The Hanging of Spider-Man

"Hey, Soph!" Judah called suddenly from the edge of the field. "Got something to show you!" He was grinning, mischievous laughter dancing in his eyes. Sophie never suspected a thing, although she ought to have, seeing as his eyes were a definite sea green just then. She knew it was a dangerous color, but never before had it meant danger to her. She trusted him too much. And so she went skipping merrily over to him, eager to see what he had hidden in his cupped hands. 

"C'mon, you gotta look closer," he laughed, lifting his hands just a mere inch away from her face. "Don't want it to get away!" And with that, he opened his hands and Sophie turned dead white in an instant. For one desperate moment, she froze, trembling like a leaf in utter terror. And then she screamed... a horrible, blood-curdling scream, and fled from Judah as if he had threatened to murder her. 

Linnaea had come on a run at the scream and Sophie flew straight into her arms, sobbing dismally. Judah stood stock-still, his hand still outstretched, the expression on his face absolutely stricken. It was regret and horrified realization and shame and so many other things all at once. But Sophie, clinging to her friend and shaking so hard she could barely stand, didn't see his face.

"Good grief, that's the biggest spider I ever saw!" Rich hooted as the dreadful black creature jumped from Judah's hand. Sophie shrieked again and hid her face against Linnaea's shoulder. As for Linnaea, she was livid with rage on her friend's behalf.

"What's gotten into him?" she cried, too angry to direct her words at Judah himself. "Monster! He should be punished, the traitor," she glared unspeakable things at the culprit. "Rich, squash the spider, won't you?"

Rich did so, with great relish. Judah didn't move... he seemed to have been turned to stone. He was staring fixedly at Sophie, his face nearly as white as hers.

"Soph... I... I'm sorry..." his voice was barely above a whisper and she pretended not to hear.

"Yes," she agreed royally, lifting her head, filled with confidence now that the spider was gone. "He must be punished. And he shall be. Fire cookies, Linnie?" 

"Sophie..." Judah tried to plead mercy but the words died on his lips. Rich was grinning in a way that only Rich could and that gave Linnaea, as Dr. Seuss would say, a wonderful, awful idea. 

"Let Rich punish him," she snickered. "He's sure to think of something terribly fitting."

Rich grinned with even more Richishness and Nikki laughed.

"I warn you, Sophie!" She cried. "Are you sure you wanna trust your Judah to the cruel mercies of Tarzan?"

Sophie pressed her lips tight together and narrowed her eyes. She was angry. Judah swallowed hard.

"Yes," she said again, her voice deadly serious. "Judah Benjamin Fraser, I hereby sentence you to death at the hands of Rich!"

You would have thought they would have laughed at such a statement. But Rich was no laughing matter when he got wild ideas into his head. And he certainly had one.

"Hey Eric!" he yelled, seizing the traitor's arm. "Duct tape and rope, a looong rope, quick! We'll have a battle on our hands if you don't get them double time!" 

Eric duly ran and Sophie rolled her eyes. She might have known Rich would resort to duct tape. Well, it wouldn't work. Jim wasn't around just now and Judah would pound Rich into a pulp, he was more than enough of a match for him.

But when Eric returned, less than a minute later, Judah still hadn't moved. He was standing still as a statue and his eyes never wavered from Sophie's face. She was avoiding those eyes with every ounce of will power in her. She wouldn't... she couldn't look at him! But she was confused now... wondering why... why wasn't he fighting? He was just standing there, submitting himself meekly as Rich pulled his arms behind his back, binding his wrists with the inevitable duct tape.

"Gonna make our job easy for us, eh?" Eric laughed as Rich tossed him the tape. 

"Nah, he's just scared stiff," Rich winked at Sophie, who was starting to look worried. Judah didn't even answer as Eric went on to wind tape around his arms and chest, thus rendering escape, which wasn't even being attempted, twice as impossible. They had a bit of trouble then, when they tried to force him to his knees, but they got him down all the same. 

"What ARE you going to do?" Linnaea demanded of Rich, eyeing the rope. Thus far, nothing had seemed any different from an ordinary duct taping... but they had never used a rope before. Rich only laughed in a "you'll see" manner and pushed Judah on his back, calmly taping his ankles and knees as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world to do. Pity he wouldn't fight back. Rich was finding there wasn't half the fun in attacking a guy who just lay there, like a rag doll. It was nearly enough to make him stop completely and ask Judah what on earth was the matter with him. But the fact that he had been thus personally selected for wreaking vengeance kept him from stopping.

"Here, Soph..." he tossed her Judah's glasses, laughing. "Better keep those safe!" Sophie didn't answer, clutching the glasses almost desperately against her heart as she stared at Judah in surprise and confusion.

Perfect," Rich winked at Eric, although Eric hadn't half a clue what was about to happen. Rich didn't bother explaining. He went on mysteriously tying the rope around Judah's ankles, coiling up the end of it, and then enlisting Eric's help in dragging the captive in the direction of the woods.

Rich's plan became very evident within the next few minutes. Seemed he no longer wanted to be the sole owner of the title Tarzan. A tree was hastily chosen and before anyone could even react, Judah was being hoisted up the tree at an alarming rate... upside-down. 

"Oh... Rich..." Sophie suddenly looked rather regretful, but it was too late now. The rest of the gang appeared to be having the time of their lives and they could barely hear Sophie's feeble protest above the ensuing roars of laughter. "Rich... don't..."

"Don't what?" Rich chuckled as he tied off the rope and left his captive dangling, just about eye level with Sophie. "I thought you wanted him punished, eh? And severely, at that!"

"But... upside-down..." Sophie faltered, stepping forward uncertainly. Judah grimaced at her, well, as much as was possible whilst hanging upside-down.

"So now you're relenting, eh? And you just sentenced me to death... you are a strange woman, Sophia Henderson!"

Sophie was too relieved to hear him speak to argue with him. His silence had been worrying her. But then she happened to glance at his eyes and her heart sank. No... not this... she couldn't handle this... She couldn't take it when his eyes turned gray. 

"C'mon, Rich... let him down..."

"You taking it back?" Rich raised his eyebrows, looking down at her in surprise. 

"I... no..." Sophie's eyes were rapidly filling with tears and she blinked them back. "Just..." She stopped, not knowing what exactly to say. She was still mad at Judah, that much was certain. But she didn't want to see him like this. 

No matter, Rich guessed the trouble and solved the problem with a solution entirely his own. Well, didn't exactly SOLVE it, since Sophie was still upset and Judah was still hanging, but at least she couldn't see Judah's eyes when he was blindfolded. Rich seemed to regard himself as something of a genius for coming up with that. 

"Alright, now here's the thing," Rich stood back, hands on his hips, evidently enjoying his role as executioner very much indeed. "We're gonna leave Spider-Man here hanging until he figures out how to get down his own self. And there is only one way to get down... he's gotta think of the key and then yours truly will let him down. Thing is, it involves Sophie, so it'll force them to forgive each other. I'm a genius, am I not? C'mon, you all know it, you might as well admit it!" And he bowed grandly to the ensuing applause that was more laughter than it was actual applause...

"Did he perchance watch Spider-Man recently?" Sophie whispered to Nikki and at her affirmative answer, Sophie rolled her eyes. She knew exactly how to get Judah down now and she wasn't sure if she wanted to do it. Wasn't fair of Rich. If she could just get him to abandon the case long enough, she'd simply cut the rope... but no chance of that. And this had a time restraint on it too, angry or not, she wasn't gonna leave him hanging too long or he'd pass out. Made the punishment more cruel than the crime itself. 

"Sophie..." Judah groaned, struggling for the first time. His voice sounded strained and Sophie bit her lip so hard it bled. "I don't have a clue what Rich is talking about but... listen to me for a sec, okay? I've been trying to say... I'm sorry... okay? I regretted it the moment I did it. Didn't mean to... scare you so bad... I know I'm a jerk and you can leave me here too if you wanna. Don't blame you."

"Are you saying that cuz you wanna get down or are you really sorry?" Sophie was having trouble remembering that she was supposed to be angry.

"What do I have to do to prove how sorry I am?" Judah gasped out. 

"Rich, I'm gonna skin you alive," was all Sophie said in answer. She pushed past the others, her face fairly flaming by now. She was angry again, outrageously so, but it wasn't at Judah anymore. "Phooey on your regulations, I'll get him down myself."

Judah was on the point of asking how exactly she was going to accomplish this when he felt her lifting his head. He sighed in relief as the pressure of hanging upside-down abated, even if it was only barely. 

Spider-Man indeed," Sophie laughed softly, standing on tiptoe in order to lift his head as much as possible. "Ever watched that movie?" And before he could answer, she pressed her lips on his. Judah felt a rush of relief as he kissed her back. She couldn't still be angry at him... not when she kissed him like that...

"Well, she guessed it," Rich shrugged. "That was fast. Hey Sunny, why can't YOU ever stop being mad at ME that fast?!"

"Don’t push it, Tarzan," Nikki tossed her head. "The quality of mercy IS strained!"

"You gotta stick to your word, Rich," Sophie interrupted. She was still cradling Judah's head, looking angrier by the moment. "Let him down, okay? And carefully!"

Judah was accordingly let down, although not carefully enough to suit Sophie. She threw her arms around his shoulders, shielding his head as Rich lowered the rope. She went down with him until at last he was stretched on the ground, his head in her lap.

Are you okay?" She sounded almost panicked as she tore the blindfold away. But she visibly relaxed when she saw navy, and not gray eyes looking up at her. The tears that had been threatening to spill all the while slid down her cheeks now and she bent her head to kiss him again. The second kiss was longer than the first and with it, she forgave him wholeheartedly. 

"I'm sorry," she murmured when she pulled away and his eyes shone a deeper navy than ever before. "That wasn't fair of me. You gave up everything for me... came all the way to Canada... and here I let a crazy Canuck tie you up and hang you upside down... should've known Rich would come up with something diabolical..." and she glared fiery things at the aforementioned crazy and wholly unrepentant Canuck. "And now I wanna know why you didn’t fight back. You're strong enough, you could've gotten away, I know you could!"

"Cuz I deserved what I got," Judah chuckled. "And more than that, too."

"Oh, you..." Sophie grinned at him affectionately as she rummaged in her pocket and came out with a knife. She had learned a thing or three from Linnie, it would seem. "Rich, you get rid of that rope or I'll strangle you with it," she added as she sawed away at the tape that bound Judah's hands. 

The moment she had him free, he pulled her into his arms and held her tight. Still quietly sobbing, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. Another spider, darn the creature, scuttled along the forest floor just behind them. Judah saw it, but Sophie did not. And to his credit, he never said a word. Just stood, cradling her in his arms, and stepped calmly and silently on the dreaded octolimbie.