KILLING A SPIDER

“Hey Ian, come and see this.” James said. James was holding a magnifying glass. He was hunched over focusing the light onto unsuspecting ants. At first, nothing would happen. Then a thin wisp of smoke appeared and the ant would writhe in pain. His face showed no emotion. The image stuck in Ian’s head. Before he left school, he took the magnifying glass. He was clutching it in his hands when he got home.

“I had to do it to stop him.” he thought. He set down on his bed and held the magnifying glass in one hand and examined it. He felt something tickle his other hand. He absentmindedly rubbed it on the bed. He looked up. There was a spider. It was one of the bulbous yellow ones with long arching legs. It looked like a light bulb with too many legs.

He jumped to his feet. He did not like to kill things, but spiders inside had to die. He grabbed a shoe nearby. He hit the spider, but the bed was too springy. The spider skittered towards him.

“Aaaah!” he yelled and fell to the side as he tried to jump in two different directions. He dropped the shoe. The spider skittered towards the nearest light. Ian got up.

There was something yellow by the door. He carefully made his way over to it. The floor was illuminated by sunlight. He was still holding the magnifying glass. It would be easy. He could just focus the sunlight on the spider and watch it die. He immediately felt sick thinking about it. He opened the door instead and used the magnifying glass to shoo the spider outside. He slammed the door and leaned against it breathing hard.