Chapter Eighteen

 

Nephila the Jorogumo

 

Annaleah roused briefly from her dream, and finding herself in her bed, felt a pang of disappointment at leaving Dream Time. She could still feel the tingle of the creature's lips on hers. The creature...Professor Bainbridge? Since she had met him, she had tried hard not to look at him as anything but the moody, intense man she had just begun to teach with. She had to admit however, that try as she might, she had begun to see him as more than that. Closing her eyes, she permitted herself to think of him as something more, as a man, and as an attractive one at that. He did have a nice, full mouth, and his eyes, though dark as night and holding a strange power that puzzled her, were also in their way, quite handsome. His voice was low and his accent was rich and mysterious, and his particular way of enunciation was eloquent.

Annaleah smiled, the afterglow of her dream still full in her mind and spirit. She willed herself back to sleep to see if she could again meet the creature that the professor had become in her dream.

***

Once again, Annaleah found herself in the woods, still on the path, a little way from the clearing. The energy of the atmosphere around her, however, was not the same as it had been before. The moonlight did not lend its beauty here, nor its essence of serenity. Shadows, thick as syrup, clung to the trees, undulating in a way that made her feel dizzy. There was a sense of danger hanging heavy and thick in the air, a feeling that she was being watched by someone with evil intentions.

In bare feet, Annaleah spun around in a circle, willing her eyes to see into the inky darkness of the thick shadows, to find what or who it was that watched her. She didn’t notice the silence around her was absolute, until she stepped on a twig and heard it crack under her foot, sending her heart hammering thunderously inside her chest. Looking down at the path she stood on, she saw what appeared to be several black specks move from the grass of the woods onto the path itself. Some were large; some no bigger than her fingernail. Only a few came at first, and then more followed, until there were many, all moving toward her.

"What in the world?" Annaleah thought to herself, as she watched the dark objects, trying to make out what they were. When realization hit her, fear struck her like a slap across the face and adrenaline surged into her blood. They were spiders. Hundreds of them, all crawling as one toward her, their insectile legs moving them closer to where she stood. Though she loved all of nature, she strongly disliked spiders. They never seemed natural to her, as if they were alien creatures dropped off by some evil otherworldly people to terrorize humanity. They had always frightened her, and now they were here in a horrifying hoard, moments away from converging upon her.

Annaleah ran. With every muscle in her body and every thought in her mind, she ran with as much energy and purpose as she could. She hoped to find the Professor in the clearing, waiting for her, to save her. Her bare feet hit the earth with almost no sound; the only thing she could hear were the movements of thousands of legs, the scuttle of carapaces on earth, and the threat of mandibles clicking behind her. The shadows in the trees coalesced into forms she could now make out, and these were even more terrifying. More spiders, some as large as her head, dropped from the branches and joined their brethren on the path moving towards her.

With a burst of speed, Annaleah made it to the clearing, where she saw a form hunched in the middle of it, motionless. She ran to the form, not noticing that the spiders had stopped at the edge of the woods, not coming into the clearing itself. As she approached the figure, it threw off its silky black cape, and stood up, startling her. A beautiful Asian woman stood before her, smiling wickedly. Her long black hair shone in what little moonlight the crescent moon and stars offered. Her skin was smooth and seemed to radiate a golden hue, though her skin itself was pale as alabaster. Her lips were stained scarlet as if with blood, a stark contrast to the fairness of her skin. Her deep brown eyes were lined in kohl, her lashes long and full. She wore a black and yellow silken kimono with intricate golden embroidery, and a silver pendant at her throat in the shape of a spider.

"Expecting to see someone else?" the woman asked Annaleah, smiling even more broadly before throwing back her head in maniacal laughter. Annaleah was frozen, too terrified to speak. The woman stopped laughing, lowered her head again and, smiling once more, looked Annaleah in the eye as she moved closer. "What's the matter girl, cat got your tongue?" The woman walked around her, slightly hunched forward as if she would lunge at any moment. "I see you have met my children, yes? They come out when it will rain, and also, in times of war. They were only trying to say hello, and you ran from them, you rude girl! You have offended my babies, and so you have offended me. Are you prepared to make it up to me?"

"Leave her alone, Jorogumo!" said a strong, feminine voice to their left. At hearing this, the woman before Annaleah spun towards the voice, her expression one of pure wrath.

"Do not call me Jorogumo! Who dares to call me by this name? I am Nephila. Who goes before me and orders me as such? I demand you show yourself!" There was a rustling, and the wind picked up a notch, blowing both Annaleah's hair and that of the terrifying woman before her. The air to their right began to shimmer. A form began to appear before them as if being formed from the rippling, spinning air solidifying before them. The air began to trace the form of a woman, who spoke as she gained more physicality.

"I am Marchosias, and it is time for you to go, Nephila. You have done enough. You do not have permission to be here." The woman who spoke had now become fully solid and every bit as beautiful as the one called Nephila. She was taller than Annaleah, with long, blonde hair, her face slim and fairy like. A pair of ebony wings were folded against her back, large like the creature the Professor had become, at least ten feet over her head, even as they were folded. She wore a white Grecian style goddess dress.

A look of fury and fear crossed Nephila's face, and it was clear she was livid as she focused on the newcomer. The woman who seconds ago was so beautiful suddenly opened her mouth and, with eyes impossibly large, made a terrible sound, like a scream and wail both at once, painfully high, loud and shrill. From her stretched lips came a tearing sound that, even over her wailing, Annaleah could hear clearly; the separation of flesh from flesh. Blood began to flow down the woman's face as her mouth tore open, and large shiny black mandibles emerged from the broken hole her mouth had become. Her widened eyes began to cloud over, becoming large black eyes that continued to split and divide until there were eight of them. Still, she screamed. Her body began to jerk as if she were wracked with strange spasms, the sound of broken bones accompanying each spasmodic movement.

The woman who called herself Marchosias seemed unfazed, though Annaleah was frozen in terror, unable to move or speak. Turning towards Annaleah and whispering in her ear, the woman said, "It's time to wake up, Annaleah." Still the sound of screaming, flesh tearing and bones breaking continued. Yellow and black arachnid legs began to protrude out of the body of Nephila. The woman with black wings placed her hand over Annaleah's eyes so she would see no more, and said again in a soft, comforting voice, "Wake up, Annaleah. Wake up."

Then, thankfully, the sounds of terror began to fade, and Annaleah felt herself falling backward, into total darkness.... Falling awake.... Falling blessedly awake....