by Barbara Hughes-Moore
She did not move for days as the spider spun a gossamer prison around her.
She did not speak. She did not blink. She barely breathed. Many thought her mind was sick; they spoke of depression, disassociation; more still feared a coma, a living death. They could not fathom what had brought her to the brink of such misery.
Her windows and doors were locked. They did not know how. No amount of beating could break them down. They could only watch through the glass as the cobwebs began to cover her bare arms and her folded legs and dripped from her hair like a wedding veil.
The spider danced on her eyelashes, staining her lips silver and threading shimmering trails across her throat. It left her pinned in place, a living mural, a monument to melancholy that moved at the slightest sigh.
It was no web.
It was a cage.
Her red hands gripped the floorboards. She had buried him under this very spot. She would never leave him now. The spider knew this, so it spared her eyes. She would always be able to look into the blank gaze that peered up from the crack in the floor. Together, as they’d always said they would be.
She had summoned the spider to be her sentry, to shape a cell for her shame, and it had done so. It served no further purpose for her now. With shaky legs, it clambered up her chin and rested against her lips, like a kiss. She flicked out her tongue and chewed him up.
Its juices spilled down her chin and dripped onto her palms. It didn’t bother her.
A little more blood on her hands couldn’t hurt…
February 7, 2017 at 2:43 pm
Very catching how she has punished herself. Then punished the summoned punisher.
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March 6, 2017 at 5:45 pm
Driven to madness. Lacking an internal instinct to tell her right from wrong. She killed him, but now regrets that choices, because now she is truly alone. Spiders make great sentinels. Spiders squish so satisfying. Someone just waiting to die, a tragedy. Her surroundings reflect her mind.
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March 14, 2017 at 5:55 pm
As I read I thought “why were her palms red”? Then I realized at the end it was because she murdered someone. Very subtle, I like it. Also the way you wrote the web spinning was oddly beautiful.
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March 15, 2017 at 9:20 am
this was so different. creepy, yet tragically pretty. i liked it a lot.
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March 19, 2017 at 2:35 am
Beautiful, haunting metaphors cajole us into a fascinating story revelation.
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March 19, 2017 at 4:02 pm
The descriptive language throughout the story really makes the piece. The piece genuinely perturbed me.
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March 20, 2017 at 5:00 am
Murder on her hands, depression on her soul, and a silk cage. The metaphor for self-harm and resentment of that harm works exceedingly well here. Different readers could, and I am sure will, take vastly different implications away with them. Great work.
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March 26, 2017 at 1:46 am
The use of the spider was absolutely stunning. Her descent into madness and self punishment was very fascinating!
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May 27, 2017 at 11:38 am
Beautiful prose and very chilling.
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October 9, 2017 at 4:52 pm
beautiful and sinister
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December 3, 2017 at 9:37 pm
Well done! I appreciated the vivid imagery.
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