The Town Whispers: Season 1

Chapter 16: Echoes of Madness

Before.

He lifted his left foot - it hovered in the air, quivering with adrenaline as it anticipated the fall to the second step.

[Monstrous Spider Scuttling]

His eyes bulged even wider as his eyelids peeled back further in terror -

What.....

Was that?

[Giggling baby]

William.

The baby that was always heard but never seen - William who crawled away and hid under floor boards and behind furniture - William who ensnared Tom's mother... or rather Mildred and his sister... or perhaps not his sister but Peggy who he loved all the same in his desperate trap. William who'd made the LaPonte home his fortress - where he would grow big and fat - his tiny mouth of jagged teeth -

Just,

Watching,

And waiting.

Out from behind the wall separating the front foyer and the staircase from the living room, one giant razor tipped spider leg slowly peaked out and into sight.

It gingerly set down on the wood floor as another curled out sideways quietly stabbing the wall.

Then the third and fourth leg - just as slow as the others crept forward.

Large coarse brown hair stuck out from the joints in the bent limbs like porcupine quills, and then the sickly, mucus dripping mouth and endless eyes peered lidless and twitching.

As the nightmarish arachnid leveled itself - turning to him - Tom stood, eyes nearly popped from his head - and his mouth turned upside down into a silent scream.

The monstrous arachnid lunged at Tom, but stopped just short. It's fangs rubbed against one another like tiny hands eager to make a deal.

The massive thing which confronted Tom raised it's two front legs high above him - as that breathing nightmare leveled its many many eyes with Tom's own.

The fangs stopped their neurotic kneading as they peeled back exposing a beak like orifice underneath

Tom closed his dry eyes - wetting himself

He could feel the breath on his face - he imagined inside that beak were more teeth which wanted to shred him one strip at a time to flay him alive.

[loud giggling]



Peggy standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up only saw her older brother Tom looking down, eyes bursting from their sockets - his mouth in almost cartoonish fright - wetting his pants.

At first she thought he was looking at her, but as she inched closer she could see Tom was...

Not home.

His eyes were fixed and unmoving - standing where she thought he was staring she could see he was looking past it all - that he was somewhere else.

Peggy quietly crept up the stairs and reached with her small soft hand - wrapping it around Tom's which hung at his side.

Surprisingly his fingers slowly gripped and tighten on Peggy's hand. It hurt as the force pushed her knuckles to grind against one another but she swallowed the pain.

It was her turn to be strong

Her turn to protect her brother.

Peggy slowly pulled Tom away from his perch at the top of the staircase looking down - and without forcing - pulled just enough to suggest to Tom's unconscious to follow where it was being led.

It didn't happen at first but his feet began to shuffle as his core instinctually followed the gravity of his sister's pull.

Peggy was patient and kind - lovingly guiding Tom back to the safety and comfort of his bed. She treated him as if he were sleepwalking.

She was aware he'd been staying up the last few nights - she'd heard him pacing in time with William's nightly cries - and assumed exhaustion had finally come for him.

She hoped it was nothing more.

As they reached his room

Peggy lept up onto Tom's bed and dragged his comforter up - rubbing it against his hand and pulling a corner of it up into the crook of his neck.

Hoping much like she had in the hallway to appeal to a part of Tom that might respond.

And once again he did - slowly raising his arms - his fingers grabbed onto the ratty blanket - clawing at it and tying themselves in its folds.

She pressed down on Tom's shoulders and without much hesitation his time he teetered forward and into bed.

And that's where he'd been ever since - watching the spider in the corner of his room fortifying his woven kingdom. Remembering the sound of William's dreadful giggling. 

...

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