Arachnophobia - Extreme or irrational fear of spiders. It’s more common than you think, recent studies have shown that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have it. I was one of those unlucky ones that suffers from it.
It hasn’t really impacted my life too much, I don’t live in a region with a lot of spiders so I got trough my life with a relatively small amount of traumatic experiences.
Now that you know a bit more about the condition, I should introduce myself. My name is Adrian. I grew up on a private piece of land that my dad used as a farm. He loved it and said on multiple occasions that this is the job he wants to do for the rest of his life.
I was a happy child, maybe a bit lonely at times since there were no houses or people around us except from my uncle who was about 15 minutes away. Every time I would get lonely however, there were farm animals and my little sister Janice to keep me company. My sister unfortunately died when I was 9 years old, my dad told me she died of natural causes and I went with it.
I stayed at the farm untill I was 18 years old, and even though I loved animals, it wasn’t the life I wanted. I moved out to the closest city and got a job working retail. It wasn’t the most exciting job but it payed the bills and everyone’s got to start somewhere.
Not even a full year after I moved out I got tragic news that my dad died. It was devastating, even though I knew he had heart problems and I knew he could get a heart attack and die at any moment, I wasn’t prepared for it. We held a funeral, there weren’t many people there but people who cared about him were there.
After the funeral my uncle told me to follow him to the side of the trees. I was opening my mouth to ask him what did he want when he handed me a piece of paper.
“Your father has left you the estate, you can do what you please with it but if you’re going to continue working on it, I will help you manage it” He said.
“I don’t know, David, it’s all a bit too much for me right now, I’ll let you know in a few days.” I said my voice filled with sorrow and exhaustion.
“Okay, I’ll keep the farm in order until then.” He said as he turned away and left.
Next couple of days were a blur of crying, dealing with paperwork and then crying some more. I finally called my uncle David to inform him about my decision.
“Hello David.” I said in a tone much calmer than last time I saw him.
“Hey Adrian, are you calling to let me know about the farm? Or do you need some more time?” He said.
“No, I’ve made my decision, I’m going to keep working on the farm.”
“Okay, I’m glad to hear that, tell me when you’re moving in so I can help you with the baggage.” He said and I agreed.
The reason I wanted to take care of the farm was simple, my father. Even though he would never admit it I knew he wanted me to take over the farm after him.
After a couple of days I’ve moved all of my stuff in and I decided to relax a bit as I turned on the tv and opened a cold beer. I was sipping on beer when I noticed something that made me jump up and made my heart race.
There was at least 1 spider at every ceiling corner in the house. Some of them were small and some of them were massive.
“It’s probably because it hasn’t been inhabited for over a week now.” I thought to myself as I went over the list of exterminators in a nearby area.
I called the exterminators and they agreed to come over tommorow morning. Something did strike me as odd about this situation however. Even though it hasn’t been inhabited in over a week I haven’t seen that many spiders in my whole time growing up here.
I shruged it off and when the exterminators came they took care of it and I could finally relax in my own house.
Troughout the following days everything was fine, no insects or anything…or so I thought. As I went to bed and was getting ready to fall asleep I could feel a tingling sensation on my leg, thinking it was just an itch i went to scratch it and I jumped from the bed when I felt something in my hand.
It was a spider, and it was one of the biggest I’ve seen in my life. As I turned on the lamp to get a closer look I noticed at least 5 more spiders dangling from the ceiling above me, all different species. I rushed out, grabed my keys and went over to my uncles house.
“David?! Are you awake?” I said as I knocked on his door. David came out looking like he just woke up.
“What is it?” He said in a sleepy irritated voice.
“The spiders! They are everywhere!” As I said that he got out of his trance immediately, his tired face turning into a serious expression.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! It’s already happening, I should’ve known better.” He said frantically as he rushed me inside the house.
When we got in I asked him what he meant by it’s already happening?
“I’ll tell you about everything tommorow.” He said letting out a deep sigh escape from his mouth.
“Go now rest, there are no spiders here.” He said as he showed me the way to the guest bedroom.
I fell asleep but I was snapped out of it by a strange sound coming trough my window. I couldn’t tell what it was at first but as my hearing adjusted and I came to my senses, I could clearly hear someone calling my name. It was the voice of my little sister and it was coming from the thick forest that seperated my uncles and my house.
“N..no it can’t be! She’s dead!” I thought to myself. But even with me knowing she was dead I felt drawn to the voice. I don’t know if it was because I missed her so much or something else but I found myself putting on my clothes and opening the front door of the house.
I thought I could hear her more clearly when I got out but no, it was still in the same tone, same volume as when I was inside the house. I moved towards the forest relentlessly desperate for the sound to get louder, desperate to find her. As I neared the edge of the forest a hand grabbed me from behind pulling me out of my trance. It was my uncle.
“What are you doing boy? If I didn’t stop you you’d be dead by now!” He said sounding angry.
“B..but my little sister, I need to help her.” I said as I sobbed and I could see the anger on my uncle’s face turn into sadness as he gently put a hand on my shoulder.
“She’s trying to trick you Adrian, your sister is gone. Come inside, I’ll explain everything.” Said my uncle as we slowly walked back to the house.
He sat me down at the kitchen table and made me a cup of coffee.
“I guess I should start with the forest and the land itself.” He exclaimed as he let out another deep sigh.
“This land goes down all the way to your great grandfather. He bought the land from a woman who claimed she was a witch, he didn’t believe in such nonsense and the price tag was too good to turn down. It didn’t take him long after buying the house to figure out that the forest itself was… special.” He said taking in another deep breath.
“You see, there are cryptids that live in that forest, they were always there. What do I mean by cryptids you may ask? There is anything from beautiful fireflies that change colors repeatedly to some other insects that are almost the size of a human being.”
“Now, your great grandfather couldn’t deal with such things on his own, and calling anyone else in there would be a suicide mission. He tried burning it down but there are cryptids that can put out fires in matter of seconds. So he resorted to what anyone would in his place, he called the witch again.”
My uncle made a slight pause as I looked at him intently at the edge of my seat. He let out a sigh before he continued.
“When the witch came she wanted to make a deal, one member of the family must always live on the property and in turn she would order all and any cryptids under her control to leave us alone. Your grandfather agreed and there was never any problems, until now. When your father died your property was left abandoned for a week, you broke the pact.”
“Why couldn’t have you just moved in for a week? You’re part of our family as well!” I said starting to get a bit angry at the realization how bad this situation really is.
“Because I also took the pact, your father couldn’t manage the farm by himself so I moved here as well and was affected by the same cursed pact. If I had left to live in your land, I would’ve broken the pact anyways.” He said, his eyes dampening.
“What does any of that have to do with my sister though? Why did I hear her voice?” I asked, dreading the answer.
“Your sister didn’t die from natural causes. She got lost in the forest and ventured into the heart of it, no-one could save her at that point.” He said in a sad tone.
“She was seven!!! How could you let her wonder the forest alone?!” I said as tears fell down my cheek.
“When were you planning to tell me all of this?! When?!” I said, yelling, anger and sorrow clear in my voice.
“We need to destroy her.” He said disregarding my questions.
“Destroy who? Who is she?” I said calming my breathing down a bit.
“Arachna, she is the mother of all cryptids living in that forest, she’s the one that has been using your sisters voice to try to lure you in.”
“How do you plan we destroy her? We can’t even deal with simple spiders!” I said irritated at how calm he was about the whole situation.
“When the witch made the pact she made sure to give both sides a reason not to break it, she gave this knife to your great grandfather, it’s the only thing that can kill her.” He said as he pulled out a knife that had what seemed like runes imbeded in the handle.
“When do we do it?” Was all I said.
“Now, while its still dark outside, she will not expect us at night.” He said as he stood up to leave. I followed behind him, anger still in my veins. I wanted her to pay for what she did to my sister, no amount of fear is going to stop me from doing that.”
As we got to the edge of the forest he turned to me.
“When we get in here, there is no coming back, follow my footsteps and keep your head low.” He said as I nodded my head and we entered the forest.
It was dark, we wouldn’t have been able to see anything if it wasn’t for the moon. As we ventured deeper and deeper, the more distorted and inhumanly large the creatures became. We pushed trough it nonetheless, determined to find Arachna and put an end to this.
As we neared the center my uncle stopped me and I could see why. Two huge spiders that were bigger than us in crouched position, were standing still, eyes focused on us. The only reason I was able to see them were their eyes reflecting the light from the many fireflies around us.
We were standing still like that for what felt hours but was probably around 20 seconds when something huge came and grabbed the spiders. Once it came into focus I could see what it was.
“Is that Arachna?” I said not able to peel my eyes away from her.
“Yes” is the only response I got.
My uncle rose to his feet as I followed him. It was then that I could see Arachna’s face and it made my eyes tear up as I struggled to hold my cries in.
She had a face or my sister. As I yelped all 8 of her eyes focused on me as she shoved the spiders aside and crawled a bit towards us.
“Adrian?” Said the creature in my sisters voice, just as I remembered it 10 years ago.
Unconsciously I started to take steps forward when my uncle snapped me out of it with a hard slap on my right cheek.
“Focus!” He yelled and as he was looking at me the creature took the opportunity and hit him with one of its many legs.
My uncle flew at a tree, loud groan escaping his lips.
“David!!!” I yelled as I rushed to help him. The creature wrapped its leg around mine and pulled me back towards it.
I struggled against its grip but it was to no avail, the creature was stronger.
“Stupid humans, thinking you can venture into my territory without being punished, thinking you can break a pact of many years and not be held accountable.” Arachna said in a raspy voice that I assumed was her own.
She lowered her head down and just as she was about to impale me with her fangs I pulled out the knife from my waist and plunged it deep into her head.
Her scream… oh god her scream. I’ve never heard anything like it before and I don’t think I ever will. As she fell down on back all the other cryptids did the same.
“Is this it? Are we done?” I asked my uncle as I rushed to help him.
“Yes, now let’s go, we need to get out of here, fast!” He said as he groaned from being thrown against a tree so hard.
We ran out of the forest as it caught on fire, I’m guessing because of the fireflies, they very clearly emitted heat from their abdomens.
Just as we were about to go out a leg grabbed my uncle and pulled him back in.
“No! David!!” I screamed as he got a hold of one of the trees.
“Run Adrian! Please!” He said and I could hear Arachna approaching.
“Hang on in there!” I said as I waited for her to show herself. When she finally did, she looked at the verge of dying, charred to her skeleton. I took the knife and threw it as it connected with her body. She let go of my uncle as another one of her screams pierced the air.
We made it back home after that and my uncle was taken to the hospital because of a broken leg.
As I’m writing this I can hear the soft whispers of my sister calling my name, as a spider slowly crawls on my arm.
My sweet little Janice.
I’m coming to help you.