The Word Spider Cover

On the edge of town in an abandoned bookshop, under the floorboards in the dark dusty space filled with decades worth of forgotten things (buttons, coins, a discarded photo showing a family surrounded by books from the distant past), there is an entire world in constant caliginosity.

Veiled in a midnight darkness stands a tiny hamlet of houses made from bits and bobs, left behind by the humans. A bottle, a shoe, old boxes; an oddity of things long discarded by man. The bigger dwellings built from stone and wood.

The residents of this hodgepodge of houses were unique in their appearance, covered head to toe in fur as white as snow.

The leader of the community was a kind, handsome spider, covered in soft white fur, muscular but with a little middle age spread, and father to Alice and George.

Their father's firm, but loving ways ensured they all stayed safe, hidden away in their little world away from the other insects of the world.

Although man had long left the Earth, there were threats. A handful of creatures did not abide by the law of the land and would do anything for a meal. Here in the village, there was often hunger and bellies that needed filling, but the albinos made do and lived a peaceful, secluded life.

Everyone in their little world was content, living this way, scavenging for food, learning the ways of spiders, and not making a fuss; everyone, that is, apart from young Alice.

Alice wanted adventure, to travel beyond their home, to see the world, but of all things she wanted to learn to read. She understood the meaning of the written word, the power each one held, and believed they could help all the creatures of the world.

Her father, like his before him and as far back as anyone could remember, believed that spiders had no need for reading nor adventure. He felt they should just be happy with what they had.

Standing in the corner of her room, Alice listened as her father went over the same speech he always did when she asked about learning to read.

"What use are words! Can they find food?"

Alice's brother laughed from inside his bedroom door.

"Can they help build a web?" her father added.

Alices brother laughed again at the sight of his sister being scorned by their father.

"Tell me one good thing reading will do?"

Alice tried to think of the words, but her tongue became twisted.

Her brother laughed again. This time she had had enough. For too long now she had listened to the same speech, to the lack of thinking from her father. She loved her family dearly and wanted only the best for them, but she could no longer hold back the tears and anguish, so she fled, out into the village square and off through the tunnels into the unknown.

The anger and upset burst like a dam, and crying as she ran, Alice’s tears fell to the dusty floor.

Her legs took her as far as they could, between floorboards and past rusty nails, splintered, decade-old joists and further still.

Soon she became lost within the dusty gloom, her anger subsiding, her mind imagining things lurking in the surrounding darkness.

What had she done? Her family would never forgive her for this! With panic setting in, she did not know what to do. Fear of the shadows around her and fear of returning home caused her to stand motionless for what seemed like an eternity.

Then as her tears dried, and her eyes cleared, up ahead she started to make something out. There, only a short distance away, she could see a slim sliver of light, breaking through a crack in the plaster.

Edging forward, closer, and closer, her heart felt as if it would burst. Was this what she had dreamed of; had she found a way to the outside world?

Alice stepped towards the splintered wood, she peered through into the space beyond, and on the other side there lit up by the late afternoon sun, in all its dirt and grime covered glory, was a bookshop and its wondrous word-filled treasures.

Rows upon rows of books covered in dust and dirt sat there for longer than she knew, with no one left to read them or flick through their word filled pages. Their covers had faded with time. Alice could only guess at what stories they contained.

Her mind drifted back to her father and his other favourite saying: “Words lead to knowledge, knowledge to power, and power corrupts everything.”

No one knew what had really happened to the humans, her father used that as another excuse for spiders not to read.

“They had the power of words, they read and told stories, and look what happened to them!”

Alice knew there was more to words than just the corrupted evil that her father portrayed. Words lit up the darkest night and sparked imaginations in young and old, with stories passed down through generations; remembering those who had been before and giving hope for those to come.

Sitting on the edge of the small hole formed in the long- splintered wood, she realised that this was it. If she went through and continued this journey, she knew she would probably never see her family again. If she went back, she would remain in the family home and the little hamlet for the rest of her life.

She had always wanted adventure, to see the world, to experience the unknown; and more than anything, she wanted to learn to read.

Alice stepped through…

She had never seen so much space, so much light, growing up in the confines of the dust-filled floorboards. She stood in awe, scared yet excited at the surrounding vastness.

Where should she begin this adventure? None of her family had dared to try such things.

She had no stories or tales on which to plan her next move. This was all new, the first to step beyond their little world and out into what lay beyond.

Climbing up the long-faded wallpaper hanging to the wall with only the slightest grip. Deciding that higher would be better, Alice, from her position up above, was able to see the entire world before her. Each step was slow and dangerous, the wallpaper was old and flaky, and more than once she had to stop and change her course. As light as she was, she was still able to cause the paper to pull away from the wall and fall to the floor below.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, she reached the curve of the ceiling and paused for breath. Alice looked back towards where she had come from. It was already beyond even her wildest dreams. None of her family would ever believe that she had been this far. It made her realise just how little they were and how big the world was.

It was getting dark, and the setting red orb of the Sun was dropping below the broken windows around her. Soon the store would be in shadow, not as dark as the spiders’ home but dark enough for unimaginable creatures to be roaming around.

Alice decided to find somewhere she could spend the night following the curve of the ceiling.

Unable to find anywhere that would be safe alone, she kept moving one step after another. The Sun continued to set, and the room grew darker and darker.

Panic started to creep into her head, as the fear of the unknown crept into her mind, along with being away from her family for the first time in her life.

She was about to give up and turn for home. Her eyes having grown up in the perpetual darkness of her home started to adjust to the gloom. But this was a different kind of darkness, unfamiliar and foreboding.

With every rustle of paper and the click of a pebble far below, her imagination ran wild, and she started to think of what could be hiding in the shadows. With every sound the monsters multiplied.

Suddenly the room started to brighten, shadows withdrew, and tiny shards of glass on the distant floor sparkled. As the light grew, the shadows withdrew further, and her fear subsided. What was this magic, where was the light coming from?

She moved further around the curve of the ceiling, her excitement growing once more.

There, through the broken window, was the most magnificent sight. A sky full of millions upon millions of tiny sparks, each twinkling and dancing to its own tune. Alice could not believe her eyes, having never seen stars before. Her Grandma had told stories of how the sun chased the moon and other fantastic tales of the world outside, but neither she nor her brother genuinely believed them. Even now seeing with her own eyes, Alice felt disbelief that something so beautiful, so mesmerising, could exist.

The thought of sleep and the ache in her legs had receded to the back of her mind, as she was now feeling a renewed energy with the urge to see more.

She walked along the ceiling towards the broken window, through which the stars shone. The glass had long ago fallen to the ground. Alice could smell the cool autumn breeze, flowing through the now-defunct frame.

No spider alive had been outside the shop, and so few had been beyond the borders of their home. None would have dared to think of such an adventure.

What dangers lurked outside she did not know. As her mind wandered, she paused, but, adrenaline flowing, she thought to herself that she could not stop now.

The wooden frame had cracked with age, after so long without mankind’s help to repair the damage caused by the sun the paint blistered, worn, and cold to the touch. Slowly, she climbed the ridge of the empty frame and into the long-abandoned human world.

In the sky was the most beautiful sight. With no smog or pollution caused by the machines of mankind, no artificial light from the now-broken, rusted streetlamps. There in the clear and star-filled night sky was the moon, floating

like a magical orb, huge round and bright, bigger than anything Alice could have ever imagined.

Alice stood and stared for an eternity. The moon shone back at Alice, watching her from afar, neither of them any wiser that in the shadows there was someone or something else watching them.

Settling down in an old, rusted pipe, Alice (who had no idea what its use would have been) felt a sense of safety from its warmth and the moonlight which shone in. She soon fell asleep wishing her family were there to see these amazing sights. She knew if they were there, they would only have argued and convinced her to return to the darkness under the floorboards.

In the shadows the watcher stayed, watching Alice’s sleeping form, puzzling over this creature so white and small!

The watcher in the shadows had defended these lands for so long, and this strange, ghost-white creature was not going to destroy the peace. He decided to wait and see what this strange creature was going to do

Alice woke, hunger in her tummy. She had been hungry before, but the adventures from the previous day had taken its toll, and now she felt exhausted.

Climbing down from the pipe. The sun was rising and the beauty from the night before had been replaced by a deep red light. Alice needed to find food. Slowly and reluctantly, she headed back inside, knowing that within the dust there would be mites.

Not her favourite food but needs must, and these would keep her going until she could find a more satisfying meal.

The climb down was easier. She spun a thread and lowered herself to the floor. Her hunger was starting to grow, and she was feeling more unwell than she had in her entire life. She became weak and her mind fuzzy, then off to her side she thought she saw movement, something in the shadows. Alice was not sure if it was her mind playing tricks on her, but she sensed she was being watched.

“Don't be silly. They were just stories to get little spiders to behave,” she scolded herself, letting her mind run away with itself.

She kept moving, looking for anything to eat, kicking up dust as she went, but no mites were to be found. She looked around hoping to find anything. Even moss would be welcome right now. Her Gran had shown her and her brother the best things to eat, and Alice paid attention to her Granny since they shared the same taste for adventure and the same desire for more than the spider way of living.

The dust laid thick on the floor, undisturbed for so many years, with no sign of anyone having been there before. Alice had trouble walking through the deep layers of dust, like a mountaintop covered in fresh snow; not that she had ever seen snow. They had lived in the darkness below the floorboards with extraordinarily few changes in weather.

Just perpetual dusk, slightly colder in the winter and humid in the summer.

She turned the corner of an old bookshelf, towering meters above her. It was covered in more dust. She looked at the rows of books, unsure what the lettering said, and wished again that she could read. What would these books tell her, what magic hid inside their worn and faded covers!

There in the distance, she smiled to see a patch of mushrooms growing in a shadowy corner just out of reach from the beams of light from the burning red sun.

Excited, she scampered over fighting through the dust, trying not to choke as each footstep caused an eruption of tiny particles. The joy of finding this bounty made her forget her surroundings. Grabbing at the closest mushroom, it looked as if it could only have just burst through the thin layer of dirt it sat on. Her mouth watered at the thought of the tasty looking morsel. With her attention on the mushroom, Alice was unaware of the creature stalking her, and as she took a mouthful, the beast pounced.

Pinned to the floor, its jaws snapped at Alice. Alice struggled, striking out with her legs, and trying to fight her way free, the way she would when fighting with her brothers. Though she was not small for her age, this creature was so much bigger and stronger.