Chapter 2 - Spinner

After downing a full glass of whiskey, Bo finally calmed down a little.

Kenzi, who had been frantically pacing back and forth in front of her, stopped and turned to her. "So, let me get this straight. You went to Laura's lab, and it was infested by…spiders?"

"Ya!" Bo exclaimed. "And…they weren't just spiders. I mean…they were but-"

She shivered at the memory of hundreds of spiders crawling towards her and gulped. "They were like…they weren't like those spiders you and I find in the corner of our house. The ones in her lab were this big-""

She formed a 3 inch circle with her thumb and her index finger.

"Stauuup!" Kenzi covered her ears as she squinted her eyes shut. "No details! Do not describe the size, or the look, or the smell, or…anything! And absolutely do not describe the goo sac you found again!"

The petite woman took many deep breaths as she tried to calm all her goosebumps. She grabbed the whiskey bottle that was in front of Bo, and took a big sip, before she asked, "so…do you think…they…like, do you think those spiders killed Laura?"

"I don't know, but honestly, anyone who saw them would freak out, so much that they'd want to jump out of the window."

"Very true, my friend, absolutely very true," Kenzi nodded firmly. She rubbed her arms a few times, for she had another round of goosebump outbreak.

She took another sip from the whiskey bottle, and grimaced at the empty bottle. Tossing it into the trash can, she got herself a bottle of tequila. "But, my point is…those windows, they were nearly impossible to break unless she used some sort of tools. Did she really just break it and jump?"

Bo sighed. "I don't know, Kenz. To me it looked like a car had rammed through the window or something…plus-"

She raised her chin at a cardboard box on the coffee table. In it was the phone and the wallet she had found in the spider web sac.

Both of them paused, turning their faces away from the box with their eyes shut. Nonetheless, they put on disposable gloves and pulled the box closer.

Kenzi checked the phone. "I can't turn it on," she said. "I don't see any low battery icon or anything like that either. I think it might be broken."

Bo held her breath as she flipped the wallet open with the tip of her pinky finger. In there she found a driver's license, a City College student ID card, two credit cards, a health insurance card, a fitness center membership card and some small cash bills.

"Looks like this belonged to a…20 year old Travis Wood. He's a sophomore there," Bo announced.

"And you said you found these things inside that…that sac thing?" Kenzi scrunched her nose in disgust.

"Yeah, they were inside that…sac thing and they were…you know, soaked in-"

"That's enough, Bo," Kenzi interrupted her. "How…how do you think his things ended up inside the…you know what."

Bo swallowed hard. "Well…I know this because I watched a lot of Discovery Channel and stuff, so…sometimes spiders would, you know, wrap their prey with their silk and then the spider would just…inject enzymes into their prey. The enzyme would kind of…turn the muscles and everything into…fluid and the spider would just drink-"

Kenzi stopped Bo with an exaggerated facial expression of vomiting. "So…this poor Travis kid was…was…eaten by the spiders, and…and there's nothing left of him?"

Bo shrugged.

"I just…" Kenzi started pacing again. "I don't really get it, Bobo. If that entire place was infested by spiders, and if the spiders trapped this poor kid inside a spider sac and digested him…how could the police have missed that? I mean, we are talking about hundreds of spiders, sheets of silk and…and a 6 feet tall sac for crying out loud. How could they have found nothing there?"

Bo rubbed her sweaty palm along her thighs and took a deep breath. "Well…it might sound completely insane but…maybe the cops just didn't see any of it."

"How?"

"When I first entered the lab, I didn't see anything abnormal either. I mean, besides whatever the cops had already found, of course."

Kenzi gaped at Bo, confused. "What?"

"They just…weren't there at first. God, Kenz, I wish I had a better explanation for you. At first it was just a normal college chemistry lab. I didn't see any spiders, or spiderweb, or the…sac thing."

Kenzi stared at her for a while, before she asked, "then how did you see them?"

Bo closed her eyes briefly. "I…felt a spider silk brushing up against me. Then, my flashlight flickered."

Kenzi's jaw dropped. "Flickered like in horror movies?"

"Not that dramatic. It just flickered a little bit, and suddenly I was able to see everything."

"So…the lab is haunted by the spirits of big, vengeful spiders?"

"No, I don't think those were ghosts, Kenzi. They were very real. Besides, I squashed some of them with a heavy textbook I found in the lab. I don't think ghosts could be killed like that."

"Then, what were they? I mean, since when do spiders become…partially invisible?"

"You know, maybe it's just a nightmare. Maybe all of this is just a nightmare of mine. Maybe I'm still in it. Maybe I just need to wake up and-"

Kenzi huffed and slapped Bo's face.

"Ow!" Bo complained.

"See, not a nightmare. This is freaking real, Bo! The giant spiders, the sac thing, the haunted chemistry lab, it's all real!" Kenzi started to freak out. "What should we do? Should we call someone or something? Like…who exactly can we call?"

"I guess at least we could call Hale and tell him about this Travis Wood," Bo suggested.

"Ok," Kenzi nodded as she made the call.

While Kenzi was on the phone, Bo went to the kitchen and made herself a cheese quesadilla.

However, as she glanced at the melted cheese, she couldn't help but recall witnessing the thick, slimy fluid pouring out of the sac. She gagged and immediately tossed the quesadilla into the trash can.

She eventually decided to get herself a bottle of water and downed it. It didn't satisfy her hunger at all, but at least it stopped her from wanting to throw up.

"Yo, get this," Kenzi announced. "Hale said this Travis kid was reported missing several days ago. He said he's gonna swing by and pick up his belongings right now."

Hale dropped by later and collected the phone and the wallet. He asked Bo how she had discovered those things, and Bo told him about the spider infested lab and the fluid filled sac.

Shocked, Hale immediately went to the lab and examined the place himself. However, he found nothing there, not even a single thread of spider silk.

Somehow, Bo had expected that outcome. She thought she should go to the lab with Hale herself and check that lab again, but she was completely spent today.

She told Hale that she'd go the next morning with him to see if she could find anything there. Hale agreed and left.

As Kenzi decided to watch a movie about puppies downstairs as a self therapy session, Bo went upstairs and drew herself a warm bath.

Soaking her entire body into the steamy, bubbly water, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath.

Resting her head on the edge of her clawfoot tub, she tried to digest everything that had happened today, the client's death, the infested lab, the spiders that only sometimes were visible….

On top of all those things, she also tried to process her guilt.

She had told Kenzi that she had no idea why or how she could see the spiders in the lab but others couldn't, but that was a lie.

The truth was that she had figured that it had something to do with her trance episodes. When she saw the cobweb on Laura's body, she was having an episode. When those things in the lab suddenly became visible to her, she was having an episode. And the fact that no one else saw them was because…none of them were capable of having those episodes.

She tried to convince herself not to panic, but she had already started to panic. Her episodes, despite that she had had them often during her adolescence, had been under control for many years now. It scared her that all of a sudden they just…came back.

She sighed heavily as she wondered if she was just overthinking a little. Her doctor, Dr. Olivia Smith had told her that her episodes could sometimes be triggered by stress, and she thought, well, I was under a lot of stress when I saw Laura's body, and when I encountered those big spiders for sure….

As she thought of everything that had happened today, the black raven and that blonde woman entered her mind.

That woman…just looked so familiar. She looked like someone Bo had once known but forgotten.

Bo wondered if maybe they had gone to the same high school, or attended the same party at some point, but she could not place her face in any moments of her life.

It was as if that woman appeared in a time in her life, but that particular time had been lost or…stolen….

Why was she there? Bo asked herself. Did she have anything to do with…Laura's death? What about those spiders inside the lab? Did those spiders have anything to do with her? Why would she have a raven with her? Why was she standing on the roof? Who was she….

Those questions exhausted her. The warm water relaxed her. Her eyelids got heavier and heavier.

Just before she fell asleep, though, she heard something downstairs. It sounded like something had been knocked over and hit the floor.

She grabbed the side of the tub and pulled herself up. "Kenz?"

No one answered her.

"Kenzi, is everything okay down there?" Bo raised her voice.

Still no answer.

It was then that she noticed the sound of the TV. It was a diaper commercial, and it made her frown hard, because Kenzi hated commercials and she'd usually mute the TV when they were on.

The diaper commercial ended, followed by a car insurance ad. Bo paused briefly, before she got herself out of the tub and quickly dried her body.

She threw her black kimono on and went downstairs to take a look.

Her eyes shot wide open as she saw Kenzi was upside down in the air. There was a 2 feet space between the bottom of her shoes and the ceiling, and she was struggling.

It was as if she was hanging upside down from the ceiling by something, but Bo couldn't see that "something" at all.

Kenzi's face had already turned purple, and she was gagging, like something was choking her.

"Bo…help…" She bit those words out as she scratched her own neck frantically with both of her hands.

Bo ran over and grabbed her. She tried to pull Kenzi down, but that invisible force that held Kenzi in place wrestled with Bo, and it wouldn't let Kenzi go.

After panicking for a second or two, Bo ran to the couch and picked up Kenzi's katana (which Kenzi had named Geraldine) from under the couch.

She pulled the blade out and slashed it at the empty space between Kenzi's foot and the ceiling as hard as she could.

But, nothing happened. Kenzi was still hanging there, and she was barely breathing.

"What the hell is going on!" Bo yelled as she swung the blade again. It again sliced through the empty air in futility.

Bo panted as she stared at the empty space between Kenzi's feet and the ceiling. Something was definitely there, and it was hanging Kenzi by her ankles. It was something strong, and invisible.

Invisible.

That word came to Bo's mind like a flash. The cobweb, the spiders, the spider sac, everything that was in that lab, they were all invisible, until….

Until, her flashlight flickered slightly. Until, her episode hit her.

Gripping the blade tightly, Bo gasped heavily in fear. Then, there came a gentle, brief ringing in her ear.

Sounds tuned down. Color faded. Time slowed down.

Suddenly, she was able to see that thing.

It was a rope of spider silk. Not only did it wrap tightly around Kenzi's ankles, it also creeped up along her body, loosely forming the shape of a cocoon.

Bo waved the katana at the spider silk rope. This time, it worked.

Kenzi fell off, still wrapped in spider silk. Bo cut through the cocoon and pulled Kenzi out. As she broke the piece of silk that was choking Kenzi, the petite woman gasped hard and opened her eyes.

With loud coughs and heavy pants, Kenzi hissed, "what the actual fuck!"

"Kenzi! You are okay!" Bo exclaimed as she hugged her best friend.

Kenzi rubbed the front side of her neck with her hand. "What the hell was that?!"

"It was spider-"

Bo stopped abruptly as she noticed something emerging from the shadows in the kitchen.

First, she noticed the round shape, when it creeped up from behind the kitchen counter.

Then, she noticed the long legs, when it crawled over the counter and moved closer to them.

As it finally appeared under the lights, Bo let out a loud gasp of shock as she was greeted by two rows of glittering eyes.

Eight eyes, two large ones on top and six smaller ones on the bottom. Each of them had a reflection of herself in it.

Bo didn't know that her face could become that pale. She didn't know that her eyes could open that wide either.

There was so much fear written all over her face.

"Bo?" Kenzi propped herself on her elbows weakly. "What…is there something there?"

Bo gulped.

"What is it? What are you seeing?" Kenzi asked in a whisper - even though she couldn't see what Bo was seeing, she still sensed danger and Bo's fear.

"Can you not see it at all?" Bo just had to ask.

"See what exactly?"

"A…spider," Bo replied as she inched closer to Kenzi.

The spider stood there and stared back at her intently.

Somehow, Bo had a strange feeling that she understood the spider. The spider was very much interested in her the moment it saw her. And at the same time, it seemed to fear her a little. It considered her a worthy opponent. Kenzi, on the other hand, was nothing but a piece of easy meat to the spider.

"A spider?" Kenzi raised her voice. Then, she cleared her throat and whispered, "like one of those you saw at Laura's lab?"

"No," Bo answered. "Much bigger. A lot bigger."

"How big?" Kenzi's voice started to shake.

"Let's just say that…our kitchen is too small for it to spread its legs…" Bo described.

Kenzi immediately grabbed her arm and squeezed it in terror.

"Kenzi…" Bo placed one hand over Kenzi's hand and squeezed it gently. She gripped Geraldine tightly with the other hand as she whispered, "I need you to run."

"No, Bo. I'm not gonna run and leave you here to face that damn…spider that I can't even see! Why can't I see it?"

"You have to," Bo explained. "I think the spider…I think the spider wants to eat you as a snack."

"How…how do you even know? Did the spider tell you that?"

"No, it didn't tell me anything. I don't know how to explain all this to you right now, but just trust me on this, okay? I need you to run!"

With that, she swung the blade at a rope of silk that the spider had just launched at Kenzi. "Kenzi! Now!"

As Kenzi stormed out, it seemed to have angered the spider. It came at Bo, and Bo slashed the katana at the monster's leg.

It was as if she had just hit at a piece of steel. Her blade left a pale mark on the spider's leg, while the spider's leg made a visible dent on her blade.

"Shit! Shit! Fuck!" Bo cursed repeatedly, running towards the couch. She jumped over the couch and hid behind it, just in time to dodge a strand of silk that was tossed at her.

The silk hit the stair rail, and wrapped around it. The spider pulled it back in rage, breaking the rail.

The spider let out a series of hissing noises, before it grabbed the couch with two strands of silk. It tossed the couch to the kitchen, exposing Bo.

Bo ran towards the door, pushing furniture around to block the spider. The spider lifted each and every one of them while shooting ropes of silk at Bo.

Bo pulled the door open, and immediately screamed, for hundreds of smaller spiders - about the same size of those she had seen at Laura's lab - poured in through the cracked open door.

She jammed the door shut and headed to the window instead, but the giant spider jumped in front of her.

Bo took a deep breath and dashed towards the staircase. The monster spider, however, beated her by whipping a rope of silk at the staircase and breaking it completely.

"Damn it!" Bo grunted as she turned around and raised her blade. She grasped it so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

A sudden, loud squeak from outside made everyone pause.

Bo didn't have to look to know that it was her Camero.

Next thing she knew was Kenzi storming in through the door. The petite woman was wearing a full hazmat suit while carrying a giant backpack spray.

"Bo! Look what I got from the pest control store! I got their best shit, which according to them, can kill anything, ANYTHING!"

Bo didn't say anything to her. She was too busy knocking away small spiders from Kenzi.

"Now, where is that damn spider?" Kenzi raised the nozzle handle and brandished it like a sword.

"Kenzi! They are everywhere!"

"They?" Kenzi screeched, squeezing the release lever. A shower of chemical liquid came out. The pungent smell made Bo cover her nose and gag.

The liquid rained on the smaller spiders, but somehow, the drops of liquid just…passed through them and landed on the floor like those spiders were nothing but apparitions.

"Did I do it? Did I kill any of them?" Kenzi asked as she looked left and right.

Bo shook her head, coughing hard. "No, Kenz, it didn't work."

"Whaaat? How? They promised me this shit would definitely kill all spiders! They promised!"

Bo jabbed the tip of her katana into a spider that got too close to her. She pulled Kenzi towards her and snatched the nozzle from Kenzi.

She sprayed the spiders that were surrounding her and Kenzi. This time, the chemical did not pass through those spiders. The spiders started to twitch. A few seconds later, they all bellied up and died.

"Yeeees!" Bo exclaimed as she grabbed the tank from Kenzi and sprayed the spiders aggressively until she had eliminated all small spiders.

As she turned to face the giant spider again, the monster seemed to have just recovered from the shock of seeing its minions' death. It let out an angry hiss and stood up on its hind legs.

It's now or never. Bo thought as she pointed the nozzle at the giant spider. She squeezed the lever and sprayed, until she had used every last drop of the pesticide in the tank.

The monster hissed again, this time with a higher pitch. That sound almost made Bo's ear bleed.

Bo almost cheered when she saw the pesticide burn and melt the skin of the spider. Then, her heart sank, when she realized that, despite twitching and stumbling, the spider did not belly up or die.

And, it was angrier than ever, waving its front legs like swords, hissing and spitting.

"Oh no…" Bo murmured as she squeezed the lever for a few times, before tossing the nozzle aside. She held up the katana again as she shielded Kenzi from the spider.

The spider let out a last hiss at Bo, before it launched itself like a cannonball. Bo threw herself to the side.

When she pulled herself up from the floor with a painful moan, the spider threw a rope of silk at Kenzi like a whip and captured the petite woman.

With its two front legs spinning Kenzi around, it weaved Kenzi into its silk, wrapping her into a big cocoon.

"No!" Bo yelled as she swung her blade at the spider's legs, but other than a further dented blade she accomplished nothing.

The spider had Kenzi wrapped neatly. It paused briefly, scrutinizing the cocoon. It seemed very proud of its work. It raised Kenzi closer to its mouth and opened its jackknife fangs.

"No…" Bo growled at those glittering eyes. She clenched her teeth and jumped on top of a table. Then, she jumped again, reaching for an arm of the chandelier. She swung back and forth a few times, before she launched herself at the monster spider.

She landed on top of the spider's head. With both of her hands holding the katana downward firmly, she dropped down on her knees and leaned forward, shoving the blade into the spider's open mouth.

The spider bellowed, struggling violently, throwing Bo off its back. It let go of Kenzi as well, as it tried to reach into its mouth to pull the blade out.

Bo grabbed Kenzi and pulled her away from the spider. She pulled the spider silk off Kenzi's body with her bare hands and released her.

Kenzi, once again, burst into loud coughs and heavy gasps while mumbling some cuss words in Russian.

The monster spider let out another frustrated hiss, before it dashed towards Bo with the blade still inside its mouth.

Great. Bo thought as she desperately searched for a proper weapon.

She found none, and when the spider got closer, she held Kenzi in her arms and closed her eyes.

However, the spider did not attack her as expected. When Bo took a peek, she was beyond surprised that the monster spider just stood there absentmindedly for a while, before it made its way to the window.

It left in a great hurry and disappeared into the darkness.

The crazy night finally ended with Bo and Kenzi checking into a motel nearby, since the house was a complete mess with pesticide and broken furniture everywhere.

Both of them were so worn out that they just wanted to rest, but at the same time, too anxious and afraid to fall asleep at all.

Bo eventually dozed off briefly. When she woke up, Kenzi was already in the shower. The TV was on, and the morning news mentioned that a high voltage power tower on the other side of the town had collapsed, which caused a huge blackout in that area last night.

Then, the news mentioned that the fallen power tower claimed a victim, who was found dead and severely burnt at the site. It then showed a tattoo on the body, urging anyone who might recognize the tattoo to come forward and call the hotline.

When Bo saw the image of the tattoo, she flinched. The tattoo consisted of a black spider and the word "Spinner" across the spider's body.

Bo increased the volume and watched the news intently, learning that an item was also found at the site with the dead body.

Bo gaped at that item. Even though it had broken into half and was covered in soot and gunk, she could still tell that it was a katana.

The tassel on its hilt, as well as those big dents on the blade, all looked so very familiar to her.

It was definitely Geraldine.

As Bo watched the morning news with a lot of mixed feelings and a racing heart, on the other side of the town, a couple of miles from the collapsed power tower site, the blonde woman that Bo had seen earlier was walking in the woods with a fresh cut on the side of her cheek and a bloodied shirt.

Above the trees hovered her vigilant black raven.

She took out her phone and made a call.

"Spinner's dead," she announced. "Bitch's deep fried…no I couldn't retrieve her body. A fucking power tower collapsed on top of her and my truck. I only got like five minutes to get outta there before the first responders showed up…."

She then hung up, and murmured, "someone injured her Fylgja before it showed up. Guess I just got lucky…."

She traveled a few more miles on foot, before she exited the woods. She then walked along a back road for a while, and eventually entered the parking lot of a country store on the side of the road.

There, she hotwired a car and drove away. Her raven soared, leading the way.