Spinning the Grave - Chapter One

Words are spun, my imp-guide had told me. Not merely said. Not left to grow like weeds in an abandoned backyard.

I thought he’d been speaking figuratively. Now, standing before a six-foot-tall spider with nothing but a pair of scissors, I realize there was nothing figurative about it.

The torch I’d left on the cavern entrance threw barely enough light to see my own feet. But the spider’s web shimmered silver, and cast colour light on the wet cave floor, making it look like stained glass. The web was thickest nearest the spider, leaving a pool of rainbow light on the ground and walls around it. Its glossy fur soaked it up, so I could see a black spider-shaped hole tucked into the corner. It scared me to death. At least it was sleeping. I think. I mean, it wasn’t moving. Assuming it wasn’t playing dead to lure its naive prey closer. Assuming it wasn’t –

“Jill. Snap to it!” The fierce whisper came from my hood, where my imp-guide Tom was tucked away, clutching at my locks with his little claws. I took a moment to breath deep.

“Right.”

I shot a wry glance at the ceiling - and began to creep. It took me a moment to realize that bending my knees and holding my breath didn’t do me a lick of good. The spider’s legs had been stripped of hair years ago, which made it essentially deaf. Walking normally was faster and just as safe. Tom apparently didn't agree, if the violent tug on my hair was any indication.

"Tread lightly, Jill. Lightly! Oh, this is just brilliant."

"It is brilliant, I'm brilliant; the spider is deaf, and you can shut up now."

Amazingly, he did, and without him to distract me everything became sharper.

It’s an odd feeling, when your focus narrows down to one distinct point. When you know you’re moving but you don’t feel it, all you feel is that one point, that painful awareness. Feels like it should break any moment, but it doesn’t.

For me, that point was a single outstretched leg. I was watching for a movement, a twitch, anything. Watching so hard that when it came, I screamed.

I stumbled and fell to the floor. Its legs were moving, its eyes opened. Angry black diamonds in the dark. Run Jill, get up, just run!

And I was, I was pushing myself up, ready to run, to force these rigid legs to take me away. But the spider... just stopped. Its eyes closed and it collapsed against the wall. I watched it from a half-crouch, heart beating so hard and still wanting to run, run. Only one of its legs moved, slicing through a portion of the glittering web and flicking it hard so it landed between me and the exit. There was a beat, a moment, and I was on my feet. As I ran, I reached down and scooped up the slice of web. In seconds, I was out the cavern door. I never looked back; I’d gotten what I’d came for.

The sky hovered on the edge of dusk as I dragged myself out the hole in the tunnel’s ceiling and onto the grassy field. I could see my tent in the distance, on the edge of the forest – too close to the cavern for comfort. I hiked over, packed it up and carried it as far as I dared while the sky darkened.

And finally, after the single most confusing day of my life, I had time to think. Shit.

“Tom, say something. I need a - dist-ract-ion. Reeally nee-d...”

My throat felt tight, and my words were starting to slow and blur. But the images were coming, the familiar and terrible images, and I needed to speak, needed to let them out.

Her face, her young and nameless face, so twisted, mouth moving in silence...

I fumbled in my pack for the web and carefully cut and draped a single strand around my throat. There was a rush of exhilaration that I’d never felt before, the words felt fresh and alive in my throat, pouring out like smooth butter.

The people rushing, the occasional foot slamming down on her tucked in limbs...

It felt wrong to talk so easily, given what it was I had to say.

“It feels like Baybark all over again. I know I shouldn’t think that, it was just a spider for Words sake, but it felt... locked in, maybe? Silent. Suffering. Like... them. Her.” He didn’t respond. Of course he didn’t. Still, I could feel the pressure lifting, the images becoming blurred and devoid of emotion. Like a terrible story only half-listened to, when you have better things to do. I took a breath, listened to the sound as I exhaled, loud and clear in the silence.

“And when it collapsed like that, it seemed so... tired.” I paused, hugging myself and bringing my knees to my face to ward off the chill.

“It could have killed me, Tom. I’m sure of it.” I could feel tears building up behind my eyes, and all I wished for was my mom to be here, to be holding me and comforting me. But she was at home, in bed, and she wasn’t in a state to comfort anyone. Tom, sarcastic and cryptic little runt that he was, was all I had.

“Damn it Tom, say something!”

I waited. Ten whole seconds, just like they tell you – deep breaths. Well maybe not seconds. I counted to ten, alright? I say that’s pretty good on my part. And then I reached back into my hood, ready to tear the little maggot a new one.

He wasn’t there. My fingers came out coated in blood.