The Spider

Things like this always happen to me…  

  “You have to do this, Ivy, no excuses,” the teacher said, steel in her shrill, cold voice.

“Okay,” I replied without much emotion. What else could I have said? 

The teacher’s ice, cold expression suddenly melted into warm sympathy. “I know you don’t enjoy tutoring, but Luna really needs it. She’s on the verge of failing half her classes. So is the new student, Liliana… and you might like her.”

I doubt I will, I think.

That’s how I ended up in a classroom with Luna, who I knew liked to be annoying on purpose in order to… actually I didn’t know why. There was also a girl who I’ve never seen in my life standing in the corner of the room, her head turned downwards timidly.  I should have been at home, taking an afternoon nap, watching television, and eating chips.

“Alright Luna, what do you have for your math homework?” I asked, trying to maintain a cheerful voice, but hopelessness crept in. “And you?” I looked at the new girl who was clearly struggling  on her math sheet.

“Oh! I have this sheet on negative numbers. I’m Liliana by the way. I moved here from Georgia last week,” the new student suddenly chirped. I guessed that I could deal with her… well enough.

“I like turtles,” Luna was chewing on a pencil she had found on the floor while absentmindedly twirling a lock of her wispy yellow hair that had escaped her lopsided ponytail. 

“Turtles, huh,” I muttered for no particular reason. This was going to be a long hour.

The obnoxiously bright, fluorescent lights on the ceiling dimmed, and rain started pounding on the one crusty, cobwebbed window in the room like clear bullets. I winced at every tick of the clock on the wall, and every tap of Luna’s grimy fingernails against the hard, gray plastic of her desk. It might have been my imagination, but I heard a sound that was like nails on a chalkboard, followed by quiet, quick little clicking noises.

“Excuse me?” Liliana pulled out a blue mechanical pencil. “Ivy, was it? Can you help me with this?” 

I immediately snapped out of my daze. I moved closer so that I could take a closer look at her homework. I almost thought I saw a little bug-like thing skitter across the paper, but when I blinked, it disappeared. When I finished helping Liliana with her homework, I turned to Luna, who was staring into the rain, a distant look in her eyes. I felt sorry for the pencil she was chewing on. “Did you do any work at all in the past ten minutes?” I asked through gritted teeth. I looked at her paper… it remained blank. Liliana began to lean back onto her chair. “Careful,” I warned when she reached dangerously close to the tiles.

I sighed and started fidgeting with the pendant on my necklace. It was a luminous, light blue marble. I’d had it since I was little, and I thought it would make a pretty necklace. So, I borrowed one of my father’s drills and poked a small hole through it and strung it on a long, silver chain. Suddenly, a sound ripped through the air, making my ears ring. Liliana had fallen backwards onto the cool tiled floor and she had let out a small shriek.

“Ivy? Is that marble thing yours?” I looked down and saw my pendant rolling over a sea of white squares and into the ajar door of the classroom’s storage closet. It probably had fallen off its chain when I was fidgeting with it. I scrambled to the closet and felt around the floor for the pendant. When I tried to flick on the light, it didn’t work. Surprisingly, the two others started to help me search for my lost marble. I was so distracted while feeling the icy floor that I didn’t hear the door slowly fall closed, or the off-key whistling. I heard the pounding beat of music outside the door, and I reached to open it, however the lock was jammed. I pulled on the door knob, shaking  it with all my might. It was stuck tight.  I knew who was here—the one janitor who always listened to music at full volume through enormous headphones, which couldn’t be healthy for his hearing. To make matters worse, the lock of the door clicked shut.

“Uh guys, we may have a… situation,” I spoke, trying to remain calm. 

“We’re locked in!” Luna exclaimed, a big smile spread across her face. Liliana immediately burst into tears, banging on the door and screaming for help.

“That janitor will never hear you. Don’t waste your energy,” I said as I watched her outline in the darkness curl into a ball and rock back and forth, sobbing.

“We can tell our secrets in the dark now! Won’t that be fun?” Luna made her voice spooky as she said this, giggling after she did.

“No, don’t worry, that won’t be necessary,” I reassured. If we don’t get saved, I don’t want to hear anything that Luna has to say.

“So! I’ll go first!”

“Really, Luna, you don’t have to—” I was cut off.

“Once, when I was little, I found these chips. And I’ve been-”

“Okay, Okay, we get the idea now please, just please-” I didn’t finish because I knew she wouldn’t listen.

 I sat down on the cold floor, my hand bumping into something smooth and round. It was my pendant. I clipped it back onto its chain—though it took a few tries in the dark—and sighed, probably for the fiftieth time today. 

At least I have this back, I thought. Liliana pounced on the heavy metal door, and banged the door as hard as she could.  But… it was no use anyhow.

I heard Luna flop onto the floor with a heavy thud, which echoed through the walls of the closet. “Ow!” She yelped, “That hurt!” 

“I just love my life right now,” I drawled as I rolled my eyes, though there was no point because in the heavy blanket of darkness, no one could see.

“D-do you t-think anyone will c-come?” Liliana stuttered. “It’s hard to find my happy space in the dark.” A ghostly moan echoed through the closet, followed by the sound of tiny legs shifting. It was probably my imagination. As I wondered what Liliana’s “happy space” looked like, I slumped over, my stomach growling. My backpack still sat in the classroom, and inside it was a bag of chips I was saving for later. I had deposited the bag there months ago, and when I remembered it was there, it was so stale that I didn’t bother to eat it. I longed and urged for them now.

“Does anyone have food? The edible kind?” I asked. No one spoke, but a slight shift in the obsidian air before me let me know that they had shook their heads “ no.” 

“We should tell scary stories!” Luna offered. 

“No…” Liliana protested weakly. My brain and eyes spun in circles inside my skull as I peeked under the door, a tiny black spider crawled across the tiles and under the door. 

“Spider!” I shrieked as I swatted my hands. I may or may have not had extreme arachnophobia. “Are you scared of spiders?” Lilliana asked. “And I thought I was scared of everything…” She knelt down and patted the small dark figure with the tip of her index finger. “Spiders are so cute!” The spider scuttered in a circle before crawling quickly back out under the door. Squeak…

“Guys… do you see that or is this some kind of closet mirage?” Luna had suddenly started to say in a serious tone–probably for the first time since I’ve known her.

“No. I see that as well,” I replied, unbelieving. This was a bit concerning coming from me.

“We’re saved!” Lilliana hopped to her feet with a big grin, but when I looked at the open closet door, I saw no one on the other side.

“Hello? Who opened the door?” I asked, but was only answered by the creak, creak, creak of the door flapping back and forth. A tiny black shape crept from the corner… It was strangely familiar.

Me, a small voice answered in a whisper…