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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/02321 on 2024-10-21 17:58:51+00:00.
I had enough money for rent but not to heat my apartment. I’ve been curled up on my bed for days under every scrap of fabric I own. My last job paid some bills but also ruined my left hand. I only got feeling back after days after all my other cuts healed. The freezing cold of my apartment didn’t help.
Freeze to death or die by some sort of monster? Every day I had a terrible choice to make. I hadn’t eaten a decent meal in a while as well. I looked through some regular job postings desperate to find one that would accept someone who hadn’t finished high school—no such luck. I then went to my email to find one of the less dangerous requests.
I had tried to leave my contract work behind. Here I thought I had a choice in living a normal life. I nearly starved to death in the past two years and not making a dent in my debt from picking the normal route.
I settled on a somewhat simple request. A great number of animals had started to disappear near an abandoned mine. All sorts of critters liked to take over places like that. The job offer was to report back any information on what sort of creature lurked in the darkness. A very heavy bonus was offered to anyone who could kill this mystery monster.
A few bucks for taking some photos of supernatural activity and then getting the hell out of there? I could do that. A pit of dread came over my stomach the moment I replied to the email. Deep down I knew this wouldn’t be so easy. Nothing ever was.
At least this time I was sent in front of the mine instead of needing to hike through the woods. The Corporation often used magic to transport people to job sites. Magic was seriously useful. It’s a shame humans can’t handle it in the same way supernatural creatures could.
I bought a new coat and boots from my last job. I wanted to get a fancy supernatural floating light, but of course, I couldn’t afford one. I stuck to a simple flashlight instead. I shouldn’t come across any members of the public, so I rented out a machete as a weapon for this job.
I wasn’t looking forward to another cave after the last job. I shuddered in the cold wind that drove me inside the opening of the mine. If my luck held, I could snap a photo or two and then head home. I wasn’t an elite-trained monster hunter. Best to leave the big creatures to the Agents who were always in demand.
The air inside was strangely warm. I kept one hand hovering over the handle of my weapon as I scanned the area with my flashlight. My skin crawled thinking back to the skeleton monsters. For the first few feet, there hadn’t been any signs of any living creatures inside the mine.
Doing these sorts of jobs was much easier with a partner. My chest hurt as I heard only my footsteps echoing in the small space. I was lucky my legs could still support my weight. I really needed to eat more if I was going to keep up with the contract work.
A fork in the pathway caused me to pause. I listened to any sounds giving me a hint as to where to go first. A small sound of ripping water came from the right path. Most creatures needed to drink water like the rest of us. I followed the sound, the back of my neck starting to sweat from stress.
I came into an open area so wide my flashlight couldn’t reach fully into the darkness. A few deep scratches had been carved into the floor. Tracing my fingers over the marks I tried to figure out what kind of animal or monster made these marks.
Four lines, thin cuts deep into the rock. No signs of blood but there was discoloration in the dirt on the floor. I squinted at the trail realizing something had been dragged deeper into the mine. There weren’t any tracks or footprints to give away who or what had done the dragging.
A rock came loose somewhere causing me to jump. I directed my flashlight across the floor looking for the source of the disturbance. Another small rock fell this time landing in front of my feet. I brought my beam of light upwards to the ceiling far too late.
Eight eyes reflected the light down. My hand grabbed the handle of the machete at my side, but I wasn’t fast enough to act. The massive creature dropped down on me, a set of needle-sharp fangs digging into my shoulder. My entire body was locked up. I couldn’t even scream. For a few seconds, I could blink my eyes, so I forced them open to get a good look at what just got the jump on me.
It was a spider the size of a car. I took in the shape and patterns to try and identify what type of supernatural creature it was. When I felt my eyelids locking up, I forced them shut. The creature got to work wrapping my body tightly in thick webbing. The constant spinning as it bound my arms made my stomach roll. Then I was knocked over to be dragged along the floor to who knows where.
After a long while of painful dragging, I felt myself lifted off the ground. More of the threads were added to stick the creature’s new meal to the cave wall. I was thankful that the massive spider forced the webs on my torso and mostly spared my face. It might know not to suffocate its prey if it wanted a fresh meal.
My shoulder throbbed in pain and my body hurt like hell from whatever I’d been injected with. The only good news was I was almost certain I knew what kind of monster attacked me.
Humans make pets out of anything. Some creatures take advantage of that. On occasion, a supernatural spider egg will appear in a batch with otherwise normal eggs. But only if humans are the ones breeding and taking care of the spiders. For the first few months, the spider appears normal. But then it’ll grow at a rapid rate soon escaping to devour small animals out in the wild. There are a few theories of why this happens, however, so far no one has been able to agree on the reason. If this was that kind of spider, I was in luck. Their venom isn’t overly harmful to humans. It should work its way out of my system in an hour or so. People guessed that the spiders didn’t want to kill the humans raising them, so evolved to not be able to take them out with a single bite.
I was dealing with a huge spider though. Those legs could crush me if they wanted. Just because I could move an hour after I was bitten didn’t mean I was in the clear.
When I could feel my fingers again, I wriggled testing my binds. I slowly opened my eyes surprised to see some light inside the rocky space. Looking down I saw an abandoned flashlight that was not mine casting shadows across the wall. This place was where the spider stored its food. I saw so many smaller bundles of webbing stuck to the wall. All appeared to have long-since dead animals inside. I tried to look upwards to see anything else. I did notice a larger bundle above my head, but I wasn’t able to fully see it. I thought I saw a pair of shoes through the webbing. I had hoped that only myself had been dragged into this mess.
I kept wiggling, which turned out to be a mistake. The spider was cheap when it came to webbing. I came loose off the wall, my stomach in my throat as I fell headfirst towards the floor. My skull wasn’t hard enough to take a hit to the stone floor at this height. Something caught around my ankles in the last seconds. I jerked upwards and then started to spin as I hung from a single lifeline. I let out a long breath surprised I didn’t scream.
Just as I recovered, a bundle of webbing fell off the cave wall the same way as I did. They were caught by their ankles as well. I let out a small sound of shock from expecting any movement to be the spider monster ready to finish me off.
When our spins synced up, I made eye contact with a person I never expected to see again.
“What a coincidence!” We spoke at the same time, our voices echoing down the mine shaft.
We kept slowly spinning. When I knew the spider wasn't coming and we were facing each other for a few seconds I spoke again.
“How’s Lucas doing?” I asked the upside-down August.
“Oh, he’s great! He made a friend at daycare!” He replied, his smile not matching our situation.
I let us slowly spin in silence. August being here was a huge help. He wasn’t human and I bet getting through these webs would be easy for him. But how did he get caught in the first place? When we came back around, I got a good look at his face. He was chipper but looked exhausted. Dark bags were under his eyes and his cheeks showed he’d lost some weight.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
“I’ve been taking a lot of jobs lately. Lucas seems like he might want to be an artist when he grows up.” August explained.
“So, you're saving for college?” I said a little shocked.
I swear this guy treated this boy better than any human in his life. I didn’t know much about what happened to Lucas before August took him in. But I doubted his real parents spent the money to feed him let alone plan for his future.
“Yes, if that's what he wants. I also need to save enough so he’s set for life if he becomes an artist. Shit is expensive.”
I agreed with him on that. It was hard to believe the man I’d seen eat someone's brain out of their skull was a better parent than most. August would let Lucas chase his dreams but also have a backup in case that career choice didn’t pay the bills. If my mother was e...
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