Beware The Wicked Web (3 page)

“But I don’t understand. How could a giant poisonous spider from the West Indies get into that attic?” asked Sam uneasily.

“What about the warehouse next door?” asked Rob. “Wasn’t it used to store bananas, a long time ago? Maybe Aunt Grace got to hear about an
Araneida Magna
turning up at the warehouse and bribed someone to smuggle the spider into the attic.”

“Is
that
why Abby wrote up her diary, as a warning?” Sam and Rob looked at each other in mounting horror.

Then Rob said, “We’ve got to destroy that egg right away. It could hatch any minute.”

They were shivering with fear and anxiety as they once again climbed the attic stairs.

At the top, Sam switched on the torch.

“The web’s grown again,” she gasped.

This time, even more strands were wrapped tightly around the door to the bedroom, quivering and rustling much more strongly than before. Sam picked up one of the brooms and began to sweep at the silky folds. But this time they didn’t come away so easily and she found the broom was getting furred up, its bristles sticking to the strands of the web.

Rob picked up the other broom and began to help, but they made slow progress.

“It’s like trying to brush away treacle,” he said breathlessly.

“The strands are thicker and stickier,” Sam said in horror. “It’s as if they’re trying to trap us.”

Sam and Rob finally managed to part the web and push open the door.

Inside the attic room, the silky strands had grown so thickly that the beam of Sam’s torch could hardly penetrate the sticky tangle and they could only just make out the egg above Abby’s bed.

“If that thing hatches, we could be the next victims,” whispered Sam bleakly.

They began to hack away at the folds of the web, but the silky stickiness only wrapped itself around the brooms again, rather like grey candyfloss. Sam and Rob gave out cries of disgust.

Worse still, the throbbing was much stronger, much more like a heartbeat, thought Sam.

Then she saw that Rob had grabbed the torch and was pointing up at the egg with a shaking finger.

Now they had hacked away so much they could see that one strand of the web had plugged into the fluffy cocoon.

“The web’s
feeding
the egg,” hissed Rob. “We’ve got to destroy it - fast. Can’t you see? It’s not just the web that’s pulsating, it’s the egg, too.”

With renewed determination, Rob and Sam attacked the sticky folds, pushing the web away until a tunnel was formed - a tunnel that led to Abby’s bed, just below the pulsating, vibrating egg.

“Who’s going through?” asked Rob.

“There isn’t room for us both or we’ll get caught in the sticky stuff.”

Sam hesitated.

“Come on!” said Rob. “We haven’t got time to hang around.”

“OK,” she replied reluctantly. “Let’s toss for it.” Sam dragged a coin out of her jeans and spun it awkwardly in the enclosed space, which seemed to be getting smaller all the time as the web spun itself back together again. “Heads or tails?” she asked.

“Heads!”

The coin spun. The web spun. The coin turned up tails.

“Wish me luck,” said Rob miserably.

Ducking down, Rob began to edge his way along the tunnel which was closing in on them all the time, clutching the broom in both hands.

Terrified, Sam watched him, her torch beam picking out the hundreds of dead flies caught in the web.

“Look out!” she yelled as some strands seemed to reach out towards Rob. Then suddenly the folds of the web began to wrap themselves around him, strand after strand, coil after coil of sticky grey silk.

“Help!” Rob’s voice sounded smothered already as the coils tightened. “It’s squeezing me!”

“I’m coming!” Sam began to hit out at the strands with her broom, working faster and more furiously than she had ever done before, pushing back the folds until she reached her brother.

As Sam tore with her bare hands at the web that was squeezing Rob, the strands tried to wrap themselves around her as well.