Drider & the Jogger

Drider: a hybrid between a spider and a human. The drider has the abdomen, legs, and body of a spider, and the upper half of a human positioned where the spiders head would be.

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Samantha glanced down at her wristwatch. 6:30 AM

“Dang.” She thought. “I’m going to be late getting home. Better pick up the pace.” She quickened her stride, the powerful, well-toned muscles within her calves pumping in response. Her shoes began to hit the pavement faster and faster as her speed quickened.

The countryside glistened with the early morning dew. Lush farm fields held huge crops of vegetables. A rooster crowed somewhere in the distance. If one wished for solitude, they could easily find it here, among the rolling plains of farmland.

That was why the Drider had moved here three years ago. Driven from her previous lair, she had searched for a new place to make her home, and where she could find food and eat it undisturbed. So far she had sustained herself on stray farm animals. But the meat was rough and tough. And wrapping her prey up was very difficult when it was large and struggling.

She had considered leaving this area for another lair when she had noticed the human. For the past two weeks, it had been running along this desolate country road early in the morning. She had thought for a while, and concluded that it ran for recreation or exercise. The Drider had decided to make a meal of the human. From the previous ones she had tried, humans had a unique flavor that no other creature had.

So she had created a trap here, along the road. With any luck, the human would not notice it until it was too late. The Drider waited in the entrance to her lair. Her sharp eyes looked until she spotted the human coming down the road a mile away. She was dressed in a one-piece skintight racing suit (blue in color) that covered everything except her head. Made her quite easy to spot. The Drider waited. The trap was about to be sprung.

Samantha continued along the road, sweat appearing on her forehead from the intense running. She glanced at her watch again. She had less then an hour to get home and get ready for her job as a bank accountant. Picking up the pace, she tried to go faster.

The trap was so well camouflaged that Samantha would have never spotted it unless the sun was shining directly on it. Unfortunately for her, the sun was not feeling generous that morning. She approached the trap, blissfully unaware of its existence. Ten feet. Five. Three. One. The trap was sprung.

Samantha was quite surprised when her running was suddenly stopped. One second she was running like the wind. The next second, she was suddenly stopped by an invisible force. It took her mind exactly a second to recover from the initial shock. It took another second to start working on figuring out what had stopped her.

“What the heck?” She thought. “What’s this?” She tried moving. The only thing she could do was manage a slight waving action. Her limbs were stuck on something, as if they were glued to a surface.

“Is this a joke?” She thought. Practical jokers had been here before, but only twice. It took her a few seconds to realize that this was not the work of practical jokers. Whatever she was stuck to was invisible. It felt like lots of thick cables were strung in front of her, and she was stuck on them. At that moment the sun decided to show Samantha what she should have seen not thirty seconds ago. It shone down on her, and only then did she realize what she was stuck to.

A giant web was strung across the road, secured on both sides by telephone poles. It had been invisible, impossible to see withought the sun shining directly onto it. The only thought that appeared inside Samantha’s confused brain was that this could only belong to the world’s largest spider. She had no idea how close she was to being right.

Samantha heard something walking up behind her. It sounded like something with lots of legs. Before she could say anything, or turn to look at whatever it was, something was wound around her mouth. Startled, she tried to ask what was going on, but all she could manage was a startled “mmmphh!” More and more layers of the stuff was wound around her mouth, preventing her from speaking. Or, as she realized with a chill, shouting.

With that realization, Samantha tried to scream. But the silk that had been wound around her mouth did its purpose. It denied Samantha the ability to speak. It kept her terrified screams sealed within her. Samantha felt two arms grasping her around her torso. Incredibly powerful muscles tugged at her, and she was ripped off the huge web, pieces of silk still clinging to her skintight clothes. She was carried across the road to its side, and suddenly whatever was holding her began to go down, as if going into a deep hole. The world quickly began to get smaller as Samantha was pulled into the hole.

Terrified beyond all sense, Samantha grasped the ground with her arms and tried to pull herself out. A very brief tug of war ensured between her and her kidnapper. The Kidnapper won. Samantha let out a final, terrified, muffled scream that was barely audible from three feet away. Then she was sucked downwards and vanished from sight. A small dirt hatch collapsed on top of the hole. The sun continued to shine down on the early morning earth. Birds flew overhead. All was silent. Nobody had seen what had just taken place.

Samantha slowly woke up. Her last memory was of her fainting from the fear and the terror of being pulled into a hole by an unseen kidnapper, unable to cry out for help. She shook her head groggily, trying to awaken.

“Maybe it was just a dream,” she muttered, influenced by the hope that all humans are gifted with. But as more of her senses returned, that hope was trashed. Samantha was in a rocky chamber of some kind. A few stalagmites hung from the ceiling. A pool of aqua green water filled one section of the floor. Green crystals stuck out from the rock, providing light that filled the large cave.

Samantha’s first thought was that she had to get out of there. But she felt… strange. As if her body was rebelling and refusing to accept any of her commands. Her legs wouldn’t respond to her commands of “run”. Her arms could twitch and wiggle, but beyond that movement of her limbs was impossible. Only then did she realize what position she was in. Her arms were stuck out from her side. Her legs were bound together. Her body was now in the shape of a T, as if she was a religious cross displayed for all to see. But the apparatus that secured her in that position was terrible to behold.

Silvery silken material clung to her from all angles and all positions. Thick strands of woven silk were positioned like glue, jutting from pillars and the rocky ceiling. The thick strands clung to her or wove around her limbs. Combined, all the strands formed a supportive vertical hammock that kept her dangling in the air. Samantha instinctively fought against the restraints that bound her in position. But it was useless. The silk woven around her arms kept them jutted straight out, making it impossible to flex them at all. Looking down, her entire body up to her neck had been triple wrapped in three woven layers of incredibly strong, silvery silk. Escape was impossible. Her body cocoon shone like a living jewel.

Before her mind could comprehend the horrible situation she was in, the silk closest to Samantha began to move, signifying that something was moving on it. And it was not Samantha.

Samantha finally saw what had brought her here. It was something out of her deepest nightmares. A horrible being, an impossible blend of human and spider. The all too human face of the Drider smiled at her as it moved closer, walking silently on eight shiny black legs.

“So you are awake.” The Drider said in a cheerful voice. Samantha’s response was to try and move away from the revolting creature. But the webs and the silk stuck fast, and kept her immobile. She moaned in fear as the Drider drew closer.

The Drider reached the terrified woman and paused to inspect her. The creature smiled and reached out with a hand. The Drider stroked the woman on the cheek. Samantha recoiled, repelled by the touch.

The Drider smiled. “You’ll make a fine meal.” She said cheerfully. Samantha stammered, to terrified to make any sounds outside of a feeble squeak. She finally found her voice.

“You’re… you… you’re going to eat me?” She stammered.

“Oh yes. I’m tired of eating your pitiful cows.” The Drider shook her head. “The meat is too rough. You should be refreshingly different.” She smiled devilishly and stroked Samantha’s terrified face. “Human meat is quite sweet, and has a unique flavor. Or so I’ve heard. Let’s find out, shall we?”

Faster then Samantha could follow, the Drider quickly spun some silk and took it in her hands. The Drider smiled, then opened her mouth to reveal needle sharp teeth. Samantha lost it. She screamed in utter terror, convinced that she was about to die in the worst way imaginable. But instead of biting Samantha, the Drider stuffed the silk into her mouth until it was filled to the brim with silk. Quickly spinning some more, she then wound more of the silver material around Samantha’s mouth and head, sealing her mouth shut and denying her the ability to speak.

“That should help.” The Drider mused. She leaned in close. “To silence your screams.”

Samantha did exactly that. She screamed. Screamed as loud as she could. But her thickly muffled screams came out as a mere “Mmmpphh!” Every muscle fought as she tried to escape her web. But it was no use. The Drider leaned it towards her cheek, her sharp teeth poised to strike.

And to Samantha’s complete surprise, the Drider kissed her.

“Of course, I’m not hungry right now. So I’ll keep you for later.”

The Drider quickly moved upwards and began to spin silk around Samantha’s face, quickly replacing pink skin with silver silk. The silk bound itself to the skin, working upwards quickly. Samantha let out a muffled “Mmrroo!” In protest of her encasement. The Drider only smiled as she continued to wrap. Samantha could do nothing to prevent her encasement as her head was wrapped up tightly in silk. The silk reached her eyes, and she instinctively closed them. Her last sight was of the cave, where she would lie forever.

The silk covered Samantha’s tightly closed eyes and quickly smoothed out over them. With well-practiced skill, the silk wove itself around the human’s head. Within thirty seconds, Samantha’s head was tightly wrapped and gripped by the silk. But the Drider was not finished yet.

Her spinnerets moving faster, the Drider quickly wove another layer of silk around the human’s head, sealing her within even tighter. The human wiggled within her cocoon, trying desperately to stop her mummification by silk. Her screams of protest were no longer audible. The tightly woven silk denied any escape of sound from her mouth.

With the second layer complete, the Drider wove one final layer of silk around the head, ensuring that she would never speak nor see anything ever again. Tighter and tighter the silk went on, binding to the previous layer, becoming thicker and thicker, more inescapable with every thread. Then, it was finished.

The Drider inspected its handiwork with pride. A tightly wrapped cocoon, imprisoning a human under three inescapable layers of silk, forming a one inch barrier that would be impossible to cut through. The human continued to struggle, but her movements were nothing more then a barely viewable wiggle. The Drider ran her hand over the silk skin, rubbing and caressing it, like a mother rubbing a baby to soothe it. After several minutes, the human finally lay still, her mummified body no longer able to struggle.

With her stomach beginning to rumble, the Drider turned and walked away, looking for a place to rest after all her hard work.

Within her inescapable prison, Samantha could no longer see. She could not talk or mutter anything less then a feeble whimper. Even her hearing was practically gone. She was helpless, imprisoned within this cocoon of silk. It hugged her all over, keeping her nice and safe. She would remain like this for the rest of her short life. Even with the silk forcing her eyes shut for all eternity, a tear managed to somehow work its way out, quickly being absorbed by the silk.

Up above, the silk web that had been strung across the road remained in place. Even with the sun bearing down on it, the web remained invisible.

Down the street, another jogger continued her morning run.

 

Any and all comments are greatly appreciated, as they help me improve my writing. My thanks to those of you who tell me what you think of my stories. Your comments and suggestions allow me to refine my writting.

18.03.05