Monster Fever

“That useless fucking nerd! I can’t fucking believe him!” Regina stomped along in the dark of the forest, holding her phone up and letting its light illuminate the immediate area. “Dragging his slut friends to the party with us, getting us lost, then “I’m going to get out and take a look, it’ll feel good to stretch my legs,” she whined in an unflattering imitation of her boyfriend’s voice, “And now we’re all screwed! Wandering out in fuck knows where, with wolves howling, and inbred hilljacks just waiting to rape us to death! Fucking idiot!”

She was so breaking up with him. He never really deserved her anyway, he didn’t have nearly enough money and he didn’t know anyone important, so he was nice, so what? He was just a useless fucking nerd in the end. Well, not totally useless. He’d take her anywhere she wanted and God, did he ever know how to fuck and eat pussy! That was the good thing about dating a geek; they worked so hard for it!

But this was the last straw. She’d tolerated that stuck-up bitch Sarah as one of his friends before they met, but then Sarah had let to airhead Ally and that simpering cow Sheena. She knew the porky little bitch wanted her man. Well, she could have him after this. If she didn’t get eaten by a wolf or turned into some hilljack’s shotgun bride, that is. Regina smirked at that thought, a bit of a spring back in her step. Yes, she’d break up with Greg after this, but not right away. She’d squeeze for what she could, really make him bend over backwards to make it up to her, and then dump him.

She’d just follow this little road whatever to a real road or town, get signal back, and call a friend to pick her up. Then maybe tomorrow she’d call the cops or something to go after the others. They deserved a night in cold, wet, bumfuck nowhere for jerking her around, getting her lost, and making her miss the party. She’d so been going to hook up with Riley too; it would have been awesome but instead, this had to happen.

Maybe they could all get eaten by wolves. Fuck that asshole and his bitch friends. It wasn’t like he’d found her or come after her or anything either. He watched all that boring wilderness shit and where was he? Lost like the rest of them.

After running from the clearing, she’d come across a much clearer and broader path lower on down the ridge. It was dirt but it was still mostly clear and looked like it had at least once been well used. It even looked like there used to be tracks for a train or something at one time, though it must have been a small train. She had been walking along the remains of the wooden ties the rails had rested on for what felt like forever, when suddenly the forest on both sides faded away and a vast blackness loomed up ahead.

Regina lifted her phone up higher, though the silvery moonlight provided enough light to see. “What the fuck is that?” Ahead of her, the path she was on clearly leading to it was the side of the ridge, a steep slope, and at its base was an opening framed with thick wooden timbers and the remnants of a brief canopy extending from the side of the slope over it. “It’s a…a tunnel.” No wonder they were lost! They must be on the wrong side of the ridge. “Looks creepy…” But she’d heard there were tunnels for the old mines that went through the ridges and mountains around here. That meant it went through, so it’d be shorter to go through it than to walk around all night. So she should use it to get to the other side and back closer to town.

But it really, really looked creepy.

Maybe she should go the back the other way the road thingy lead. That’d be a smart move too, right? But that could take hours! This would cut right through the mountain! Regina sighed and shook her head, “I am not staying out here one minute longer than I have to.” God, she was going to make Greg regret this so much. It was all because of him that she had to go into this ugly tunnel!

She walked under the faintly creaking wood of the canopy that covered the entrance to the old mine and paused again. Oh, oh, this was so creepy! Just go. Just do it and get it over with; like going down on her math TA. Or her history TA. Regina turned her phone over to thumb through to the flashlight app Greg had made her get and open it. About time the damn thing was useful and didn’t just take up memory. Regina walked into the old mine and under the earth, shining the short beam of light that came from the phone ahead of her.

The darkness was like nothing she’d ever even imagined. Total blackness all around her; cut only by where the beam from her phone shone; everything else was a dark so deep it seemed it could never, ever go away. The blackness was so total and so heavy that Regina almost felt if she reached out, she’d be able to touch it. But the darkness wasn’t the worst thing of all; heavy and smothering as it was. The worst was the silence. It was quieter than a tomb and her every footfall sounded as loud as a roll of thunder. Even her breathing sounded too loud.

She couldn’t freak out. Just follow the ties of the old railroad and she’d take the tunnel right out the other side of the ridge. She kept the beam of light trained on the old, thick wooden lengths that were set in the ground, deliberately not looking in any other direction. She wasn’t going to look back either; she’d made her decision. Just keep going forward.

“Fuck,” she whispered and then flinched, the low sound of her voice like a shout in the dead silence, “How long is this thing?” She didn’t think she’d been walking too long, but it was also hard to tell. She couldn’t look at her phone to check the time without blinding herself given the difference in illumination and she wasn’t about to do that. Her steps were long and fast at first but her strides got shorter and more careful as she went along. Regina swallowed, glancing from side to side, unable to see in the blackness. Anything could be right over there and she wouldn’t know. Something could jump out at her at any moment!

But there wasn’t anything in here. No, there was nothing that would live in a tunnel. No way; the only real danger out in the country were the hilljacks and they’d live in trailers and run down old cabins that their ‘great great grand pappy” built. There wasn’t anything in here with her. No reason to be scared at all.

Something brushed against her shoulder and she screamed; screamed like a starlet being murdered in an old horror flick. The sounded was deafening in the dark space of the mind and seemed to rebound and stretch out even after it had left her lips. She leaped back, shining her light up with shaking hands, only for the beam to illuminate a large spiderweb hanging down from one of the wooden columns holding the roof of the tunnel up. It glittered and gleamed in the light, save for a dark, ugly spot where the webweaver sat. “Ugh! Ew, ew, ewww!” Regina brushed at her shoulder and then her hair, making sure none of the nasty stuff got in it. She glared up at the web, half tempted to use a stick or something and wreck it. However, she didn’t have a stick and she wasn’t about to touch it with her hand. What if that was one of those brown recluse spiders? They were poisonous, right? “You got off lucky,” she informed the tiny arachnid, then sniffed and went on.

She walked on for a while longer, still following the wooden ties that had once held the rails for the mining carts and thinking it was for a small train. Regina paused now and then to stop and listen. The darkness and the silence were getting to her. She kept thinking she heard something; a faint tap-tap noise of movement. It came again, a faint sound of several very light taps in a row, and it sounded…it sounded closer.

No, no, she was just freaking herself out. There was nothing in here. It was her mind playing tricks on her, or the echo of her own footsteps. She did have on boots with heels, that’s where the tapping was coming from. It all made sense. Her light wavered a bit now, because the ground was uneven she told herself, not because she was shaking. She went on, steadfastly ignoring the faint tapping as it seemed to grow even closer. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her hair was trying to stand up on end but she forced herself to keep walking. Just keep going. Get to the end of the tunnel and then get the fuck out of here and never, ever come back. Suddenly, she noticed the darkness up ahead lifting slightly and she let out a shaky whimper of relief. Oh, thank God, she must be near the end of the tunnel! It was almost over!

“Hi,” said a soft, feminine voice just behind her.

“UWAAHHHH!” Regina leaped straight up into the air, her heart stopping as it crammed into her throat. “Ahh, fuck, fuck, shit!” She spun, turning her light and hearing a soft gasp and hiss of breath.

The beam illuminated a young woman who flinched and covered her face when the light hit her. She was fair skinned and had hair that was as white as pure snow on her head, flowing down past her shoulders. She was wearing an old flannel shirt that was open partway; the fabric deformed a bit by what looked like an ample chest. The girl was leaning around the corner of a side passage, only her shoulders, head and upper chest visible. “Ow, my eyes!”

“Wh-wh-what the FUCK? You scared the hell out of me, you dumb cunt!” Regina’s eyes were wide and she was breathing heavy, her lips curled in fear and fury. “Don’t sneak up on people like that!” She lowered the beam of light away from the woman’s face directly, shining it on her chest.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she replied. Her voice was lilting and sweet and she offered Regina an apologetic smile. “I heard something up here and thought it was a deer that had gotten in or something, then I heard you scream and knew it was a human. I was so excited! It’s been a long time since anyone came around here.” She looked Regina up and down and it might have been a trick of the light, but it seemed like her dark eyes were almost segmented. “Let alone a pretty girl.”

“Sure, whatever.” Okay, so crazy flannel girl lived in a tunnel? She didn’t think the economy was that bad. “Glad I could break up your day.” Regina was not about to stay around though; living in a place like this, the girl must be a fucking psycho. “That’s the way out ahead, right?”

The young woman nodded, “I go out that way, yes, but-“

“Great! Thanks, see you later, creepy tunnel girl!” Regina turned and started to stride towards the entrance at a brisk walk. “Happy Halloween, have a good life, all that crap!”

“Wait, miss-“

“Sorry, sweetie, I’m not waiting for your Pa to find me and wear my skin or anything, I’m gone.” Regina started to walk a little faster, breaking into a light jog. She heard that strange tapping sound behind her again.

“But-“

“Fuck you, tunnel girl, I’m leaving!” Regina broke into a trot, her tits bouncing in her tight costume as she did so, “This place is super creepy, you’re cute but should not be here at all, I am not sticking around to find out whatever fucked up shit is going on here.” It was getting lighter ahead and she wanted to dance. “This tunnel is ending and I am-“

She skidded to a halt, a few bits of stone and small twigs clattering over the rock as she did so, her eyes staring in disbelief and her mouth falling open. The tunnel opened up ahead into a slightly wider space that was a dead-end; the light came in from above, down a long shaft that rose up, up, and up to the surface far above. There was a rusty old elevator with a chain and a hand pull. It was also all covered in webs; not like the one she’d seen before. These were thicker and larger, several of them big enough that she could have laid down in them. Regina shone her light up and saw that the elevator shaft had webs across it at various points as it went up as well, though it was never fully blocked. “…fucked,” Regina finished in a stunned voice. Far up near the top of the shaft, she thought she could see bundles in the webs; things were trapped up there. Not fly sized things that she wouldn’t be able to see from this distance but larger cat or dog sized things; there were two larger ones that could be something like a deer. Or a person.

The tapping sound came from behind her again and then the girl’s voice, “I was trying to tell you. I get out that way but I don’t think you could. You’d probably just get stuck if you tried and I’m not sure what position you’d get stuck in, which could be inconvenient for me.” Regina’s heart was thudding hard enough in her chest that she was sure her ribs would crack and she had that hair raising feeling running up and down her spine like an electric shock. Her guts were clenched and she felt like an ice cold hand had gripped her insides.

She didn’t want to turn around. She shouldn’t, she knew it. But slowly, as if a force other than her own will was doing it, the shaking college student turned to face the strange girl she’d met. Her phone clattered to the cold stone and her face went pale, mouth falling open again, eyes wide with horror. “Oh, G-God! Oh, my God! Wh-what the fuck are you?”

The girl smiled and shrugged almost apologetically. Her head, arms, and torso were all normal, those of a pretty young human woman wearing an aged and worn flannel shirt. There was an expanse of smooth skin where the shirt ended that went into the rounding of her hips and ass and met the chitinous exoskeleton of her massive spider’s body; the swollen arachnid abdomen twice as long as the girl’s torso and likely as wide across as her arm span at the widest point. Six many joined legs supported her, ending in points that made a faint tap as they moved on the stone floor, the upper joints coming to the girl’s shoulder. Her carapace was a light purple, darkening around the joints, with flares of red and yellow at the ends of her legs and at the end of her abdomen were her spinnerets were, as well as a hole from which a fleshy nub was slightly protruding. “I don’t know if my kind have a name. My mother called me Arachne, she said it was from an old story.”

“Y-your mother?” Regina shook her head, stepping back away from the monster girl. “There are-are more like you?” Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, fuckity fuck fuck! Run, she had to run! But run where? Arachne was in the only way out that didn’t involve climbing.

The spider woman shook her head, “Mother was human and I’ve never met another adult of my kind. One of my eggs was like me once, but the baby didn’t live.” She said it without a trace of sadness, more like she was curious and didn’t understand why that had happened. “I think it was because the mother didn’t survive the birth to nurse her. It was a real learning experience.” She shrugged again and then smiled, “So, did you mean it when you said I was cute?”

Regina’s mind couldn’t believe what it was hearing. She was still processing; her mind having been rebooted and trying to spool up to activity. “What? Yeah, you’re cute. Or you were before I saw you were a horrible spider monster.”

“Hey!” Arachne huffed, crossing her arms under her breasts, her legs stirring in irritation. “I’m not a horrible spider monster! My father, now there’s a horrible spider monster!” She pointed at Regina with her right forward most leg, waggling it like the finger of a disapproving parent. “He’d have had you bound up and egged already. I’m being nice! I’m a spider girl monster, and I’m not horrible. I’m cute.” She smiled again, “You said so yourself.” She then blinked, “I haven’t asked you your name yet.”

“Regina,” she said before she could stop herself. Dumbass! Why tell her anything like that? “A-arachne, yes, you’re cute and you’re very nice,” she said, making herself smile as best she could; the expression was still rather weak and trembling. She was trying to turn on the charm but it was difficult to do when one was terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. “Since you’re such a sweetheart, you can show me the way out of here, right?”

“Oh, no.” Arachne shook her head and her eyes narrowed a bit, her smile becoming predatory. “No, I can’t just let something go that wanders into my lair. That’s how you starve and die, letting things go.”

“S-starve and die,” Regina repeated, starting to tremble. “Are you going to-to eat me?”

Arachne pursed her lips and tapped her chin with the fingers of one hand, looking upwards in thought. “Hmm, no, I don’t think so. I’ve got plenty of food snared topside already.” Regina’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Besides it’s been so long since I had a human to keep me company and talk to!” She beamed at the still terrified faux redhead. “And I’ve got a belly full of eggs that need a home and I’ve found human woman are the best for that! Especially young, fit ones like you!”

Regina took a step back away from the smiling monster woman, “Y-you’re crazy! I don’t want your eggs, find someone else!”

“Oh, but there is no one else,” Arachne said with a faint sigh. “You’re the first human I’ve caught in years. Don’t worry, once we’ve started, you’ll like it, I promise.”

“I’ve heard that before.” The college student shook her head, “I don’t want your eggs.” Crazy spider bitch. “Look, if it’s about getting humans, then, then…how about instead of using me, you let me go and I bring you back someone else.” Sheena’d be a good spider incubator; besides, what was she going to do with the rest of her life? “I can bring you another girl, maybe even three more.” God, what was she saying? Sheena she would bully or trick down here, the other two…well, maybe she wouldn’t need to get any of them. If Arachne let her go, she’d just get the hell out and never come back; though it would be a way to get those bitches out of her hair for good.

Arachne looked at her silently and she was no longer smiling. Her oddly quad segmented eyes were speculative and she ran the fingers of one hand over her lips. The quiet stretched on and Regina began to feel frustrated. “Okay then,” she said, the spider woman blinking in surprise, “It’s decided.” Regina started to walk forward, angling to one side of Arachne. “I’ll go get those sluts for you and-“

Before she could take another step, one of Arachne’s thin and spindly looking spider legs shot in front of her, the tip hitting the stone wall with enough force to send little chips of rock flying. “No, that’s okay. A slut in the hand is worth two in the bush,” the monstrous female said in a chipper tone though there was a slight edge to it. “Besides, none of them would be as good as you, I bet. Plus you might try to run out on me and then I’d have to hunt you down and that would be such a pain!”

Regina stared at her aghast and then pushed against the spider leg in front of her, “Let me out of here you crazy fucking bitch!” She leaned back and raised a leg to kick at it when it swept forward and threw her back in front of Arachne, the spider woman moving with terrible swiftness. Her front two spider legs swept up under Regina’s armpits and lifted the co-ed before she even had time to scream and hurled her about four feet off the ground into one of the wall hangings of web. Her shoulders and upper back were pressed firmly against the sticky strands and she felt them take hold and support her weight.

Arachne reared up on her back two sets of legs, the front ones thudding hard through the web and into the rock wall on either side of her hips and again stabbing into the rock itself. Her human half was raised up so that her head was slightly above Regina’s, looking down at the terrified young woman. Her human hands reached down, one to caress the redhead’s cheek, the other sliding through her hair. She smiled and then grabbed Regina’s hair and pulled hard, jerking her head to one side and leaning her face down, “That wasn’t very nice, Regina. I’ve been very, very nice so far. I don’t want this to be unpleasant for you, but it can be. I want to have someone to talk to, and play with, and have sex with, and bear my eggs, but if you’re just going to be a bitch about it, it’d be easier to have a meal. I can always put my eggs in a deer or something; the results aren’t as good but I’ll have more eggs soon enough.” Her speech grew somewhat slurred as, to Regina’s horror, a pair of mandible like fangs suddenly slipped out of either side of Arachne’s mouth, dripping with something viscous and dark, the human mouth stretching wider than it should. “You have a big decision to make. Do we have a nice time together, for as long as we live, talking, playing, fucking, or do I rape the shit out of you now and then eat your insides?”