Attach one silken thread to you

The remaining three looked down at the feather duster which lay ominously on the floor. In their heightened state of fear, they became aware of rustling and other strange noises that seemed close at hand. Scanning the area around them, there appeared to be nothing there, but the edges of the corridor were in darkness, and none of them could see much. Benny picked up Ethan's dropped duster.

"We've got to be really careful now."

Drawing quite close together, they advanced through the webbing. This was definitely an area in the rafters of the school that they had never been to. There seemed to be only one way to go: up the sloping hallway and into the darkness in front of them.

Motioning them to move quietly, Sarah led the way, ducking past overhanging webs and trying to be as silent as possible. Examining the floor, she saw two sets of drag marks.

"Ethan and Rory," she mouthed at Benny and Erica, pointing at the disturbance in the dust. She looked at a handprint. It was the right size for Ethan, and was topped with long, faint, scratches where he had tried to gain a grip on the floor. Clearly he'd failed, but the fact that he had been trying was a good sign. He hadn't been poisoned and paralysed. Yet.

Padding softly on, Sarah and the others followed the marks around a corner and into yet another dark and dusty corridor.

"How many corridors are there up here?" muttered Benny. "It's like a maze!"

"I think we've found the middle," murmured Sarah in reply, and nodded her head down the passage.

At the end, shrouded in shadow, was an old wooden door. It was the only one in the corridor. That must have been where the boys had been taken to.

"Is that…?" Benny whispered to her.

"Where the spider is? I think so," replied Sarah. They edged towards it, batting aside cobwebs.

Suddenly, Erica froze, her mouth partly open in disgust.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!" she squealed, as a small shower of spiders, disturbed by the movement, rained down upon her. Frantically, she tried to rid herself of them, with Sarah making panicked shushing motions with her hands, trying to get Erica to calm down.

Benny let one run across his hand. He showed it to Erica. "Look," he whispered. "It's tiny. Just an ordinary little spider. Nothing to be scared about. It's probably been here for years."

Embarrassed at her reaction, Erica responded aggressively. Taking the spider from Benny's hand, she crushed it in her palm, to both his, and Sarah's, horror and revulsion. Smiling at them, she whispered:

"I ain't afraid of no spiders."

Raising an eyebrow at the reference, Sarah nodded slowly and turned away to continue walking towards the door. Baring her teeth at Benny, Erica followed, wiping her hand on a sheet of web. Benny looked at it with a revolted fascination, his dark eyebrows making a ridge on his forehead and his mouth formed a perfect 'o'. He then stared after Erica in something of a daze. Shaking his head, he forced all of his startled thoughts to one side, and hurried after the two girls.

Sarah approached the door cautiously, aware of every slight creak of the floorboards as she took each step. The door shook and the handle rattled, but Sarah could hear nothing on the other side. Beckoning to Erica and Benny, she sidled up to it and crouched next to the partition wall. The others followed her and bent close in.

"What do we do?" asked Benny in a low voice, his eyes wide with fear, while he tried to control his breathing and keep his voice level. It didn't take Sarah and Erica's advanced hearing for them to be aware that his heart was thumping quickly and loudly.

"We can't just barge in there. We need a plan," said Sarah. "Benny, we're going to need –"

Suddenly, Erica put a hand over Sarah's mouth and put her finger to her lips. "I think I heard something," she mouthed to them.

They listened, tense with fear. After a wait that seemed to stretch on endlessly through the semi-darkness, Sarah shrugged and shook her head. She started to whisper again.

"Nothing. Now, Benny, the –"

Smashing through the thin wall burst a pair of enormous legs, which grabbed Sarah. Screaming, she twisted and tried to escape its grip, kicking at the jaws of the spider in an attempt to free herself. After leaping back in fright, Benny and Erica recovered themselves and grabbed Sarah's arms, trying to pull her away from the spider.

It was no use. The spider was too strong even for Erica, and, as Benny and Erica watched in horror, the struggling figure of Sarah was pulled through the hole and swiftly bound up in silk. She was bundled to one side, out of view of the pair of them, but they could still hear her muffled cries for help. Just beyond the spider could be seen two more bundles, one with a shock of blonde hair, the other with a mop of dark hair – Rory and Ethan. There seemed to be some movement with the silken lumps, which gave them some hope for their survival.

Before they had time for that to cheer them, however, the spider levelled its eight eyes at Benny and Erica, and tried to thrust itself through the hole in the wall. It was unable to fit its body through, and the pair of them were just able to scrabble away from its grasping front legs. Initially, he swiped at it in a futile gesture with the feather duster, but, regaining his presence of mind, Benny hastily concocted a spell, and hurriedly sent a very inaccurate fireball at the creature. Although it missed, and only succeeded in scorching the wall, the spider was sufficiently frightened to stop attacking them, and to retreat into its room.

Breathing heavily, and slick with sweat, Benny stared in terror at Erica, who gave him a nervous look in return. Seeing the spider readying itself for another attack, Erica thought quickly. Ripping up some nearby floorboards, Erica quickly forced them over the gap.

"Can you fix these in position?" she asked, frantically. Benny thought, frowning. Erica's body shook as the spider charged again, but, with her splayed over the wooden boards, it didn't get through.

"Quickly!" she snapped at him.

With a muttered word from Benny, the boards glowed orange and melted into the wall. "That should stop it coming out," he said. "But we need to get in."

With the sound of the spider slamming itself crazily against the patched up partition, Erica and Benny looked at each other worriedly. They didn't have long, and that spider was really mad now.

They had no idea what they were going to do.