Dark Space

Boston | The Dark Space (Beneath the couch)

It was impossible to see through the dense layers of blackness, but something continued to stir beyond the veil of my limited sight. Terrified of what was making the mysterious sounds, and having no way to defend myself, I did the only thing I could.

I quickly began to re-bury myself beneath the dense clumps of hair and crumbs that I just raced to remove. A protective wall of camouflage was my best chance at remaining undiscovered by the monsters that lurked within.

Successfully coated in my unpleasant disguise, I waited to hear the jingle of Ellie’s turquoise harness echo throughout the second floor hallway. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of summer and it was Saturday which meant that they could be out for a very long time. Being a Boston Celtics sock, my partner and I were always Derick’s go to pair for long weekend walks around the city. It could be hours before him and Ellie returned, which haunted my nerves the most.

I needed to be patient, still and quiet. Three impossible tasks considering my harrowing circumstances as well as the lingering and encroaching rustling.

Seconds quickly turned into minutes which slowly turned into hours. I couldn’t see any of the numerous clocks around the condo, but the shadows from the sun slowly shifted up the eastern wall indicating that it was no longer morning. We lived in the heart of Boston, and we were surrounded by dog parks and garden trails. Ellie also had a lot of dog friends in the neighborhood, so if she ran into any of them, they would surely take extra time to play, wrestle and run around like psychos. There was no telling when they would return.

The shuffling sounded again. Except this time it was closer. Close enough that I could feel the tickle of the displaced air and smell the sour aroma. Something was approaching. Hunting. And I was the prey.

The predator’s footsteps suddenly fell silent, and I was enveloped in a droning silence. My heart pounded, and every fiber in my wool body tingled with anticipation. Except what I was actually feeling wasn’t subconscious tingling at all. It was in fact legs. Sixteen of them.

Two black and brown spiders had emerged from the obsidian shadows and ambushed me with precision. One of the spiders was much larger and more aggressive than the other. I could tell because of the drastic difference in weight and force.

The bigger spider struck first. It used its sharp pincers to break through the tangled clumps of hair and began to nibble and tear at my loose fibers. The smaller one just crawled in circles and sniffed, clearly more interested in the buffet of crumbs which surrounded me. The larger one, however, was determined to pick me apart.

I didn’t know much about spiders, but my best guess was that it was going to somehow use my green strings to reinforce its creepy spider lair in the heart of the dark space. But I was the champion of the sock drawer. I couldn’t afford to lose a single fiber. If I did, Derrick would surely discard me and my mated pair to the back of the drawer where socks only get chosen if every other pair is in the laundry. It is the absolute worst fate for a sock. Plus, the Boston Celtics just won their eighteenth championship which meant my mated pair and I were at the top of the sock drawer food chain. Derrick needed us, just as much as we needed him. I needed to fight.

Using a clever trick I learned from the elder socks in the deep corners of the sock drawer, I began entwining each of the loose strands Ellie had gently torn away around each of the large spider’s legs. My plan was to scare the spider away by making it think that it had been caught in a trap and was about to become food.

With four of its hairy legs successfully wrapped around my neon green strings, I tugged and tightened my grip. The big spider instantly started to panic and hissed with eerie frustration. It tried to bite and snap at me, but my strings were long enough to keep its pincers at a safe distance.

The smaller spider ran off into the depths of the dark space once it realized its larger companion was caught in a trap. It at least made the fight fair.

Kicking. Tugging. Yanking. Twisting. Writhing.

We battled on in the darkness.