by Tom Simpson
THE WEB
The tickling is what woke him up. It had felt like someone had a feather and was giving his left ear a lesson in paying attention. He flipped at his ear with his left index finger like a dog impatiently swatting at a persistent flea. Nothing transpired from this effort other than the tickling went away which is exactly what he was trying to accomplish in the first place. His disappointment was evident though in the fact he didn’t feel anything substantial that would have caused the tickling in the first place.
Reaching over and pulling the chain on the bedside lamp he muttered a few illegible words and wondered why he was being bothered in the first place. Man, he thought. All I want to do is sleep. Why is something messing with me. The illumination from the frosted sixty watt bulb brought a whole new realization to the word amazement. He was much more than amazed. He was downright astonished. In fact he was much more than astonished. He was totally flabbergasted. His entire bedroom was completely covered in spider webs.
The thin white gossamer threads were everywhere. Every wall, the ceiling, every surface in the entire room was covered in the finely woven silk. It looked almost like a light snowfall had arrived, inside. What the heck, he muttered. I’ve been invaded by an army of stupid spiders. This is totally unreal. There must be fifty thousand spiders to have spun this much webbing in so short a time. I’ve only been sleeping about two hours. The strangest thing about this whole predicament he finally realized was he didn’t see one spider. No quick scampering when the light came on. No scurrying over the end of the bed out of sight. Nothing. Where did they all go and what is more important is where did they come from in the first place?
This is one time I wish my wife was still here, he thought. I sure would like to show this mess to someone else. No one will ever believe me. No, he thought some more. I don’t want her back no matter what the circumstances. I will get my camera and shoot some pictures of this. I sure will impress those jerks at work.
Brownie, the beagle, apparently hearing his master making noise decided to investigate what was interrupting his canine nap. Walking slowly into the room, his nose going ninety miles an hour, he sniffed the strange new smells emitting from the room, his hair on his back stood straight up. Something is wrong he thought. This new smell doesn’t fit in the dog dictionary of smells you encounter in your doggy life. Something sure isn’t right here.
The dog, deciding this wasn’t the place to spend the next part of his life turned tail and decided to exit stage left. Unfortunately, his squat little brown and white body brushed the webs hanging closest to the door. His forward progress was immediately halted by the sticky white thin threads. Squealing in fright the dog flipped on his back and began snapping at the unrelenting trap. Unfortunately, the more he struggled the more wrapped up he became.
The man, horror painting a mask on his face, didn’t hesitate a moment to go to the aid of his beloved pet.. Climbing off the bed he noticed, with some relief, the webs were not sticking to his body. Feeling slightly faint, almost nauseous, he hesitated a moment before heading toward the door. That is when the strange itching began down both sides of his body. Wanting to desperately help his dog he cursed himself because the itching all of a sudden became the most important thing in his life. It was driving him nuts. Not stopping to unbutton his pajama top he almost tore it off his upper torso. A scream, barely audible beyond the dog’s incessant yelping escaped from his lips.
Four angry red welts had sprung out on both sides of his rib cage. From these festering holes, brownish growths had begun and they were still growing as he watched. At least six inches in length, they looked almost like dark solid fingernails. They thickened as he watched and he noticed they were actually becoming segmented. Terror started giving way to another strange feeling. He didn’t realize what this new feeling was at first but, when he finally noticed the hole in the lower part of his stomach he didn’t seem to be that concerned about these new additions to his body. White sticky particles had clustered around the hole but, at this point he really didn’t care. It wasn’t till he looked back over at his dog, now completely covered that he realized what the strange feeling was. Hunger. He began moving toward his pet and didn’t seem to care that he was now walking on his hands as well as his feet and his movement had an almost crablike look to it.