The Girl Who Cried Dauntless

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Arachnophobia

I was acutely aware of anything other than taking deep breaths and chewing on the piece of gum in my mouth. Both of which were strategies to calm my thumping heartbeat as I made my way to another day of stage two.

There was no Peter accompanying me this time. He stayed behind to eat breakfast with Drew and Molly. I would've stayed to joined them, but the nerves fluttering in my stomach filled it better than food could.

I made it to the poorly lit area where there was quite a few initiates already waiting. The rest would surly come after the breakfast rush. Taking a lone seat in the corner, I waited for Four to call my name.

*          *          *

The wait didn't take too long, especially considering most of the initiates weren't yet present.

"Adelaide." Four's voice called from behind the door. I hesitated getting up from the chair for a moment. My brain remembering how well this went last time.

I finally lifted my body out of the chair and lugged myself into the room.

I didn't expect otherwise, but the room was the same from the last time I was in it. The computer desk was positioned in the same place and the room still had the same depressing atmosphere to it. The only difference was Four was already standing by the reclining chair with the plunger in hand before I even completely sat down.

"The procedure should be exactly the same as last time, okay?" I nodded absently. My mouth had taken back to trying to chew on the gum that was no longer in my mouth. I spat it out during my time waiting in fear that it would get lodged in my esophagus and block the passage of air if I brought it into the stimulation.

"Hopefully it will be better this time," Four said, plunging the needle into my neck before I could respond.

"Just take deep breaths and always keep your heartbeat at a moderate rate. The serum should be taking effect in a couple of seconds."

Four's estimate was perfectly timed seeing as I feel under the control of the serum immediately after his closing sentence.

*          *          *

I woke up in the comforting embrace of the satin sheets in my Erudite bedroom. Taking a look around the room in reminiscence, I noticed a vent didn't have on a cover like it usually did. It left a rectangle-shaped cut in the construction of my ceiling.

That in itself wasn't too odd. What was odd was a large, circular shadow descending from it. My vision couldn't quite decipher what the figure was since my curtains weren't drawn and the light of dawn was just barely peeping its head above the horizon.

Curiosity got the better of me as the figure kept getting lower and lower to the ground. I threw the sheets off and opened the curtains, getting as much light as I could on the intruding organism in my room.

Now I made out more features on the organism. It appeared to have three main body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. My body relaxed at that. It was most likely an just insect due to the three parts of its body instead of anything that inspired more fear within me.

I wanted to study it further so I went to turn on the lights.

It was then I realized just how off my analysis of the organism had been now that I saw it under the incandescent lights. Unlike an insect, this has two main body parts: a fused-head and thorax along with an abdomen. The characteristic of a spider, not an insect.

A scream was intended to leave my lips but a gurgled sound of terror was expressed instead. Not only was a spider dangling from a string from a vent in my room, it was Brazilian wondering spider. Though research has never been done on these kinds of spiders, we were well informed on them. Their body length was approximately three to four centimetres with a leg span of twelve to fifteen centimetres. To me, they were easily the scariest of the arachnids. Though I had to admit that it wasn't a hard bar to clear with me seeing as the smallest of spiders had me paralyzed in fear.

In the eye's of most people, the spider wasn't doing anything intimidating. It was only dangling from its string with slight movements from its unsettlingly long legs.

My two eyes didn't stop staring at it and it looked as though its eight pitch black eyes held my glare as well. I flinched with every single one of its twitches. It was making me visibly sick to look at it but at the same time, a fear overwhelmed me that if I look away, it would be gone.

A hallow knock at the door of my room ended up breaking my staring contest with the spider. I slowly turned around, scared at what would be at the door.

I turned out to be correct in being fearful as tiny black dots swarmed my doors and covered half of my bedroom. It would only take, what I assumed to be the spider's offsprings, seconds before they invaded every inch of the place.

I jumped on the bed for temporary protection. I knew they'd infest the bed too.

It was hard for me to tell which of the scenarios were worst. The spawns of the mother spider flowing across the floor as if I had a flood of the little arachnids or the mother's eerie stillness. She hadn't moved since her babies had started making their home in my room and it was hard to detect what or where she was looking considering she didn't have pupils for me to tell with.

My attention was quickly diverted from her when I noticed the little ones started their climb onto the bed. They climbed one by one on my bedposts, leaving the mahogany completely unseen and covered fully in black.

Panic took hold on me as screams were expelling from my mouth at faster intervals than before.

Screams continued to spill out of me as the army of spiders made it to the top of the post. The screams only stopped when I realized how truly illogical this was.

Brazilian wondering spiders weren't native to Chicago so how were they here in such large numbers.

The longer I pondered the optics of the situation, the slower and slower my heartbeat got until I felt my body violently jerked awake.

I awoke again, but not in my old Erudite room. I'm still strapped in the reclining chair with Four typing away at the computer. I heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

"That was a lot better this time. You beat your last record by nearly one and a half minutes." I could hear the impressed tone in Four's voice as he spoke.

"Thank you," was all I managed to say as he released me from the restraints. In all honestly, I was still rattled by the stimulation, but it wasn't nearly as bad as last time.

I didn't waste anymore time in getting out of the room.