"TESS! SHUT THE DOOR!" Zavier yelled in panic. The last thing he wanted was those things getting into the house and to the twins.
Tess stepped into the garage and reached behind her with one hand without taking her eyes off the garage. The door clicked shut and Tess realized that Zavier must have been standing on the hood of the car for a reason. Putting her finger on the trigger she dropped to a quick squat, gun held horizontally to be level under the cars. For a moment she couldn't make out anything in the shadows, the light from the small window along the outside wall mostly blocked by the SUV.
Suddenly a piece of shadow broke off with the skittering of bone on concrete. Tess fired two quick shots into the inky pool and saw it jerk back, muzzle flash reflecting off too many multi-faceted eyes. The spider recovered and shot forward again, straight into the shots Tess was sending its way.
"Incoming!" Zavier yelled and Tess saw him dropping from the hood towards her. She pointed the muzzle away just as he dropped behind the spider, broom coming down to slam into the spider's body. Black-furred legs splayed out from under the broom and Zavier smashed the bulbous body with the hammer.
He looked up in triumph just in time to see Tess's foot flying towards him. The kick to his chest sent him flying back into the side panel of the car and directly under the spider that was now soaring over him. Two more quick shots and the spider was blown back onto the hood. Tess stepped quickly to the side for a better bead and emptied the last of the shots into its body. Her eyes took on a touch of fear for the first time as she realized she hadn't brought a second magazine. She looked at Zavier and he gave her a comforting shake of his head.
"That's all of them."
She reached down and helped him up, which turned immediately into a fierce hug. Kissing her forehead and the top of her head he squeezed her with the relief that only comes from the realization of what could have been lost.
"What the hell was that?" she asked.
"I have no idea. Did you see the red mist? I think it did something to them."
Tess narrowed her eyes as if remembering something she hadn't quite paid attention to the first time. "Something weird happened, and now that you mention it I think it was a red fog or mist. I honestly just thought the lights went weird for a second."
"Honey you should have seen it - it came from the sky and-"
The sound of breaking glass and screaming came from inside the house. Tess and Zavier looked at each other in wide-eyed fear. Zavier handed Tess the hammer and grabbed a long screwdriver off the workbench. Together they sprinted inside.
"Luna! Cass!" Tess yelled as they sprinted through the long hallway that led to the bedrooms.
Tess slammed into her son's door and turned the handle but couldn't budge it open. Heavy thuds rocked the other side hard enough to shake the frame. Their 16 year old twins could be heard shouting on the other side. Zavier hurled himself into the door over and over with a parent's desperation. Suddenly the door gave way a few inches as the weight on the other side shifted. Zavier shoved the broom's handle into the door just before it slammed shut again, the light wood handle straining and buckling, but keeping it slightly ajar. Soft chestnut fur poked through the opening at about waist height. Tess yelled the kids' names while trying to push against the animal on the other side.
"Mom! Help!" Luna yelled, the girl's terror cutting through the noise. Cass's grunts could be heard as he struggled with the animal.
"Cass, push it away from the door!" Zavier yelled.
"He can't! He's holding his arm against it's neck and its trying to bite him!"
Tess kicked the door with everything her 140 pound body could muster, doing little against the weight of the animal and her son pushing on the other side. Glimpses of Luna could be seen in the inch-wide crack as she rushed around trying to help her brother.
"Luna, catch!" Zavier threw the screwdriver through the door. With lucky timing Luna reached out and caught the screwdriver in mid-air.
"Take this too!" Tess called and thrust the hammer through the gap. Luna grabbed the hammer and could be heard saying "Here!" as she handed it to her brother.
Zavier turned and sprinted back the other way, returning moments later with a large chef's knife and the leg of a chair he had evidently broken off. The struggle on the other side of the door had ramped up, screaming, chittering sounds intensified and the thrashing grew even more frantic. Tess started stabbing through the gap into the creature's body, the light brown fur quickly dying itself a deep red from the flowing blood. Zavier had wedged the chair leg into the opening of the door and was pulling his entire body weight against it trying to leverage it open.
In fitful bursts the door inched open until Tess was able to squeeze her upper half through the frame. Her heart stuttered a beat. It's one thing to know your children are in danger, it was something else entirely to see that danger trying to kill them right in front of your eyes. What appeared to be a squirrel the size of a large dog, but about twice the mass, was pinned against the door with a baseball bat between its long, yellowed teeth. The twins were each holding opposite sides of the bat, pressing the squirrel's head against the door frame. Its arms slashed at them and its teeth were trying uselessly to whittle away at the bat lodged in the back of its jaws. Cass was swinging with the hammer into its head over and over while Luna stabbed it in the chest and arms.
Tess's fears only intensified when she saw their arms both shaking with effort, close to giving in. With only her upper shoulders, head, and right arm through the door she started stabbing into the abomination's body. It was hard to tell where the vital organs were or how much damage she was doing through all the fur, but red was starting to flow.
Zavier could see her arm movements and yelled "Stab and pull honey! Tauntaun it!!" He strained even harder to give her more space. Tess stabbed into its torso and jerked the knife towards her. The knife parted the creature's skin without resistance and she had never been so grateful for Zavier's obsession with keeping his cooking tools in first class condition. In no time at all, long bloody ribbons were flowing out of the creature and its thrashing reached a crescendo. With a final series of desperate lunges it jerked unpredictably, a shake of its head throwing the bat away and causing both of the twins to scuttle backwards.
Without their weights pressing against the door Zavier leveraged it open just enough for Tess to squeeze through. Not wanting to lose the chance he pushed through too, only to get caught at his chest. Tess rushed to the twins and put them behind her, picking up the hammer and facing the creature with it in one hand and knife in the other. The tension mounted as Tess stared the creature down, death in her eyes. A moment passed, then another, as the thing's mouth opened and closed soundlessly, bloody spit bubbling up at its sides.
Then, finally, it collapsed. The air went out of the room and Tess rushed forward, slamming the knife down into the top of its head and the screwdriver into its eye for good measure. She jumped back and grabbed the baseball bat, waiting to see if the creature would move. A long minute passed while everyone waited breathlessly for any sign of life. If this was a horror movie this would be when it would make its final attack, and none of them were dumb enough to give it that opportunity.
Then, all at once, they all suddenly felt that the creature was truly dead. There was no ambiguity or question, they just knew. Zavier and Tess also realized that they knew the spiders in the garage were dead. It wasn't speculation, it was revelation.
Tess and Luna looked up at Zavier, who was still wedged with just his head and shoulders through the door. He gave them a goofy smile. "Here's Johnny?"
"Really?" Tess said in well-worn exasperation. "You make a joke right NOW?"