Spider-Woman

Chapter 5

Drip.  Drip.  Drip.

My eyes snapped open.  It was an action I instantly regretted.  The world was shaking.  Then it appeared to spark.  A flash, a flicker.  I gasped.  Was I drunk?  No.  I felt too hyper.  High?  No.  I was too alert.  Alert.  Aware.  Of the dripping. 

Out of nowhere, my hand was on the ceiling.  I gasped, in shock.  It took me a minute to pry my hand free, causing my other hand and two feet to stick to the ceiling as I pulled. 

What my hand had covered was a small hole in the ceiling, where water was seeping through.  I flinched, and noticed the puddle below me, in the floor. 

I felt lightheaded.  I was dangling from the ceiling. 

How was I going to get down? 

I hung there for a minute.  How did Peter do it?  I didn't know.  He just did.  I inspected my free hand, trying to understand what exactly was causing me to stick.  And that's when I fell. 

My back slammed into the wooden floor.  My breath left my body in an instant.  I inhaled quickly, trying to restore my lungs.  I could feel a bruise forming on my arm.  My head also throbbed, as it had hit the floor right after my backside.  I shook it, pulling myself into a sitting position.

Once I was finally back on my feet, I walked into the kitchen to get a bowl to place under the dripping.  I felt a shock surge through my body, and my eyes darted to the floor, a split-second before my foot was sliced by a protruding nail. 

"Ahh!"  I grabbed my foot.  Blood began to trickle out of the cut, which was pretty long and deep.  I had always been clumsy.  Now I was becoming more aware of exactly how clumsy I was.

Once I finally bandaged my foot, hammered in the nail, and placed the bowl in the bedroom, I pulled out a notebook and recorded my data.

Day 1 after spider bite.

I wrote a description of the morning's events, then scratched my forehead.  That's when I saw what was on my arm.  More accurately, what wasn't on my arm.  There was no bruise to be found.  I poked it.  No pain.

My head no longer hurt.

I unwrapped my foot, finding smooth, undamaged skin.

Woah.

I scribbled that into my notebook.