The Human Hunter

Chapter 7

The next morning Emma awoke to complete silence. After a brief stretch she slid from the hammock, only to realize that Widow was gone. Since her cage was unlocked, she let herself out, straightening as she looked around the dim area.

Hold on a second. Why can I see better all of a sudden?

As she thought those words her eyes looked up. Glow worms? When did he put those there?

To her surprise, the spiders weren't bothering them, either. They seemed like they'd be easy prey, but perhaps he'd told them to leave them be... or, more likely, the worms just didn't taste good. Either way, she appreciated the extra bit of light. Looking around for a moment, she noticed a bag sitting on the small desk he had pushed against the opposite wall by the cage. Curious, she opened it and quickly found a smile sneaking onto her face. Inside was the chocolate bar she had forgotten about from that web spinning contest, as well as two carrots, an avocado and half a head of lettuce.

Hunger gnawed at her ribs now that she actually had her eyes on some food. Legs said nothing about asking to eat. She also hadn't seen Widow eat at all since she'd been there, but that was something she wasn't curious about at all. If he was just like a spider in that sense, she didn't want to gain any knowledge about his meals. Shaking those thoughts from her head, she sat down and reached forward to pick up a carrot. She noticed several black widows slowly moving down the wall in front of her as she ate, though none of them seemed to be acting in a threatening manner. They actually just seemed curious and a bit cautious.

"What's wrong guys? I know you can't be interested in this food, unless you now hunt vegetables, too?" she asked with a hint of humor to her words.

"They are curious about you," Widow said behind her, making her jump up from the old stool she'd sat on and turn to face him.

Their eyes met for the briefest of moments, just long enough for her to see the heavy webbing in his, before she quickly looked down at the floor. Oh, I dropped the carrot.

"I do not care for Legs's rules, Emma. The only one I want you to abide by besides respect is you calling me master," he said as she leaned over and picked up the carrot, then set it down on the worn desk before looking back to her.

"I should practice them, though, since I'm going to your madam soon and she likes them, shouldn't I?" she asked as she looked up slowly until she could meet his gaze again.

Widow smirked then and reached forward, his pointer finger stopping barely an inch away from her nose. Fuzz was sitting right at the tip, eagerly tapping one arm against Widow's nail. The familiar situation brought her back to the first time she had met him days ago.

It feels like it's been weeks, or even months.

She'd freaked out when he'd brought Fuzz so close to her, but now the little spider actually made her smile as she reached up with her own finger and gently nudged it, silently telling him that he could hop on if he wished to. Fuzz took the hint right away and scurried up onto her finger.

"Looks like I won him over, again," Emma said as she set Fuzz on her shoulder, then turned back to the bag of food to reach for the other carrot.

"Finish eating quickly, we're going somewhere soon," Widow said as he walked by her toward the back of the cave, ignoring her comment. She felt a faint brush against her hair where Fuzz was and glanced down, only to see two of Widow's fingers retracting with the little spider on them, flicking its front legs toward her.

"Hey, come on! He chose me, you spoilsport," she said after swallowing her bite of carrot. When he turned back toward her and raised an eyebrow, Emma quickly corrected herself with a slight grin. "My mistake. You spoilsport, Master."