The House on the Hill
[One-Shot]

"Man, I am exhausted," John sighed with a yawn.

"C'mon man just a few more houses," Dave grinned, slugging him. Rose and Jade hung back a bit, observing the two boys. John had dressed up as a harlequin (which he insisted was one of the scarier things he'd ever seen) while Dave was dressed as Hella Jeff, his hair mussed and wearing a blue body suit.

"Look at these amateurs," Rose joked with an exaggerated sigh. "John, are you really ready to retreat from our excursion already?"

"Well, like-" John sputtered.

"Look Rose, John's got a serious condition," Dave said, straight-faced. "It's called 'hornses ass' syndrome, and it makes him a huge fuckin' pansy."

"Hey, man, shut up!" John replied, slugging him. The girls shook their head, Jade giggling.

"They're so adorable," Jade laughed.

"They do indeed bicker like an old married couple," Rose confirmed. "I wonder just how deep their homoeroticism goes when we aren't around." Jade scrunched up her face. "I agree with you on that sentiment." She turned her attention to the still bickering boys. "Alright, now, are we going to the mansion on the hill this Halloween or am I going to be the only one?" Both boys stopped, color leaving their faces. Even normally stoic Dave was noticeably shaken.

"Wait, THE mansion on the hill?" John asked. "Like, the one up there?"

"Well, it is the closest hill, and it does have a mansion on it, yes," Rose nodded.

"But- What about the stories?" John whispered, clinging to Dave, who responded with a "Hey, man, get off me-"

"Rose," Jade frowned. "Even I have to say this idea sounds kinda… shitty."

"Why? I would love the opportunity to prove all of those imbeciles in class wrong about these supposed stories of terror."

"Yeah, but like… we were all there when they carted out Old Man Hussie's body," John replied. "Someone DID die in there."

"I will give you that, at least," Rose nodded. "But, I am a firm believer that his soul is not haunting the house, and that it was completely an accident. The house is simply old, and Hussie was just a clumsy, innocent old man who wouldn't hurt a fly, bless his soul."

"Maybe," John said, shifting where he stood.

"Also, hate to be the gray cloud on this fuckin' ray of brilliance that is your idea, but the house is condemned," Dave noted. "Like, even if Freddy and Jason ain't having a damn sleepover or it's like Monster House with that fat kid and the nerd who gets the girl even though she's way the hell smarter than him – like, seriously, what was even with that? Plus, didn't that police officer totally die? Wasn't that rated G?"

"What Dave's saying," Jade piped up, pushing Dave aside, "is that the house probably isn't really safe. It may not be haunted-" She shuddered before continuing. "-but, you might trip into a hole or catch yourself on a nail or something. You don't know!"

"We'll be careful. And of course, I'm armed with my mother's ever-present safety tools," Rose replied, her statement punctuated by clicking the button on her flashlight a few times. "So are you all coming with me, or am I going alone?" The three shifted and glanced at one another. "Alright, then, it's settled. You'll all stand watch outside and ensure that I'm not apprehended by police upon my triumphant return. Deal?"

"Really, Rose, why don't we just go home?" John asked as she began making her way up the hill. "We can go watch movies and hang out!"

"Yeah, and Jade and I will make sure John gets no vote in the movie picking. If I have to watch another goddamn Nicholas Cage movie my brain is going to melt out of my eyes," Dave chuckled. "But yeah let's just go back to Egbert's."

"No. I refuse to be beaten by a pile of wood and metal that people claim is possessed by the spirits of those departed. It's childish nonsense, nothing more." The other three sighed, following closely behind her as she ducked through the broken wooden fence and approached the house. They called it a mansion, but it wasn't much bigger than many of the other houses on the street – though it was far older. As they made their way up the cobblestone path, a low rumble resounded from above.

"Okay, Rose, look," Dave said, throwing up his hands. "Whether or not you think this place is haunted, it's gonna start storming in a minute. First, I'd like to say it's textbook fuckin' horror movie stuff with the lightning storm in a haunted house, but also what if this place gets struck and it goes up like burning man?"

"It'll be fine," Rose said offhandedly, focusing on the contours of the home, the glass, broken by repeated vandalizing of children who were afraid. She could swear there was movement within the house. Another intrepid explorer, perhaps? The ghosts people claim walked its halls? "I'm going in now," she said, more for herself than them.

"If you need us, yell," Jade said softly. "As loud as you can. Promise?"

"I promise." She reached for the handle, turning it slowly. She expected the door to open of its own will, but she had to push the heavy wooden door before pressing inside. She clicked on her flashlight, bathing the front room in light. It was a standard living room, with a grandfather clock in one corner, several couches and chairs, a coffee table.

"What's in there?" John asked, his voice trembling.

"It's a living room," Rose said calmly, her nerves returning to her. "It's just a house, John. I'm going in deeper." There wasn't a reply, though she knew they'd want her to come back. She made her way into the hall, her light illuminating several doors along the sides, and a staircase at the end, leading up to the second floor.

She checked each of the doors – a broom closet, a bathroom, a sitting room – before making her way to the staircase. She also noted a door to the side, which she peeked inside and found a set of basement stairs. She'd try to avoid those if she could, and finally she crested the top of the stairs.

"Hello?" she called out, tentatively, though not loud enough to rouse her friends. The room was silent. She took a step inside, the room suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning. Her breath caught in her throat, a huge, mounted wolf head grinning down at her from the wall. A quick scan around the room brought nothing interesting to her eye and she quickly retreated down the stairs into the main hall.

As she reached the last step, her foot touched something… sticky, and somehow stringy. She knelt down, finding some kind of clinging substance attached to her shoe. Like a spider web, but softer. She turned to find more wisps of the white string clinging to the banister descending into the basement. She took a deep breath, glancing down the hall to the front room and decided to descend, clinging to the railing as she descended into the basement.

She noticed as she was walking down the frightfully creaky steps that the basement was unfinished, as evidenced by the rough, concrete walls, painted a dark gray. Below, her flashlight illuminated more of the strange, sticky substance, coating the walls and floor. She frowned and stepped off of the wood step and onto the floor, hearing something creaking in the darkness.

"Hello?" she demanded, this time more demanding than in the attic room. Her flashlight revealed nothing but darkness, so deep that she couldn't see the far wall, even with her light. She took a few steps in on the dirt floor before turning back toward the staircase, out of habit. It was of course, still there, and no one was on it waiting for her, and she whipped back around with her flashlight.

Her flashlight illuminated a face with glowing red eyes.

She cried out, dropping the light and taking a step back. The flashlight illuminated something… sharp and shining before hitting the ground with a POP and going out entirely. She groped backwards, where she figured the stairs were, finding more and more of that clinging material on the way there. Was there this much before? Was she headed in the right direction? Finally, her hand touched something rough and slick – the painted wall. She sighed, her fingers following it forward and- No. No, this wasn't the wall.

Her hand was shaking now as she slowly traced over the surface, finding rough ridges and finally, with a sharp cry, finding what appeared to be a joint. Rough and leathery and covered in sparse hair, she could tell that she was touching the joint of some kind of… creature, one with a hard outer carapace. And somehow, she wasn't afraid. She traced the limb up, first, to a point, and then back down. Like a bat wing, but hard and smooth. The leg moved and she recoiled, but it simply lifted to meet her own touch. She found that the limb ended in a somewhat sharp point, leathery like the creature's joint, rather than hard like the rest of the carapace. It would explain how the creature moved about without Rose hearing it.

She finally pulled her hand away and received a soft hissing sound in response.

"Please," she whispered. "I'd like to leave this house." She was met with silence, and then the creaking she'd heard before, one that she now assumed was the creature's carapace rubbing against itself and perhaps stretching with strain.

"No." The voice took her aback and she spun, falling to the floor and hitting her head. The deep black all around her flashed red once and then she was dreaming. She dreamt of her friends, and of Halloween, of the dull rumble of thunder and the soft patter of rain, or perhaps the skittering of an insect or animal.

She awoke with a gasp, sweat rolling down her body. She moved to wipe the sweat from her brow, but found that she couldn't move her arms. A quick twist of her torso gave her the same information for the rest of her body: She was bound.

"Please," she called out calmly. "I don't want this. I'd like to leave."

"No," came the voice again, from before she'd passed out. "You can't leave." Was it the creature? Could something be capable of human speech? It was an astounding thought. She squinted in the darkness, trying to make out her captor before seeing a flash of movement in the darkness and feeling a softness pressed to her lips. Another pair of lips? Rose crushed her own lips against the newcomer's, doing the best she could to appease this person and hope they let her go. When their tongue moved into Rose's own mouth, she gasped and thrashed away, desperately trying to get her arms up to massage the strange feeling from her mouth. It was cold and sharp, yet soft as a tongue should be.

"Who are you?" Rose said, moving to wipe her mouth on her shirt and freezing as she realized she was wearing nothing.

"Who are YOU? You trespassed here, not I," the voice came. Intelligence, at least.

"My name is Rose Lalonde. I live just down the street and I came in here out of… curiosity." The voice huffed, obviously not satisfied. "I'm sorry. How can I pay you for trespassing? I want to leave this place."

"I've never seen a human this close. I've never gotten to study one," the voice explained, somewhat breathy. "Psychologically or physically. You're an amazing specimen." Rose felt her cheeks flush with heat and forced the feeling away.

"Psychologically? And does that mean… you aren't human?" she tested, trying to wriggle her way from the bonds.

"Yes, sadly," the female voice sighed. "May I show you? If you try to run, I must warn you, I will eat you." Rose shuddered, and found with surprise that she believed the threat.

"I can't move very far anyway," she replied slowly. "You've gotten me all tied up."

"That I do. One moment." There was a flash of light and Rose closed her eyes tight against it. "You can look." Rose opened her eyes, squinting in the bright light, and nearly jumped. There was a spider in front of her face. No… that wasn't right. She forced her eyes open, watering at the intense light, and saw what she thought she'd seen. From the waist up, it was the figure of a nude woman, and below that was the hard exoskeleton of a spider.

"Look at that," Rose muttered softly. "What are you?" The creature shrugged, flipping her hair behind her.

"I'm something new," she responded simply. "I don't know. Part spider, part human. I was raised here by Andrew. My name is Aranea. It is, quite honestly, very interesting to see another human since Andrew left. There were people who came in suits to shut down the house and I had to kill one of them. They put up yellow tape and so many people have avoided the house. Some throw rocks at it, and I thought they knew I was here, but now I'm not quite sure."

"No one knows you exist," Rose replied, doing her best to stare directly into Aranea's eyes, not her naked body, her spider parts, or Rose's own nude figure. "May I be let down? I won't run, and I don't plan on spilling your secret." Aranea frowned and moved toward her with a surprising quickness, fidgeting with the bonds – a web, Rose found – until she was able to move freely once more.

"As I said before, you are an amazing specimen," Aranea commented, skittering around Rose to examine every inch of her. "It's so interesting. These are for producing milk, correct?" she asked, moving close enough that she could use her human arms to prod at Rose's breasts.

"Mmn, yes, that's correct," she nodded.

"And this is your sexual organ?" Aranea asked, touching Rose's bare pussy, eliciting a sharp gasp.

"Y-yes," Rose replied.

"Interesting… and there's enough room for both pedipalps inside? It seems so shallow and narrow." Aranea's fingers moved and twisted into Rose, causing her to cry out, though Aranea seemed to ignore her.

"B-both what?" Rose gasped, clinging to Aranea's upper half as the spider-girl continued her exploration.

"Pedipalps," she responded, waving her smaller, front legs on her arachnid body. "Do humans not have these?" Rose shook her head. "Are you quite alright? You're not ill, are you?"

"P-p-pleasure response," Rose managed to stammer.

"Oh, from this?" Aranea asked, pushing her fingers deeper and Rose's legs gave out. Aranea was quick to grab her and hold her up as her fingers continued to work her. "I'm only kidding, of course. I have a similar organ myself, along the bottom of my abdomen. It's not nearly as strong as this, however. Look at you." Aranea broke into a wide grin, her teeth sharp, like needles, her red eyes bright as she continued to work Rose, causing her to sweat and groan, her own hands moving up to her breasts. "These too? My, humans have so many erogenous zones. How do you function like this? You were wearing clothes before, wouldn't those trigger the pleasure response as well, or has it simply been worn down over so long wearing something over them? Hmm." Her fingers twisted, her thumb accidentally rubbing Rose's clit and causing her to thrash in her grip. "Ahh, there it is. Hmm, let me see."

Aranea gingerly set Rose down on the ground, lowering her body so that she could continue fingering Rose hard and deep, though now she lowered her mouth to Rose's sex and began slowly working her long, cold tongue against Rose's clit.

"Oh my god," Rose whimpered, fingers twisting into Aranea's hair as her body bucked and writhed against her. "Please… I'm so close…"

"Mmf," Aranea said, trying to speak before getting an obviously frustrated look on her face that she couldn't continue to comment on the procedure, before going to work Rose harder and faster, wanting it to be over. Rose's own hands were busy massaging her breasts, feeling the spider-girl's tongue working over her clit and feeling the insanely full feeling of fingers pumping into her sending her over the edge as she screamed, Aranea holding her down as she came hard, cumming harder when Aranea pushed her tongue into Rose to retrieve every bit of her orgasm. Finally she pulled back, both girls panting as Aranea licked her fingers clean.

"Mmm…" she grinned, licking her lips. "Perfect." Suddenly, she lunged forward, biting Rose hard on the neck and causing her to cry out. "I'm sorry, dear, but you're far too wonderful for me to let go. There's so much for me to learn."

"What-?" Rose asked before her vision began to blur and twist. "Poison?"

"Venom, actually," Aranea beamed. "Another wonderful perk to being part spider. Now sleep. Tomorrow I'll show you how to please me as well." Rose struggled, trying to raise a hand but finding even that strength had left her as her mind went blank.