Asin Omar: Arachnid

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The tap water from the kitchen faucet fell into the drain below. A single droplet of water comes loose from its origin, and suddenly a loud crash of liquid breaks into many infinitesimal droplets as it dissolves at the bottom. Most drops were in perfect rhythm with their predecessor. For those who delayed or fell earlier, I would notice. I knew every single one that fell as I would count them religiously while lying flat on the couch.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

The clock on the wall read at half-past two. My body ached to fall asleep, but my mind battled against it with each tick that struck my ears. It was as if each tock snapped a chord in my mind which forced my focus away from sleep. The worst part was that the clock hung behind my resting form right above my head.

I could move if I wanted to, but that would disturb the muscles in my body that had taken over an hour to relax. I was alone in my house that contained four rooms: bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living area. The only room which was separated from the rest was the bathroom and bedroom. The other rooms were openly connected. The front door would lead into the small kitchen, and a sharp right turn led into the living room, where my wide-eyed from rested. I slept in the living room at times because my own bed would keep me up for hours on end for no particular reason. It was dark enough to see faint blinking dots in the air. They kept me company in my loneliness, yet I could not sleep.

The hum of a car's engine drew my attention behind. It grew louder and clearer, passing by my window and shedding twelve vertical lines onto the oak floor in front of me before disappearing down the street. My mind was fully awake by then, and there was no hope of returning back to where I had left off.

I stood up from the couch gently, letting my short red wavy hair fall in front of my face as I brushed it out of the way, I turned on the lamp at my left. Concentrated light spread rapidly across the room, blinding my amber-colored eyes for a few seconds. As my eyes adjusted to my surroundings, I noticed something in the dark corner by the tall lamp. I focused in on what it was- it looked like a pair of legs the size of a straw.

At first, I assumed it was a piece of clothing, which led me to stand and clean it up. Any type of messes present in the room would only disrupt my peaceful thoughts of dreaming. As I walked closer, I froze: it was a spider with hairy blackish-brown legs on the floor. Tiny, dark brown spiders were huddled together around them. I slowly backed away with my eyes wide and headed to my bedroom and closed the door. I hated spiders; they had too many eyes, feisty fangs, 8 skinny legs that tickled, and were generally always ugly and creepy. As I laid down on my bed, my body relaxed, and my mind with it. Finally, I got the sleep I've been longing for...

BAM!

I startle from my much-needed slumber as a loud crash sound from outside my bedroom door. I lay completely still, silently waiting for a possible second disturbance to hit my ears. My early 'alarm' had made me too dazed to understand where the noise had come from, so I could only hope it was from my wild imagination. The time to my right read 3:37, and it was still dark outside.

I breathed in a sigh at my body which froze its eyelids open. I knew I wasn't going to get any more sleep for the rest of the night. So I allowed myself to get lost in thought for 30 minutes until something snapped me out of my lovely daydream...I felt something brush lightly against my legs and feet, and then another, and then another, and then it was thousands of tiny feather-like hairs. I peered down from under my sheets. I could feel my entire body stiffen while an abrupt wave of chills ran down my arms.

I saw tens, hundreds, thousands of small spiders creeping over me. I remained still as if I were a dead corpse in a grave, trying to maintain steady breaths, but my heartbeats were unable to be controlled as I felt them crawl all over me. It was like they were taunting me to make a move. Just as I was about to fling my bedsheets off, I could feel something sticky with the texture of linen holding me back. Web.

I began to panic at the thought of being trapped, seeing as there were so many spiders weaving a mummy around me. Why were they wrapping me in the web? I knew for a fact that this was not normal spider behavior. As I just laid there, they worked surprisingly fast, and before they fully wrapped me up in a cocoon-like a burrito, I felt a heavier body with eight legs creeping over me.... sweet mother of all things big and small... it was huge! It was the size of both my hands combined: there it stood a big fat hairy ugly ass tarantula looking at me with deep brown and red eyes.

I stared at the thing with wide eyes, seeing its tiny mouth open and showing it's haunting teeth. It bit me. It didn't hurt, but I felt the sharp teeth inject into my skin. The smaller spiders went back to cocooning me as I felt myself slowly pass out. Weeks went by, weeks turned into months, and then I woke up...I gasped for air and ripped open the cocoon I looked around, my house was covered in the web as I got up, and left my bedroom ignoring the web all around as I headed to the bathroom I wiped the webbing off the mirror I screamed seeing myself, four red eyes, dark very dark brown skin and 3 arms on the left and right side along with two mandibles on the sides of my face. My scream didn't sound like a scream it sounded like a screech.

I put my first right hand to my face and felt myself beginning to hyperventilate...what the hell was I? I definitely was not human anymore, I didn't know what I was.

And then I saw the same big spider from before look at me from the doorway it crawled off and shortly returned with....a body? I didn't want to admit it but I realized I was very hungry I felt myself move closer to the body as I picked up the body I didn't care if they were alive or dead I was hungry, as I opened my mouth I bit the neck but I didn't stop after draining it of blood I began to devour the body, its skin, and muscle, I ate half of the body leaving the hair on its head it was nothing but a skeleton with legs.

It was not enough to satisfy my hunger. I wanted more, and more I got... I ran out of the bathroom and through the living room running out of my house, looking around it was dark out as I hunted people the entire night through taking their unconscious bodies back to my home. I didn't know what I was but I knew there was no going back to what I've become. I've become Arachnid.