The spider | Teen Ink

The spider

June 13, 2021
By ebernich, Exeter, New Hampshire
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ebernich, Exeter, New Hampshire
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Author's note:

This piece was inspired by a prompt by my english teacher.

Deadly spiders roaming the halls, I know, not the ideal way to start your school year. Here, I’ll tell you the story.
The day started normal, new classes, new people, orientations. Me and my middle school friend Doug Chapman had our first two classes together. We were so excited for our first day and football tryouts after school. We heard rumors there was a transfer student that may help us win the championship this year. These classes went by fast, as Doug and I got to catch up a little bit after our summer break.
Then we went to math to meet our new teacher, Ms. Widmer. We introduced ourselves to everyone and I even made a new friend, Chris. We didn’t mind Ms. Widmer, although she was pretty odd.
I decided to skip fourth period with my new friend Chris to go get snacks. Turns out the class we missed was with Doug’s mom. We were disappointed, we loved Mrs. Chapman. We also heard some rumors about people hearing things in the ceiling, but we brushed it off, who believes that stuff anyway?
Me, Doug, and Chris went to lunch, we got our food and sat down and claimed a spot to sit in. We sat with some of our friends for lunch. Brian, not the smartest tool in the shed, but very funny, Kale, who is a year older than us, yet acts 2 years younger, and Mike, who may do some of the craziest things i’ve ever seen. They instantly bring up what everyones talking about, the noises. Me and Doug already think people are just looking for attention, yet Mike, of course, has a different idea. Mike says he saw Ms. Widmer exit the Janitors' closet with gloves and witch hat on. Brian says, “I knew it!, she's cursing the school!” We all start laughing at Brian. He looks confused and asks us what's going on. “I’m joking you idiot”, says Mike, still laughing. Brian doesn't say a word the rest of lunch.
Unfortunately, I have a sixth period with none of my friends. I ended up falling asleep. I woke up to the ball ringing and I was off to the last period of the day. This is when it happened. I heard Mike yelling for help from the bathroom. Originally, I thought this was another one of his jokes, until the yelling didn’t turn into laughing. I go to check it out and then I see it. Around 10 spiders crawled out of the sink approaching the stall Mike is in. He’s locked in there and is going crazy to unlock it and get out. He then goes silent. I unlock the door to see what happened and when I look down, I see a spider that ripped through his sock and is latched onto his leg.
I instantly go for help, looking for the nearest teacher, but I don’t find any. I see more spiders coming out of a different bathroom out of the corner of my eye. Still no teachers. I am walking around the empty halls for what seems like forever before I see Chris through a classroom window.
I walk in the classroom and he and a couple other students are in there and look like they've seen a ghost. I ask them if they know what's going on and Chris says his teacher went out to go get help and didn’t return. We decide to stake out in the classroom until we hear rustling above our classroom in the vents. We are ready to book it out of the classroom until we see Kale break the vent cover and jump into our room.
The first thing he says when he jumps in the room is, “this is sick, right guys”, we all stare at him with blank faces. Kale says the only place he could find that was safe was the vents, so he crawled through them until he saw people he recognized. We start planning what to do to get out of there.
We decided to try to make it to the roof, as we thought there would only be one way for the spiders to get up there. We would then descend to the parking lot through the fire escape stairs and then look for help. We group up at a table and decide the best plan to get up there. We decide to take the nearest stairs up and then cross the floor and take those stairs to the roof. One of the students, named Jake, is skeptical of crossing the entire second floor, but Kale calms him down.
We start to head out when the same kid Jake starts to panic and runs back to the classroom. We start to walk back when we see a group of spiders leave the room. We call for Jake and no one answers.
Our group, shaken up from what they just witnessed, has no choice but to continue up the stairs. When we reach the second floor, everyone is relieved to see it is clear. We start our journey across the second floor when we see Brian walking towards us. He looks unfazed.
We ask him why he’s alone out here and he says, “because these spiders don’t scare me.” We look at him with blank faces and he doesn't realize we’re serious. We start walking and see spiders filling up one of the rooms we pass. Brain gets a little more serious.
We are about 400 ft from the stairs to the roof when a group of spiders emerges from the intersecting hallway. We decide to take a detour to the left and go around them.
As we pass the next hallway, we realize we are missing Kale and one of the students. We look back and see them reaching for help, being overcome by spiders. The spiders pass them and start chasing after us. We run frantically to the next door we can find. We all squeeze into the janitors closet near the last turn before the stairs.
We turn around to find that Ms. Widmer, our weird new math teacher, in the same closet. We ask why she would ever be in here, and she says she was sent by the FBI to protect the students and the school. Brian instantly blurts out, “SO YOU KNEW THE SPIDERS WERE COMING!” Ms. Widmer calms him down and says that it would cause too much panic if they notified the school and parents.
We settle down and Ms. Widmer informs us that the only way to kill the spider is to turn the lights off in the building, and the electrical room just happens to be right next to our escape, the roof. She says that the electrical room is a popular spot for the spiders, as they are smart enough to protect their weakness. She also mentions that they can’t touch water or else they will die. Unfortunately, there is no water on the way, but Ms. Widmer is prepared.
She shows us her spray bottles and hands them out, everyone but brian gets one. We exit the closet and see no spiders. We are on the home stretch.
We are approaching the electrical room when we see a door open to our right and 5 spiders emerge. We shoot them with our water and they fall to the ground. We walk into the electrical room, shooting spiders in our way. We keep walking towards the power switch when Brian is overtaken with spiders, he yells, “I was never scared!”. Now it’s just me, Chris, one student, and Ms. Widmer.
When we reach the power switch, we have the student and Chris stand watch while we shut it off. It usually takes 3 people to push the switch, so we had to make it work. Ms, Widmer told me to stand on the power switch so it would push down easier. I put my foot up on her leg and lift myself up onto the switch. In the meantime, I see the student and Chris overwhelmed with spiders. When they finally fall, Ms. Widmer says to me, “finish the mission”. I stomp down on the power switch as Ms. Widmer falls to the spiders.

3 months later
I think back to that day often. It still gives me the chills. Leaving the room with my fallen friends, walking through loads of fallen spiders and students, terrified that there might just be one more alive. When I end up leaving the building, hundreds of worried parents and police officers await my arrival. The police officer in charge goes up to me and asks, “anyone with you kid?”. I shake my head and look for my fellow FBI officers.



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