“I’m sorry, Charlotte. But this one I can’t help you with.” “Why not, Nancy? What makes this one that you can’t deal with it?” Nancy was too busy trying to lock up Charlotte’s bedroom door to try to answer back. “Is it because you are afraid of me, Nancy?” Once Nancy heard the solid “click” from the door, she could breathe a sigh of relief. But it was a short-lived moment when she heard another click from the door.
The only source of light in the household was the living room down the hall, a light that illuminated the terrifying monster in the doorway. The monster may have her friend’s upper body and mind, but even that had slightly changed. The beastly thing had dark skin that goes well with her furrier lower body. Her face has developed smaller eyes over her main eyes that are partially hidden by her darker, brown hair. Although Nancy hates to admit it, she can see that her intruder’s nails are naturally painted pink.
But when she looks down at where her legs would be, Nancy’s heart damn near beat right out of her chest. It was like a more horrific version of a centaur (and slightly more commonplace than the cowtaur) but with more legs. Instead of the nice coat of hair that mammals have, her disturbing body is covered with fuzz and prickly hairs. Its darker color almost made her invisible in the dimly lit room, except for her “feet” which are the same pink coloration as her nails.
Standing a solid few feet above Nancy was Charlotte, transformed into the very thing that frightened her the most, into a spider. “I knew I should’ve taken all the paperclips before locking myself in,” chide Nancy before trying to hide from her friend once more. “Nancy, can you please stop running away? It’s very hard to walk around with all of these legs.” Charlotte tried to approach the panicking woman, reaching out toward her with her pinked hand in an attempt to calm her down.
But Nancy was frightened to death and back about all sorts of things that have more than four legs and so she tried to jump away from her friend as her fight-or-flight response kicked in. But as she ran around the massive fuzzy behinds of Charlotte, seeing her abdomen and spinnerets that spiders are known for, Nancy closed her eyes and blindly ran past to escape this nightmare.
But in her attempt to escape the insanity that is Charlotte, she had run into something. She felt a sticky sensation and no matter how much she struggled to get out of it, its threadlike material wouldn’t break. Fearing for the worst, Nancy opened her eyes to see that she had run into a gigantic, white web that spans across the entire hallway. With no escape in sight for the terror-stricken woman, Nancy fainted in Charlotte’s web.
A few hours later, with the light of dawn beaming through the window, Nancy woke up. “Man, I had a terrible nightmare last night Charlotte,” Nancy said while rubbing her eyes after a yawn. “Really, what happened?” “I dreamt that you have turned into a spider and that you caught me in your webs. Thankfully it was just a dream.” “Right, dream.” Nancy hears her friend chuckling in the background. “So what did you transform into today?” Nancy opened her eyes for the first time this morning, seeing Charlotte with the lower body of a spider, holding a tray of breakfast in her hand.
One panic attack later and a couple of sheets to cover Charlotte’s body for Nancy’s sanity, Nancy buried herself into her computer to avoid looking at her corrupted friend. “Well, it said here that you are now called a Drider, which is another centaur as we both now know exists.” Charlotte, making as little movement as to not scare Nancy anymore than she had, looked at her colored hands. “That I understand, the part that I don’t is that why am I a fuzzy spi-“.
“DO NOT SAY THAT WORD!!” Nancy screams at Charlotte, causing her to flinch at the outcry. “I’m sorry for shouting out like that. But I have a serious case of arachnophobia, always had it since I was little. Even the word gets me on edge.” After composing herself, Nancy continued her discovery of this new change. “As for the reason why you look different than a normal sp-, that word, is that you are a …” Nancy tapped a few keys on her laptop and quickly turned it so that Charlotte could see the screen.
“Pink Toe Tarantula” was in the search bar, with a few images below it showing a dark tarantula with pink tips on its eight legs. Lifting her sheets enough to see her legs, Charlotte found that they looked very similar. Well, except for the size and that her body had replaced its head.
“When you’re done looking at it, can you delete the page? I don’t want to see it when I get my computer back.” Charlotte promptly did just that and returned it to Nancy, who was hesitant about handling it once more. “So if you don’t mind, I’m going to go shopping because someone ate the entire kitchen yesterday.” Charlotte, feeling slightly guilty about her craving, looks down in shame. “How long will you be gone?” Nancy hesitated before answering the loaded question from Charlotte.
“I know you need help dealing with this change, but I am having a hard time getting used to this too. I am even fighting myself just to talk to you now. So I think it is safe to say that I won’t come back until tomorrow. I am sorry for this Charlotte, but I have to do it.” And with that, Nancy left Charlotte’s home for the day. Leaving the poor spider-girl alone with her webs for company.