The spider backed up and swept Muarice's legs out from under him in the same motion. It started wrapping him up before he could even touch the ground. He flailed against the spider's grip, but his flailing ceased as soon as it punctured him with its stinger and filled his stomach with webs. They spilled out of Muarice in large clumps of messy threads, but the spider wove them into a cocoon as it backpeedled. Muarice regained himself and tried to grab the spider's legs.
The spider noticed quickly how much Maurice was struggling, even if it was futile. It can notice many things with its many eyes. It swiftly bit down on his face; one fang above one eye, another fang below the other. The paralytic seeped into his face immediately. I could tell by the blank look in his wide eyes. Poison straight into his head, filling his skull and drowning his brain. I like to think he couldn't feel what happened next. His insides liquefied into a slush for the arachnid to drink later.
Kalvin and Al stepped up with spears. The spider pulls up another section of web and holds it out in front of itself like a net. The two men strike awkwardly and get their spears stuck in the net. The spider pulls them this way, and that. It wraps the spears up with ease and grace until both sticks are wadded up and thrown aside.
Kalvin was caught off balance, pulled off of his one leg, and thrown to the ground at the spider's feet. The spider backed up on four legs, used its front four legs to pick up the corners of another net, and scoot forward again. It placed the net over Kal and stuck him to the ground with methodical disinterest. It watched the rest of us carefully while it waited for Kalvin to stop struggling. Like an assassin using a pillow to choke someone to death.
Al stood with Kalvin's peg leg in his hand and brought it down on the spider's head. The spider backed down the hallway in an awkward daze, made even more awkward by the long legs shimmying their way through the hall one by one. Al charged it like a barbarian, leaped over the two broken men, and slammed his club into the creature's head again.
The spider's shock had worn off, though, and it refused to be made prey. It picked Al up by the back of the shirt with three legs and pulled him in for a bite. Al came in screaming as he brought the point of the peg leg into the spider's eyes and deep into the cracked skull.
It finally slumped over the three men like a macabre piece of modern art. Its legs kept twitching long after we pulled everyone out of the tunnel.
Maurice died shaking and foaming at the mouth four hours later. We buried him at the bottom of the cliff.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Between Dragons and Giants
Maurice stood tall
the first to heal
but not to fall
his death will be felt by all
YOU ARE READING
Wendigo Island (ONC2024)
HorrorYour greatest fear is monsters in the dark. The last thing you expect is to become the monster in the dark. This story is not about heroes. This story is about ripping away any pretense you have about what it means to be human. At the end of the day...
