Tavia

Endings, such horrible and dark things that plague our lives. Some people say that the end of one thing is the start of something new. However each and every person must stare down the final end. I stand on the edge of my own. With every tick of the clock is another inch closer to the reaper’s blade. I feel him drawing close now but before our meeting I must explain how I met my fate. The end of my everything began with the death of Mr. McKay.

Mr. McKay was the kind but reclusive man from down the street. He would always have a friendly smile and wave for anyone who crossed paths with him. Despite that he was rarely seen at neighborhood parties or functions. My parents explained that at one time he and his wife were incredibly social but life has a way of wrecking a person. Apparently his wife was pregnant with their first child and late in the pregnancy she had an internal rupture that took both mother and child in the process. I had always felt bad for the man and perhaps It was his grief that killed him in the end.

Rumors in the town spread about his death but no one could quite agree on the circumstances. Some reports say suicide while others say he simply passed peacefully in his sleep. One way or another the smiling man we all knew was gone.

He had no real family in the area so they were forced to hold an estate sale for all his possessions. It was there that the object that would seal my fate was acquired. My 16th birthday was coming up and I asked my parents for a laptop. While I never expressed what type of laptop I wanted, an 8 year old one, from a dead man’s auction was definitely not what I pictured.

However I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and I gladly took my new laptop. I was unsurprised to find that there had been a complete system and memory wipe done on the computer. However to those such as myself with a little bit of tech knowledge even seemingly deleted things could still be recovered. I want to say that I left well enough alone but my curiosity got the better of me and I restored his computer.

What I found locked away was a little disappointing at first. It would seem as though Mr. McKay only used the computer to play solitaire and use his email to keep track of his utilities. I was about to call the multiple hours I spent a wash when I did find one little interesting nook in a program called Tavia.

Clicking the link opened a webcam to a dimly lit room with a small bed in front of it. The whole place looked dingy and run down. The set up rang of a low budget porn set and I began to wonder if that was indeed what he was viewing. I Imagine losing one’s wife would prove to be very lonely and maybe this was his outlet instead of remarrying.

I closed the program and that should have been the end of the matter but once again curiosity got the better of me. My mind kept darting back to the feed. At first I thought maybe whoever was on the other end might come back and then I could solve the mystery of what it was for. It became like a book or a game you couldn’t put down and I kept checking back to it while surfing the net.

Over the days it was quickly becoming an obsession. I even had it open while I slept in case I should open it and find something. One night I woke up and could have sworn that I saw shadowy movement in the corner but by the time I got close to the screen it was vacant as ever.

The next morning I was walking by the computer and almost froze in my tracks. Someone was laying in the bed. There, curled up in a little ball was a young woman. She couldn’t have been more than 20 and to say that she was skinny would be an understatement. This woman was emaciated, with dingy clothes simply hanging off of her. Her face bore an expression of absolute hopelessness. It was as if she was simply waiting to die.

I began to war with the idea that my porn theory was correct however this was not his idea of sexy. This felt criminal and disturbing. Perhaps it was some sort of dark web fetish property. The girl was likely missing or lured in by shady men. That was when a horrifying thought crossed my mind. What if Mr. McKay was a kidnapper? He was very secretive and always wanted children. Was it out of the possibility that he could hide a young girl and raise her somewhere.

Horror rushed through my mind at the possibility but it was nothing compared to the next thought. She was going to die. With her captor now dead there would be no one to take care of her. I could tell that based on the state of her body she didn’t have long to live.

My mind went into a panic. Where could she be held? His house was empty but she must be somewhere close by. Inspiration hit me like a ton of bricks and I went into his email looking for a clue. It didn’t take me long to find that he owned a small patch of land not far from his house. I knew that was where she had to be. I rushed from the house leaving all logic at the door. I should have simply called the police but my desire to be a hero prevented me from even thinking about it. If I had then I wouldn’t be on death’s door nor would have I witnessed the absolute terror that I did.

I dashed through the woods leading to the address in the email. All the while I kept seeing the woman’s and the hopelessness in her eyes. I had to save her and I only prayed that I was not too late. I burst into a clearing. According to GPS on my phone this was the place that McKay owned. There was no building, not even a cabin in sight. My heart pounded in panic. What if I had gotten it wrong? Did I just doom this young woman? That was when I nearly tripped over a small handle sticking out of the ground.

My heart skipped a beat and I began rapidly removing the foliage around the handle to discover a small homemade hatch in the ground. I became exhilarated and wasted no time in wrenching it open. The first thing to hit me was the smell. A horrible stench forced its way up and assaulted my senses. My heart began to race because this was a smell that almost everyone knows by instinct. It was the smell of death and decay.

I forced myself to ignore it and began calling down the tunnel. “Hello are you alright down there? Come towards my voice! Hello, is anyone there?” Silence met my shouts and fear rushed through me. I did not want to go down that ladder and into that stench but I was left with no choice.

Rung after rung I made my slow descent down the ladder. To my surprise the lower I went the warmer and more humid it became. This felt familiar somehow but at the time I couldn’t put my finger on it. Finally I arrived at the bottom and found myself drenched in dim lighting and that same horrible odor.

I attempted to call out again but was met with that same eerie silence. I knew I was going to have to go and bring her out myself. I slowly made my way through the tunnels of the bunker and a strange sense of dread overwhelmed me. I do not know why but that eerie feeling you get when being watched seemed to fill me.

The bunker served as a mystery to me. The walls were all metal but the floors seemed to be covered in a strange soil that was definitely not natural dirt. A thin almost fog seemed to linger near the soil and once again I was filled with that odd sense of familiarity that I couldn’t quite place.

I cautiously turned a corner and what I saw stopped me dead in my tracks. There in the middle of the small room was a baby’s crib. Horror and rage flooded my system. A baby, he took this woman as a baby. I knew that Mr. McKay wanted a child but to go to this lengths was beyond horrific.

I approached the crib and right away noticed someone was horribly wrong. The sides were all horribly slashed from the inside. In addition there were strange dried purple stains all over it along with long black hairs. Just who or what was placed in there? The more pressing question was where were they now?

Natural instinct told me to get back to the hatch but I knew that woman still had to be in here somewhere. I forced myself to go on in spite of my fear. The bunker was much larger than expected with many tunnels leading in different directions. I began to notice long gray and purple strands of strings or cable hidden in the corners.

I stepped into a new room and felt something crunch under my feet. I looked down and was unable to stifle the scream that erupted from my throat. Littered all across the floor were bones and animal skeletons. They ranged in size and species from rats to seemingly even jungle cats. My brain screamed for me to get out of here but that is when I saw the dingy bedroom from my computer screen.

I ignored all feelings of dread and rushed into the room. The room was filled with small toys and books. Some of them looked at least 20 years old. My dark theories of lifetime captivity were starting to take hold. I searched the room frantically but the woman was nowhere to be found.

I began to lose hope but then something in a magazine on the bed caught my eye. There, plastered on the cover of the magazine was the woman I saw on my computer. She looked less starved but there was no mistaking her face. I checked the date in the magazine to discover it was from the late 90’s. How could this woman still look like she did over 25 years ago? How did she get here and where was she? I looked up and to my shock my last question was answered.

Laying across the room in another tunnel was the body of the captive woman. It was completely lifeless with a large tear in her back. I began to shake wondering who could have done that. Mr. McKay was dead. Who else could have known about this hatch? I inched my way closer to the body to examine the wound. As I got closer I knew immediately that something was not adding up. The wound was definitely not caused by any blade for it came from the inside. It wasn’t a slash but almost more of an internal rip. Inside I could see purple ooze and more long black hairs. This didn’t look quite like a murder and more of….

“A molt!” I screamed aloud. A creature shedding an old body to make way for a larger one. Suddenly all the bad feelings I had since coming here fell into place. The unnatural humidity, the strange soil, the threads in the corners and now a molted body on the floor all led me to a horrifying realization. I was standing in a giant spider terrarium.

I heard a small series of rapid footsteps coming down a tunnel and in spite of desperately not wanting to, I turned towards them. What I saw next could only have lasted less than a couple of seconds but my mind captured every movement in horrible and vivid detail. It has been playing in my head on repeat ever since and I know it will play in my final moments.

A set of spiny legs appeared in the opening moving with both great speed and horrifying slowness. The rest of the arachnid followed and the sight of it stopped my blood cold. It was dark purple and covered in long black spiky hairs. It was about the size of a small jungle cat and moved with just as much grace. As it approached the middle of the opening it’s 8 legs started to snap together turning them into humanoid arms and legs. The sound of the bones snapping made me want to become physically ill.

It’s posture began to change. The thorax began to rear up and crack into a sickly human spine. Its movements altered and it scuttled across the floor on its new four limbs. Finally it disappeared from view and I was left to try to hold together what I could of my sanity.

I don’t know how long I stood there frozen in place by fear and bewilderment. The only thing that was able to get me moving again was a horrible realization. “The hatch.” I screamed. It was heading for the hatch. I bolted down the tunnel doing my best to remember what way I had come. I came across the crib which had been knocked to the floor and shattered. The creature had come this way and it was not happy.

I saw a pillar of light at the end of the tunnel and I broke into a full blown sprint. I wasn’t too late. I would get out of here and lock that monster down here to starve. I made my way to the light and looked up. To my absolute horror the hatch was closing and I was able to only glimpse a flash of sunlight before the hatch slammed down cutting off the sunlight forever.

I stood there shaking in disbelief. This could not be happening. This type of thing simply didn’t happen. I rushed up the ladder and tried the door in vain. No this does not happen. I began slamming my fist against the cold steel with the only effect achieved being bleeding knuckles. I tried driving my fingers under the lid and pulling until my nails split. I screamed in the void even though I knew it would do no good. “This doesn’t happen!” I screeched into the void only to be answered by my own echo.

I finally gave up and began trudging my way through the tunnels that I was now forced to call home. This whole situation felt like a horrible nightmare but the pain in my hands obliterated that theory. I strolled around looking for anything that could even spark my sense of hope. I found what I would consider the kitchen but all that was in there was a large water jug with only a few drops remaining. With the humidity I knew I would only last a few days at best down here.

I made my way back to the bedroom hoping to sleep away what remained of my life. As I made my way inside I noticed something that my panic induced mind from before missed. Across from the bed was a computer screen complete with a webcam. While I knew there had to be a camera, what I was not prepared for was a screen showing me in my bedroom at home. The laptop must have its own camera that connects with this one. My blood froze at the thought that this creature was watching me this whole time. I know it took the form of the woman to lure me here and I feel for it hook line and sinker. I avoided all logic and took off like some desperate hero. I was blinded and now I am paying the price. I have unleashed a nightmare beyond measure upon the world.

A shadow moved across my bed on the screen and thought for a moment I had salvation. However, what entered the screen I was not prepared for. Standing there was the spider creature however it no longer resembled an arachnid. It bore an almost entirely human form with white skin and limbs. It had my shaggy brown hair and wore clothes from my closet.

The only arachnid feature was it’s face which bore a pair of long pincers and eight jet black eyes. Slowly more white skin enveloped his face looking like someone poured wax over it. Slowly ridges and crevices began forming. A nose with unevenly sized nostrils pushed out. Two holes hollowed out and a pair of ice blue eyes pushed forth. A long crevice that was my mouth slowly took shape and rows of teeth so much like my own but with slightly sharper points came forth.

I stood looking at a mirror image of myself and I was struck silent. The fiend stared at me for a moment and a sickly macabre grin formed over its face. I could hear my mother call from downstairs. “Jerry, it’s dinner time.” The beast grinned wider, flashing those sharp teeth. “Indeed.” It said in a perfect imitation of my own voice. Then it shut the laptop, leaving me in my own private hell.

Credit: Tenac