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#Writever 10.8 — Asile (Asylum)

Arachniss

I drew my back against the cold wall, unable to run further, pink-colored fog swirling around me. My hands stuck to the concrete. The locked iron gates—the cobbled drive and entrance devoid of trees, grass, or people—didn't seem to offer the promised asylum. Nobody answered the doorbell. The skittering of advancing spider legs tapping pavement, some splashing in puddles from the midnight rain, interrupted my efforts.

I stared, chest expanding fully each breath. Alleyways hid glowing red sets of eight eyes. The massing monsters were common species. One jumped from a building, landing in a pickup bed; the suspension bounced and squeaked. The brown one with only six eyes and a fiddle on its cephalothorax worried me, but not as much as the tall black female with the red hour glass shining in the streetlight, the first to dare the sodium lamp. A lead pipe-wide leg reached up, flicked. Glass shattered, vacuum popped, and fading light fell with sparks and glass to the street.

I screamed.

Metallic-sheened spider eyes focused my direction.

The blood rush in my ears threaten to deafen me. My head whirled and sight dimmed as my heart thundered.

The man's voice repeated—memory had its own life—"Asylum. Seek the Asylum. You'll be safe, there."

The black widow stepped forward, the brown recluse behind. Further legs moved. A red /phidippus/ jumper leapfrogged over, halving the distance. My gallon of blood couldn't even satiate the hairy postbox-sized arachnid.

"...seek... asylum."

I pulled a leg up. The sole of my left foot splat when it touched cold cement, sticking. I gulped. My right foot stuck, too. I climbed precariously that way as the spiders advanced, then surged. Bodies hit cement. Panicked, I flipped over, climbing desperately over the wall.

[3 hrs composition and rewriting. 2 hours revision. 5 minutes cutting 2/3rds of the story. Author retains copyright.]

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