"Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back."

-Babe Ruth

Day 2 Part 1

I woke up on the bed, my neck hurting from the odd position I had fallen asleep in. My hands felt grimey, and my knees hurt from bending down so much yesterday. It had been around midnight when I had finished scrubbing the carpet from the stains. I groaned when I looked at my watch to see that it was only 5 AM. Five hours. I have only managed to sleep 5 hours. I stayed in the comfortable bed for a few seconds, and I moved off of it and onto the ground in a heap. I felt so tired, and yet, I needed to continue to work on my living space. I loved the fact I had my own space, but I also hated the fact that I needed to continue on working. I sighed, and stood up from my awkward position from the floor and stumbled to my dufflebag to change into more suitable clothing. My jeans were bleached and useless from yesterday, but I could wear them and not ruin another pair. I took off my fuzzy sweatpants that I loved to bits and changed into the jeans that felt grimey and I shivered in disgust. I was going to have to ask where the washing machines where, so I could be able to clean them. I kept my jacket on, because it was cold and I doubted that this place had a heater. I stumbled into the kitchen and found the fridge. I doubted that there was anything in there, but I still opened it. And, to my surprise, I found a small bag of Granny Smith apples. I silently thanked whoever brought them here, and bit into one and puckered up. It was sour.

Sour was good. It meant sugar, and sugar meant energy. However, it was cold. I shivered slightly as I went over to the hallway and looked at the small(ish) paint cans. My bedroom was a dark red, and the paints here was a baby blue and a light green. Instantly I thought about what shade would look better in the three other rooms. I decided that I would put the light green in the Kitchen and Bathroom, the rooms with the windows, and put the baby blue in the living room. I studied the walls, and took a long peeling strip in my hands.

And I tore it all off, in a twist of my wrists. One rectangle of white stood out from the rest of the grimy walls, and I began my quest of going around the room, tearing the paper off the walls. It was strange to see something clean, or at least partially clean, in this place. There were some chunks of glue still stuck to the walls, and a neat pile of paper on the ground. I took the butt of the paint brush and began to hit it against the glue until it all cracked off. I didn't have anything better to hit it with, so the butt of the paint brush it was.

Then the thing hit me. I really needed to use the bathroom. Like, really badly. However, I hadn't touched the room since yesterday, and I shuddered at the thought of the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. The suspicious stains on the ground, the endless cobwebs, and the mice droppings were nothing compared to what I saw in that small room. I was already gagging at the thought.

But Mother Nature calls me. I danced around a little, trying to keep the pressure off, and I sighed.

I needed to do this.

(Sam, if I had some makeup, I would draw those lines on my face like the football players do. Yeah, I was going all war-like here.)

I pulled my long brown hair into a ponytail, and braided it to keep its length from falling into the messes I was getting into. I pulled out a bandanna from my bag and tied it around my face to hopefully keep out the dust and smell out of my airways. I pulled on the yellow plastic gloves and grabbed several cans of bathroom cleaner. A roll of paper towels joined the pile and I was ready.

I needed to do what was necessary. My hand rested on the old looking handle, and I pushed myself into the room that was like... BAM! Welcome to the jungle!

Moss grew out of the cracks, and the cobwebs in here covered the entire room. I suddenly wished for my pepper spray. The sink had a large nest in it, I suppose a rats nest. It had random twigs and chewed up bits of paper that I knew came from the books downstairs. The shower, was a pile of rags and the remains of the last mattress. There was a decaying body of a raccoon in the middle of it, and the small window that lit the room was open and ivy grew inside. This was… it needed to be…. I am completely speechless. Even though I glanced in it yesterday, there wasn't any light, but now… it was disgusting.

Disgusting is an understatement. Luckily the floor was tiled, so I wouldn't have to scrub it on my hands and knees.

I started on the cobwebs first. Big mistake. About halfway through the room, I heard the growl. I looked down and saw the evil spider, with red eyes and its skin still had the slight orange-ish look of pepper spray.

I totally didn't scream like a 2 year old girl wanting ice cream. Totally.

I, once again, had a can in my hand. And like any smart person, sprayed it right into the spiders face again. The bathroom cleaner foamed over the spider who, whined like a dog again, and it scurried over the rotting corpse of the Raccoon and out of the window.

I was flippin out the entire time. I had somehow had activated my dinosaur arms and began to do silly Michael Jackson 'Thriller' moves to get rid of the rest of the spiderwebs. After I had calmed down from the whole AH-I-AM-GOING-TO-FREAK-OUT-WHILE-DANCING moves, I began to work on clearing out the whole mess in the sink and shower. I had found some huge black garbage bags in the kitchen, and began to move the twigs, papers, and moss out. I had taken a separate black bag and picked up the corpse without touching it (I noticed that it was bloodless, Sam, that Spider is scary). The torn up sheets and mattress soon followed, but I wasn't really paying any attention.

I really needed to release the pressure on my bowels. I decided I should just chance it, and lifted up the toilet lid only to shriek and slam it down. In the water was a dead floating rat, belly up. No way was I going to pee on a corpse. It would haunt me and… turn into a ghost. Ghosts are so scary. Then I heard a splashing sound come from the toilet. It took me a half a second to realise that the rat wasn't dead, it was alive. That was worse than any ghost.

Belting out a full scream, I raced from the room and out of the living quarters. I was in the dark library and running into a dark corner of bookshelves. I didn't know why I had run down here, but I still could see the lights glowing from my living room which I had fled from. I was grossed out here, and never before had I ever felt the overpowering sensation of running away. I shivered, and I once again began to jump up and down to relieve the building pressure in my lower part of my body.

Man, I need to pee.

I looked around the dirty area and I felt a growing uneasiness in the lower part of my stomach. Then, I noticed a book. It was a normal book, by all means. But to me? A book catching my eyes, is something to be looked over at. It had a black leather cover, and yet, it seemed to call to me. My hand reached out, passed through a thick cobweb to grab it and pulled it out. With a very, almost nonexistent, light I couldn't make out what the blackened dots on the page told me. I began my way back up to my dirty home. I didn't notice that somebody else had invited themselves into my home, and I walked right into them.

"Oy, Bitch Human." I looked up from the tiny letters on the book and into the golden eyes of Redhead.

"Immortal Bastard." I replied, without missing a beat.

"I heard you scream, whats wrong." Redhead replied, scowling. I blinked, and decided to rub it into his face.

"You were scared for me? Aww, you do care." I said with as much sarcasm as possible, and Readhead blushed a bright red that covered his entire face.

"N-no! Shut up idiot!" He stammered and I grinned. It was fun to mess around in his head, because it was so easy. "Why did you really scream about?" He scowled and I sighed.

"Theres a rat in the toilet." I slumped my shoulders.

"What?" Redhead blinked.

"Rat. In. Toilet." I said, very carefully, incase he was actually a moron.

"Alive or dead."

"Alive. Happily swimming." I replied, and pointed towards the bathroom. "Hopefully it's not dead, because I already dealt with the raccoon corpse."

"Raccoon corpse?!" Yup. A moron. Redhead seemed lost in thought and I pushed past him and bent myself over the book. The words were tiny, but I could make them out.

'The major acts and the way things are of life are often solved by science. The unexplained ways are often forgotten or never looked at by humankind. This is all explained by a single most important word that many people know of, but never would use. All is explained through a device called-'

"Bitch Human, what the hell are you reading." It wasn't a question. I glanced up, irritated, and then froze in fear. I didn't answer Redhead. My eyes were glued to the ceiling, watching a dark shape creep across its white surface.

"What the hell are you doing!" Redhead waved his hand in front of my eyes and I started to slowly back away.

"You might want to slowly move away, and towards the door." I said, my eyes never leaving the Evil Spider on the ceiling, its eyes looking at me like it wanted revenge.

Redhead followed my gaze up to the ceiling and swore,"When the hell did that come in here?!"

"Through the bathroom window," I said, remembering how I didn't want to close it because it help the stink dissipate. "And I don't have anything to spray on it."

"Spray?"

"Well, the last two times I have seen this beast was when I had pepper spray and bathroom cleaner." I was almost to the door and I could hear the spider growling.

"Is it growling?" Redhead whispered fearfully.

"Yeah." I said,"It even whines like a dog when something gets on its face."

"And you know thi-"

"Run!" I pushed him through the door, dropping the book in the process, and quickly followed him down the stairs. I heard its eight legs scurry after us, and fear of its bite drove me to an even faster pace.

I still didn't know the way out, so I followed the sound of Redheads footsteps. I cried out a few times as I ran into spiderwebs, and the overpowering feeling of throwing up bubbled up as I ran. I saw the rectangle of the door and the slim figure of Redhead go through it. Shit, he is a fast runner.

Then I saw the rectangle of light slowly close, and I was in the dark. "No! No no no!" I gasped as I slammed into the door and banged on it a few times. I was in a panic, the fear of the spider getting to me was too strong and when I knew that the door wasn't about to open, I gave up. I turned around and looked at the red eyes glowing in the darkness. If I was to die, I would die with dignity.

But I had planned that I would go out as the Rebel Leader of the Zombie Crusades, not by a spider. I guess that Life drives a hard bargain.

"Come on Spider, finish me off." I breathed, and looked at the spider as it drew nearer. I was preparing for my death, when an odd sound came out of nowhere. Grroowwwllluuurrp.

I looked around, trying to see what had caused the noise and my eyes landed on the Spider.

The Spider actually looked embarrassed.

It didn't need to take a genius to figure out what had happened. "A-are you hungry?" I asked, and moved forwards slightly.

The red eyes (get this) actually responded to my question and nodded in a manner that I would call sheepish.

I thought about the Granny Smith Apples, and knew that the Spider would only want blood. Then I thought about the only living, breathing thing that I had met today besides Redhead.

"Would you like a rat?"

The spider nodded.

I did a coin toss, and I am going to put them in segments. Maybe 1-3 ish chapters per 'day' in the story.

You snoozed. You loosed.

I almost deleted this story, but I remembered that sometimes, my stories can be unsuccessful. Usually, they are well liked. Oh well. I haven't given up hope yet. Somebody will love this! Somebody! ... Anybody? *gives Bambi eyes*

please review.