Spider

Cindy's eyes fluttered open, letting the morning sunlight wash across her and rid her of sleep. Sighing at the empty space beside her, she rolled onto her side and flung her legs over the side of the bed. Neil must have gone already, as he always seemed to. His new job was taking up more and more of his time these days such that she only seemed to see him late at night when he arrived home a fatigued wreck. With a great effort she lifted herself up onto her feet and moved towards the bathroom, smiling as she passed her favourite photo of the two of them on holiday in France. It had been their first together, a long weekend on the Mediterranean coast. The happy memories filled Cindy up as she bustled around the sink, starting her morning routine.

Only when she left her bedroom, now fully dressed and made up, that she noticed anything unusual. Dangling from her bedroom door a small spider hung innocently from its thread. As she moved towards it with mounting trepidation, it began to climb its rope toward the ceiling, disappearing into the shadows. Shuddering, Cindy hurried through the doorway looking round straight away to check it was still hidden away. Out of sight, out of mind.

The spider stayed out of Cindy’s mind all day. Her receptionist job, though far from ideal, was never dull as her boss kept her busy throughout her shift. Only as she hung up her battered jacket on the coat hook and dropped the keys in the pot did she even begin to think of it. Another small money spider, possibly even the same one, was scuttling across the end table and up the wall.

“Neil!” Cindy shouted as she kicked off her shoes, a faint trace of panic setting into her voice, “Neil” she called again, “are you home?” When the lack of response continued, she sighed in annoyance, so he was late back again. Steeling herself, she fished in the hall cupboard for the vacuum cleaner and plugged it in, her fingers trembling as they held the nozzle aloft. The spider however, seemed to have sensed the imminent danger and had moved off again, skirting around the ceiling and up the banister towards the upstairs rooms. 

The evening passed by for Cindy in a wash of mindless reality shows and a microwave meal, the usual fare, particularly whilst Neil was out, he was certainly the chef of the household and she held no qualms in admitting it. Eventually realising she could stay up for him no longer; she made her way upstairs, carefully examining every nook for the spider that had evidently set up home somewhere new. Trying not to think about it she stood out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, only briefly stopping to see her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The water was a warm comfort to Cindy as it washed away her thoughts and fears and restored her to a sense of calm.

Suddenly something felt different on her hair, as though something was moving, then the same eerie feeling on her neck. She looked up; spiders were dropping down from the shower head. Big, hairy ones and small fast ones, some with spindly thin legs, others with fat ones and falling down onto her quivering body or else crawling over the shower curtain. They kept dropping onto her back and arms, crawling across her skin, some dropped straight to the floor but began climbing the walls others explored her toes and feet before scaling her legs. The shock overwhelmed Cindy such that she couldn’t even scream, only stand transfixed in horror, then as a tarantula fell on her face, its many legs brushing her wet skin, she let out a cry of pure terror. The tarantula, obviously affected by the shrill sound began running dazedly in circles, one thick leg fell into Cindy's screaming mouth and the shout became a scream.

Still bellowing she jumped out of the shower like an athlete, desperately shaking and convulsing her body, trying anything to get them off herself. But as she turned her head the nightmare worsened, they had spread all over the room; across the tiles, along the ceiling. The bath-towel she was using to knock them off, she now realised, was a swarming mass of the dense black creatures. Leaping across the room, past the bathroom mirror now doing its job to double the number of creatures all around her, it reflected a look of shock and panic as she flew past it and reached the door. Spiders, big and small, kept appearing as if from nowhere all around her. They were climbing over the door handle, their many eyes all watching Cindy. Rooted to the spot, her senses faded as her whole world became the door, tight shut in front of her, an impenetrable barrier in front of safety. She tried to lift her arm to the handle, determined to find bravery and knock their feeble bodies aside, but something was stopping her. Looking down in horror she found she could not see her feet.

A dense, swarming mob of black and brown had replaced the floor. Cindy shouted for anyone to come and rescue her; Neil, the neighbours, anyone. But nobody could hear her pleas, no one was coming to rescue her. She was alone and helpless. Her feet had gone numb to the crawling bodies, the inquisitive feelers and the prick of pain as another one tasted her flesh. They climbed her legs with ease, Cindy's frantic convulsions would not prevent their continual assault over her body. Making one last desperate attempt to escape, finding some fierce resolve within her, Cindy flailed her arms at the door handle. Her arms themselves were now covered with spiders and her face and hair had so many that she could barely see through the web of legs and bodies. A nightmare like none before, Cindy collapsed onto the writhing mass in defeat. Legs found purchase on her body and were soon all over her, they had won. The bathroom had become an unrecognisable dungeon of crawling creatures, the motionless body lying spread-eagled on the floor was almost entirely gone from view beneath the black sea.

Cindy awoke to sunlight bursting through a gap in her curtains and lifting herself gently up from her bed she looked around at the empty room. A sound from the bathroom caught her attention and she walked over, through the open bathroom door, to investigate. Someone hadn’t quite turned the shower off; a steady dripping was falling from the shower-head onto the tiled floor. What a waste of water. Making a mental note to chastise Neil whenever she next saw him, she turned it off and headed out towards the landing. As she walked through her bedroom door she felt something brush her neck. A money spider was dangling from its fine thread into the doorway. As the two touched it hurried back up in fright towards the top of the door frame. Cindy watched it a moment then turned, shivering as though shaking off a memory or a dream, before heading off downstairs. The sweet smell of frying bacon wafted to her nostrils and the realisation that Neil was home filled her with joy as she burst into the kitchen.
"There you are," he said kindly, looking up from the frying pan with a broad smile on his face. "Did you sleep well? Sorry I came home so late, but whatever were you doing on the bathroom floor?"