Chapter 2 - “The Birth of Squirm”

The ghostly corpse rolled freely in the back of the hearse, bumping into the sides of the wall and other boxes that were carelessly stored in the back. Beneath it was a large and empty casket that would be used tomorrow to forever contain the flesh and bones, eventually all bones, of an elderly man to be laid in his final resting place. Uncle was presiding over the service, a stranger to the family but the source of comfort and strength during their dark and vulnerable time. He’d place the casket on a stand, opened for all the guests to have one final look of a man they would only barely recognize, shriveled and gaunt in places where there was once a full smile. Then Uncle would repeat some words from their religious texts and slowly lay the body down in the hole opened deep into the soil.

But for now, the dead man’s velvet palace was just a box in the back of an old car with an ensnared vessel of a past-dead creature clunking on its roof. Arath looked into the back a few times throughout their drive to refresh his confidence that there was no exit for the beast that was inside. There was probably a proper term in some paranormal educational textbook that defined what exactly this creature could be classified as but for now, Arath and Uncle only referred to them as ghosts. This was the eighth ghost that the two had dealt with so far, all unintentional and more burdensome than exciting for Arath especially. He had never asked for the life that he was living and while others would kill for the chance at seeing these supernatural apparitions, he was not a fan despite having the proper tools to deal with them without worry or fear of succumbing to a nightmarish end.

The spiders were the least of his concerns. Arath was once outgoing, spending everyday with different friends as they would ride bikes throughout the city, deposit bags of coins at the arcade and play in short-lived bands. Over the last five or so years during the transition from the end of high school to the last year of his time in college, Arath had not been able to maintain these friendships for a number of reasons but mostly simply put, the result of time moving forward and life taking people to places where they had to go. Another school, another city or another job, one by one until he was the only one left. He hadn’t formed any life-changing friendships since starting college, just casual acquaintances to pass the time, learning their name and no more than two or three interesting facts about each other. Now, Arath had the spiders to keep him entertained. Though they were attached to him in a way that most people would only wish on their most hated enemy, they counted as company and would fill the room with life, dulling any aching silence that had cursed the young man before. Friends. Eight-legged, demonic and otherworldly friends.

The part of the curse that annoyed Arath a great deal was that the spiders attracted beings that were typically beyond human perception. His once quiet stay in his Grandma’s house would occasionally be interrupted by a vengeful passerby that he had no connection to, yet they called for his blood and soul nonetheless. Every time, he’d remove his hand from his pocket and the spiders were beyond quick to recognize the danger, weaving a powerful tomb that would subdue them quietly and permanently. They didn’t act as an extension of his body directly but somehow they listened to him, without words or instructions, as if the synapses in his brain were firing off their signal to them as well. He could only watch and try to learn from them as they were in action. Only through talking with his Uncle did they begin to put some theories together.

Uncle was the perfect person for Arath to share this information with as he was the only one who was standing with his nephew as the curse became reality in a stoneladen room inside a tribal temple with a ‘Do Not Enter’ post clearly at the entrance.

Back then, they had traveled outside of the city to a nearby countryside town with a history of indigenous civilization. Trophies of monumental achievements, centuries old at this point, were spaced out among the provinces in their ruined state. At this point there were more fragments scattered and difficult to find but a few temples remained put together despite all the years of weathering and erosion. This particular location that the two had traveled to was probably the most famous of all,  much larger than modern churches, with tall and wide stone blocks that built the foundation in a rectangular shape. No one was allowed inside the building itself but they could walk the steps to the top and see the many shrines that were on the outside on various levels. Each floor decreased in size until the summit, where it peaked like a pyramid but with a glass ornament that allowed the sun to send its light inside to dance along the mysterious, ancient ritual rooms.

Arath and his Uncle stopped by many of the shrines and took a few pictures on a disposable camera, still making photo albums the old-fashioned way. They explored attractions such as this more like explorers rather than tourists, trying to find the answers themselves to any curiosities that came to mind.

Alongside one of the shrines that appeared more broken down than the others, Arath and his Uncle noticed a tiny walkway that extended to the inside. No one was around to deny them access but they knew it was off limits like the rest of the rooms. It was only a few steps to get inside and appeared to be a balcony that provided a better vantage point for the overall room.

They carefully kneeled and ducked their way in, carving their way around the glacially collapsing stone structures, making sure as to not create any noise or break any of the ancient columns. The sun shone through the top and bounced around on mirrors then dimly lit the inside. It looked like the indigenous ancients that erected the temple had a deep understanding of geometry. Triangles of light showed the earthly skeleton but nothing more. There were empty stone clips on the wall that appeared to be holders for torches but alas Arath and his Uncle were torchless. Except for a lighter his Uncle had in his pocket. They thought twice about and decided they would light it just to see if anything else could possibly be seen on the balcony they stood on.

Uncle flicked his lighter to life and disappointingly, nothing more about the temple revealed itself. A few moths flew over to see the flame and a frog hopped right behind them, making a loud, wet thud, looking for food amongst the hovering insects. The frog stared at both of them but the two men didn’t scream or make any big sudden movements, just looked at each other with relief that the amphibian was the only one that had discovered them.

They expected the frog to sling its tongue outside of its mouth and onto one of the moths but it remained shut with cheeks bulging, like something was trapped in the back of his throat. Arath reached out and grabbed the frog to see what he might be able to do to help. It was girthy and large, and didn’t put up a fight to run away when grabbed by this human. Arath stared at the frog and examined to see what might have been making it so puffy and strange. He gave its belly a small squeeze and its mouth opened, showing that the frog was fully stuffed with an assortment of shiny objects. Arath held the frog upside down and began squeezing to eject all the misplaced treasures onto the stone floor. The frog shrunk with size as its financial future was now in jeopardy.

Arath and his uncle were shocked to see just how many coins, about 45 or so, had been in the frog this whole time. Could it have eaten them one at a time and realized too late that they weren’t going down? Or did someone use the frog as a purse and it hopped away? Whatever the case was, the frog, now empty, was eager to hop away and return to where it came from. Arath and his Uncle surveyed the area outside to see if anyone was running towards them after hearing the clanging of the coins as they fell to the floor but the coast was clear.

They both looked at each other and uncle nodded with his eyebrows raising, suggesting that they had found a worthy souvenir. They picked the coins up one by one and placed them in their pockets, knowing they’d share whatever the find was once they talked about it later. After their pockets were stuffed, they quickly made their way back to the outdoor portion of the shrine and began to walk back to the stairs.

There was no point in risking their find by exploring more of the temple so they hurriedly strolled back to their ride. Before they reached the truck, Arath’s pocket had begun to tighten and it felt like several threads of his pants had begun to tangle themselves around his hand. He tried to pull away but it only got tighter, he looked at his uncle with a sense of urgency.

“Hey uncle, I can’t take my hand out of my pocket. Something’s holding it inside,” said Arath.

“Huh? Did you grab a snake or something” Replied his uncle.

“No way. Come on, it’s starting to pull my hand in deeper.”

“Come on Arath, stop kidding around. Here let me see what’s going on here.”

Uncle at first tried to grab Arath by the arm and pull his hand out but he saw that his nephew wasn’t playing a prank, it was really stuck in there.

Uncle stuck his hand in Arath’s pocket to see what was binding him to his denim and was met with several insects that quickly bit his hand and began to crawl out of the pocket and onto his arm.

“Arath! It’s damn spiders! Pull out before they bite you too. Son of a gun that hurts.” Yelled uncle.

“What?! But nothing’s biting me. I can feel the crawling on my hand but no pain yet.”

“Look at my hand! You see those bite marks right? Let me squash them, they must have bitten your hand or something and made it numb.”

Uncle began to swat, punch and kick Arath’s hand in his pocket and tried again to pull his nephew's arm out of the pocket.

“Uncle stop! I can feel everything. It’s not budging!”Arath said with uneasiness finally reaching his voice.

Arath began to move and wiggle his fingers around to see how many spiders were actually in there and to see how they could possibly be holding his hand down. There were countless arachnids amongst the coins and they’d build a silky prison that might as well have been steel threads. One of the coins jingling in his pocket felt vastly different than the others. It felt almost hot to touch and the moment he touched it, it felt like his eyes blinked but he hadn’t blinked at all. Grazing the coin with his fingers was blacking out his vision each time.

The two men were already near the truck and uncle decided to pick Arath up and run for it. They were either going to get in trouble for stealing from the temple or Arath was going to die from some strange species of spider.

They arrived at the truck and uncle was going to take Arath to the hospital. They would have to worry about the bigger trouble they might be in if it came to that but he only cared about saving his nephew at that moment. Arath said next to him, contemplating what he might be able to do in the meantime. The spiders were not biting him after all.

“Don’t worry kid, we’re going straight to the emergency room. Surely they’ll have some type of anti-venom for ya. Damn, I'm starting to feel a little sleepy too. I think these bites are starting to knock me out.” His uncle said, eyes starting to slowly droop down.

Arath could drive them if he could get his hand free and help his uncle move over. He started to forcefully shake his hand around and pulled as hard as he could. In the struggle, the warm coins slipped into his palm and Arath felt compelled to squeeze it with all his might. In an instant, his vision turned to black.

He was not unconscious. His senses were working fine and were picking up all kinds of strange signals. He heard a rustling noise all around him that only got louder the more he paid attention to it. His eyes darted around where he was and tried to make out any shapes but only hill-shaped silhouettes appeared in the distant horizon.

He was unable to yell or call out to anyone. Even opening his mouth to breathe was impossible. The light must have slowly trickled into his eyes and he could now see the hills were vibrating and moving. He looked down to where his feet should be and the ground was squirming and moving in strange patterns. It wasn’t grass swaying in the wind or water washing onto a beach. It was spiders. Everything, everywhere, was spiders, as far as his eyes could see.

This was the first vision Arath had into their world.