[31.4] The Tale of the Lonely Spider

Small silver strands coiled around our body, suddenly pulling us up and over. The demon grinned ear to ear, "Let's play house! You three will be my sisters."

The four children were forced over to where the demon was.

The demon spoke, "And you're the mother!"

I was pulled over. Feeling slightly irritated as a puppet, I clicked my tongue, "Then who is the father?"

The demon froze.

She looked confused for a moment.

Then she shook her head, "There is no Father."

One of the boys made a face, "How can there be no father? There has to be a father."

The little girl glared at him, "Not everyone has fathers. I don't have a father."

The psychotic boy rolled his eyes, "Please. Your family has a ton of fathers. It's just that none of them stay."

Her eyes shrank back in anger, "TAKE THAT BACK!"

She lunged at him and started slapping his face. I groaned and went over to them to pull them apart. It was only then that I realized we could control our bodies.

The demon giggled and cheered, "It's just like I remember!"

I looked at her in confusion, "Huh?"

The demon tapped her chin, "What else is there… What else… Ah! I remember!"

She forced the children to their knees all except for the psychotic boy. She sat down elegantly and smiled, "We would like our hair done!"

The psychotic little boy was forced by the demon's threads to brush and shape our hair. All while he wore an expression of disgust. He even was forced to put pigtails into the other boy's hair. He cried out, "Why do I have to do their hair?"

She smiled, "Because you are our little brother and you don't have a choice."

After forcing us all to do mundane tasks that one can only assume a family would do, one of the children accidentally let out a yawn.

The demon heard this yawn and spoke in a soft voice, "Our sleepy one is getting tired! You know what that means?"

One of the children whimpered, "You'll let us go home?"

She shook her head, "Nope! It means it is storytime! Mother always gives us a story before bedtime."

After putting down a seat by the fire, she skipped over to us. She sat down on the ground and patted the dirt beside her, "Come, brothers and sisters!"

Translucent strings shot out, wrapping themselves around our bodies. We were dragged to our respective seats against our own will. I was pulled onto the stump as the children were forced to sit on the ground and look up at me.

The demon took a seat in front of me, staring up at me with eyes full of expectation.

I stared back at them confused, "Um… What do you want me to do?"

The demon spoke quickly, "We want a story!"

"You do?" I looked at the children who looked as lost as I was.

Lene nodded, "That's right!"

"Okay then… What kind of story do you want?"

Lene shouted, "True crime!"

My face twitched, "Huh? What kind of story is that?"

She spoke in excitement, "I want to hear the one about the serial killer clown!"

My mouth dropped, "Huh?!"

The pudgy boy whimpered, "I-I don't like clowns!"

Lene laughed, "Little brother is scared! He's always scared."

I forced on a smile, "Maybe I should tell a different story."

The demon tapped her chin, "What about a new one I haven't heard of?"

I thought for a moment.

Ugh… I'm not creative at all.

I spoke slowly, "Have you heard the story of the Fresh Prince?"

They all shook their heads.

I nodded, "Okay… It all started in West Philidelphia…"

After finishing my story, I found I was out of breath.

Lene clapped her hands happily, "I want another one!"

I forced a smile, "How about you tell one?"

She was caught off-guard, "M-Me?"

I got off the stump and forced her to change places with me, "Go on. Tell us a story."

She pondered for a moment, "Umm… Okay! I will try."

She sat on the stump and started speaking, "Once upon a time, there was this family of spiders. They lived peacefully on their webs without ever once leaving. Occasionally, a fly would get caught so the spiders could eat… Despite living peacefully, humans saw all of the flies the spiders caught and grew jealous."

One of the children spoke, "Why would they be jealous of flies?"

She paused for a moment and shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe it was because they didn't have any flies of their own? They could only steal flies from the spiders."

The little girl scoffed, "Well that's mean."

The demon nodded furiously, "Exactly! So mean! But the humans weren't satisfied with just flies and watching the spiders starve. They wanted to make the spiders suffer. The humans came and ripped apart the webs, separating the baby spiders from their parents! The spiders wanted it to stop, but they were too small so they could only cry."

The psychotic little boy gasped, "I should really stop eating spiders."

I looked at him in disgust.

The demon continued, "Eventually, the humans grew bored of just destroying their homes and started separating families. Then, when they got used to that, they started smashing the large spiders just so they wouldn't be bored."

The little girl interrupted, "Why would humans ever do that?!"

Lene sighed with a somber look, "Humans only care for themselves. They will take whatever they want if they can…" Her hand slowly raised to the large scar on her face, "They will take eyes even when they have their own."

One of the little boys gasped, "No!"

The little girl crossed her arms, "Why would they take eyes when they had their own? That doesn't make sense."

The demon shrugged, "Humans rarely make sense."

I snickered, "So true."

One of the boys raised his hand, "Miss Demon. Did the humans do that to you?"

She paused for a moment, then slowly nodded, "They did. When I was just a child, my family was captured. I don't know what happened to them, but they took me and threw me into a cage that was so cold. I was cold and hungry, and I missed my parents so I would cry every night. The humans were mad at me for crying so they attacked me. They made me blind as punishment."

Another asked, "So you can't see?"

"That's right."

The little girl looked her up and down, "But you can walk around just fine. You don't act blind."

She waved her fingers, showing off more translucent threads, "That's because of my webs. My webs are my eyes. I can't see as humans can, but I can see shapes and feel movements."

"Then…" The little girl asked tentatively, "Do you hate humans because of it?"

The demon thought for a moment and shook her head, "I do not hate them. But they are very very scary."

"Would you ever hurt a human?"

She shook her head quickly, "No! My mother taught me never to hurt a human unless they are trying to hurt me. And even then, she says not to kill."

The little girl nodded in interest, "Ah… I see."

Another asked, "Do you like art? They say demons like art."

She shrugged, "I can't really see it so I never got into it. I like sculptures because I can feel them, but I don't ever make them because I hate how the clay feels on my webs."

Another child asked, "Miss demon. Do you like yoga?"

She scrunched her face, "No! It's too much work."

Their eyes lit up in unison, "I know! It's not even fun!"

You've got to be kidding me.

This is what they are bonding over?!

The demon nodded, "Our mother would force us to do it until we were so tired we could no longer move."

The children all looked at me, "We understand."

I clicked my tongue, "It's for your own good!"

The kids all ignored me and continued asking the demon more and more questions. I sat back feeling impressed by their curiosity about her. Although they said they didn't like demons, they were also excited to speak to one.

...People really are taught to hate.