Arachnid

"Katie, now it's really time to clean your room!" - my mom said and turned to me - "When was the last time you used the vacuum cleaner?"

"Maybe last month..." - I answered.

"Last month?! I bet there is a whole spider family under your bed!"

"Yeah sure, I'm gonna go and check it!" - I replied to her sarcasm.

I knew that I had to clean up... Honestly I should've done it last week... I had my stuff thrown in a pile between my bed and desk.

I didn't talk back to my mom. It was an easy round for her, I didn't really mind tidying my room. I needed to find my lost earphones anyway. I usually cleaned it on my own, and after a few weeks, when it gets messy, I do it again. This is how it works. Or used to work at least, because I haven't had the motivation for about a month now.

As I'm looking at the pile in the middle of my room, I wonder if my poor earphones lay beneath all that stuff. Wow, they must be dead by now. It's been probably a week since I last charged them.

After a sigh of laziness and a deep breath I start to demolish the mess starting from the top. Washed clothes, a stuffed animal, slippers, pajamas, socks - clean ones of course -, a hair brush, a clip, and I can almost see the bottom! I lift my biggest stuffed animal and throw it on the bed. But something feels weird... Out of the corner of my eye I can see something big crawling from where the pile used to be towards my bed. I don't have my glasses on me, so I can only see a dark blur, I'm not even sure if it's black or just dark brown, but it's CRAWLING... and it's BIG! I can definitely sense what it is! I freeze down immediately. I don't have the courage to look under my bed, I just stand there for a whole minute, having no idea whether cry or scream... or maybe both.

I'm not usually scared of spiders. I don't have any phobia... At least none that I know about... But this one motherfucker walking freely around my room gave me a heart attack for sure. I have never seen a bigger spider in its natural habitat ever - if we can state that of my room. It looked exactly like a tarantula's mini version. I wouldn't even be surprised if it was some kind of deadly venomous spiders that escaped from the rain forest and traveled hundreds of kilometres just to move into my house and scare the fuck out of me on a usual Sunday morning. I mean how did it even find a way into my room? The front door is like miles away... Is it alone, or does it have family? Are they in my room too?! How did it stay alive without food? There isn't any fly or insect in the house... is it?

Oh my...! The more I stand here and do nothing, the more ridiculous my thoughts get. I need to do something! I need to catch it with something before it dissapears again and haunt me for another month.

I bend down and with the help of my phone's flashlight I take a closer look at the creature, at the intruder that has been my roommate for God knows how long. Alright, I could just grab it with a tissue paper. Probably the worst idea I could come up with... what if this monster bites me through that piece of paper. I can't risk that! I would just drop that thing out of my hand and lose the spider again.

I look around and see a plastic cup on a shelf. I used to plant seeds and experience with that. There's still some cotton wool in it. Perfect trap! I quickly get the cup and go around my bed to catch the escaping spider.

At first it has difficulties woth getting into the plastic cup, but after it finally finds its way in, I put the cotton wool above it and that's it!

I take it outside and set it free. As I'm watching it running in the grass that's all I'm saying:

"You look a bit friendlier out here, you know. Ah man, there's gotta be something in the air!"

I walk back and shake my head. There's no way that I'm sleeping in that room tonight!

***

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this story, here are some books fitting the topic:

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You can buy Matt Shaw's book by clicking HERE or the picture.