It's not a good idea to sleep with your mouth open in the presence of spiders. Undead Literature presents a flash fiction short under 500 words by Mark Tompkins.
Swallowed
The spider crawled up the man’s flabby neck and came to rest in his ample beard. His snores vibrated the spider’s feet and swollen abdomen as it picked its way deeper into the coarse hair. She considered laying her brood here, but the air emanating from the man’s mouth intrigued and drew her onward. She extricated herself from the tangled hair and tentatively stepped onto the warm flesh of his lips, alert and ready to move should the man make a sudden move. Having been chased by humans before, she was wary and knew they could be dangerous. However, she sensed no malice from this one and instinctively knew it was in some sort of stasis.
She explored the slightly open fleshy lips, feeling the rush of air as it rhythmically passed before her. She needed someplace safe and of optimum temperature for her eggs to hatch and this seemed like the right place. The noise of his snoring gave her pause, but the breath was comforting so she stopped moving to better assess the safety of her surroundings. Detecting no immediate danger, she crawled over the rim of Aiden’s lips and onto his teeth. The hair on her legs tickled the man and he snorted and swatted at his lips in his sleep. She stiffened and prepared to run, but the assault was unfocused and impotent at best and she crawled further into his mouth, eager to release the eggs and unload the extra burden of their weight. Her swollen egg sack dragged along his tongue leaving a trail of slime as it began to rip free from her body. She wiggled her abdomen and the sac came free, releasing dozens of eggs to slide into the darkness of Aiden’s throat.
She stretched her legs, relieved to have her offspring in their comfortable cocoon, and let the beat of the man’s heart sooth her. After only a few moments, she was fully recovered from the maternal task and began to spin a protective web to keep predators away from her fast-growing eggs.
Aiden awoke suddenly from his slumber. It felt as if he was being choked and he swallowed sharply, inhaling deeply to fill his lungs. Something lumpy slid down his throat, but that fact only registered somewhere deep in his consciousness as he was back asleep in seconds.
The spider wriggled helplessly as it followed its egg brood down into the dark. Wet, fleshy walls closed in on it and it began to suffocate, fighting for survival. It was fighting a losing battle and as it came to rest in a pool of liquid, searing heat snuffed out its life force and its body quickly began to dissolve in Aiden’s stomach acid.
Aiden’s sleeping body reflexively swallowed again as it tried to clear the remaining residue left from the spider family’s passage, and when he awoke in the morning, he was blissfully unaware of the night’s events.
Certainly is horrifying and quite possibly may have happened. Very well described and not for the squeamish.
I was greeted with a dead fly in the bottom of my coffee cup this morning. Since I use a straw, I might have inadvertently sucked that fly up. As it turned out, the fly probably only added flavor had a bit of unwanted bacteria to my coffee. Yummy.
Come to think of it, I wish I'd been at McDonald's this morning instead of at home. $$$
After Satan negotiates a pact with God and unleashes his army of demons, a secret sect battles a diabolical prophecy that threatens humanity.
Release Date: November 21, 2018
Swallowed
