Day of the Spiders

by Brian O'Gorman

  “Sit down Mary, just sit the fuck down,” he growled at her. He looked to Mary like he had finally lost his mind. A cold ice-block of fear was sitting in her guts. Jax had backed into the corner of the bed and was sitting with her knees up to hide her face and her hands were covering her ears. Mary sat down on the edge of the bunk.

  Braden circled around so that Trent could see him. He was breathing hard and clutching at his shattered knee.

  “Now then, I want the truth from you. I saw how you were touching Mary, and I saw the look in her eye. You were very quick to pile us all into your car and bring us here. So, like I said, I want the truth from you,” said Braden. His voice was shaking and close to cracking.

  “I….I…don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Trent, his breaths coming in short, sharp snaps.

  Braden raised the bat up again. Trent put up his hand and cowered.

  “Alright….alright…I’ll tell you,” he said.

  “Trent, don’t. Please don’t,” said Mary.

  Braden raised the bat over his head. “Last chance,” he said.

  “Me and Mary have been seeing each other,” Trent blurted.

  For a moment, the words wouldn’t get into Braden’s head. He slowly lowered the bat. All of his anger, all of his resentment had burned away and it had been replaced by a numbing sense of disbelief. The strength felt like it was running out of his body and that at any moment he was going to crumple up and drop to the floor. His legs began to shake at first and then the shaking made its way up his body. It reached his face and his mouth began to gibber silently. Trent turned a little to his left and then threw up on the floor next to him. The pain from his broken knee was becoming too hard for him to bear.

  “Say that again,” said Braden in a weak voice.

  “Braden, stop it. Let’s talk about it,” said Trent, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

  Braden appeared not to hear him. He turned slowly around to Mary who was still sat on the bed with tears running down her face.

  “He’s lying. I want him to say it again and then I’m going to smash his face in for lying,” said Braden.

  “He’s not lying,” said Mary in a breathless voice, one that was so quiet that Braden couldn’t hear her through the sound of his heart thumping in his ears.

  “What did you say? What the fuck did you say?”

  “He’s not lying,” said Mary. She was almost pleading this time.

  Braden felt the anger come back again, bubbling up from his guts. He turned to Trent and raised the bat again, letting out a guttural roar as he did so. Treat wrapped his arm around his head to try and protect himself from the impending blow. But, it didn’t arrive. Braden lowered the bat. He had caught sight of the few remaining spiders that were still jostling for position on the window.

  “I have a better idea, a much better idea for a shit-weasel like you,” growled Braden through gritted teeth. He dropped the bat and went to the front door of the station. He undid the bolts at the top and the bottom and turned the catch so that the door was unlocked.

  “What are you going to do? What are you going to do?” said Trent. His voice was rising and rising. He knew exactly what Braden was going to do.

  Braden came over to Trent. He bent down and hooked an arm under Trent’s chin.

  “You like to play with my wife? With my fucking wife? Well, You can go and play with those fucking spiders, you piece of shit,” roared Braden. He began to drag Trent towards the door. Trent outweighed Braden by around three stones and his body was thick with outdoor muscle. Dragging him across the floor was almost impossible, almost. But, Braden was angry and his anger gave him just enough strength to pull Trent across the polished wooden floor. He didn’t hear Mary shouting at him to stop, he didn’t hear Jax screaming. He didn’t see Mary getting up off the bunk and grabbing the bat off the floor and he didn’t see her bringing the bat down on the side of his head until the last moment before it hit.

  Braden was knocked clean out. His legs stiffened for a moment and then they buckled, spilling him to the floor. Trent dropped to the floor gasping and clawing at his throat. Mary stood for a moment, the bat still in her hand. Then the dawning realization of what she had done began to sink in. She dropped the bat as if it was suddenly hot and wiped her hands on her jeans, as if it could clean away what she had done to Braden. What else could she have done? Braden was going to open the door and try to put Trent out there, he would have been killed. Not to mention the fact that the open door would have let the spiders inside and that would have been it for all of them. Her strongest urge was to protect Trent. It was true that she had been seeing him for quite a while now. Every time that Braden didn’t come home she would invite Trent around to share in a bottle of wine and listen to his stories of the shit that he got up to whilst he was working. She had confessed to him that she was thinking of leaving Braden and he had listened attentively and reassured her that starting over again wasn’t quite as daunting a prospect as she thought. He himself had been through a pretty messy divorce, but once the dust had settled, he had ended up with a life that was far more satisfying than it ever had been before. He held her hands, he told her that everything would be alright and that she had to believe in herself. He told her that she was a strong and beautiful woman and…..and then she had leaned in and kissed him. He hadn’t responded at first and she had begun to think that she had just sabotaged the best friendship that she had managed to forge in a long time. But his resistance had melted away quickly. Then his hands were all over her, those strong hands that she had fantasized about. She had wanted it to happen for such a long time, with every glance out of the window of her bedroom into his garden, watching him digging and planting, to every stolen glance when he had been going up the path to his front door, looking at how tired and slightly grubby looking he was after a hard day’s work. He did something that Braden had never done in all the years that they had been together, he came home at the same time every night. She tried to imagine what that would have been like, to have a man that came home regularly. She fantasized about him getting straight into the shower, perhaps even inviting her to come in with him so she could scrub his back. The things she could do with a man like that were beyond her imagination. But she wanted to try and keep the bare threads of their family together. Jax loved her dad and it would be terrible for her to see him go, or at least that was how she was thinking at the time.

  The moment that his lips met hers, she knew that she was going down a road that went against everything that she believed in. She had always thought that a cheater was the worst thing anybody could be. If they were married, they were married and that was that, there was no shades of grey on that issue. However, once he had gone home that night and she was sat on the sofa drinking the last of the wine that they had shared, closing her eyes and still feeling his lips enclosing around her nipple and his hardness pushing inside her with an urgency that she hadn’t felt for such a long time, she had realized that the issue was not as simple as it appeared on the surface. She was justifying the pleasure that she had got from it which seemed like a million miles away from the hurt and the loneliness that came from being with Braden. She sat on the sofa, telling herself that she deserved a little happiness, didn’t she? She didn’t want to look back on her life in fifty years’ time and have a bunch of regrets, did she? She certainly didn’t want to be on her death bed wondering how wonderful it would have been if she had the guts to actually sleep with a man that she found interesting to talk to and attractive, did she?

  She had spent the next day wandering around the house, cleaning rooms that didn’t need cleaning, and unable to close down the thoughts in her mind that all circulated around Trent and what they had done right there on the couch just last night. A part of her was deeply regretting it, because she had become one of the things that she had always been taught to hate. But, there was another bigger part of her that wanted to go around to his door and get a second helping. Her body felt like it was
aching all over and that the only cure for that terrible ache was another passionate session with him. Eventually she had got up the nerve to go. Braden was out working and Jax was at school, giving her a good three hours before she was due to go and pick her up. Trent’s car was in the driveway. She went out of the house and knocked on his door, with her heart thumping like mad in her chest, making every breath that came out of her mouth shake uncontrollably. Nobody came to the door at first and she was about to leave when she heard footsteps on the other side of the door. A moment later, Trent pulled the door open. He was dressed in a loose t-shirt and baggy jogging bottoms. He hesitated for a moment as if he was never expecting to see her ever again and then he reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled her gently inside. The moment the door was closed they were upon each other, her hands going up to his hair and pulling on it with urgency and passion. His lips were on hers and his tongue was darting in and out of her mouth. He reached down and pulled her leggings down to her knees. Her panties came down with them and she kicked them off along with her shoes. His hands went to each of her thighs and they lifted her up with ease parting her legs on the way. She felt his hardness pressing against her through his loose trousers. Her hands went down and uncovered him, ready for him to find his way inside her again. Her ache for him began to spiral out of control, her first orgasm exploding from deep within her the moment his hardness pushed against her. He drove himself inside her, pressing her up against the wall. His hips hammered against her and his fingers dug into the soft flesh of her buttocks. He exploded within her, holding his breath as the spasms rocked his body. She felt that deep warmth spread out inside her, giving her everything that her body had been aching for since last night. His eyes met hers and they both smiled at each other, their breaths coming in deep, quick pants from their exertions. He carried her over to his couch and kissed her again, slowly and more carefully this time. It made her tingle in places that she never even knew you could get tingles in. It felt good and it felt right and from that moment on, whenever the opportunity presented itself, she would go to his house and indulge herself as much as she possibly could.

  At no point in her life did she ever think that she would be in the situation that she was in right now, standing over her unconscious husband, that she had whacked over the head with a bat, and her lover who was lay on the floor with his knee all bent out of shape. Add to that the fact that there were spiders that were the size of dogs trying to hang onto the windows and the fact that they were miles from any kind of civilization, and you had all the makings of a pretty bad day at Black Rock.

  Her first priority was Jax. She was sobbing uncontrollably on the bunk. She hadn’t heard her sob like that before, not in a way that sounded like she was utterly terrified. She had to bring her back from the edge, otherwise she might do something careless and put herself and all of them in danger. She squatted down in front of Jax, got hold of her hands and held them in hers. Jax’s chest was snatching in sobs. Her face was red, blotchy and stained with tears.

  “Hey kiddo, hey there champ. How are you doing?”

  “I……want…..to….go….home,” said Jax between the sobs.

  “I know you do kiddo, I do too, and we will as soon as it’s safe,” said Mary, although she was pretty sure, given everything that had happened to them that their home had been swallowed up by the earth.

  “Why….did…you…..hit…..dad?”

  Mary paused for a moment, picking her words very carefully. “He hurt Trent, and he was going to take him outside. I couldn’t let him do that. I had to stop him. He’ll be alright, I didn’t hit him very hard,” she said. It felt like she had hit him pretty hard. The sound that the bat made when it connected with his skull sounded pretty hard too.

  “I’m….scared,” said Jax.

  “I know sweetie, but we will be safe in here. Those spiders won’t be able to get in, you can trust me on that.”

  Jax nodded and wiped her face with her hand. She reached her arms out and grabbed onto her mother’s neck. Mary hugged her back, wishing that she could take it all away for her.

  “I need some help here,” said Trent from behind her.

  Mary let Jax go and looked her in the eyes. “I have to go and help Trent, then we will get this place up and running. Everything is going to be just fine, trust me ok?”

  Jax nodded, “Ok.”

  Mary went over to Trent who had just finished pulling himself backwards so that he could lean his back against one of the sofas. He was sweating profusely, mostly due to the pain he was in. He clutched at his wounded knee. It looked like it had swollen pretty badly.

  “Is it broken?” said Mary.

  “I don’t know. It might just be dislocated. I’m going to see if I can pop it all back into place. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll know if its broken or not,” said Trent.

  “What can I do?” said Mary.

  “You need to get your hands under my ankle. When I tell you to, you need to pull it upwards as hard as you can. I’m going to push on the kneecap at the same time,” said Trent. He leant forwards, hooked his fingers under his knee and placed his thumbs lightly on the swollen top of the joint.

  Mary went to his ankle, squatted down and hooked her hands under it just like Trent had said.

  “Ready?” he said and Mary nodded. She was hoping that she didn’t throw up. Her stomach wasn’t so strong when it came to bones. Even the sound of somebody popping their knuckles was enough to make her want to heave.

  “On three,” said Trent and Mary nodded again.

  He counted to three and Mary pulled the leg up hard. At exactly the same moment Trent pushed down with all his might on his kneecap. There was resistance at first from both ends and then there was a sickening crunch and Trent’s leg popped out straight again. Trent put his head back and roared through clenched teeth. The chords on his neck were standing out and the skin was turning almost purple with the effort of his yelling. After a moment, he began to breathe again in short, sharp bursts. Mary could see the relief on his face as the pain started to ebb away. His leg looked far more normal than it had done a few moments earlier.

  “Did it work?” said Mary. Her initial nausea had passed over enough for her to be able to talk again. She would probably be dreaming about the noise that came from Trent’s knee for months to come. She needed to push it out of her mind for now.

  Trent felt around the knee wincing a little and then he flexed the joint. It caused him some pain, but the joint was mobile again. “Looks good. I just need to tape it up so it doesn’t blow out again.”

  “Do we have anything here that would do the job?”

  “Yep, out the back door is the utility room. There is some black tape, pretty strong stuff. You’ll have to raid the draws. I don’t know exactly where it is,” said Trent.

  Mary hesitated for a moment. Trent could read her mind. She was worried about the spiders.

  “Don’t worry. The outer door is closed. They can’t get in here, I promise,” he said. Mary tried a smile, but it didn’t quite work. She headed for the door, tipping Jax a wink as she went by. Jax looked like she had been through the mill. The things she had seen in the last few hours were far beyond anything a child of her age should have experienced. Mary was worried that it all might have a negative effect on her. The world that all of them had known had taken a big old kick in the nuts and it was never going to be the same for any of them ever again.

  She went out of the back door and into the utility room. To the right of her was the outer door and Trent had been accurate in his description of it. The door was solid metal just like the one at the front and it was fastened shut by a large set of bolts at the top and the bottom. The generator sat on the floor against the wall, an exhaust hose reaching up to a flue in the wall at the side of the door. Next to them and right in front of her were two sets of metal drawers that Trent had told her about.

  There was still a pretty sizable prickle of fear running up and down her back. She wanted to g
et back inside just as quickly as she could. She tore the draws open, throwing things out of them left and right. The panic was rising quickly in her, even though in her logical mind, there was no way for the spiders to get in. She got to the third draw down and found two large rolls of black duct tape. She snatched them up and went back into the main room, slamming the door behind her. The moment that the door was closed, she felt her heart rate start to slow down again. God knows why. Her worst nightmare was sitting right here in this room. Her husband who she had whacked around the head with a cricket bat and her on-the-side lover with a dicky knee were in the same room along with her daughter. Never mind the murderous spiders outside, this was bad enough for anyone to deal with. She went over to Trent and handed him the rolls of tape. He gingerly pulled up his trouser leg and uncovered the knee. The skin around it was starting to look like a party balloon and it was turning a nasty black colour. Trent took one of the rolls, picked out the end of the tape and began wrapping his leg, just above and below the injury. Then he wrapped the tape hard around his knee, grimacing, every time the tape touched the knee cap. When he was done, he tossed the roll to one side and lowered his trouser leg. He began to crawl his way backwards up the sofa. He got his good leg under him and he pushed his way up to his feet. He carefully put the wounded leg down. He winced as a bolt of pain came shooting up from the knee. On the plus side, he could stand on it. He tried a few paces around the room.

  “How is it?” said Mary.

  “Hurts. But it isn’t giving out. I think we got it,” said Trent, still hobbling around in a big circle. He looked down at the floor at Braden, who was beginning to stir. Mary had knocked him cold, but from what Trent could see, there was no permanent damage.