༶•~The Book of Phobias~•༶

༶•~Arachnophobia - Fear of Arachnids~•༶

Wednesday, October 21st, 2020

Picture at top made by me.

This one's pretty long. Over 1.3k words. You sure you want to read this chapter?

Arachnophobia - Extreme or irrational fear of arachnids

There are many kinds of arachnids. Like scorpions, mites and ticks, harvestmen, pseudoscorpions, whip scorpions, solpugids, and the worst of them all: Spiders... They are just eight legged creepy crawlies. What if it's a poisonous spider and it bites you? Or maybe it's not a poisonous one, but it can still bite you! I don't know about you, but I don't want to be itching all day! Anyways, spiders are scary. That's basically the gist of it.

Today started off like any other day. I didn't want to wake up, but it doesn't give me a reason to get out of school. So I change my clothes, brush my teeth, and put on some shoes. Then I head off to school.

While walking down the street I remembered that we're going to visit a nearby high school today. This morning was very busy and full of tired students. I glanced around, making sure that I would not be out of place. I'm kind of an introvert. You know? The quiet kid in the back of the classroom.

It's now later in the afternoon and I'm walking to the door of the science room. Then I see them. The so-called "Popular" kids. I always ignore and avoid them as much as possible. Science is basically the only class the 4 of them share with me.

I walked in and took my seat in the back, as usual, but out of nowhere the populars started walking towards me. I didn't know what to do in a moment like this. Then I remembered the paper I memorized to talk to them. Yes. I had a little speech ready. But in the moment I forgot every word.

The girl in front put her hand down and leaned against my desk, "So, we heard you're afraid of spiders". I tried to build up some confidence, but my voice came out a bit high pitched, "Y-Yeah...So?". I don't really know what they're trying to achieve with this information, but I can tell this is not going to end well. "Ah, good, good. So you know the trip we're going on in a couple of minutes?", she giggled with a slight glint of wickedness.. They're all plotting something. I can feel it! "Mhm.", I responded with a tint of nervousness. "The high school has a room with a bunch of scorpions and spiders. You know that right?". "Mhm..!". Yeah. I wanted to avoid that room. What is she trying to say about it anyway? "I dare you to hold a spider. The school does allow it after all". I was shocked, "What?! No way! Never! Nope! I'm not gonna hold a spider!". She smirked and replied with "We'll give you 50 dollars to hold a spider for 1 minute".

I have to think hard on this one. My family's really poor and could use the money. It's only for 1 minute right? Now bad can that be? I hesitated..."D-Deal." It hurt my gut to say that, but we all agreed to meet in that classroom when we get to the high school.

We were about 6 minutes away from getting there on the bus. I leaned my head against the window and could feel the vibration of the moving bus on my head. This could definitely cause a headache. I started to think about the fear I'm going to feel while holding a spider. It gave me flashbacks to when I was young. My older brother passed away from a deadly spider bite. He had really liked spiders.

I remember sitting in the cold hallway of the hospital. I wasn't allowed in the room. A nurse came out and glanced at me with extreme sadness in her eyes. She crouched down and looked at me. With a straight face, "Your brother is not going to make it". Tears welled up in my eyes. I didn't think this was real. I started to scream-

The bus stopped. I guess I was a bit lost in thought. I sat my head up and felt some tears on my face. Seems that I was crying. I didn't even notice. The students started walking out of their buses and we all grouped up with our respective class. The teachers told us a bunch of boring rules. We were then allowed to go explore as much as we wanted, but we have to meet back up at 1:30.

I was heading off to the Eastern side of the building hoping to not find those pesky popular kids anywhere, but my luck had ended when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Remember our deal?". I looked up and tried to avoid all eye contact. I started with a sigh, "Yeah..I guess so.."

We went on our way to the Western side of the building where the classroom stood. She kept looking back to make sure I was following her. Is this some kind of sick joke? They know that I have Arachnophobia. Why would they want me to hold a spider? What the hell is going on in their thick dumb skulls that think this is okay? But, I agreed. Maybe I'm a fool. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

We stop at a door and the girl tells me to enter first. I close my eyes, scared of what may be in front of me. Then I start opening them. I froze. There's spiders EVERYWHERE. Who in their right mind would need THIS many spiders?? She goes over to one of the tanks, and gestures for me to walk over to her. The rest of the group follow behind. I look in the tank and there sits a Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula.

"You want me to hold THAT?!"

"Of course."

"oh. okay."

She starts lifting off the lid of the tank, but I think I may be having second thoughts- SHE IS PICKING UP THE TARANTULA HOLY SH-

My thoughts were cut off as it was basically dropped in my hands. It looks at me dead in the eyes. I can't stop looking at it. I just want to drop it and run away screaming.

50 seconds left.

It starts moving. I can feel all of the little hairs brushing against my skin. I'm about to burst out in tears. I hate this. Please just take it away. My hands start to shake. The fang thingies are way to close.

20 seconds left.

I don't know how much longer I can do this. The tears are running down my face. Why is it taking so long? My body is trembling out of fear. I can't do this.

5...4...3...2.....1 Done!

I quickly hand the spider over. My tears are running like a waterfall. I hold my hands over my head, trying to forget about what just happened. I'm shaking intensely. The kids look surprised for some odd reason. Didn't they know what was going to happen? The girl puts the spider away and quickly hands me 50 bucks and turns her head to look the opposite direction from me. Now that is the face of guilt. I look over at another kid in the group and notice that they're holding their phone out. Were they..Were they recording?... Bruh. Are they gonna use this as blackmail? I really hope not-

She holds her hand up as if she's about to say something, but the bell rings. It's 1:30. I sprint out the door and head off with the rest of the class. Her and I don't talk to each other for the rest of the day. We avoid eye contact if all possible.

It's been about two weeks since that incident, and I still think about it from time to time. I may not be over spiders, but at least I got 50 bucks.