Jorogumo (part 3 of 4)

CHAPTER 3: ELAINE

...Matt awoke in shock, screaming, for a second time. This time he saw nothing on top of him; not his wife, no spider, no alternate version of himself. Without thinking he put his hands to his chest, but he felt no holes. It must had all been a dream.

By this point Matt wasn’t just scared, he was frantic. He didn’t know how long he was asleep for. All he knew was that it was still mostly dark out. With nothing else to hope for, he took out his phone again.

“Lord please…” He said, as he pressed down the power button on his phone. Miraculously the screen lit up and it turned on.

“YES!” Matt yelled out loud.

His phone was at 2%. He had no messages...he had no service. The time read 7:36am.

“No. No. That’s impossible! His thoughts came out loud again.

“What’s wrong, Honey?” Matt heard someone say behind him.” He turned and fixed his eyes on another women...this time his ex-wife. She stepped out from behind a large tree and appeared worried. She had a rifle in her hands, his rifle. She also had his backpack on.

“Hey.” She said in a relieved tone. “I know you don’t want to see me right now...but I, uh, found your gun.”

Matt examined his ex-wife with great detail, pretty sure this must be another hallucination. “What are you doing here?”

“Matt we are looking all over for you. Believe it or not, there are people who care about you. What are you doing out here?”

“How did you know where to find me, though?”

“Ian told me you might have ventured somewhere hunting, and something happened to you. So I decided to check out surrounding woods”

“Hehhaha...I thought no one would come find me in here. Ya know… with the ghost that kills anyone who enters”

He suddenly realized that he had left his backpack at the cabin, along with his gun… there’s no way Elaine went into that cabin, found his stuff, and made it out without encountering that monster….and if she did, she wouldn’t be acting so calmly.

“I don’t believe in ghost stories” She told him and smiled.

Matt wasn’t about to play any more games. He needed answers. “You were in the cabin, huh?”

“Yes! I figured that would be a good place to look for you, or at least ask whoever was there if they had seen you. Then I saw your stuff inside. I thought for sure I finally found you, but here you are.” Her eyes looked down at Matt’s dirty, beaten body. “Look at you. Come; I know the way out of here. But first, let’s stop by that cute little cabin again and you can wash up.”

“So you saw it…”

“It? You mean that sweet Japanese girl” Elaine smiled. “Yeah she lives there.”

“No...not the girl...the monster. The spider.”

Elaine paused and looked confused. She chuckled and asked “spider?...what do you mean?”

Something did not feel right, and Matt took a step backwards.

“Honey, come on. I think you’ve been in these woods long enough. Let’s stop by the cabin on our way back. Let’s go.” She stepped closer to Matt and extended her hand. Matt didn’t move.

“You want to go back to the cabin? Can I have my stuff back first?” Matt said. He was very on edge and occasionally shaking.

“You look so weary dear, and this backpack is heavy. Let me carry it for you.”

“Give me my stuff back.” Matt demanded abruptly.

Elaine paused again. “Alright Matt, fine. You can carry it if you really want to. Just promise me you will stop at Kumo’s place on the way back. Okay?”

Matt thought for a moment. He remembered that when he first met Kumo she couldn’t stop talking about her cabin, and the closer he got to the cabin the stronger he fell under her spell. Once he was inside, he was completely hers and followed her alluring music to the bloodbath behind the house. It was only once he broke her spell that he saw the gigantic arachnid, and after that he never saw Komo again. Once he broke her spell, he saw her for what she truly was. That was it’s feeding ground. If Kumo wanted to change into her monstrous form and devour him back when they first met in the woods...she would have. But she didn’t. She must have had to wait until he was in her feeding ground until she could take that form.

This was not Elaine. This was Kumo. He knew this to be true. But he had to get his gun and supplies back from her before anything else.

“You’re right. I need to rest a little…maybe eat something. Kumo seemed very kind, and I’m sure she would make me something.” He looked down at his cuts and tattered, soaked clothes. “I’m sure she would love to play nurse as well. I don’t want an infection.”

At that remark Elaine’s face scrunched ever so slightly like she was computing what he just said...like something he said gave away his awareness of the situation. Or at least that’s how Matt interpreted her reaction.

Matt walked over to Elaine. “Alright, just hand me my stuff and let’s be on our way.”

She gave him his backpack, with the contents still inside, and his rifle. Then the two began walking through the trees towards the cabin.

Matt was thinking about what moment he would try to escape, and how he would do it. He decided to not play into the demon’s games for too long.

Elaine interrupted his thought process. “You know, Matt, I know we aren’t on good terms at the moment, but I want you to know that I never wanted any of this. I don’t get pleasure out of all that’s happened.”

Matt could already feel his focus meandering. Even after this first sentiment of hers he felt a wave of emotions flood his mind. The clarity of who he was talking with grew blurry. “Don’t let it talk to you too long, Matt” he thought to himself.

She continued. “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and I’m considering lifting the restrictions on your visitation rights to see Susan. She truly misses her father, Matt. She needs to see you. It’s not all about me.”

“That bitch” Matt thought. She had him. Visions of his little girl came into his mind, and the thought of being able to be with her again was too engrossing for him to make his escape.

“I also think that Grant would want you to be able to see your daughter.”

Matt felt like he was going to tear up. He stopped walking, unzipped his pack and reached for his bottle of rum. It was gone. His hand came out of his pack in a fist, then he swung the pack over his shoulders again.

“Where is it. Where is my rum?’

“Honey you don’t need that. You are better than that.”

Matt just stared, angrily.

“That reminds me...I’ve been meaning to ask you. Did it feel good?..... Did it feel good when you cracked my cheek open with your fist? Did it give you pleasure hearing me hit the floor and crying out?”

Matt felt extreme sorrow but ignored Elaine’s questioning.

“And my ammunition? You take that too?” Matt asked, coming back to reality.

“You are done hunting, Matt.” It responded. “You will never catch what you’re after. The alcohol, the anger, the self-hatred. Tell me...did you achieve what you had hoped for here in these woods? Did you hunt down that thing that has been eluding you? No. And you never will. You’re too far gone, Mathew. You made your decisions, and your sins have consequences.

Come...Grant would like to speak with you.”

Matt’s eyes were huge with surprise and fear. He didn’t realized how far he had walked and that he was within eyesight of the cabin. He dropped his pack, and cocked the action of his gun. To his surprise, there was a bullet in it.

“I have left you one bullet, Mathew. But let’s not be silly...you know bullets won’t harm me. As much as I want to make the kill...I’m giving you a choice. Take down the one thing you have been hunting...end the pain and guilt. It was never me, your wife. It was never the alcohol. It was you.”

Matt felt frozen once again, except that he swayed a bit. He looked down the barrel of his gun and was overwhelmed with the hopelessness in himself, with the guilt, and with the realization bestowed upon him. He began to sob.

“Do it Matthew. End your pain. More importantly, end the misery that you’ve attached to those who used to love you. Your friends, your wife, your innocent daughter.”

As he looked down at his rifle, a flash of the hand-drawn hunter in red proudly holding his gun beside the white king of the forest entered his mind. The words at the top of his daughter’s card read aloud to him in her sweet voice “I love you Daddy!”

Matt stood up straighter and looked at the demon, still in the form of his ex wife, right in its black eyes “Go back to Hell. I still got reason to live.”

“If you turn back now, you will only delay this” the demon responded. “You will never leave these woods until you face yourself and your consequence. I will make sure of this. Your fate rests with me.”

Matt said no more. He turned and began walking away by his own power, with his gun in his hand and the one bullet still in place. Sometimes, it’s not the shots we take, but the ones we don’t.