A Mother's Revenge

The Black Widow crawled very slowly. The spider was afraid the man would notice the movement, and she didn't want to ruin the surprise.

She had started out from the corner of his living room over by the television, and had climbed up to the ceiling, protected from his sight by the dark shadows that existed there. From there, the spider followed the ceiling where it meets the wall until she was in the corner behind his chair.

She could have just crawled across the carpet and climbed up the man's chair, but she wanted to drop in on him -- from above. That would scare him the most, and the spider knew it.

She wanted to drop from above and dangle right in front of his eyes--that way he would see the red hourglass shape on her underside--before she bit him. Then, she would drop down onto his bare chest -- right above his heart. That was where she would bury her fangs into his soft flesh. It was here her venom would do the most damage.

If the Black Widow was lucky, she could bite him once or twice and still get away before he smashed her with his hands. That's if she was lucky. But it really didn't matter much.

Just yesterday, she had watched in horror as he killed her babies. The poison spray had come, and there had been nothing she could do to save them. Their cries for help still haunted her, and she knew she would never forget the feeling of helplessness as she heard them scream in pain.

(Help us Mommy! It hurts so much!)

She had watched in horror as they staggered on the ground, their little bodies convulsing as they slowly died. Now the grieving mother was going to make him pay for murdering her babies.

She began to crawl from the corner, clinging to the ceiling. The spider paused for a second by the hook in the ceiling that his lamp hung from. She was almost directly over his head now. For a second the spider thought about just dropping into his hair and giving him a few bites right behind his ears, but then he wouldn't see the red hourglass on her belly, and she really wanted him to see it.

The black spider inched away from the protective cover of the hook ever so slowly. If he happened to look up and see her now, her plan would be ruined, and he would be able to kill her before she got her revenge.

Just as the spider got into position above his chest, he shifted in his chair. She stopped, afraid to move. He leaned forward, got up from the chair and walked into the kitchen.

While his back was turned, the spider scrambled back to the hook so he wouldn't see her. The man would never see her there unless he really looked closely, and he had no reason to be looking for her.

She watched as he opened the refrigerator and got another beer. He popped the can open, and started back to the living room. Just as the man was getting ready to sit, he paused and left the room again. He walked down the hallway out of the spider's sight. She could see the bathroom light come on. No doubt he was getting rid of all the beer he had been drinking as he watched television.

The light went out, and the spider saw him coming back down the hall. He walked over to his chair and sat down again.

The black spider waited.

After a few minutes she began to inch out from the hook again.