Authors note: Thanks for reading my story, also if you want to please leave reviews! But I will only accept CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AND ADVICE, not harassment!

Ten year old Annabelle Potter was alone in her cupboard with her only friends when it happened: they talked to her! The spiders.

Well, one of them did.

*How was your latest hunt?*

"Who said that?" Annabelle whispered into the darkness. She wasn't scared. She was glad to have someone or something to talk to in here, really. Someone who sounded nice. It was a deep, kind, girl's voice.

*I did.* The voice came again, but this time it was louder. It was somewhere on the floor! Annabelle moved her feet around carefully, trying not to kick whoever it was, but also trying to find them. She didn't feel anything, though, and that left her confused more than anything else.

"Are you a ghost?" Annabelle asked.

*What's a ghost?* Now the voice was confused too. Then it went on with, *I'm a spider. A steatoda grossa, by your human classifications - if I'm remembering the book correctly, that is. Anyway, my name's Ycu.*

"Yoo-coo?" Annabelle pronounced with a smile. "I'm Annabelle. You read my book about...your people?" It was the only gift her aunt and uncle had given her in her entire life, an encyclopedia picture book about spiders, after they had noticed her interest in them. She frowned and kicked her feet on the dusty floor. "How did you learn english? And how come you've never talked to me before? And how come you never-"

*Quiet!* Ycu's voice was sharp, like a loud clack, and it made Annabelle freeze where she sat. *And stop moving! You'll scare away all my food - or ruin my web, which I've worked hard on repairing for the past hour now, after you damaged it the last time!*

"I'm sorry!" said Annabelle quickly - and quietly, like Ycu asked her to be. "Sorry. But can you please answer me?"

*I've been alive for three years - I've had time to learn your language. I never spoke to you before tonight because I know how most of your people react to mine; you try to immediately kill us. Can you blame me, really, for not wanting to risk talking to you before now? But I'm risking it now because I've sensed for a long time that you're a very special kind of human. A human with the ability to speak to us spiders, and to hear what we speak back to you.*

"Oh." Annabelle was quiet for a long time, trying to wrap her head around it all. "So, all spiders are as smart as you, and all of you can talk, but it's just that most humans can't hear you talk? And can't talk to you?"

*That's right.*

"But...if you're all as smart as humans, and you can all talk, and you can all learn to talk english, how come you don't have like...cities and stuff? And governments? I mean, why are you all still running around, hiding in corners, and- and- I don't get it. You just don't...seem like you're acting very smart."

*Maybe we're just not acting how you think smart beings would act,* countered Ycu, her deep voice going deeper and a bit dangerous. *You humans act how you act, and we spiders act how we act. And we like how we act! We're perfectly fine with living in corners, in shadows, traveling when we can or if we want to. We live how we live not because we're simple or stupid, but because we like living this way! It in no way means we're stupider than you, or wrong for not acting like you do! We don't need governments, we don't need cities, we don't need the things that you do! You arrogant creatures! Your way is not the best way, not the only way to live, and it doesn't give you the right to murder us at your whim - as you do!*

"I'm sorry! I get it, I'm sorry, I get it!"

There was silence in the cupboard again. Annabelle hated it, she didn't want it to be this way again, not when she finally had someone to talk to! It was like being given water after being stuck in a desert, only to have that water taken away from her a minute later!

*You're young,* Ycu spoke, in a thoughtful tone. A kind tone again. *I'm sorry to be so rude toward you. Of course you wouldn't know any better. But maybe...you're young enough to learn?*

"To learn what?"

*To learn that just because you can't hear us, doesn't mean we aren't as intelligent and as alive as you are,* Ycu replied. *If you respect us, if you talk to us, if you leave us alone when we want to be left alone, and if you don't try to murder any of us, then we will give you the same treatment in return. And maybe, if you do this for us, and if we do the same for you in turn, maybe we can have something together.*

"What do you mean?"

*A mutually beneficial relationship,* said Ycu patiently - and still so kindly. *Maybe we will help you with things you might need help with, and maybe you'll start to help us with the things we might need help with.*

"That sounds okay to me," said Annabelle, her smile growing again. She was so relieved, so glad, so happy! It sounded like having friends, almost. And she'd never had friends before! But if she could have them now...

*Then we'll see where this goes,* said Ycu. She paused. *Your hunt? How was it?*

Annabelle shook her head, even though she knew a spider probably didn't know what it meant and couldn't see her anyway. "I wasn't...hunting anything. I was doing...work. Like...I guess how you spin your webs and stuff all the time? I had to do something like that, but for humans."

*Well, I hope no one damages your work.*

"Me too," Annabelle muttered, thinking of Dudley and Piers and his gang; they'd sometimes do just that, just to get her in trouble with her aunt and uncle. Thankfully, this time, they hadn't been around to see her working out there. "I'm sorry I damaged your web. Probably more than once, too, these past few years. You were right about me, about us. I never thought you were...smart and stuff. Like you had feelings and thoughts."

*You're young,* Ycu repeated her earlier words. *I forgive you. Annabelle, the next time you leave your home for your work, would you take me with you? I'd like to see what you do out there.*

"My home? You mean this cupboard?" Annabelle frowned. "It's not really my home. It's...like a trap. Do you...do you know how some people put your people in jars or cups or aquariums or whatever? Zoos? To be looked and poked and stuff?"

*Yes,* Ycu answered slowly, that dangerous note coming back to her deep voice. *I know all about your "zoos."*

"Right, well, this cupboard is kind of my zoo," Annabelle went on quickly. "I'm stuck in here. I'm getting fed and poked at, but I'm stuck in here most of the time."

*When you're let out, why don't you run?* Ycu questioned. *My people do it all the time, when they get the chance.*

"I...I've never thought about it?" Annabelle stammered out. She really never had. But now that Ycu had brought it up to her...no! No, no. "Too many problems! If I ran away, I'd just be worse off. I couldn't get food, humans don't really hunt for food like that. And I'd be in danger from the cold, and from random people who might hurt me, and if my aunt and uncle got the police to bring me back- and- no! I just couldn't run away like that! It'd be worse than just staying here!"

*Nothing is worse than staying trapped!* Ycu said sharply. *That's why my kind have that immediate sense to run, to escape! Because there's nothing worse! I don't know why you don't have that same sense, but you must run the next time you have the chance!*

"NO!" Annabelle cried, stamping a foot flat on the floor. "I'm not running away, I can't, I won't! Just no, all right? Just- shut up! You don't know what will happen to me if I try that!"

The cupboard was completely silent again. And it stayed that way for hours into the night, until Annabelle fell asleep, shivering and in tears.