Taking Over

The last wish of spiders.

I entered through a crack in the window. Looking back, I’d like to think that she opened it for me that morning when she let in the late Spring air. I could smell so many different things, all so inviting. The clean scent of rosemary in her cooking, almonds in her baking, but mainly I could smell her. In my million eyes, she was as radiant as the beams of sun that made me feel warm in my hiding places high above them. But the sun rays that were her very existence made me warmer than I had ever felt. I was burning from within, watching her every move.

I followed her about her house, finding her throughout her day alone, twirling to some foreign melody that shook the walls I had planted myself on, and her face was a work of art in colors of bliss and contentment. She bent over bottles of coral, painting herself, she smoothed fragrant cream over her body that smelled of great, swinging ripe peaches, and when she was naked, I tried to move in closer…to see her. With my million eyes, I peered at the pores in her skin, I could see where she was gold and cream, where her life had taken her, the subtle curves, and to me, her shape was far lovelier than the ones of my kind, who were all spindly and gray and sharp. She was softness and light. And I wanted her.

I day dreamed, warm on the wall, of daring to touch her, putting my own life at risk to know her. I spun a web for myself of endless possibilities, lowering myself down onto the coverlet that she lay beneath when she fell asleep that afternoon reading. Her lashes lay quietly upon her cheek, her lovely mouth reddened with every gentle breath she took. How I adored every droplet of water that slid down her when she stood in the shower, and I would soak up every drop that came off of her, the mist that was her, this moisture would be mine, every soap bubble reflected her face and it was exquisite so I would cry out when each bubble burst. Oh how I fell in love with her, that late Spring day!
And then he came home.

The glittering joy of my sunshine was suddenly interrupted with his chaos. His voice, like a loud clap of thunder, a storm that claimed her ears, her attention. The lilting sounds of her, the dancing and melodies, all ceased to be when he came home, and when he embraced her…oh how something within me broke apart. I cringed in my corner, I loathed on the walls, my fury dripped from fangs he would never see until it was too late! …If I had my way….She would never reach high to crush me, but this monster that was her mate; he could reach up to smite me, but Ah! I was too fast for him, the scoundrel!

As the air changed around me, the scents of the evening poured in from the cracks in the windows, and I knew I would never leave this place. I saw how he caressed her in the silence, I heard how she breathed in the shape of him, and how I longed to be that shape for her. The sounds she made, no longer human, but organic, and so I understood them. I wanted them to be mine! MINE!
So it was then that I had an idea.

I waited until he fell asleep and I moved my spindly legs and I worked my magic and I made my way down to him from the corner of the wall. To the side of his head, to the canal there, I walked. Within him, I planted all my focus there, inside of him, and I made the first and only wish my kind is allowed to make. My million eyes became two. My many legs became two. I stretched my digits around cold cotton and I breathed into lungs, heavy and red with what I knew was his blood. I was warm, I was so very warm, his heart beat and this heart was now mine. Slowly I turned what I knew was my head and saw where, within a strand of moonlight, she lay. I pressed what I knew was my nose against her shoulder and took in the essence of her deeply. What he knew, now I knew. She was warm under what I understood were my hands, heated gold and cream pores gave under the pressure of my touch. From her came a sound I had heard before and it filled me with such love, so I moved beside her, took her up and gathered her close to me. Her head was full of dark silk scented with night air and all those soap bubbles and it fell around me like her own marvelous web. Holding her in what I knew were my arms there in the night was the most beautiful moment of my life, I felt her move and around me I felt the tender sweetness that was her embrace. I could have sobbed then, with elation at being a solid, large shape that could protect her, hold her, and save her. I parted what I understood were my lips and placed them on hers, and the sunlight burst forth from behind his eyelids that were now mine, closed against the feel of this thing I had seen humans do all my short life, but never understood it.

As I tasted and tasted her, drawing what I knew was my tongue across her, drinking from her mouth again and again, I realized that this night I had with her was going to come to an end. I felt the struggle within this body, he would not let me stay without a fight. All I want is one moment with her! You can have her for the rest of your long years, while I will never know what it is like to bring forth the sounds of happiness from her, the look of bliss, move within her the heavens and make her the mother of a million of my children. Let me have this! It’s JUST ONE NIGHT!

So from her I drew all I could take; the warmth that I could not soak from the sun, the taste of the rosemary in her cooking, the scent of the air as it changes from dew filled morning, to baked afternoon and finally to exhaling night, and this night…this night belonged to us. I wrapped myself in her and this was how we slept.

As the dawn crawled across the cracks in the window, so too did I crawl from him. I knew what wishes were. My kind was only allowed one. I had seen five summers, and I saved the wish like a boy saves things in his pocket. He forgets about them there but there comes a day where he is inspired and he remembers. I have watched many boys reach for the wishes in their pockets. And I only had one. I made it back to the corner of the wall, my hidden space, and I felt what I knew was my energy, the force that kept me spinning and crawling, begin to fade. She moved from her sleep, and so did he, and as they did, my web curled into itself. I heard them speak softly to each other, her precious voice…this would be the last thing of her I would know.

“I had the weirdest dream last night,” I hear him say to her. I had the best night with you, my love, I say to myself in my little corner high above them.

And though she answers him, I’d like to think she was telling me, one last time. “Yeah,” she says “So did I….so did I,”

…So did I…

Author's Note

Yes, I know it's weird...but I had to write it. The whole idea came in a dream. What do you think?

Reviews

[merbear22]

This is an interesting take on love and jealousy and wishes. It's very good; It's well-written and the descriptions are amazing! Dreams are always the best places to get story ideas. That's where I get most of mine. Anyways, awesome job. Keep writing! :) I'm interested in reading more of your works.