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The next morning, the hypnotizing slime was ready and Frank ordered it loaded into the slime cannon. He had made more of it than the previous day and concentrated the formula so it wouldn’t come off easily and would have more control over anyone it hit. He also made sure it would turn into a mist to float into every hidden space in the town so no one would be able to escape its influence.

“Fire!” Frank gave the command and the rest of his spiders obeyed, although he could tell Leah complied reluctantly.

Slime flew high into the air forming a large, pink cloud. Then it fell as rain, and when it hit, it became a mist.

“I can’t see what’s happening, Frank.” Leah was looking through her spider telescope. “All I see is a big pink cloud surrounding the town. You shouldn’t have changed the formula to make it mistier. Yesterday, we could see it hit everyone. Today, I can’t tell.”

“Kayden, hand me the microphone,” Frank said.

In the web, Lydia was softly crying. She had hoped Lilly would have found some way to rescue her or at least to help the humans, but they really didn’t do anything since she was the hostage of the evil spiders. It made her feel guilty because if she hadn’t gotten captured, they’d be able to fight back.

Frank said into the mike, “Attention people of Hayfield. This is Frank the spider, your master. We will once again come to your town to give you orders and you will obey us.”

He listened on the speakers but could only hear muffled voices. “What are they saying.”

“I told you about the mist,” Leah said, annoyance in her voice. The mist is making it hard to even hear them. We’ll have to go into the town to find out what they’re saying and doing.”

“Good thing we can hold our breath until the mist settles.”

“That’s the problem, Frank. It doesn’t look like it is settling. It’s still a big, fluffy cloud of pink over the town. I don’t know if we’d be able to see anything.”

“Kayden. You and Hazel stay here and guard the prisoner. The rest of us, including Leah are going into Hayfield.”

“Right boss.”

Frank gestured with one of his legs and the other spiders followed him outside the hideout. Leah took one look back at Lydia, probably imagining how she would taste. Then she went after Frank.

They followed the familiar trail back toward Hayfield. Seth froze in his tracks while the other spiders got a strange feeling.

“I feel like we’re being watched,” Seth said. A lot of spiders can sense vibrations in the air when there is some sort of danger, and Seth’s spider-sense was no different. They all cautiously looked around but couldn’t see anything.

“We’ve got to keep going,” Frank said. “Just keep a sharp eye out.”

As they got closer to town, the pink mist still loomed in front of them, but it was getting thinner.

“I’ve got an idea, Leah.”

“I’m listening, Frank.”

“If we’re going to take over the world, we’ll need a lot more hypnotizing slime, more than we could ever make.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. It’s a big problem.”

“What if we get the people of Hayfield to make a bunch more. They’re bigger and can make tons, plus big cannons and other delivery systems to take over other towns and cities. The more people we control, the more slime we make. We can command not only towns and cities, but whole states and even countries eventually. It might take years, but it’s the only practical solution.”

Frank didn’t really want to do this, but he thought he had no choice. If Leah supported his plan, the gang would go along with it. If they started controlling a lot of humans, a lot of other spiders would join their gang. He could be in control of thousands, maybe millions of spiders. They would all see he wanted to keep them safe. It was also a way to keep from hurting other spiders and humans.

“You’re right. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. But first, we have to make sure everything in Hayfield is okay, Frank.”

At that moment, the spiders reached the edge of the mist and as they tried to enter the town, they couldn’t. They bounced off of something, something invisible.

“I knew it,” Leah complained. “Lilly’s force field. The slime never reached the humans at all. Your big plan didn’t work.”

“I don’t understand. The force field can only last ten minutes. This thing has been up for over and hour and is as strong as ever. What happened?” Frank was very puzzled, but part of him was kind of happy. In a moment, his dream of commanding millions of spiders vanished, but he wasn’t really sorry. Maybe he wanted Lilly to win.

“I’m out of here. We’ve been betrayed.” Leah scurried off back the way they had come before Frank could stop her.

“Leah’s right,” Seth said. “Lilly and her gang did this. We said we’d kill Lydia if she disobeyed. We have to get back to…”

Before Frank and the rest of the spiders could do anything, Seth froze. “It’s happening again.” Then a shadow fell across the three remaining spiders and they found themselves in a fine, mesh net. They were lifted high into the air.

“I can’t climb, Frank. Dominick said. This net is too slippery.”

“That’s right, it is.”

The spiders looked up to see a human girl holding the net. She was smiling and shook the net a little.

“I wish I could turn you into something, but Frank said not to.”

“What do you mean. I’m Frank and I didn’t tell you to do anything.”

“Not you, the other Frank.”

“What?” Frank couldn’t understand what was going on.

“My name is Danaerys and you might remember me as a baby chick. Now you’re coming with me.”

This is the seventh installment of eight chapters in a story I co-wrote with my seven-year-old granddaughter starting last Halloween. If you have missed the other chapters, you can start with Chapter 1 and then click through the links at end of the subsequent chapters to get back to here.

I publish one chapter a week on Fridays just so you know. All of the drawings are mine. If you enjoy them, and they’re perfectly “kid-friendly,” pass them along to your own children or grandchildren (or nieces, nephews, and so on).

Let me know what you think. I’ll pass any complements along to my granddaughter.

On to Chapter 8 and the end of the story!