Hunted

 

Elliot Turnbull ran until the muscles in his legs ached and his lungs burned.

 He stopped and crouched behind a fallen tree at the edge of the woods, watching and waiting. He gasped for breath but tried to stay quiet for a moment, to rest until he had to run again. 

 He had dropped his school bag by the brook's edge as they chased him. He needed to stay fast, and without its weight, he was quicker. He wouldn't need it now anyway. 

 Elliot knew what could happen when they caught him. He also knew what they had done to his friend Peter. Dear sweet Peter. His new best friend. In the summer holidays, they had spent an afternoon at the brook, laughing and confiding in each other. Elliot had almost told Peter his secret that day, but it wasn't the right time. At school, most people called him a freak as they said he looked at them in a strange way. Peter hadn't, though. Peter was kind to him.

Elliot had been sitting near the brook, partly to feel close to Peter, who had been hospitalised for two months when the bullies had found him.

 "Oh, Elliot," Came the mocking call, followed by the brutish laughter of Laine Pearce. 

 "We know where you are hiding, weirdo," Billy called out. Billy was Blaine's step-brother and co-bully. The pair egged each other on like they were in competition to see who could cause the most damage. 

 Elliot stood up and was immediately spotted by Billy and then Blaine. He froze momentarily like a fox, spotted by the hounds who sensed a kill. Then, he turned and fled along a path that led deeper into the woods. He could hear from the excited whoops and squeals that his pursuers were still following close behind him. 

 His eyes darted from side to side. The foliage was dense and impenetrable, with brambles, cobwebs, and twisted branches visible only in a blur. The dirt track, made by a thousand other footsteps before his own, was the only route ahead.

 Was Peter here on this track when Blaine and Billy caught him? Elliot thought of his friend lying motionless in his hospital bed. Everyone knew Blaine and Billy put him there, but there was no evidence. Their father was a policeman, and Elliot heard the older kids at school whisper that he had destroyed any proof against his offspring. A dog walker had discovered Peter cold and motionless in the clearing ahead the day after he went missing.

Elliot had watched Blaine and Billy since starting at the school two terms before. He had seen them torment their maths teacher, Miss Cole, week after week until she ran from their class in tears, never to return, replaced by a startled-looking and unprepared deputy head. Elliott had heard girls whispering in the cafeteria, telling stories of how Laine and Billy had pushed things too far with them late at night down by the reservoir. And there was endless bullying. But nobody talked. A conspiracy of silence covered their actions like a fog. Someone needed to stand up to them, but Elliot had promised his family he would stay out of trouble this time.

"There's no point running, squirt. We're going to catch you, and we're going to hurt you like we hurt your little friend," Blaine sneered. "We know you've been asking people about us at school." 

 "This path leads to a dead end. You might as well stop running and get what's coming." Billy laughed. 

 Elliot ignored them both and kept moving forward. 

When Laine and Billy reached the clearing, Elliot was waiting for them. He stood tall and did not cower as they had expected. 

 "So here we are," Elliot said, with a new confidence in his voice. "What happens now?"

 "Now we're going to tear you apart," Blaine declared, moving forward with intent, but Billy grasped his arm. 

 "Something's not right, Laine. Look at his eyes." Billy's voice was mixed with fear and confusion. 

 Blaine ignored his friend and ran towards Elliot, but he fell to his knees when he saw Elliot's eyes had changed and were now bulbous, black, and dispassionate. 

 The bullies were motionless as Elliot circled around them, blocking the path, their only escape route. There was something different and unusual in the way he moved.

 Elliot's mind was sharp and unwavering, feelings disappearing as he transformed. He observed the boys with interest: flies trapped in his web.

 "I've been watching you both since we arrived in this town, seeing the damage you cause." Elliot grew in size as he spoke, transforming from the shape of a fourteen-year-old boy to his true larger, blackened arachnid shape. 

 "I waited for you today by the brook, where you had waited for Peter. Then I led you here to my web."

 Elliot leapt at Blaine first, pinning him to the ground. "We are meant to stay quiet. It's how we have stayed undetected for millennia. However, sometimes I see little insects like you that must be dealt with."

 Elliot's protruding fangs sank into Blaine's cheek, paralysing him instantly.

 Billy gawped open-mouthed at the scene in front of him as Elliot started to crawl towards him on thin black spider's legs protruding from the skin of his previous human form. 

 "I won't say anything. I won't say a word," Billy pleaded. He realised there was nothing human in Elliot to appeal to, and then he, too, was silenced.

 

Elliot looked at the two bullies, now paralysed by his venom. It would probably kill them in the next few hours. Elliot carefully wrapped them in silk strands and hung them on branches of the tallest trees at the edge of the clearing. Before he fed, he would have his family to deal with. They would be angry, but in time, they would agree that a hunter must have his prey.