“Doctor Sanchez will see you now.”
I nodded, got up from my seat and followed the dentist’s assistant into the clean white room where Harold Sanchez was waiting for me with a shiny white smile. “Please, have a seat.” He gestured to the slightly intimidating big, light blue chair. “We discussed the method of treatment earlier, I assume it still agrees with you?”
I sighed. Agree was a big word. Seeing as I normally would have never been able to afford any kind of dental treatment and this novelty method had been offered to me by the doctor for free, I simply didn’t have much choice in the matter. “I’m not gonna sue you,” I answered dryly.
Doctor Sanchez snorted. “You’re just a little tense. I assure you, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Nine out of ten dentists actually recommend this. The tenth is an arachnophobe.”
“Good to know.”
“Now, I’ll give you some local anesthesia so you won’t feel the pain, but you will be awake during the procedure itself. I will strap your wrists, ankles and forehead to the chair though, if you don’t mind. We believe it’s best for the safety of everyone involved.”
I held still as he began tying me down with the leather straps on the seat, careful to adjust them.
“There. Nice and neat.” Dr Sanchez started putting on his gloves. “Would you like to be blindfolded for this? I’ve found that it actually calms down many of my patients. You’d think that taking away one’s sense of vision would rather scare them more, but it’s actually proven beneficial to simply avoid them seeing it happen altogether.”
I nodded eagerly. “Yes, please.”
“Alright.”
One of his assistants came forward and, with a gentle smile of encouragement, began tying an accurately cut, elongated piece of grey fabric around my head. She then adjusted it to cover my eyes, and with that, my view was blocked entirely. It was odd, having my sense of vision taken away from me, and I could already feel my heartbeat quickening. A lump had begun to form in my throat and I swallowed. I’m not afraid, I told myself. There’s nothing to be scared of. This is good. I whimpered as Doctor Sanchez administered the numbing agent to my gums. The needle really had to be big to cause such a sting and even though I’m not too afraid of syringes, I was sort of glad I was already blindfolded. Not feeling my gums anymore was strange, but the sensation wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to me. I was more wary of what came next. I felt gloved fingers tugging gently on my lower lip.
“The doctor is bringing in the arachnid,” one of the assistants announced as I heard the door being opened and shut. “There we go… Now, please open your mouth as wide as you can, and keep it like that.” Presumably addressing Dr Sanchez, she added, “Is it ready to be let out?”
“Sure,” he answered cheerfully. “Let’s get this underway.”
I could sense him leaning over me, his hand guiding something up to my face, to my open mouth. Then there was the feeling of multiple tiny stings all around my lips and tongue. I stifled a squeak. Despite the dentist’s encouragement and reassuring demeanor, despite my lack of vision, I was suddenly very aware of the large spider creeping into my mouth. I was going to be operated on by an arachnid. I tried to calm my nerves by reminding myself that it would stay in the front of my mouth. I could breathe just fine, I could hardly feel it and all of this would be over in a jiffy. Dr Sanchez must have noticed my fear.
“Don’t worry, now. My colleagues and I spent months training all the arachnids we use for this individually. They’re a special breed, you know, genetically modified. Higher intelligence, more susceptible and very docile. You can hardly call them spiders anymore! So there’s really nothing to be scared of,” he explained in a soothing tone.
I let out a grunt of agreement. I didn’t want to think about the spider anymore, so I started daydreaming a little. It turned out to be quite easy to ignore the spider as it worked on repairing my tooth. It seemed to use the same tools as any dentist would, just a lot smaller. Occasionally, someone would assist it in one way or another, but I think mostly all the others did was watch and take notes. Everything was going smoothly, as far as I could tell. That was until one of the assistants muttered, “Does it seem a little fussy to you guys?”
My eyes flew open. I did not want a “fussy” spider in my mouth. I wanted to signal the medical staff to get it out, but seeing as I was still tied down, I couldn’t. And from there on, it all went south. I heard the spider emit a very low hissing sound before it charged against the back of my throat. I immediately began to retch and scream, thrashing violently in my seat. The mere seconds during which I desperately tried and failed to repel this disgusting creature from my body seemed like an eternity to me. Thankfully, I soon felt a hand reaching into my mouth and grabbing the arachnid, hurling it away and freeing me from it. I instantly spat, several times and as hard as I could, before taking a deep breath and yelling at the doctor to tie me the fuck loose. He followed my request, and I jumped to my feet, grabbing my jacket and handbag before running for the door. I was beyond horrified, the panic still making my heart race. I just wanted to get out of there.
“Wait!” Dr Sanchez shouted after me. “Where are you going?”
“You swore up and down nothing like this would happen!” I barked at him over my shoulder.
There still seemed to be quite the commotion in the operation room. Sanchez’ assistants were apparently looking for the spider now—it must have run off on them to hide under some of the furniture or something. I couldn’t care less, to be honest. I simply left. The procedure had almost been finished apparently, so all I did when I was back home was rinse. I found that my tooth had been repaired, it didn’t look or feel off either. Not that I saw that as a happy end. Deciding I needed some peace and quiet, I turned off all the lights in my room and simply laid down in my bed to get some rest.
It was only when I heard a quiet rustling noise coming from my handbag that I realized I should have probably checked the inside before storming out on Dr Sanchez.