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Mid Afternoon Pit Stop

A Monster Story

By Alexander EnderPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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I was driving home one afternoon from college. It was an hour and a half drive, and I had a sandwich and a water to hold me over. Unfortunately, I needed to release a little water. I could make it, but I wasn't comfortable. I was debating on pulling of when I saw a house which reminded me there was a rest stop coming up. I wasn't on any sort of a time crunch so I resolved to treat myself.

There was a white truck in front of me, and no on coming traffic. I mentally gave a parting high five to my oblivious travelling companion and made the left turn into the rest stop. I parked on the side behind the parking line and locked my little blue car.

The view was quite nice despite the lack of leaves. You could see for miles the rolling hills on that pleasant blue skied day. And the rest stop itself was a polite rock and wood shingled addition to the view with a breeze way through the middle and railed over looks to keep your toddlers from plummeting to their deaths.

As a walked toward the bathroom in the breeze way, I recalled the last time I had partaken of the stop's niceties. There were walking sticks everywhere. I didn't like bugs. I didn't mind one at a time if it was a little guy. But those suckers were full grown, maybe a hundred of them scattered around, lots on the door, I remembered, pushing it. Bugs are always bigger in bathrooms.

It seemed very dark inside based off of my peripheral as I was looking down at the floor. Which was odd, considering that the room was sky lit and it was mid after noon. I turned my eyes upward.

My eyes were working fine, my perception was having trouble keeping up. Were there hairy, black trees growing in the bathroom?

Nope. My perception clicked as the giant spider mandibles clicked The thing spun around with eight thuds.

I backed up like a dog that realized it just walked into a vacuum store. The spider roared a hissing, sickly roar. I turned over and sprinted toward my car, loud creaking and thudding right behind me. Then it stopped. A shadow passed over my head.

My car's windows shattered. It was a jumping spider.

I spun toward my quickest escape: the over look. I stopped for a second to judge the distance to the sloping ground below and the thudding resumed. Good thing I'm not a toddler.

I landed with a yell as it felt poorly on my legs. I got up and started running to the woods. I glanced back to see the spider crawling straight down the cliff. Good thinking. Better on the joints.

I ran through the woods ducking and weaving around thorns and rocks and logs. The spider pursued at first; judging by the crashing and hissing I heard behind me. Then it got quiet again. To my left I saw a shadow. It was airborne again.

I turned ninety degrees to my right towards a steep hill. I jumped feet first, sliding down the leaves as the spider crashed down somewhere behind me.

Thudthudthud.

Quiet.

Thudthudthudthudthudthud.

Quiet.

It hadn't seem me.

I waited for the thudding to resume to conceal the sound of the sounds as I crawled under some large rock I had landed near. I settled into a dark corner. The thuds grew more distant. I had a thought

I had my knife on me. I had just grabbed it because I saw it in my drawer. And the other day I had been talking with a friend about how some people always carry one and I should. Case in point.

I found a brand the size of my wrist and stripped twigs off. I began whittling off chunks on the end, sharpening as quickly as I could.

The thudding came rapidly, louder and louder.

The spider was right above me looking through a gap. Didn't look happy.

A dense, hairy, claw tipped leg shot at the ground an inch from my foot. I brought my branch down as hard as I could. It sent a shock through my arms, my shoulders ached. The spider yanked the leg from my hiding and screeched. I noticed a few drops of green spider blood on the leaves. I must have cracked it. I sat up and sharpened as fast as I could.

Fire erupted in my foot. I looked in horror to see a claw penetrating my shoe. My head hit the ground; I was dragged from the rock. I held my stake firmly.

The spider brought it's leg up, and I dropped to the ground. I rolled as a leg came down in my place with intent to crush. I clubbed the closest leg. It recoiled as I crawled forward on all fours, stood, and ran. The spider was closing quickly. I stopped. In front of me was a cliff. It looked bigger than the last drop I took. I turned around to see how much time I had to climb.

Eight black legs shot past me and a boulder of a body slammed into me. I felt weightless as we both tumbled off the cliff. I stabbed the abdomen with my shank. The shriek was deafening as the smell of death was nauseating. I blacked out.

I opened my eyes. Fangs were dripping above my head. I raised my hands in defense but they stopped against the hairy, solid body. It wasn't moving. The fangs were in place. I found that I could slide left. I pushed three heavy legs out of my way and stood painfully.

It seemed I had been knocked out when we hit the ground. The spider had landed on my stick and died peacefully.

I found where the cliff turned into more of a hill and limped my way back to the rest stop. I had never hitch hiked before.

The End

fiction
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About the Creator

Alexander Ender

College student writing both for the experience and prospect of a little extra money

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