Arachnomantic

A liberal arts student was sleeping in her dorm when it all started. She had a restless sleep, tossing and turning in her bed, tormented by disturbing visions that replaced each other like a harrowing kaleidoscope.

When she woke up in the morning, there was heaviness in her head and an unfamiliar sensation in her body. On top of everything else, some kind of itchy pimple appeared on her arm, prompting her to consider allergies or probably even an insect bite.

With the same fog in her head, she took her place in her college classroom and then almost dozed off halfway through the lecture. Only her friend’s shoulder-jog saved her from imminent embarrassment and her teacher’s reprimand.

Although it was unlikely that her misbehavior in the form of a mild attention lapse could compete with the noise coming from the back row.

"…tell you, that abandoned house was absolutely haunted! …we open the door, and there was… dreadful creature chased us…"

"What a chatterbox," the student muttered to herself, not expecting that her friend would pick up on it.

"And a proven liar. There was nothing but spiders and dust. We’ve been in that wreck of a house with them, dammit. Look. Your boyfriend didn’t even correct him. Just smiling at us here."

The girl shrugged. "Perhaps he just doesn't care."

"Yeah, but… Have you noticed that he's acting weird? There are rumors that he might be going abroad. He didn't say anything like that to you, did he?"

The girl shrugged once again and focused on her notes.

Yet, as the days went by, she began to notice more and more oddities weaving into her daily routine. More often than not, she found her room in unexplainable disarray: things were scattered on the floor and bed, the floor was covered in dirt, and so were her own shoes. And that was despite the fact that she didn't remember going anywhere. Moreover, she would diligently clean an unsettling number of cobwebs in the room's corners, only for them to mysteriously reappear time after time.

"Where in the world... Where did it go?" she snarled, scratching at the odd allergy or bite on her arm. Yet, a moment later, she completely forgot what exactly she was looking for.

To her utmost bewilderment, from the next day on, packages that she had never ordered began arriving at her doorstep. When she unpacked one of the boxes, she discovered a whole bunch of obscure black ribbons. Most of all, those ribbons bore a resemblance to those seen in a funeral home. And if it was some kind of prank, then the student didn’t appreciate it at all.

"You've been a little cranky lately," said her boyfriend in the middle of their Saturday date. That statement followed a few moments after she realized that the balance on her account had somehow thinned out much more quickly than usual this month.

The girl glared at him, fighting off the unexpected desire to make his beautiful smiley face bleed. Furrowing her brows, she turned away, perplexed by the unsettling vision in her mind.

"I haven't been feeling well."

"Oh, my poor thing. In this case, I have a gift that will make you feel better."

Although the cute and cheerful smile of her beloved person actually reached this goal, the same couldn’t be said about the gift itself.

As she caught sight of a pair of black fur handcuffs presented to her in a luxurious box in the middle of a busy street, the girl barely restrained herself from making a snarky remark that was pretty uncharacteristic for her.

"Don’t you fret. I’ll always be by your side," the guy said reassuringly, unaware of her thinking process. He snuggled against her side to prove the point. And, to his surprise, he received a harsh bite in the neck, overly passionate for his taste.

"Ouch! It hurts!"

"Serves you right. For making promises you can’t keep." She inspected the bite mark and licked her lips in satisfaction.

The subsequent evening was supposed to leave lovely and sweet memories. However, the sweetness was hopelessly tainted by the bitter taste of anxiety, and fear surged through the girl’s body at the realization that she found herself completely alone in a dark alleyway.

Cluttered, littered, and dreary, the place stood devoid of any sign of human life. Surrounded by this grim ambiance, she couldn’t help but wonder where she was and, more importantly, how she got here. But all these questions lingered unanswered, colliding with the cool blankness of her frozen mind.

The foul odor caused a wave of nausea, urging the girl to bring her hands to her mouth. In that instance, she let out a gasp. Something wet and sticky touched her face, with a distinct scent of iron coming from it. With the limited visibility of the dim light, she strained her eyesight to make out an unidentified substance now covering her own hand. She failed to discern what it was. Still, a vague feeling of rising unease compelled her to take a step back.

She shut her eyes tightly. And upon reopening them, she recognized the familiar bed she was lying in. Her heart skipped a beat. While her eyes were still adjusting to the new environment, the more details she noticed, the more she realized that something terrible was going on with her. Now, her dorm room had changed beyond recognition, lavishly adorned with numerous black ribbons she kept receiving from different delivery services.

Somnambulism.

Such was the diagnosis the liberal arts student received from her treating physician. A pitiful look that the doctor gave her only furthered her irritation. According to him, it was commonplace with patients like her when they woke up in unfamiliar places or deliriously misplaced items. Although she had a hard time believing this explanation. The girl had never heard of sleepwalkers who’d engage in online shopping or methodically put on their shoes to go outside.

Although what bothered her most was an increasing urge to smash this stupid liar's head in. How dared he feed her that nonsense?

No, attributing these memory lapses to somnambulism couldn't possibly give her a sufficient explanation. Deep inside, she knew that there was something more to it. An unfathomable desire she experienced was akin to a languishing thirst that was boiling blood in her veins. And only she, of all people, knew what could satisfy these yearnings.

After nightfall, the girl approached the issue with manic meticulousness. She removed the black ribbons from her sight, stashing them inside a lockable closet. Then she collected all her shoes, including her white fluffy slippers, and placed them next to the ribbons. And only after all this was securely locked with a key did she unpack her boyfriend's recent gift and handcuff herself to the bed's support leg.

The slumber didn’t come for her easily. For a good half of the night, she had to suffer without the ability to turn over on the other side or take a more comfortable position. In a half-dream, it seemed to her that thousands of threads coiled by themselves, weaving into an endless lace that crept around the dormitory like carnivorous vines.

Shortly after daybreak, the girl was jolted awake by an acute thirst. By an odd coincidence, someone was making noise outside. A feral desire to crush the annoying bugs surged within her, about to take control of her body. Only when the handcuffs were removed by her own suddenly agile hands and then fell to the floor with a slight clink did the student come to her senses.

Hadn't she purposely placed the key on the far side of the nightstand, making it difficult to reach within a short period of time? And, also, was she really planning to go after those people?

The girl’s heart pounded in her chest as alarm bells rang in her head. She reached for her phone and dialed her boyfriend’s number. Infinitely long beeps followed, counting down the seconds to the impeding catastrophe. But the line remained silent, and pretty soon she came to a distressing realization: despite all the promises, no one would actually come to her rescue.

Navigating through the darkness with unprecedented ease, the girl rushed to the kitchen to get some water that could possibly mitigate her anxiety.

Drip, drip. The kitchen’s faucet leaked steadily into the sink, its quiet sound echoing in her ears. The girl turned on the faucet and let the water stream flood her cupped hands, pouring over the edge. Taking a sip, she washed her face with the remnants, hoping that the freshness would bring her some relief.

The incessant noise outside persisted, so the student glanced out of the window to shoo the boorish company away. But, to her astonishment, the space in sight appeared empty and desolate. With a deep frown on her face, the girl slowly trudged back, about to get to bed once again, when she noticed something strange on the metallic covering of the faucet.

She leaned closer to the sink to make out the blurry reflection of her face, and, to the student's dismay, her worst suspicions were confirmed. Because, on the place where her eyes should have been... No, there were eyes. Except for the fact that there wasn't just one ordinary pair; there was a whole... a whole…

"Ah!" the girl screamed and jumped away like a bat out of hell. She huddled in the corner of the room and shut her eyes tightly, feverishly running her hands over her face.

When she eventually opened her eyes, the morning sun beamed into them. Draped in a duvet, the girl was in her bed, her hand still cuffed to the support leg. A sense of apprehension washed over her, leaving her with an intense inkling as if one part of her was taunting and sneering at her pitiful attempts to unravel the truth.

Wednesday was the student's birthday, which meant a party. But instead of a raucous hangout, she planned a small gathering in her room, only for the closest friends. Amidst recent alarming signs, even such an event, rather than anticipation, caused an inexplicable feeling of trepidation.

Even though funny little gifts and her friends’ jokes managed to slightly lift her spirits, she couldn’t completely shake away this irrational fear. Periodically, she would cast a cautious glance at one or another one of her four guests. Drinking, laughing, and enjoying themselves, at some point, they started to touch things in her room that were absolutely off-limits.

In the middle of a conversation with her friend, the girl abruptly interrupted herself.

"Hey, you! Who said you could grab it?" she snarled before materializing next to the guy at the other end of the room. The guy who was waving her black ribbon like a rhythmic gymnast.

"Uh? How did you know that? You weren’t looking. Do you have eyes on the back of your head?" He joked, but his laughter died down with the realization that his comment didn’t spark any amusement. On the contrary, the room owner’s eyes flared with a menacing glimmer.

 "Okay, okay, easy, gal." He put the ribbon back on and raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

The hidden discontent and aversion grew in her with each passing minute.

Because parallel to that, her senses heightened and became more overwhelmed with unfamiliar information. She didn’t know why, but by the end of the evening, it felt as if she could acutely determine the whereabouts of every object or person in the room. As if the place had transformed into the stomach of a macabre living being or a giant sticky cobweb enmeshing all the surfaces in the room.

And with a newfound sense of belonging came protectiveness. Protectiveness caused greed. And greed intensified her unquenchable thirst.

Her eyes landed on her boyfriend and remained fixed on him, rarely straying away from the place he was sitting, even when their friends started leaving one by one. When there was nothing but empty bottles to keep them company, the girl took a seat on the couch near him. The guy clumsily finished the last glass, clearly tipsy. His hand found its way onto the girl’s shoulder, pulling her closer.

The girl gently caressed her lover’s hair as his face pressed against her ear. A warm breath touched her earlobe. "Do you want to try out your gift from the last time?"

"Hm? Uh-huh," she replied. Then, to the guy’s surprise, she stood up from the coach. Moments later, not giving him time to form a full sentence out of his protests, she came back with a pair of fluffy handcuffs and some dark fabric.

"Oh? You want it this way?" he chuckled as she began putting a blindfold over his eyes. "Okay, fine. Take good care of me, hun."

"I will, baby."

The girl’s enigmatic smile was the last thing imprinted in his memory before darkness before his eyes fully unfolded. Indeed, she fulfilled the promise. Because a few moments later, along with the handcuffs snapping on his hands, he experienced a series of very nice touches.

Hot but tender kisses touched the side of his neck, while nimble hands fondled his ears, slipped under his T-shirt, and crawled down his thigh, causing him to let out a satisfied sigh, and...

Wait. How many hands did she have?

"How are you d- mgh…" the guy tried to pry out, only to be silenced by a searing kiss on the mouth, more aggressive and passionate this time. He loosened up at the touch, instantly forgetting about his silly question.

There was nothing but enjoyment on his horizon until one peculiar phrase escaped the lips that were kissing him.

"Your drunken buddy blurted out that you were going abroad. You’re going to leave me?"

He felt her grip tightening around his waist. With his head dizzy, he couldn’t tell precisely, but it seemed like his girlfriend possessed a shocking amount of strength.

"Oh, that… That’s… not… decided yet."

With another wet kiss, something viscous entered his mouth, and his consciousness clouded even more. "What... are you…" He attempted to get up, but his hands were tied, and his body felt heavy and sluggish.

If the first bite was playful and teasing, making him hope that she had just vented her anger, then the second destroyed this hope by scorching his neck with burning pain. He screamed and jerked, unable to avoid the next bite that came out even harsher. And the more bites he received, the less control he had over his body.

"Please! Stop! It hurts!" He sobbed, very sure that by this time, there were dozens of bleeding wounds all over his body. And, thankfully, she heard his pleas. His girlfriend halted; her hot breath hovered inches from his skin.

A sinister, distorted whisper, barely resembling a human voice anymore, carried her final coherent phrase, "I love you. As you said, we will always be together."

In the room enveloped by impenetrable darkness, black ribbons were

dangling from the ceiling. In the middle, they formed a massive cocoon, guarded

by a vile creature with multiple spider legs. A creature that hardly remembered

that it had once been a student of liberal arts. It turned its hideous head,

flashing eight spider eyes. With an ominous sneer, it began to softly cradle

the cocoon in its deadly embrace.