The Cocoons

Reader discretion suggested if spiders aren't your thing.

“Hey Mark,” Chloe said gasping. She had Kelly had been running for several minutes and they were quite out of breath.

It was Halloween, and despite what Chloe had tried to press into Kelly’s head about dressing nondescript, Kelly had dressed up as a bloody zombie with plenty and gore and had died her hair pink. It was pretty hard to stay unnoticed when you are, or are with, a bloody, pink haired zombie. Chloe had gone with a simple ghost bride, wearing a dark outfit and putting on white face paint with black lipstick and a dark blush. Her veil had blown away during the chase, and since it had been cheap and she was safe for now, she wasn’t worried about it.

“Hey Chloe!” he said with a large smile. “And Kelly too! What a surprise. Boy, you stand out.”

“I told that bonehead to be discreet,” Chloe said annoyed, and explained their situation to Mark who listened intently. He was about their age and they often talked outside of the university but wasn’t in any of their classes. He was dressed in some old clothes and had dozens of fake spider bites on his hands, face, and neck.

The cold didn’t seem to be bothering him, but it was bothering Kelly who hadn’t thought to dress warm, unlike Chloe who rolled her eyes. “Let’s go to my house—it’s not far—we’ll be fine there. It’s my parent’s,” he quickly added, “but they don’t come out of their room much, so you won’t need to worry about them.”

They quickly agreed and were soon off. They walked through a part of the neighborhood that neither of the girls had been to before. Although the trick or treaters had been numerous before, there were even more now. Kelly still didn’t blend in enough, but Chloe didn’t stand out too much, apart from the fact her light hair was now loose in the wind, having tossed the black wig aside when they met Mark.

Soon the three of them were in front of Mark’s house. The house, yard, and any plants inside had been covered in a thick layer of cobwebs. You couldn’t see the grass, tall as it was, and the trees tried to poke through, but failed for the most part. You could tell, however, the house wasn’t brick, but it was hard to make out the color, especially at night.

“Those fake webs are cool,” Chloe said.

“A little over done,” Kelly said, toeing the webs with her show.

“Those aren’t fake,” Mark said slowly, stopping. “We have an infestation. Kelly, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. We don’t really see the spiders if we leave the webs alone. I swear we have half the country’s spider in this house.” Kelly jumped back. “We’ve tried exterminators, but they only ever make a dent and the spiders always come back worse. No one is willing to buy the house and we can’t get another without selling this one first. We’ve tried to clean it up for pictures, but after two people almost died from the sheer amount of bites they got, we gave up, not wanting a lawsuit on top of it. They don’t spread to other properties, they just stay here, so I try to stay out of the house most of the day.”

“And we’re going inside?” Chloe asked uncertainly.

“Unless you want to keep running from the cops,” Mark said. “You don’t have to go in far, just hide out by the door for a quarter of an hour. Kelly, why did you dye your hair pink?”

“Shut up.”

“Fine,” Chloe said, thanking her lucky stars she didn’t care much about spiders, “we’ll go in.” Still, she didn’t like the idea of going inside that house. Hopefully it was better on the inside.

“Alright. Once we’re inside, again, don’t touch the webs, don’t move anything, and don’t go into a room with the lights off—they don’t like to come out in the light.”

“That’s a black widow,” Kelly almost yelled as they walked the path that led to the front door.

“Quiet, if they hear a disturbance they’ll find us,” Chloe hissed.

“Yeah, we have plenty of those here, and those are more mild than others, so please be careful.”

Kelly said something that Chloe did not catch, and Mark didn’t seem to either. He unlocked the door and let them inside. He flipped a switch and they saw themselves inside a large entry way. Several large spiders skittered out of the light. They hadn’t noticed how large the house was outside, since they were so focused on spiders and hiding from the cops. It was dusty and dim, like it was illuminated by candlelight.

They were met at once by a foul stench than made Chloe want to retch. But what made it worse was that there was a lingering smell of butterscotch mixed in with the feted smell that was not enough to overpower but just enough to be noticeable and hide whatever was beneath it it.

“He’s insane,” Kelly whispered.

“He needs help,” Chloe replied out the side of her mouth.

“Or an asylum, we should call someone, or something.”

“We can’t,” Chloe said exasperated. “We don’t want to be here when someone comes.”

“Doctors wouldn’t be looking for us. The heat will die down after tonight or tomorrow and no on will care that we went around having a little fun and blowing up mailboxes. Also, we don’t have to be here when they show up. I mean, look around you. And it stinks.”

“Be quiet, he’ll hear. We can think things over later. Personally, I’d rather not increase our chances of getting caught—we’ll be responsible for a lot of cleanup and fines.”

“You worry too much,” Kelly said brushing it off. “Everyone should have the chance to get out when they’re young and live a little. We’ll be fine, and when someone does it to us, it’ll be fair and square. No worries to it.”

“I wonder if we’ll be alright?” Chloe said seeing a large spider hide itself in its nest, not wanting to talk about the current subject.

Mark came back with some bottles of water, which the two took, but Chloe didn’t open hers, distrustful of it. Kelly on the other hand, gratefully began to drink. “You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen if you like,” Mark said, opening his bottle. She doubted anything would be worth eating, or that she’d have the nerve to eat anything here, but she decided it would be nicer not to say anything.

Chloe went to the window to look outside after the other two started talking. No kids came up to the door, though it was unsurprising, but she wondered how many knew, if any, that the webs were real. She supposed it could be fake, and that the spiders so far could have been coincidence, but as she bumped up against the thick layer of webs on the window sill and saw three spiders emerge, she backed away and those doubts now gone.

Chloe turned, disgusted, and considered taking her chances outside, when Kelly came up behind her and grabbed hold of her shoulder. Chloe jumped and swore. “Cut it out,” she said irritably.

“Sorry,” Kelly said cheerfully not sounding like she was sorry in the least. Then she said something about Mark showing her something, that Chloe only half heard. She nodded and Kelly disappeared, leaving Chloe alone in the dim room. She took a last look at the door and decided to explore the house, unsure why.

Since Kelly had left through the hallway to the right, Chloe took the leftmost passage. The hallways were angled like a V, instead of being at right angles to the front door. The ceilings were high, and the walls and ceilings were a mixture of black, red, and dark brown. They walls were ornamented with electric sconces and paintings and ornate trims. The carpeting on the floor was of a similar color scheme, though it was old and pervaded with dust and dirt so it was hard to tell. Most of it, the paintings on the walls, the trim, the sconces, the ceilings and the chandeliers were covered in cobwebs, and spiders both large and small, though more often that not large, could be scene at intervals. The ceilings, unlike the floors and walls, were almost completely covered by webs, and there were lumps in the webs above that gave Chloe very unpleasant thoughts, so she kept her eyes down.

Chloe was very careful to stay in the middle of the hallway and away from any webs, but she still went on, careful to flip any lights witch she saw, driven by some unseen will. The stench grew worse the further she went, but the butterscotch remained, refusing to let her guess what it might be hiding. She passed three doors, two on her left and one of her right, and a curve in the hallway, and then came into a large dining chamber. A doorway to her left opened into a kitchen, while one to the right led to more hallway.

She ignored the kitchen, afraid of what she might see in there, and opted for the hallway, but she later regretted it. Wandering through, she passed more doors, these were ajar, but she decided not to go in. Before she knew it, she was at the back of the house and in front of two double doors. This must be his parent’s room. One of the two doors, like most of the doors she had passed, was ajar, and no noises, either of talking of snoring could be heard within, and she wondered if anyone was really inside.

Not having passed any windows, Chloe had by now a morbid curiosity to see what the backyard of this mansion looked like. Were the webs and spiders even worse in the back? She knocked on the door but didn’t receive any answer. She peered through the crack between the doors and saw two motionless figures laying on the bed. She began to grow worried for their safety since they lay so still. Wandering in, and forgetting to flip the switch as she entered, Chloe walked over to the bed, wondering if Mark’s parents were alright.

A nearby window let in some moonlight, which gave Chloe enough light to see, but not enough to see the spiders on the floor and the large, bulbous one colored a sickly green, climbing up her skirt. She rushed over to the bed and nearly screamed. The two figures were not Mark’s parents, or not anymore, but two decrepit corpses that had lain there for who knew how long. She could not pull herself away, until a hairy spider the size of her hand skittered across one of the skeletal faces. She screamed at the sight of it and almost fell down as she jumped away from the sudden movement. Dashing out of the room, she slammed the door shut behind her, not caring if Mark heard.

The light in the hallway was welcome, but she was still too scared to think clearly. Finally, she slowed her breathing a little, and managed to start thinking. Dealing with the cops was looking like a better and better prospect. Whatever happened, she wanted to get out of here and away from Mark She had never realized before how odd he was, but or maybe he hadn’t been, but she was sure thinking he had been odd. And she could not for the life of her remember ever seeing him inside the university. That vexed her no small amount. Chloe had always assumed he was a student there, but now she had her doubts.

She tiptoed back the way she had come. And, getting a suspicious nag in the back of her head, she opened the first door she passed. Inside someone was sitting on the bed. At first she thought it was Mark, but she soon had her second scare of the night. Just like in large bedroom, this was not a living person but a corpse. And this time, Chloe recognized it.

Or, rather, she recognized the jacket it wore. It was bright red, and had a large white star on the front. Andrew from the class she and Kelly were in often wore that jacket to school, even on hot days. He had stopped going to class two weeks ago and no one had seen him. Not being that close of a friend or even acquaintance, Chloe had been curious where he had went, but had not asked many questions. But now, she knew where he had went. He was covered in a light webbing and spiders of all shapes, sizes, and colors crawled all over his body, and Chloe barely stifled another cry.

She felt something on her hand and shrieked, leaving the room and not bothering to turn the light off. She inspected her itching hand and saw a bite. It was already the size of a quarter and a nasty color. She shuddered. As it had been cold, she had worn lined pants under her costume, so she removed the large skirt, not wanting her chances of picking up unwanted visitors to improve.

Leaving the black garment on the floor, she looked into the next room on this side of the hallway. Inside was an old woman, or what once was an old woman, suspended in midair by webbing. The long wispy webs over her head looked like hair, and the webs about her shoulder and back looked like a fleece shawl. The spiders were well at work, weaving a cocoon about the old woman and pulling her into the air, millimeter by millimeter. Chloe tried her very best to be brave and not scream, but she was panicked, and she did not want to join the others. She looked up and saw the lumps in the ceiling. She bolted.

Where was Kelly? She racked her mind as she sped through the hallway. Stopping in the web filled dining room, she remembered. Kelly had said something about Mark showing her something. That was bad. What should she do? The thoughts of her boyfriend, Mike, and her old friend Abby who she hadn’t seen in several months came to her, and Chloe wondered if she spent enough time looking would she find them both here among the dead. A muffled shriek from beneath the ancient floorboards sounded and was cut short.

Dashing in panic, Chloe never saw Kelly again. She ran heedless of her surroundings, never looking up, afraid of the bundles on the ceiling. She ran like she had never run before, and soon burst through the front door. She gulped fresh air, breathing hard, and proceeded to run, ignoring the distant calls from Mark, the stitch in her side, and the silence from Kelly. She was probably already dead, and there would be nothing she could do.

She ran right into a police officer, and threw herself on him, clinging tight and sobbing hysterically. He asked her what was wrong, but she couldn’t get an intelligible word out for some minutes, occasionally scratching at the numerous red and purple bites that she had somehow acquired. Soon he was joined by a partner.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Don’t know,” the first cop said, stilling being clung to by Chloe. “She just ran up like this and hasn’t let go. Can’t get anything out of her either. I think she was one of the two we were looking for, but seems like she’s learned her lesson.”

“The one with the pink hair?”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen her.”

“Can you tell us what happened?” the second man asked gently.

Soon, Chloe calmed enough to be able to blurt things out that could be understood. She got out that she had been in a house and that there were lots of bodies covered in spiders.

“She’s dead,” she said finally, “she’s dead. He killed her. The spiders. Those lumps. Those lumps.” And she couldn’t say anything else intelligible.

Both cops gave eachother a look. “Probably just at someone’s house.”

“Probably ate some candy she shouldn’t have.” The both laughed.

“Still,” said the first looking down at Chloe and the bites covering her face and hands, “We should probably check it out.”

“She said spiders? I think I know the house. They have a lot of fake webs.”

“You go check it out,” he said slowly. “I’ll take her back. Maybe we can get this all figured out.”

The second officer went off to Mark’s house, while Chloe was taken back to the station. Tests were done to make sure she wasn’t drunk but all were negative. She was kept there overnight and then let go in the morning, when she was no longer in hysterics.

A search was done at Mark’s house, and no signs of the bodies in the bedrooms were at first found. Many spiders of every kind, even those not native to the area or even country, were found in the house, and were quite aggressive to the police, making their searches very difficult. Mark was not found, but Kelly’s body was found in the basement, covered from head to foot in bites of varying sizes. But what horrified everyone involved, including Chloe when she inevitably heard about it, though she had already known, were the lumps in the ceilings. Each of them was a cocoon that held the remains of Mark’s victims. About five dozen of them were found in total and not all of them could be identified.

The End,
God bless and Happy Halloween