The House of the Spider
by John Bannergram
On All Hallow's Eve come seek the spider, there to slay, or remain beside her.
Heed the words and know the signs, that you may escape her den alive.
"Evocative, isn't it? Unfortunately, I only have the first few lines."
Kristen Simms nodded. She was a grad student specializing in Arachnology, the study of spiders, and aside from the occasional digression into the study of insects, her interests didn't extend beyond her own field. But she had a very specific reason for investigating the colonial folklore that Professor Bothal specialized in. A reason that she would rather the professor not know.
"When and where do these stories originate?"
When
is difficult to say. But the
where
, I'd say, is what is now the little town of Fernsmith. Now, in 1749..."
Kristen smiled politely as the professor droned on about cultural origins. She was dressed...not sluttily, exactly, but she was showing enough leg and cleavage to ingratiate herself with old Professor Bothal. She had a good figure, and brilliant red hair that contrasted nicely with her pale skin. All of which was holding her in good stead. Kristen's efforts had not been in vain. She had managed to find out what she needed to know, and she'd done it without the professor even suspecting that Kristen Simms was a nut.
At least, that's what he would think if he knew about Kristen's secret passion. Many people had an interest in supernatural creatures. Some were into bigfoot. Others the Loch Ness monster, or the chupacabra. Kristen, perhaps not surprisingly given her field of study, was devoted to Araneida Regina - the queen spider.
Kristen was obsessed with the idea that the legends of giant spiders were true, and that some man-sized prehistoric holdover still existed in the present day. That they lurked unseen, spinning their webs within dark New England forests. Her belief was that folktales always had a kernel of truth, and that if she searched in the areas from which the old stories originated, one day she might find one of these Araneidae.
Naturally, as Kristen prepared for her trip to Fernsmith, she took great care not to let anyone know where she was going or why she was going there. She'd be a laughing stock if people found out that Kristen Simms was out searching the countryside for giant spiders. But it was hard to contain her excitement.
Fernsmith was it, she could feel it. It was an isolated town, surrounded by wilderness where a giant spider could hide and never be seen by human eyes. She'd found the right place, and it was almost Halloween, the time of year when the poem said the spider was most likely to be found. This time she would succeed where others had failed. She'd find an Araneida Regina and bring it back for study, winning herself fame and glory.
The night before the trip, after all her packing and planning was done, Kristen decided to celebrate in her own way. She smiled as she opened the drawer by her bed and pulled out her other little secret. A pair of handcuffs, and a leather collar. A key frozen within an ice cube ensured that she would remain a prisoner for the next two hours. Kristen stripped naked and put herself in bondage, then padlocked the collar around her neck. As she lay in bed and began to pleasure herself, she thought of the adventure to come. This was going to be a Halloween to remember.
Kristen began her drive early the next morning. After a long trip down windy roads through endless forests, she reached the town of Fernsmith. It wasn't the most cheerful place in the world. The buildings were rundown, the people taciturn and untrusting of outsiders. But Kristen didn't mind. She wasn't going to be staying there, she had already arranged room and board at a house outside of town. She had done her research, and decided that the most likely place to find her spider would be in the forest just north of Fernsmith. Kristen had chosen the house that she would be staying at because it was in the middle of her search area, which would allow her to use it as a kind of basecamp.
After she had left the town proper, she stopped to ask directions at a hog farm by the side of the road. The farmer was even more unpleasant than the townsfolk.
He scowled at Kristen. "What do you want?"
"I...I'm going to be renting a room from Lycosa Collingsworth, could you tell me where she lives?"
The man gave a toothy smile. "Ah, you'll be wanting the House of the Spider!"
"The
what
?"
"That's what we all call it 'round here. Always have, since time began. You're almost there, turn left at the next fork in the road."
As Kristen drove away, she saw the farmer staring after her with a strange look on his face. The man made a sign with his hand, so that his fingers looked like the legs of a spider. The experience left Kristen uneasy. She tried to tell herself that she was being silly. She was bound to run into some local superstitions. But all the same, when Kristen arrived at the clearing where Lycosa Collingsworth's house was located, she still hadn't recovered her good humor.
The house was grim and foreboding. The old stone mansion seemed to be in the process of being swallowed up by the forest that surrounded it. Part of the house was already in ruins, claimed by undergrowth. The sound of the door knocker echoed through the eerie silence that prevailed.
"Yes?"
Kristen tried not to jump at the sight of the woman who loomed over her. Her face had a kind of cold, angular beauty about it, but she wore a stern, forbidding expression. She certainly wasn't dressed for company. She wore baggy clothes, and had an oddly slouched posture. Her sole concession to vanity was the dark purple dye that had been applied to her long, flowing hair.
"I...um...you must be Lycosa Collingsworth. I'm Kristen Simms, I reserved a room?"
Lycosa gave her a polite smile. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I should have known. I hope I didn't put you off, I've been getting a lot of traveling salespeople lately, and if you're at all nice to them they just won't leave you alone."
"Uh, that's ok," Kristen stammered.
