hazy confusion. "Hear what?"
"Nothing," May whispered as they continued their trek.
"Maybe I'm drunk too."
"Maybe more than me, bozo," Adri joked, turning back and skipping ahead.
She didn't notice the change in the environment. Thin, shimmering strands of spiritual silk began to drape across the storefronts like festive tinsel. Tiny spiders, hundreds of them, began to pour from the cracks in the brickwork, their many eyes reflecting the dying neon.
Yet somehow they were unnoticeable to both girls.
"Lalalalala!" Adrian sang to the empty street.
"You're making too much noise," May hissed, her voice trembling. "Hush!"
Adrian kept walking, her gaze fixed on the sky. "Look, May! The stars are spinning..." She reached back, grabbing for a hand, but heard . "May? May?!"
"Don't worry, I'm here," May muttered.
Adrian kept walking, oblivious that May's hand flew away like the fog.
"May?" Adrian exclaimed
Adrian stood confused, as she heard faint groaning and gurgling and a fleshy insectoid twitch.
Adrian spun around. The alcohol-induced warmth drained from her body in a single heartbeat.
May was suspended three feet off the ground, encased in a shroud of translucent webbing. A nightmare had emerged from the overhead wires. A large humanoid spider creature stood tall above Adrian. It was Tsuchigumo, but she had no idea what the hell it was, a titan of striped, purple-furred legs and eyes that burned with the sickly yellow light of ancient lanterns. It held May close, its mandibles working as it drained the life from her, her skin turning a brittle, ashen grey,May's eye balls protruding as her hand, as if in an attempt to reach Adri, twitched violently.
The monster tilted its massive, multi-eyed head. Its mouth twisted into a jagged, horrific approximation of a human smile.
"What's wrong?" the creature hissed, its voice a chorus of clicking parts imitating first May's voice,then an oddly deep voice. "Is there something on my face?"
Adrian's scream tore through the alley, but it was cut short. A massive, hairy limb lashed out, swiping her from the pavement and dragging her into the absolute black of the web-choked shadows, her nails leaving a streak of blood as she left the light.