That night, Teddy entered the upstairs bedroom to find Isabelle sitting on her bed, stroking the fat black cat. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, but she seemed soothed by the animal in her arms. Teddy watched as a large, black spider descended on an invisible rope from the ceiling above the bed, threatening to disrupt the tranquil scene.
"Isabelle, a spider!" Teddy called, announcing her presence in the room. She didn't want to yell, but the spider was descending fast.
Isabelle didn't jump at the little girl's sudden warning, nor did she panic at the sight of the hairy arachnid descending above her head. She gently caught the spider in the palm of her hand, bent down to the floor, and allowed the creature to skitter away on its many legs.
Teddy felt silly then for her own fright. Still, it had been the biggest spider she had ever seen outside of Animal Planet. But Isabelle's composure and graceful release of the spider put her at ease. Isabelle was very brave, she thought.
Teddy sat down next to the older girl on the bed. She was still stroking the purring cat gently.
"Isabelle," Teddy said shyly. "Why don't you kill the spiders? Grandma Rose told me not to, but I still don't really know why."
"Rose told you that?" Isabelle said with mild surprise. She continued, "It was originally Mr. Poole's odd rule. He's not just a butler, you know. He has strange interests, that one. Fancies himself some kind of alchemist. When his wife died, he spent much of his time, doing whatever it is he does in that basement of his. We all felt very bad for him, having lost his wife so suddenly. So when he told us to be kind to the spiders, we listened. Poor soul."
Teddy thought for a moment.
"Is that what Rose told you?" Isabelle said.
"No," Teddy said. "She said it was because... spiders remind her... of life?" Teddy struggled to recall her great-grandmother's exact words.
Isabelle furrowed her brow. "Strange bat, that one."
"There was more," Teddy resumed. "Something about how... spiders gave her another chance at life? Yes! That's what she said. But what does that mean?"
Isabelle looked suddenly angry.
"What is this nonsense?" she said, her voice rising. She sat up straight on the bed, jostling the sleepy cat onto its feet.
"Meow!" Snickers announced.
Isabelle gasped, eyeing the cat. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"What?" Teddy said.
Isabelle ignored her. She was focused on the cat.
"It can't be..." Isabelle whispered. Anger returned to her voice. "It's impossible."
Isabelle stood, slipped on her slippers and pulled a housecoat over her shoulders. She was moving fast. Her brow was furrowed, but no longer in confusion. Isabelle was furious.
"Where are you going?" Teddy said, feeling more confused than ever.
"Stay here," Isabelle said, and she stormed out of the room. Teddy could hear her footsteps descend the stairs to the floor-level.
"Meow!" Snickers called. The thought appeared in her mind: "FOLLOW."
With that, the cat leapt off the bed and ran out the room.
Though her fear was great, her curiosity was greater. Teddy got to her feet and followed the strange cat down the stairs. She knew where it would lead her, but Snickers wasn't taking chances. It waited for her to catch up before leaping off toward the basement again.
The kitchen was eerily dark and quiet. Snickers was nearly invisible in the darkness, if not for his glowing yellow eyes. He perched, waiting for her. When they reached the basement door, Teddy found that it was already open a crack. Through the door was a steep set of dark stairs, leading into an even darker basement.
Teddy hesitated, but Snickers flew down the steps ahead of her and into the darkness. She took a deep breath and followed.
The basement was aglow in dim, orange candlelight. The room was crowded with objects, but unlike the rest of the house, there were no large stacks of boxes impeding her view of the room. She could see all the walls, which were covered in thick layers of spider web. Teddy shivered. She felt the warm fuzzy body of Snickers the Cat sitting up tall against her legs, as if guarding her.
Isabelle was there, moving around the room, lighting candles. In the gentle rising glow, Teddy spotted an old rusty birdcage. Isabelle made her rounds, lighting candles about the room. When she lit a candle beside the birdcage, the light revealed a crumbling skeleton within its bars. Teddy saw a beak, large caverns where the eyes should be, a thin, bony neck and the thin remains of what's usually hidden beneath skin and feathers. The parrot skeleton was covered in thin, sticky layers of spider web.
Teddy gasped, wanting to cry. Snickers curled himself around her leg, warming her.
Afraid to look around the room, but too afraid to move, Teddy stood, wide-eyed. She saw now, in the light, that the room contained three large wooden boxes. Isabelle, suddenly holding a crowbar, approached a box and began prying it open. With a loud creak and a puff of dust, the wooden box opened to reveal skeletal human remains. A deflated-looking black double-breasted suit covered much of the body, but the sunken skull and bony hands were visible from Teddy's line of sight, obscured thinly by sticky, translucent spiderwebs.
Too shocked to scream, tears pooled in Teddy's wide, round eyes. She didn't blink, couldn't blink, and the tears fell in sheets down her cheeks. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, she couldn't move.
Isabelle took the crowbar and pried open the next wooden box to reveal another human skeleton. This one was much smaller, and it wore a white wedding dress.
"Isabelle," a voice called from the shadows.
His voice knocked Teddy out of her state of shock. She turned and found Mr. Poole emerging from the shadows.
"Isabelle, please," Mr. Poole said, hands outstretched.
Isabelle cried silently over the corpse. She covered her face with her hands and whispered unintelligibly into her palms.
"Isabelle, let me explain," Mr. Poole said, an attempt at gentleness.
"This is my dress..." Isabelle whispered. And then she erupted, shouted, "What have you done?"
Footsteps thudded down the staircase.
"Teddy? Teddy?" Grandma Rose called.
She appeared at the bottom of the steps, and inhaled in surprise to find them down there.
"Teddy, honey, come on upstairs," Rose said gently.
Teddy stood, her feet frozen to the floor.
"What have you done to us?!" Isabelle shouted again, her face red and wet with tears.
Rose froze at the sight of Isabelle, who was taking up the crowbar to pry open the last wooden box. She lifted the box open with a grunt to reveal the corpse of an old woman. Unlike the other bodies, this corpse was covered in pale white-blue flesh. A stiff-looking black cat lay under the woman's veiny arm. The two bodies were enveloped in the same white-yellow spider web.
A new wave of shock passed over Teddy. Her breaths were shallow, she felt dizzy. The room was spinning. She watched as Isabelle returned to the skeleton in the wedding dress. With a face twisted in rage, the young girl removed clumps and clumps of the thick spider web with both hands.
"Isabelle! Stop!" Mr. Poole shouted.
"Isabelle," Rose called gently. "Isabelle, we're so sorry. We thought this would be what you wanted. Please, stay with us. You can have another chance at life here, dear."
Isabelle stopped.
"I had a life!" she shouted. "But this isn't it. This is... something else."
Isabelle continued to pull spiderwebs off her body. Tears rolled down her pale face.
"We're so sorry, Isabelle," Rose said. "We'll miss you, dear."
As Isabelle removed the last traces of webbing from the corpse, she began to fade. Gracefully, like a puff of smoke off an extinguished candle, her form faded, twisted, and dissipated to nothing.
In the moments before she passed out, Teddy thought of spiders.