Cringe

To make a long story short, I saw a cobweb this morning on my kitchen ceiling which eventually lead to this. This one was a bit rushed because I was trying to finish it before heading out to work. The meticulous part of me wants to rewrite it til my fingers are raw but that would defeat the purpose of calling this a freestyle

In A Tight Spot

            “Archie, get away from that!”

            “Most interesting,” said Archie as he gazed at the eight reflections of the giant spider’s eyes. Sharp cracks cut through the muggy jungle air as each spindly leg took turns lurching itself towards the ever curious prey. “Judging by the narrow form of this arachnid, I would surmise it to rely more on cunning and agility rather than the traditional means of entanglement to hunt its prey.”

            “Judging by its hungry eyes, we need to get out of here!” said Lan. He thrust his hand out to latch onto Archie’s arm and pulled him aside to run only to turn to the sight of two more spiders patiently approaching them.

            “Most curious,” noted Archie. “Arachnids are known to primarily be lone hunters lacking any form of community within its own species. In fact, some classes of this organism are notorious for its fatal mating practices.”

            The faint slivers of sunlight pierced through the umbrella of trees in the jungle forest as the gargantuan spiders edged closer towards the two young travelers. Lan could see their mouths fluttering with excitement as they drew closer. He let out a gulp. “I don’t think these spiders have mating on their minds!” He cringed closer to his companion. Was this it? After all their close calls with Alpha, this was how it was all going to end? As nourishment for the inhabitants of the Babylonian jungle?

            “Quite curious,” said Archie, “Seeing how the ratio of predator to prey is three to two and most spiders ingest through liquefied consumptions, how will the spoils be rationed?”

            Lan removed his pack from his back and swung it towards their assailants in a last ditch effort to keep them back. “How about figuring out how there will be no spoils at all?!” said Lan before one of the spiders snagged his pack away from him with its fangs and shredded it apart with its two protruding fangs like paper.

            Suddenly, a high frequency buzz emanated throughout the jungle, causing the spider with the remainder of Lan’s bag to cease its oral rampage. The eight legged behemoths turned to face the same direction and stood there losing all interested in Archie and Lan.

            “Auditory signaling? This is indeed most interesting!” said Archie.

            Lan grabbed Archie’s arm. “Whatever it is, its giving us a window to escape!” He pulled his friend to head to the opposite direction of the spiders were facing only to have one of them cut off from its supposed trance to scurry over to block them from their escape with a hiss that raised every hair on Lan’s body. Before they could react, the spider spun around with its abdomen pointing right at Lan.

            “I was wondering if these arachnids possessed that particular function,” said Archie.

            “What?” Lan turned his attention to his friend. “What are you blabbering about now?!”

            Lan’s answer was clear, translucent to be more precise. A thick stream of webbing jettisoned out of the spider’s abdomen with such force that it knocked Lan to the ground. With the webbing still attached to both of them, the spider grabbed hold of him with its two front legs as the two back legs threaded out more webbing from its abdomen.

            “Fascinating,” breathed Archie. He watched the spider feed more of the silken fiber onto Lan as it wove it around him with the precision and expertise of a seasoned craftsman until his whole body was wound tight like a cocoon save for his head. When it was done, the spider returned to its previous position and continued to face the same direction.

            “Just kill me now,” sighed Lan.

            The buzzing came to a stop. “That,” said a deep voice, “depends on why you’re in our forest.”

            Lan struggled to look as he wiggled his body to behold a sight that left both of them in awe. The spiders moved back to make room for a man dressed similar to Lan and Archie. He patted one of the spiders on its head as he walked past them, heading towards the two confused travelers.

            “Care to explain?”

First Person Freestyle Writing

It's been a while since I have used this blog and I am doing my best to make time to write more. I spent a day writing this. I normally write in third person so I decided to try out first person to see how it would feel. Any comments/critique is greatly appreciated.

Unfinished Business

            Dio wasn’t giving me anything. No surprise there, hermits and recluses aren’t primarily known for their charity. You’d think something as immaterial as a few answered questions would be pretty easy to fulfill. But he just sat there, leaning back in his finely finished wooden rocking chair on his equally finely finished wooden deck with his legs kicked up on the railing and his hands interlaced behind his head. I sat there in a regular chair, not a rocking one, on the other side of his deck squirming to find a comfortable position. This must have been his way of dealing with unwanted guests. That would have explained the worn out knots protruding from the middle of the seat. 

            I eventually gave in and stood up to gaze into the open mountain meadow to take a break from the situation. The rustling of the long rooted trees and tall grass distracted me from my lethargic host, providing me with a show of luscious branches dancing in the crisp summer wind, swaying left and right with the finesse of a well choreographed piece.

            “Nice isn’t it,” he interrupted.

            I looked back to see him in peering at me through creased eyelids. “Don’t tell me this is why you left,” I said with as much sarcasm I could muster.

            “Nah,” he shrugged with a smile, “But it sure is a nice perk.”

            “Then why?”

            Dio let out a sigh. “This again,” he said as he leaned back even further. I wanted to grab his legs and push his chair down to the floor. I knew that he knew why I was here, hell my very existence was one of the reasons why he left in the first place. “Let me save us the time and trouble with a simple answer; I’m not going back.”

            After all the bush beating and trivial “How do you do’s”, a part of me wanted to just pick up my travel pack and leave while convincing myself that I tried, that we didn’t need someone that so easily turned his back on the Collective so many years ago. But unfortunately for both of us, I was too stubborn with an answer like that. “That’s that?! You haven’t even bothered asking how everyone is doing and you already made your decision? You don’t even know what is going on out there, why I’m here, or why they thought it would be a brilliant idea to send me, a nineteen year old, of all people to ask you to stop hiding?!”

            “Hiding?!” he shot to his feet as soon as they left the railing. “Who said anything about hiding?!”

            Pride is a funny thing to mess with. “Your actions speak for themselves.”

            “Watch it boy,” he loomed over me. “My actions are of what Czarnian mothers warned their children about to keep them from misbehaving.”

            No matter how much I backed away, he kept getting closer.

            “Justifiable causes and the greater good doesn’t really do much good for your conscience when it’s your hands that have to get bloodied.”

            Maybe that was the wrong button to push. I was getting pushed backed even farther.

            “Hiding?!” He chuckled. “No matter where I go, how far I try to get away from this war, their screaming innocent faces will always find me whenever I close my eyes.”

            I toppled over the railing behind me rolled into the grass. When I finally recovered, I looked up to see Dio standing over me with such agony that bled from his own words.

            “Why am I here?” he asked. “Because out there I’m a weapon, a sword meant to cleave and spill blood for reasons muddled in shades of grey. I don’t care what righteous cause or good fight you want me to be a part of.” He looked down at his opened hands then said, “Blood stains all the same,” before walking back into his cabin.

            I laid there in the grass for who knows how long, contemplating what Dio said just a moment ago. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought. Not only did I have to convince him to rejoin the collective, now I had to also convince myself as well.