Chapter Text
ZION.
I get jumped by a spider.
Running. My whole life was about running. Running away from my bullies. Running away from people. Running away from my mother, father, sister, friends. Nothing kept me at ease.
I felt paranoid every single hour of the day. Like some monster was about to jump at me from around the corner. Crazy, right? At least that’s what everyone else says whenever I tell them about it. I felt like I was going insane. I’d walk alone one night, turn a corner and see something flash in the corner of my eyes. I would close my eyes and feel something crawling over my body. It scared me to death.
Also something rather concerning: spiders started following me everywhere ever since my thirteenth birthday. Not just a spider in the corner of my room or behind a dust-covered cabinet. No. Actual swarms followed me.
Just like right now.
My legs felt heavy, my mind fuzzy and my feet numb. But I kept pumping my legs, forcing myself forward. My breath came in short and ragged gasps, the air escaping my lungs and refusing to go back in.
I turned my head to look behind me, and I wished I didn’t. Following me was a spider, the biggest you’ve ever seen.
It could barely fit in the hallway. It had the largest and sharpest fangs that I had ever seen. It gnawed at my backpack that had fallen off my shoulders, filled with all my school books, or at least what was left of it.
But I think I have worse problems to focus on, like the spider currently spitting acid at my head. I did the only rational option I thought of and ducked behind a corner. The huge ball of acid barely missed my flailing arm and smashed against a locker behind me. I winced as the locker seemed to burn down as the acid made contact. I could perfectly imagine myself being the locker if I didn’t hurry up.
I had stayed behind after class to finish up some homework I hadn’t finished. Deep down I knew I shouldn’t have stayed alone. I was working on some paper, before my hand froze up. Then my whole arm refused to move. ‘What in the world..?’ Before I knew it I was stuck, my body completely frozen. At first it was quiet screeches and snaps, then louder and louder. Spiders started crawling through the doors and windows. But I couldn’t move away, couldn’t run. Cold sweat made me shiver, fear slowly taking over. Spiders started crawling up my body and the clock ticking didn’t help.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
A spider crawled up my neck.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
It bared its fangs near my throat. I stopped breathing.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The spider by my throat snarled and leaned back. The teeth were sharp, enough to break skin. As it shot forward, its fangs burying into my throat, my vision went black. I could feel my body falling over, my head hitting a table and… nothing.
I woke up with a throbbing pain in my head. I winced out loud and rubbed the back of my head, slowly sitting up. As my memories slowly came back I quickly looked around, and luckily no spiders were around. All the windows were spread open, cold air making me shiver. It was already night time. I had been unconscious for hours.
‘Shit.’ I muttered, quickly getting up. Whatever the spider thing was, it could wait. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Great. I was stuck in this school. My mom won’t be too happy with me. I tried to look through the window beside the door, but that one window was boarded up for some weird reason.
Wait. Boarded up?
I frowned and looked around more. The windows weren’t open, they were shattered and some had planks over them. The tables and chairs were dusty and unused. On the wall crawled vines, nature seeping through the cracks of the school. Books laid all around, pages ripped out and dirt spread across the floor.
How long was I unconscious for? It couldn’t be more than a few hours, could it?
I looked around for my backpack, and I found it laid on a cabinet. Somewhere I hadn’t left it. It was ripped, the contents spread all over the floor. I sighed shakily and gathered the books back. While I put them back into the bag a loud screech echoed through the room. But how did the sound travel through the wall? The window was boarded up as well. I turned back around to the door. The window was in fact not boarded up.
‘What?’ I muttered. I swung the backpack on my back, slowly approaching the window and peeking outside. The corridor was dark, there was only one light, from the classroom I was currently in. Paranoia kicked in again. I frowned at the dark end, anything could be hiding in there… I shook off the uneasiness and hopped through the shattered window, no sign of any wood ever being there. A sharp pain sliced across my arm, warm blood trickled down my bicep. A piece of shattered glass had sliced my skin open. B
efore I could check in on the injury another screech echoed through the halls. But this time closer, more monstrous, more scary. I realized the hard way I didn’t want to stay here. I turned my back to the dark and started walking down the hall.
All the lockers were abandoned, filled with ripped books or moldy food. It looked like people left this place and never came back, leaving everything behind. There used to be a lot of people here, my school was always overcrowded and busy. What made them leave? I turned a corner and met the exact thing that made them leave. I wish I never did.
The acid slid down the locker, slowly sliding towards me. Yeah no, that was not going to happen. I bolted the other way, towards where I thought was the cafetaria. Lights flashed above me, making it hard to see. The spider kept pursuing me like it wanted to murder me, which was unironically correct. Another screech and a ball of acid flew past my head into the door in front of me. I skid to a stop, anxiously looking around for any way to leave this haunted place. Even as I saw a door a few feet away it slammed closed at the spider’s nod.
The spider inched closer. It seemed to take its time, slowing its pace. I started trembling, slowly taking a step back. I was careful to not step on the acid, but stepping forward to the spider was even worse.
‘Hello, demigod.’ The spider spoke. It actually spoke. Its voice was low, almost growling instead of speaking. Its head twitched sideways, its eyes glowing white.
‘Do you know who I am?’
I was frozen in fear as the spider circled around me. I barely managed to shake my head as I stared with wide eyes. The spider stopped circling and leaned in close, its fangs snapping at me.
‘That’s a pity.’
I bolted backwards as her fangs came too close for my liking. Pain exploded on my back, acid burning through my clothes and skin. I screamed out, my knees buckling. My mind became fuzzy, every thought in my mind was about the unrelenting pain in my back.
I gasped for air as slowly the acid dripped down my body, tearing at my flesh. The spider showed no mercy, leaning forward with a snarl.
‘Demigods have always been foolish.’ I had no idea what it meant by demigods, not that I could think about it now. My voice grew hoarse and screaming felt like a knife being pushed in my throat. I fell forward, laying on my stomach. ‘Remember me,’ the spider said at last. ‘Pasithea.’ Pasithea, the spider, leaned down in front of me. As I raised my head, my eyes half lidded. I was met with her wrath.