Using those legs, Arachne scaled Eva’s arm. She reached Eva’s shoulder. Eva expected her to settle in, but the spider kept climbing.
She nestled herself on the crown of Eva’s head, her large fangs just barely hanging into Eva’s vision. Some of her legs gripped Eva’s head. Not hard enough to hurt, just enough to not fall off. Other legs touched against her shoulders to further support the spider.
Eva stiffened. While she was weaker as a spider than her human or great-spider forms, Eva held no doubt that Arachne’s limbs could easily pop her skull like a baseball bat to a watermelon.
Eva relaxed. She took a deep breath and slowly turned her head. When Arachne didn’t even budge, she tried moving a bit faster. The spider atop her head remained in place. Eva did a light jog around the room to no detriment of the spider.
“Alright, I’m going to try stepping.”
That gave the spider some panic. At least, Eva thought it was panic. The legs touching her shoulders rapidly tapped against her cheek. The fangs at the top of her vision twitched and trembled.
“Alright, stop,” she said. “Right shoulder for yes, left shoulder for no.”
Her left shoulder received several hard taps.
“I can take my clothes and several small objects, including books. You’re pretty small.”
Again, Arachne tapped ‘no.’
Eva glanced out the window. The sun had yet to rise, but the sky had lightened to a much lighter blue. “Alright, hang on, we’re going to double time it then.”
Once the spider had her legs back in position, Eva took off at a run.
Eva’s school was along the edge of downtown. It wouldn’t take more than thirty minutes at a full run. Stepping would bring the time down to a mere five minutes with a decent amount of rest between steps.
With Arachne on her head, things were a bit different. She didn’t want to run too fast for fear of knocking her off. Arachne wrapped a pair of legs beneath Eva’s chin to help keep her from bouncing on her head.
They got to the school in just under an hour, plenty of time before classes started.
“Arachne,” Eva said, “time to hide.” She reached for her book bag, but her hands came up empty. Eva sighed. Her bag was still full of gold from two nights ago, lying in her room.
Arachne didn’t notice or didn’t care about Eva’s minor frustration. She slipped off Eva’s head and straight down her shirt.
Eva burst out giggling. It took a serious effort to keep from swatting at the tickling spider.
Once Arachne settled into place, her long legs wrapped firmly around Eva’s body, Eva peeked down her shirt. She was met with red eyes staring up at her from beneath her developing chest. The curved outside edges of the spider’s fangs rested lightly against her sternum.
“Well,” Eva said, “I hope you’re happy with yourself. You’re in for a boring few hours.”
One of Arachne’s legs carefully loosened and tapped her left shoulder.
“Uh huh. You say that now. We’ll see you singing a different tune by the end of English.”
With that, Eva walked into school to begin her last day of middle school.
—
“I don’t believe you.”
Arachne tapped out a ‘no’ once again.
Eva looked both ways before crossing the street. “I was bored. Especially during math. We didn’t even have a test, just sat around waiting for the next class.”
Peeking down her shirt, Arachne just sat, staring. Her fangs slightly twitched against Eva’s chest.
“Well,” Eva said, “we’re almost there. Are you going to get back on my head?”
Arachne hesitated. The leg that had been tapping her left shoulder lifted. Yet it never tapped Eva’s shoulder. Instead, the rest of her legs loosened and she carefully made her way out from under Eva’s shirt.
Ready for her moving, Eva did not burst into giggles this time. Instead, she marveled at how delicately the spider moved across her skin. By all rights, Arachne’s sharp limbs should have given her several shallow cuts at the very least. Healing cuts was the first thing one learned with blood magic, but that she didn’t have to was a fairly big deal to her.
With Arachne back on her head, Eva made the rest of the way to the Thompson clinic. A driver gave her a bit of an odd look, but didn’t stop.
The chime rang its friendly tune as Eva entered the lobby. Nurse Vallenger looked up from her computer and gave Eva a smile.
“Hello, Eva–” The nurse gave a startled shriek as her eyes locked on the spider on Eva’s head.
Eva could feel Arachne’s limbs tense as she tried to calm the nurse.
