CHAPTER 2

A jolt to the chest woke Samir in his bed. Reflexively he arched his back and cocked his head so that he was facing up towards the ceiling of his dimly lit apartment. He gripped onto his bed sheets and grimaced in an attempt to bare this sudden pain, but it only worsened. Ripples of shock spread from his chest to his arms and legs, and up his neck.

He began to writhe, twisting and turning in his bed. But in his fret, he became aware of a new feeling that terrified him even more than the intense pain. At first he thought it was his bed sheets sliding over his naked body, rubbing smoothly against his skin. But as he became more alert he realized that it was his actual skin, much looser against him than it should have been, shifting over his inner flesh as he squirmed.

Samir pinched his jaw to his chest and looked down at his body. He saw what he first thought were spiders dancing about on his skin. But the creatures on top of him were unreasonably large for common spiders and they appeared to be mechanical. There were six or seven of them, metallic and silver. They were the shape of common spiders but about four times the size with thicker abdomens. They made high pitched squeaks as they moved about. Frantically, they scurried over his body, probing him, injecting him with liquid substances, lifting up segments of his skin with their pincers. Samir realized that he had chills and it was from their cold fluids that he could feel flowing inside him.

He froze in his bed and let out a scream. He didn't dare move, and he didn't dare turn anymore. Lying deadly still with the creatures crawling over his body, he simply shouted at the top of his lungs. It seemed to be the only natural thing he could do. Occasionally he would pause and gasp for breath. He forced out rapid gargled breaths, hoping that the mix of yelling and obnoxious breathing would obscure the pain.

Footsteps interrupted Samir's panic. Someone was there with him.

He held his breath. Who could be in the apartment?

He shifted his eyes to the side to see who it was. A girl came into view. A pale faced girl with long black hair, draped in black clothes. Samir's eyes widened at the sight of her in his apartment. It was the girl from the tunnel. The girl with the hideous arm. The girl of his nightmare.

Michelle…

She was walking toward him, illuminated by the glow of a computer screen behind her. Samir could not move, but his chest thumped harder as she drew near. When she was over him she looked into his eyes with no expression. Then she looked at his body and studied the mechanical creatures that were working on him. There was one on his shoulder that seemed to be spilling a gooey silver substance. The substance trickled down his arm and dripped on the bed. Michelle picked the creature up by one of its wiry metal legs. Samir glanced up at it. It whirled around and chirped rapidly while dangling between Michelle's fingers. She calmly tapped the glowing red triangle on its back and it seemed to shut off. All of its mechanical legs rescinded into its abdomen and it collapsed into a ball.

Michelle shifter her focus back to Samir.

"You still must sleep," she said.

She raised her free arm and put her open palm on his forehead. It was warm but it made him shiver. Then her hand grew warmer and Samir's tremors increased. Finally her hand became scolding hot. Samir felt the pressure melt away from his body. His vision began to blur and when he closed his eyes he saw a flurry of white flashes. A moment later he fell out of consciousness.

(Note – Unfortunately I will be very busy this coming week so I cannot promise that another update will come soon. But the following week I will have time and I plan to make many updates!)

(Also I appreciate any type of feedback, positive and negative, as my purpose here is to improve my writing! Thanks)