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Isolated

By: bassbelly



Grayson loved the Canadian wilderness. He lived in a small cabin on the south end of Princess Royal Island. Summers were cool and clear. Winters could be a little rough but living right on the sound, the water pretty much kept the air warmer. Salmon were plentiful and easy to catch from his kayak. When he needed meat, the forest abounded with venison, partridge and elk. His cabin was very difficult to find unless you were looking for it and nobody was because nobody knew he was there. He hadn't had a visitor in fifteen years. He would kayak up the inlet to Butedale sometimes to buy salt, fishing gear and medical supplies. 

He heard the floatplane long before he saw it. It was near the water trailing smoke. He paddled toward where he thought the crash site would be. The Cessna was ablaze as it cartwheeled into the sound two hundred yards from his kayak. A body was hurled from it as it hit the water. He paddled rapidly toward the plane as it sank. There was one life jacket among the debris. As he closed on it, he saw a blonde head bobbing on the waves. It was a girl about thirty or forty years old. He didn't see anyone else and assumed that any others went down with the plane.

He yanked the girl across his kayak and paddled back to his cabin. Throwing her over his shoulder he took her into the cabin. She was knocked out, cold and wet. He took her clothes off, dried her, wrapped her in a blanket and laid her gently by the fire.

By the time the coffee was hot the girl was stirring. She woke up screaming and trembling. He sat in front of her and watched while she opened her eyes and looked around. She stopped screaming when see saw him sitting there.

"Where am I?" she mumbled.

"You are in my cabin on Laredo Sound in British Columbia." He answered.

"How did I get here?"

"Your airplane crashed. Were you the pilot?"

"No, I hired a pilot to fly me to Sitka. My old man got mean so I divorced his ass and he got meaner so I blew out of Seattle to go somewhere he couldn't find me."

"Well this must be the place. Nobody on earth knows we're here."

"Where are my clothes?"

"They're drying by the fire."

"How did they get by the fire?"

"Well, you were completely soaked and icy cold. I took them off and wrapped you in that blanket so you wouldn't die of hypothermia."

"Thanks. So I guess you've seen all of me then."

"Yeah, pretty much. I didn't do a close examination, but you appear to have all the equipment."

"You mean you didn't feel me up or anything?"

"No maam. You were dying from hypothermia. I had to get you warm in a hurry."

"This floor is hard. Can I sit by you on those cushions?"

"Sure."

She dropped her blanket and settled next to him on the cushions.

"Don't you want something to cover up with?"

"What's the point? You've already seen what I've got. Also, I'm not really a modesty freak."

She snuggled up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. She was trembling and shaking.

"Are you still cold?" he asked.

"No, I'm still scared. One minute we were flying right along and the next there was fire everywhere. I was choking on the smoke and then we hit the water. I don't remember anything after that. Then I woke up here. I'm still a little unsteady but I'll get over it. Just let me rest against you for a while."

Soon he heard her snoring softly on his shoulder so he put his arm around her and gave her a little hug. She smiled in her sleep. That poor girl must be completely confused, he thought. He pulled her closer and took a nap. He woke up when he felt her stir. 

"You still didn't feel me up, did you?" she said.

"No maam, I don't even know your name. I'm not in the habit of feeling up strangers."

"Well, my name is Kitty Barns. Who are you?"

"My name is Grayson McClain," he smiled.

"I guess you're a gentleman. Nobody is going to believe this!" she exclaimed.

"Believe what?" he asked.

"They're not going to believe that I was naked in a cabin isolated from the world with a big, strong man and he didn't trying to do anything to me. Maybe I'm too ugly," she complained.

"No maam! You are a very pretty woman. It's just that I've been out of touch for so long that I'm not too sure about what to do."

"I'm hungry," she said, quickly changing the subject.

"I've got some grouse that I was going to fry. Would you like to share them with me?"

"What's a grouse?"

"It's a bird from the forest. Like a chicken. Do you want some?"

"I'll try anything once. Okay."

He fried two grouse and opened a can of pork and beans. 

"I hope you like them," he said as he served one of the grouse to her.

"They do look like chicken. Mmm. They taste better than chicken. I could eat the whole flock!"

She happily munched away on her grouse. When she finished she smiled at him and took his hand. She was still nude.

"Let's see if your clothes are dry," he suggested.

"I was just getting used to being naked. I don't bother you, do I?" she coyly asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes maam, you do. I'm not used to females, especially young, pretty naked ones. It makes me have strange feelings."

"Well, if it makes you nervous," she giggled as she slipped into her underwear.

"The shoes will take longer to dry," he told her.

"That's okay. I'm not going anywhere."

It was getting late. The sun was setting over the sound. She spotted a couple of whales as they frolicked in the water. This place must be the most beautiful spot on earth, she thought.

She looked around the cabin. There was only one bed.

"Where do I sleep?" she asked him.

"Well, you've got two choices. You can sleep on the floor by the fire or you can sleep with me. Be forewarned, I sleep in the raw."

"That's an easy choice. I'll sleep with you. After all, you've seen all of me. It's only right that I get to see all of you."

She took her clothes off again and got into bed. He stripped and followed her. She got a good look at his equipment before he slid under the blanket. Not bad, she thought. 

He awoke early in the morning. She had an arm and a leg across him and she was breathing deeply. She moaned in her sleep and rubbed his nipples. He could feel her naked body pressed into his back. To tell the truth, it felt really good. Her leg rubbed on him as she slept, so peaceful, so trusting, in his bed.

Suddenly she jerked her arm and leg back.

"Oh god I'm so sorry! It must have happened in my sleep," she moaned.

"Don't worry about it," he said, "I liked it."

They got dressed and he prepared breakfast for them. As they ate he smiled at her and she smiled back as if they were sharing some secret. 

Two weeks later she was still there. She hadn't asked to leave and he liked having her around. He still had not touched her, but every night she wrapped herself around him.

"Have you decided when you want to go back to civilization?" he asked one evening.

She sighed heavily. "I guess that I can leave any time you want me to," she answered.

"What would you say if I told you I don't want you to go?"

"I wanted to hear that more than anything in the world!" she squealed.

They were ready for bed and already nude. He took her into his arms and hugged her tightly. She kissed him like a lover and looked into his eyes.

"I've been holding your cock while you slept for the last two weeks," she confessed.

"Yeah, I know. I just loved it. Now you'll get to hold it in a different way."

They edged toward the bed. He smiled as they sat on the edge of the bed where they had lain together so often. Her hand sought his cock and she gently began to jack it. He gently squeezed her breast. They shared another kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth and she sucked on it and rubbed it with her own.

"I haven't done this in a long, long time," he whispered as they lay down.

"It's been a while for me too," she panted.

Grayson kissed her breasts and sucked on her nipples. She moaned in delight at the unexpected treat. Her husband hadn't done that to her. He was just a hop on, hop off type. For him it hadn't been anything other than an expected chore while she always yearned for something more. She wondered if Grayson would eat her. Her wondering came to an end as he slid down her body leaving a wet little tongue print and kissed her mound. The aroma was driving him insane with lust. 

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed as his tongue licked the length of her pussy. "Oh God Grayson, don't stop!"

She had never felt anything like this before. She cursed her ex husband for being such a sexless rat. Her hips involuntarily twitched as he dug deeper into her. His lips wrapped around her clit. His tongue rubbed it gently. She thought she would die. She almost peed. Kitty was now completely lost in a blizzard of lust. Suddenly she was overwhelmed by an enormous climax.

She screamed, "Aaaaaahhhh! Don't stop please don't stop!"

Grayson had no intention of stopping. He was getting to try all the things he had read about. She tasted so good, he thought he might give up grouse altogether. He lapped up her juices like a starving puppy. She pulled his head out of her pussy and dragged him into position.

"Now, lover boy, do me now!" she implored.

Grayson's cock entered unfamiliar territory. It was so tight, so slick, so hot! He vaguely remembered his first time from long ago. His hips started the rhythm of copulation. She was moaning and her head was flopping. He sank his lips into her neck and sucked hard.

""Yea! Yes!" she shouted.

She could feel his dick driving into her, claiming her center, taking her sex. She felt him getting erratic and she knew he was going to climax. She clamped her pussy down on his dick as hard as she could. He shot fifteen years worth of cum into her quivering quim. Her juice mingled with his. It was sloppy. It was messy. It was wonderful!

"I never knew it could be like this," he gasped.

"I didn't either," she whispered. "There are many parts of sex I have never tried. When you get hard again, I'm gonna suck you off."

"If it's any better than what we just did, you'll have to bury me!" he said.

They lay in a lover's embrace. A wolf howled in the distance. She smiled. She was happier than she had ever been. She knew she never wanted to leave.

"How long can I stay with you?" she asked.

"As long as you want. I always felt there was something missing from my life and now I know what it was. It was you! I couldn't let you go even if you wanted to."

"You mean I would have been held captive?"

"Yeah! I can't give you up. I think I've fallen in love with you."

"I know I've fallen for you. I wouldn't have let you take me back. I'm staying and that's it, period."

"What about your people down south?"

"They think I'm dead. Why disappoint them? There isn't a chance in hell they could find me. We're isolated," she said as she curled into his arms.

Isolated



We went on a holiday up into the mountains. When I say we I don't mean just my family, because we'd teamed up with some friends and there were the two families combined. I quite enjoy holidaying in the mountains. I like hiking and there are some good nature trails near the holiday home we were renting. The down side was that it was rather an isolated spot, miles from anywhere.

About halfway through our holiday the parents (both sets) decided to run down to the shops. Personally I wasn't interested in going and Maree and I prevailed on them to let us remain behind. We're both eighteen, I pointed out. Adults really. We'll be fine, especially if you're taking the younger kids with you.

The parent um'ed and ah'ed for a short while, but as both Maree and me indicated that there might be a sudden reversion to grumpy, hard-done-by, teenage angst if we were dragged along, they agreed we could remain behind. They were only going to be a few hours, anyway.

So they set off and Maree and I just bummed around the place, doing nothing in particular and liking it fine. Then the weather started to close in on us.

When I say started, one moment we were under a bright blue sky, the next there were fluffy white clouds piling up, followed by these big black things which I assumed were clouds. There was a flash, a bang of thunder, two screams and Maree and I were inside before the rain hit the ground.

Middle of the afternoon and so dark you'd think it was night-time, and the rain was pouring down. I quite enjoy watching the rain, but this was the first time I'd experienced a storm so personal, you might say. We were way up in the mountains and I'm quite sure half the clouds were actually below us.

Maree was as nervous as a cat, jumping with every clap of thunder, which meant that she was doing a lot of jumping. The thunder almost made me overlook the banging on the front door. When I realised what it was I rushed to open it, cursing my father for driving home in this.

It wasn't the family. It was a couple of drowned rats. Actually, that's a little unkind. It was a couple of men, who were probably nice looking when dry, aged, I'd say, in their mid-twenties. They were both wearing suits and were so wet that I could have left them outside without worrying that they'd get wetter. They were saturated - hence the drowned rats appellation.

Being a polite young lady I invited them in out of the rain. They came in quite gratefully, shivering slightly. Their car had skidded off the road. They'd have stayed in the car, but saw the lights of our house and figured that they'd be a lot safer inside. They'd appreciate a chance to dry off and wait out the storm.

For some reason Maree was carrying on like a two-bob watch, flapping her hands and shaking her head. I ignored her. I didn't know what her problem was but I couldn't really kick the guys back outside. I told them to just wait in the hallway for a moment and I'd be right back.

I went and raided my father's stuff, grabbing his dressing gown, then did the same with Maree's father. I brought them back and gave the gowns to the men.

"If you care to use the bathroom you can dry off and put these on. We still have power, so just dump your clothes outside the bathroom door and I'll toss them all in the drier."

The men thanked me and almost bolted into the bathroom. I imagine a hot shower was uppermost on their minds. As soon as the door closed behind them, Maree rounded on me.

"Are you out of your mind?" she nearly screamed. "We're alone here and you've invited two strangers in. They'll rape us. We'll be brutalised. And it will all be your fault."

And I think she genuinely believed it.

"Relax," I said, trying to calm her. "If they'd meant harm they could have jumped us as soon as they walked in the house. And if they really mean harm, what makes you think they wouldn't have broken in anyway? They're just a couple of travellers stuck in the storm. As soon as the weather eases off they'll be gone."

With that I went and grabbed the clothes outside the bathroom and tossed them in the washing machine spin cycle to get rid of the bulk of the water. In a few minutes I would toss them in the drier.

I put the kettle on to make some coffee and went back to Maree. She was almost having kittens. I've never seen her like this. I mean, really, what on earth did she think was going to happen? Both the men had seemed perfectly normal and respectable but she was acting as if I'd invited in Jack the Ripper and Mr Hyde.

The men came out in the dressing gowns and we all went into the kitchen to have coffee. Maree's eyes had almost popped when she realised that the men were only wearing the dressing gowns, and I'll swear she was sneaking peeks to see if she could see any skin.

The men introduced themselves as John and Andrew. We settled down to the coffee and Maree's behaviour was so servile it was embarrassing. And I'm quite sure that both men found it both amusing and embarrassing. I became even more certain of that when they started a mild argument and then appealed to Maree for her opinion. She almost tied her tongue in a knot trying to agree with both of them.

When Maree excused herself for a bathroom visit Andrew turned to me.

"Um, I'm sorry if this is out of line, but does your friend have some sort of problem with men?"

"None that I've ever noticed. I think it's just because of the storm and that we're alone here. She was a little nervous about having you come in."

"We couldn't really have stayed out in that, could we," said Andrew, jerking his head towards where the rain was lashing against the window. "What does she think we're going to do? Rape her or something."

They correctly interpreted my blush, and laughed. 

"That explains why she's being so polite," said John. "She doesn't want to upset the ravening beasts."

A few moments later Maree came back in. Before she could sit down, John spoke up.

"Ah, Maree, before you sit down would you be so kind as to take off your top. I'd like to get a better look at you. Help me choose, you know?"

I could hear the laughter in his voice and glared at him. He really was being a bit callous I thought.

"Ignore him, Maree," I said, turning to her, and then shut up, if you can still call it shutting up with your mouth hanging open.

That idiot was actually in the process of taking off her top.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I yelled at her.

She just dropped her top and bra on the table and then pointed at John.

"He said I had to," she protested.

"He didn't mean it," I snarled. "He was having you on."

Maree dithered, not sure whether she should put the top back on or not. I think she probably would have if that practical joker hadn't spoken again.

"Put your top back on by all means," John said. "Just take off your tights and panties to make up for it."

Maree seemed to just freeze, staring at John.

"Ignore him, Maree," I shouted. "Just get dressed."

Andrew wasn't being much help either way. He was just sitting back looking amused. Maree, to my absolute shock, seemed as though she was going to take of her tights rather than put on her top. Then John chipped in again.

"I'll tell you what, Maree," he said, softly. "You just lean forward over the table. I'll take down your tights and panties myself."

And while I watched Maree did just that. She leaned over the table, topless, resting on her arms. John, meanwhile, just got up and casually walked around behind her. He hooked his thumbs inside her waist band and as calm as you please he just pulled down Maree's tights and panties, leaving her naked.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Maree," I howled. "Tell that idiot to take a hike and get your clothes back on."

Maree just totally ignored me. She was turned around, watching John. He'd unfastened the dressing gown and it was swinging free. It wasn't the only thing swinging free. I blushed fiercely as I saw his cock was standing up and waving to everyone.

I'd risen from the table during all this and I had a perfect view. John just carefully lined his cock up and started sticking it into Maree. I thought she'd scream or cry or something, but apart from a small gasp she didn't even seem to react. I'm a virgin myself, and I'd have thought Maree was, but she sure seemed to know what was going on.

John just kept pushing and I could see his cock just sinking deeper and deeper into Maree. And I could swear she was lifting her bum and pushing to meet him.

"She's a natural submissive," a quiet voice next to me said. "She's been waiting for one of us to command her since we arrived."

I turned shocked eyes on Andrew. He just grinned at me and lifted a hand in the general direction of my breasts.

"How about I take your top off?" he suggested softly. "I'm sure you have the most amazing breasts."

"And I'm sure that if you so much as lay one finger on them I'll break it. Anything more than that and you'll be a natural soprano for the rest of your life," I said, smiling sweetly.

Andrew laughed and went and sat down again. Meanwhile John and Maree were having a fine old time. At least, John was. I'm assuming that Maree was also from all the squealing and bouncing she was doing. John's hands were wrapped around her, holding her breasts, while his bum was jerking back and forth at a great rate. I could see his cock being pulled back and then pushed forward hard, and I couldn't help feeling irritation with Maree when she lifted her bottom and pushed back hard to meet him.

I wanted to protest that John was raping my friend, but he wasn't. Not really. He'd just told her to bend over and then started fucking her and she'd let him, without even a whisper of protest.

And he kept on taking her. I'd always had this feeling that the whole thing would be over real quick. I've heard other girls talk about their boyfriends and some of them had laughed about how quick their boyfriends were to draw and fire. John just kept on going, with Maree squeaking excitedly as his cock plunged into her. 

I cast a nervous glance at Andrew but he seemed quite relaxed, sitting back and enjoying the show. He didn't show any inclination to try and jump me. Funny that. I was relieved and a little piqued, both at the same time. Relief won. I wasn't going to lose my virginity to a complete stranger without a hell of a fight, thank you very much.

Looking back at Maree and John was still in the throes of entertaining her, and she didn't seem to mind. His hands were now on her hips, as he seemed to be pumping her harder than ever, and her breasts were bobbing around like crazy with the rocking motion of her body as John drilled in. Andrew I noticed was watching those bouncing breasts with keen appreciation.

Then John started jerking wildly and Maree just shrieked and seemed ready to collapse over the table. John was ejaculating into her, I realised, and Maree was having an orgasm.

Then John was pulling out, doing up the bathrobe and going back to his chair. Andrew, for some reason, pushed his chair back away from the table, but continued sitting.

"A total submissive," Andrew said to me. "Watch."

Watch what, I wondered? After a minute or so Maree stood up, looking slightly dazed. She snapped out of her daze pretty fast when Andrew spoke to her.

"Maree," he snapped. "Why'd you let John go first?"

Maree focused on him. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"So you should be. Come here and bend over."

To my disgust and fury, Maree did just that. She practically ran over to Andrew and bent over his knee, bum up.

"Naughty girls get punished, you know," Andrew told her.

Maree just nodded in agreement, waiting. I couldn't believe it. Andrew started spanking her, and she didn't even try to struggle. He wasn't holding her down or anything. Andrew spanked Maree's bottom, and I could see he was leaving big red hand prints, but apart from a few yelps and squeals Maree did nothing. If he'd tried it on me he'd have been trying to dig my teeth out of his leg, I swear it.

So Andrew proceeds to give Maree this nice spanking and she just took it. When he apparently decided that it was enough he lifted her back onto her feet.

"All right, lean back against the table now," he snapped, and Maree did, just leaning back, arms behind her, legs parted, and I could see everything, and part of the everything I could see was Andrew's cock as it started pushing between Maree's lips.

I mean, once wasn't enough for her? Apparently not, as she was already squealing and pushing herself onto Andrew, taking him into herself fast. Then Andrew was leaning over her, biting on her breasts while his hips started going crazy, really pummelling Maree. 

For a girl I'd never really considered athletic, she put on a fine athletic display right then. It didn't seem to matter how fast Andrew was dipping in and out of her, she was right there with him, answering his demands and making demands of her own.

I tried not to watch what was going on, but it seemed that everywhere I looked I could either see Andrew busy making time or a reflection of the pair of them going at. I was quite relieved when I heard Andrew shout and Maree shriek her way through another orgasm.

I turned and walked out of the kitchen, returning a few moments later with the clothes out of the drier. I dumped them on the table with a heavy hint that the men might like to get dressed. Bastards showed no modesty. They just dumped the dressing gowns and started dressing. I took the dressing gowns and went and put them in the washing machines. I kind of thought that dad wouldn't want his back with love juices all over it.

Coming back to the kitchen I noticed that it wasn't raining any more. 

"Oh, look," I said. "It's stopped raining. That means you'll be able to go and get your car on the road. It also means that our families will probably be home soon."

That last bit brought a startled squawk from Maree. She grabbed her clothes and vanished into the bathroom. John and Andrew just grinned and ambled towards the front door.

"Don't worry about that one," Andrew told me, nodding towards the bathroom. "She had a great time, and she'll be able to claim it was rape because she was too scared to say no. I'll give you a tip. If you're ever really pissed off at her, demand that she pull down her pants and bend over, because you're going to spank her. The odds are that she'll do it. If there's a man in the room she'll almost certainly do it, because you'll find she's also a bit of an exhibitionist."

John and Andrew headed off down the road towards wherever their car was. I watched them go in a thoughtful mood. Maybe there's a touch of voyeur in me. I couldn't help wondering what would happen if I demanded Maree get spanked while we were off on a hike, possibly when some handsome hiker was nearby. Something to think about.



Isolated in Silk



It began like any other late July day in southern Georgia. Warm, but mostly humid. It didn't help a young college aged woman named Lisa Stene that she lived in a backwater called Homerville of all places. Not unheard of, but off the beaten path of the metropolitan centers like Waycross, Homerville was mostly woods and marshes. It was mostly a quiet place, not too terribly populated if you didn't count the snakes, lizards, and god knows what else either slithering or crawling in the backyard.

Given a choice, Lisa wouldn't have lived here. Too rustic and the town was economically poor for the most part. But it was free, granted to her by her late loving aunt Margaret. She had her freedom for the most part and when you're young, little else matters so much. The house could have used a bit of maintenance and upgrading to the modern day at this point, but it was two stories, more than enough for her. 

Lisa celebrated her 23rd birthday just the other month, but it was a lonely occasion. All her high school era friends were up north or began splintering away to undergo their own paths in life. Lisa, for her part, was taking medical transcriptionist classes during the day and working part time as a department store clerk a few miles away at night. Neither was particularly interesting, but hopefully the former would pay off so she wouldn't have to keep doing the latter.

It was Saturday morning. She had been over an hour out of the covers of her ground level bedroom and was already done with shower and breakfast. She had nothing particularly going on today. Food shopping perhaps, but she was feeling a bit lazy. All this heat and nothing to do was making her bored and apathetic. Maybe tomorrow? She decided to check out her friend's pages on their social networking accounts. People living more exciting lives than hers. For the moment.

The TV was on in the background, set to nothing in particular. A little sound chased away the frustration of dial up internet. At this time, the news from Atlanta was running. Half heartedly listening, she heard something about some kind of dumping scare in Okefenokee Swamp, a major federally protected piece of swamp that bordered the backyard of her property. She gave it the briefest notice and continued scanning online. She had little business back there. It was more for fishermen and hunters. Heck, she didn't even bother mowing the backyard if she could help it. She remembered her aunt mentioning the occasional gator or black bear might wander by occasionally, so nuts to that, she thought.

Time passed and by evening, Lisa decided to go out to Waycross for a night at the town to meet a few co-workers for some drinks. It wasn't the best plan, but it was all she had to do. Dressing in a trendy white shirt with a rabbit imprint, stiletto boots, and matching black leather skirt, she would at least look good. Her hair, a light cinnamon brown, was put up with escrima sticks.

Well, fun was had but time passes quickly and Lisa had to return home. A bit tipsy from one too many apple martinis and her coworkers begrudgingly drove her back in her car before bidding a good night. 

Lisa looked at the old blue painted house leading up the soft dirt driveway. Back here again, she thought to herself. The property was dark and mostly unlit save for the moon, Lisa sighed as she fumbled in her purse for the keys. She meant to get an outside porch light set up or even those solar powered driveway lamps, but again, she procrastinated and resigned herself to this.

Glancing down and fumbling with said keys, Lisa walked to her door when suddenly something caught on her face. And shirt. And skirt, and so on. "Wh-what?" she mumbled, confused over what she walked into. It felt thin but soft, yet oddly stretchy. Squinting, she could barely see anything out of the ordinary until she glanced upon her hand holding the keys. There were numerous fishing line-like strands sticking to it and the rest of her on better notice. Lisa winced. Ugh. A spider web.

This wasn't the first time Lisa blundered into one of these beauties. Georgia, particularly the marsh and woods area she lived in, was thick with these large yellow and black spiders they called Nephilas. They were orb weaving spiders, common, mostly harmless, but unpleasantly large. But their webs, which they set up or repaired at night, could be quite sizable, between some three and six feet in diameter. Fortunately, their acquisitions mostly consisted of flying bugs, but she had seen a rare catch of a small lizard or hummingbird in one. It gave her the creeps, but fortunately cute brunettes were not on the menu. 

Still, not wanting to be bitten, Lisa growled and pushed through the web sheet, tearing it down around her. Now it coated her and she could feel every sticky fiber. What a nuisance. One thing to give credit to these Nephilas was the strength of their silk. Having blundered into a few in her time out of clumsiness, pulling the stuff off had a tangible feel. Even now her fingers were a bit gummy.

Web strewn, tired, and a little drunk, Lisa closed the door behind her and drew the shades. Worn out, she turned on a table light (bright lights weren't good for her eyes right now) and begin to remove the sticky mess. With any luck, it wouldn't stain her clothing much. That reminded her: she needed to hit the Laundromat soon too.

The process took a good few minutes, particularly trying to get it out of her hair. Removing the web in pieces wasn't helping. Eventually, she decided this was something better dealt with in the morning, so she stripped her clothes down to a cutoff white undershirt and her yellow/orange sherbet patterned bikini briefs. Pulling out the foldout couch, she collapsed wearily with a Hello Kitty print pillow, exhausted. It was too hot to need a blanket but she didn't have a fan in this room, so she mentally noted the screen windows let in a little breeze behind the shades. Good enough.

What Lisa didn't take note of was a visitor had followed her, albeit unintentionally. The orb weaver nephila who's web she wreaked had been dragged along on the back of her white dress shirt, now laying on the carpeted floor. With bad lighting and mild drunkenness, she hadn't noticed the thing...

Sunday.

Lisa yawned and stretched, waking up fortunately without a hangover but a good sense of grogginess and a taste of a brewery in her mouth. She blinked around hazily at the soft light peeking through the shades. Maybe she would get something done today. Maybe.

Stretching one more time, Lisa got up, still half awake, and made her way to the bathroom to wash her face. Always helped her get moving enough to make some coffee. Waking up was a full time job around here.

Passing through the living room into the adjacent hallway, Lisa found herself smack dab into another seemingly invisible obstacle suddenly. Well, it was hard to see, but she wasn't paying attention regardless. A bit slow in the morning, Lisa needed a minute to process this. She walked into something that felt like a nylon sheet stretched out across the hallway entrance and it was sticky vigorously to her. "Huh? What... oh damn, not again. Seriously?" Lisa grimaced, fidgeting in the sticky web as she came to terms. A spider had tricked her twice now, in less than twelve hours none the less. Only this time it was indoors and she was literally caught in her underwear. "Nngh, I can't believe this."

However, she was still a bit weak from waking up and with this, the web felt stronger than any previous time. She tried to push through but found herself repulsed after a mere inch or two. The web wasn't letting her through. Her arms raised before her, she began to feel how aggressively it was holding onto her as if trying to keep her from going anywhere. A strange primal cold swear went down Lisa's brow. This sensation was entirely unknown to her. And it was a little scary.

Lisa began to squirm, trying to step back out and free herself but the web stubbornly would only stretch and then pull her back into an awkward position. What was going on? Why was this happening? Spider webs can't trap humans... right? Lisa thought to herself, pausing to admire in a sense of confused horror the radial artistry of the web she was sticking to. 

The girl gasped a quick cry in growing anxiety and fussed harder. With the exertion, her muscles began to wake up from their lethargy and the web began to tear quite easily. She simply hadn't been trying before.

Stumbling backwards, she landed on her butt, draped in fallen webbing and strands. Wide eyed, she looked back to the hallway entrance where just moments ago she was certain she had been actually restrained. Maybe she only had her own sleepiness or laziness to blame... but it felt real. And her she was with the remainder. How did one of them get in here?

Soon in the bathroom, Lisa again began to preen herself. The webs did not seem half as sticky or taut now. Was she hallucinating over their strength? Picking the strands and silk off with toilet paper, she through the sticky stuff in the garbage can and looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was completely that of beleagurement. That was a Nephila web, no doubt. Which meant one of them was loose in the house somehow. This was a first. She'd seen smaller spiders in the corners, but never anything on their scale.

Realizing she had to get it together after that shocking wake up event, Lisa calmed down enough to continue her morning routine. Another shower, she figured, couldn't hurt after a double run in with webs.

Things evened out for a while. She stepped lightly about the house, keeping her eyes peeled for the yet unseen spider, nothing else was terribly strange. And so the day would continue in this way. Lisa did not do her laundry or food shopping again, but she did not locate her eight legged visitor. Maybe it left, she thought.

Monday.

Another morning, this one a bit overcast. Time for stenography training. The thoughts of the spider incident a bit behind her at the moment, she dressed in a grey business casual suit and sped off for vocational school. Just another day. 

Late afternoon time, she stopped off at home before work and did some quick Tae Bo aerobics. It was a thrice weekly activity done so she wouldn't lose too much shape. Being a transcriptionist and clerk didn't allow that much exercise. Although it certainly felt that way.

Night time, things got a little interesting. Driving her Toyota Camry, she stopped just before the dirt lot when her headlights reflected off of that of Georgia's pride: an American alligator lounging in her lot. Cursing, she casually back the car up a bit and placed a call to animal control. This was the first time this happened at her house. At the very least, she never saw one beyond the edge of her backyard, but it wasn't an impossible event to happen in Homerville.

Within two annoyingly long hours, animal control showed up and with three able bodied men, got the alligator on the bed of a pick up truck for transport back to the swamp. "Don't worry, miss. These things happen. Big sonuvabitch, though. Getting a lot of calls about these kinda things lately, you know?" Lisa nodded, mostly glad to get back in her home, despite being a mere 10 yards away the entire time. Briefly, she noted there was a lot of gauzy white cobwebs on the nearby bushes. Were the spiders having some kind of baby boom this month?

And still, all was quiet in the home.

Tuesday.

Lisa awoke unusually well rested. Looking out from her bed, she realized why. The power went out during the night. Her trusty digital clock merely flashed 12:00. Screaming an obscenity, she leapt quickly out of bed and went to get dressed. No telling what time it was!

Hurrying, she hustled through that familiar hallway when suddenly something snagged on her dress pumps. Stumbling out of control, a portfolio in her hand went flying on ahead while she tumbled on her side towards the floor, twisting her ankle in the process. She landed with a loud 'thumpf'!

"Oww..." Lisa winced, rubbing her kneecaps. She glanced behind her. There, by the doorway, her feet had entangled on a series silken trip lines haphazardly strewn across the floor. "That spider again!" she said aloud to herself. With a quick yank, she freed her feet and brought herself back up. "I don't have time for this. But tonight, spider?! You and I have a date with a bottle of insecticide."

Still having no idea how late she was, Lisa made for her car, pausing after a few steps to note the sheer amount of new white spider webs decorated her yard. There were even webs strewn across her Camry's antenna to the ground. She could see all sorts of spiders keeping watch on their traps, many of them between two and four inches. It was like a macabre winter wonderland. "Okay. This is getting weird."

Even across the street and the pockets of nearby trees deluged were with these spider webs. She could see one elderly neighbor knocking them down with a web strewn broom. Shaking her head, she fired up the car and headed out. Better tardy than absent.

At the department store, they were sold out of insectide and bug traps, or so she heard. People seemed to be in an equally weird mood today. Something was apparently going down. She wondered if that event in the swamp on Saturday had anything to do with it. With so many customers and even another power outage for about a minute, Lisa worked overtime that night. Not that she had a choice if she wanted to keep the gig. 

Driving home, things grew from weird to surreal. Webs... everywhere! White and noticeable even in the headlights of passing vehicles. It was all over town, like some kind of invasion. Cars and trucks drove by with trailing gossamers. Lisa could feel in her bones, something was deeply wrong. Her anxiety rising, she hastened for home.

Fortunately, there was no particular increase that she could note of outside her house. Holding a hand in front of her, just in case she walked into another web, she made it up to the door and went inside.

All along the way home, she hadn't heard anything interesting on the radio about this. It was mostly just the usual music and a brief mention of a 'spider bloom'. Was that normal? She'd been here for 2 years now and never saw anything like this.

Remembering her promise from earlier, she dug out an old can of hornet killer, thinking poison is, well, poison. And with a change into her pj's, searched around the first floor of the house for the eight legged invader. While she did find a few smaller webs and tinier spiders, she couldn't find her culprit. There was always the upstairs... it was a place she largely ignored. Renovated from an attic years ago, her aunt was said to have passed away up there, so the rooms were largely ignored except for storage. And then, there was the basement. It did not take her long to think of how little she wanted to explore that at 10pm. 

Resigned to find the spider another time, with the unceasing humidity she soon stripped her stifling pjs back off, and slept in a satin flower print thong.

Wednesday.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, Lisa began to stir in a broken sleep. She was having a dream in elementary school where a boy named Bobby was poking her with a pencil for fun. Every time she made him stop, the teacher would come by and slap her hand instead of his. It felt very unfair and she didn't understand why. But eventually, Bobby's pencil jabs to her side began to hurt and her sleep went uneasily.

When Lisa opened her eyes, it was still dark. Or at the least, dim. She couldn't quite tell. But something was very wrong. She couldn't move. Her eyes widened as her vision cleared from sleep. There were a large amount of spider webs draping the ceiling, particularly the corners and walls. As for her?

Lisa glanced left to right and with strain, forward. She lay upon her back, utterly covered and bound in sticky silk to her bed. With the exception of a few open pockets of skin and her eyes, she was completely cocooned. Her arms were bound behind her and her legs webbed together. Even her mouth was covered, as she would find herself barely audible with a muffled scream. Reddish marks vaguely visible along the side of her waist indicated something else. She had been bitten and thereby, probably poisoned by a spider who clearly did this to her. Probably what she imagined Bobby's pencil jabs in the dream were.

But more curiously? There was disturbing writing on the wall. In red, possibly with blood. Often obscured behind swaths of silk, it looked like a mad person wrote it.

-SACRIFICE- In vaguely feminine handwriting, over and over again, one ominous word. 

Scared badly, Lisa whimpered, and struggled in her cocoon. But it was tight and impossibly strong. And her limbs wouldn't respond very much. No doubt spider venom had seriously weakened her muscle control. Feebly thrashing, she caught a glimpse of two horribly obsessed yellow eyes with tiny black pupils staring back at her from the very wall itself as if something was camouflaged like chameleon there. The eyes were feral, yet intelligent looking, but too strange to call human. They said nothing nor broke their glance. Merely, staring unchallenged at her bound web strewn body. 

Spiders began to climb down from the ceiling from unseen cracks and descended upon poor Lisa. Try though she might, she was too weak and tied up to escape. Her helplessly thrashings only served to exhaust her as the many tiny legs landed upon her and crawled over her helpless flesh. Lisa screamed in her gag again and felt tiny fangs piercing her skin. It was about then she passed out.

Sometime later, Lisa arose from bed. It was warm, more or less sunny through the blinded windows, and most noticeably, no spiders or webs anywhere in her room. Another dream? No. A nightmare, yes, but scarily brought in from another dream. It was so unsettling. And that word, 'sacrifice'. Lisa felt uneasy and vulnerable and for some twenty minutes more, huddled in her blanket before even feeling brave enough to step off the bed. 

The power had gone out, yet again. But poor Lisa didn't care. Too disturbed to work or learn, she called out of both today with ground line (which was on a separate grid), finding she in fact had not overslept this time all the same. Interestingly, the receptionist for the school mumbled something like, "Not another one," when Lisa made mention of her absence today.

In an uneasy sweat, Lisa finally began to start her day. She looked about the room and hallway to the bathroom uneasily, but saw nothing new. A hot shower would do her good, she thought, so she slipped off her underwear and started up the faucet. But instead of a normal cleaning ritual, Lisa found herself merely sitting down in the tub while the water poured down, huddling and shivering. 

It was afternoon by the time Lisa decided to stop being an anxiety ridden prune. She opened the blinds to find... white. Everywhere. She could feel her very heart skip a beat. White webbing over everything, all over the place, blotting out the landscape like a sinister snowfall. And spiders crawling about them. All bigger nephilas and swamp spiders. Her eyes continuing to run the landscape behind the obscurement of silk, there were multiple cocoons in the webs, of what looked to be birds. There was no way this was natural.

Lisa went to the back of her house to look at the backyard. Same thing. Except one web surrounded by several striped legged spiders held a dead opossum in it! Very unnatural. And it was then that Lisa realized she was sealed inside her house. "This isn't happening... it can't be."

Trying to absorb this, she considered the television. Surely there would be some report on the news about this. However, every channel was static. Cable was completely out. Were the recent power outages a foreshadowing of this?




Isolated in Silk



She then tried a radio. None of the local stations had anything but distortion and the out of state stations were merely staticy with music and no word behind this. Lastly, she went to her computer. Surprisingly, it worked, but pages continued to time out for some reason. 'Heavy volume' was the provider's explanation. That was not encouraging. But since her dial up functioned, maybe then her cell phone would get through. But who would she call?

Her parents? No, they were far up north. They couldn't help and they'd probably think she was on drugs if she described this. The radio implied no one outside the area knew about this yet. Or maybe no one outside Homerville? So who else? Police? Animal control? National guard...?

Reasonably, she started with the first two. The police station line was simply busy on each attempt. Animal control never picked up. Frustrated, she then tried an exterminator. She could only leave a message. What was going on out there?

Lisa paced around, wondering what to do in this situation. Should she merely wait it out or try to clear a path outside? For once, she didn't want to sit still too long so maybe getting access to her car would be good. And so, Lisa returned to her room to get changed.

But the disturbing events were not quite over. What happened next had even less explanation. Opening her drawers, they were empty. All except her underwear and sock drawer. Lisa stared at this and had to double check. "How...? Where is everything?!" Even her pajamas were missing.

She checked her closet. Shoes, coats, even hats, all gone. Her laundry hamper? Gone. All her clothing, utterly gone except for lingerie. Lisa felt a chill in her spine. This was getting beyond creepy. It was all there a day ago! How could everything simply vanish?

Well... this was even more reason to get access to the car. What if this place was secretly haunted? Lisa thought of the yellow eyes staring at her through the wall in her nightmare. And Aunt Margaret was said to be kind of strange from what everyone else said, even though she was always good to Lisa.

With the white webs obscuring everything outside, hopefully her neighbors wouldn't notice an exposed thong clad girl running around her yard. Opening her front door, which initially proved difficult for obvious reasons, she was confronted face to silk with large taut webs monitored by Nephilas. And beyond that one? Another. And another. And so on, with other random spider webs amidst even them. Feeling vulnerable from being dressed even worse than Sheena of the Jungle, Lisa decided not to push them down. This was A LOT of webbing. Uneasily, she thought of the other day... this was so much worse. What if she became... stuck?

Not wanting to risk getting bitten, Lisa closed the door, rubbing her brow. She needed a tool. Something sharp. But bigger than the little kitchen knives. Thinking back, she recalled what might have been a sugar cane knife (machete) in the cellar when she checked the breakers the other year. It was very old, but it could do the job, she imagined.

Taking a deep breath, she approached the cellar door and turned on the lights. Wooden stairs leading down revealed a lot of water damage she wasn't aware of. The seals on the walls must have been buckling and cracking as the floor was covered in three inch layer of ground water. Being near a swamp meant this was a sizable problem. She just didn't know this had since occurred from her last visit.

With every creaking step, she made her way down. The boards didn't sound very good from the moisture, but that too, was a problem for another time. As she stepped down, she winced. The water was very still and unpleasant smelling. Stagnant swamp water, she thought. A dank aroma filled her nose.

The knife should be right around here, she thought. And indeed, on a nearby moldy old workshop table with an attaching tool rack, there was the machete. Didn't look very good, however. The blade was pocked with corrosion stains and the edge was fairly dulled at this point. Still, it was better than a butter knife from the kitchen. 

Lisa noted a few unsettlingly large funnel webs against the back wall and in the corners of the ceiling. A brief glimpse of black eyes reflected back in the light. Feeling sheepish, Lisa carefully went back upstairs. Or at least, she tried.

Midway up, two sets of the creaking stairs literally gave way beneath her feet. Lisa yelped and dropped back into the basement underneath the stairs themselves. Rather than cleanly hit the water, she was dropped into a cobweb, which ripped apart under her weight. She made a splash, landing in a crouched position, and nervously stood up when she saw the silk around her. Fortunately, it was not strong nor one of those funnel webs, which looked more than a little intimidating. Wiping the strands and swamp water off her, she looked at the stairs. Utterly rotting away. She could not believe everything that was happening. 

It took her some time, but she managed to pile some water soiled old boxes of photo albums together and climbed back upstairs. She then locked the cellar and planned never to go down there again. She decided to rinse and grab something to eat before attempting to reach her car. A lot had happened, but the day had just begun.

About as ready as she was going to be by noon, she glanced once more outside in some vain hope that things would have magically gone back to normal. Nothing changed. She admitted even if a car drove by, that would be something. But nary a bird or cricket making a sound anywhere could be heard. The elderly-across-the-street-neighbor was in the same fix she was (mostly, anyway) and her shades were drawn too. It was as if the world forgot about Lisa.

If she could get to the car, she also knew she wasn't sure where to go. The only thought she had was 'away from here'. With her keys balled up in one hand and the sugar cane knife in the other, she stepped onto her porch, confronting that first spider's web again. And with a swing, she began to knock down a path through the traps. 

The knife felt some resistance, but the webs broke with each chop. Angry and threatened spiders were set scurrying away. She began to make progress towards the car, although her progress was slower than hoped. While able to break through, the ground was still littered with the destroyed ones over many more pre-existing strands. As such, the ground itself was gooey and every step took a bit more effort than mere walking. Continually, she had to raise her foot high off the ground to outstretch the sticky fibers. It felt a lot like a softer gauzy version of fly paper. Which, realistically, it more or less was.

After couple of minutes, she cleared a path to her Camry and began preening the webs off with her now sticky knife. Like the old woman's broom from the other day, it was covered in so much gauze now that it looked more like a white club than something cut worthy. As such, it was rapidly losing its effectiveness. Lisa tried to pry off the multiple layers stuck to it, but it proved difficult after all this time and just gummed up her fingers. There didn't seem to be any easy way to remove all of this silk around her, she realized. Fire was definitely not an option now. The webs were so thoroughly placed that a simple match would set the neighborhood on fire, she imagined. 

With limited effectiveness, she freed the car door and removed most of the silk on the windshield. Climbing inside in a hurry, she shut the door behind her and put the key in the ignition. Only problem was, instead of turning over, the car made a pitiful whining sound. Again she tried and again, the sound. And she kept trying, but succeeded in doing nothing more than straining the battery to the point the car didn't do anything now. Lisa made a hollering yell and banged her wrists in frustration on the steering wheel.

Getting out with the hood popped, it was much as she suspected. There was cobweb gunk all over the inside machinery, followed with an unpleasant mechanical/electrical burnt odor. She tried pulling out the obvious swaths of web, but found smaller spiders sticking to her arms. Flailing, she swatted them off and threw her arms up in frustration. Giving up on the car, she slammed the hood and leaned against it, collecting her thoughts.

Finally getting a good chance to look around her, she could see all the way down either side of the lane that the spiders had invaded. No one was outside trying to remove their webs. Everyone's shades were drawn and there wasn't a sound anywhere except for the wind rustling through the webs themselves. No pets, no animals, and no people. She felt utterly alone. Maybe she should find her neighbors, she thought. They might understand a little more of what was going on. Granted, Lisa was not exactly looking forward to banging on their doors in just her underwear, but she was becoming increasingly nervous in all this sudden isolation.

But there was always the cell phone and there was probably a phone book in the house somewhere. Lisa never really made much contact with her boony neighbors, so she didn't know most of them personally. She was younger than most of them and suspected they didn't like her for that.

Heading back inside, she decided to try the old woman across the street. However, she was directed to the answering machine. Leaving a quick message, she began to try other neighbors. She either found a machine or no one there. Not even a busy signal to be found. Why was no one answering?

Running out of options, Lisa decided the event was emergency enough to risk the embarrassment of being seen. Throwing a towel around her neck to cover her breasts and another one tied around her hips, she decided to try the old lady. At least she waved at Lisa once or twice in the past.

No point of the short trip was simple. Long webs extending from a nearby street lamp touched well into the street. Spiders crawled amongst them with impunity, sometimes five to a given trap. Small cocoons littered these sticky sheets, primarily of flying insects and the occasional bird. Stepping around them, every sticky step was an effort and then Lisa still had to cut a path through to her neighbor's porch. The knife needed to be wiped off against a railing every couple of minutes. The stuff stuck to everything.

At the front of the elderly woman's house, Lisa knocked loudly on the door and called out "Agatha, are you there? It's Lisa from across the street!" 

She repeated this, warily glancing behind her every other second, but the old woman never answered. Nor was there any sound in the house. Unable to see through the windows whatsoever, Lisa tried to force the door and found... it was unlocked.

Stepping inside, Lisa called her neighbor's name out once more. But the house was dark and silent. "Hello? Anyone here?" Did her neighbor simply leave town before this emergency hit? 

Moving in, the house was thickly swathed with spider silk. The arachnids climbed the walls like they owned it. The downstairs looked quite impassable with excessively thick walls of cobwebs, so Lisa struggled her way up the stairs, breaking webs with every other step. "This is ridiculous! Agatha, are you here?" Again, more silk running top to bottom in the hallways. Why was it so thick in this house?

Finding a master bedroom, Lisa gazed through the translucent webs and gasped. Bound to the side of a queen size bed, was an unmoving human sized cocoon covered in spiders, clearly feeding on the contents inside. "They... they got her. I can't believe it. I... gotta get out of here." She almost tripped heading down the stairs.

In a panic, she made her way down the lane, slashing at anything white or eight legged in the way and tried two more houses. But there were no answers from either. The doors were all locked and the window shades drawn. It was like the world had ended. Everywhere she could look: spiders.

Her pulse racing, Lisa began to imagine terrible things must be going on in the greater picture. What... what is the world actually was ending? With Agatha having been killed by the little monstrosities, any thoughts to something normal were dashed out. Power wasn't properly working and she couldn't get in contact with anyone helpful. What was the scene like outside this area? For so many things to be coming apart on the societal level, it had to be very bad. Was anyone doing anything about this?

Feeling like she was losing her mind, Lisa crouched in the middle of the web strewn street, alone in her skimpy underwear and a gummed up sugar cane knife. She was feeling cornered and increasingly vulnerable... everything man made around her still stood, but nothing worked. Now she was barely better off than an animal at this rate. How long would it be before she might run into something dangerous? Also, if she hid... how long would she last? The water might be unaffected by all of this, but the refrigerator's power wasn't consistently working. A lot of her perishable food was going to go and she didn't have much left to begin with.

Let it be a lesson to follow through with one's errands, she supposed bleakly.

After a few moments of thought, Lisa decided on at least one thing. To get the hell out of this place. Somewhere, it had to be safer than this. Even if she had to run around exposed as she was, being alive was better than dead modesty.

She ran inside her house one more time. She began to fill an old high school backpack with a few essentials. Water bottle, matches, some cinnamon graham crackers, clean undies, flashlight, etc. Deciding to hit the road, she locked her house and took her keys with her.

Deciding to stay in relatively clear space (the middle of the street) to avoid most of the upright spider webs, Lisa walked on the sticky surface down the road, hoping for some signs of non-spider life. In reality, she was making her way to the supermarket. After all, if she was going to be marooned here or need to move about, she would need a food supply. She had her wallet with her just in case things were more decidedly functioning. To hell with the 'no shoes no shirt no service' rule! This was an emergency.

For two blocks on badly paved roads she traveled in a ghostly wonderland of silk strewn houses. So far, everything was as it had been on her little neck of the woods. Quiet, silky, and abandoned like some Mad Max apocalypse fantasy.

Along the way, she paused to observe a what might have been a wrapped up dog, unmoving, and suspended slightly between a fire hydrant and a stop sign. Not... good. She felt bad for it, but it was surely too late for the critter as a nephila spider or three seemed to be calmly sucking it dry. She squirmed a bit in response, hoping she might not end up like that dog.

Another couple of blocks and weariness began to catch up with Lisa. The problem being there was no surface to walk on around here without it being like flypaper. Her ankles and feet were getting very gummed up now, to the point where she couldn't see her toes underneath an ankle tall shoe of accumulated silk. She stopped every so often to clean them off, but it was becoming quickly redundant given how fast she'd step into more. Worse yet, her legs were getting tired from all the extra effort it took to walk as well as bending down to clean her feet. She needed a place to stop.

Sitting down... didn't seem the best option. She estimated she probably would be able to get up again. More, she was simply afraid that if she relaxed too much, a spider might sneak up from somewhere and nip her on the butt or legs before she could react or get up. Her feelings of being defenseless from attack in her current lack of dress did not escape her for long. 

Glancing about, she quickly realized there wasn't much cover she could safely use. Neighbors had pine trees occasionally adorning their lawn, but ducking under a web strewn tree just seemed to be asking for it. Who knows what secrets those branches held? As a result, she decided she might as well try someone else's house... even Agatha's two story house wasn't as bad as the streets and Lisa's own pad was pretty good. Maybe someone else had luck... and would've conveniently left the door unlocked. She sighed. Nothing was ever easy.

Several minutes later, Lisa still was having no luck. Everything was locked. She thought she might try breaking a window in, but what if there were people inside still counting on that as an obstacle? Also, broken glass plus bare skin equaled foolish. Eventually, she was forced to settle upon a crummy corrugated tin outdoor tool shed. It made a loud creak as she grunted to open the rusty thing. By appearance, it had not been used in ages. Maybe an old man's hobby?

The shed was cramped and dirty. There were webs inside, but something much more normal from neglect than whatever this disaster was. Sitting unhappily on a stool in the near darkness, she spied on several tool hanging on the walls. Nothing in great shape, but she traded in her gummy dull machete for a comparatively nicer hand saw. It was debatable how useful it might be, but she thought on the whole, it couldn't hurt. It also helped that it was several pounds lighter.

Lisa's break consisted mainly of sitting, stretching, and repeating in her mind how ludicrous this spider attack was. However, by the time her legs ceased to ache, sun was beginning to fall. She took this with some shock. Had it been THAT long already? It seemed her progress was slow and she had to take into account all the dawdling her earlier investigations had taken. But the real issue was more apparent. Night fall meant much less vision. Harder to avoid webs and lack of shelter. She briefly considered trying to make it back to her house, since it was only a half mile away (or so she assumed), but she'd have to give up all her progress to this point. That aside, there was nothing at her home to benefit her. And was still unsettled by the nightmare with the eyes on the wall.

Getting anxious, she had to come up with something. She might try hiding in the shack all night, but it was disgustingly grimy in here. There was little room and she couldn't even lie down if she wanted to sleep. Not to mention the door didn't exactly close so much as it was 'less open'. But where could she go?

Nearby, there were woods and marshes on either side of a dirt road leading deeper into the commercial part of town. This seemed like a bad idea, but what if the spiders were specifically targeting people? The rurals/suburbs were thick with spiders, but perhaps there was less worthy catch for them there? Or at least, they had stuffed themselves on wild game? Nothing looked good, but she decided to break out of the shed and give it a shot.

It wasn't the worst idea, actually. As it turned out, that road she was to follow between the woods to the stores was the poorest spot yet. It was literally an impenetrable looking barrier of webs going from tree to tree on either side of the road. Many rodents, insects, and birds were trapped within. Some of these webs were so combined by other spiders that they stood as tall as houses! She would have to go through the marshy woods no matter what.

With sunlight fading ever quicker and shadows beginning to streak across the white silk covered environment, she made her way off road and cut a hole through a sticky net to reach the trees. Turns out the saw wasn't too bad, as long as she dragged it in a downward fashion. The steel teeth were still good.

Walking through brush, ferns, and various semi-tropic vine covered trees, she carefully plied her way through the gloomy woods. She quickly debated the wisdom of this path. There were somewhat less webs about, true, but the foliage was well strewn with them, hiding many traps that she could not easily see, particularly in the shadows. As such, despite her saw, she was forced to push through many waist tall spider webs, almost developing a silken apron after half a dozen. It was not easy to walk or easy going at all. But she had to find some cover out here before long.




Isolated in Silk



As darkness fell, Lisa realized she had to stop. Webs in the canopy above easily blocked out a lot of that long lasting summer light and Lisa had to prepare for rest. Unfortunately lacking a proper tent, the ground would be her bed. Readying her flashlight, she elected to stop by a small clearing near a half sunken boulder with ferns, swamp grass, and saw palmettos about it. "I guess this is it," she said glumly to herself. "But I better clear out some of the locals while I'm here."

Once she set down her pack, she walked in proximity of the boulder and began dispatching spiders wherever she could find them with her saw. She was taking no chances here. The web spinners, not particularly expecting such extermination, offered little effective resistance; something that made Lisa feel a bit better about her chances.

As night fell, Lisa cleared a little divot in the ground to lay in and tried to relax enough to sleep. If she could get moving at dawn, she estimated she would certainly reach the supermarket with time to spare. And so, an hour passed. And then two. Three. Lisa was serenaded with uneasy distant noises of a cicada like chittering or rustling. Weren't spiders supposed to be completely silent? She had heard much worse from the back of her house before, but she had reason to be on edge. 

It was also not proving helpful that the ground was gritty and her backpack only made a mediocre pillow. Simply put, she was tired but had a hard time actually falling asleep. By hour number four, she was getting completely frazzled. 

But at some point and mercifully so, Lisa managed to lapse into sleep, tossing uncomfortably throughout the night but never fully waking up. It had been a long trying day. Fortunately, there were no unsettling dreams about yellow eyes.

Morning came, or at least it was morning to her. In reality, the time was closer to noon. Groggily picking herself out of the divot she made and brushing off the pebbles in her back, she looked around. "Looks like I made it okay. Doesn't seem I was bit during the night."

She went through a quick routine to get herself going; drinking some bottled water, enjoying a few cinna grahams, and changing her flower print thong for a simple red one of similar make.

She chagrined that failing to get her laundry done before this left her with mainly the more lingerie inspired selections. Nothing covering. Although she had to admit, it was sort of a little thrill to walk around in broad daylight like this with impunity. After all, the air was dreadfully warm in this state. Today was no different. Sunny, a handful of clouds, slight breeze. Humid as ever.

Brushing herself off one last time, she started off through the marsh woods towards the supermarket. It was no quicker than before as Lisa was forced to pick her way around some of the more obvious webs while forcing through the less seen sheet webs stretched amongst the brush unseen. "Ungh, these are everywhere. So sticky, too. At least they feel better than the ground I crashed on." They were, at the very least, soft and cool to the touch.

With the spiders all over the place, Lisa had fortunately little to fear from the usual swamp denizens like snakes and alligators, although she imagined the latter wouldn't be too stopped by these arachnids. Still, she made an effort to avoid the marshy parts which were further away from the road's line of sight. Spiders were one thing but she really didn't want to tackle a hungry alligator.

It was in that line of thought that Lisa realized too late that she hadn't been looking in the right direction when she walked smack dab into a large orb web. "Uh?!" A sticky network of silk stopped her fast as she pushed into it, thinking open space had layed ahead.

"Oh... damnit!" Her bare flesh caught in the silk, Lisa was aggressively gripped by the sticky sheet. She began to squirm, trying to pull the stuff off her face when she realized she couldn't lift her arms high enough to do so. It was strong! "Damnit damnit damnit!"

Grunting, she pushed forward against the web, trying to break it down, but unlike the others which required a mere second or two to topple, this one resisted her strength and flexed back when her effort ceased. "Let go!" she demanded aloud, trying to push through the strands. However, Lisa soon realized it would keep stretching, but it had yet to let her go.

"No... no, come on. I can get out of this," she said, a rising anxiety in her voice. She dug her feet into the ground, trying to pull away but the web seemed even stronger. The entire front of her pulled back with the web's flexibility, from her face, to her exposed breasts, and legs. It wouldn't let go! 

Lisa kept fidgeting, trying to go various forwards and backwards, while the web stretched and bounced with her struggling form, making gentle creaking noises from the fibers and branches of low hanging trees and ferns anchoring it. She began to whimper, becoming frightened. She couldn't move away!

"Ungh... this isn't like the one at the house, is it? Damn, damn, damn... I can't get away! What I'm going to do? Aaangrh!" She thrashed and bucked in place, the web shaking mutely in response, never releasing the tension about her body. She also wished her backpack was more secured instead of banging against her back when she made a violent motion. As for the handsaw? Laying precariously close on the ground, but outside her reach.

Ten minutes had passed. During that time, Lisa had struggled on and off. It was not easy work! She was soon glistening with sweat and slowly, sliding into despair. She was scared, she couldn't help it. She knew she was defenseless in this position. Her eyes darted about continually for the web's owner. So far, she assumed it either wasn't around for the moment or her struggles made her seem too strong to try capturing. She was willing to accept either possibility, but it was the latter that made her spend energy in further desperate struggles. 

By now, her struggles worsened the ordeal. Silk had crept up alongside her body in strands. Her face was pressed against the web at a slight turned angle. Her arms were just over chest high and curled back towards herself. More embarrassingly, her breasts were sealed in the stuff, which severely limited her ability to pull backwards without straining them. A bra or even a shirt would have been helpful, assuming it wouldn't get slid out of place. But worst of all was the silken grip on her hips.

Rightly, she felt exposed. From behind, she stood in a potential full view to anyone, her legs slightly spread, revealing a tight red thong. That said, her struggles also brought the silk to grip between her legs, grasping seductively at her thong's pouch. She tried to pretend it was nothing, but every struggle of her hips pulled or stroked on that delicate piece of protection and she felt every erogenous movement. The feeling of being trapped in the sticky soft sheet was beginning to seduce her more and more. She tried to resist, struggling more with her upper body, but the web's jostling only played with her breasts in a strange exquisite way. The feeling of the sticky silk on her shoulders, neck, and belly were also wearing her down. She was scared, but the matter was quickly becoming an erotic struggle rather than one involving her own escape.

Lisa blushed, knowing her body was betraying her. This wasn't the right time for this and she was humiliated to undergo it. But somehow, that made it better. The more she resisted, the better it felt. Her nipples soon pushed out into the silk, becoming hard while her thong panties became moist. It wasn't long until the silken struggle became masturbatory. 

Tearing up in her own eyes, conflicted, her knees began to weaken and she closed her soft eyes, succumbing. Ceasing to try getting outright away, she thrust her hips back and forth against the creeping web, her every motion countering in the silk, draining her of strength and hope. She hoped no one would happen along now to see her, despite the chance of freedom that might bring. 

She bounced against the web harder and harder, the silk forming a stubborn cord between the softness of her legs. She couldn't escape the web or the lustful sensations. Sweat began to pour off her skin and her hands gripped the web tighter. She would lean back as hard as she could to feel the webbing's aggressive cupping touch. It was insatiable. Moaning but biting her lower lip, Lisa went faster still, feverish in this new erogeny. 

Suddenly, she felt something at her back. A hand. Long and spindly. It took her several moments to notice enough to stop what she was doing. She opened her eyes and turned her head around as much as she could within the restrictions.

There stood a ghostly white woman, eerily tall at 7ft, somewhat thin, and bearing those horrid yellow eyes she saw on her wall. Her hair was a wild black mane. Her lips; red and baring small fangs in a wicked smile. Most notably, she bore six long spidery arms, each of them surrounding the trapped Lisa in a proximity. She was clad no better than the smaller girl: a black leathery thong that did seem to be made from any known creature.

"I was waiting for you, Lisa," the scary woman spoke from pursed lips. "The night of your partying, the web within your hallway, and most of all, this. I am responsible for all of this."

Lisa could scarcely believe what she was seeing. "What- w-who are you?"

"Not a person as you are, Lisa. No, I am a price. A thing born from a spell cast by your late aunt. What is the word... a 'curse', taken flesh."

"I don't understand," Lisa mewled, still vaguely wondering if the strange monstrous woman saw what she was actually just doing. Her mind wasn't quite in the game yet.

"It is not relevant to go into specifics with you, only that your late aunt had cast a spell for her own benefit, but it was done incorrectly. Thereby, there is a punishment. But with another spell, that punishment was delayed. By the time it wore off, she had long since passed. I think she gave you that house so that you might learn of what happened through her journals and spell books... for you see, the curse does not leave. Since you are her appointed heir, you now bear it. And here I am."

"I don't recall any books by her-" Lisa said, quickly interrupted.

"Of course not. You know that attic you are loathe to enter? They were buried there. After I climbed in the house on your body that one night, I realized I had to stop you from climbing up there. Fortunately, you seemed unwilling to bother in the first place."

Lisa looked gloomy. Her aunt was some sort of witch, perhaps? It would have been good to know such a thing was coming after her, not to mention everything else, she thought angrily. 

The cursed spider woman ran her hands down the back of Lisa's soft trapped body. Lisa squirmed and shook. "S-stop that!"

The cursed spider woman then smiled widely. "Yes, I'll give you a brief reprieve, for you see... you are mine now."

"What?!"

"You can't very well escape me, can you? I can see how weak you are. And I have all the power now, don't I? From here on, you are my plaything until I grow tired of you and suck you dry."

"No! W-what are you going to do?"

Not answering, the cursed spider woman, with surprising strength pulled Lisa out of the web (which made its victim moan in deep arousal) by her backpack. Removing the pack, Lisa was pushed to the soft earth at the foot of the cursed spider woman. Her eyes looked upwards, startled. "I will allow you those mere panties because that is all that I will allow you to keep. My word... is your everything now. And all the protection you might ever think to have from me can be summed up by that merest loincloth."

Lisa now realized the spider woman was not only in her house in some form the entire time, but she stole everything Lisa had to cover herself because of this notion. Even the dream, was probably a direct mental assault from the cursed spider woman.

The spider woman gave a condescending slim smile and reached between the thong strap of her thighs, giving a few stimulating rubs to an unseen part of her body. Somewhere exceedingly close to her crotch, but not upon it. When she pulled back, sticky web filaments trailed from her finger tips connecting to an unseen spinneret between her legs.

"Now we bring this to a close, little Lisa. I shall bind and truss you in my own silk, and slowly wrap you into a tight squirming package. You will be dragged into my own personal web and I shall deliver wanton torments to you that you can only imagine without me."

Lisa slowly shook her head and inched backwards. "No... no, I'm not going back anywhere with you and I won't let you cocoon me in your spider web!"

Lisa started up unevenly and narrowly avoided a grab by the spider woman. She ran far and hard away from the cursed spider woman, terrified of what would happen if she was caught.

For the cursed spider woman's effort, she had not tried very hard to immediately seize Lisa. Instead, she knew the girl would do this. She just wanted to disarm her for it would only be a matter of time before the exposed young woman would soon find herself stuck in one of the webs of the spider woman or her pets. And with each struggle, it would call directly to her and the spider woman could leisurely come and collect her victim. For until she did, the curse would never end.

Besides, the cursed spider woman thought... why end the curse so soon? It was fun to exist and feel all these great sensations. Fear, pursuit, lust, capture...

"In the end, Lisa, you are just a fly struggling to get free. There is no way out of my web and I have only... to bide my time."

The spider woman calmly shape shifted back into an oversized web spinning spider the size of a dinner plate and crawled over Lisa's backpack towards the town's square. 

It would only be a matter of time.



Isolated Love



Hello! To start, this is my very first story but I'm not new to Literotica at all. I've actually been around for a while, just never got around to writing a story. I come to this site very often and I love all the stories I read so I decided that I would try one of my own. I LOVE constructive criticism and I LIVE for feedback. I crave it. I have no idea where this story came from but I was sitting around doing nothing and opened my computer... BAM! I just started typing and this would be the beginning of my thoughts. I hope you guys enjoy it some, I'll be working on further Chapters. Also, I apologize for typing errors, I don't have an editor at the moment so just roll with me here! :) 

-ERC 

Sielewi- "I don't understand" (Swahili) 

Nakupenda- "I love you a lot/ I love you" (Swahili) 

***** 

It had been going this way for months. She'd call him, he'd answer. She'd ask him to come over, he'd tell her 'after 10 pm'. She'd sulk for a moment and then think about the way his thick cock would fill her as she grabbed onto the sheets in ecstasy. They would engage in a night of passionate, mind-blowing sex and by the end of it, they would both be spent. He, however, would only lie next to her for 10 minutes before he quickly gathered himself and his things, leaving her on the bed in her after-sex bliss with only an 'I'll call you for next time' thrown over his shoulder. It would seem like she'd be tired of this by now, that she'd want something more than just a night of bliss every now and again... But she wasn't. At least, that's what she kept telling herself. 

"Arabeth, please stop doing this... " 

'Fuck, here we go again'. 

"You're damn right here we go again.", fuck, had she said that out loud? 

"I'm sick of this. Sick of you letting him control you like this. You sit here almost every night, waiting for him to call you or text you or whatever it is he fucking does... " 

"Ina, please... " 

"Please nothing! Quit this! For your sake and for mine!" Ina had been going on about this for weeks. As her best friend, she knew that Ina was only looking out for her, but did she forget that she was 20? 20 and living the life of someone who was well past her age. She could handle it. 

"I can handle it... " Arabeth stated boldly. Ina only rolled her eyes. 

It was times like these when she wished that Ina wasn't so intuitive. Ina had a knack for situations like hers. Women who constantly put themselves in a position that was hard to get out of. It may have been that because of Ina's past, she was very perceptive. Arabeth had met Ina during her first semester of college and the two had immediately hit it off. It was like they were long lost sisters. Ina had initially complimented Arabeth on her outfit and told her that she wished she had as much style. Arabeth laughed and they quickly got into a conversation about stores, clothes and make-up. It'd seemed like they were being typical girls until Ina had suggested they go play video games and eat pizza all night. 

From then, Arabeth had learned a lot about Ina. Her full name was Catina Ayana Aitken and she'd come from a family of wealth but she was far from what most would consider "stuck-up" or "uppity". Arabeth had to give it to her, for someone to be as beautiful as Ina, she was very humble. Her skin was the color of cinnamon with a tint of honey and her hair was naturally curly with a silky, kinky feel. She wasn't slim by any means but she was built to have all eyes, male or female, rove her body wherever she went. Her breasts were full and her hips were made to give birth to the healthiest of babies. None of this, however, matched her eyes. Her eyes were the iciest of blues, all thanks to her Scottish-American father. Full lips and somewhat thick nose were all thanks to her African mother. Arabeth was easily jealous of her, but she never let it show. Instead, she welcomed her presence and was thankful to have found a friend so quickly. 

Ina sighed heavily before plopping down on the bed next to Arabeth. This was getting to be too much. "Sielewi... ", Ina began in Swahili, but quickly switched to English, "You're better than this. You're too good for him. You're way too smart, too beautiful and too outgoing to sit around at night and wait for a call that may or may not come. Nakupenda Ara, but sometimes you can be really dense." 

Arabeth understood it all. She knew what kind of game she was playing and if Ina couldn't accept that, then they'd probably be on one of their cycles of not speaking for a few days. 

"I'd better get ready for work." Arabeth said, interrupting the continuing lecture she would have probably received had she chose to stay any longer. Ina watched as Arabeth changed into her work clothes and chewed on her lip as she debated on whether or not to say what was on her mind. 'Fuck it.' she thought. 

"He doesn't love you, ya know... " 

Arabeth, who was about to slide on her pants paused and threw Ina a look that said 'if you say one more word, I swear to God I'll kill you'. 

"To hell with this Ara! He doesn't love you. He'll never love you. You're nothing more than a play thing, a quickie when he needs one... for fucks sake, you're a fucking booty call! Christ! Are you so blinded by his dick between your legs that you think he'll ever want to be with you?! He loves her, not you! He'll. Never. Love. You. Ever." Ina finished by hopping up from the bed before Arabeth could even get a word out and walking out of the room. 

Why couldn't he love her? She was pretty. Beautiful even. Her cappuccino complexion was smoother than most which only accentuated her expressive facial features. Her round eyes were big and doe like, which made plenty of men and women want to stare at them for hours and they were the deepest shade of brown which only added to their elusiveness. Her nose was small and on the thin side, but still had a decent shape to it which sat right above her not too big, not too small full lips. She was a little on the thicker side but filled out nicely when she wore the right clothing to fit her curves. And her hair. She'd never put any type of chemicals in it which left her all natural and eventually, her hair grew out to just above her shoulders. She hardly preferred straightening it and was mostly satisfied with leaving it in a mass of curls at her neck. It was one of the things that attracted... 

'Doesn't even matter.' she thought to herself and before she realized it, Arabeth felt hot tears dripping down her face. She turned to look at her phone and noticed she hadn't received one call or text from him. This was going to be a long night. 

** 

"Pump 12, you can go ahead." Arabeth spoke clearly through the microphone before going back to the screen. She'd been at the gas station for only two hours but it'd felt like six. She glanced at the time on the screen, '12:37 am', "Only six more hours to go. Great." she grimaced before sitting back in her chair. Working at the gas station, especially this late, was not something she would wish on her worst enemy. It was slow, tiring and above all, the customers that came in around this time had a way of getting under your skin. They weren't all bad, but most of them were either completely drunk or just all around rude. She was glad that summer break had just started because instead of having to go to class two hours after she got home, she could just go home and sleep. 'Maybe I'll actually finish Orange is the New Black.' she pondered over this for a moment before she heard the bell bring, signaling the entrance of a customer. No, make that several customers. 'Perfect, just what I need... ' 

"Bennnnyyyyy... baby can't we go to another gas station?" Arabeth heard the familiar sound of a nasally voice and immediately cringed. It was her. It was them. 

"Seriously Christine, just give it a rest. We'll only be in here for a moment." he countered. 

"But Benny-... " she wined. 

"Cool it." 

"I just don't understand why we have to be at this one. She works here." the tall brunette woman finished. 

"And she can hear you... " Arabeth stated calmly, even though she wanted nothing more than to rip the girl's expensive extensions out. "What do you need?" she added dryly. 

Arabeth sized the woman up once before quickly averting her eyes to the man whose arm she was hanging from. Him. The reason she was always up, even on her days off, waiting for his call or text. The reason why she and Ina were not on good terms. The reason that her mind was always full of 'what ifs'. Him. Every time she laid eyes on him, she remembered the nights they spent together. Nights full of passion and bliss. She'd drifted back to those nights, forgetting that she had customers and they needed to be serviced. 

"Arabeth!" his deep, baritone voice washed over her. 

She quickly snapped out of her daydreaming and directed her attention to the people standing in front of her. "Yeah... I-I mean... Yes. Yes. What can I do for you?" she nervously asked. Whenever he was around with that woman, she always felt herself shrinking in. 

Benji Amar Holland laughed arrogantly before digging into his wallet to pull out his visa, "A pack of L&M red shorts will do, thanks." 

Arabeth rolled her eyes and quickly got herself together, retrieving his smokes from above her head. "It'll be $3.34, sir. Can I see your I.D.?" she added before noticing the smug look he was giving her. 

"I.D.? Honestly?" he scoffed as he pulled out his driver's license. Arabeth quickly glanced over it before tossing his cigarettes on the counter and swiping his card. "Want your receipt?" 

"No." he answered brutishly before snatching his card and cigs, leaving Arabeth to watch after him and that bitch of a girlfriend. Arabeth quickly finished ringing up and getting rid of his other friends so she could get back to doing nothing. 

I hate em. I hate em. I HATE them. 

** 

"Quit being such a sensitive ass girl, Rash." 

"Excuse me?!" 

"You know what I mean... Just. Suck it up. Get over it. Honestly, it's been about... a year? A year since that girl left... " 

Grayson Parker sighed as he glanced out of the car window. "You know what I'm talking about, Kidd." 

Alex Kidd chuckled as he continued to drive. As long as Grayson had known Alex, which was a long time, Alex had always called him Rash, even knowing that he hated the name. He'd given it to him when they around 11 and Alex had come over one day telling him about a new word he'd learned. 

"It's called rash. It means something like... not taking your time when you make decisions or something. My dad used it to describe my mom after she decided to get that tattoo on her chest. And since you're always doing things your way without thinking about it, I'll call you that." Grayson thought it was cool that his best friend had learned a word and given him a nickname, but then it became somewhat of a stigma. Whenever Grayson did something that he was sure of, Alex would be there to plant his nickname on him. 

"There you go again, Rash... " or "See, this is why I tell, Rash." Over time, Grayson had mentioned to Alex about how stupid he felt the nickname was, but Alex never let up. "It's your name, deal with it." he'd tell him. 

The two friends sat in silence before Grayson finally spoke. "It's not as easy as you think," he started "The thought of losing her has always killed me. You know that. And when she finally did it... she took a part of me with her." 

Kidd only continued to drive. If his best friend kept this up, they'd be ending this night before it even began. He checked his tank and let out a murmured curse. "Gotta get gas." he stated simply as he pulled over to the nearest gas station. "Fuck, gas is so fucking expensive." 

Grayson chuckled, "Welcome to 2014." 

** 

♪... At night when the stars light up my room 

I sit by myself 

Talking to the moon 

Trying to get to you 

In hopes you're on the other side 

Talking to me to or am I fool? 

Who sits alone 

Talking to the moon... ♪ 

Arabeth found herself humming along with the tune as she turned the pages in her magazine. She wasn't really reading, just trying to busy herself. Some time had passed and it was now 2:56 a.m., which only left about 3 hours more. During this time, another worked had come in and they'd been chatting it up off and on. They weren't really close friends but they could stand each others company and it was nice to have someone else working with her. She'd heard the ding, signaling that it was or her to get back up. She quickly placed her magazine somewhere and stood next to the register waiting for the customer to approach her side since her co-worker was busy in the back. 

"Pretty depressing music." a deep baritone voice washed over her and she looked up to meet the most gorgeous face she'd ever seen on a man. He looked familiar but she couldn't quite place him. He reminded her of Ryan Gosling, except way more attractive and with longer, darker hair. His eyes looked to be almost silver but upon further inspection, she could tell they were blue. His nose was slender and somewhat long, but it fit his well sculpted face and his mouth... "Good Lord... " she muttered under her breath. His lips were not at all thin like the expected stereotype and they were made for seduction. She could tell that he worked out on a regular basis, just by looking at the way his tight fitted shirt was clutching at his muscles. What she wouldn't give to... Woah, woah hold on... why was she thinking this way? She had a man... 

'No you don't'. her conscience chided. "Yes I do." 

"Excuse me?" he cleared his throat and she finally snapped out of her thoughts. 

"I'm sorry, what?" 

Grayson smirked slightly at the young girl before repeating himself. "I said, that's pretty depressing music you've got playing." 

Arabeth quickly gathered herself and smiled like the doting employee she was. "It's not my music. What's on is on I guess." She began ringing up his items, a Monster energy drink, a can of nuts and some chips. 

"Can I have $50 on six, please?" 

"Sure can." she replied almost instantly. "It'll be $56.73" 

Grayson handed her his card and waited as she swiped. 

"You look familiar... do you go to school around here?" she inquired. A little conversation never hurt anyone, right? 

"I do, actually. NKU." he replied. "I don't stay on campus though, I'm in grad school and live in the apartments down the street from the front entrance. 

Arabeth nodded and handed him his card back and began bagging his items. "I knew you looked familiar. I go to school here too. I stay on campus though. You're always with that one girl... Uhh, can't think of her name. She's super pretty though." 

Grayson's demeanor immediately changed and his body stiffened. Arabeth noticed and stopped bagging. "I'm sorry, did I say something? Are you okay? Do I need to call someone?" she asked, running through a list of questions that a concerned worker would ask. She instantly felt bad, it was obvious that she'd said something wrong. 

"I'm fine." he said in a tone so harsh, it sent shivers down her spine. Arabeth kept her stare on him before finishing the bagging and handing him the bag and his receipt. Grayson didn't mean to, but he could feel himself snatch the bag from her and he abruptly walked out and to the pump. 

Arabeth let out a breath she didn't know she was holding before going to the screen. "Pumper number six, you can go ahead" she said and even to herself, she sounded shaky so she was sure the person in the lot heard it as well. She was all ready to calm her nerves the bell signaled again and in walked Grayson. 

"I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to... ya know. I'm just, I'm having a really hard time... bad breakup. I was just... I'm sorry." he said to her which managed to get her to smile a little. Arabeth had seen it before. 

"It's totally cool. I understand. No harm, no foul." she shrugged it off, trying to play it cool even though she was burning inside just by him standing in front of her. "I take it the girl I mentioned is the bad breakup?" 

Grayson only nodded and sighed heavily. 

"Sorry about that. If I had known... " Arabeth could feel herself about to continue to apologize but held back. 

"Still, I shouldn't have acted that way and I'm sorry. Since you live on campus, why don't I buy you Starbucks or something from the Student Union?" he offered. Arabeth's smile perked up and she quickly nodded her head. 

"Okay. I'm Arabeth by the way," she said, reaching out to shake his hand in which he took her small one in to his larger one and shook it. 

"Grayson. Grayson Parker." 

*****