Halloween Night

Surendra was returning home after spending hours in the laboratory of Jay Genetics Company. It was 31 October; Halloween was being celebrated in the town of Laxminagar. People were in the streets in scary costumes.

    When he reached home, he found his wife, Daisy, waiting for him. She said to him, "Hurry up, we are running late for Halloween decorations. Our neighbors have already completed their decorations."

 Surendra said to her, "Don't worry. My work is ready and is to be hung on the wall. It will take hardly ten minutes." 

She said, "Freshen up; I am going to prepare tea." 

Surendra had prepared a big scary spider with eight red eyes and spiny legs using cardboard. He fitted red bulbs in the eyes to make it scarier at night and made a web using thin white ropes. The leg span of the spider decoration was four feet and the body length was about three feet. 

    Surendra was a scientist and was carrying out research work on spiders. After having tea, Surendra set the cardboard spider and the cobweb on the wall on the left side of the main door of the house. He switched on the porch light. "It looks real. It has a big, bloated, hairy stomach, long, spiny legs, and scary big eyes.

" Everything is so scary," Daisy remarked. Just then, Surendra's mobile rang. It was a call from the company. Mr. David, his boss, was calling him for a discussion on an important issue. 

Surendra said to Daisy, "A call from the boss; I will have to go." Daisy asked, "What is the matter, and when will you come back?" He replied, "I don't know what the matter is and will come back before dinner." Within a few minutes, his car was driving towards the company office. 

Daisy went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. She switched on the music system, as she liked listening to music while cooking. Just then, the doorbell rang. She opened the door and found two little children in alien costumes. One of them said, "Your spider looks real. Big and scary, ready to jump at someone." Daisy offered them candies. 

Before shutting the door, she looked up at the spider. The spider was swaying slightly in the wind. After cooking, she took a bath and prepared a cup of coffee for herself. It was growing dark outside. She came out onto the porch, and sitting on a chair, she began sipping the coffee. Her neighbor Asha came with her three-year-old daughter in her lap. Her daughter was in fear seeing the spider. 

Asha said, "Marvelous, it looks real. My daughter trembled seeing this spider." Her daughter's eyes were closed, and her head was turned in the opposite direction; she did not want to see the spider.

 Asha remarked, "The red light coming from the belly of the spider is making it scary." Daisy gave some candies to the little girl. Just then, Surendra pulled his car close to the boundary wall of the house. Asha wished him a good evening and praised the spider made by him.

Surendra and Daisy finished dinner, watched their favorite horror show, and went to the bedroom to sleep. After midnight, Surendra woke up to noises coming from outside. He looked at the window; the street light was shining through the semi-transparent glass. All of a sudden, the noises increased, the sound of something falling occurred, and then there was silence for a moment or two. Then came the sound of tearing. Surendra thought the Halloween spider decoration had fallen and been torn by someone. Just then, he heard a purring sound and was shocked. For a few moments, he did not believe his ears. That purring sound seemed familiar to him. Again, the purring sound came; he jumped out of bed and moved to switch on the light. But the next moment, he was petrified, seeing a translucent image through the window glass. Fangs, pedipalps, legs, and a cephalothorax were all visible in translucent form. The next moment, with tapping on the window, the image moved, and a bloated abdomen became visible. Many questions flooded Surendra's mind.

 By now, Daisy had woken up. She asked, 'What happened?' He turned and said, 'Look there,' and pointed at the window. 

She looked at the window and said, 'There is nothing there.'

 He turned back to the window and found nothing. He said, 'I saw something big creeping there.'

 'It was an illusion,' she said. He switched on the light and moved to open the window, but a thought came to him, and he stopped. Daisy covered her face with a blanket. He grabbed his mobile phone and switched off the light. Before he could call the security officer of the lab, his mobile began ringing. It was a call from the security officer. He answered the call. 'Sir, bad news for you: the giant spider is out of the laboratory.'

  Surendra was shocked to hear that. Drops of sweat began falling from his forehead. His heart was throbbing with fear and excitement. Somehow, he managed to say, 'When and how?' 

The security officer replied, 'I don't know how it got free from the chamber. One of the security guards informed me on the phone about half an hour ago.' 

Surendra told him, 'I think the spider escaped hours ago, because I perhaps saw it a few minutes ago outside my house. Come to my house as soon as possible with all the equipment.' 

Saying so, he rushed to the almirah to take out his revolver. Daisy had already awoken and had heard Surendra's conversation with the officer. She went behind him and asked, 'What did you see outside the house?' Before Surendra could reply to her, they heard the painful yelp of a dog. Daisy asked, 'What happened to the dog?'

 Surendra took out the revolver from the almirah. Daisy asked in anger, 'Why the revolver? What is going on?' Surendra said, 'Keep patience. I will tell you the whole story later. There is a giant spider in our lawn.' 

Before Daisy understood what he said, they heard the smash of the window glass. The sound came from the drawing room. Surendra loaded the revolver and rushed to the drawing room. In the dim light of the drawing room, they saw four pairs of big, bright white eyes looking inside through the broken glass of the window. A pair of hairy and spiny legs were waving in the air. Behind the grill of the window, there was a giant spider about four feet in body length, eager to come in. Seeing that scene, Daisy panicked and began to shout, "How big this spider is! Where did it come from?" 

Surendra aimed at the spider but could not pull the trigger because he did not want to divulge the secret. 

  The giant spider was trying to push the iron grill to break it. Surendra fetched a thick iron stick from the kitchen. Daisy shouted, "Why don't you use the revolver? Shoot it dead." 

Surendra rushed towards the window. Seeing him, the spider pulled back for a moment, but soon it smashed its front part on the grill and began brandishing its legs and fangs. Surendra smashed the spider's leg with the iron stick. The spider again pulled back in pain. Daisy cried, "Use your revolver and kill this monster." 

  Now the spider made an unexpected move. It began to spin a web across the window. It was a scary scene. The web filaments were like steel wire. The web was strong enough to catch any human. Daisy again asked Surendra to kill the spider with his revolver, otherwise, the spider would devour us. Surendra replied, "Killing is the last option." 

Hearing this, Daisy asked, "Do you still have any other options?" Just then, Surendra heard a familiar sound, and the next moment the spider became numbed and then fell down. It was the security officer with a  tranquilizer gun. 

Some people wearing black clothes rushed at the spider and began to pack it in a special container. Surendra turned to his wife and said, "This was the last option."

 Daisy asked, "Where did this giant spider come from?" Surendra replied, "This giant spider is a consequence of an experiment which went wrong." Daisy asked, "Why doesn't your company kill this scary spider?" Surendra replied, "I don't know, but what happened today may make the management think about killing this giant spider." 

Just then, the security officer came in and said, "Sir, we have enclosed that spider in the container." Surendra said to him, "Well done. Remove it before sunrise." The next morning, Surendra found the shattered cardboard spider on the lawn. The neighbor was in search of his dog.