FicWad

It is always a gamble- trying to guess how one will react in the face of impending danger. The adrenaline kicks in and your body prepares to either fight or flight. But sometimes that just simply doesn't happen first. A person occasionally follows their other-less helpful- instincts first, which sometimes includes screaming, fainting, freezing up, and simply going into hysterics. Then they fight whatever is terrorizing them or run away from it. Ava was pretty sure she could do neither. She was also pretty sure she had stopped breathing.

Spiders.

Oh god...

Ava stood completely still, her blood pounding so hard through her body she could actually feel its current pulsing to her heart's beat. If there was one thing in the world she was afraid of, it was these eight legged creatures. She hated them... hated the way they moved with their sharp, jerky motions and ability to change directions without warning; the way they looked at you with their multiple eyes and how they could come at you from almost any angle. Just looking at them now made her itch all over and she couldn't help but balance on one foot, so they would have less opportunity to touch her.

Quickly, Ava looked above her head at her ceiling and wasn't all that surprised to find a handful already dangling from the white plaster. She shivered, going all cold in an instant. There was no way to fight hundreds of spiders. There was no way she wanted to be close enough to them to fight them to begin with. But she had to get out of there... meaning she would have to walk past them.

The closest one to her was about a foot away, peering up at her from under furry eyes. It was larger than some of the others... so maybe it was slower?

Ava tried to swallow, but found her throat completely dry. She had to get out of here, now. She scanned the room, trying to see if there was a pathway, but didn't find anything that looked possible without having to come into contact with one of the spiders. Her body began to shake slightly at the thought of having to walk back across the room. Maybe she could scream for help and someone could come to her rescue. But would that upset the spiders? Call them to her? She had no idea how spiders behaved.

Ava frantically checked her pocket for her phone before realizing she had thrown it haphazardly onto her coffee table. Peering at it now, she decided calling anyone was out of the question. The spiders littered the entire surface area, especially that directly around a series of cardboard boxes. Her keys and cell were already spider territory- and she wasn't going in there.

Choking back a strangled sob she sought some other form of escape. Nothing seemed rational. Glancing over her shoulder at the light switch she had just flicked on, she removed her hand from the wall just as two other spiders neared where it had previously been placed. Instantly she jerked back, away from the small black creatures, folding her hands up under her arms.

"Help." She called, semi-loud, hoping one of her two closest neighbors would hear and come to her rescue.

Her breath came in shallow gasps, and her vision began to dim slightly. Blinking several times she forced herself to remain calm. Viewing the room she found that many of the spiders were beginning to retreat to the outer walls, in the corners and cracks. Moving slightly away to the wall she was closest to placed her in the more open area of her kitchen.

"Help!" She called, again, louder this time. Judging the reactions of the spiders some of them heard her and scurried in odd directions. Ava's muscles stiffened, forcing herself to not do the same thing.

She should just run for it.

That was the only thing she could do with the least amount of harm coming to her. After all, she was a good deal larger than anything in this room and if she stepped on a spider she could crush it instantly.

But when? Maybe if she waited a bit longer a few more of them would move to the outer walls and clear more of a space for her.

"Okay. That's what I'll do." She spoke out loud to herself, trying her best to remain calm as another tremor shook through her body.

Gracefully, a small brown spider with long fuzzy legs descended from the ceiling as Ava watched wide-eyed. It landed close to two feet away from her and was promptly attacked by the larger that had been watching her so intently before. And that did it. She wasn't going to wait anymore.

Letting out a squeal she rushed for the door- first with her eyes closed, not wanting to see what she stepped on then with her eyes open so she wouldn't run into anything with eight legs when she reached the other wall. Grabbing the handle, she jerked the door open and jumped out into the spider less hall.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, doing a spastic dance to dislodge any spiders that might have hitched a ride on her into freedom. She itched all over and she continued to hop around crazily. Taking her hair down from her ponytail and shaking it out with as much force as she could muster she tried her best to be as cautious as possible. In that same manner she flung her coat into a heap at her door. Anything could have hidden itself in her clothes and she would be none the wiser. Immediately she imagined one of the tiny creatures crawling out from her shirt and onto her neck, causing her to involuntarily react by rubbing fiercely at her skin.

Jumping into action, she hastily pulled her shirt up and over her head and into the pile. Next went her jeans and socks. She looked down at her body, checking her body for any stowaways, doing the spastic jig the entire time. Her underwear would stay- nothing would have gotten in there... hopefully. Ava decided she would definitely be taking a shower soon.

"Oh my god!" She screamed again, hurrying to her closest neighbor's door, knocking loudly and continually for over a minute before the elderly Mrs. Carlson came peaking through the door- safety chain still in place.

"Ava? Is that you, dear?" She asked, her little voice waving.

"Yes!" Ava hopped up and down. "Please let me in! I need to call the police!"

The door clicked shut, then with the audible slide of metal on metal it reopened wide this time. Ava hurried in right away, almost knocking the tiny ninety-something year old woman over in the process.

"Ava, dear, why are you in your unmentionables?"

Ava barely heard the question, searching for a phone- or any other spiders that might have made their way into this room. She didn't think she could deal with that right now.

Spotting the lime green phone hanging on the wall near the kitchen, Ava practically sprinted to its side and dialed that number that had been now engraved in her brain since Wendy's death. She was quickly becoming very familiar with the police department's deputies. Once the call was answered and Ava rambled on about spiders- most likely not understanding the true horror of the situation for they first mentioned animal control- they promised to send a deputy right over.

Ava was really shaking now, her entire body convulsing so uncontrollably she plopped down onto the cool linoleum, breathing as slowly as she could muster. Mrs. Carlson was mumbling something again, but it was completely incoherent to Ava. All she could understand from the old lady was the look of concern plastered across her wrinkled face. She disappeared for a moment, then returned pressing a cool glass of water into her hand, forcing her to take a long drink of the liquid.

"The police are coming now, Mrs. Carlson. Thank you for letting me use your phone." She tried to stand to leave but her legs just weren't strong enough to push her body up into that position.

"Oh, no you don't dearie." She said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You need to sit right there until help comes."

Ava nodded blankly, closing her eyes and laying her head back against the wall.





*





"...and I just ran for the door and into the hallway." Ava finished telling the officer in charge of getting her statement. He wrote down her exact words on his pad of paper, every now and then scratching his neck and the back of his head. Ava had seen a lot of that recently, especially from herself. She just couldn't stop itching. Her own movements were restricted, however, because her only real covering was one of Mrs. Carlson's blankets draped over her shoulders reaching down to just above her knees.

Ava scanned the crowd around her. Right after the first officer arrived and glanced in at her little 'problem' he immediately sent for backup. They had only been there for a little over thirty minutes before the entire parking lot of the complex was filled with emergency vehicles. Animal control kept sending in people in what looked like space suits to retrieve boxes of the spiders. Ava shuddered at the memory of having them all around her, scratching her nails along her arms to rid herself of some of her discomfort, but nothing could ease the ach that had set in her muscles.

Matthew was also in attendance. Right after she called the police, she called him. He stood there, livid, barking orders at everyone who dared cross his path. He looked more than furious and Ava was glad Mr. Sanders- the owner of the apartments- was nowhere to be found. If the two of them ran into each other Ava was sure she would end up homeless. Not that she was 100% sure she wanted to keep her home here anymore.

Ava felt nauseous.

Why were these things happening to /her/? She really had no logical explanation.

It was more than obvious that the spiders just didn't appear there from out of nowhere. They would have had to have been placed there by someone. But who? Who the hell would want her dead? Ava didn't think she had any enemies, but it was blatantly apparent she had made somebody mad.

Wendy might have been killed because they thought she was me...

As soon as the thought entered her head she felt that pang of guilt. It all came back to Wendy. Whatever she had done- or lived through- or whatever- had cost her friend her life.

And it was looking like it might cost her her own if she wasn't careful.

"Okay, that's it for now, Miss Lemmings." He snapped the little book closed. "I think the EMTs want to get a look at you before you answer any more questions."

She nodded, half turning in search of the ambulance. She saw it instantly and started walking cautiously across the pavement. She was still bare-foot, and didn't want to step on anything that would add to injury. Once there, she noticed no one was currently manning the vehicle so instead of waiting patiently like a good little girl she wondered over to the payphone. Glaring at the piece of machinery she cursed herself for not having any change to pay for a call, then decided Patrick wouldn't care if she charged him for the bill. Surely he would want to hear about this badly enough.

Quickly, she dialed the numbers, said her name and waited for Patrick to answer. He managed on the fourth ring.

"Make it back safely?" He asked as a greeting, his voice so soothing to her ears.

"Um, the trip was safe, but..." She searched for the right words.

"But what?" He prompted, sounding mildly curious. "And why aren't you calling me on your cell phone?"

"Patrick... somehow my apartment got infested with spiders."

"What?!"

"I know, I know. Sounds crazy, but as soon as I walked in they were everywhere." Ava moved to scratch her right arm, but instead of helping it only served to send a sharp pain all the way down her side. Frowning the let her fingertips drift along her upper arm until she found a place slightly more swollen than the rest. Her breath hitched in her throat as she pulled the thin cloth down around that area. It was definitely swollen and red with two tiny pinprick dots marking its center.

"Are you okay?" He asked, concern laced in his voice.

"Um," She mumbled, at a loss for words in this new development. "I think I may have been bitten."

"What?!"

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she began having a bit of a hard time keeping air in her lungs. It was as if she couldn't get enough oxygen. "I'm going to have to call you back." She hung up the phone, hurrying back over to the ambulance, her muscles protesting every move she made. This time a woman was perched within its interior.

"Can I help you?"

Ava gritted her teeth. "I think I've been bitten."

Wrinkles instantly sprung up on her forehead as she frowned. "Well, come up here and let me get a look at it."

Ava complied wordlessly, the woman pulling the blanket off her shoulders as she did so.

"Oh my god." The EMT breathed.

"Is it bad?"

Silence. Ava knew it must have been from her lack of answer.

"Is it treatable?" She asked again, her voice starting to become high- edged with panic.

"It's most likely a black widow bite, since that's what they found in the apartment." She said evenly. "But there are three of them." She gently touched the spot under her arm and two other places on her back she hadn't been able to see earlier. "We'll need to get you the antidote immediately."

Ava felt her world go fuzzy and a little off center before dissolving into black.


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Okay, this was the hardest chapter I've ever had to write. I absolutely HATE spiders, and the entire time I was writing this I was scratching all over my neck and arms, imagining them in my hair... it was bad. Even when I was doing the research on the different types of spiders (I was going to go into descriptions of each one... even having one of the tree-type crawl up her leg but it was just too much for me) and every time I would see a new picture I would make little noises and my dog would cock her head to the side, wondering what was wrong with me. Ick! I can still see the pictures in my head! Yuck! But now that part is over and I can stop stressing about it!

Okay, and I'm really sorry Patrick and they other guys were not in this one very much, but they'll be more involved in the near future, don't you worry your pretty little heads. ;)

Please let me know what you think!