Venge The spiders streamed from the bulbous sac fixed on their mother's abdomen, a malignant torrent of teeming creatures, each one hardly bigger than a grain of sand. Yet when they were together, running over one another and winding past each other, they seemed to carry a lot of menace, almost as if in their large numbers they were able to consume anything; simply swarming over their prey and devouring it. They quickly pattered beneath the floorboards, scurrying across the dank wood, exploring their new environment; relishing their newfound freedom. After a few minutes of incessant exploration the baby spiders settled in a corner, huddled together; an undulating puddle with ripples here and there as spiders clambered across one another. The mother, her egg sac now wilted after her babies pilgrimage, looked at her offspring, content that they were safe for the moment. She scuttled over the rotten floor to the wall, intent on hunting to feed her newborns. She scaled the wall and slipped through a gap between the floorboards, now entering the world above. Her many eyes took in the familiar scene that lay before her. A gargantuan brown surface with huge black towers that was in fact a desk was directly in front of her. To her right was an engulfing upright brown slab, albeit one that the spider could slip under, that was a door. There was another giant structure to her left, one of many shapes and colours. It was Sean's bed. For the spider it was another place that sanctuary could be found in; another place to scuttle into when danger lurked. It was also a place for food to be found. Two of her eyes picked up a sluggish movement from under the bed, and the spider turned to see a woodlouse slowly crawling along the floor, snuffling as it searched for food. The spider froze. She knew how nervous woodlice were; how wary of predators they were. The attack would have to be quick. She wanted to feed her young as soon as possible. She wanted them to be strong from the start, so they had the best chance of survival in life. She studied the woodlouse, waiting for it to turn it's attention to something that would distract it for long enough. There it was. The woodlouse turned it's back to the spider as it started to nibble on a biscuit crumb. The spider seized the opportunity and tensed her muscles. Suddenly she darted forward, her intention of keeping her young alive driving her to succeed in her hunt. The woodlouse sensed movement behind it, and bolted, fearing for its safety. The woodlouse was sluggish in its attempt to be safe, and soon the spider was under the bed and had leapt upon the woodlouse's back. The woodlouse struggled and writhed but the spider wrapped its many legs around the woodlouse; craving to kill. The spider then reared her head and hissed, a cry of victory, and then plunged her fangs into the woodlouse and released the toxic venom into its bloodstream. The woodlouse was plagued with a series of contortions, jerky and spasmodic, until finally it collapsed onto its stomach. The spider slowly and triumphantly clambered off of the dead woodlouse. She clamped on to one of the woodlouse's legs with her mouth and dragged her quarry over to the gap in the floorboard, placing it perfectly so that it would drop near her babies. She then pushed the woodlouse through the gap, watching nonchalantly as it plunged into the spider-infested abyss below. When the woodlouse thudded against the floor below the spider quickly crawled through the gap, scuttled down the wall and stopped when she reached the floor. Her children had spread out, no longer huddled together in the corner but now dispersed over the whole floor. They created a sea of writhing bodies, pushing against each other and scuttling to and fro. The mother called to her young, a high pitched screech that was barely audible. Her young instantly jerked their heads towards their mother, the cry stirring up primitive emotions built in to their souls. They knew the cry meant food, and they craved nourishment. They scurried as a collective force towards their mother. She waited for them to reach her with anticipation, hopeful that there was enough food for all of them. When they approached the mother, the lust for food now climaxing, she turned to the bedraggled woodlouse and promptly ripped a chunk of flesh from it's body and flung it into the crowd of infants. The spiders nearest the meat squeaked in delight, clambering onto it and beginning their feast. The many who weren't able to receive food squealed in protest, but were soon soothed as another piece of raw flesh was hurled their way. As it flew over their heads they scurried after it. As more and more hunks of woodlouse were thrown into the mass of spiders, they created a pool of jubilant creatures, feasting on meat zealously. The mother perspicaciously remained there, proud. Sean trudged home from school wearily, thoughts of playing guitar the only thing on his mind, wanting to perfect his skills so that his band could prosper from them. His day at school had been extremely unproductive; his day consisting of not paying attention in any lessons and constantly talking. He had received two detentions that day, one for not doing his Maths homework and the other for talking in Music. His music teacher seemed to have an unwarranted hate for Sean. The feeling was more than mutual. Sean's music teacher, Mrs Neilson, had instantly disliked Sean since the beginning of Year 10, when Sean had been the only student in the class who knew what syncopated chords were. Sean was good at music. Mrs Neilsen knew it. Sean knew it. But Sean wasn't boastful about it. He just got on with his work as well as he could. Unfortunately, as Mrs Neilsen didn't like Sean, she would punish him whenever possible. Sometimes Sean didn't mind that much, sometimes he found it quite funny. Sometimes it seemed as though she was jealous of Sean's musical prowess. The wind blew through Sean's shortly cropped hair, weaving in and out playfully. He relished the feeling of the cool breeze against him, cooling him kindly after a hard day at school. He diverted his thoughts away from guitar and to tidying his room, as he was now approaching his house and he remembered his Dad's threat to ground him if he didn't tidy his room. Sean hurried his steps, this rememberance spurring him into action. He turned off of Pearl Road onto his street, Sunningdale Crescent, thinking about getting home so that he could avoid his punishment. When Sean reached his house he quickly walked down the sloped tarmac driveway and rung the doorbell on the pale green front door. His little sister, Susanne, greeted Sean when she opened the door to see him standing there. 'Hi Sean.' Susanne said with a broad smile on her face. 'Hey.' Sean replied, already through the doorway and brushing past his sister. 'Good day?' 'Yeah, okay.' said Sean blankly, now on the stairs to his bedroom. He didn't have a very good relationship with Susanne; they often got on each others nerves and sometimes Sean resented her with a passion that was unrivaled by any other feelings Sean had. Sean hated the way she would try and blackmail him with certain little details she would find out about him, like when he stole some of his Dad's pot and swapped it at school with his friend for some skateboard wheels. He hated her shoulder length hair, her freckled face and her annoying voice. Sean dropped his bag on the floor at the top of the stairs and walked along the hallway to his room. before he got there he opened the door to his older sister's room on his right, sticking his head through the doorway. In there was his sister, Sabrina, and her boyfriend Wayne. They were huddled together under the covers of her bed, the curtains drawn, watching a film together. Sabrina was seventeen and studying her A levels at college. She was slightly small for her age, about five foot six, with long dark brown hair drawn back into a ponytail. Wayne on the other hand was a giant. He was about six foot two and quite muscular. He also had a shaven head, a thin layer of black hair the only protection his scalp offered against the elements. Despite his appearance though, he never gave the impression of being menacing as his smile was warm and welcoming. 'Sean! Can you leave us alone please!' Sabrina said, slightly peeved that their privacy had been interrupted. 'Yeah, sorry. Just popped in to say hi.' Sean explained. 'Okay, hi Sean. Now you can go.' Sabrina wearily retorted. 'See ya Sabrina, See ya Wayne.' 'See ya.' Wayne replied as Sean closed the door. Sean left the two of them, turned around to face his bedroom door and entered his room. 'Chummy!' Sean cried, outraged. His dog Chummy, a small Yorkshire terrier with wiry black fur, was curled up on the floor, pieces of white flaked skin littered around him. Chummy had a skin condition and whenever he scratched he would shed his dry skin onto the floor. Sean always shut his door so that Chummy couldn't get in, but someone must've been in his room. Probably Susanne. Sean thought to himself. Probably listening to my CD's again. 'Out Chummy!' Sean ordered, pointing to the open doorway. Chummy looked mournful as he left the room. Sean hurriedly hoovered all the husky skin from his floor and piled all the books and guitar tabs under his bed. He looked down at his bare floorboards and tutted to himself. He would have to get his Dad to buy some carpet to put down in here. Satisfied that his room was tidy enough to scrape past the punishment, Sean plugged his guitar, a black Ibanez Roadster, into his ten watt amp. He had only jammed through a few of his own riffs to warm up when Susanne burst through the door. 'What do you want Susanne?' Sean cried. 'Dad told me to tell you that him and Mum are going out with Peter tonight, and they won't be back until gone midnight. You're not aloud to go out, or have any friends in.' Susanne said, then retreated back through the doorway and shut the door. Sean resumed playing guitar, but only got halfway through playing a minor scale when Sabrina slowly opened the door. 'What do you want Sab?' 'I just popped in to let you know Sean.' 'Let me know what?' Sean interrupted. 'Me and Wayne are going to the cinema now, and I'm sleeping round Wayne's afterwards. Tell Dad when he gets home that I'll be back at about nine tomorrow morning.' 'Yep. I will.' 'Thanks man. See ya tomorrow.' 'Yeah, have fun.' Sean said as his sister left his room. Sean continued to play guitar quietly until he heard the door slam shut, and the familiar sound of Wayne's small white Fiesta starting could be heard through Sean's open window. Then Sean leapt up from his sitting position on his bed, left his room and entered Sabrina and Susanne's room. It was quite spacious with two single beds situated at each end of the bedroom, jammed up against the walls; leaving a large space in the middle of the room. To Sean's left was a desk with a shelf above it. On the shelf were many X-Files videos, and on the desk was Sabrina's schoolwork and her CD player. Sean snatched the CD player by its handle and lifted it from the desk, only to find that it was still plugged in when he tried to walk away and there was a sudden jerk. He grumbled to himself as he removed the plug from the socket behind the desk, and then he walked into his room with Sabrina's CD player. He placed it on his bed and plugged it into the socket at the bottom of the wall. He then got up and walked over to his desk that was just past his bed, the two seperated by a small wall extension. On Sean's desk was a small pile of CD's. Sean pondered over which one he was going to listen to, then decided to listen to his Slipknot CD. He walked back over to the CD player clutching his CD, and when he arrived at the CD player he took the CD out and put it in, instantly pressing play and skipping the first track. Sean sat down on his bed again, nodding his head in time with the music that blared out. 'Sean! Turn that fucking music down now!' Came his Dad's cry from downstairs, a rich Newcastle accent. 'Okay Dad.' Sean answered, reaching for the volume knob, not wanting to anger his Dad. 'And you'd better have tidied that fucking room of yours boy!' 'I have Dad, you can come up and look if you want.' 'Ay, I don't think so lad. Me and your Mum are off now. I don't want any trouble like, 'cos there'll be hell to pay. Right?' 'Yep.' Sean agreed. 'Alright then, see ya later.' 'See ya Dad.' Sean sat on his bed sliently for a few minutes, awaiting the special sound that meant he could do what he wanted in the house. A shrill taxi horn sounded outside, and he breathed out, releasing all the anticipation he had built up. He heard his Mum and Dad leave the front door, and once he heard the engine getting fainter and fainter, now only a distant cry, he turned the CD player nearly on the highest volume. He lay down on his bed with a grin of satisfaction. After listening to his CD for about half an hour Sean became bored, and so turned the CD off and left his room. His feet lightly patted along the red hallway carpet, but once he got to his stairs, he thundered down them. Sean turned left at the foot of his stairs, and swiftly marched through to his kitchen. He perched on one of the kitchen surfaces, thinking about what he was going to eat. After a few minutes he decided on crumpets with melted cheese on top. Sean found the crumpets in one of the cupboards on the wall, and put two of them under the grill to cook them first before he put the cheese on. He switched the grill on, and while the crumpets cooked Sean took the slab of Cheddar from his fridge and put it on one of the work surfaces. He searched for knife in the drawer directly under the work surface and his hand emerged clasping a large knife with one blade that had small jagged teeth on it and one clean, sharp blade. Sean cut three thin slices of cheese on the large brown surface and when the first sides of the crumpets had turned a deep brown he turned them over to cook the other sides. While Sean waited for the other sides to cook he looked around his kitchen. The floor was a creamy colour, as were the walls. There were many cupboards on the walls, containing various pots, pans, bowls, plates and cups. At one end was the door leading into the hallway, and directly at the other end was the grill and oven, cupboards on either side of them. The fridge was to the right of the door, and to the right of the fridge was the door leading to a small hall that contained a second bathroom and the back door. There were two worksurfaces: one stretching from near the fridge all the way to the oven and grill, and then continuing past the grill til it reached the wall; the other surface started near the kitchen door and finished when it got to the door that lead to the dining room. Under the worksurfaces were many cupboards. Some were nailed up and didn't contain anything, others had tools in, some had food and drink. The smell of toasted crumpet glided slowly into Sean's nostrils, and Sean worriedly looked at the crumpets. Luckily they weren't burned, but were just right, the edges a very dark brown, and the middles were golden. Sean removed the tray from under the grill and grabbed the cheese slices, breaking them up as he walked back to the crumpets. He put as much cheese as he could fit on the crumpets, and ate the rest, his appetite craving for food. He put the crumpets back under the grill and it wasn't long before the cheese was frantically bubbling, the smell strong and drifting lazily through the air. Sean turned the grill off and opened the cupboard below and to the right of the oven, grabbing the first plate he saw. It was a large dinner plate, with a blue pattern travelling round the edge. Sean put the plate on one of the cooker's gas rings, and quickly put the crumpets on the plate, wincing from the heat when he carried them. Sean walked out of the kitchen and rushed upstairs with the plate, staring down in disgust when he entered his room. In the middle of Sean's carpet sat a spider, one with a drooping pink sac at the end of its abdomen, a fat black body and scrawny yet powerful legs. Sean hated spiders. The way they scuttled around evilly. Their eight dangly legs that thrashed about when you picked them up. The menacing air they carried around with them. Sean reached across to his desk and put his plate down, watching the spider all the while. Making sure it didn't escape. Sean looked around his room for something to kill it with. He saw one of his trainers by his bed, but if he attempted to grab it then the spider would scurry away, for the spider lay between Sean and the shoe. If only Sean could find his other shoe then he could get rid of this intruder. Sean glanced around him, and he saw his other shoe to his right, about two feet away. He slowly crouched down, not wanting to scare the spider away with any sudden movements, and reached across the floor. The shoe was just a few centimetres out of his reach, and Sean strained his legs to make the gap, but strained too much and fell down, colliding heavily with the wooden floor. Sean quickly grabbed the shoe and turned onto his side, ready to throw the shoe, but the spider had gone. Sean got to his feet in a rush and scanned his room. It wasn't on the floor. Not on his desk. It wasn't on his chest of drawers. Sean walked over to his bed, stepping carefully over the other shoe. The shoe. He thought to himself. It must have crawled under the shoe. Sean raised the shoe he held in his hand, ready to strike, and lifted the other shoe from the floor into the air. The spider wasn't there. Only the floorboards. The floorboards. It must have gone through the gap. What if there's more of them? Sean asked himself, shuddering at the prospect of more of those things. Sean put both the shoes on the floor and laid down on the floor in a press-up position, peering through a gap in the floorboards. He couldn't see anything; it was too dark down there. While Sean was looking through the floorboards, the spider slowly clambered out of the shoe and looked for something to hide in, or somewhere to run. She turned around and saw a large shape on the floor, many strange colours. Seeing it as a good place to find safety, the spider approached Sean's arm. Deciding that it was safe, the spider shot across the floor and up Sean's arm, stopping at the sleeve, unsure of what this new obstacle was. Sean felt a light tickle on his arm, tiny pinpricks going up to his sleeve and stopping. Sean curiously turned his head and swung his arm across so he could see it. The spider that he had been looking for was perched on his arm, silent and stealthy, like a ninja. Sean cried out in shock and got to his knees, wildly swinging his arm in an attempt to shake the spider off, but it was to no avail. The spider remained on his arm, undeterred by Sean's actions. The sight of the spider still there evoked more fear into Sean, and he simply stared at it in fright until it began to crawl over his sleeve and towards his shoulders. Sean instantly brought his hand up to the climbing arachnid and flicked it off, shaking his hand in disgust as the spider hurtled through the air. It landed on Sean's bed and remained still, slightly injured and very scared. Sean saw that it wasn't moving and slowly made his way over to the bed, scared that the spider might burst into action at any moment. The spider remained stationary. Sean quickly turned around, stooped over and grabbed a shoe. He turned back to the spider and saw that it was stirring, so he raised the shoe into the air and pounded it into the spider. The spider wasn't killed as it was merely squashed against the springy bed. It was severely injured though, and could barely move. Sean gingerly poked the spider with the shoe, and saw that it was still alive. He batted it softly onto the floor with the shoe, and then brought the shoe down onto it, crushing it into the floor, the shoe plastered with fragments of the spider. Below the floor, thousands of babies looked up and sensed something was wrong. A thunderous noise made them flinch, and pieces of skin and juices sprayed down onto them. Then the limp, wasted body of their mother slipped through the gap and fell onto them, sending them wild. They knew it was their mother by the scent, and they knew something had just killed her. They became a seething mass of rage, rampaging over each other, some so infuriated that they attacked their siblings; clamping their jaws into each other. Eventually they calmed down, settled into a wide carpet on the floor, and the eyes looked away from the gore on the ground. The thousands of eyes looked upwards through the gap, evil intent clouding their thoughts. Sean looked smugly at the mess on the floor, and figured that he should clean it up. He left his room and went to the bathroom, grabbing some toilet paper then quickly leaving. When he returned he walked over to the wet stains, knelt down and began to scrub them with a bunched up piece of toilet paper. He started slowly but gradually quickened his pace, and eventually he was furiously mopping the stickiness up. Every few seconds he would lift the toilet paper and inspect the disappearing marks underneath, until eventually there was a single dark smear on his floor. Sastisfied with how much he had cleaned, Sean stood up, turned around and left his room. He was on his way to the bathroom to dispose of the bloodied toilet paper, but had a better idea when he saw Susanne standing at the top of the stairs. A cunning grin stretching Sean's features, he casually walked over to Susanne with the hand clutching the toilet paper in his pocket. Susanne was about to walk down the stairs when Sean cried out to her, hoping to distract her. 'Hey Susanne, have you seen my lunchbox?' Sean questioned, his hand already withdrawing from his pocket, ready to attack and humiliate. 'No, but it'll probably be in your bag won't it?' 'Oh yeah.' Sean placidly answered, now ready to strike. Suddenly, Sean's hand shot out from the rest of his pocket and he leapt forward to close the two metre gap between him and Susanne. Before his feet touched the floor, his outstretched hand had reached Susanne's unsuspecting face, and the toilet paper was smeared across her features. When the toilet paper left her face, leaving a thick red and brown stripe, her face contorted into a look of disgust. 'Sean, what the fuck was that?' Came the ensuing scream. 'Ha, ha! That was a squashed spider!' Sean gleefully cackled. 'You'd better be joking Sean.' 'Take a look in the mirror if you don't believe me!' Sean ecstatically stated. Instead of going to the bathroom and looking in the mirror, Susanne put her hand to her cheek, and when she felt a stickiness there she pulled her hand away. looking at her palm, Susanne saw a dark, viscous liquid there, reddish-brown in colour. Susanne's eyebrows rose for a second, before lowering substantially when she looked back at Sean. 'You bastard!' She exclaimed, then began to advance on him. Sean laughed loudly at her and then ran into his room, leaning against the door so Susanne couldn't get in. Susanne went to the bathroom and washed her face with soap and a flannel, and then went downstairs. Sean waited for her footfalls to get fainter and fainter before sitting down on his bed and playing guitar again. After a while, about forty minutes, Sean got bored of playing guitar and decided he was going to go to bed soon. He got up from his bed and closed the curtains that were situated to his right, then walked to the other side of the room and flicked the light switch to his right, the artificial light illuminating the room coldly. Sean left his room and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. After cleaning his teeth thoroughly, Sean quietly went back to his room, took of his shirt and trousers, and got into bed. He read a book for a few minutes, then found that he was too tired to carry on. He folded the bottom corner of the page inwards as a makeshift bookmark and left his bed to turn the light off. As he got back in his cozy bed, surrounded by enveloping darkness, he emitted a lazy yawn. He peacefully laid his head on his pillow, unaware that below his feet an army were preparing for an attack. Sean rolled over in his bed with a small groan, wondering what had woken him. He sat up in the dark and wearily rubbed his face, when he felt a small tickle on his foot. Sean moved his leg, and edged backwards when his feet brushed against hundreds of small shapes under his covers. He wondered what the hell they were, when a small but sharp pain in his left leg caused him to yell out loud. Now slightly scared, Sean shifted to his left, towards the side of the bed that he could get out from. Before he could get out from under the covers though, he felt many small tickles, making their way up his leg. In a blind panic he rolled out of his bed, but as he was rolling one of his hands grabbed the cover, and when his stomach hit the floor he struggled amongst a mass of covers and small, darting shapes. As Sean moved his arm across the floor, he felt minute pin-pricks flowing over his hand. He yelped and threw his hand into the air. This sent some of the small creatures flying into the air, their limbs jerking frantically, and a few landed on the back of Sean's head. They ran through Sean's hair, and Sean beat at them with his hands. When a swarm of the tiny menaces surged up Sean's leg and stopped at his thigh, biting into his soft flesh, Sean pushed himself to his knees and began to slap at his legs. When he'd dislodged them all, he got to his feet and tried to make his way to the door, but the darkness and Sean's panic resulted in Sean colliding with a wall, and he fell backwards onto his covers, the wind knocked out of him. As he lay on his back his stomach was engulfed by a stream of the small creatures, many of them now biting into him, knowing that he was afraid. Their bites were like small pins darting into his skin, but after a few seconds they had drawn blood, and where many of them crawled round a cut, they widened it and deepened it. Sean rolled onto his stomach, hoping to squash them, but they were only pushed against the soft covers. The rest of them, for there were many more, that had silently watched the attack from under the bed noticed the exposed skin now ready, and they raced forward and then Sean's back was crawling with them. He screamed aloud as the pain climaxed, and found that small shapes darted forward and scuttled down his throat, making his stomach heave as they tickled his throat. Sean slowly got to his knees, batting at his stomach and back, but those that were knocked off were replaced by fresh, strong ones who inflicted more pain. The cuts were now deep, and blood flowed from them, working the attackers into more of a frenzy. They crawled into his cuts and ferociously bit into his flesh. This new pain made Sean shout in agony, but this allowed even more of them to enter his mouth. Sean needed to be free of these unwanted attackers, and with a surge of desperation he rose to his feet, swinging wildly at the scuttling shadows as he rose. He staggered over to a wall to his right, hoping to find the light switch. At first he could only find more of the creatures. As his hand swept across the wall, his knees began to sag, the creatures in his legs now reaching his muscles and tendons. Before Sean lost control of his legs, his hand brushed against the light switch, the evil menaces scuttling over it, and he quickly pressed it. All he could see was black. He thought that the sudden glare had stopped him seeing properly for a few seconds, but when his eyes began to get used to the light, he saw that there was only black. Small black spiders covered all of the walls, racing frantically across them. The floor was a carpet of black rage, and the ceiling was swarming with them too, some dropping off onto his head and starting to eat. He noticed that all of the spiders were now collecting into one vast crowd around him. Sean's legs started to jerk, his tendons now being chewed away, and he fell to his knees, landing in the pile of spiders. A few were crushed, and this angered the rest of them even more. Sean could only look around in horror as the crowd grew larger and larger as all the spiders flowed into it. Sean turned around and began to waddle on his knees towrds the door, hoping he could make it. Suddenly he fell face-first towards the floor, his tendons were now completely destroyed, and his hands shot to the floor so he landed in a press-up position. He looked behind him and saw that all the spiders were now together in a circle of pure malevolence, ready to end it. Sean tried to cry out loud as he saw them all rush towards him but all that escaped his lips was a small gurgle; his tongue was just strings of unwanted meat, the spiders now feasting on his throat, clogging his airway. The huge throng of spiders reached him and shot up his body to his face, covering it completely. He closed his eyes to stop them from being eaten, but too late. He closed them just as three spiders got into his right eye, the eyelid keeping them locked in, and they frantically chewed on his eyeball. His lips were now a bloodied mess and more spiders had worked their way into his mouth, blocking up his airway even more. Fortunately one of the spiders tickled the back of his throat enough, and Sean vomited copiously, the spiders thrown from his throat in a gush of sick. It made a thick puddle of vomit and blood on the floor, and the spiders crawled through it, many were trapped under chunks of food and drowned. Sean struggled to move, but couldn't for his muscles were all being attacked. He could only writhe in agony as he was eaten alive. Suddenly Sean's door opened and Susanne's figure blocked the doorway. Sean looked up from the floor and tried once again to scream, but only a faint raspy noise could be heard. Most of the spiders scampered off of Sean and formed a circle around him. Sean moaned incoherently as there were still many spiders inside his body that were nipping away at him, and a few still on the remains of his skin. Susanne looked at Sean, with tears and blood staining his face and sorrow passed through her eyes for a second. Then she slammed the door. The spiders confidently scuttled forward and resumed their attack.
Copyright © 2002 Adam Brelsford |