One With Your Fears

Another one from that old archive (with a new image)

Eeeeeyeeew!" Karen screeched jumping away from the small creature in her kitchen. "A spider! Come kill it! Kill it quick!" 

Her shriek brought her boyfriend running. With a sigh of disgust over her response, he encouraged the creature to crawl up on his hand and headed for the door.

"There you go, Wolfie," Fred smiled. "Go catch your dinner out there." 

His reception, far from that of a conquering hero, surprised him.

"Wash up! You've touched it!" Karen shrank from him. 

With another sigh, he headed for the bathroom to do as she demanded. Just how was she going to survive their upcoming visit to the family farm, for heaven's sakes? There were bugs and spiders everywhere on a farm. 

It went pretty much as expected. From the first, Karen freaked. He finally got so sick of shooing bugs away that he went on strike. She followed him into the dairy barn and proceed to completely unsettle the herd. His father insisted she either go back to the farmhouse or wait upstairs in the hayloft. Faced with the choice, she decided to climb into the loft to wait. Fred was at least nearby and could come if something really hideous attacked her.

After twenty minutes or so, Karen's immediate fears subsided. Flies, though cold and clammy, could be shooed away. At least there were no spiders (yuch!). She began to get a little courage up. This barn top area thingie looked interesting. She decided to explore. On a small shelf on one wall was a strangely carved wooden box. It was about the size of her hand and nailed to the wall.

"Now why would anyone nail such a marvellous thing to a wall?" she mused aloud. A few minutes twisting and tugging freed the box from the wall: the spike pushed easily out of the old wood. The box, though, was something of a puzzle. It took some twisting, pushing and pulling to open it. The shallow depression in the box held a strange piece of jewellery. It wasn't a ring nor a broach nor pendant. She couldn't quite figure what it was. There was clearly no chain or any other way to wear the thing.  In the search for it's purpose, Karen flipped it over and found the back engraved with the following:

Conquest of thy fears, one with them must thou become.

How odd, thought Karen. It sounds like some ancient curse or blessing. She wondered what it meant. For Fred's sake, she wanted ever so much to get rid of her fear of bugs and spiders. But mostly spiders. Spiders were the most terrifying things she knew about. All those legs and the poison. Especially the poison. Black widows scared her into immobility. They could kill, they could! Good thing there weren't any around here. Or at least in the city. But out here ... who could tell?

Karen felt momentarily dizzy. When her head cleared, she found herself surrounded by great swaths of spider silk. She pushed her way out of the tangle and dashed to the far corner of the hayloft.   She knew altogether too well what creature made such messy webs. There was a black widow spider about and an impossibly big one! But where? Where?  The light from the high window at the far end of the loft cast a menacing shadow! A shadow with eight huge legs and it was right behind her. Her scream, as terrified as any she'd ever uttered, brought both Fred and his father running. Their screams, as they skidded to a halt and dashed back down the haychute, told Karen she was in big trouble. 

Just how much trouble Karen didn't find out until she tried to follow them. The arrival in her peripheral vision of more than the single expected hand brought Karen to a sudden halt. Her hands! One, two ... oh god! Six!  She was now truly one with her fears.