There was a time when Jessica Langford wouldn't have even considered sitting behind a desk all day. A decade back, she'd been far too adventerous for such things - continuing on her family's lucrative business interests had been the farthest thing from her mind. No, the raven-haired girl had come right out of college with an archaeological degree, a fistful of her family's money, and every intention of trotting around the world, uncovering ancient artifacts and learning about the past. Much more exciting than some stuffy office job.
And for the first couple of years, it had been everything she dreamed of. Plenty of long, dreary days doing reserach, but it was a hundred times more fascinating than any financial document. And in between, she got to travel constantly, visiting all sorts of interesting places, meeting interesting people. Her speciality in Central and South American cultures lead to plenty of trying yet exciting jungle hikes and mountain climbs, visiting some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. She'd unearth treasures not seen by human eyes for thousands of years, making a bit of a name for herself in the process.
With a grunt Jessica dropped to the floor, her legs forcibly bowing so that she was kneeling before the window, and the traces of moonlight that snuck past the blind. This was always the worst part.
It hadn't seemed all that unusual when she first visited that pyramid. An ancient Mayan construct, alleged by the locals to be a cursed temple dedicated to some long-forgotten deity. She'd heard talk of curses before, and as usual, she disregarded it as mere superstition. Merrily she had blustered on inside, amazed at the discovery of some previously-unknown mythological figure. Thoughts of global recognition had swirled in her head as she breached the inner sanctum - dashed only when she found herself bit by that damn spider.
Even now, as the heat began to burn in her legs, its fires couldn't match the rage she felt towards that goddamn arachnid. Such a little thing, sleek, black; it had sunk its fangs into her legs as she busied herself with studying the sanctum's engravings. Understandably, she had rushed back out to seek medical attention, being administered with an antidote and spending the night back in town to rest up. Oh, if she'd had an inlking of what was to happen, she would've crawled back to that pyramid, just to ensure that what unfolded did so in privacy.
The flesh of her legs felt like it was on fire, and it might as well have been as it began to melt, for lack of a better term. What had been a pair of long, lissom legs lost definition, her firm buttocks going with them into the form of a large, fleshy mass. She had already grabbed a rag and bitten down on it, both to preserve her tongue and to help muffle the cries of pain that she began to make. She had learned the hard way how essential such a thing was - more than once, Jessica had come close to biting off her own tongue.
Slivers of moonlight peeking through the blinds reminded her of what had poured in through the window that first night. Tossing and turn in her sleep, she'd thought perhaps the antidote wasn't working, that the venom from the bit still afflicted her. Oh, how right she had been. The first time she had seen her legs melt, Jessica had truly thought she was going to die. If she hadn't picked such a well-insulated room, someone would've surely heard her screams and come to investigate. Probably would've ended with someone shooting her when they saw what she was becoming.
Slowly the mass began to shift backwards, what had once been her rear end growing out into a bulbous shape. Her hands gripped the carpet as the pain surged ever greater, concentrated to its strongest degree in eight points, four each along opposing sides of her now-rounded abdomen. The entire lower section of her body, from just below her womanhood and all the way to the back, rapidly shifting to a black color. This change in hue was synchonized with an alteration to the material, skin hardening up into an exoskeleton that split into plates. The blood that was briefly released by every split quickly spread along the edges, becoming a dark crimson trim.
It had been lucky that her father was so desperate to get her to stay at home, participating in the family trade. When her extensive research and questioning around town had revealed the nature of what had cursed her, Jessica had realized she had no chance in hell of safely continuing her adventures. She despised this office, this way of life... but the agony that surged through her as eight slender, sleek, black-plated legs tore out of her lower abdomen was a reminder that she needed the security and stability of this place. The alternative was far too dangerous.
The points of her legs sunk into the floor, their wiry muscles forcing her now much-heavier body to stand up. Even with the eight spidery limbs bent as they normally were, she was easily ten feet tall now, from the top of her head to the bottom of her many limbs - so many people had commented on her excessively high ceilings without truly realizing why she needed them. The bulbous shape behind her now-segmented abdomen had fully formed into the rear of her spider form, complete with a spinnerette.
She had thought, at first, that this would be the only place she might produce a spider's silk from. How silly a notion that now seemed.
Her hands had already squeezed around her chest as the next wave of the change washed over her. Before she'd been cursed, Jessica had been modestly endowed at best; these days, she had to bind them just so they didn't appear to be absurdly large. A mystical boob job, she could have lived with... but the appearance of six spots, in two columns of three down her chest and stomach, heradled the intolerable part. The thing had driven her intense focus on back excercises in every fitness routine she'd practiced over the past decade.
Agonizing though it was, there was still pleasure that surged up her body as a dozen lumps of flesh began to grow from her torso. A simple reality of how sensitive half those lumps were, really. The three extra pairs of arms were the fist to rip out of her body, surging out to give her four limbs on each side. Plates exactly like those covering her abdomen and legs developed on them from hands to elbow, though by then, all eight of her hands were busy grasping at the rows of breasts forming on her front. The flesh swelled like ballons, filling up quickly and squishing under her own immensely strong new grip. She moaned, having once remembered hating the erotic feeling of her extra endowments; by now, she simply accepted it as the one good part of the transformation.
By the time all eight mammaries had reached their full mass, the pain had already rippled up to her face for the final alteration. She had been lucky not to end up with a spider's mandibles... but there was another bit of horror awaiting instead. Her forehead burned, boiling as its whole area quickly began to split, opening for the emergence of six more eyes. They were smaller in comparison to her own eyes, all eight irises briefly glowing as they took on a dark red hue. Her screams of pain had mixed with screams of pleasure, and with the last element of the curse's change, the energy within her surged to her most sensitive regions, providing a hefty kick to her libido. Unable to hold back any longer, she squeezed hard on all eight nipples, and in unison they sprayed out a silky substance - what would have been milk, replaced with a spider's webbing.
The drider could finally take stock of herself as she began to calm down. In so many years she had grown accustomed to this form - but she still had to look herself over in that full-length mirror, just to remind herself that the nightmare hadn't ended. Until the sun rose once more, she would be this monster, a many-legged, many-armed, many-breasted freak. A drider, as the myths called it, staring at her own reflection with tears welling in all eight eyes as she looked upon herself. All because she had insisted on plunging into some ancient ruin, against endless advice not to do so.
"Some adventurer you were," she muttered to her reflection in shame.