SCRATCHES ON THE WALL

A horror tale.

    It was about 1AM in the morning. Katie was lying in bed listening to Art Bell on his CoastToCoastAM radio show on 1190 KEX. He was talking about Shadow People. Listening to him and his guest plus all the listeners who were calling in now to talk to that guest Katie was now a believer in Shadow People and was convinced that she had seen some in the past. Katie was curled up in bed, snug and comfortable as she listened to the radio program. A night light cast a soft subdued glow about the room, enough light to see if she had to get up in the middle of the night for any reason yet it was not at all intrusive.

    Katie rolled over on her bed and looked upward in a casual fashion at the ceiling and noticed a dark splotch. Suddenly she was no longer feeling relaxed or casual. A dark splotch on the ceiling could only mean one thing: a spider! It was late March and still cold and rainy so it was a bit early for spiders to be putting in appearances, she thought. But still, she stared at the dark splotch on the ceiling for several minutes. Since the lighting was subdued she couldn’t see what it was clearly. Was it a spider? Katie sure hoped not. She hated spiders and hated trying to kill them. It gave her the major creeps the way they ran for their pathetic lives or jumped off the ceiling or wall when you tried to smash them. She didn’t want to stand on her bed, trying desperately to keep her balance, and attempt to kill it either. The spider would most likely jump off the ceiling and land on her bed in a frantic attempt to avoid being murdered. Then she’d never find it and she’d know there was a spider in her bed. She’d probably not be able to sleep in her bed.

    A listener call in was saying something to Art Bell about her encounter with Shadow People when the dark splotch on the ceiling moved. She felt horror flood her when she saw there were two dark splotches now. That was odd, Katie thought. Had there been two spiders side by side, she wondered, since she had done a thorough scan of the ceiling after spotting the first splotch and there hadn’t been another one. Katie wondered what the two spiders could be doing. It was all so creepy and mysterious.

    Katie stared at the two dark splotches, no longer hearing the radio program any longer. There were three dark splotches on the ceiling now, she noticed, and they were moving about, as if they were crawling. She started to get nervous and decided it was time to turn on the light to find out what these dark splotches really were. She got up out of bed and went to the wall light switch and flipped it on. There were five now, five spiders on the ceiling of her bedroom. She made a little shriek as she saw them, fat, glossy, shiny spiders with long hideous legs. They were crawling about and Katie felt the revulsion and horror at the sight make her body shiver.

    These spiders were not spinning webs, just moving about in lazy circles, what they were doing was not obvious to Katie. It was just a horrifying sight and she felt it all the way through her body. Then she noticed something moving on the wall that was dark. She stared hard at it and realized it was a beetle or cockroach that was black red. It was scuttling up the wall and more were coming up the wall behind it. A line of cockroaches crawling up the wall of her bedroom. Katie found herself flattening back against her bedroom door. Her eyes were focused on the black red cockroaches and juicy black spiders creeping about on the bedroom carpet, moving about in small and large lazy circles. Katie could hear a soft clicking sound as smooth shiny insect legs scraped against smooth shiny insect bodies.

    Glancing up Katie saw eight spiders on the ceiling, seconds later 10 spiders, 15 spiders and new columns of cockroaches scraped their way up the wall and along the space between the wall and ceiling. She felt paralyzed with the shocking horror of all this. It was a nightmare and she couldn’t help but stare in horrid fascination at the spiders and cockroaches moving about in small and large circles, in pointless patterns it seemed. Their numbers were increasing all the time.

    Katie heard something thud against her bedroom window. Her heart pounded painfully and she found it was very difficult to breathe. She tried to get her breath but couldn’t, she felt like she was having a serious panic attack. She looked toward her window when she heard another thud. Huge brown and ivory moths were throwing themselves at her bedroom window. Bang! Bang! Hitting the window over and over again. It must be the light that is drawing them, thought Katie, but they’re so big, so monster size!

    Katie, still leaning against her bedroom door, suddenly no longer had the strength to stand and slid down it, her body giving into the fear. It was like she just collapsed. She heard herself moaning. Spiders and cockroaches were crawling about around her and she didn’t have the strength to move out of their way. She wondered how soon they’d be crawling about on her. Katie felt helpless, terrified and helpless.

    A shattered sound filled the room. Shards of glass fell into her bedroom and tinkled to the carpet. A flock of the huge brown and ivory moths spun into the room, circling about the overhead light. Their powdery wings brushed against Katie’s face and she cried out. They brushed against her arms and hair, leaving the powder from their wings behind on her. She tried to brush it off and found it was sticky and clung to her.

    What is going on, Katie wondered. Her mind had a desperate scream going on and on inside it. These insects weren’t acting normal. More spiders, more cockroaches and more moths filled her room. Her eyes were crazed as were the sounds coming out of her mouth. She wondered if she could cross her room to get to the phone and call 911? Would they believe her if she told them about the insects? No, she knew she’d have to make up a lie, say she had a prowler trying to get in. But there were so many insects in her room now that she felt she couldn’t breathe, let alone cross through them to get to her phone. She did not want to share oxygen with them. She did not want to breathe their wing powder or the flakes off their shiny insect shells.

   Katie knew she was doomed. She was trapped in her bedroom with all these insects. She wanted to get up, open her bedroom door and crawl out, escape. Dare she? She looked up at the door knob from where she was collapsed against the door. Yes, just maybe she could do it. She reached for the door knob, half turning toward the door, determined to get herself out of her room, escape these crazed insects when she heard a loud ripping sound. She froze, feeling stiff with panic. She was paralyzed with terror all over again. Then Katie found the strength to turn her head and tried to scream but she no longer had a voice.

    Her bedroom wall had ripped open, creating what looked like a great gaping wound. And that wound was vomiting forth wave after wave of hundreds and thousands and millions of black spiders and red black cockroaches into her bedroom.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

I was station in the tropics. Lived outdoor. Needed the mosquito net or you were eaten at night. Bugs are a terror for the most of us. I saw the ant hills in Washington State. Big as a small mountain. A very good tale. Would be a bad way to be killed. Bugs make us fear there are more near by. No weakness in the entertaining story. Thank you for the excellent story.
Coyote

[Tina Kline]

Thanks Coyote Poetry. I have a fear of bus even though we need them in the world. They just sometimes seem to appear out of nowhere. Eeks!

[Steve Boseley]

You picked a good subject matter - insects, and spiders in general! Had to have a little scan around in my room when i finished reading, just to check there were no spiders lurking...

[Tina Kline]

Thanks very much.....

[Trevor]

Honestly, with what's actually happening in the story, it's not one that I would have place in a contest I made. BUT you did place in it just because of how well-written it is. The subject matter is definitely creepy, but as far as scary goes, how you wrote it is what makes it scary. Very good job on giving the story a scary feel.

[Eric Cox]

Great job with the horror, it builds and builds until the terrifying end, I can imagine Katie eaten alive, the gore left off leaves the ending better- one of terror filled doom coming. Awesome write. Very cool pen on this.

[Star Wolf]

I squirmed all the way through this, what awesome and outstanding horror here!

[Black Cat Fever]

Now this is down right creepy. Should be a movie, it would make the perfect horror movie with all those creepy and flying insects. Shiver!

[Sharkapillar]

D****t, there is a spider on my wall right now, completely out of reach, and now I won't be able to sleep at night. XD
Creepy story. Fantastic job.

[Sean M. Addams]

very creepy like thr storyline alot and detail was good spiders have a good horror following and you defintley carry on the mood with this one..nice job:)