In the Spider's Web

First came the sickness. Throughout the city, people died in agony, bleeding from every orifice and covered in purple spots. Young, old, rich, poor... No one was immune to the strange plague. I watched my friends and neighbors die, wondering all the while if I would be next. The city was quarantined, of course. Easy to do with an island. Just blow the bridges, and block off the ports.

Second came the fires. All over the city, buildings burned. There was little attempt to fight the flames. Not enough people were left alive. My apartment burned to a cinder while I was out looking for food and water. Then, as suddenly as they started, the fires stopped.

Third came the jungle. From the ashes of buildings, strange purple and blue plants sprouted. Within days, the parts of the city that had burned were covered in thick foliage, which turned the scorched pavement into rubble and collapsed the ashy remains of buildings.

Fourth... Fourth came the monsters.

I raced down the street. My lungs burned. My legs ached. Behind me, I heard childlike laughter, and the clicking of thousands of clawed feet. The thing that chased me looked like a centipede as long as a bus, save for one thing. Its head was that of a human child.

Monsters like this one came out of the jungle at night. Well, usually at night. It was broad daylight right now. I'd thought I was safe. I'd thought I could get some food and water, and then slip back into my hiding place. Apparently I'd been wrong.

I couldn't run forever. I couldn't hide. Not with the thing right on my tail. I was going to die. I was going to-

Thwap!

I slammed into an invisible net. As I tried to pull away, it clung to me. Terrified, I fought, but only managed to wrap myself in the stickly strands.

I heard a sigh behind me. "So much for lunch," the centipede said in the voice of a child. It chuckled. "Don't think this is a reprieve, tasty morsel. You're arachnoid prey now." Swiftly, the monster scuttled away, leaving me to my fate.

I cursed. "Fuck!" I wasn't sure how I'd get out of this one. I laughed bitterly. I'd survived the plague. I'd survived the fires. I'd managed to survive the monsters for an entire month. Now, it seemed, my number had come up. I was going to die, devoured by a giant spider. I blinked back tears, and wondered if it would hurt.

The web that held me began to move. The spider was approaching. I tensed. This was it. I fought to move my head. I wanted to see what was coming.

An upside down face entered my line of sight. Three eyes, black from lid to lid, blinked. Long black hair swayed in the slight breeze. A thin lipped mouth, set into a deathly pale face, widened into a smile. "Hello," said the monster.

I fought back terror. "Make it quick, please."

The three eyes blinked again. Two were more or less where eyes were supposed to go. The third was just above them, centered in his forehead. "Make what quick?"

I winced. "You're going to kill me, right? And eat me?"

The face cocked slightly to the side. "And you want me to make it quick? So you do not suffer?"

I tried to nod. "Yes. Please?"

The face cocked to the other side. The creature's movements were slightly jerky. Like a spider. "Are you sure you would not prefer to beg for your life?"

"Would it work?" I asked.

The smile widened. Its teeth looked surprisingly normal. "Probably not."

I laughed, the sound slightly hysterical, and fought back nausea. "I figured."

The creature continued to study me thoughtfully. A long fingered hand reached out to brush my cheek. "It may not come to that."

"May not come to what?" I asked, trying in vain to lean away from the creature's caress.

"I may decide not to kill you," the arachnoid said. It tugged on a strand of webbing, reducing my already limited mobility.

I swallowed. "What will you do instead?"

The monster smiled. "I find myself bereft of a mate, and you look like you would do quite nicely." The face vanished from my line of sight.

I felt the web shifting around me. I stifled a shriek as my feet left the ground. Higher, higher... I swallowed. "A mate?" My voice was slightly shrill. "But I'm not... I mean, we're not the same species!"

The arachnoid slid into my line of sight again. This time I could see his whole torso. He was muscular, but not in a body builder kind of way. More like a gymnast. A very, very pale gymnast. "Hush," he said, not unkindly. "I have tests to perform. I must see if your biology is compatible with mine. I have never encountered a being like you before." He smiled. "The tests will be easier with your cooperation. Will you do as I say?"

I was not going to become this monster's fucktoy. I spat in his face. "Go to hell!"

The arachnoid shook his head. "Pity. I could still just eat you, you know."

I reconsidered my defiance. Then I glared at my captor. "Then eat me and get it over with." I'd been a man's toy once before. Never again.

This seemed to pique the monster's interest. "You are very brave. You will birth fine offspring, I think."

My skin crawled. Offspring?

My captor moved down the web. For the first time, I got a good look at his lower body. My eyes widened as I took in eight long, segmented legs, each one as big around as my thigh, and an abdomen the size of a pony. It was as shiny and black as a dominatrix's body suit, and shaped more or less like a black widow, only without the characteristic red hourglass. I shuddered.

Not long after his monstrous spider part moved past me, I felt his hands slip under the waistband of my pants from behind. I yelped.

The hands withdrew. "Did I hurt you?"

"Fuck you!" I snapped. I writhed in the monster's web, but it was hopeless. Useless. Every move only made the webbing tighter. I fought back a sob.

I felt the monster's hands in my pants again. "You appear to be fine. I will continue my examination."

I got the impression the arachnoid wasn't that familiar with clothing. He fumbled with my pants and tugged at them before finally finding the button and the zipper. Then he fumbled over my shoes, hissing softly. I felt cold air on the underside of my feet. Fuck! Had he cut my shoes off?

I yelled a protest as the monster tugged my pants and underwear down. I felt him free my leg from his web, and fought to get it loose from his grip, but his hands were too strong. One leg at a time, he removed my pants. Soon I was tethered to the web once more, this time bare from the waist down.

The arachnoid adjusted his webbing, tugging my legs apart. Inch by inch the gap between my thighs widened. I whined. "Stop it! Stop it!"

When he had my legs as far apart as they would comfortably go, he began his examination. A slender finger probed my asshole. I yelped and clenched tight, forcing him out. I was unable to stop him from sliding a finger into my pussy.

He felt around inside, muttering to himself in a language I didn't know. I felt his breath on my moans as he leaned close. To my utter horror I felt myself responding. When his fingers pressed my g-spot, I whimpered.

His fingers paused. "Interesting. Have I triggered your mating response?"

"Fuck off and die!" I snapped.

I continued to cuss him out as his examination resumed. Now he was gently feeling around my lower belly with one hand while the two fingers pressed against my insides. "Fuck off you fucking dick!"

He sighed, and his fingers withdrew. Was he done? I continued to swear. Then I felt him shove something into my mouth. "Mmnf!"

As he webbed the gag into place, he sighed. "At last, silence. You were inhibiting my concentration, my dear. And I must concentrate. This is important."

After a moment, his fingers slid back into my pussy. He was using three this time. I couldn't help moaning.

"You appear to be getting wet in your breeding orifice. Interesting." He paused, and then added, "I wonder what it tastes like?"

I whimpered into the gag as his tongue probed the area around my pussy. He accidentally brushed my clitoris, and I let out a muffled yelp. It took him a bit to find it again, but when he did he began to delicately toy with it to the rhythm of his finger thrusts. He had a very slender and extremely dexterous tongue, I noted.

I felt an orgasm building. This couldn't be happening! It just couldn't. But it was. I was being finger fucked and licked by a spider monster. I moaned. Was this just part of his examination? Or was he trying to make me cum?

He was extremely attentive to my movements and my moans. Before long he was playing me like a pro. The very tip of his tongue flicked at my clit, and his fingers pounded my g-spot. My eyelids fluttered. This was it... This was... This-

I came, screaming into my gag. My captor froze for a second, and then began to stimulate me again. Seconds later I felt my second orgasm approaching. I moaned. If I hadn't been gagged, I'd be begging him to stop. As it was, all I could do was cum helplessly, again and again and again...

Finally it was over. I wasn't sure if the monster had learned what he needed to learn, or had just gotten bored. I felt him grasp my hand.

"One final thing," the arachnoid murmured. I felt a sharp pain on one finger. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him collect a few drops of my blood in a vial. He fumbled in a pouch hung around his waist, and pulled out another two vials, one full of blue liquid, the other with a small amount of green powder.

Chanting softly, he added a drop of the blue liquid. It refused to mix with the blood, instead forming a blue film above it. Then he added the powder. As it settled, the blue liquid turned orange, and my blood turned a deep purple. His chanting gained volume. He added another two drops of the blue, and swirled the vial around to mix things up. With one final shouted word, the liquid in the vial turned golden.

I heard a sharp intake of breath. "Fascinating," he breathed. "Truly remarkable." He swirled the small amount of liquid around. It moved slowly, like thick syrup. "Very viscous," the arachnoid murmured. "Almost mucoid, but more glutinous." His long, slender tongue darted out to taste the golden fluid. He blinked, and then nodded in satisfaction.

The monster moved over the web until we were eye to eye once more. This time, he was right side up. "You're ideal," he told me. "Perfectly suited to my purposes. I have never seen a better match for the mating criteria." He shot webbing from his wrists and twirled me around, cocooning me. Then he detached me from his web. Twisting around, he webbed me to the top of his abdomen. "I will take you home, and do my best to get you settled in. My name is Mattias, by the way. What is yours?" He ungagged me.

I tried to bite his hand. "You fucking monster! Let me go!"

Mattias sighed. "No. As I said, you are an ideal mate." He looked at me thoughtfully. "In time, you will grow accustomed to your new life. Perhaps then you will give me your name. Until then, I will call you Beloved." He smiled fondly at me. "How does that sound?"

I glared at him, refusing to answer.

He raised a brow, making his third eye quirk up in the corner. "The silent treatment, then. I suppose it is better that the constant swearing. I do hope that once you have settled in you will have more interesting things to say. The test indicated high intelligence."

He scuttled rapidly up the web, and then up the side of a building. Soon we were a good 10 stories above the ground. As we reached the roof, I swallowed. Then I shrieked as the arachnoid leapt. We soared over the empty street, aiming for another building. There was no way we were going to make it!

Except we did. I swallowed again. My captor paused to pat me on the cheek. "It is alright. You are safe. Probably safer than you have ever been before. I will allow nothing to harm you."

I glared at him. "Go to hell!"

He sighed, and scuttled towards the opposite edge of the roof. This time I managed to stifle my scream. I hated heights.

After that I mostly kept my eyes closed. My captor lept and scurried, moving up and down vertical surfaces with ease. Finally, after a long vertical climb, we leveled off, moving into darkness. I opened my eyes.

We were in what looked like it had once been a bedroom. Most of the furniture had been removed, leaving only the bed in the center of the room. Also, the entire place was shrouded in spider silk. Silk rounded the corners of the room, coated the walls, and lay thickly over the bed and the floor. There was no evidence of a door except the one we had entered by, a hole torn in the wall leading to a balcony. Both the hole and the balcony were as coated in silk as the room.

My captor removed me from his abdomen and set me on the floor. Then he... sort of reabsorbed his silk. The strands that had cocooned me flowed up and into his hands, which rested lightly on my stomach. He pulled my pants off the underside of his abdomen, reabsorbed the silk that had held them there, and tossed them to me.

"I thought you might like to have these back," he said. "Unfortunately, your foot coverings are ruined. I had to slice them off with my knife, as I could not find another way to remove them."

For the first time, I noticed the knife hooked to the belt of the pouch. It looked to have been carved from obsidian, with spider silk covering the upper part to make it safe to hold.

"If you tell me what to look for, I could get you the materials to make more. Or could you repair them?" He pulled my tennis shoes from his pouch.

I sat silently on the floor.

He sighed. "Is there anything you need me to get for you? Food items, perhaps? What do you typically eat?"

Silence.

He raised an eyebrow. "If you do not tell me, I will start bringing you random items of vegetation, as well as meat. The place might become rather cluttered."

Meat? I winced, imagining what he might think was appropriate. A squirrel? A cat? A piece of someone's leg?

I took off my backpack and opened the pouch I used to store food. "I eat this."

He peered into my backpack. Both his eyebrows rose. "Metallic objects?"

I shook my head, and pulled out a twinkie. "The metallic bit is only the wrapper. It keeps them fresh." I opened the twinkie and took a bite. "See?"

He nodded slowly. "Your people make these things? Or are they some sort of strange plant?"

"My people make them," I confirmed.

He nodded. "What from?"

I squinted at the twinkie. "I'm not sure. Flour, probably. Cream. Preservatives. Other stuff?"

"Your people... are they... what is the word... specialized? Each of you does different tasks?" the arachnoid asked.

I nodded. "Pretty much. Although it was probably mostly machines making this stuff." I patted my hoard of foodstuffs.

The arachnoid frowned. "That is a word I do not know. What are... machines?"

I frowned, wondering how to explain. Or if I should bother. "I told you what I eat. I'm done talking." I glared at him.

He sighed. "And we were getting along so well. I will find you more of these food things that you eat." He took a long look at my stack of preserved goodies. "Is there anything else you need?"

I frowned at the two water bottles hanging from my backpack. I had been planning to fill them, but I hadn't gotten around to it. "My people make... clear containers full of water. Water bottles. Could you bring me some of those?" My mouth felt suddenly dry. "Soon?"

He smiled. "There is water in that jug in the corner." He gestured to a ceramic jug coated in silk. "But I will bring you the water items you prefer. Anything else?"

I shook my head, staring down at the floor.

He frowned, as if considering something for the first time. "What did you do? Before so many of your people died? What was your specialization?"

I hadn't thought about life before the disasters in a while. Thinking back on my old job, my old life, I began to cry.

The monster winced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

I turned to him. "If you're not going to let me go, at least GO AWAY!"

He nodded, once, and scuttled out the door.

I examined my prison. It was pretty bare. Aside from the bed and a few ceramic vessels, there were some softly glowing mushrooms in pots hanging from the ceiling. I went out on the balcony. We were extremely high up, in a building that had once likely been a fancy hotel.

I looked over at the balcony of the room next door. There was a decorative ridge between the two that might just support my weight... I shuddered, and decided that would be my last resort. There had to be some other way to escape...

Except, as far as I could tell, there wasn't. I couldn't even figure out where the door was through all the silk, let alone open it. Ditto with any windows. I looked out at the balcony again. There had to be another way... But I was too tired to keep searching now. It had been a long day. I curled up in the bed and went to sleep.