.: :CHAPTER ELEVEN: :.
Then, to Amry's surprise, she heard a voice:
"Are you alright?"
She couldn't believe it – but the voice seemed to be coming from the creature. It was a strange choppy voice, but there was something shockingly gentle about the tone.
The legs placed on her back were moving, rolling her over. She stared mutely up at the monster, still paralyzed by her fear.
The thing was undeniably a spider, in all the horrid glory of its species. It had a short, dull-brown fur the color of old dried blood with bands of darker coloring forming what would be stripes if all the legs were pulled in together. A set of four black eyes (two larger, two smaller) liquidly reflected the orange points of candle flame, the light flickering coldly across their impenetrable black shine. She wondered if she'd hallucinated the voice, if now she was lying prone the spider was going to inject her belly with some poison - as if reading her mind, the shiny pincers began to work again:
"Did you hurt yourself?"
Multiple legs moved forward, running over her body, taking in the feel of every inch of her. The paralyzed terror broke – Amry could finally scream, drawing her body into the fetal position as protection from those probing legs.
"Oh no – it's okay! Take a breath...you're alright." The legs quickly retracted and the spider took a few many-legged steps back. It hovered, staring unblinkingly down at Amry.
She held her head and screamed a few more times. She screamed because she was in a room with a giant spider, and had no idea what was going to happen to her now. She screamed because she was in a maze that made no sense and she had no idea why. She screamed because the shrill, raw sound was a release: as she expelled the screams she also expelled part of the overwhelming emotions inside her.
Finally, throat aching, she stopped screaming. She lowered her arms, meeting the spider's eyes. Slowly she moved herself up into a sitting position.
She didn't dare blink.
The spider stood, staring back. Then the pinchers moved and it spoke again:
"Did you hurt yourself when you fell?"
Amry, still staring, shook her head slowly.
"I was afraid you would hurt yourself on the stairs when I saw you running. I tried to catch you to warn you how dangerous they can be to those with only two legs – but now it seems my good intentions have caused you harm. I deeply apologize; I didn't mean to startle you."
Listening to the voice was so strange – as though there was some trick to the spider forming words that caused a strange jerking rhythm to its speech. Almost like listening to someone trying to figure out how to blow into the mouthpiece of a flute at just the right angle to make the instrument sing, piecing a tune together note-by-note with searching breaths.
The spider timidly began to move towards her again.
"Stay back!"
Amry pushed herself backwards with her hands, scooting away. She tried to make her voice sound threatening but only succeeded in sounding hoarse and afraid. Trembling, she gazed hard at the spider. The pincers of the spider fidgeted a moment, as if it were thinking, then it retreated back and stood motionless again.
All was still. Neither the spider or Amry moved.
Finally, Amry managed the courage to pull herself up onto her unsteady feet. The spider seemed to stand about half her height –the fact she stood taller than it was somehow reassuring.
The pincers flicked. "I…I'm sorry I've frightened you so much. It was not my intention."
The long legs shifted nervously.
"I believe you dropped something."
The spider slowly moved forward and past Amry, considerately leaving a wide space between them. The grace in the slow, steady movement of the legs was beautiful – Amry couldn't help but notice, despite the situation. The creature seemed to be trying to earn her trust – could a spider be trustworthy?
She watched it weave through the shadows next to the stairs. The spider stopped a moment (a very long moment to Amry), then turned and came slowly back towards her. As it drew closer, Amry could see that it was holding out two of its front legs, the ends of which were up and pressed together. From the place where the tips of the legs touched dangled a broken chain - it was holding the crystal necklace.
The spider approached her and held out the legs with the crystal. Amry took half a step back. The spider stood patiently still, waiting. Finally, she found herself reaching forward and quickly snatched the black crystal, her fingers brushing the coarse brown hairs on one of the legs as she did. She watched the spider's eyes.
"Is that necklace...yours?" The tone was curious.
"Yes..." She looked at the spider a moment longer, then shifted her gaze down on the black crystal in her palm.
The spider silently marveled. It had been many, many years since it had seen a human. What a wonder this girl was. And if that crystal truly was what it seemed to be. . .
A story, one as old as time itself, crawled up from the depths of the spider's carefully arranged web of thought. A story it had not recalled for a very long time.