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The Haunting.
A Short Story.
Part Two.
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The spider sat staring at him from his desk. He stared back. Their eyes were deadlocked. Neither he nor the spider dared move for fear of attack.
Whatever would happen next...
He stared at the spider that was sitting on his desk. "This isn't possible." He thought. "I killed that spider. I know I did. I threw a dart through its belly and nailed it to the ceiling of the livingroom."
He risked looking away from the spider and looked upwards to where the spider had hung lifeless. There was a small hole in the roof where the dart had struck. He hadn't imagined it. There had been a fight to the death and the spider had lost.
His eyes moved back to where the spider was sitting. "What the hell is going on here?" He said.
A voice seemed to whisper in his ear. "You are a brave warrior." It said. "I have come to seek your help." It continued.
He shook his head and wondered if he was hearing things or if the little voice in his head was his imagination playing tricks on him again. "Shut up." He thought to himself to silence the internal voice.
"I didn't say anything." His internal voice replied.
"Oh Fu..." He said. Fear had overtaken him and he was so scared he couldn't finish the sentence.
The voice in his ear spoke again. "You are not hearing things, brave warrior, I speak to you."
"Ok, what's going on here?" He said.
"I come to seek your help." The voice continued.
"Am I dreaming? Is that it? Have I fell asleep at my desk and have began dreaming this? Because if I'm dreaming then I'd much rather be riding a fast motorcycle along an empty country road with Valentino Rossi trying to keep up." He said.
"You are not dreaming brave warrior. I am speaking. Come closer." Said the voice.
He walked towards his desk slowly. Fear was still the thing he felt the most and his legs only just obeyed his thoughts. Until that point he didn't really realize how sensible his legs were. He approached his desk with trepidation. The voice spoke again. "Come, brave warrior, sit. You are in no danger. I am on a mission of mercy."
He sat at his desk and stared at the spider. The spider stared back. "That is better brave warrior, I can speak to you without having to shout. I can't tell you how difficult it is for me to be heard across a room. It plays havoc on my vocal chords, it totally ruins my singing voice."
"Your singing voice?" He questioned.
"Yes, I sing in a band on weekends. We're quite good. We do all the good songs. You know the ones, the kind you can sing along to." Said the spider.
"Would I have heard any of them?" He asked.
"Yes. You must have heard about the brave spider warrior Itsy Bitsy." Said the spider.
"You mean the song about the spider climbing up the waterspout?" He asked.
"Yes. Itsy Bitsy was a brave spider who fought so that other spiders may live. He refused to give in when the rains came, he waited with great patience until the shining orb returned and he could climb the waterspout again." The spider said.
"I thought that was just a children's rhyme." He said.
"The meaning was lost during the telling of it to one of your human composers." The spider said.
"You mean to tell me that the song Itsy Bitsy Spider was told to a human by a spider?" He asked.
"Yes." Said the spider. "The original spider version has ten verses but for some reason the human composer only liked the first verse." The spider continued.
"Why are you here?" He asked.
"I have come to seek your help brave warrior." The spider answered.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" He asked.
"Because that is what you are known as in the world of the spiders. You are the brave warrior who killed the bravest of all spiders. You fought with the great warrior General Bitsy and killed him." Said the spider.
"Was he a relative of Itsy Bitsy?" He asked.
"He was the one and only Itsy Bitsy." The spider answered.
"You mean I killed the real Itsy Bitsy Spider from the nursery rhyme?" He asked.
"Yes, he came to seek your help but you startled him and his instinct took over. He fought you and you won." The spider replied.
The thought that he had killed the bravest spider ever hit him. He put his hands over his face and apologized to the spider that was sitting on his desk.
"General Bitsy died the way he would have wanted to die, in battle with a brave warrior. General Bitsy was never the type to die in his bed surrounded by his millions." The spider said.
"Millions? Don't you mean minions?" He asked.
"No. I mean millions. General Bitsy had many children."
"Millions... Of children?" He asked.
"Yes, General Bitsy was the father of over 3 million spiders." The spider said.
"Didn't the TV work?" He said, almost as a joke.
"We do not have TV in our world. We pass the time surfing the web." The spider said, obviously missing the humor.
"You don't have TV but you have computers?" He asked, curiously.
"No. Surfing the web is when we slide down strands of silk for fun." The spider replied. "Or there's freejumping, we sometimes do that." It continued.
"What's that?" He asked.
"That is when we jump from somewhere high and shoot out a length of silk at the last possible second and land safely. General Bitsy came up with the idea many years ago when he was a small spider. He was like that. Always looking for some way to get himself an adrenalin buzz." The spider told him.
The spider told him more stories of the things that General Bitsy used to do and he felt more and more sorry that he was the one responsible for the death of such a wonderful spider. After about half an hour of listening to the adventures of General Bitsy he couldn't take anymore and he began to cry. As he cried he tried to apologize to the spider but the words came out garbled.
He dropped his head onto the desk, narrowly missing the spider, and cried for at least five minutes. The spider tried to talk him out of crying so much but it didn't seem to help so it climbed up his arm, sat on his shoulder and patted him on the back saying "There, there."
After a short time he had stopped crying and the spider tried to tell him not to worry about the death of General Bitsy. But the emotion overtook it and the spider began to cry. The spider lay in front of his computer screen and banged on the desk with at least six of its legs. "Why did he have to fight!" Screamed the spider. "He was on a mission of peace!" It continued.
It seemed to him that the spider was in need of something to dry its eyes with so he walked through to the kitchen and got the spider a piece of kitchen roll. When he returned the spider has stopped crying then it took the kitchen roll and began to dry all of its eyes.
After the spider had dried all of its eyes he asked it a question.
"You said that General Bitsy, god rest his soul, was on a mission of peace." He asked.
"Yes. He came to seek your help with a problem in our world." It said.
"What problem?" He asked.
"There is a war going on in our world. There are two armies trying to kill our race so that they can take over the spider domain." It told him.
"And General Bitsy thought I could help?" He asked.
"Yes, He has seen you fight the enemies of the spiders before. You fought without fear or a second thought for your own safety. He thought if he could speak to you you might help us to fight." The spider said.
He wondered what the spider could have meant but couldn't figure it out so he asked the spider who the enemies of the spiders were.
"They are the yellow backed ones and the big winged ones. In your words they are called Wasps and Daddy Long Legs." It told him. "The yellow backed ones sting us and we die and the big winged ones kill us and eat us." It continued.
"So all I have to do is kill as many wasps as possible and every Daddy Long Legs I see and your race will be fine?" He asked.
"Sadly it is not so simple. If you killed 100 Wasps there would still be a Queen and if you killed 100 Daddy Long Legs their leader would still live. In order for the spider race to survive we must kill the Queen Wasp and the Daddy Daddy Long Legs." It said.
"Ok then. Where are they? I'll whack them with a newspaper and everything will be hunky dory." He said.
"Once again it is not so simple. The Queen Wasp never leaves her nest and the Daddy Daddy Long Legs never leaves his." The spider told him.
"So how do I kill them?" He asked.
"You must fight them in their Palaces. But there are many dangers. There is a constant guard on the Queen Wasp and the Daddy Daddy Long Legs is a fierce warrior. More so than even General Itsy Bitsy ever was. This is the reason General Bitsy sought your help. He knew that together you and he would have a chance of victory." The spider answered.
"Don't you have spider soldiers?" He asked.
"Yes, but they do not have a leader now. General Bitsy was the greatest military mind we had. And now he is gone. Without him we are lost." The spider said.
It was then that something in his mind changed. He was responsible for them being without their greatest fighter, their best leader and their best hope of survival but he was not about to be responsible for the death of an entire race. It was at that point that he knew...
He must help the spiders to fight against the extermination of their race...
The Haunting.
A Short Story.
Part Two.
*********************************************
The spider sat staring at him from his desk. He stared back. Their eyes were deadlocked. Neither he nor the spider dared move for fear of attack.
Whatever would happen next...
*********************************************
He stared at the spider that was sitting on his desk. "This isn't possible." He thought. "I killed that spider. I know I did. I threw a dart through its belly and nailed it to the ceiling of the livingroom."
He risked looking away from the spider and looked upwards to where the spider had hung lifeless. There was a small hole in the roof where the dart had struck. He hadn't imagined it. There had been a fight to the death and the spider had lost.
His eyes moved back to where the spider was sitting. "What the hell is going on here?" He said.
A voice seemed to whisper in his ear. "You are a brave warrior." It said. "I have come to seek your help." It continued.
He shook his head and wondered if he was hearing things or if the little voice in his head was his imagination playing tricks on him again. "Shut up." He thought to himself to silence the internal voice.
"I didn't say anything." His internal voice replied.
"Oh Fu..." He said. Fear had overtaken him and he was so scared he couldn't finish the sentence.
The voice in his ear spoke again. "You are not hearing things, brave warrior, I speak to you."
"Ok, what's going on here?" He said.
"I come to seek your help." The voice continued.
"Am I dreaming? Is that it? Have I fell asleep at my desk and have began dreaming this? Because if I'm dreaming then I'd much rather be riding a fast motorcycle along an empty country road with Valentino Rossi trying to keep up." He said.
"You are not dreaming brave warrior. I am speaking. Come closer." Said the voice.
He walked towards his desk slowly. Fear was still the thing he felt the most and his legs only just obeyed his thoughts. Until that point he didn't really realize how sensible his legs were. He approached his desk with trepidation. The voice spoke again. "Come, brave warrior, sit. You are in no danger. I am on a mission of mercy."
He sat at his desk and stared at the spider. The spider stared back. "That is better brave warrior, I can speak to you without having to shout. I can't tell you how difficult it is for me to be heard across a room. It plays havoc on my vocal chords, it totally ruins my singing voice."
"Your singing voice?" He questioned.
"Yes, I sing in a band on weekends. We're quite good. We do all the good songs. You know the ones, the kind you can sing along to." Said the spider.
"Would I have heard any of them?" He asked.
"Yes. You must have heard about the brave spider warrior Itsy Bitsy." Said the spider.
"You mean the song about the spider climbing up the waterspout?" He asked.
"Yes. Itsy Bitsy was a brave spider who fought so that other spiders may live. He refused to give in when the rains came, he waited with great patience until the shining orb returned and he could climb the waterspout again." The spider said.
"I thought that was just a children's rhyme." He said.
"The meaning was lost during the telling of it to one of your human composers." The spider said.
"You mean to tell me that the song Itsy Bitsy Spider was told to a human by a spider?" He asked.
"Yes." Said the spider. "The original spider version has ten verses but for some reason the human composer only liked the first verse." The spider continued.
"Why are you here?" He asked.
"I have come to seek your help brave warrior." The spider answered.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" He asked.
"Because that is what you are known as in the world of the spiders. You are the brave warrior who killed the bravest of all spiders. You fought with the great warrior General Bitsy and killed him." Said the spider.
"Was he a relative of Itsy Bitsy?" He asked.
"He was the one and only Itsy Bitsy." The spider answered.
"You mean I killed the real Itsy Bitsy Spider from the nursery rhyme?" He asked.
"Yes, he came to seek your help but you startled him and his instinct took over. He fought you and you won." The spider replied.
The thought that he had killed the bravest spider ever hit him. He put his hands over his face and apologized to the spider that was sitting on his desk.
"General Bitsy died the way he would have wanted to die, in battle with a brave warrior. General Bitsy was never the type to die in his bed surrounded by his millions." The spider said.
"Millions? Don't you mean minions?" He asked.
"No. I mean millions. General Bitsy had many children."
"Millions... Of children?" He asked.
"Yes, General Bitsy was the father of over 3 million spiders." The spider said.
"Didn't the TV work?" He said, almost as a joke.
"We do not have TV in our world. We pass the time surfing the web." The spider said, obviously missing the humor.
"You don't have TV but you have computers?" He asked, curiously.
"No. Surfing the web is when we slide down strands of silk for fun." The spider replied. "Or there's freejumping, we sometimes do that." It continued.
"What's that?" He asked.
"That is when we jump from somewhere high and shoot out a length of silk at the last possible second and land safely. General Bitsy came up with the idea many years ago when he was a small spider. He was like that. Always looking for some way to get himself an adrenalin buzz." The spider told him.
The spider told him more stories of the things that General Bitsy used to do and he felt more and more sorry that he was the one responsible for the death of such a wonderful spider. After about half an hour of listening to the adventures of General Bitsy he couldn't take anymore and he began to cry. As he cried he tried to apologize to the spider but the words came out garbled.
He dropped his head onto the desk, narrowly missing the spider, and cried for at least five minutes. The spider tried to talk him out of crying so much but it didn't seem to help so it climbed up his arm, sat on his shoulder and patted him on the back saying "There, there."
After a short time he had stopped crying and the spider tried to tell him not to worry about the death of General Bitsy. But the emotion overtook it and the spider began to cry. The spider lay in front of his computer screen and banged on the desk with at least six of its legs. "Why did he have to fight!" Screamed the spider. "He was on a mission of peace!" It continued.
It seemed to him that the spider was in need of something to dry its eyes with so he walked through to the kitchen and got the spider a piece of kitchen roll. When he returned the spider has stopped crying then it took the kitchen roll and began to dry all of its eyes.
After the spider had dried all of its eyes he asked it a question.
"You said that General Bitsy, god rest his soul, was on a mission of peace." He asked.
"Yes. He came to seek your help with a problem in our world." It said.
"What problem?" He asked.
"There is a war going on in our world. There are two armies trying to kill our race so that they can take over the spider domain." It told him.
"And General Bitsy thought I could help?" He asked.
"Yes, He has seen you fight the enemies of the spiders before. You fought without fear or a second thought for your own safety. He thought if he could speak to you you might help us to fight." The spider said.
He wondered what the spider could have meant but couldn't figure it out so he asked the spider who the enemies of the spiders were.
"They are the yellow backed ones and the big winged ones. In your words they are called Wasps and Daddy Long Legs." It told him. "The yellow backed ones sting us and we die and the big winged ones kill us and eat us." It continued.
"So all I have to do is kill as many wasps as possible and every Daddy Long Legs I see and your race will be fine?" He asked.
"Sadly it is not so simple. If you killed 100 Wasps there would still be a Queen and if you killed 100 Daddy Long Legs their leader would still live. In order for the spider race to survive we must kill the Queen Wasp and the Daddy Daddy Long Legs." It said.
"Ok then. Where are they? I'll whack them with a newspaper and everything will be hunky dory." He said.
"Once again it is not so simple. The Queen Wasp never leaves her nest and the Daddy Daddy Long Legs never leaves his." The spider told him.
"So how do I kill them?" He asked.
"You must fight them in their Palaces. But there are many dangers. There is a constant guard on the Queen Wasp and the Daddy Daddy Long Legs is a fierce warrior. More so than even General Itsy Bitsy ever was. This is the reason General Bitsy sought your help. He knew that together you and he would have a chance of victory." The spider answered.
"Don't you have spider soldiers?" He asked.
"Yes, but they do not have a leader now. General Bitsy was the greatest military mind we had. And now he is gone. Without him we are lost." The spider said.
It was then that something in his mind changed. He was responsible for them being without their greatest fighter, their best leader and their best hope of survival but he was not about to be responsible for the death of an entire race. It was at that point that he knew...
He must help the spiders to fight against the extermination of their race...
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