Spider

Spider

Her name was Ilithis.

Got my day started with the same cup of coffee and bagel I always have, but something felt a bit different today. It's been years since I actually got into costume or partied. It was Halloween night. I thought maybe I should pull out my old robe and makeup and have some fun. Long, flowing black robe I usually use along with the scythe and makeup that scares the hell out of the old people. Going as Death always gave me a kick because anyone over 60 gets this look of horror on their faces. If they believe in the grim reaper, it serves them right for not living life to the point that they are no longer scared of dying. It also allows me to go out commando, naked underneath my robe.

I walked out the door, turned and locked. As I started down the steps to my car, I felt a strange tickle on my legs. I lifted one leg and did a quick scratch and started on down. I kept hearing sounds though, skitters really. Almost metallic but softer. Then I felt a sharp pain on my ankle and things went fuzzy.

That's the last thing I remember before waking up here. Headache. Damn that hurts! Vision blurry, I tried to look around, but I felt myself swimming again and off to sleep I went. Strange dreams. If you have Arachnophobia, you might want to skip this story.

I awoke again sometime later to the sound of tiny screams and the same skittering I had heard before I passed out. My vision was a bit clearer this time around and I almost had a heart attack when I could finally see around me. Let me try to explain. Imagine black widow spiders twice as large as any tarantula you've ever seen, then look over what seems a sea of them in a cavern.

If that isn't bad enough, none of them are biting you. Just making noises and pulsating, constant movement of black. Webs? Yeah. They were all over the room and laying over my body. Of course I froze in place not wanting to agitate. Frozen in fear.

Just as I looked up a bit from my covered body, I saw a great mass of black overhead. Maybe I passed out, or maybe I was bitten again, but I didn't wake again for a long time.

Last time I put this story down, I ended it with, "I never woke." But some people aren't afraid of spiders and kept asking me to finish the story. I really didn't want to. Its a difficult story to put down in words because of the horror.

Remember all those times as a kid when you were in the dark and something in your room you could barely see scared the shit out you? Either you hid under the covers or you got up and turned on the light to see what it was.

I was always the kid that would rather brave the fear to turn on the light. I would rearange whatever it was that looked so sinister so I could turn off the light and go to sleep.

This was that, but there was no light switch. I couldn't move. I was trapped. All I knew was the sound of the skittering, the semi-blackness and the images of dog sized spiders. Thousands of them. The worst was yet to come.

Around me I could see other smaller webs, holding other people. Not all of them were alive. Some were mere bones, some still had flesh but had faces of fear though they had dead eyes. But that vision seemed to stretch on for miles. There must have been thousands of smaller webs, all with some kind of person or animal caught within.

It wasn't until I looked straight up that I realized my worst fears. I could swear it was the size of a house. To this day I have no idea how I got out. Well, I know how, but sheer luck. We'll get to that later.

Like I said, I happened to look up. Not sure where the bit of light came from that illuminated my sight, it was very dim. I guess that made it all the more terrifying, I don't know. I would guess it would be just as bad if you say it under clear blue skies, if it was holding you like meat in a fridge.

The hardest part, and what I really didn't want to have to relive is the way this creature looked. Its one part nightmare, one part sci-fi and one part demon. Obviously a kind of spider or something of that nature. Eight legs at least. The same horrible looking mandibles that could suck the life out of anything.

What was more disturbing was the human torso, the size of the head to match the mandibles and the eyes. I couldn't even draw it if I tried. The stench was something I guess you would expect. When I used to work with pools, there was often times tons of bugs that would get in the filters. I would scoop them out and put them in the trash, but after a few days I found out I could not get close to the trash. Imagine all the dead stuff you put in the garbage, then add a puke factor times ten.

There is no way to tell you how bad that smell is. It was that, plus a bit here. What kept you from throwing up was you fear. Just the fear of what you saw was enough to deaden the sense of smell enough so that you really didn't pay attention to it. Every time that mother of spiders moved, you could hear the creak of her joints. You could hear the screaming sound of her breath. You can't even imagine the horror of hearing her speak. Her trying to use our language was like the ripping apart of babies with the added sounds of confusion and the Thump thump thump I guess of her blood rushing. That was the most scary. That sound was like a clock to my death. Thump Thump Thump...I kept waiting for the clock to run out.

She did manage a few words out of that horrifying mouth of hers. "Youu willth Dies Like zhe otherz..." I really did leave my bowels in my pants at that point. However, why did she talk to me at all? Why bother with my language? I wondered quickly how many of the other people spoke English. Not that it mattered. That thought was just a blink in the eye of forever.

It was enough though to make me think I could plead for my life maybe. So I tried to talk. At first just a squeak. "Please don't eat me", was all I could manage. She just turned that horrible head towards me and stared.

At that point, I thought I had sealed my fate. Just got her attention. I said, "why are you doing this?" I never thought she would hear me or pay attention. But she shouted out with that terror of a voice, "Because I'm angry! And I'm Hungry!!!".

Maybe it was because I was the only one that had the nerve to talk to her or maybe it was because of something else I would never understand, that monster let me go. I was carried back up through the caverns to the surface and left bleeding and smelling like the ass end of a massacre but I was let go.

I will always have nightmares, always wonder if it could happen again, always knowing that she's there somewhere under the earth in some cave just waiting to feed. I will never go camping ever again.

Her name was Ilithis.