Short Stories by Me

Spiders in the Shed

There are spiders everywhere. They are under my pillow, in my shoes, under the floorboards. Some are as big as my pinkie finger, some are bigger than my torso. I try and kill as many as I can, but I can only get the small ones. The big ones are too fast, and after what happened to my cat...

I guess I can introduce myself, sure.

Hello, I'm Hinge, and I live in a world of spiders. Yes, I am human. I've been a human all my life, and will continue to be a human. It's not like it's common, or easy, to switch species. My friend Gunn could tell you. I mean, I guess he can't anymore.

I am fourteen years old, living on my own in a little house in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, you might think I'm too young to live on my own. That's because you don't live in my world. I say that I am in just the right world to live alone at fourteen. Many people live on their own these days, especially teenage boys like me. The spiders only hunt packs, really. They like feasts, no snacks. So it's good that I live alone.

To address my parents, I have none. I think I used to have a Dad, when I was two or three. But then he sent me to a Daycare. Remember, in my world, things are much different from yours. Daycare means a place where it is always day, where it is safe. Why isn't everyone in a Daycare? Well, it's really stupid, but no one above the age of thirteen can be there. It kicks you out. Ya, the sun literally kicks kids who've never seen darkness out of its safe haven to a land that spends half of its time in pitch black nothingness. Why does it do this? No one really knows. I suspect that it's because it doesn't want to get too crowded.

A bunch of kids without supervision though? Oh don't worry, the Sun keeps everything under control.

People aren't as scary as the spiders, but they're mighty close. Almost everyone alive today are cannibals. They're tired of spiders, and human meat is... rare and tasty. According to them, of course. I would never... I would never eat anyone.

Occasionally, a wild person will run past my house, sometimes running up to it, pounding for food, or running from a spider. Their screams prevent me from doing anything, and sometimes I have to watch helplessly as they are eaten alive by the terrible spiders right outside my window. I am thankful for my windows and the fact that they are sealed tight. Forever grateful.

About the spiders.

Yes, yes, I'm getting there.

The spiders took over a long time ago, decades before I was born. Generations. That's a long time, you know. Over a century, I think. The spiders never formally took over, it just kind of happened.

And now the world lived in fear.

I may sound kinda chill and laid back about it all, but that's because I'm trying to sound laid back about it. I'm actually sweating and shivering and scared right now. Because the spiders are scary. You don't know. They crawl into your ears at night and poison your brain and you won't wake up. That's why we wear ear plugs. It's not for noise.

Every morning I have to shake out my shoes and smash the spiders that come out. I have to seal all of my food in a metal airtight container, just so my hand doesn't fall off if a spider tries to kill me. What is my food? Well, there isn't much other than the spiders. Yes, it is disgusting, I don't like to talk about it.

About the shed.

Behind my humble house, which is probably only twice the size of your handicap bathroom stalls, there is a shed. Well duh.

The shed has no color, it never has. The wood is a very weird gray-brown color. It is the most splintered thing you will ever see in your life, to the point where if I so much as tap it, I'll have a heck of a splinter so thick that when I remove it, I'll bleed. I know from experience.

It's not fun.

As you can probably infer, the shed is full of spiders. And not the small ones that I eat for breakfast. These are the ones that ate my cat, the ones that I can barely outrun, the ones I hide from at night by locking my door, locking myself in with the other dozens of smaller spiders. Nothing is scarier than the spiders in the shed.

The thing about the shed, the thing keeping me from burning it to the ground might be a close second scariest thing, though. It's the only thing that might save us and the world from the spiders. It's my last chance to escape. That's why I'm writing this. If I don't survive, I want people to know what happened. Not that anyone cares. But the people on the other side of the portal in the shed might. They'll want to know where this random guy falling out of wherever I will come from... if from, I guess.

Now this is the end, I hope I make it.