Day of the Spiders

  She saw it.

  For a split second, as it ran over her left eye, she saw it.

  Spider.

  Panic tore through her body. There was a spider on her head and the dirty bastard had just run right across her face. Her legs kicked convulsively as she tried to sit up, but the bubble bath that was diluted in the water had made the bottom of the bath as slick as a sheet of ice. She grabbed for the small rails that were on the inside edge of the bath so she could pull herself up. Her left hand found one first and she pulled as hard as she could to get her out of there.

  There was another crunch from her wrist, louder this time, and there was pain. It was a horrible raw pain as if someone had poured salt into an open wound. It was closely followed by a feeling like something was tearing, ripping as easily as wet newspaper, and then her head hit the back of the bath again. For the moment, the spider was forgotten as confusion scrambled her mind. She looked at the bath rail that she had grabbed hold of. The world shook and wobbled in front of her eyes. Her mind couldn’t process what she was seeing in front of her.

  Her hand was still on the rail, but it was no longer attached to her arm. She stared at it for only a second, but time froze in that moment. She saw every detail, every little piece of what had happened to her. She saw her own hand, still hanging onto the rail. She saw the little scar on the back of the hand that she had gotten when she had been accidentally burned with an errant cigarette in her first experience in a nightclub a million years ago. She could see the nails, still mostly painted red but in desperate need of a top-up coating. The thumb ring, a gift from an admirer that she had gone out with a few times, but had never pursued because of his terrible halitosis. And then she saw the gaping wound where her arm used to be attached to it. She saw the green and red streaked discharge slopping from the flesh and plopping into the bath water and onto her naked leg. She saw her own arm which suddenly and violently ended just below the wrist, and more of that disgusting, stinking slime running down her skin, that terrible burning, itching sensation beginning to build underneath it. She saw the two knobs of bone, horribly white, sticking out the end of the injury as the skin began to peel away. The ends of the bones looked like they were made of plastic that had been melted by excess heat.

  In that split second she saw it all.

  Her lungs went into spasm, pushing all the air out of her body and then they opened up, tearing in a huge breath to scream. That was when the spider made its move. It scuttled down her forehead, across her nose and as she was pulling in her breath to scream for her life, it dropped into her open mouth.

  Lydia felt something rush down her throat and lodge itself in there. She tried to get the scream out, but she couldn’t get any air to come out. She began to thrash around, trying to get herself upright so she could lean forwards to get her airway clear. The stump of her arm hit the hot water and pain unlike any other she had experienced so far in her lifetime, blasted up from it. It engulfed her, it made her body shake with terror and revulsion. The combination of panic and pain was just too much for her mind to cope with. It shut down and Doctor Lydia Ochre went to sleep.

  Ten minutes later as the bath water began to run over the sides, its progress slowed by the overflow hole but not enough to stop the inevitable, the spider emerged out of Lydia’s nose. She began to breathe again. This time in quick, shallow breaths. Her eyes popped open, but they saw nothing. The poison in her body began to go to work.

  15.

  Mary Benson arrived home three hours after Braden had abandoned them at the bowling alley. By this time Jax had gone from borderline hysteria to being sullen and quiet. For a child that normally would spend most of her time singing or play-acting for nobody in particular, seeing her like this drove a stake of anger deep into Mary’s soul. She wanted to get hold of Braden and slap him. Not punch, or stab or anything too extreme, she just wanted to slap him around the room, and ask, no, scream at him what the hell are you thinking, what the fuck is wrong with you, over and over again. They had to catch the bus home because Braden had taken the car. Jax had left her coat in there too and by the time they made it back through the front door she had been shaking like a leaf in a high wind. Mary put the heating on and built a fire in the hearth. Jax put some cushions on the floor in front of the fire and positioned herself so that she could watch television. Mary offered her food, but she just shook her head. Anything that could take away Jax's appetite must have been pretty bad. In all fairness, Mary didn't feel like eating either. Her own appetite had been killed stone dead by the events of this morning. She sat of the sofa her eyes trained on the endless stream of meaningless jabber on the television. Her mind was working overtime, trying to work out where on earth she went from here. There was no way, no way on this earth that she could let Braden back into their lives, not after this. She felt so stupid, so idiotic for listening to his bullshit again. She had bought into it hook, line and sinker. Christ, she had even allowed herself to let down her guard enough to make love to him. Normally she wouldn't have let him near her, not just physically, but emotionally. She had known from the beginning that somewhere deep inside all of his bravado that there was a decent man, a decent and loving man who could give her all the emotional support and wellbeing that she could ever want. The problem had always been the job, the rush of the job was his drug, and he had now proven that he was willing to give up everything that ever meant something to him in order to keep at it, at that job, at that stupid fucking job.

  She felt tears sting her eyes, and she fought it back. She would be damned if she was going to lose it with her daughter in the room. She tried to put some practical thoughts to work in her mind to take her away from the burning feeling of anger and hurt that was sloshing around in her insides like a bad curry. He would have to move out. That would be the first thing. He would have to get his shit and get the hell out of her house. She would make sure that Jax was at school for that little episode. She didn't want to put her through any more hurt. Her life was going to carry on as normally as it could. She was pretty used to her dad not being around, or being too damn busy to spend any time with her. Mary was pretty sure that Jax wouldn't want to spend any more time with him at all after this. That was something she would have to talk to her about somewhere down the line. Right now....

  Practical, practical.

  Divorce. That would be a good option. Might as well break the arm clean off then have a messy wound hanging around to start going septic. She was absolutely sure that she could get him on unreasonable behavior, especially once she had laid out the events of today. She would be granted a divorce in no time. That would get him out of her hair for good. Then he could go and chase all the stories that he wanted to without the burden of a wife to hold him back, and good fucking luck to him.

  Practical, practical.

  This was good. She was starting to feel a little more in control of everything. Control was good. Control meant that she could at least hang onto something whilst the whirlwind of change came through their lives. What else....

  The house. She could get herself back into working full time, that wasn't a problem with her qualifications. She could find some way to work around Jax and her needs, of course she could. She had managed before Braden had come along and she would manage again. She could get enough money together to buy out his interest in the house. She didn't think that he would have any bollocks to fight her. If she stood her ground and blasted him with enough legal guff to make his head spin, then he would give in. He didn't have time for legal shit, and she knew it. He would cave right in and then Jax would have a roof over her head without the upheaval of having to move. Mary was pretty sure that moving house would pretty much finish Jax off. No, she needed security right now and as much of it as Mary could give her. In her mind, she could almost see the dark tunnel that she was about to lead them down. But she also had just enough foresight to see that when they made it out of the other end that they would be a damn sight happier for it.

 
So, that was that. She had her plan and she was going to start with it tomorrow morning, or tonight, depending on when Braden had the nuts to show his face again. She was going to tell him to piss off and sleep somewhere else if he tried to get in the house. She got up out of her seat and went and locked the front door. She wondered if it would trigger an outburst from Jax, but she never even looked away from the television. She was lay on her side, a little bit like a dog who had come in from a cold garden to warm its cockles against that comforting heat. Mary went through to the kitchen. She needed a cup of coffee to try and get her head out of the clouds a little. As she was passing the dining room she caught sight of Braden's laptop sitting on the table. She paused for a moment. Something was whirring away in her mind. At first, she thought that she might have been thinking that it wasn't work that he was doing at all, but instead the idea that he was seeing another woman suddenly occurred to her. She never thought that he was the type, but as her mother had once told her, all men were 'that type.' She shook it off for a moment, telling herself that she was being ridiculous, that it just wasn't Braden's style. Then she thought to herself that it wouldn't do any harm to eliminate it from her line of enquiry. She went through to the kitchen and put the kettle on and returned to the dining room to power up the computer whilst she waited for the water to boil. She opened up the laptop and switched it on. It wasn't the most technologically advanced laptop in the world and it took a few moments before it finally booted up. To her dismay a password screen greeted her. She should have known. Braden didn't like the possibility of anyone messing up his work.

  Well, that's that then, she thought and went through into the kitchen where the kettle was finishing its boil cycle. She dumped instant coffee into her favourite mug and poured the water on. She couldn't possibly know what the password was, could she? She mused over it for a moment and then tried to come up with some possibilities. Could it be their wedding anniversary? Could it be the day that they first met? Unlikely. Braden had a wonderful habit of forgetting things like that until the last minute. Every anniversary they had together had involved Braden leaping out of bed and telling her that he was going to make her breakfast in bed. She knew quite well that he was rushing out to go and grab something that could pass for a present. The fact that he always brought her a sausage and egg McMuffin for her breakfast and the fact that the spit on the envelope of her card where he had sealed it would still be wet gave the game away. She never said anything about it. In her mind, it was better that it was on the last minute then being subjected to the horrible possibility of indifference to the date that she kept burned on her mind forever and a day. She threw that one out of the window. If he couldn't remember the date on a day to day basis, then it was no good as a password. She milked and sugared her coffee and was about to go and shut the laptop down when something else occurred to her. He always remembered Jax's birthday. He had never been on the last minute with that. He would always be prepared with piles of gifts and birthday cake. A few times he had even organized a party or two for her and all of her friends. He had even gone to the trouble of decorating the house whilst she had been at school so he could spring the big surprise on her. He remembered that date alright. She went over to the computer and almost casually she punched Jax's date of birth into the computer. It paused for a moment and then the desktop popped up in front of her.

  You see, you should have been a detective, she thought to herself as she sat down. She placed her cup of coffee on the table next to the laptop and pulled the chair up. She really didn't know where to start so she opened an internet window.

  "Where to first?" she said to herself. Then she went for the internet history, thinking that Braden would have likely covered his tracks if he was up to no good. The list came up and she began to scroll through it. There were links to several news channels that she knew he liked to look at to see if his reports had made the front page. He had yet to get a front-page story, and that had bugged him for most of his career. He had got some good ones, there was no doubt about it and some of his stories had been incredibly well composed and written. The man had talent, and that fact was undeniable. She scrolled back up to the top again. She caught sight of the date of one of the news sights. It had been accessed today. Mary wondered for a moment how on earth he could have got on the computer at that time when he would have been at the bowling alley with her. Then she remembered that if he accessed the internet from his phone that it would show up on the computer so he could look at it again when he was home. She clicked on the entry and sipped coffee whilst the page loaded. The story of Lottie Richmond popped up and Mary read through it with a small sneer of horror growing on her face. Mary went back to the main page and saw that there was another story about the mutilated cat. She really didn't want to read any more about it but then she noticed that it had been found on the same road as the dead girl.

  Another bloody sicko, she thought to herself and closed the window. That's what Braden was chasing? another sicko that prayed on animals and small children? Why would he go after something like that? Why was it so damn important to him? She didn't know and she was about to close the computer down. She was quickly losing interest in the whole thing. Then at the last moment she decided to check his email account. Through sheer good luck, the computer had remembered his password so Braden could get into it quickly. The inbox was pretty sparse. There were some junk emails asking him if he wanted to get himself a nice solicitor so that he could rinse a load of banks and building societies for insurances that you didn't have to pay for and blah blah blah. There was one that caught her attention. It had been sent today and Braden must have picked it up from wherever he was right now. She clicked on it and the page filled with the message.

  B.

  Spiders found at Corsica Road. Not normal, but not 'them' either. Worth a look? Be careful bro...

  S.E.

  Mary sat in front of the screen just looking at that message. She read over it a dozen times. Surely, they must have been mistaken right? If there were spiders there, then the news would have been all over it, right? Not if it was a secret. Not if they were keeping it from the public to stop them from panicking.

  Spiders found....

  Something stirred inside her. It was a deep, swelling feeling of unease. She knew what Braden thought of the spiders that had invaded Newtown and very likely killed his father. He had been almost completely consumed by hatred for the man that had caused it. She couldn't remember the name without having to look it up. Not that it mattered. If Braden had any inkling that something like that was going to happen again he was going to be all over it. Of course he was. He must have been harbouring the deep-rooted need to somehow avenge his father's death. One night, not long after Newtown had gone up in flames, he had come home drunk, bellowing and shouting about how he was going to kill that fucker, the one who had set the virus free. He was going to put his hands around his throat and kill him. He had woken Jax up that night and she wouldn't settle, no matter how much Mary comforted her. Braden had eventually passed out on the couch, and there he had stayed until the next morning. At some point whilst he was asleep he had pissed his pants, which confirmed to Mary that he had drank way beyond his normal capacity.

  Spiders found....

  If there was any possibility of it happening again, then Braden wanted to be right in the thick of it. But they were killers. They killed people stone dead. If they were coming back and Braden was out there and not in his right mind, then they could kill him too.

  "Shit," she said to herself, and reached for her coffee. She was going to have to do something. She just couldn't sit by and let him get himself killed. No matter what was going to happen between them, she didn’t want him dead. What could she do? Who could she talk to?

  She focused back on the computer and went through Braden's contacts. One of them she knew straight away. Darren Masterson. Darren acted as a go-between for Braden and the news outlets all over the United Kingdom. He was the one that made sure that
Braden kept on earning until he got his big break. She emailed him, telling him to phone her on her mobile as soon as possible and that Braden was in danger. Less than a minute after she had sent it she heard her mobile singing a merry tune in her handbag which was hung up on the hooks next to the front door. She scrambled out of her seat, banging her knee on the table as she did so. She hobbled through to the living room and dug the phone out of her bag. She hit the button and put the phone to her ear. Jax looked up at her momentarily and then went back to the television.

  "Darren Masterson, is that Mary?" said the voice from the other end of the phone. Mary had never seen Darren in person but she guessed that he was overweight and in pretty poor health overall. He puffed and blew down the phone between talking. He sounded like a bull mastiff on heat. Mary went back through to the dining room and sat back down at the desk.

  "Darren, hi, yes, it is. Have you heard from Braden at all today?"

  "No, not a thing. Not heard from him for 'bout two weeks now. He's slipping in his old age. Has something happened to him?" said Masterson.

  Snort, blow.

  "He took off earlier today, said he had something he needed to do. Then I found an email on his computer. It was about the dead child, the one on Corsica Road," said Mary.

  Masterson puffed and blew thoughtfully for a moment, "Oh yes, it's been all over the news. But the story is already broken, why would Braden go after that one?"

  "The email said that they had found spiders at the site," said Mary. The puffing and blowing stopped for a moment.

  "Spiders?" said Masterson in a slow and deliberate voice.