My name is James. Probably not important, but if I’m gonna be recounting what happened, you might as well know who I am, right?
I’m not writing this alone, but I’ll keep the part about who I’m with secret for the time being. Or I guess maybe you’ve already guessed. Either way, it’s not important for now. I’ll let you find out the events in the order that I found them out.
I’ve lived next to this family for years. They were called the Charmans, and there were four of them: two daughters and their parents. Jonah, Josephine, Anna and Matilda. Tilly.
I used to play with them. I’d go over to their house and play on their swing set. Honestly, as a kid, I found Anna kinda cute. Not that she isn’t now—she’s still plenty cute, but that’s not the point either.
The point is, I remember when the police showed up outside their house. I remember them questioning my parents, asking them if they’d seen any sign of Tilly, who had gone missing.
I remember the police again, when they found her body.
There were a lot of questions then, including some for me. When had I last seen Tilly? What was she like? Had I ever been under the neighbour’s house?
In the end, they ruled it an accident. An awful, tragic accident that no one could’ve seen coming. She’d fallen under the house, and Mr Charman’s lawnmower had drowned out her cries for help. A horrible, tragic accident.
I heard them telling them that, over and over. It was an accident. No one could’ve seen it coming.
I don’t think it helped them. Especially not Anna.
We grew apart. We grew up. Anna got reserved, then distant, then slowly came back to herself in inches after we’d already grown apart.
We grew up. She moved out, I stayed behind, and when my parents moved to Europe after retirement, they gave me the house.I spoke to her parents sometimes, but not often. I still had her number, but I never used it.
Not until last year, that is.
It was around that time that I stopped seeing her parents. Looking back, I honestly don’t know how long they were gone for; I mean, how often do you see your neighbours, really? But when their post started piling up, I started to think that maybe something was wrong, and I called Anna, who said she’d come by the house.
I saw her arrive, and enter the house. Soon after, I heard the screaming and called the police.
By the time they arrived, the house was already up in smoke, and Anna was gone.
They found two bodies in the house; the bodies of Jonah and Josephine Charman, as well as some ‘unidentified organic matter’, as the papers called it. There was no sign of Anna, and no sign of a body that could’ve been hers.
They think the fire was arson, and they think Anna did it. As well as that, she’s also a major suspect in the deaths of her parents, who, according to police when they questioned me, had likely been dead long before the fire.
I never thought she killed them, you know. I heard her scream. I was the one who called her in, for christ’s sake, of course I never thought she’d done it. But between the fire and the disappearance, she is and will likely always be a suspect.
Life went on after that, in whatever way it could. They didn’t tear down the house, but it became normal, over time. Teenagers would go and party there until I inevitably called the cops.
Eventually, the place got a reputation. Not for being dangerous or haunted, no; that would’ve been far too exciting. Instead, it gained the reputation that, if you tried to hang out there, the jackass neighbour would call the police on you.
I didn’t really mind all that much.
Before we go any further, I think I need to explain myself. Or rather, I need to explain how I am. Who I am.
I mean, I’m no one important, but the one thing I am is curious. Always have been. I used to wander all over the place as a child, wielding a tiny magnifying glass, just looking at things. I loved mystery games, I loved having problems to solve, and I wanted to be a detective when I grew up.
The point is, I’m curious. I’m nosy. If something’s weird, I have to check it out, I have to ask questions. I have to know.
So when I saw the trail of spiders, I was caught.
Oh—sorry. That wasn’t meant as a pun.
Anyway, trail of spiders. It was exactly what it sounds like, I’m not kidding. It looked like the scene out of Harry Potter; an ominous line of spiders, leading from the burned house into the forest. It was weird, since spiders don’t really act like that, but what was even weirder was that they were carrying an old teddy bear.
It didn’t take me long to recognise it. It had been one of Tilly’s things, and she used to carry it around with her. I don’t know how it wasn’t stolen, like most things that survived the fire. I just know that it was Tilly’s bear, and spiders were taking it into the forest.
I followed it, of course. I’ve already said I’m both a little stupid and a lot curious, and besides; it was Tilly’s bear. If Anna was still alive…she’d already lost her family and her house, I guess I just wanted to have something to give her if she came back.
The spiders were weirdly fast, and seemed determined to keep the bear away from me. I had to sprint to keep up with the thing, darting away whenever the spiders got just that little bit too close to me.
I planned to stop eventually, of course, but I got carried away. I was so single-minded in my task that I didn’t realise how long I’d been running, or where, and before long I was in a part of the forest I’d never seen before.
The trees were thicker in that part of the forest, close together and laced with web. The leaves blocked out the sun, and some parts of it were genuinely pretty dark. It made it harder to see the spiders, and I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to follow them out.
The spiders stopped at the edge of a clearing. The way they stopped was weird: instead of dispersing, they circled around the edge as though there was some sort of barrier that kept them from entering.
Web blocked off most of the trees, but if I took another step forwards, I would be able to see past them and into the clearing.
So I did.
The clearing was lighter than the trees around it. Sunlight dappled down through the leaves and onto the strange scene before me.
In the clearing was web, and lots of it. This wasn’t unexpected. What was unexpected was the furniture; chairs, a couch, a table. All of it looked worn, and as I stared at it, I recognised one of the chairs as one that had been stolen from the area. And another. And another and another, enough that I wondered if all of it was stolen.
I turned to leave, thoroughly freaked out, before realising I had no idea which direction I’d come from. Without the line of spiders there was no way to tell where I had or hadn’t been, and if I wasn’t careful I could end up walking deeper into the forest.
Just as I felt the first lick of panic run through me I heard movement from above.
When I looked up, I saw web.
There was so much web. Overhead, woven through the trees were enormous lines of thick, sticky thread. Large sacks hung around the place, with what almost looked like paths strung between them.
In the centre was a large centre of web, and something was inside it.
I turned to back away, but found the exit behind me closed off with webbing and spiders.
“…You should leave.”
I startled. For a second, it sounded like the voice came from the webbed circle, but that couldn’t be right, could it? Nothing that could be up there would be likely to talk…unless someone had gotten stuck? What if they needed help?
“Hello?” I called out. “Are you alright?”
A pause, then a sigh. “Leave. It isn’t safe for you here.”
The voice sounded familiar. Too familiar.
“…Anna?” I asked, suddenly sure of who I was talking to. “Anna, is that you?”
What would Anna be doing in the forest? Beyond that, what would she be doing in this place, of all places? It was gross, and weird, and—was she the one stealing the furniture?
“…Go away James,” Anna said. “I told you, you’re not safe. You’re in danger.”
“Danger? What from?”
“Leave!” she said again, louder this time. She sounded strained. “The web can be broken—turn around and run away!”
I didn’t know what I thought was happening. Maybe Anna had gotten stuck here. Maybe she had gotten kidnapped. God, what if she’d been kidnapped by whoever killed their family?
“I want to help you,” I insisted. “Where are you? Are you stuck? I have a swiss army knife, I can cut you free.”
Anna laughed, then. Something about it sounded wrong, and echoey. It almost hissed out of her mouth. I felt the hairs on my neck stand on end, and backed into the webbed exit.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “I’m not in danger.”
She moved, then. In one smooth motion, she whirled the webbed material, now resembling a hammock, and spun. She flipped the web over and suddenly she was hanging over me, bearing down on me, and I gasped.
She had so many eyes, glinting and hungry and scared in the afternoon light. Long fangs jutted from her mouth, and webbing wrapped around her arms and stuck to her hair. Her clothes were ripped and dirty, and from her back I could see long, hairy spider legs holding her tight to the web.
“I am the danger,” she snarled, and lunged at me.
I screamed like a kid and fell backwards. My weight pushed the webbing open as Anna landed on me, hands either side of my neck and spider legs surrounding my body like a cage.
Her real legs were still there, planted either side of me, though thick claws protruded from her bare toes.and dirtied fingers. She snarled and screamed and I screamed back, clawing desperately at the monster that had once been my friend.
Then she leapt backwards, away from me. She was still screaming, but it sounded like a scream of pain rather than a scream of rage. She clutched her head.
“Get out of my head!” she wailed. “Get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head getoutofmyHEAD—”
I shuffled the tiniest bit towards her and she shook her head so violently it looked like it hurt. “Stay away—stay away before it makes me hurt you—stay away before I hurt you—”
“Anna—”
“Stay away before I—” She screams again, a long, pained wail, and I don’t want to leave her like that. I didn’t think me leaving would actually fix the issue or I would’ve done it—I just thought it would mean she was alone.
I didn’t want her to be alone.
“Anna,” I said again, with more force. “You won’t hurt me.”
“I don’t want to,” she admits. “I don’t want to hurt you but it’s so loud…”
“What’s so loud, Anna?” I coaxed.
“The voice…the voice in my head, it’s telling me to change you. So that I won’t be alone anymore. I hate being alone…I hate the voice in my head I hate this I hate this I hate it—”
That’s when my gaze fell upon the discarded teddy bear the spiders had brought to Anna. I scooped it up and held it out to her and she froze, staring at the bear.
“That’s right…” she murmured. “That’s right. I’m still me. I’m alive.” She took a deep breath, then another. She closed her extra legs around herself and shut her many eyes, muttering to herself. I stayed very still as I watched her.
Eventually, she opened her eyes again, and let her spider legs uncurl behind her. She took the bear from me and held it against her chest.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “I think I’m alright now.”
“That’s good.”
She gave me a wary smile. It really showed off her fangs. “You probably have questions.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I don’t know how well I can answer them, but I’ll try.”
“I mean…you can probably guess the biggest one.”
“Oh, you mean ‘why am I a big spider’?”
“Something like that,” I agreed. My heartrate was coming down again, though the shock had left me a little shaky. I shuffled a little closer to Anna, and she didn’t stop me this time.
She walked over to the chairs and beckoned me over. I sat down across the tiny table from her, on one of the chairs I knew was stolen. “Did you uh…” I started, then changed my mind. “Nice chairs?”
“…They stole them, didn’t they? The spiders?”
“The spiders brought these?”
She nodded, and I relaxed a little. Anna hadn’t struck me as the stealing type; it made more sense, somehow, that the spiders had stolen the furniture for her.
I noticed, then, that there weren’t any spiders inside Anna’s clearing, with the exception of Anna herself. Maybe she didn’t want them to be.
“So…”
“Yeah.” Anna sighed. “I guess I should tell you what happened to me.”
And she did. I’m not going to recount the entire story, since Anna’s told me that she posted her own version of events here before she went missing, and you might already know what happened.
But just in case you don’t, the cliffnotes version is that Tilly came back from the dead. She was like Anna is now, but worse.
Tilly attacked Anna. She filled her with spiders, just like she filled their parents with spiders. The way she tells it, it sounds like Tilly didn’t want to hurt them: she just wanted them to be like her. But her parents killed themselves, and Anna tried to do the same.
She says that the smoke knocked her out, and then she woke up in the forest the way she is now. She didn’t know how she got out of the house, but guessed that the spiders probably dragged her out.
“I should’ve killed myself,” Anna murmured. “I should’ve tried again. If I was braver, I would have. I killed my sister to protect others from her, but I let myself live? There’s nothing heroic about that.” She sniffled a little and held Tilly’s bear close. “I spent all these years being told I didn’t kill my sister, and in the end I did exactly that. I’m a coward.”
“You’re a victim,” I insisted. “You did the right thing—she’d already hurt three people, who knows how many others she would’ve…done this to?”
“And who knows how long it’ll take before I do the same?” Anna shot back. “I almost did it to you.”
“…About that. You kept saying to…get out of your head. What was that about?”
Anna fell silent and looked down at her lap. She wrung her hands just like her mother used to. I didn’t rush her.
Eventually, she spoke. “…There’s…a voice in my head. No—not a voice, exactly, it doesn’t use words. It doesn’t have to; I know what it means. It wants me to turn you. To turn someone, anyone. It tells me I wouldn’t have to be alone anymore.” Her hand wringing got faster. “I think I understand why Tilly did it now. She was just a child, if something kept insisting this was right…” Anna trailed off.
She didn’t need to say any more. I understood.
“You don’t have to be alone,” I decided. “I can come and visit you. I can bring you some things that aren’t stolen.”
“It’s not safe, you know.”
“I know.” I did. “But I don’t want you to be alone. No one deserves that, least of all you.”
She let out a long sigh. It sounded…relieved. “If you know the risk, I won’t stop you. So…thank you, James.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I gave her a thumbs up.
She looked so different, so far from the confident woman I knew. She sat half-curled in on herself, and her many eyes held a hollowness that I understood, but that still made me ache to see.
Her spider legs curled around her, and I found myself wanting to touch them, to see if they felt as strange as they looked. My hand half lifted before I could think about it, though I stopped short of actually touching her.
She looked at me, lips parted in surprise, and then…extended one of her new limbs towards me. The offer was clear as day.
The hair on it was coarse and bristly under my fingers, coloured the same light brown as Anna’s hair. It made sense, I figured—it was also Anna’s hair, after all. It was just…in a different location.
Honestly, once I got past the initial shock of seeing her, it wasn’t so bad. Those eyes were still familiar, though there were more of them, and that rueful fanged smile was the same as when we were kids. Despite what she may think, she’s the same person she always was. Just…a little hairier.
“…You should go,” she said eventually. “I didn’t sleep last night, and the voices are louder when I’m tired.”
“Oh,” I said. “How will I find my way back?”
She raised an eyebrow at that. “…Follow the spiders,” she quipped, wriggling her extra legs for effect.
I blinked, then blinked again, but eventually I got out the words, “Oh,” and also, “Right.”
“…Too much?” she asked, cheeks reddening.
“No, no—! It’s good.”
“Too much,” she amended.”Got it.”
“Maybe just a little,” I admitted, standing to leave. “You’ll be alright here?”
“Have been for the past year.”
“Right,” I said again. “Right.”
I lingered in what passed for a doorway. Alone for a year, surrounded by spiders. It sounded hellish, but it was her normal now.
God, no wonder Tilly snapped. She’d been dead for the better part of a decade by the time she came for their parents—what had she been doing all that time? Where had she been? What if she’d still been under the house where she was found?
“…I’ll be back tomorrow,” I found myself promising. “I’ll bring you some stuff. Any requests?”
“Something that isn’t liquefied meat,” she said instantly. I must’ve paled, because she just sighed and said, “Yeah.”
“Spider-friendly food, got it?”
“Honestly, at this point, if I died by oreo I wouldn’t even care,” Anna mused, then winced. “It’s really getting louder now. You need to leave.”
“Right,” I said for the billionth time. “Sorry.”
“Just—” She waved her hand, looking pained. “Run.”
She reached out to me with one hand and grabbed that hand with another. Her eyes pleaded for me to listen to her and just go, so I did. I turned on my heels and ran. I ran towards the setting sun and hoped it would take me home.
It didn’t, but it did take me to a side street where a nice elderly woman gave me directions, so getting home wasn’t a problem.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Anna, though.
She was a good person. I didn’t know much about her these days, but I knew that. She was kind and bold and used to make up games for us to play. She took herself into the forest to protect other people.
She scared me. I couldn’t deny that she scared me now, but I had to go back. I couldn’t leave her there alone, even if it was dangerous. I didn’t want to be filled full of spiders, but this was Anna I was talking about. She was still Anna, still that girl from next door and I didn’t want her to be alone.
If being spidered up was the risk of helping her, I’d take it. I trusted her.
No one deserved to be alone.
—
I visited her daily after that. At first, the spiders were hard to find, but after a little while they started coming to my house. I’d find them doing laps around my backyard before trailing into the trees, or pulling one of my deck chairs towards the treeline. They seemed to almost…get used to me.
Anna definitely got used to me, and I got used to her right back. Her many eyes no longer startled me. I no longer noticed her fangs when she smiled. Those legs seemed as natural as any human limb.
She was still so similar to how she was as a child. She was still headstrong and snarky and yet still kind, and she still faced the truth, no matter how harsh. She was always honest with me about the voices.
That’s how I knew they were getting worse.
I spent less and less time with her as she sent me away earlier and earlier every day. Some days, I had to just leave the stuff I’d brought for her, as she refused to see me. She said they were too loud, too oppressive.
She was always very apologetic, very…guilt ridden, no matter how many times I told her I understood.
So I was glad when, one day, she was in a better mood.
She came out to greet me, for starters. She looked well; better than when I’d first seen her, by a mile and a half. She’d requested scissors early on, and cut her matted hair short, and with a combination of hairbrushes and dry shampoo, managed to somehow make it look fluffy. She stretched all of her limbs and smiled at me.
“Hi,” she said. “Whatcha got for me?”
“Pears,” I said. “They were on sale.”
“Ooh.” She plucked one from the bag. “God, it’s been so long since I’ve had a pear, even before all of this happened. You don’t really think about them much. Pears.”
“I…guess you’re right,” I decided. “Pears, huh?”
She laughed a little. “Cmon,” she said. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Honestly, at the time, I didn’t even question it. She seemed happy, so I was happy, and I let her lead me through the trees without so much as a second thought.
I hadn’t even thought about how…sudden it all was. Just the day before, she’d been in too much distress to even talk to me.
We walked through the forest. It was dark, in some sections more than others, but she held my hand and guided me. My eyes aren’t the best, so maybe that had something to do with it, and looking back I wonder if I could’ve seen something if I’d really been looking.
As it was, I didn’t think anything was off until we were well deep into the forest, and the casual banter began to give way to silence.
Finally, I began to feel like something was off.
“Hey, Anna…? Where are we going?”
“What?” She glanced at me, skittish, and the weird feeling in my stomach grew even weirder.
“Where are we going?” I repeated.
“Nowhere—”
Obviously that tone didn’t convince me. I went to pull my hand out of her grip but she was too quick, tightening her hand around me like a vice. She glanced at me again, and I saw something in her eyes that was akin to…desperation? Mania?
I realised, then, what was happening.
“Anna, no—”
I tried again to pull my hand free, to no avail. Her nails dug into my skin and she dragged me forwards more forcefully. If I’d been smarter, maybe I’d have thought my actions through more. If I’d been smarter, maybe this wouldn’t have been happening at all.
But I wasn’t smarter, and this was happening.
I felt desperation building in me, and I lashed out at her wrist, karate-chopping it with every bit of strength I could muster. Anna cried out, hand going slack for barely a second.
It was all I needed. I yanked myself out of her grip and started to run, back the way I thought we’d came.
I had to get away, had to run—I could apologise to Anna later, when she was feeling herself again, but for now, I had to run. The dirt slammed beneath my feet and my breath scraped up my throat as I ran away from my childhood friend.
Then something hit me from behind, sending me falling to the ground with a cry. My nails scraped in the dirt as I struggled to get up, but I realised quickly that something was on top of me. Anna was on top of me.
I bucked a little in an attempt to dislodge her. A second later, thick web began to be pulled around my body, and struggling became harder.
That’s when the panic really set in. I thrashed and thrashed as Anna sat on my back and held me down with webs and her unexpectedly firm seat.
She wasn’t herself. She couldn’t fight it anymore, and that was the worst part: I couldn’t even blame her. I felt sorry for her, because at the end of the day, she was just as much of a victim as me. More, even; she’d already lost her fight.
Maybe she just…didn’t want to be alone.
The fight drained from my body, and I went limp under Anna’s weight. I felt her hands press against my back as she leaned forwards, felt her breath against my neck.
“Anna,” I choked out. “I…I understand.”
She went very still, then.
“It’s…it’s okay.” It was a lie; I was scared out of my mind, and all I could wonder was will it hurt? But she didn’t have control over herself, and the last thing I wanted was for her to blame herself. “I understand.”
A strangled noise came out of her, and a dam of some kind broke. Anna started sobbing, head pressed against my back and spider legs dug into the ground. Her knees relaxed against me, seat loosening, but she stayed there and held me as she cried.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said again, and meant it more this time. “You’re okay.”
Her weight shifted as she shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was small and broken.
“I was so tired,” she whimpered. “I just want the voice to go away. I don’t want to be alone.”
I twisted to look up at her, meeting her teary-eyed gaze. Her hands trembled against my back.
“I just want to be me again,” she whispered. She finally got off my back, lying in the grass beside me.
I reached out, gently brushing a strand of hair back from her face and shuffling closer. I smiled at her, as soft as I could manage, and tried to calm my racing heart.
“I know,” I murmured.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, and when her voice broke on the words, I reached out to her. I held her tight, and she held me back with all those strange legs that didn’t feel strange anymore, pressing her watery eyes against my shoulder, sniffling into my shirt.
I was completely covered in dirt and grass and tears and sweat, but I didn’t mind. Lying in the grass with her, I just felt relieved. We’d both survived an incident, and we’d made it out unscathed. That sounded like a win.
“…James,” she said suddenly, wrenching herself from my grip. “James, you need to go.”
“What?”
When I looked at her, I saw desperation in her eyes, alongside a deep, primal fear. “You need to go—”
“Anna, what’s wrong?” I asked her. I was starting to feel scared, too.
“Leave me!”
“What? No, it’s okay—Anna, it’s alright,” I started, but Anna shook her head so violently it cut me off. Her eyes were wide as saucers and she tried to pull me to my feet, only succeeding in dragging me half a foot before I slipped from her grip. “It’s okay—”
“No, it’s not. It’s not okay, James, you need to run.”
“I’m not leaving you here!” I protested. I didn’t know what she was so afraid of, but I wasn’t just going to leave her here to face it without me. We were a team, weren’t we? At least I’d thought so.
“It sees you, James!” she finally got out. “It sees you, and it wants you, it doesn’t want me—!”
Finally, the fear kicked in. It. The voice she heard? The spiders? What was it? I didn’t know, and didn’t want it to get me, and I realised all of a sudden that I should’ve listened to Anna the first time she said to run.
I scrambled to my feet and began to run, before skidding to a complete halt only seconds later.
There was a wall of spiders in the forest.
I mean that literally; they crawled over the trees, over the ground, over the leaves. They were pressed so tightly together to form a thick black barrier that moved, weaving a thick silk net as they went.
“No!” Anna yelled. “Back down! I command you to back down!”
The spiders didn’t listen.
When they saw me, they skittering grew louder, and I wheeled back around only to find the same thing on the other side. A quick glance told me that the spiders were quickly moving everywhere, except for one specific section of trees.
The wall was closing in. There was little choice but to follow the path they’d left for us.
“Anna,” I said. “We’re a team, right?”
“What?”
“Are we a team?”
“I mean, I guess? Is it really the time?”
I nodded, reaching for her hand even as I stepped away from the writhing mass of spiders. “Then whatever we’re heading to, we’ll do it together. Right?”
I looked at Anna, and I saw her gaze sharpen into one of determination. I knew she was with me. No matter what happens, and no matter what I am on the other side of this, I won’t be alone.
We won’t be alone.
“Right,” Anna said. “That’s right.”
I gave her hand a squeeze, and she squeezed back. I began to walk forwards, onto the path laid out for us.
The spiders did not approach us as we walked. They formed their awful, scuttling wall, and stayed like that. They didn’t budge, even when Anna tried to stick her hand through. More spiders simply filled in any place where her hand cleared, crawling along her skin in a way that made my own skin feel crawly.
Finally, the path led to a large, gnarled tree with a hole in the trunk. It was covered in spider webs, and far bigger than any tree I’d ever seen. The hole was big enough for an elephant, and we didn’t even have to duck as we headed inside.
I felt Anna’s hand gripped around my wrist, but I knew she wasn’t leading me anywhere this time. She was just scared, that was all. I was scared, too.
The path went down, and down, and down. There was no option to back out; the spiders made sure of that. So we progressed onwards through the gloom, tunnels lit only in sections by light sources I couldn’t quite make out. They looked like…maybe sconces? But they were wrapped in web, and the light flickered so dimly I could barely see.
The deeper we were, the more afraid I felt. I was sure by that point that if I came back out of there, I wouldn’t be doing it as a human.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Finally, the cave opened up, and in the low light of a hundred tiny sources I saw it.
The spider sat in the middle of the cave, staring down at us. It was massive, its gargantuan body swollen and bulging and far bigger than I was. It was so big, in fact, that I didn’t see the human torso attached to it for far longer than you’d expect.
The body was that of a man, I thought, though it was hard to tell through all the dirt, webbing and spiders. Its many eyes glowed a deep red as it stared down at us, and I felt every hair on my body stand on end.
Anna stepped forwards, letting go of my hand. I could see her trembling, but her voice was steady when she spoke.
“Let us go!” she demanded. “You have taken enough!”
When it spoke, I felt the words more than I heard them.
You are free to leave. You know that.
Anna looked pained. If she’d told the spiders to let her pass, would they have?
Take it, it said, then. It is your prey.
Its eyes flicked to Anna, then back to me.
Is that what I was? Anna’s prey? This thing certainly seemed to think so, and somewhere deep inside me, I almost thought so, too. Like I was just waiting to be ensnared.
In the moment, I wouldn’t have blamed her even if she had done it. But instead, she took another step forwards and lifted her chin. “I don’t want that. Let him go.”
Its eyes flashed, and I saw a barely concealed anger in them.
Was it not enough for you to kill the child? You wish to rob yourself of this one, too?
Anna blanched, and I cringed.
I thought of the fire, the one Anna told me she’d set. I’d thought of how guilty she’d always felt about her sister’s death, even before the spiders.
This thing…it knew exactly what to say to hurt her.
Anna’s expression was crumbling fast, but she still had enough fight in her to stand up straighter, facing the creature head on.
“What happened to Tilly was not my fault, you hear me? Not my fault!”
Wasn’t it? It sounded smug, and crooning, and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. You didn’t come for her. We did, and we made her happy. She wanted to share that joy with you, and you killed her.
Don’t try and claim otherwise; you set that fire. You knew what you meant to do.
“Then—then why didn’t you save her?” Anna burst out, stepping forwards again, hands balled into fists. “The spiders dragged me free from the fire, but not her; why?”
She was…unnecessary.
The words weren’t even fully spoken before Anna snapped. She let out a scream, face contorting, and she ran the last few steps towards the monster, fist raised as though she was planning to punch it.
With a flick of the monster’s many legs, webs tightened around Anna. It happened so fast I could barely see it; she was there, then she wasn’t, bound against the wall with thick silver threads. It covered her legs and arms, and wrapped tight around her torso and mouth. There was a muffled noise as Anna tried to scream.
“Anna!” I cried out.
I regretted speaking as soon as I did. No sooner than the words left my mouth than the creature’s head snapped back around to me, many eyes dragged up and down my body as though surveying prey.
Fine, it said, through what sounded like gritted teeth. If you won’t claim your prey…I will.
Anna protested more at this, writhing and trying to yell through her gag. The spider stepped towards me, legs clattering against the ground, and I found myself frozen with panic. I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to get out of this and help Anna and—god, it had to stop, that thing had to die—
And then I remembered something.
“Wait,” I said. My voice was steadier than I expected it to be. “Just a moment.”
Miraculously…it did wait.
I nodded, taking a shaky step towards it myself. “There’s no need for that.” My voice sounded far calmer and friendlier than I felt; that was good. I needed that.
“You don’t need to capture me,” I continued. “I’ll do it willingly.”
Anna protested louder at this, and I glanced at her.
“Sorry,” I said, a bit sheepish. “I didn’t mean to make your efforts meaningless. I’m just…tired of fighting, you know? And hey; at least we won’t be alone.”
Anna writhed furiously, and I winced.
Sorry, Anna, I thought. You’ll understand soon, I promise.
The spider began to laugh. It was a deep, throaty laugh that echoed through its body and over the walls of the cave. It peered at me with a smirk, and looked back to Anna again.
You see, Anna? the monster said. This one knows how to behave.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I don’t want to fight something meaningless, you know. So—so yeah, spiders. Just. Is there a process for this? Do I come to you?”
It laughed again, louder this time. Yes, it got out between bellows. Come to me.
So…I did. I stepped forwards towards the spider until I was right next to it, staring up at its colossal abdomen and smaller, more human body.
Its human parts looked…young. No older than me, probably.
“What are you?” I asked softly.
I am the one who transforms you, it said.
Then, like a bird feeding its young, the monster leaned forwards, opening its mouth to let forth a torrent of spiders.
They pooled from its mouth, its eyes, its nose, falling in black writhing waves that I saw for only a split second before it hit me. In an instant, they were crawling for my own orifices, forcing their way into my mouth and nose in a choking wave that made me gag.
In that moment, I lunged, swiss army knife in my hand.
I could feel the spiders crawling on me, into me, but I didn’t slow down. I plunged the blade of my knife deep into its stomach and I ran; not away from the spider, but towards it, splitting open its belly with my movements and drenching me in its blood.
A crimson wave washed over me, mixing with the spiders and sweat and dirt on my skin, and the monster screamed a guttural, awful scream that I felt in my throat. Its words slurred together—what have you done and you disgusting— and you can’t do this—but it was too late, it was done, and I ran to Anna’s side as the monster fell to the floor.
I was able to cut her free just before the spiders washed over me again, knocking the knife from my hand and sending me screaming to the floor. I couldn’t hold back the noise anymore as they flowed over and through me, choking me, pulling at me, biting, and I screamed until the spiders in my throat stopped any noise escaping.
“Stop!” Anna screamed. I felt her hands on me, brushing and crushing away spiders as she tried desperately to help me. “Stop, leave him alone! I—I command you—!”
And…miraculously, they did. As quickly as they’d came, the spiders flowed back out of me, crawling out of my throat and out of my nose, making their way out from under my eyelids and into the corner Anna was pointing to with one clawed, shaking finger until finally, finally, I couldn’t feel them on or inside me anymore.
I coughed and gagged, trying to get the feeling out of my mind. Anna held onto me as I heaved up what little food I had in me onto the cave floor.
“It’s okay,” she said desperately. “It’s okay, James, it’s dead—you killed it. James, you killed it.”
I managed to glance weakly at her in between retches. “Is—is it?” I got out.
“Yes.” Her voice was choked, and I could see her trying not to cry. “Yes, James, you did it. I can’t feel it in my mind anymore. You saved me.”
“That’s…that’s good.”
She half-laughed, half-sobbed. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. That’s really good.”
It was good. It was dead, and Anna was safe, so— “Why…are you crying…?”
Anna took a big, shaking breath. She held me, lying me down so my head was on her lap and I was staring up at her. She felt so warm.
“I don’t know if I got them away in time,” she admitted. “I don’t know if they’d already changed you, I’m sorry.”
“Oh,” I said. “Oh.”
I didn’t feel any different. I felt no changes, no crawling inside me…no pain in my gums or back like she said she’d felt. Did that mean I was safe? Or did that just mean it hadn’t kicked in yet?
“I’m sorry,” she says again, voice breaking. “I’m so sorry.”
I couldn’t say ‘it’s okay’, no matter how much I wanted to. It wasn’t her fault, but it wasn’t okay, either. I didn’t feel okay.
Instead, I said, “Can…we go back now? To your web?”
She gently pressed her lips to my forehead, and stroked a strand of bloodied hair away from my face. It felt…nice. Made me feel less alone in all this…because I wasn’t alone. Wasn’t that the whole point?
“Yeah,” she said gently. “Yeah, we can go back.”
She stood, and helped me to my feet. We were both shaking as we went to inspect the giant spider that ruined our lives.
It lay there, motionless and bloodied on the cave floor. Its guts lay on the floor where I’d slashed them open, and the sight alone almost made me gag. It was already going pale, and I could see its wide, lifeless eyes staring into nothingness. It was well and truly dead.
The spiders guided us back to Anna’s clearing. They didn’t bother me at all, for their part, though I couldn’t tell if that was because of me or Anna. I didn’t like to look at them, though. Every time I saw one of them, I felt as though they were on my skin again, crawling down my throat.
I dragged myself back to my house eventually. Anna came with me, though only after I very thoroughly assured her that no one would be around to see her. She’s with me even now.
We don’t know if I’m…okay. I’ve read through Anna’s story, and I don’t feel what she felt before she turned, but we both agree that I took in far less spiders than she did.
It’s possible that they didn’t finish…changing me, I guess. Or it’s possible that it’s just taking longer. I do feel a little itchy, but that could just be in my head. I’m a bit sore, but that’s probably just from the ordeal.
I don’t feel like I’m becoming a spider, but how would I know that for sure?
Either way, I’m staying with Anna for a bit. We both agree it’s for the best, at least until we’ve figured out whether I’m turning. If I’m alright, we’ll go back to our previous arrangement, and if not…well, Anna’s said there’s room in her nest for two, so that’s nice.
Anna wanted to apologise, too, to anyone who might have read her story, and to anyone else out there who might be able to hear it. She’s sorry about Tilly, and about lying by accident. She’s sorry about being alive.
I wish she wasn’t sorry about being alive, but we’re working on it. It’s been nice to talk to her again, after all this time.
No matter what happens, I think we’ll be alright. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, being a spider.
Because I know that somewhere, deep into the forest, that monster’s corpse is rotting away to nothing. We’ve made things better; be it just for us, or for some other spiders out there.
I did that.
I know we’ll be alright.