The Black Spider

“Step into my pallor”, said the Black Spider to the Fly...

“No thanks”, the Fly said. “I’ve heard the stories , and I’m not taking any chances!”, and she flew away.

“Don’t you even want to rest on my bed or see my pantry?”

“You’ve got skulls of your past victims spread around as a warning, that for some reason, seem to be ignored. I choose not to be among their number.”

“Okay then. You may want to watch out though.”

“For what?”

The Fly had barely gone a far distance when her wings suddenly got tangled up in some invisible substance that was only heightened when ensnared up close to her compounded vision. Then the rest of her body followed suit, until she was hopelessly caught.

“I tried to warn you.” the Black Spider called out from a distance.

The Fly struggled helplessly, trying to to dislodge herself, but the more she struggled, the more she wound up entangled. After a considerable length of time, she was completely exhausted, and had no more energy to escape.

“Alright, fine. You’ve got me. Do whatever you want.”

“I would, but sadly, that’s not my web. There were any manner of things I could’ve fed you to keep you feeling comfortable, before I drained your life away. You would’ve preferred being in my web compared to where you are now. I would’ve spared you the trouble of torturous life. If only you had known, if only you had flown.”

“But I’m all caught up and ready to be devoured!”

“It’s bad form to steal another spider’s prey, especially after they’ve gone to so much trouble setting their traps up. That web in particular belongs to the Haemolymph-sucker, the biggest meanest nastiest spider I’ve ever seen. It has a poisonous bite, climbs sheer cliffs and even eats other spiders. I daren’t come close lest I face its wrath.”

If the Fly could’ve darted her compound eyes around the room, she would’ve, but she just took in the entirety of the massive room, sensing corners of dark shadows where the elusive predator could be lurking. “Where is it?”

“Dunno. Haven’t seen it for ages. It may be checking out its other traps. The Haemolymph-sucker has been gone for some time, so you can try to get free. If you struggle against your bonds hard enough and escape, you can. I will not interfere in anything you do.”

That was small consolation, since there was very little the Fly could do from her disadvantaged vantage point. The energy she had expended was already depleted. All the Fly could do was rest and try to conserve enough energy to wriggle free of the bonds that held her fast. Maybe if enough time passed, the web would weaken.

The Fly recuperated for some time, and worried if she was being too complacent, for soon enough, movement from one of the shadowy corners could be seen approaching. The Fly was frightened at first, until she saw that the form coming forth had six legs, not eight. The insectoid crawled closer not towards the Fly, but to the Black Spider. The Fly couldn’t quite put her proboscis on it, but the Black Spider looked different somehow. He still had the outer appearance of a Spider, but his body was contorted, giving a different appearance.

For some reason the Fly couldn’t fathom, the insectoid seemed in deep communion with the Black Spider, and didn’t seem at all frightened. Even more perplexing, the insectoid left the realm unmolested.

This pattern repeated itself with routine occurrence with more insectoids arriving and leaving with various gifts, all presenting offerings towards the Black Spider with little commentary. There was a flurry of activity, a bustling community touching the Black Spider without intimidation and exchanges without explanation. The Fly struggled to comprehend the indecipherable scene more than struggling against the tightly bound web.

Excess waste from leftover offerings pilled up in a slowly rising dung heap was the only sustenance providing nourishment, keeping the Fly’s immobile state barely alive. In time, the Fly was able to decipher the strange going-ons happening below. The numerous insectoids were a breed of ants, and they were paying service to the Black Spider, who after some skillful rearranging of body parts, they had mistakenly identified as their Queen.

“How can they call you their Queen?”

“Watch and learn,” The Black Spider summoned an ant over. “I’m having trouble laying eggs. I need you to pick up a few sacs from the opposing colony. It’s just until I get my energy back. Keep this between us until I get my energy back.”

This covert conversation was repeated hundreds of times with individual ant drones, each carrying out their orders. Once the Fly figured out what was happening, she tried to warn the hapless ants what was happening. “That’s not a Queen Ant! That’s a Spider!” But her warnings went unheeded. “Why aren’t they listening to me?”

“Pheromones. You don’t give off smells they can understand. It’s a cushy gig, but I have to constantly be on high alert. Any one of these ants could easily snap me in half given half the chance. Consider yourself fortunate. You’re witness to a spectacle that few would survive.”

“I don’t want to know this! You can’t make me!”

“You’re in no position to make demands. You’re in position to bear witness.”

The Fly attempted to issue warnings to the ants of the false Queen in their midst, but the warnings went ignored. There were occasional glimpses towards the rapid movement from the upper corner, but they were told to ignore the distraction.

“Stay away from that Fly. It’s a Spider’s snack. You don’t want to get caught in the web and attract attention from the Haemolymph-sucker, the most fearsome spider that’s ever lived.”

“The Spider’s right there! He’s got eight legs!”

Rip riiip

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“No legs. You’re our Queen Ant alright.”

“Did you just tear your legs off?”

“They’ll grow back. I think.”

The Fly was perplexed and horrified. “Why go so that far?? You’ve already got thousands of willing subjects to go down your gullet! Why don’t you just eat them?!”

“It’s all about the preparation. These things can’t be rushed. I have to collect a lot of ingredients to prepare a scrumptious meal. You wouldn’t understand.”

Of course the Fly didn’t understand. What could possibly be tastier than sugary crap?

“There are millions of species of bugs compared to the few feet that dare to trample upon us from above. Do you know what this means?”

“No, I don’t want to know!”

“It means God is inordinately fond of bugs. And I’m going to gobble all of them up.”

“Why haven’t you eaten them yet?”

“I’m after a very specific kind of food, and the preparation needed to collect the components takes time to meet completion.”

With nothing else to do, the Fly paid harsh scrutiny to the incoming arrivals and departers, trying her best to tell the difference between these ants, gradually learning their language, catching snippets here and there, most of it being useless to her current situation, but every once in awhile, something interesting popped up.

“When is the Haemolymph-muncher coming back?”
“Don’t know. Haven’t seen it.”

There’s a Haemolymph-muncher? As if the Haemolymph-sucker and Black Spider wasn’t bad enough, there was another rumoured monster hiding in these caverns indiscriminately swallowing random ants without getting caught...

Just then, rhythmic thumping could be heard. The Fly had brushed these sounds off as background noise, but now that she had context for what it might be, they suddenly gained significant significance. The thumping intensified and faded, coming at odd intervals but never fully went away, and in these echoic twisting chambers, it was impossible to tell where they came from.

Every new arrival that came through the tunnels brought immense fear of what unwelcome visitor might come and what they might bring. It was then that the ant drone returned, the surrounding remaining soldiers looking bruised, but carrying back the spoils of war. There were lots of casualties, but it was worth it for the treasures the opposing ants had. There were storage spaces full of food that was dutifully offered to their ‘Queen’, who expressed little interest in this sacrifice.

“Well done. Feast on the corpses of the remains of their fallen and ours until our reserves are replenished.”

“That’s not all!”
“We’ve also brought back a magnificent prize!”
“A young Queen!”

The Black Spider examined the remains of the barely-surviving member of royalty. “From the looks of it, it was the runt of the litter, likely thrown away after being incapable of confidentially riling up its subjects. But I can still put it to use.”

The Fly could do nothing but watch as the Black Spider took the remains of the former Queen Ant, then took some foliage growing on the wall and applied it to the conquered Queen. ‘Seasoning’ the Fly thought, thinking it was pointless adding all these supplements. It all came together in the same stomachs. Then the leafy root began to grow, and the lichens and vines gradually meshed together covering the body, creating an exact replica of the dismembered corpse.

“Not a perfect copy, but it’ll do.”

The Black Spider then integrated over the plant Queen, absorbing the lower half over his upper half, until the two of them were impossible to distinguish from each other.

“There’s still some leftover larvae I can pump out, letting this colony live a little longer.”

“Did you just... zombify the former Queen?”

“You think this is the only one?” The Black Spider made an unusual motion towards the moss, and one of the ants came forward. From the front, it appeared perfectly normal, but an overhead view showed that the abdomen was glowing an unnatural colour.

“I’ve summoned one of the infected. Normally, they would never come if called, but I’ve tapped into the fungal system. You may not tell, but the back is now glowing a very bright colour you can’t perceive. Currently, this plant ant won’t obey any orders from his Queen, but is gradually being taken over by the moss invading his nervous system. Once the moss hijacks his mind, he’ll go out feeling compellingly attracted to climb a high spot without knowing why, looking like a nice juicy berry. After displaying all the signs saying ‘EAT ME’, he’ll inevitably be swallowed by a bird. The bird will come down to eat the infected plant ant, and the consumed moss will incubate moss eggs inside the bird. But these moss eggs don’t infect the bird, so how do these moss eggs spread to infect more bugs? They come out in it’s... poop.”

Poop? But poop was one of the Fly’s top favorite things, only second to smelly poop and third to sweet smelly poop! And this stuff was being spread against her knowledge? Nevermind that bird poop wasn’t even part of her diet. The Fly looked downward in horror at the dung pile she’d been consuming. Poop that had been...

“What? You? You what? You... what? You...” the Fly trailed off, unable to comprehend the implications of this revelation.

“I didn’t cause this. It was already there, ripe for the picking, just waiting to be exploited. I’m only taking advantage of the situation.” And the Black Spider dismissed the plant ant, having made his point. “This isn’t the only one. I’ve created hundreds of fake ants to lure these real ants into doing my bidding. These ants would never obey me otherwise.”

“What have you done to me?!”

“I haven’t done anything you’ve already inflicted upon yourself.”

“It’s happening! I can feel it already... your potent fungus squirming into my very thoughts... influencing every part of my body... the takeover is complete... I can no longer resist your call to do whatever nefarious bidding you deem worthy of me...”

“That’s quite the accomplishment, considering it doesn’t affect your kind, only ants.”

The Fly drooped in despair. “At least allow me the illusion of comfort of outside corrupting forces beyond my control controlling every aspect of my life!”

“Nope. You’re going to have to be smarter than that.”

Finally, the impending disaster she had been dreading came. A gigantic Haemolymph-muncher came barrelling in through the caves, slurping up any ants unfortunate enough to cross its path and the Fly was welcoming the prospect of oblivion until the Haemolymph-muncher contentedly sat beside the Black Spider. What was the Haemolymph-muncher waiting for? The Fly looked down and was surprised to see that the fearsome Haemolymph-muncher she’d been awaiting all this time was a tiny frog barely the size of an ant. In fact, it was smaller than the Black Spider.

“Doesn’t it make a great pet?”

“That’s your pet??????”

“It leaves the larva I lay alone, and I protect its eggs in turn. My webs take care of any larger insects that may attack it, and it eats any leftovers left over. Downs all the annoying drones I don’t want to eat, and makes a great conversation piece.”

“If you don’t want to eat me, just feed me to your pet!”

“No, you’re not getting off that easy.”

Despair wracked the Fly’s underdeveloped mind beset by all seen and unseen horrors perceived in an unsettling world where relief failed to come, and then a horrifying thought came to her.

“...wait, is the Haemolymph-sucker you??”

“Shhh.... don’t tell anyone.”

“You could’ve eaten me anytime you wanted! What are you waiting for??”

“That web’s all crusty and dry. I like my meals fresh.”

“You said you wouldn’t touch another spider’s web, but it was yours all this time!”

“Oh, you’ve caught me in a contradiction. Good for you!” And he fell silent completely unperturbed. What could the Fly possibly say in response? Every overwhelming advantage had fallen on the Black Spider’s side. There had to be something she could use that was overlooked. The Fly’s only advantage was her reflexes. If she were free, she would’ve been able to dodge these obstacles easily without trouble, but then she wouldn’t have had to think about how to get out of this trap.

The next batch of ants came wandering in, giving their latest meager offerings to the Black Spider, and the frog was indiscriminately casually chewing on whatever ant struck its fancy to no discernable acknowledgment by all.

“The Haemolymph-sucker’s right there! Go get it!” the Fly called from high up. “Look at what it’s doing! Rise up and fight!” But all the ants paid no heed to the Fly’s warnings. How could they not see the insanity of the situation?

“It’s no use,” the Black Spider commented. “Somewhere in the recesses of their minds, they intuitively know the truth. That I’ve been leeching off their population for generations. But they would never allow themselves to realize it. It would mean having to accept that they themselves were complicit in their own failure.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because you’re innately incurious. So many seek me out, thirsting for knowledge. Having stumbled your way into my domain, consider this payback for refusing my generous services. And what’s more, no one would ever believe you.”

“All I need to do is convince one!”

“Good luck with that. If need be, I’ll rip my legs off and eat them, then sneak out while everyone’s enamored by my replacement Queen before anybody notices.”

The casual bluntness of the Black Spider never ceased to shock the Fly. The Fly figured the only way out was to devise some way of communicating with these ants. This was difficult because they communicated via a series of touches and pheromones, none of which was readily available to the Fly. But there were the corpses of leftover ants left strewn on the ground. All she had to do was...

No, she wasn’t far enough gone to do THAT.

A few days later, ants came crawling to greet the Black Spider in anticipated excitement.

“Great news!”
“We’ve found another Queen!”
“She was just lying around our colony completely unnoticed!”
“Tending care to our remaining larva!”

“Another Queen, is it?” the Black Spider observed with a trace of amusement. “Bring her closer.”

The prisoner Queen was brought forth, her cries being completely ignored by all surrounding soldiers, who after delivering the captive were dismissed. The Fly expected the Black Spider to use this latest addition for the decaying body parts, but was unprepared for what happened next.

“The fools. I thought there were fewer drones around than usual. This explains it.”

“There are rival Queens out there vying for attention?”

“This is no Queen. This is a caterpillar disguising as a Queen. It utilizes pheromones to attract an ant to come closer, then sucks in air, inflating to immense size, emitting a farting screech sounding exactly like a Queen Ant in distress. To stop the noise, the ant will carry it back to base, where it continues to fart screeches and spread more pheromones to any who come close. Once inside, it become part of the colony and it’s easy going from there. It spends the remainder of its papua state feasting on larva, having the affected workers raising it for months until it encases itself in a cocoon. In that vulnerable state, it’s left alone by confused loyal soldiers wondering where their Queen went, until it bursts forth and flies away, leaving the depleted colony completely abandoned. An admirable identifiable sentiment, but I can’t allow to be sentimental. Competition has to be dealt with.”

The Black Spider made a gesture, and the frog munched down on the helpless caterpillar in one quick gulp.

“You have to admire the simplicity of it. What I do is much more complex.”

“How does no one notice a growing caterpillar taking up space inside?”

“They spend more time on outside defenses. And a farting screech overrides their logic centers. They simply can’t think when a helpless attractive odor starts crying, and will do anything to appease it. Besides, Queens munch down on any leftover larva when they’re hungry. Gotta keep that birth rate up when you’ve got the munchies.”

“You’ve got to watch out for these caterpillars,” the Fly needled. “They’re everywhere, and breed like roaches.” She expected more of a response, and was surprised it wasn’t forthcoming. “You’re not going to warn your colony about the fakes?”

“If they get that easily fooled, it’s their own fault. In here, I can eat as many defenseless larva as I can. I deign to feign benign to gain free rein to reign.”

For someone who wanted to eat all the bugs in the world, the Black Spider seemed strangely reluctant to do any eating of his own. He never ate any ants, caterpillars or larva even though they were all available for easy consumption without restrictions. The frog seemed to eat more than its master ever did. What was the Black Spider saving his appetite for?

The Fly knew she had to get outta this nightmare scenario fast. But how? There were ant bodies strewn all over the place, and it was only a matter of time before she was part of that number. And that was when she saw it. The frog hadn’t fully digested the last meal, having vomited the excess food out near the dung pile. The caterpillar remains were right there, just tantalizingly out of reach. But the Fly’s body was still held fast in the web.

Every time the Fly was distressed, she’d twisted her body in the hopes of getting free, only to wind up further entangled. With great effort, the Fly resumed straining against her restraints again. She pulled against the sticky web strand again and again until she felt something tear. She saw that her wings she was so proud of had popped out of their socket at the thorax. Still the adhesive thread remained sticky. Still she continued tugging against all her might. If the Black Spider could tear his legs off to further his aims, then she could too. Finally, she broke free of the web that’d held her all this time and dropped down to the next sticky strand where she got stuck again.

She resumed her incremental descent, losing bits of herself all the way down, but getting closer to her goal. Thus far, she had only succeeded in wrenching off her wings and half her legs, but was still dangling by a string, her foreleg just a hair away from touching the caterpillar remains. Using the last vestiges of her depleting energy reserves, she strained with strenuous effort against the thread that bound her fast. So far, the Black Spider hadn’t noticed.

It was a struggle to move under these restrictions. She was more accustomed to crawling around solid surfaces and had to relearn how to use her remaining extremities to compensate searching empty space. It was so much easier to feel the full texture of things on close inspection than from a distance.

Finally, the Fly fell atop the Caterpillar remains, letting out a minuscule fart upon impact. That solitary toot was enough to attract all the ants within hearing distance to come scrambling in to defend the Queen Ant at all costs. Having attracted an audience like this, the Fly rolled around the ant carcasses, letting the pheromones cover her body to commune with the brainwashed ants for the first time. She had to choose her words wisely.

“Your Queen is not who you think she is!”

If she could warn these hapless victims about their current predicament, it would be worth the effort. One last act of defiance before succumbing. At least, the Fly tried to. What little second-hand ant language the Fly knew came out garbled, sounding more like, “Queen! Fake! Spider! Away!”

The ants swarmed her, leaving confused reactions regarding this strange misshapen drone who smelled and spoke wrongly. Was this an enemy or not? Eventually, these repeat warnings said through the Fly’s rudimentary words finally broke through.

“Stop with these baseless stories about living among spiders and ants.”
“There are no spiders around.”
“You’re scaring everybody.”

The Black Spider intervened against the infighting, “That drone is indeed telling the truth. I am a fraud.”

“My Queen?!”

“There are days when I look at what little I’ve accomplished and think to myself, ‘Am I worthy of this lofty position?’”

“Of course you are!”
“How else could you be otherwise?”
“Don’t say such things!”
“Don’t sell yourself short!”
“Don’t question your self-confidence!”
“We need you to guide us!”
“Without a Monarchy, we are all lost!”

“Thank you for your kind words. I shall endeavor to stay on - ”

“No! Don’t you see? Your ‘Queen’ is - ”

“I think my drone has outlived its usefulness. Feel free to dump it in the wastes.”

“Your generosity knows no bounds!”

While being carried out to questionable freedom, passing right past the frog munching on an unsuspecting ant, past the fiercely guarded caterpillar cocoons, past the hordes of drones on the brink of starvation still seeking out dwindling resources, past the growing fungus of parasitic plants infecting their thoughts, the Fly was seething with inborn frustration. What little language that had been learnt was flown around in circles by just a few words from the Black Spider.

After travelling a considerable distance, she was thrown out into the refuse the ants considered too repulsive to keep. The Fly was now free of the web and the cursed ant colony, but had sacrificed flight and mobility to do so. She gradually limped away, making way towards a nearby haven seeking safety; staying uncomfortably immobile when birds came flying over, witnessing their effortless flight in covetous envy.

After hours of crawling, taking in the odd nourishment from neglected garbage, the Fly was found in the presence of the fearsome figure known as the Black Fly.

“What are you doing out here? Don’t you know how dangerous it is?! And what happened to the rest of you?!”

“You wouldn’t believe what happened to me.”

“Try me.”

“I was trapped by a Spider that refused to eat me. Surrounded by ants doing its every bidding. Ants infected by some parasitic plant.”

“Save your strength. You can tell the story later.”

The Black Fly carried the Fly’s living remains closer to a swarm of flies hovering around a nesting spot. The Fly continued retelling the events that she’d barely survived, the memories causing considerable pain upon recollection. Some curious attention was conveyed her way, but they soon turned bored, being more interested in finding places to plant newborn maggots than listening to an unsettling personal story made harder to understand due to the absence of wings providing emphasis. Furthermore, it only affected ants, so what relevance was there to flies?

When she finally finished, the message that got across was that where she’d come from was someplace to avoid, and some flies who hadn’t gotten the message smelt that there was a pile of dangerous dung underground. All they had to do was be wary of any unobtrusive webs they might get caught in. Only the Black Fly was patient enough to remain throughout, and upon completing her story, he looked down at her in disgust.

“You’re right, I don’t believe it. Do you really expect me to believe all that really happened?”

“I’m telling you, it’s true!”

The Black Fly leaned further down and buzzed, “I told you, didn’t I? No one would ever believe you.”

It was only after torturing the poor Fly beyond endurance that the Black Fly transformed back into the Black Spider and devoured the Fly’s emotions that had been simmering all this time into a delicious meal. It took a lot of time and effort to push a lowly Fly’s awareness to the brink of madness for such a measly portion. Sure, there were easier ways to create filling meals involving larger masses of the population, but ruining a single life was just so much fun.