Chapter 4: Thursday

The closest hotel was not far from the dormitories, but the walk was long, for Sasha it felt as though time was frozen and she was moving through the deserted streets of the city in slow motion. Her feet ached, she had been out all day and in heels all night, her head hurt as well, she had drank more than she planned at the bar and had barely begun to sleep it off when the nightmare pulled her out of sleep and out of bed. She was still in the dress she had worn out; it was uncomfortable and did little to shelter her from the overnight chill that hung in the air.

After an unnaturally long walk she arrived at the hotel, relieved to have made it and even more relieved that she had managed to grab her purse on her way out the door. The lobby was empty apart from the one attendant manning the front desk, Sasha hesitantly approached him, she was aware of her dishevelled look and tried her best to make a good impression on the attendant. Sasha could hear the tremble and uneasiness in her voice as she spoke, she tried her best to hide it but could not. The man behind the desk seemed both concerned and judgemental in the way he looked at her, it was an awkward exchange, but Sasha managed to book herself a room. As she walked away from the desk to the elevators she prayed that there would be enough money in her account to keep the room until David returned from his trip, she could not go back to that dorm.

Her room was high up, higher than she had expected to get on such a budget; the twenty third floor. The room was simple, but comfortable and with everything one would need. The alarm clock on the bedside table read three am, Sasha was exhausted, but could not bring herself to sleep. Sasha was uncomfortable and even though she was on the edge of exhaustion would not allow herself to sit down or relax. Sasha never had experiences with the spiders outside of the dorm, but this nightmare had freaked her out and try as she did she could not escape the feeling that she was being watched by them still. She spent the next two hours meticulously examining the room, looking for any signs of spiders, but she could not find any, the room was safe.

Sasha liked being up high, she knew there was no logic in it but she felt as though being up high would make it harder for spiders to get into the room, it may have been a false sense of safety, but it was a sense of safety nonetheless. Sasha liked the height until she realized how clearly you could see the hills surrounding Arbor from here, the hills in her dream seemed to be the same ones that surrounded the city. Morbid fascination took over her as she attempted to see if she could find the exact hill that she had been on in her dream, she couldn't spot the exact location, not in the dark and not from this distance. She could not find the hill, but the longer she looked the more certain she became that the city she had looked down upon was in fact Arbor and the cave she was trapped in was up in those hills somewhere.

Sasha did not go back to sleep that night, she turned on every light source she could in the room and put the volume up as loud as she could on the TV without receiving a complaint from other guests. She was afraid to go back to sleep and attempted everything she could think of to avoid it, pacing the room periodically and chugging cans of soda and eating chocolate bars from the mini bar to give herself that sugar and caffeine hit she needed to remain cognizant.

As daylight broke, the lights and TV remained on and Sasha remained awake. She wanted to go downstairs to the hotel's business centre and use one of the computers and contact her parents or David. She also wanted to do some research on her dream, she was convinced there was something more to it than simply being a nightmare, it had all felt so real. But Sasha could not will herself off the couch, an intense stabbing aching pain radiating from the bite on her thigh  had come along with the rising of the sun. She felt unwell and unprepared to face other people. She could still feel the furry arched legs crawling slowly down her inner thighs and periodically jolted up from the bed to check and make sure no spiders were crawling over her, the sudden jerking motion only aggravated the abdominal pain.

She stayed awake all day and well into the night, never once leaving the perceived safety of the hotel room. Sasha was sleep deprived, her left eye begun to twitch, and a headache added to the list of pains she was feeling. The clock reached one am before Sasha's body succumbed to its desire for rest, she nodded off and visions appeared before her once again.

She found herself engulfed in darkness, the echo from her breathing told her that she was back inside the cave from the night before, that cave of twisted ungodly creations. She sat frozen for a moment as movement began emanating from her enlarged belly, she gripped it instinctually, trying her best to prevent herself from having a panic attack. Sasha knew there was light to be created, the supplies to strike a fire were all round her, but she was unsure if she should strike it. While it remained dark, she could at least attempt to convince herself that she was alone, fire would reveal the truth.

Gazing out beyond the cave's entrance the slight radiance from the city below beckoned her to her feet. "The hotel." She thought.

Slowly she urged herself forwards, towards the distant city lights, the pitter-patter of hundreds of twisted legs tapping against the rock that surrounded her filled her ears, but still she continued forward, trying her best not to acknowledge it.

Going as close to the exit as she dared, she peered down on the sleeping city below, her eyes raced across the skyline, searching for her hotel. That was when she saw it, on the left edge of the city stood the very hotel she was staying in, her window illuminated by light, just as she had left it before falling asleep. "No... It's a coincidence. This is just my subconscious. It's a dream. It's a dream. It's a..."

Rumblings from out beyond the cave filled the air and soft, rising chants of malicious worship rained down on her. One by one giant fur covered arachnid legs pushed into the cave, brushing past Sasha, and firmly planted themselves in the dirt. It was too dark to see any details, but the unnatural colouring of the large arachnid's body was so much darker than the night itself that the creatures silhouette could be made out clearly. As the legs continued to move around her, the luminous green stripe along the abdomen hovered just above her head.

Pain gripped her and the contractions started once again, as did the screams. She felt the swarm burst forth from her once more before suddenly jolting awake and finding herself back in the well-lit comfort of the hotel bed. 

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