The Spider Queen

It was an addiction.

Sophie's golden eyes darkened as her gaze lingered on the trembling survivors.

Her mental state had been slowly changing for a long time now, but she wasn't sure if it was due to her Arachnais heritage or a side effect of becoming the hunter goddess' vessel.

The physiological changes were obvious, but Sophie was now coming to terms with just how far her mentality had shifted as well.

There was an inherent darkness inside her mind that hungered for the opportunity to be set free.

The sweet temptation to forget about the interrogation plan and just kill the two aliens in front of her made Sophie's mouth water.

Small beads of saliva dripped down from the corners of her lips, and she could feel her fangs slowly lengthen.

Feed…

Sophie's eyes flickered constantly from their usual golden hue to crimson red as it took all of her willpower to fight against the natural instincts guiding her to kill.

Deep breaths… deep breaths… deep breaths…

Gently exhale… gently exhale… gently exhale…

Sophie closed her eyes and tried to focus on something other than the sweet scent of flesh invading her nostrils.

Cleo….

The beautiful princess with her slender and lean physique. The flowing dark hair that curled slightly as it fell below her shoulders.

Seeing the mischievous glint in her piercing green eyes. The way her body twisted and squirmed in ecstasy when they had lost their virginity together.

Sophie's heartbeat slowed and the turbulent emotions hidden behind her expressionless mask calmed down.

Her eyes had now reverted back to their usual golden appearance but there was now a faint tinge of pink hidden along their edges.

Sophie wasn't sure how long this feeling of tranquility would last so she decided to speed up her interrogation plan.

She opened her eyes and saw the two survivors in a state of almost total mental collapse.

Some of her bloodlust and madness had leaked out while Sophie was trying her best to calm down.

Fortunately, it only took a few moments for the survivors to recover but the expressions on their faces now showed only despair.

Sophie frowned since this wasn't the emotional state that she wanted before the interrogation begun.

Well… now the only option was to go with a crueler tactic.

Perhaps it was getting easier to pretend to be a monster since the feeling of guilt in Sophie's chest now seemed to lessen.

It was time to show off her acting skills.

"Why do you both look so unhappy? Are you afraid of me?" Sophie muttered darkly as she stepped closer to her prisoners.

She gently touched the sides of their arms and grinned wickedly as they visibly flinched.

The feeling of domination made Sophie unconsciously grip tighter until her nails pierced the soft flesh of their arms.

Hearing the painful gasps was music to Sophie's ears. The hybrid girl laughed and then suddenly grabbed the throats of both survivors.

The alien physiology of the crew was vaguely humanoid, but their long slender limbs and fragile necks made their bodies appear to be awkward and disjointed.

Sophie took care not to squeeze their necks too forcefully because the strength contained in her palms was more than enough to completely crush their windpipes.

"How about we play a little game?" Sophie leaned closer and softly whispered a sweet temptation.

"Whoever wins is free to go."

"I will only kill one."

Sophie's voice infiltrated the ears of her two captives, and she could see the expressions on their faces change.

Hope… is the most poisonous weapon.

In the face of certain death, it was easy to give up and just accept.

But offer an animal the chance to live and it will gladly struggle and fight. This method was truly insidious.

The survivors would not just have to win her game but ensure that their colleague lost as well.

This simple realisation would turn them against each other.

They were no longer crewmates but rather… competitors.

Sophie took her hands off their necks and then waited in anticipation for the expected response to her offer.

The survivor on the right hesitated for a moment and then spoke but his fear of Sophie made his speech fairly incoherent,

"What… how… how do you win the game?"

"Um… is… will you really let one… one… of us go?"

The hybrid girl vaguely recognised the voice as belonging to the brave alien who had asked her a question back in the holding room.

Sophie could remember his name clearly but pretending that she had forgotten would serve another purpose.

"Before the game begins…." Sophie chuckled lightly as she saw the survivors tremble before she had even finished her sentence.

"What are your names?"

"Pir… Pirene," one of the survivors stammered nervously.

"Eovoby," came the steady reply from the other captive.

His speech was the clearer of the two, but Sophie's keen vision could spot his hands shaking furiously.

Sophie's inner sadism rose to the surface for a brief moment as she imagined breaking his thin fingers one by one.

How would he scream?

Would he beg? Would he cry?

No… no… I have to stop…

Sophie bit her lip violently and tasted the salty metallic tang of blood fill her mouth.

Tasting her own blood was unpleasant but the disgusting feeling was enough to pierce through the mental fog.

She reached into her storage bag and pulled out two cone shaped metallic devices. The devices in her hand instantly captured the attention of the prisoners.

Each device was only around ten inches in length with an exterior that was coated in a light green substance.

Sophie flipped the devices around and pressed two buttons on the back of each.

Bleep! Bleep!

A faint ringing noise came from the devices which caused the prisoners to subconsciously move backwards.

Unfortunately, the bindings wrapped around their limbs were too strong, so they were only able to move a few centimeters.

Sophie ignored the obvious discomfort of the survivors and stepped forward to place one device on each of their laps.

"This is a high-grade explosive device that can monitor biological responses to determine if you are lying or telling the truth," Sophie explained with undisguised glee in her voice.

"Don't worry… this is only the first stage of the game so I will make it easy just for you!"

"All you have to do is answer a series of questions and that's it! Of course, if you tell a lie…"

"The device will activate immediately."

Bleep! Bleep!

The noise coming from the cone-shaped devices was incredibly soft and yet the survivors could feel their hearts tremble with every ring.

Thin beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads as both men knew that death was now staring them in the face.

The only way to survive was to win whatever crazy game this monster had created for them.

Sophie fought back the urge to laugh as she saw the panicked looks on the faces of the survivors.

Of course, everything she had just said was complete nonsense.

The two cone shaped devices on the survivor's laps were just alarm clocks.

Sophie had just set a timer to go off every couple of minutes to create a persistent ringing noise.

There were no lie-detector devices inside her storage bag, so she was forced to improvise based on the assumption that these aliens had never seen Federation technology.

And even if she did…. Sophie had no idea if lie detector devices would work on the physique of an unknown alien race.

Biological responses varied wildly among the different species scattered across the universe so lie detectors were not very accurate.

It could be possible that the survivors would realise that unknown technology was unlikely to work on them but…

Would they dare to take the gamble?

Sophie carefully observed the emotions hidden in the eyes of the survivors and saw fear but also a small glimmer of determination.

There it was… exactly what she had been looking for…

The survivors were ready to fall into her trap.