"You're disgusting. Just kill them."
"Dad, they're living creatures. I don't want to kill them." I said as I opened the front door and
set the spider outside.
"Today you, tomorrow me, okay?" I'd whisper every time I let one of them outside. I don't exactly
know why I did that. I like spiders, so I guess I just want them to feel safe. Well, safe from
dad.
"If I see one of those fuckers come back to my house, you're gonna end up in a hospital, you hear
me?"
"Yeah dad, sure." I wasn't terrified of him at this point, just exhausted. Exhausted from the
constant threats, the constant fight or flight feeling I had in me when talking to him. It felt
like every time he opened that big mouth of his to blabber that he just can't finish a sentence
without adding one, or two, swear words.
I went up the stairs, and slightly turned back, and let out a quiet sigh. I was going to my room to study. Sitting in my chair, I brought out my pencil case, notebooks, headphones, and ear plugs. Seems contradictory, yes, but those ear plugs served a good purpose. I wouldn't hear the music that well as I studied, but I at least couldn't hear dad. As I was climbing those stairs I saw dad go to "his" cupboard. I say "his" because that's where he'd put all of his alcohol. This early? I thought. It's the middle of the day, I just came home from class. He usually doesn't drink until way later when mom comes home. "Whatever," I said to myself, "I just have to focus on my studies now. Dad can wait until later."
I put on my ear plugs, then my headphones, and on my computer I started playing some music. I was doing my homework first, for an hour or so, and I already started hearing dad slamming, what I hoped were his fists, at the counter. Ugh, here we go again. The ear plugs usually worked, but I just couldn't concentrate that well. His drinking problem got worse and worse as the days went on. I tried silencing these thoughts by turning up the music, and it helped for the time being.
I was getting really close to finishing that homework now, it was actually a report for my
journalism class, and was about to write the last paragraph, when all of a sudden I felt an
object whiz past me. I looked at what was thrown at me, and it was an empty bottle of liquor.
Ugh, now I have to clean this up. I was startled a little bit, but it's not like this is the
first time it happened. I knew that dad was standing in my doorway.
"You son a bitch." he said angrily as he raised and opened his hand, revealing a dead spider in
his palm.
"What did I say about these spiders coming back to my fucking house?" he asked.
"Sorry, dad, I guess you accidentally left the door to the backyard open, and they somehow got in.
I'll close it and clean up the mess, as soon as I finish my homework." I said, trying to calm both
him and myself down. He really was not happy.
I was hoping that he would go back downstairs, as this type of response usually shuts him up, but
it didn't. As I turned my head back to my paper, I felt a fist hit my left cheek, almost like a
rock was thrown at me, and that punch knocked me from my chair.
"We're being sly now, are we? I kept telling you to kill them, but you never listen to me. You
never do. I tried keeping my composure, but I didn't raise no bitch." He said as he grabbed me by
my throat.
I couldn't fight, I was helpless. I accepted my fate that day. Dad was drunk, and I had no way to
defend myself. Screaming "Help!" was pointless, but I kept doing it. I kept yelling for help as
dad kept repeatedly shoving his fist in my face.
"Help?" Dad chuckled. "There's no one to help, you pussy. I raised you to be a man, not a bitch."
I stopped thinking at that point, I stopped caring. But in a turn of events, his grip loosened.
I fell to the ground and immediately backed away. What was happening?
Dad looked behind as his face went from anger to quick fear, as hundreds and hundreds of spiders started crawling on his leg. His attempts to shake them off were pointless. Shaking his body, jumping around, and hitting the spiders repeatedly led to nowhere as more and more of them climbed up his body. He fell onto the ground, gasping for air, as the spiders entered his mouth, his nose, his ears. They were roaming everywhere like ants. Eventually, they all scrammed and disappeared into the darkness of the house.
I was frozen in fear, and it took me a couple of minutes to get up, as I was trying to figure out what
I had just witnessed. My dad was lying there, unconscious, and I couldn't help but smirk a little
bit. I called emergency services just in case, but it was certain, my dad was no more. As I went
downstairs to wait for the doctors to arrive, I noticed a black-like writing on the kitchen wall,
that read:
"Today you, tomorrow me :)"
I couldn't help but feel the outline of my mouth spread and my cheeks widen as I started smiling.
At least in this horror of a house, someone cares.