The Girl lay in bed, sinking into a deeper stupor, until she fell
fell downwards backwards headfirst, and was caught by two strong outstretched arms. The slip covering her eyes finally fell, and she caught a glimpse of one of the crawling critters before the Archeologist blocked the view. Even though she barely saw them, just a look was enough to make blood pool up in her eyes, and she briefly wondered why everything was looking so red.
“Good work! You did manage to complete the task, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I...” she replied, her jumbled thoughts becoming refreshed. Upon regaining consciousness in the Temple, the first thing she noticed was that there weren’t as many creepy crawlies around. She looked and saw the massive amount of spiderwebs strewn about, and intuitively realized that she must be dreaming. There were etchings of spiders on the walls where none had been before, the floorboard had spider motifs and the layout of the room resembled a spider. The layout of the Temple had obviously been influenced by the movie she just saw. Clearly, the movie had a spider fetish.
“Okay, for our next obstacle, I need you to go to the end of this Reciprocal Hall.”
“What horrible thing is going to await me there?”
“Don’t be so distrusting of me. Have I ever steered you wrong before?”
“Yes. Multiple times. Did you just forget what - ”
“Just go in there and reach the other side!” the Archeologist said, pushing her in and slamming the heavy door shut without managing to break it somehow. Seeing no other way out, she reluctantly made her way down the dimly lit corridor, where, for some reason, she knew the Archeologist would be waiting at the other end.
As she grudgingly strode forward, she became aware of another presence in the enlonged room, where no life had been detected before. Across the other side of the room was the figure of a naked woman cast in shadow seductively walking her way across the ceiling. It was only when the woman came closer that the features of her face became clear, revealing the awful wrongness that lay hidden. The Girl tried to stop, but found herself powerless to try. Even though she already knew what was going to happen, she still shuddered in response, for upon close inspection, the face of the naked woman was the head of a spider.
The two of them passed each other without incident. And when the Girl reached the other end, she found herself with the head of a girl, and the body of a gigantic spider.
“Perfect!” the Archeologist said, showing up spontaneously, despite no access to the room other than the one she took. “Now, I just need you to press these eight sensitive spots I’ve outlined on the map here!”
“Couldn’t we have used rocks for this?!”
The Archeologist stared in perpetuity at the Spider Girl. “You know, you’re acting more confrontational than usual. I prefer you when you just did everything I said without question.”
“Maybe I’m just more confident now that I’ve got the body of a monster!”
The Archeologist looked at the Girl again. “You shouldn’t be aware of your surroundings.” Then he realized. “You know you’re dreaming, don’t you? You’re not suppose to notice! You’re ruining the whole narrative!”
“Maybe it’s time for me to change the story!”
“Don’t be so arrogant. I can make things much worse for you.”
“I’ve already got the body of a huge spider. How can you possibly - ?”
“There are always ways to make bad situations worse than they are. I can have you wake up in that body.”
“I’m sure I can deal with it.”
The Archeologist rolled up his sleeves. “Looks like I’m going to have to step up my game.”
He strode forward with extreme confidence, but didn’t get very far before the Girl held him in place with her hairy limbs.
“For the longest time, I thought you were charismatic, but you’re really just a jerk! I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time now!” And she pressed the full weight of her huge body over the Archeologist’s puny form.
“So, it’s come to this, has it?” The Archeologist struggled vainly, then his skin started to warp, and... something came out from underneath that human form. Something vast and undefinable. Something bigger than the huge spider body the Girl currently occupied. How was he able to hide all that inside that shell of a man?! She tried to bat away them off, but the pulsating mass swarmed all over her, outnumbering the hairs on her body, and an echoing voice rebounding within the temple walls reverberated, “The man you work for is not what he seems. There is more to him than meets the eye.”
And then she woke up, jostling upwards, her arms moving akimbo shouting “A buh bah WAH?!” What WAS that?! That dream annoyed her more than anything. She didn’t get any answers she wanted! If anything, she only got more unanswerable questions!
She looked at her arm, and was disappointed to see that it was perfectly normal. If she’d remained a spider, that would’ve been the best reason to call in sick. Especially since due to taking a double dose of Rarebit, and dreaming longer than usual, she was now later than usual.
She didn’t even bother with washing or eating breakfast, just dressed herself up in the cleanest clothes available and headed out. In order to make it in time, she’d have to use one of her less favorite methods of travel. It was an experimentary method of transportation that dissolved your molecules and reassembled them to another far-away place. To get there, she waited in line to get in a tightly packed room filled with lots of other people who were just as equally late. They were all squashed together for maximum efficiency.
It wasn’t the painful process that unnerved her. It wasn’t even having to share this practice with hundreds of other people going the same direction. The only prerequisite for boarding this risky transportation transport was to view the mandatory sponsorship videos, which were thankfully short.
She was only slightly annoyed at the obtrusive ad staring a human and a Bian mascot, where the Bian with a disarming smile asked the human, “Do you want some of my products?”
“No thanks, I - ”
There was a deafening BANG as the Bian casually knocked the human on the head with a skull-crunching noise before tersely asking, “Then what good are you?” Then bold text appeared, obscuring the scene of carnage:
BUY OUR STUFF OR ELSE.
The nature of the death varied every time, but the end result was always the same. The Bian would ask a human if they wanted what they were hawking, the human would decline, and the Bian would kill the human with whatever blunt object was nearby, triggering the tagline. The repetitive ads annoyed her at first, but after enough repeat exposure, she got enured to them, and kept a mental list of the different tools of violence the Bian used.
“Okay, so the Bian had a knife, and cut his head in half. Then, there was the scissors, drawer, manhole cover, hole-puncher, brick... what else? Oh yeah, the pavement! They’re starting to repeat themselves.” It was astounding how many everyday household items could be used as blunt weapons. She never knew yo-yos could be used THAT way.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvXYOFoOzZ4&w=653&h=480]
Even with the ads cutting down on expenses, she still had to pay the exuberant fee to get in, and that was without filling in the necessary forms waiving liability for damages. After all this, before flipping the switch, the announcer would proclaim, “Don’t worry! It’s perfectly safe!”
Only when the door closed, would the procedure begin. There was a dissonance of double vision as she felt herself warble out of focus along with everybody else present. It was important to keep absolutely still as the current location and preset distance was superimposed upon each other. Then, once the interior of the room was transferred over to the Building, the effect would fade away, and everybody could file out safely.
“See! Perfectly safe!”
The experience left her feeling extremely sick to her stomach. Since it was a rush job, some people were unfortunate enough to get embedded within the walls or other people who were too close to each other. Apart from a few unfortunate victims, the rest of them turned up fine. Just then, one of the riders started choking and seizing uncontrollably. He fell to the ground, dead, where an unidentified creature burst out of his mouth, and quietly slithered away.
“Of course, there’s still a few bugs in the system.”
The crowd casually got out of the crawler’s way, more concerned with getting to point B. They could’ve stomped on the intruder, but made no move to. No point in getting their shoes dirty. The Girl stared at the spectacle, and then she shrugged. “Beats walking!”
Despite her flippant words, as soon as an opening was present, she rushed out of the terminal towards the Building interior, doing her best to make up for lost time, certain that she was grossly overdue.
She wound up being five minutes late.
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