Dementophobia

There was a man. His name was Emilio. He was 41 years old and had a fear of spiders. Lived by himself and saw a psychiatrist once a week. On Tuesdays. The psychiatrist calls his fear "arachnophobia". The doctor was always using words like that. Things that Emilio didn't understand and had to look up the meaning when he got home, so as not to look stupid in front of the doctor. Emilio wasn't stupid, he just didn't have a lot of schooling and didn't know all of the long words that his doctor likes to use to show off.
     Today was a tuesday. Emilio was off to the psychiatrist. As he drove along, he notices a bug on his windshield. Not a fly or a flee or a gnat. Nothing that should fly onto a windshield. It was a spider. He shuddered with the thought of it making its web in the engine of his car and then wandering out for an adventure.
   He tried to keep his eyes on the road, but his attention kept getting drawn to the creepy crawly little animal on the window of his car. He would pick it off of the windshield but he couldn't; what if the spider was acting? It wasn't dead and as soon as he dared to come near it it would attack? No, he wouldn't touch it. He would ignore it and wait for it to leave.
       He was now at Dr. James's office. As he emerged from the car, he noticed something else. There was a small grey ball beside the spider. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't trust it.
    At the therapy session, Emilio told Dr. James about the spider and the grey ball. Dr. James said that he was sure the spider had no plan to deceive him. "Remember, Emilio, it's only a spider. It's not a human. It is far less intelligent than we are. If it bothers you, just take it off of your windshield," he said.
    "Okay," Emilio said, but he had no intention of touching the spider.
      After the session was, Emilio went out into the parking lot. He walked in a large U around the front of his car, after seeing that the spider was still there. "You don't give up easily, do you?" he said out loud.
Unless the spider really is dead, he thought, but didn't consider the possibility for very long. Why would a spider crawl onto a windshield and die? If it were a flying bug, he wouldn't doubt it for a second. He would know that the bug flew onto the car while he was driving and was killed on impact. But the spider was too strange.
      He could not look away from road for long. He was trying to focus on the road, but always saw the spider with the corner of his eye. But even more curious was the gray ball.
      When he reached his house, he pulled the car into his driveways and parked it. It was exactly 5:00 PM. He stayed there in his driveway and stared at the spider. He feared getting out of the car; he lived quite alone, with no neighbors within ten miles of his home. If the spider should choose this time to attack, nobody would be able to call the ambulance.
     So he just stayed there for a while. As soon as he finally got the courage to open the door, he heard something. A strange voice. It was an unsteady, shrill sounding voice that quivered as it spoke.
     "Alright, go ahead. Open the door. It will be just fine. Don't be afraid, Emilio."
      Emilio came to the realization that the voice he was hearing was that of the spider!
     "Come Emilio, go into your home. It is safer there," it coaxed. When it spoke, it hissed.
    "NO! You can't fool me, I know who you are, and now I know you aren't dead! And why would you stay here on my windshield unless you were waiting for me to get out so you could drink my blood?"
      "Yes, why indeed."
     "You make no sense! I am asking about yourself, you know why you are here!"
    "Why do you think that I am here?"
   "You know."
   "To drink your blood?"
    "Aha! But you won't get any, will you? No! I know! Yes! I know! I will drive into town and to Dr. James. You didn't attack me there before, and you won't attack me there now!"
   "Won't I?"
   "Not if I call the doctor and tell him of your schemes!"
   "Okay. I will be waiting right here!"
   Emilio began to dial the psychiatrist's number. He heard the secretary's voice. "Hello, Dr. James's office. May I help you?"
     "Yes! I need to see the doctor right away! It's urgent!"
    "He's not in right now, you will have to schedule an appointment."
    "No! I'm coming now!" he quickly hung up the phone and began driving to Dr. James's office. It began raining very hard and suddenly. The spider was playing dead again. He couldn't see, so he turned on his wipers. They would not move all the way down; the spider was in the way. It went up all the way, then hit the spider on the back. It began moving down. It was a very small motion, but a motion nonetheless.
     "See! You do move! You're alive! I wasn't dreaming," Emilio shouted.
The wipers made the spider crawl, so he turned them off. He passed a sign that said 55mph, but he didn't see it, and accelerated to 75, then 85mph. He hit the brakes flat when he came to the parking lot in front of the doctor's place. He called again, so the doctor would come out.
       It didn't rang and rang and finally picked up. "Hello, this is-"
      "Hello! Hello!" But the lady did not stop talking. She must not hear him.
      "I need to see the doctor!" suddenly, there was a beep.
      "ANSWER ME!" he demanded. "LISTEN TO ME! HELLO! I NEED TO SEE THE DOCTOR!" 
 No response.
He remembered the doctor had given his cell phone number in case of emergency. He dialed the number quickly. The doctor answered. "Hello? This is Henry. Who is this?"
"It's me!" Emilio cried frantically. "It's Emilio! What do you call a fear of talking animals?"
"Talking animals? Well, I would relate hearing animals talk with dementia, therefore, the fear of it would be...Dementophobia." The doctor laughed a little.
"Remember the spider?"
"What?"
"On my car! It's alive, I told you it was, I'm right! It's alive! It talked to me and then it moved!" He waited. He heard a click. "Hello? No!!!"
He swerved out of the parking lot. But he didn't know where to go! So he just drove. He drove and drove and drove. He turned the wipers back on. He drove until he ran out of gas. At that point, he was no longer on the road. He was off in some ditch. But he could not get anywhere. The spider was there. Then, Emilio shrieked in terror at his highly disturbing discovery. It was GROWING. It was as big as his hand now. It spoke to him again, but he blocked out the words. He could not stand to see the spider's horrid mouth move as it talked. It looked like pinchers or teeth! He closed his eyes, but nothing happened! He could still see it perfectly clearly! He screamed, "GO AWAY!" He turned the wipers on faster and the spider began moving with them. But he was getting angry. His dozens of eyes grew larger and redder. His pincher mouth neared the mans face as the windshield seemed to vanish. He turned the wipers up to as fast as they could go. The now gargantuan spider let out a bloodcurdling shriek, then flew off of the window. He was relieved. Still though, he couldn't get out. The ghost of the spider was still there, outside his car door. He stayed there, off the side of the road, for days. Then a week. He was starving. He had eaten every piece of gum and every candy and cracker in the car. There was nothing to drink either.
       He sat sweating in the car, on this hot day, surrounded by his own waist, and sitting in a puddle of his own urine, too terrified to leave. He could see and hear the ghost spider in the distance, still growing, into a giant mutant beast. His vision began to shift around. There was now a ghost of everything he saw moving in front of his real vision. He blinked and tried to focus. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the small grey ball, which four times the size it started as.
       An hour later, he woke. At first, he thought he had gone blind. Everything was dark and he could not see light from the windows. He turned on the car light. It wasn't dark. There were hundreds of tiny spiders swarming over every window. They flooded over the outside of his car. The grey ball! He fainted again at the thought of them growing to the size of their mother.          
       His car was discovered the next day. The news reporter said to the camera, "This car was found in a ditch off the side of the road. The driver has starved to death. The strange thing is, the car is in normal condition, so why didn't the driver just leave?"

Reviews

[weirdguyblueeyes]

Once again, wow. I think I'm starting to figure out the one thing I never understood about you- how your mind works. I hope you don't mind me reading your stories..

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good story. Many people fear spiders. I like the set-up and the way you ended the story. I like the description of his fear and the conversation with the spider. I like the surprise ending. Thank you for sharing the excellent story.
Coyote

[InsanityWriter]

Wow. I could really feel his fear... AMAZINGLY done!! :D