Daddy Long Legs

She grips a roll of masking tape, her knuckles the same beige-white as the tape. With her left hand, she picks at the torn edge until she has a piece as big as her hand. Rip. The roll falls to the concrete floor of her basement, and she holds the piece of tape stretched between both hands. Bending down, she looks along the bottom of the wall. Spider webs fill those corners, where the wall and floor meet. There is movement there. Eight long, spindly grey legs tiptoeing up the base of the wall catch her eye.
The other girl is confused by the tape and her friend’s interest in the spiders. This girl doesn’t like spiders, would never dream of kneeling down on the floor to take a closer look, usually doesn’t have the courage to even stomp on one. She watches her friend, follows her friend’s eyes following the Daddy Long Legs up the wall. Her friend, with the tape, practically pounces on the spider.

She taped him to the wall. She just taped a spider to the wall. Her friend smiles as she watches the long grey legs wiggle with no chance of escape. The spider isn’t dead, and it isn’t dying. Yet. She didn’t squish his body under the cream-colored tape, guaranteeing a swift, painless death. She gingerly placed it over him, on top of him, trapping him. His legs can move; he probably feels like he can crawl away. The other girl wants to crawl away, to get away from this tortured spider and its torturer. But her mom isn’t supposed to come for another two hours. As she realizes she’s trapped, she sees other pieces of masking tape on the wall.

Reviews

[Jack Isaac]

[random review] Reminds of the movie The Killing Jar. Some kids pull the wings off flies, others trap spiders with masking tape, horrid as that might seem, we should read about what grown-ups do to mice and monkeys.

Your story looks good so far, hate the hanging ending but I'm sure there's more in store later on, so keep going with it. Try to add a good intro paragraph, so this story doesn't begin in mid-thought. Really good writing and descriptions here! Thanks for sharing this.

[Varun Malhotra]

As she realizes she's trapped, she sees other pieces of masking tape on the wall. Cream-colored, and stained red of human blood.