each month. Ten years have passed, and with time, I’ve learned to move forward, although I’ll always keep the memories and love for my parents in my heart. For the first weeks after their funeral and burial inside shade crypts, I visited the graves of my parents every day. Now I only visit twice a week to leave flowers and tell them how much I miss them. I fear dying, and the worst thing I hate about death is that there’s no coming back from it. I despise death with a passion, because it took away my parents, and for that I’ll never be whole again.
Chapter Three
Classes at Estercrest College were about to end for the summer; it was the middle of June, and everyone could not wait to go home for the summer break. We had taken our final exams and were completely drained – both mentally and physically. I couldn’t wait for the bell to sound and for college to end for the summer break. My best friends Sarah Thompson and Daisy Miller and I were going to have fun getting wasted on the weekends and hanging out and making out with our boyfriends inside Shade Crypts. I especially anticipated having sleepovers at each other’s homes; we always had so much fun, especially when we stole into our parents’ drinks on the bar.
“Andrea Levern, are you finished taking your final exam?” Mrs. Woods interrupted me out of my deep daydreaming. It was somewhat embarrassing. I believed she loved to do that to all of us just to see us sweat. “You’ve been staring at your work for some time now. You know the answer is not going to appear out of thin air onto your answer sheet; you’ll have to write it down, Drea.”
Mrs. Woods chuckled, and I hated it when she did that. I felt stupid and I grudged her saying my name partially, as if she and I were the best of friends. Mrs. Woods is the business administrator teacher, and it’s what I major in. I came to her class three times – business office, calculus, and business math.
“Oh, uhm, Mrs. Woods,” I fumbled with my words before I answered. I was sort of caught off guard. “I’ve been done for thirty minutes. I-I was thinking about my parents again and how much I miss them. I’m sorry,” I responded, hoping that everyone in class would take pity on me, including Mrs. Woods. I had gone on like this for nearly two years of college.
“Say no more, Andrea. We understand. So far this year, you’ve been one of my best students in this class, and I’m sure that your parents would have been proud of you if they were alive.” Mrs. Woods had not only taken pity on me, but she’d praised my work also, and this could only mean one thing: I had passed her class!
None of us knew what our final test scores were until the second week of August. We would receive the results one week before we returned to Estercrest College. The bell sound softly; heads looked up briefly, and students hurried to fill in their last answers in the bubbles on their test sheets.
“Class, place your test sheets on my desk on your way out, and have a fun and safe summer break. See you back in August!” Mrs. Woods raised her voice so she could be heard over the students clearing out of her classroom. We were so happy to finally be leaving Estercrest College for the summer break.
Mrs. Laura Woods is a drop dead gorgeous redhead with a wealthy housewife appearance and a firm aunt or sister personality. Some of the students in her class hated her, and others respected her as a teacher… I was one of those students who respected her.
Lauryn Anansi hadn’t bothered any of us in Baron’s HOLLOWPOINT for ten years, thanks to an old gypsy mother. JEZEBELLA Antonucci is the oldest of the Latin witches, and she’s by far the strongest gypsy witch. JEZEBELLA’S power is strong. She perfected white magic and she bound Lauryn Anansi and the other spiders with it, and when JEZEBELLA Antonucci died of old age – she was two hundred years old. The spell that held the Argent spiders bound was broken when she died, and Lauryn Anansi and the other spiders were freed.
Chapter Four
A few days after college ended for the summer break, Lauryn Anansi struck again, and the other spiders returned with her. The others spiders were the same kind as Lauryn: all six of them are Argent spiders. Lauryn Anansi called them ‘The Argents’ during her deadly attacks. They are the children of Ana Anansi and Paul Yellows. They made baby breeders out of the humans here and the spiders multiply because of the people. They wanted their spider empire to rise and achieve world-wide domination. Most of all, they sought revenge because the way the human elders had brutally murdered Ana Anansi, the Argent spider’s mother. Lauryn Anansi attacked and murdered any human she encountered who did not obey her.
Lauryn Anansi snapped the humans’ necks with her bare hands or trapped them in her gigantic spider web, screaming and kicking and begging for mercy. She spun her webs from her own mouth, it is a horrible sight for sore eyes to see one that looked so human and lived such a normal life as any human did spin a web from their own mouth the way Lauryn Anansi did.
Lauryn Anansi spun webs the size of a hammock that spread across the ceiling, shaping them like creepy chandeliers – it was her signature presence. Lauryn’s web lay spread across the floors in the shape of upside down chandelier hammocks as booby traps for her victims; she could spin a web incredibly fast. Argent Spider’s are silk heirs: Argent spiders ancestors created clothes and other items with their webs. Spider is very industrious and wealthy – they are billionaires from Dublin, Ireland. Although Lauryn could create glamorous wigs from her spider silk, yet, she was a terrible, cold hearted beast and she felt no shame, nor did she have mercy for her victims. She proudly watched human beings begging her to free them from her horrible, black creepy spider web. Their horrifying screams and struggles to breathe inside the web failed to move Lauryn’s wicked black heart. She smiled that dark, sinister smile of hers, the same as her mother Ana Anansi had done ten years ago. Lauryn watched guardingly until the very last breath passed out of her victims.
Lauryn Anansi could not be reckoned with or controlled; everyone in Baron’s HOLLOWPOINT was ruled by the Argent spiders. All that refuse to be ruled by Lauryn Anansi and the other spiders suffer terribly by the hands of spider before dying a horrendous death.
Chapter Five
I had not been to visit my parents’ graves for six months; it was too painful. The thought of them having died in the awful way that they had broken my heart. I swallowed down all the pain of so many years of missing my parents and wanting them here with me. I had my driver’s license now, thanks to Uncle George. He is such a patient and caring being, and Aunt Ruth is sweet. I learned to drive Uncle George’s old Pinto in one week. It was nerve wracking at first, but once I calmed down, I got it! It feels good to be able to drive myself wherever I have to go. I drove to the flower shop and purchased some lilies to place on my parent’ graves. I drove to Shade Crypts Cemetery and parked outside of the front gate and made my way inside and went down to the middle of the cemetery where my parents’ graves were side-by-side. I lovingly set the lilies on their graves.
I stood at their graves for a while, just thinking of how it had been when we were together, all of the fun things we did, and the delightful discussions we shared while we ate seated at the dinner table. I thought about my parents’ anniversary and the time I had made brunch for them. It would have been perfect if I hadn’t let the rolls burn. I had cried. I missed my parents so much. My body had changed so much through the years and I wished so badly that Mom had been there for me. Instead, Aunt Ruth had the pleasure of getting me dressed for my very first dance. She and Uncle George saw me off to my prom. I owe them a lot – they were with me through the good and bad times. They are like my second parents. Plus, they
