Spider

Woman (19) killed

No sign of the murderer

Natural causes?

Woman (18) killed
-Serial killer?

Two friends (18) killed on the way home

I saw these headlines. But I never payed much attention to them. You know, there's always murders. And society makes us insensitive. Then one day I saw this.

Woman (19) killed
-Killer is moving

Moving to my hometown. Now what was I supposed to do? I was 18, like most of the victims. I could be the next. But of course, there's a lot of 18 year old women in this town. I'm not one to go around and worry so I stayed in a little more at night and didn't go out alone. Other than that I kept going with my life.

Serial killer strikes again
-18-year-old killed.

Asking for tips from the readers. Appartently the police didn't know what to do. And I knew this girl! We weren't best friends but we used to hang out. I don't like it when things like these get too close.

I went out with some friends to see a movie one night. Me, Chris and Jill all enjoy horror movies, which are usually late here. It started at 11pm, so we got out again around 1am. We were walking home, joking and laughing, when all of a sudden I noticed something on the wall next to us. 'Look...' I said. They did. It was kind of a metal frame, with a blue and black spiral inside. The spiral seemed to lead into something big, but it wasnt possible to tell how big. I got dizzy just by looking at it so I turned around. There was a man. I think it was a man. He was dressed in black, with a hood over his face. He stepped closer to me, grabbing my shoulders. I instantly knew this was the killer. I was too terrified to even scream. Chris and Jill turned around and saw us. They screamed at the top of their lungs but I could hardly hear them. I think I recall seeing them run away but I'm not sure.

I woke up at the hospital. Some men were gathered on the other side of the room. One of them a doctor, the others dressed in black trench coats. It all suddenly came back to me. One of them turned around and noticed I was awake. As he walked over to me I tried to back away but there was a wall in the way and I only ended up sitting up in the bed. 'Don't be afraid' the man told me. I looked at him, still afraid. 'It's not helping to tell you that, is it?' he said. 'Tom, Scott, come over here' he said to the other two. The doctor went out of the room.

Spider. I've always been afraid of spiders. Now I had to trust them. The man, who was named Ryan, told me the three of them were a special investigatement group. Called Spider. They were hunting this serial killer. They asked me to tell them everything I remembered. So I did.

'A what? A Spiral?' Tom said. 'I don't think we've received this information before...' Scott mumbled, half to himself. 'Yeah, and there was a metal frame around it... I'll draw it for you if you want' I said. Scott handed me pen and paper.

'Hmm...' The Spiders obviously hadn't seen anything like this before. 'And the man was standing right behind you?' 'I don't know if it was a man, but yeah' I said. Ryan looked up at me. 'We call him the Fly, because it seems he flies away from every victim. There's never any trace of him. This spiral could have something to do with it though.' He looked down at the drawing again. So that's why they call themselves Spider, I thought.

They made a temporary office in a room right next to the church in town. I was there a lot, talking to them about the progress of the investigation, and a lot of other stuff. They turned out to be really nice guys, but also very professional. Weeks went by without any other sign of the 'Fly'. I had started hoping he had moved on to another town. Then one night when I was walking home from what had been a long night in the Spider HQ, I could feel someone watching me. I looked around, thought it was one of the Spider guys who had run after me for some reason, but couldn't see anyone. I shrugged it off, blaming it on the constant paranoia I'd had since I saw him.

He took me by surprise. His arms were all of a sudden around my upper body, holding me so tight I couldn't move at all. I froze, once again unable to scream. I could hear his soft laughter in my ear. I saw the spiral on a wall only a few feet away. It seemed to be calling for me. The Fly started moving towards it, taking me with him. Just then I heard Scott calling for me. The Fly must have heard it too because he quickly let go of me and dove into the spiral. Then it disappeared.

When Scott caught up with me I was still shaking. 'Was it him?' he asked, having seen him go straight into the wall. I nod my head. He put his arm around me. 'I'll walk you home. We'll talk about it tomorrow.'

Down at the Spider HQ the next morning, everyone was seriously stressed. The only one not moving was me. Ryan was on the phone all the time, with various authorities, journalists and anyone who might know something. I'm sure I heard him talking to the Chief Constable at least three times. Tom was going through every archive available, searching for something, anything that had any relation. Scott was trying to fight off all the journalists who were crowding the room, while being friendly to all the police officers who were trying to get more information. The local science fiction fans were surrounding the building.

In the middle of all this was I, sitting on a chair in front of a desk, still trembling. I hadn't slept at all during the night. Any sound was enough to scare me. Tom came over and put a blanket over my shoulders. 'Five minutes and I'll be with you' he said. I stared at the floor. I heard Ryan scream into the phone just as Scott pushed the last nosy reporter out of the door. Tom slammed a drawer back in and came over to me. He sat down on the other side of the desk. 'Are you alright?' he asked. 'Yeah' I said, and heard how pathetic my voice sounded. I cleared my throat. 'I'm ok.' He looked at me like he didn't believe me. 'If you don't mind, I'd like you to tell me everything that happened since you left here.' 'Ok...' I started. 'I was walking home when I felt someone watching me.' I took a deep breath. 'I looked around but couldn't see anything. Then suddenly he was standing behind me, holding me so that I couldn't move.' At this point my voice was trembling so I stopped. 'Yes?' Tom said. 'In your own time.' I cleared my throat again. 'I... I can't remember... I heard him laughing, then something scared him and he let me go.' Now Ryan had come over to the desk too. 'Did you see his face?' he asked. 'No... He was still wearing the hood I think.'

I stayed in there all day. I was too scared to even go to the bathroom alone. I felt pathetic, but couldn't help it. It wasn't just a normal murderer. For all I knew he could come right out of the wall. And I knew I'd freeze again. 'Relax' they all told me. But they knew I couldn't.

I didn't want to leave that night. I really didn't. I refused to get up from the chair. Eventually Scott pulled me up. 'You can't stay here all night' he said. I looked at him with pleading eyes. He smiled at me. 'Even we don't stay here at night. You need to get home.' 'But I'll be all alone' I said. 'You live alone?' He'd frozen. 'My boyfriend's out of town' I told him. 'Damnit, why haven't you told us before?' He looked worried. The others had also gathered around. 'I don't think you should be alone' Tom said. Ryan agreed. 'Well what do I do?' I asked. 'I guess you'll just have to stay here tonight.' Scott sighed. 'And so do we.'

Well the night scared the hell out of me. Staying there was not as great as I'd thought. There were no beds. Ryan and Scott fell asleep in chairs while Tom put his jacket under his head and slept on the floor. I couldn't sleep at all. I went to the window and looked out, I read the comics lying around, I went off to the bathroom every now and then. Finally I sat down on the floor and let my head fall back against the wall. I looked up to the ceiling and noticed the reflection of a blue light coming from somewhere inside the room. I've watched too many horror movies to go check every weird light, I can't help but be careful around mysterious happenings. Fairly quickly I realized it wouldn't have made a difference if I'd tried to find out what it was.

He was in the room. Even worse, he was watching me, he must have been. Just when I put my head in my hands, I felt a sharp pain in my back. I fell forward, holding my hands out to break the fall. He kicked me, making me roll over onto my back. I looked up at the black figure. He bent down over me.

I had a dream that I was floating around in nothing. There was no time, no space, no worries... Only me... and him. I reached to take off his hood so I could see his face. He was just looking at me. Then the image faded...

I heard Ryan calling my name several times before I saw anything. When I finally opened my eyes I saw him sitting next to me on the floor. I couldn't see Tom or Scott anywhere. I looked up at Ryan, his face was mostly a blur. 'I can't take you anywhere' he said. I tried to ask why not, but not a sound came out. He looked around. 'Just try to relax...' he said and stood up. I saw him staring at something, then I passed out again.

I don't know how much later I woke up, but my back was aching, I had a headache and I could tell it had been days since the last time I got any food. It was dark around me, I couldn't see a thing. I was lying on a bed placed next to a stone wall. Suddenly I noticed another presence in the room. I held my breath, waiting for it to speak, move or in some way make itself known to me. Then I realized it already had, by letting me feel its presence. I sat up on the bed and stared into the darkness, trying to figure out where it was. It sat down behind me. I could feel a hand on my neck and its warm breath on my ear as it was whispering something to me. 'Be careful who you reveal yourself to... You never know who's your friend... or enemy...' I waited for him to explain what that meant, but he drew back. I turned around to face him, even if it was still as if I was blind. 'Who are you?' I whispered. Only silence followed for a few minutes. His hand was still on my neck, my skin was burning from the touch. 'I cannot say.' He let a finger glide down from my neck to my breast. 'You will know when the time is right.' He stood up and walked away.

I stood up also, but didn't know where to go. This was when I realized I was naked. I sat back down on the bed, contemplating what he had just told me. I put my hand on the wall, as if to make sure it was really there. The cold stone felt good on my burning skin and I leaned back against it. I must have passed out again, because the next thing I remember is being in a well lit room with the Spider guys standing above me. I made sure I was wearing clothes before paying any attention to them. Someone had dressed me in a black track suit, but at this point I didn't really care who that had been.

I looked up at the guys and realized I didn't remember their names. 'Who are you?' I asked. They didn't look surprised. 'Our mundane names are long forgotten,' one of them said. This didn't scare me as much as I would have thought it would. 'Our new ones are to be kept secret,' he continued. 'Why?' I asked. The silence threatened to break my skull. 'But who are you?' I tried to sit up but couldn't move. 'We are your protectors,' one of the others told me. 'What do I need protection against?' I asked, still struggling to move my arms and legs. 'A demon,' one of them said. 'A demon known as the Fly.'

Suddenly it all came back to me. The dark room, the man, everything that had happened before. 'He's not a demon' I said, then realized I shouldn't have. The Spiders came closer in an almost threatening manner. 'How would you know?' Tom said. 'We're the ones that are hunting him.' When he said 'hunting' it was as if everything fell into place. The Fly wasn't the bad guy, they were. At least from my point of view, ignoring the fact that he killed a lot of women. For some reason he was looking for me, and it wasn't to kill me. If it was, he would have done it long time ago. No wonder Spider was so interested in me...

I was back in the HQ. The room was empty. The windows were black. I looked up at the clock on the wall but had to check twice before I realized it was 4 AM. The date I had no idea about. I could have been gone for days. A single lamp on one of the desks provided just enough light for me to make use of my eyes. I supported myself on one arm and looked around again. There was no sign of anyone else. I lay back down. I was sure all the bones in my body were broken. I lay motionless for almost two hours, until I heard someone coming in the hall. They stopped right outside the door. I lifted my head and tried to sit up, but the effort needed was too great for me to make. Silence surrounded me. I was waiting for the person in the hall to move.

Tick...

I never realized the clock on the wall was so loud. I held my breath and tried to figure out what he could be doing. How could he possibly spend this long?

Tock...

Wasn't he going to open the door? Why was he waiting for so long? Who could it be who was coming here as early as 6 in the morning? It couldn't be some cleaning lady, they never waited before entering. As far as I knew, Spider didn't have one anyway.

Tick...

Every second lasted forever, and what seemed like hours wasn't even a minute. I knew this, yet looked up at the clock at least 5 times every second. It seemed to have stopped.

Tock...

Someone grabbed the door handle. The sound of it startled me. Eternity passed, then I saw the door moving. A thousand possibilities of who it could be and what would happen next passed through my brain. It couldn't be the Fly, well it could be but most likely not. He could come straight out of the wall, why would he use the door? It could be any of the Spider guys. But why weren't they here when I woke up? It could be a journalist, a police officer or just some curious soul. It could be anyone. But at 6 AM? I turned to look at the wall, afraid of what would appear once the door opened.

Whoever it was let go of the handle. The door was open. I was still facing the wall. A step was taken towards me. The floor was uncomfortable, my back was starting to ache. The migraine made use of every opportunity to torture me. The steps continued, until the figure was standing next to me. I was staring at a spot on the wall, afraid to look away for just a second.

A hand on my shoulder. I stopped breathing. 'Do yourself a favour,' I heard a voice saying, 'and get up from that floor before they come back for you.' I slowly turned around to look at the man. He had really intense eyes, long black hair gathered in a pony tail and a black trench coat much like the ones the Spider guys always wore. 'Wh-who are you?' I half stuttered. 'Names don't mean much' he said as he picked me up from the floor. 'People on this planet know me as Jonathan.'