Gripped

KAREN

Moments after her husband admitted to the affair, Karen struggled to regain her composure.

The truth was undeniable. The evidence was all right there on his cell phone. Dan’s secret life unfolded for Karen as she stared at the little screen, her heart beating like someone banging on a locked door while the room caught fire.

Will he beg me for forgiveness? she wondered.

It turns out he had just gone right ahead and admitted it. He copped to the affair almost as if he didn’t care what Karen thought about it, or how it would affect their marriage.

Karen swallowed, wondering how to reply. She had so many questions.

Who was this Ramona woman? How long had they been seeing each other? What did she have that Karen didn’t?

Instead, she just said: “Why?”

“I don’t know, Karen,” Dan replied. “Why do people do these things? Life’s short.”

Karen stared at the man she thought she knew. He was damp and clean and smelled like aftershave.

“Life’s short?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”

She wasn’t trying to attack her husband, but he threw his hands up as if she were.

“It means I want a little affection. A little excitement.” Dan began to pace around the room. “Can you blame me?”

He stopped and stared at her.

“I love you,” his wife cried. “I want those things, too.”

Dan sighed and sat next to Karen on the bed. Her eyes stung with tears.

“Karen, we haven’t made love in almost a year,” he said. His tone was softer now. “You didn’t really think everything was just fine, did you?”

She did think that they were fine. She knew they had grown apart, but she thought they would both experience a lower libido as part of getting older.

It was just part of life, right?

Karen held her breath.

She had been dead wrong.

It was clear to her what she had to do. Her husband was groomed and fresh for another woman. But maybe she could convince him to stay…

How long had it been since she had seduced her husband? The last few times they had had sex—and they had been quite a while ago—there had been little fanfare.

Karen barely did more than lay there.

This was her chance to prove to her husband that she wanted excitement. That she wanted him.

Mechanically, Karen reached her hand up to slide the strap of her tank top from her shoulder. She wore a matching pajama set from The Gap.

She knew she was in good shape for a woman her age, but it was true that she had gotten older.

Her hand fell, exposing her left breast. Gravity hadn’t been kind to her once buoyant bosom. The soft flesh sagged, her nipple pointing toward her belly button.

Karen’s shoulders drooped as she presented her meager offering.

Quivering with anticipation and fear, she reached up to touch Dan’s arm, only then mustering the courage to meet his gaze.

Her husband was looking at her breast. His skin was warm under Karen’s fingers. She wanted him badly in that moment, desperately, because she knew he was slipping away…

“Karen,” Dan said. He reached up and moved her hand, and Karen’s heart broke. “I can’t.”

“Because you’re going to meet her?” she asked. She quickly pulled her top back on, wanting to be covered.

She couldn’t bring herself to say the other woman’s name. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

Dan didn’t respond. Instead, he stood up and pulled on his blue jeans and a button-down shirt.

Karen lay down on the bed and nestled beneath the covers. She curled up in a little ball.

“Do you want to leave me?” she asked.

She heard Dan sigh, and then his footsteps approached her.

“No,” he said. “I just need this right now.”

She looked up at him and didn’t bother to hide her tears.

“Maybe it would be good for you, too,” he continued. “We could try…an open relationship.”

Dan touched Karen’s hair, and she closed her eyes. She listened to her husband walk out of the room.

When Karen was alone, she let down her guard. She pulled herself into a tighter ball and let her face crumple with racking sobs.

An open relationship, she repeated. ~What does that even mean?~

It was only nine, but Karen willed herself to fall asleep.

She hadn’t brushed her teeth for the night, which she knew would leave her vulnerable to cavities and gum disease.

She didn’t wash her face, which she knew would give her wrinkles, large pores, and pimples.

Dan’s towel was crumpled on the ground, which would leave a wet patch on the hardwood floor, but she left it.

These normal preoccupations couldn't reach her now. Not in her gloomy little refuge under the comforter.

Her husband was off with another woman. Her daughter was sick.

The evils she had worked so hard to keep out of her home had found their way in. And there was nothing Karen could do to stop them.

LIBBY

Libby sat on her bed browsing Facebook on her laptop.

She let the videos play when she scrolled over them, even though they barely held her interest.

She sighed as she gazed out at her room. The elaborate crystal chandelier cast a soft light on the bedroom. Behind the dramatic blue velvet curtains, night had fallen outside.

After dinner, Libby had waited around in the family room for Jacob to come and watch TV like they normally did. But when he went up to his room instead, Libby followed suit.

They had eaten Libby’s favorite meal, but the family dinner still left a bad taste in her mouth.

As much as Melinda bothered Libby, it didn’t feel right that she was drugged up in her room.

Hearing that Melinda’s sickness had gotten worse made Libby feel bad that she told her friends about the bedwetting.

Well, almost.

Libby heard a car in the driveway. She rose from her bed. From the window, she saw her dad’s pickup truck pull out.

That was strange.

Where was he going so late? Did it have something to do with whoever he was texting at dinner?

The mysterious departure was the last straw. Libby didn’t want to be alone anymore.

She walked down the hall toward her parents’ bedroom. The door was closed. She knocked.

When she didn’t hear anything, she knocked again.

“Mom?” Libby called.

When no reply came from the other side, she was more unsettled. But perhaps her mother was in the shower.

She tried Rosie’s door next.

Rosie opened it, but her phone was pressed to her ear.

“I know, baby, but I’m just telling you how I feel. One sec, Libby’s here.”

Rosie held the phone to her chest and raised her eyebrows as if to say, “Please don’t tell Mom.”

“What’s up?” Rosie asked.

“Nothing,” Libby replied. “Did you see that Dad left?”

“He’s probably just going to have a drink,” Rosie replied.

The sisters stood in the doorway for a second.

“Well, I should go…” Rosie said.

“Yeah, sure,” Libby replied.

Rosie’s door closed once more. Libby wasn’t surprised. Her big sister barely ever had time to hang out anymore. She continued down the hall to an open doorway.

“Jacob?” she called.

“Come in!” came his voice. She could already hear the sound of his video game.

Sure enough, Jacob was sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of his TV. On the screen, he was shooting soldiers.

“Is this Call of Duty?” Libby asked.

“No, idiot, it’s the new Halo,” he replied. “But you can hang out if you want.”

She plopped on the ground beside him on a big pillow. She stared up at his ceiling and noticed a fat spider spinning a web in the corner.

“How can you stand to listen to this?” Libby asked over the gunshots. “Doesn’t it stress you out?”

“That’s the point. Gets the blood flowing,” Jacob replied.

Libby sat there with her brother for a while, telling herself she enjoyed the company. But even Jacob, her own twin, didn’t want to make time for her.

When she was bored out of her mind, she decided it was time to go to sleep.

“’Night,” she said as she opened the door.

“’Night,” Jacob called without glancing away from the screen.

Libby was heading for her room when she heard a noise from Melinda’s bedroom.

If her sister was awake, she might as well stop by to say hi.

MELINDA

Melinda thrashed in her bed.

The spiders were coming too close.

She dreamed they were weaving a web over a window, and she was standing right next to it. She tried to run away, but struggle as she might, her feet seemed stuck to the floor.

The spiders were black and shiny as oil. As their round bodies wound around the web, Melinda saw red hourglass shapes on their bellies.

Black Widows.

One spider was working so closely that her hair could get caught in its web. Melinda whimpered.

As the spiders weaved, she realized this was no normal web. They were crafting a pattern—no—spelling something out...

A message for Melinda…

She could just barely make out the words in the dim light.

Melinda strained her eyes to make out the last part. The spiders slowed their work, and she could read the whole message.

Melinda gulped in fear. She tried to run away, but still couldn't. The spiders suddenly stopped moving, and their spindly legs fell still.

Though she couldn’t see their eyes—eight tiny eyes for each of them—Melinda felt them watching her. The creatures looked as if they would jump her at any moment…

Melinda woke up in horror, springing from her bed. Heavy breaths circulated through her lungs.

The dream had felt so real that it was difficult for Melinda to separate sleep from reality.

She inspected the windows and found them web-free.

But if the spiders were all in her head, why did Melinda still feel so anxious?

That was when the whispers began. Melinda’s eyes whipped to the fireplace.

“No,” she whispered.

The shadow people were emerging. Their lanky bodies were unfolding from the smoky lair and stepping out into Melinda’s room.

The five shadow people stretched their long, smoky limbs as they moved around her room in a crooked circle.

Melinda gulped.

She was surrounded.

She heard her door open.

“Melinda?” Libby’s voice called. Somehow, Melinda could hear her over the whispers.

She stared at her older sister through the cracked door.

Would she see the shadow people, too? Would the shadow people see her?

All at once, the shadow people started running…

Straight for Libby.

Libby screamed as Melinda watched in terror. The strange beings were going to hurt her. They were going to hurt her sister!

Melinda put aside her panic and pulled herself together.

She had to stop them.

She raced to her desk and picked up her craft scissors.

Libby continued to scream as the shadow people closed in.

As Melinda raced into the melee, she could make out more detail in the shadow people’s appearance than before. Smoke curled like locks of hair, and when one of them looked at her, she saw the outline of a nose.

“No!” Melinda cried as she drove the scissors at the dark bodies. Their wispy forms seemed to solidify as smoke poured from their fresh wounds. Libby continued to scream.

I’ll protect you, Melinda thought. Her frantic grunts rang out amid the screams and the whispers. Once more, she jabbed the scissors at one of the dark bodies.

The whispers stopped, and Melinda dropped her weapon.

The shadow people dissolved like candle smoke.

Melinda had protected her sister. She struggled to regain her breath as she gazed at Libby lovingly.

But slowly Melinda’s vision was changing. Libby’s screams still rang in her ears. She noticed that her sister was clutching her stomach. Blood soaked through her shirt.

They got her! Melinda thought. ~I was too late.~

But then Melinda saw that her discarded scissors were slicked with blood.

Oh no.

Melinda’s mind spun.

What have I done?