Negative Feedback (Danny Phantom Fic)

Chapter 20

Camry's POV~

Just how much my head spun was impossible to describe when I finally came back to reality-- or what was my new reality. With every dry breath I took in, the world seemed to shift its axis underneath me; I wanted to grab onto something, but my fingers wouldn't move no matter how much I willed them to. Some part of my brain, probably the most rational part, realized that I should be panicking, even if it meant that only my heart rate would have sped up, but my pulse was slow and dull in my ears regardless. Was I dead for real this time? 

Consciousness didn't seem very appealing anymore, but there was little I could do about that except keep my heavy eyelids closed and try not to think too much. If I was really dead now, then what happened next? Can a ghost really "die?" What killed me? Was I going to just disappear like what that article on Tucker's PDA said?

'I thought I was trying not to think.' The gripe drifted through all these questions and made them settle down so I could just relax a little. Maybe, if the ground would just stop tilting, this wouldn't be so bad...

"... spout again. I believe in love, and who knows where or when, but it's comin' around again. The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout—oh, are you awake over there?"

That silky voice was vaguely familiar, for some reason. And she had just been singing, right? "The Itsy Bitsy Spider?" Why did that make me want to giggle...?

"I know you're not really dead over there~" the voice cooed playfully, and something akin to many dainty footsteps drew closer. "I would know because I gave you the antidote to my venom just in time. You should wake up now so I can ask you a few things."

A thin hand—though it didn't quite feel exactly like a hand, if that made any sense at all—touched my shoulder and pushed, trying to rouse me out of sleep. It took a lot more effort than it should have, but I finally managed to crack my eyes open and blink to clear out some of the grogginess. Wait, where was I, again? I could see grass, and the wall of a dark blue hedge, and also, hovering over me, the face of a woman with her dark hair thrown up into an adorably messy bun. Who was she...?

"There you are," she said with a faint smile on her red lips. Was it just my being so dazed, or did she really have that many eyes? And her black dress looked so strange, almost like—

"Weh--?" I croaked out in a raspy voice. I wanted to be scared and run away, but my brain was dead weight in my skull and I could barely twitch my fingers, let alone stand on my own. She was a spider lady!

It all rushed back to me in a blur of spoken words and drowsy fantasy. Arachne, first tiny and then enormous, towering over me like I was a fly caught in her web. I couldn't move—she'd immobilized me? She said some things, I tried to tell her some things, and then I... I, what? Passed out? Died again?

But if I was dead, why was she here, too?

"Oh, no, darlings," Arachne said suddenly as four of her eyes focused on a place further down my body. "There's no need for that. I don't think we will be eating this one. I know, I know—don't give me that. We do not want to hurt this girl."

Then her attention was back on me, and she reached a spider leg out to poke my cheek. I barely felt it. "I understand that it will take some time for you to regain feeling in your body, so do not try to move just yet. You could hurt yourself if you move too much. You have my word; we will not do you any harm."

Why was she being so nice to me? Last I checked, she'd been eager to feast on me!

Tasty moussse...