As I am introduced to the husband I take a look around the living room. I ask him to show me the rest of the house, and I take notes as he leads me room to room. He’s rambling on about the various trim and details that they have updated. He leads me to a small door, about half the size of a normal door with a lock on the outside. He opens it and motions for me to go in, alarm bells start going off in my head, but he says the other three bedrooms are this direction. I follow him in, he turns on lights as we go.

We are in a room that is all cedar, nothing sheet-rocked or finished yet. The height is seems to be almost 5 feet total, I’m slouching down as he is. It reminds me of an attic space. I question if this is a bedroom and he looks at me as if I’m crazy. Of course it is. The room is also very narrow, I cannot see where it ends, we continue forward. It seems as if we are going down, in a circular motion. Everything is still bare and empty, no furniture nothing at all. He leads me farther, and it seems by now we are under ground, I’m getting increasingly uncomfortable. I again question him, he gets angry and asks if I even want to see the other rooms or what I’m doing there then. I hesitantly agree and we keep going. I do ask if we are under ground and he says of course.

We finally get to the “bottom”  for the room, or what I’m assuming is the bottom; it’s the end, we can go no farther. On the end wall there is a giant fireplace. It’s hug and extremely ornate, the details are fantastic. It is obviously hand made by someone with exquisite attention to detail. I mention that and he grunts something. I ask what he said and he repeated, I’ll just leave it to you then. He turns around and leaves me. I’m standing there stunned, looking around me and wondering what was happening. I start to walk back when I hear the door at the end lock and then the lights turn off. I scramble for my phone to get the flashlight on and try to figure out what I’m going to do. I’ve dropped my notepad and am starting to panic. I hear a noise from the fireplace and I step closer.

Maybe there’s a way out through there…. As I edge closer I hear the noise get louder. It’s a scratching sound, with a slight screeching noise behind the scratching. I edge closer and closer, the noise is getting louder. I hesitate when my head is right by the opening in the fireplace, I feel a cold musty air coming out of there. The noise is much louder now. My light barely seems to penetrate the darkness from within the fireplace. The scratching is so loud it sounds as if it’s coming closer. Then it stopped. It’s so quiet I can’t hear anything other than my breathing. I’m not moving. Waiting and waiting. I see something flicker at the edge of the fireplace.

What was that….it came out again. And crawled over the edge. It was a giant, humongous spider. bigger than anything I had ever seen or imagined in my life. Easily the size of a football. It’s crawled out and was resting on the mantel of the fireplace, just staring at me, it was so large and so close I could see it’s eyes, just staring. I want to scream but nothing is coming out, I want to run but can’t seem to move. Then I hear more scratching, all of a sudden hundreds more come out of the fireplace, they’re all about the size of a softball.

There are so many of them, just coming out and out of the fireplace, until the entire fireplace is covered with them. The whole wall is covered with them, all just sitting at staring at me, their eyes reflecting in my light, it’s so quiet again. I don’t know what to do. I feel if I move or make a noise something is going to happen, but I’m so terrified I am shaking, my light is shaking which is making their eyes seem even more evil. Then I hear one long continuous shrieking noise…they all seem as though they are one giant being, rocking back and forth to this noise.

I know it is time to move, I’m afraid of making any sudden movements but I start stepping back, step by step. The noise is getting louder and louder, I’m almost far enough away I think, maybe I can turn around and run, but just then the noise gets so loud my ears ring, it’s so loud. They are still there just staring at me, hundreds of eyes reflected in my light… the noise stops, simultaneously just as it stops, they all jump at me. I’m over 10 feet away but they are all on me in that instant. I’m screaming and screaming as I drop my phone and it all goes black…

© 2017 Mj Gale