Within the depths of an unknown location in what appears to be a cave, lay hundreds of spider eggs about to begin a new stage of life.
They all surround their mother who also seems eager for their hatching, one by one they break free from their shells, crawling and crushing their way through the barriers into their new environment, a dark and dreary place only illuminated by rocks exposed to years of radiation and some sort of luminous leachings that aid to give the walls an eerie glow, a place where the only sound that can be heard is the drip, drip, drip of water from the stalactites.
The air is thick with humidity, for a human it would be most difficult to breathe but none of that matters to the hundreds of organisms in that very atmosphere.
The mother spider gazes down at her offspring, her magnanimous size and imposing presence a stark contrast to the tiny insignificant forms of those below her, she raises one of her legs equipped at the end with a long sharp claw—
And impales one of her unsuspecting children.
Bringing it close to her mouth, the mother spider began to feast on her children, those too weak to fight back and those too slow to run away. Or perhaps the offspring were more preoccupied with hunger of their own.
A violent and macabre dance had begun, the true side of nature had been exposed, eat or be eaten; natural selection had taken place, and the ground was covered with remains of cannibalistic acts.
But one offspring, in particular, seemed to stand out, the different colours and patterns were hard not to notice and its seemingly disinterest in the gross acts of violence its siblings were committing only made it more peculiar
The little spider ventured a bit further down the cave, away from the rest of its kind and stumbled upon the corpse of a strange animal, very small and seemingly fresh, it resembled a mosquito, with strange purple-tinted blood still pouring out of its wounds.
The spider, most likely ecstatic with its find, wasted no time and started devouring it whole, armed with nothing but a voracious appetite, the spider finished its meal.
Meanwhile, the energy drastically shifted somewhere in the depths of the soul of such a small, weak and inconsequential being.
No, you really opened your eyes. Like that one time in kindergarten when you became aware of yourself and your surroundings.
Without warning, a torrent of memories came flooding through your head, vivid images and emotions cascading one after the other, your friends, family, and neighbours. It was like an overwhelming stream of information all coming in all at once.
A wave of dizziness passed over you. Wait, you had to get things straight. When in a strange situation, try to recall as much information as possible. Here goes nothing—
Your name is [Name] [Lastname], nineteen years old, turning twenty next year, an overworked college student who chose forensic science as a major and also pursuing a crime scene processing degree.
You last remember being in your apartment when a series of rather unfortunate events took place before you…
Wait, you died? But if you're dead, then why the hell are you even here? Where is here, and what are you?!
You should just calm down, panicking at a time like this wasn't rational. First things first, where were you? It looked kind of like a cave system of some sort. Great! That means if you made your way to the top, you could get out.
Now for the more important question, what are you, you noticed that your scope of vision was much wider than a human's, it's like you had a full three-sixty-degree vision.
Ok, that's actually cool.
You look back to the carnage unfolding behind you and see hundreds of spiders all surrounded by a larger much more menacing spider. It looked to be around ten feet tall compared to an average male human and littered across its body were tiny hairs and rather intricate markings, unlike any spider you had ever seen before.
Another strange feature you noticed was on the tips of each leg, the endings of every leg had a razor-sharp blade that glinted menacingly in the dimly lit cave. You noticed that the other tiny spiders around her were identical to her.
Going over to a tiny puddle of water you observed your own features and sure enough were the same as hers and everyone else's, except you noticed that your colour and markings were vastly different.
Well, that confirmed one thing, those were your mother and siblings
Huh, I'm a spider in this life. That kind of sucked because you couldn't think of a single thing you had done which was seemingly bad enough to warrant your next life being a cave spider.
You tried out your locomotion, and walking on eight legs seemed to come naturally to you, it seemed webbing wasn't a problem either. As you continued to test run these newfound features you stepped on something.
It was a dead animal, hold on, could it even be considered that? The flesh was an unsightly hue of purple blotched with patches of yellow and orange with green secretions leaking out from time to time.
Now if you were still a human, this sight would simultaneously make you cry, vomit and shit your pants. But it seemed like you were unaffected by this gory visual.
Against your better judgement, you moved closer towards the carcass, noticing that it didn’t look like any animal you’d seen before. Maybe, the biology of animals was different in this world, which would be a pain since that means that you would be seeing more of them later in this cave while you made your way to the top.
Suddenly, the tiny hairs littered across your body seemed to stand on edge as you sensed a familiar presence coming up behind you. It was your mother and it looked like she was done feasting on your brothers and sisters and was preparing to leave the cave.
You had to follow her as silently as possible because while she was your ticket out of here, she could also be your ticket into the afterlife should she spot you and kill you instantly.
Quietly stalking behind your gigantic spider mother you were careful to always keep a good distance away from her so she couldn't sense your presence and attack and if she did try to attack, you would have a good headstart due to the running distance. You just hoped it didn’t have to come to that.
You took note of your surroundings, from the glowing cave worms and insects that you had to force yourself to eat to the entire cave layout. You noticed how easy it was for your mother to navigate and breeze through all obstacles that seemed to come her way.
As you stared you couldn't help but feel a wave of admiration wash over you, it may just be wishful thinking, but you hoped you could be as strong as that one day.
What the hell am I even thinking? The appeal of strength wasn’t lost on you, to be strong was a necessity and those who failed to achieve it were considered weak, only to serve as stepping stones for the strong to achieve even greater strength.
But if that was the case, weren't those who were considered weak see that as a source of strength? Therefore that would make the strong weak for having to rely on those weaker than them to achieve strength.
Ugh, this is getting confusing. I don't have time to—
You felt your hair stand on edge again, but this time an urgent feeling seemed to possess your entire being, urging you to flee, hide, and run away.
Something is here. Watching through the shadows.
It was hunting. And you were its unfortunate prey.
Well not you actually, It seemed not to have noticed you yet.
+1000 aura for not attacking you.
But that also means that your mother was the target.
Wtf?! NONONO go awayyy!!, -1000000 aura for attacking your walking ticket outta here!!
You sensed the figure move, seemingly changing its stance, ready to strike.
If your mother didn’t make it out of this alive then you would wait until it was distracted and make a mad dash back to where you came from, then again that was if you managed to stay alive by the time this whole fiasco was over.
You hurriedly skittered away to the nearest rock and hid there, peeking out just a bit to watch the confrontation.
Immediately after you hid, the assailant surged out of the shadows with a right claw raised ready to strike. When it got close enough it unleashed its claw in a swift, deadly arc aimed to kill on impact—
Only for it to stop completely.
It had all occurred in a split second and your eyes seemed to automatically zone in on the scene in front of you and you took note of the assailant's form.
It looked like a lizard, except for the fact that it was around eight feet tall, making your mother considerably taller than it in size but made up for its muscle mass. It also appeared to have gigantic claws armed with razor-shape fingertips that had a green secretion which you presumed to be poison.
Another key thing you noted was the apparent cause of its sudden immobility and that sent a chill through your body.
Its head was impaled by your mother's leg.
The sharp edges ripped right through its skull and lifted high in the air, you could clearly make out pieces of skull, flesh and brain matter still fresh and dripping with blood hanging from the serrated edges.
But how? You saw how fast that thing moved, your eyes couldn’t even keep up. Your mother impaled it like it was made of butter.
The leg your mother used to kill the beast lowered, dropping it to the floor and she continued walking like nothing ever happened, you noticed that she was walking much more slowly compared to her walking speed before.
Was she tired, injured or perhaps was she.. was…
No, that’s impossible, she couldn’t have been right. Or else you would surely be dead by now. You still hadn’t come out of your hiding spot and you noticed she settled down farther away from you.
You emerged from your hiding spot while still having your guard up and approached the carcass. It was like you were in a trance, whispers filling your mind commanding you to feast.
The urge was too strong and you extended your jaw wide and tore through the flesh. The taste was disgusting and the smell was worse, it was spoilt and rancid all at the same time but you couldn't bring yourself to stop.
More and more you ate and ate and ate. You don’t even remember how much you ate before a burning sensation engulfed your body followed by an icy chill that seemed to flow right to your soul.
The world was spinning, colours dancing around your vision, a constant buzzing noise that rang through your mind, You were not sure if you were imagining it but could hear a voice in your mind, it was faint but it was there.
You tried to concentrate despite the chaos erupting in your mind, the voice was getting clearer now.
“System …locked ….alter…ego… appraisal…. Subject… [Name]... …wakening….”
The voice seemed to slip further and further into your mind, you tried to use your remaining willpower to concentrate back on it but it seemed fate had other plans.
Because you promptly blacked out.
