The Web of Arachne

[thkaal]

I ran.

I didn't know where I was going. The voice tried to be helpful, but I was so afraid I couldn't hear her half the time. The only thing I knew was that people were closing in. I felt like a fly caught in a spider's web.

Everywhere I looked, there was a strand of the web wrapped around me. My parents, the school, my permanent record, everything was a part of this great web that had me caught. I wasn't the spider.

"Not yet, you aren't," the voice on the phone said.

"How do I know I can trust you. What if this is just a bigger trap to see what I'll do so you can catch a bigger fly?"

"You have eyes that see the unseeable. This is a unique gift."

"The rotation on the W?"

"The lessons come later, for now we have to keep you safe. Turn right at the alley."

I followed instructions. It was either the voice on the phone or Rebecca-agent. Right now, Rebecca-agent scared me more than a disembodied voice.

Down the alley, I realized I hadn't seen anyone for several minutes. Almost since I left my neighborhood. I took a moment to catch my breath and hung up the phone without thinking about it. I just wanted five minutes to think for myself.

I leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground. I don't remember crying, but my face was wet, so were my hands and my arm.

When I looked up, the buildings around me seemed to rotate the way Rebecca had. But instead of becoming something else, it was as though I was looking through the untextured side of video game building. It was like parts of the world were outside of the world.

The phone rang, scaring me to screaming. Its ring was persistent, demanding my response.

"What," I screamed into the phone.

"You've been found, time to start moving again."

"How do you know this? Why are you doing this?"

"I'll tell you when the time is right. But for now, you have to go and go quickly."

Once more I was receiving instructions. Once more I was running for my life. I could hear the footsteps behind me.

The phone was at my side. I just ran. The footsteps were getting closer. The web was binding me. The spider was coming to wrap me in its threads of steel silk.

I had to be the spider. I had to own this web. I had to be the one who feasted on those who would come to my web.

I turned down an alley, barely hearing the voice telling me to turn. But this time, I turned while running forward. I twisted, shifted, turned in a way I had never turned before. The buildings around me were there but not there. I stepped into one with a hole in it.

This was my web.

This was my world.

"Where are you," came the voice from the phone. "What happened? Are you there? Miss Swanson, are you there?"

"The name, is Arachne. And I know where I am."

I did know. Though I could see it as a four dimensional construct, it was the same as a video game. I was in a video game. It's how the world is. It's just a video game.