(Writer's note: This story does NOT take place in Twilight City)
It rained.
It was more like a storm, actually.
Kyle was wet and cold. The raindrops felt like small stones against his old jacket that wasn't helping him much in his attempt to get through the rage of mother nature. And it was pretty late, so he couldn't find a shop he could enter while waiting for the rain to die out.
Then, he saw a light. A little shop was still open. It looked like a coffeehouse of some sort. That suited Kyle just fine. He could use a warm cup of something. He ran to the café. As he got closer, he saw the sign above the door that said the name of the shop;
Athena's Mercy.
... Strange name... Probably one of those smartass places with old books everywhere and nerds who made you feel like a bum. Not because they told you how smart they were, but because they simply had this smarter-than-you aura. But Kyle couldn't afford to be picky and went inside.
Inside, the shop was actually nice and cozy. The walls were painted light purple. The room had five small table with two chairs each. Pots and purple flowers were placed near the counter. At the counter stood a woman who looked like she was 20-something. She had a name tag that said; Hi, my name is Aracely.
"Hello. I'm afraid that we are about to- Oh!" The woman saw the very wet young man. "Your poor thing! You are wetter than an ocean!"
"Oh, it's just the jacket. I'm almost dry underneath it." Kyle reassured her.
"But you must be cold. Please." Aracely pointed at one of the tables. "Take a seat, and I will get you a warm cup of tea. On the house. I insist!"
Kyle tried to tell her that she didn't have to, but she insisted. So he took of his rain jacket, hanged it on one of the racks near the door. Now that he wasn't wearing his jacket, he could appreciate the warm room. His hair dried in no time. After he had taken a seat, Aracely came from the back room, now with a tray with biscuits, two cups of tea and bread. Kyle apologized for the inconvenience as he remembered that she said that she was about to close shop. She replied that it was no bother at all since; a) she owed the shop and could let it be open as long as she wanted and b) she was not going to leave while the rain was as fierce as it was at the moment.
Then they talked for at least half an hour, waiting for the rain to die out. Nothing important, just small talk. But it was nice.
Kyle couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something... strange about Aracely. Something about the way she talked to him. Or maybe it was just the odd taste the tea had?
If Kyle had been smarter he would have found something odd about her being this nice to a complete stranger. But Kyle wasn't very smart. In fact, he was a bit stupid.
As they sat with their tea, the mood of the conversation changed completely as Aracely said;
"... You know, I lost a couple of friends recently."
Kyle hesitated. "... Lost? You mean, like... they died?"
Aracely nodded as a single tear dropped from her eye down in her cup. "It was terrible, really. And so meaningless. A massacre."
'''What?! You mean, like... car crash?"
"No. They were murdered. Twelve. Gassed to death."
"Jesus, that is terrible! I'm so sorry."
Aracely's sad eyes now looked directly at Kyle. "Is that so?"
"Yeah, of course! I mean... Jesus, what kind of monster would do something like that? Was it, like... terrorists."
"No..." Aracely's eyes narrowed, and it seemed like her sadness was replaced with... anger? "No, it wasn't terrorists. No, it was completely meaningless. They were killed for absolutely no reason at all, not even a bad one. That's the true tragedy of it..."
Kyle felt unease. Something was wrong here, and he didn't know what.
"You believe that their lives are of less importance because you are bigger and stronger than them?" Aracely asked while staring at him with her angry blood-red eyes "Is that it?"
"... Um..." Now, Kyle was really confused. "What again?"
"Do you believe that it gives you the right to murder them, simply because their appearance displeases you a bit?"
Kyle gasped as Aracely began to change right in front of him. It was revolving to watch the somewhat attractive woman's body remodel itself as if it was play-doh. Watch it turn into something... bigger.
"Well, dearie, I'm bigger than you. And I find YOU to be displeasing."
Kyle's instinct was to run away from the monster that only second ago had served him cookies and tea... But as he stood up, he realized that he couldn't move his legs. He looked down. If he could, he would have screamed. The floor was covered in a white sticky net, and he couldn't get free.
No... Not a net. A web, obviously.
Kyle couldn't move his head, but his eyes could. He moved them left and right and realized that he was no longer inside a shop.
Or at least not a NORMAL shop. The nice little room he had been in was now a square made out of white sticky stuff that Kyle very much assumed was more spider web... stuff. From the roof , small little dots appeared. They were spiders. Not big hairy ones, but small ones you could find everywhere. and they slowly went down. Kyle knew that normal house spiders weren't more dangerous than a fly, yet he feared that they were going to land on him, but no. Instead, they landed next to him. They made a circle around him and... that thing that had claimed to be a human called Aracely. All of them just stood there. Kyle didn't know how, but he was almost absolutely sure that they were watching in silence. Like people in a church.
"My friends kill for the sake of survival. For the sake of food. But you... You squashed them because they disgust you. In a way, you take pride in it, don't you? Most of you humans think ill of these poor misunderstood creatures."
And then, a white sticky thread came out of Aracely's spider-mouth that was where a torso normally would be on a person. If Kyle had known that real spider's didn't make web out of their mouth, well... he would most likely not be bothered by this inconsistency as he was busy being horrified.
"What are you doing?!" Kyle yelled, even though he already knew the answer.
"Pop-quiz; What does a spider do with it's prey?" Aracely hummed as her spider legs started to wrap Kyle up as if he had been a Christmas present.
"You are SERIOUSLY going to kill me just because I snuffed a coupe of spiders?!"
"No, dearie. I'm not just going to murder you for the sake of revenge. I'm going to end your life, then make your body edible for my friends so that you can pay back your dept to spider kind. And for the record; you snuffed 152 spiders. 45 of them with insect spray. Poison is a slow death, I will let you know."
"You're crazy!" Kyle started to cry.
"No. That, I am not. Angry, pretty, possibly spiteful, very large and heavy, but never crazy."
"P-p-p-please!" Kyle cried out. "Don't k-k-kill muh-muh-me! I will nhu-nhu-never kill a spider again! I'm too young to d-d-die! I'm only 19!"
"Oh, quit your whining." Aracely said with a could voice as she finished wrapping him up. "You had a life 19 times longer than most spiders have, yet they don't complain."
And then, it was gone.
Athena's Mercy disappeared with the rain. Where the coffee shop had ben seconds ago was now an empty old building with an for sale sign on it. It had once been a instrument store, but not anymore. It was just one of those places that nobody wanted to buy. So it gathered dust while the only inhabitants were a couple of spiders who could have it for themselves.
..........................................................................................
It rained.
It was more like a storm, actually.
Julia was wet and cold. The raindrops felt like small stones against her brand new jacket that wasn't helping her much in her attempt to get through the rage of mother nature.
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