They're in the Walls
It all started in the kitchen. I woke up at around two in the morning for some water. I filled my glass and there, inside the walls, something scurried around near the sink. I knew it was either mice or rats, as they usually came from the levee down the street and loved to explore my walls. I paid an exterminator what I would call a good price each winter to get them all out. It was always the same guy that came to my house, and after so long, he gave me a discount.
I hoped since it was June that there wouldn’t be many rats, or at least they wouldn’t stay long. I gave it a couple of days, but the scratching sounds continued. They crept from the sink toward the hallway. Without getting paid anytime soon, I had to scrape together whatever change I could and buy some traps. I couldn’t find any holes or chew marks along the house, so I decided to place a couple of traps on the side near the kitchen window, each loaded with a small block of cheddar and some peanut butter. In my pantry, I placed a few piles of poison pellets in case they actually reached the food.
I checked the traps regularly for the next few days, but they never touched them. The rats continued to move through the walls of my house. Every night as I lay in my bed, the sound lurked closer to my room, a rough scraping against my drywall. I had no choice but to call Teddy, my exterminator, and tell him what had happened.
Teddy Cordur was the kindest man you could ever meet. No matter what your problem was, he always faced it head-on with a smile. I called him that next morning with the news. He said he would come to take a look in about twenty minutes. I tried to tell him I won’t get paid until Friday, but he laughed and said I could pay him whenever I get the money. I thanked him, and we ended the call. I grabbed my pack of Camels and a lighter and stepped out onto my little porch.
I had smoked half of my first cigarette when I saw Teddy’s van coming down the street, a bright green Ford with “The ex-Terminator” in big orange block letters on the sides. And who could miss the giant rat with an ax in its head on the top? The van’s brakes screeched as Teddy pulled into my driveway. He hopped out with his usual ear-to-ear grin and shook my hand.
“Hey Bob, I came as soon as I could.”
“Hey Teddy. Thank you again, I really appreciate this.”
“You should have called me sooner. You can’t let those vermin get close to your bedroom. They’ll take over the house.”
“Yeah, I know, but it didn’t feel right to not pay you.”
Teddy stood and looked around the front of my house.
“Ah, it’s no problem Bob, you’ve been a great client.”
He pointed up toward the left corner of my roof.
“You see the phone line, a rat could jump from that to your roof with no problem if they wanted. You have a crawl space?”
“Yeah, the door is in the hallway.”
Teddy walked to the back of his van and pulled out a canister of poison with a hose attached. He held the spray nozzle on the end of the hose.
“Okay, Bobby, this will be a quick job. It should be about ten minutes.”
“Alright Teddy. Do what you do best.”
He pulled a white mask over his face and strutted inside my house. I stood in the driveway as I finished my first cigarette. Birds flew around the trees of the neighborhood and sang their songs. I pulled out a second cigarette and lit it.
#
I flicked the butt of the cigarette onto the street. Almost twenty minutes passed, but Teddy still hadn’t finished going through my house. This didn’t bother me too much until I realized that almost an hour had passed with no sign of him. I pocketed my pack of Camels and the lighter, then walked inside.
All the lights were on. My footsteps echoed through the house. My hair stood on end. The air felt fresh against my skin. It was cleaner than the air outside. I walked through my living room down into the hall. The attic door hung open, with the ladder extended out to the floor.
Teddy’s flashlight sat on the edge of the attic entrance. I eased myself up the ladder, the wood creaking under my weight. I grabbed the flashlight and poked my head inside the attic. I looked around the dark space, and what I saw sunk my heart.
Thick, milky white webs filled the attic. I couldn’t see the walls anymore, only more webs. Goosebumps rose across my back at the thought of a spider. Never have I seen so many webs in one room. Fuck, there must be thousands! The ladder creaked as I scurried down. There was no sign of Teddy.
A rough groan drowned out the creaks. I stopped on the ladder and gazed up toward the sound. The flashlight gleamed over an enormous mass of web that attached to the ceiling. It was six feet long, two feet wide, and it moved.
“Run.”
A weak, familiar voice escaped from the mound. I crept up the ladder. A face protruded through the webs.
“Teddy? Teddy, is that you?” I asked in a panic.
“Bobby, run! You need to get out of here!”
I ignored Teddy’s words and tried to peel the webbing from his face. The sound of shuffling erupted through the walls. Rapid taps and scratching against the drywall came from all around my house. It all converged toward the attic. I shone the light around, but couldn’t see anything.
The webs shook as the rapid tapping grew louder. I stood frozen on the ladder, staring at nothing.
“Bobby! Run!”
I continued to look around at the webs. They snapped apart. The taps erupted from everywhere around me. My eyes grew wide, and my heart shot up my throat. The rest of the webs broke away as seven spiders crawled through. Seven spiders, the size of fucking Chihuahuas, inches from my head.
Each looked very different, but I didn’t have time to see what species they were. My legs buckled, and I slammed down to the floorboards. Pain rippled through my back, but I stood up and bolted down the hall to my room. One by one, the giant spiders dropped from the attic into the hall. My eardrums filled with the taps of their legs against the wood and drywall.
I rushed inside my room and grabbed the door. For a moment, I glimpsed the spiders in the light. They crawled along the floor, walls, and ceiling as they emitted a high-pitched chatter. It felt like their eyes stared into my soul. Chills crawled down my spine as I slammed the door.
The lock clunked into the wood frame. A boom erupted through the room as the wood door warped, then retreated to its regular shape. I staggered back from the door and looked around for anything to fight with. My mind wandered to memories of childhood experiments.
Another bang against the door. It warped, cracked, and retreated to its normal shape. My bottle of Shovel Body Spray for Men was atop my dresser. I grabbed it and pulled the lighter from my pocket, armed and ready for the terrifying intruders. The sound of their legs against the wood echoed through my mind.
I popped open my window for a simple escape. They slammed into the door once more. It warped, but it did not return to its normal shape this time. The crack grew, and through it, the spider’s thick hairy legs poked and prodded. I sprayed the body spray against them until it was dripping. The spider hissed, and its legs retracted from the small hole.
Pieces of the door flew as the giant spiders slammed through it. They sprawled into my room like a swat team. I flicked the lighter. When the flame formed, I squeezed down on the bottle of spray. The cologne met the flame and carried it forward in a long burst. I swept the flames across the spiders. They hissed and scurried toward me. I backed toward the window. The flame in my lighter went out.
The spiders, engulfed in flames, scurried up to my leg. I felt the heat as I rushed through my window. A whip of fire singed my pajamas. Dirt painted across my clothes. My fingers plunged through it and my shoes kicked up a cloud into the air. I ran out to the front of my house with a can of deodorant and an empty lighter.
My heart threw itself against my rib cage as two spiders threw themselves through my living room window, shattering it into little pieces. They scurried around in circles on my lawn. The grass burned. I ran across the street, keeping my eyes on the house.
The flames inside my home grew, flickering through each of the windows. The spiders on the lawn hissed as their legs curled. They fell onto their backs in the circle of burnt grass they’d left. A louder hissing erupted from the house.
Neighbors all rushed outside with gaped mouths and phones in their hands. The smell of smoke filled my nostrils. Flames enveloped the walls. My roof burnt and broke into pieces. The fire grew to an astounding height as my home collapsed into itself. Nothing could have survived. I don’t even know if Teddy had any family.
Hi, thank you so much for reading. I appreciate the support, and hope you enjoyed the story. My plan for this newsletter is to release a new story every second and last Saturday of the month. Please feel free to leave any notes in the comments, or read my other stories I have posted on here or my website.