> Hello there! Thank you for reading my little story. I'm a fairly inexperienced author and this is actually my first ever story that I'm sharing publicly.

>

> These first few chapters will deal with the MC's awakening and her orienting herself. I have a rough outline of where I want this story to go so I hope you'll stick around while I try to figure out the details as we go along!

What happened? It was pitch dark. …Where was I? Why did my mind feel… sluggish? It was like there was a mist filling my head. My body felt strange too, was I suspended in something? It was hard to concentrate…

I wasn’t… breathing, was I? It didn’t feel like it anyways. But why was I not asphyxiating? And why could I not move? No matter what I did, all I can feel were my fingers wiggling slightly in front of me. Was I in a foetal position? But why? And why couldn’t I open my eyes?

First things first, try to remember how you ended up here. Ok so… I am… My name is.. It starts with an R… Ruh... Rah… Roh-Robert! Robert… Mallow! Yes! Why was that so hard to remember? So my name is Robert Mallow. A uhh… A student at the University of… I can’t recall. The last thing I can remember is… I believe I was walking… somewhere. Great, very helpful, brain. Where was I walking to? Why is it so hard to remember?

So many questions were popping up inside my mind. But I wasn’t panicking for whatever reason. Was my mind working so slow that it couldn’t even get worked up? Whatever the reason was, I couldn’t dwell on it for too long as a sudden wave of tiredness swept over me, quickly quelling any thoughts that were in my mind as I drifted off to sleep.

…

…..

The sound of muffled… squelching(?) woke me up again. It sounded close yet obstructed. Like it came from behind a thin wall. Focussing as much as I could on my arms, I tried to move them again. Though slowly, I managed to push them out in front of me until I felt something at the edge of my fingertips. It almost felt rubbery and as I slowly moved my arms through the viscous liquid enveloping me, I felt that it extended above and below me in an almost spherical shape. The squelching became more prominent as soft ripples were sent through the liquid surrounding me.

What was happening? Was I inside something?! Get me out!

Slowly clawing my hands, I pressed my fingers into the membrane surrounding me as hard as I could. Though my feeble efforts didn’t seem to do anything, I continued to stab into my weirdly soft prison in the direction of where that strange sound was coming from. It seems like exerting myself like this was taking its toll on me as I slowly felt the pull of sleep grow stronger again. Though fuelled by what must have been fear and a strange compelling feeling I couldn’t quite describe I continued to claw at the wall in front of me until eventually… I felt my finger pierce through the bubble. With a hole created, the wall gave way, tearing open with minimal effort and letting me fall out. I felt whatever I was suspended in previously wash over me before pooling onto the ground underneath me. It was cold and uneven, like some crude stone.

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I was coughing uncontrollably. I felt horrible, like I was about to throw up. And that is exactly what I did. I felt my body convulse as it emptied itself of what I assumed what that same strange liquid. Even my lungs burned, likely due to finally being exposed to air, and I gasped pathetically. I felt my heart beat within my chest as I slowly got my breath under control again. Eventually I was able to meekly push my upper body off of the ground, only to realise that I still could not feel my legs, and fell back down onto my stomach again.

My hair was sticking to my face though I didn’t remember it being this long. How long was I in there? Reaching up to my face to rub my eyes clean of whatever gunk it was that was covering me and push my hair out of the way, I slowly opened them. My vision was strange. It felt like the whole world was weirdly… curved? Like I could see both the semi translucent, white liquid covering the ground in front of my face and the 16 eyes that were staring at me from above…

WAIT WHAT?!

I jumped, somehow finding the power within me to push my upper body off of the ground and turn myself so I was sitting across from the beings staring down at me. My heart sank. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In front of me were a pair of nearly identical looking… children in what amounted to dirty rags? I say children but each one of them had 8 jet black eyes scattered across their faces with what looked like a white film between their jagged teeth that they were chewing on. While their upper bodies looked human enough save for the patches of chitin covering the sides of their faces and arms, from the waist down all I saw was a pair of jet-black spider bodies at least twice the size of their human halves. They easily towered over me. Thin, chitin covered legs extended to the floor out of the thorax their human half connected to and a large, bulbous abdomen hung in the air behind them, each with hints of a strange pattern inscribed across it. Two extra appendages hung just under their human halves, forming a pair of faux legs. They were staring at me with wide eyes before briefly looking at each other.

After giving me a brief scoff they just… walked off. They almost looked disappointed. Only now did I realise that the same film they seemed to have in their mouths was surrounding me, scattered on the floor. Looking behind me I saw what must have been my rubbery prison, a cocoon made of the same material. But that wasn’t the only thing I noticed as just behind me there was something that made my heart sink all over again. Just like those creatures, a spider like body extended behind me, collapsed on the floor. Yet unlike them it was a stark white with what looked like a faint pattern as well. Though I couldn’t make out exactly what it was.

“No no, this can’t be right. This must be a dream, right?” I said to myself, bringing my arms up to my face to try and hide it. Though just like with those other creatures, I could see patches of white glossy material cover my pale, thin arms. Other than that, they were completely spotless, not a hair in sight across them. They looked weak like the arms of a child…

One look around revealed many more of the same creatures. They were scurrying around between what must have been eggs. Some were busted open and the ones that weren’t, were surrounded by groups of these spider children all biting down on them, tearing them apart before hungrily devouring what was inside. Honestly, I had to avert my gaze. Though my stomach was empty I felt like hurling again.

What on Earth happened to me?!