The spider regarded the prostrate man with curiosity. She slid down a strand of silver silk, eager for a closer inspection. She circled his body thrice before mounting him, creeping to the peak of his nose where she perched and offered a consolatory fanged smile and rubbed her forelegs.

My eyelids fluttered. My tongue felt like a bloated corpse. My breath came in choked gasps. My temples pounded with blinding pain. My heart hammered. My clothing stuck to his sweating flesh. My ears rang. And the room smelled of melting plastic. I was convinced that the next moment would be my last. I welcomed it.

The spider, however, was more optimistic.

"My, my, my Meli. I've tethered your hands and feet to the floor," she said, "So our conversation may be well-grounded."

I groaned. "What's happening?"

"It's alright, child," she spoke soothingly."You're only dreaming."

A mouthful of froth slid down my neck into my ears.

"I live down here, down here where I live. Me, who you should know," she said.

"Know?"

"No. Shame. You're a sight for sore eyes, for sword eyes, for two sets of four eyes, for four fore and for four aft, peaking at futures and peering at the past at the passed, rotting skulls as sculling rudders, if you mind."

"Mind?"

"Mined. Yore mined from your mind. Lodes of meaning. There."

"Where?"

"Where mouths make hollow ohs and zeroes, questing for meaning."

"Meaning?" I asked.

"Meaning: an ongoing act of cruelty. Choose wisely not shoo wildly or chew idly on who passed, the spider answered," the spider answered. The spider answered, "When shoes fly wildly to shoo idle flies, the wise fly chooses to become another, a bee coming, working pistil sites, not pistol sights, but not you, who rather chose meaning."

"Not me?" I asked, infintely tired.

"It's not about you and more what you've knotted, with your bridling and rearing, two failures. Pulling triggers for trilling pulers, life becomes assorted sizes of sordid sighs, sword eyes, so very sore. Am I too mean or is this fair meaning?"

Not understanding the question, Meli stayed silent. I stayed silent.

"I will stay silence," the spider said taking a deep breath, and spoke.