A Spider’s Trail

“Did you hear that ?!” he asked tensely.
Beth quickly veered around.
“Yes,” she whispered in a nervous voice.
They searched about them, but did not immediately see anything and decided to speed up.

‘The sooner we get out of this tunnel and call in the police, the better,’ James thought to himself.

Rolf plopped down in the nearest chair…

During the past hour, Rolf had been running from the front to the rear of the train trying to assist where he could – now finding some time to take a breath. However, after a few minutes, he felt sleep coming on, and so he stood up again. Sleeping before James returned was an impossibility. His thoughts were on the tunnel, and he hoped everyone was okay.
“How was it with them?”
“Where were they now?”
“Could they have already made contact with Scotland Yard?” someone asked.

His thoughts were racing now, and he started feeling slightly desperate. He hoped that his best friend was okay, and tried to suppress that nagging sensation in his deepest heart that something would happen to him. He’d been pondering the situation so deeply he didn’t even notice someone was speaking to him. As his thoughts returned, Rolf saw that people were moving about the wagon and that the lights had turned back on.

He decided to venture over to the locomotive. When he arrived, there was one person remaining outside, who then explained that the shock of the collision had blown some fuses, and that they had replaced them. At that moment, Rolf’s attention was suddenly diverted to something else. He saw two very bright locomotive lights heading towards the train at rapid speed.
On the other hand, this particular phenomenon might’ve been an oncoming train with the exception of its movement. But what else could it be? It dawned on him now that every breath he took could be his last and that these might be the final moments of his life.

A fleeting reinstatement of light revealed the enormous eyes that were fixated on the train. This was a thoroughly hostile approach; like some horrible creature disturbed in its rest; a dominant type of animal that would take said disruption for an attack.

The beast was quite sizeable and had many legs. It might’ve been an overgrown spider or perhaps even an alien. The man behind him said that it was Arachnia. Rolf felt a shiver run over his back when he heard that name. His grandfather had once told him about a beast named Cholvemus Norr, an “Arachnid creature” who had devoured many of their early ancestors. It was said that they had been punished for betraying the spirits of the wood.

He watched frozen in shock and awe as the beast kept coming closer and closer to the train with its mouth wide open at full speed. Another forty meters, thirty, twenty, ten … and before he knew it, Rolf was running outside to save the fellow he’d met outside by the engine.
“WATCH OUT!!!”

The man turned and uttered a tortured cry of fear when he saw the Arachnia coming. Rolf then threw himself before him, protecting the man, and he squeezed his eyes shut. There was time for a few words from the old prayer before both he and the man were devoured. CONTINUE