Spider Bites

Chapter 1
How It Started

Chapter Description: Be careful of who you make angry.

It was the afternoon on Halloween when Gavin entered the elevator to go up to the fifth floor to discuss an extremely profitable deal with a large corporation planning to build several subdivisions in the city. As the face for his realty company, he was always maintained a debonair air and smiled charmingly at the small well dressed lady standing at the back of elevator. As he turned to face the doors, a self satisfied grin spread over his face as he admired his reflection. He had never seen a finer specimen of a man he thought as he stared at his reflection in the silver elevator doors facing him. He especially enjoyed seeing his dashing smiling face on the sides of buses, benches and on the signs of his realty company. He was the most successful realtor in the city. He had been called vain, shallow, and egotistical but all that just fueled his drive to become a legend in his field.

Gavin always enjoyed checking out the goods as he slightly preened in front of his reflection. Sure, he wasn’t as young as he used to be, but eating right and his dedicated exercise regime have given him the body of a god at the onset of middle age. He would pose in front of the mirror every morning, checking for a little extra body fat or a bit of sagging around his jawline. In another month he was going to be thirty six and he was in better shape now than he had ever been in his life. He could press 350 lbs which was better than most to the younger men at the gym. He ran, swam and biked three miles every day, so that he could maintain his standing in the Iron Man competitions. He was co-captain of the area’s winning rugby team. He excelled at jujitsu and kick boxing and held several awards. He was a charter member of the rock climbing, motocross and sky diving clubs. On vacations, he dove with great whites off the Great Barrier Reef and or heli-skied the glaciers in Alaska. Life was his oyster and he had conquered it all, he was a winner!

He felt sorry for the lesser people who were not him. Gavin’s eyes went over to the little old lady standing next to him in the elevator. She was a tiny thing, rather wizened with age but she was dressed in the most expensive silks and designer threads. She wore heavy dark rimmed glasses with thick lenses that made her eyes seem huge. She was clutching a gleaming Hermes bag in front of her where he could see her hands. They were laden with bright gold rings sporting a varied collection of gem stones. There was an especially eye-catching one, a large ring with a gleaming black stone on her index finger All that expensive wrapping for a faded and wilted flower, he sighed as he thought. What a waste.

Over in the corner by the panel, there was a slovenly dressed thirteen year old kid leaning against the corner with ear pods and staring raptly at the small phone held between his hands. His slouch announcing to the world his disinterest and disdain for the world in total. Judging from the glint of sliver under the teenager’s curled lip, Gavin realized that the teen was going to the orthodontist on the top floor. Rolling his eyes, he eyes looked back at his reflection, to admire his magnificence once more. As the elevator rumbled upwards, his eyes caught a movement over his head in the reflection.

As the number two lit in the panel above the doors, Gavin’s eyes again noticed a slight shimmer above his head. Leaving the reflection, his eyes automatically flew up to see what was causing the disturbance in the reflection. To his horror, he saw a tiny spider dangling from the ceiling and coming down a few feet in front of him. Hs eyes flew from the spider to floor panel to see where the elevator was. The number three had just lit up. He asked for the four button to be pushed, but the kid that was standing in front of the panel was too involved with the texting to be bothered. He tried breathing techniques and still the spider descended. The number four light up as the spider began to sway back and forth toward him, each swing bringing the spider closer and closer.

For all his accomplishments and confidence in his body, there was one thing that held Gavin in fear. He had a fear of spiders since his earliest childhood. It was something that affected him at an innate level. No matter what the size, there was something about the spiky haired, bulbous little body with the skinny legs supporting it that struck horror within him. Everytime he came across one, it would skitter across the floor as if seeking him, wanting to sink its teeth into him.

It was stupid, Gavin knew but this fear always seemed to haunt him. He remembered sitting on his mother’s living room floor watching TV as a small boy. That’s when he saw it, the scene from the Incredible Shrinking Man where the giant Spider is about to bite the tiny man. The spiders jaws were dripping with saliva as the beady eyes stared at the man as it came closer and closer ready to drain him of his blood. The scene terrorized him and gave him nightmares for years. His mother would come in during the night and comfort him telling him it was just a movie. The deep seated fear that the scene inspired in him was real. He knew that his irrational fear of something so tiny was ridiculous, but it was the one thing he could never conquer.

The number four light up as the spider began to sway back and forth toward him. Petrified, Gavin watched the spider swing closer and closer to him with each movement. He held his breath and wished desperately that he was somewhere else.

“Are you alright, young man?” The old crone in Chanel asked him as her eyes worriedly peered over at him.

Gavin gulped as he heard the ding of the doors blessedly opening on the fifth floor. He took his eyes away from the spider for a brief instant to look at the doors. When he looked back, the spider was gone. He absolutely lost his mind in terror. Gavin grabbed the older woman and then flung her in front of him toward the last place where he had seen the spider. He shoved the kid out of his way until he was safely on the other side of the door. Once there, Gavin was vigorously brushing his jacket and rifling his hair to see if the spider was on him.

“Uh…spider.” Gavin said weakly as he offered as a pathetic excuse to the roughed up passengers who were busy recovering themselves in his wake.

The old woman was staggering on her designer heels from being tossed about and barely maintained her feet. Once she righted herself, she began to busily smooth her clothes and check her hair. Gavin felt a chill as she brought her head up to look at him, her face settled into grim and somehow terrifying visage.

“So lame.” The teen sneered as he went back to his preoccupation with his phone in his hands.

“If a tiny spider is going to make you act like an overgrown child, then perhaps you need to go back to the nursery…” The older woman seethed as she stroked a jewel on her black jewel ring on her index finger as she glared at him behind thick lenses. Gavin wasn’t sure but he thought he saw her eyes glow unnaturally green for a second before the doors closed between them.

Gavin was fixated by the look from the woman as he stood there for a few moments, he did not notice a tiny almost translucent spider with glowing green eyes crawl up his shoe and disappear under his pants leg.