"What on earth?" She squinted and leaned closer.

It was a very small spider, less than half her pinky fingernail, with metallic gold lines along its body. She had never seen anything like it.

Garofița picked up the foraging guide and followed the minuscule thing until it climbed on. The spider started walking straight towards her hand.

"Uueeeeeh!!" Garofița ran for the windowsill, tapping the book until the spider fell off. It didn't die, did it? She couldn't tell through the dark green grass.

Was it then when it started??

Garofița didn't mind spiders or insects of any kind, she liked the way a lot of them looked, but she preferred to admire them from a safe distance. She banished ants and flies and moths as soon as they entered her new house.

One time when she was very little, she put on her pyjamas for the night and laid down to sleep, but kept feeling something on her stomach. When she raised her shirt to look, there was a silverfish crawling over her belly. She probably woke up the entire building with her scream.

As she walked to the encampment a day later, Garofița kept feeling an itch on her thigh, where her hipbone and her leg connected. She tried to scratch it discreetly while walking, but it persisted. She told herself she really needs to take a bath.

"Who is it?" The guards by the door asked.

"Garofița!" She replied.

The encampment smelled like burning wood and wet dust. She found Bea cutting another woman's hair, careful to make her ends straight, and Mr Gliga cooking. Along with a small black grill he had a portable stove, a small blue gas tank with a metal ignition thing on top. He also had pots, pans, utensils and the knowledge to make anything taste good. At that moment he was making spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce and minced meat.

"It's almost done." He said, then coughed into his shoulder.

"I can have some too, right?" Bea said, voice honeyed.

"If you don't fuck up my hair again." The woman dryly said.

"You make one mistake one damn time..." Bea grumbled. "Keep your back straight!" She added out loud. "Don't blame me afterwards!"

Garofița watched the scene and Gliga's set-up for a moment. "Mr Gliga, may I use your stove to cook too?"

"I'll cook it for you if you let me have half." He said.

"Okay!" She lit up. "Thank you!"

"Whatcha got?" He said as he stirred.

"Uh, nothing right now!"

The itch travelled around the inside of her thigh, along veins and hairs. Garofița uncomfortably shifted her leg, trying to scratch it by moving the denim over it.

"Is, uh, is Vitalis here?" She asked.

"Yeah, she's napping." Gliga said, pointing with the spoon towards a tent, then coughing like a crow choking on plastic.

"Thank you!"

Vitalis' tent was big enough for 2 people, the green-blue tarpaulin bleached by the sun and stained by mud in some places. It had one entrance, left unzipped and open. Nearby was another woman, the blonde lady who was hiding from her drug-dealing husband. She was sewing a jacket, so absorbed in her work she didn't seem to notice when Garofița greeted her.

She peeked inside and saw Vitalis lying down, an arm thrown over her eyes and the other resting over her stomach. A deflated comforter covered part of the plastic ground of the tent, and there was one pillow under Vitalis' head. Along the "walls" were her things: a large backpack, an old dufflebag, a box of books and papers, a plastic bag full of empty bottles, an old cassette player, and a plastic bag full of folded clothes. There were tissues, food wrappers and cigarette buds here and there.

Inside the tent everything was dyed in a blue light. Vitalis' hair looked green, her hat and shirt looked dark purple. The taupe coat she always wore was lying at her side, like it was sleeping too.

Vitalis raised her arm a little bit to peek.

"Oh, hey kid." She said.

"Hello!" Garofița said, crouching in front of the tent door. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Like a million dollars." She said and then cleared her throat. "Where you been?"

"Uhm, in the woods." She replied, fiddling with the mask in her hands. "I stick to the woods. I, uh, I found a foraging guide at the thrift store and I've been picking berries."

"Good idea." She mumbled, rubbing her palm against her face while scrunching her nose. "Only eat what you recognise."

"I do."

"Can I have some too?"

"Of course!"

"Yay." Vitalis said monotone.

Garofița glanced around the encampment around them, wondering what else to say.

"Can I help you with anything, Vitalis?"

"Mmmh, can't think of anything." She said as she continued to lie down, eyes closed.

Garofița looked for a minute at the tent's ground, at the trash not yet picked up, and gingerly entered the tent too, scooting forward while still crouching, careful where she put her dirty shoes. She had to clean her shoes too. She hadn't taken them off in days, even slept in them. The inside of her thigh itched like a swarm crawling down to the back of her knee.

She picked the empty bottles, caps and tissues, stuffing them in the bag she deduced to be the trash bag. Her nostrils burned from the scent of cigarette and alcohol that seeped into the tent's fabric. She felt cold whenever the bottles clinked against each-other too loudly, and she noticed her hand was trembling. It made her snap out of it for a second and feel stupid.

She turned to look at Vitalis, and saw she had been watching her with one uncovered eye.

"Is it okay...?" Garofița said, slowly retracting her hand, still holding a bottle.

"Yes! Of course!" Vitalis said, nodding and pushing herself a little higher. "You don't have to fuss over me."

"I don't mind..." Garofița said, then thought it was a weird reply.

"You're a sweetheart." Vitalis sighed as she laid her head in her palm, propped up by her elbow, eyes with heavy bags and dark brows still closed. She looked like a painting.

The itch on Garofița's leg now travelled down the front of her calf. It felt so undeniably like something was crawling in-between her leg hairs, that she finally lifted her pant leg to check.

What tumbled down was a small brown spider, black under the blue of the tent, hair-thin legs and a rounded body.

Garofița let out a short scream upon realising what it was, making Vitalis instantly wake up.

"What's wrong?" She pushed herself to a sitting position.

"T-There was a spider on me!" Garofița said, feeling stupid again.

Vitalis leaned down to look, squinting with her mouth slightly open. When she saw the little thing, she unceremoniously planted her boot over it.

"Done." Vitalis said, looking at the sole. The spider was dead and flat on it, one of its long legs popping back up, still twitching. Garofița didn't know why she felt so faint.

"I-I'm gonna go..." Garofița said, half-way standing up.

"You can take the bottles with you and recycle them." Vitalis said. "You get a fifty coin for each and they stack up pretty fast."

"Oh, right!" She said. She forgot she could do that.

"Just be careful you cash in at the same store you recycled them at. It's written on the ticket. The uh, freaking, Kaufland by the town center has the recycling machine always broken, I don't know what the fuck they're doing."

"I saw a Lidl on the way here."

"You could go there too. It's always full though, so watch for when there's less traffic."

"Thank you so much!" Garofița smiled.

"De nada." Vitalis said and started putting her coat on.

The Lidl was indeed full. Garofița could see the people lining up in front of the recycling machine, with gigantic trash bags full of water, juice and beer bottles, enough to cash in maybe hundreds of lei. How did they gather so many?

She ended up taking the bag of bottles to her home, setting it in the corner, adding her own empty bottles to it, and taking out a two litre one that used to be for mineral water.

"Let's go to the spring!" She told her pets.

As she looked down at the bottle, she saw a spider on her hand, between the thumb and index finger knuckle. It was plain and brown, its tiny head facing away from her, like it had emerged from her sleeve.

Garofița yelped and dropped the bottle, spooking the rest of the house too. Where did it come from?! She looked around the dark brown wooden floor and couldn't see it anywhere. Where did it go??

"Ahh!" Garofița jumped away, pointing at the slightly darker speck on the floor. "Catch it! Catch it!"

Buddy looked down at the intruder, then swiftly took it out by licking it off the ground.

The weird little family made their way to the altar, then went to the right of the bench like Roxi told her. The path, with ground almost grey, was surrounded on either side by large dog-rose bushes, low tree branches and tall larkspurs, turning it into a lush green tunnel.

Garofița kept worrying there were more spiders under her clothes, and as a result kept itching. She hated her stupid brain so much, this is why she avoided them!!

The sound of water became louder and louder, and soon enough they found the spring. Like Roxi described, it was a concrete slab, white with pink and grey speckles, green and yellow moss growing over it. The moss was thickest and happiest in the small basin underneath the dark brown pipe, pouring out crystal clear water. The basin was its own little forest, with a small gated hole for the excess water to fall into a sewer system. On the slab was a cross and the year 1955 written next to it.

Garofița held the bottle under the pipe. It was the refreshing kind of cold. The sound of it filling the plastic container was less pretty than when it fell over the little swamp. She took a sip from the bottle and it tasted fine. Like, well, water. Buddy and Bezea drank from the basin, and Walker glared because Buddy shoved his way to drink first.

"Be nice to each-other." Garofița put the bottle under the pipe again. As it filled up, she had to hold it with both hands, then set it down on the ground to screw the cap back on.

Around the spring grew flowers that loved water. There were big clusters of forget-me-nots, growing out of the flooded moss. They were pale blue and a couple of them were even pink. Garofița picked a small stem with 5 flowers and ate it.

"Doesn't taste like much." She said.

Forget-me-not was her favourite flower. In her old home she had a pot in the balcony, but the forget-me-not seeds from the store turned out to be a different kind, with much smaller and darker blue flowers. Wild forget-me-nots and wild flowers were far more beautiful.

She was about to pick another flower, when a spider dashed from underneath the large green leaves. It was dark brown with chunky legs, shaking the drops off them before running away behind the slab, into the bushes.

Garofița stared at the place where it went, wondering what the hell was going on. The world is full of spiders and insects and small critters, but she never noticed this many spiders before.

Her skin itched and tickled along her arms and under her chest almost on command. She groaned and scratched at herself. When it persisted she took off her fuzzy shirt and shook it over the spring.

A twig snapped behind her. Garofița covered herself and screamed like a banshee.

It was the shepherd dog, one paw up in surprise. There was a silent second where they stared at each-other, then Walker started hissing.

"Get his ass!!" She shouted and pointed.

The dog ran and Walker fell on the grass as he lunged forward, not enough strength in just one leg to ambush.

She put the shirt back on, was reminded she smelled like sweat, helped Walker up, picked up the bottle like a baby on her hip, and led the way home with fast steps.

She sat down to eat the rest of the blueberries. She hated that she kept checking each fruit, expecting another spider on it. Forcing herself not to look at the bowl, she stared at the wall and kept eating.

Several times her parents would buy a crate of cherries or plums or apricots to make jam. Everybody would all be picking the seeds out at the dinner table, checking for rotting cores and worms. Garofița hated it every time, seeing the brown mush and juice get underneath her nails, tiny white worms writhing around what she was supposed to eat, crawling up her fingers. Saying out loud that she was grossed out would just get her ridiculed, or accused of being lazy. What was she gonna do when she had a child and had to change diapers, huh? She secretly told herself she would never make jam when she grew up.

The last blueberries were mushy and grainy like sand, and she ate them loathfully.

Garofița stretched to grab the bottle and drink the blissfully cold water. As she swung it up, she saw something in the corner of the ceiling. It was a spider web. Has it always been there? Dust for sure, but not strings hanging from the wooden boards like that.

Full of suspicion and growing unease, Garofița stood up and stepped closer to the wall, watched by Buddy and Walker. There was a spider in it, brown, legs not too thin and not too thick. It hung unmoving from the web, dusty like it had been there for ages. It looked dead.

Something told Garofița that it was still alive. Something told her that it was the same spider that had been on her leg and on her hand, even though it made no sense. Her blood ran cold as the idea took root in her already easily-scared mind. No, don't be an idiot, it can't be the same spider. Shape-shifting spiders don't exist, probably. Hopefully.

Garofița ran outside and picked up a long stick. She told herself to get a broom too.

She held the stick with both hands, staring up at the spider. Unsure what to do and how to do it, she kept mentally yelling at herself to just do something already, stop being scared.

She pushed the stick into the web and it shook violently, the spider spun in circles by its own house. Garofița moved the stick like she was gathering cotton candy and then threw it on the ground. Her pets jumped.

Buddy approached the stick to inspect it, sniffing the grey tangled thread. Garofița slowly stepped closer too, bending at the middle to look closer.

The spider dug its way out, spindly legs pushing through. Garofița snatched the stick and chucked it out the window. It crashed against a tree trunk, the one Walker used to sit by, breaking in half.

She didn't want to go to check if it was dead or not. As long as it was outside and not in her house, it was fine.

The next day, Garofița gathered a handful of small sticks and tied them with sewing thread to a larger stick, making herself a short broom. She swept the hallway and living room where they all slept, and the other two rooms she hardly visited. She didn't really need them yet.

The twigs made an unpleasant scratching sound against the old boards, but it worked well enough at pushing out dust and crumbs. Her home was dirtier than she realised. Her mother would have beaten her if she knew she let it like this.

Garofița shook her head, wishing the dark thoughts would fall off. Nobody hurt her anymore. She was fine.

As she scratched along the space where the wall connected to the floor, Garofița was bending down, advancing one step at a time. She approached the window facing the woods and moved away so as to not bump her forehead against the windowsill.

There was a spider hanging under the windowsill, right at the level of her nose. Garofița fell backwards on her butt.

"Ow, ow..." She rubbed her hip. "Why...?" She turned and glared at the thing.

It was slightly larger than before. Its body was light brown and dotted with yellow, as if diseased, and it hung from an invisible silk. There was no web in sight. On its torso or ass or whatever it's called the dots formed a face: two eyes and a straight-across mouth, perfectly neutral.

Garofița stared at the spider, not sure how to proceed. Whether it was the same or not, she did not like it one bit that they were constantly appearing.

After a moment's thought, she crawled for the takeout bowl, never taking her eyes off the spider. It did not love at all, just hung suspended. Again she wondered if it was alive.

As she inched closer, bowl ready, she gently blew air against the spider. It trembled, drawing its legs closer to its body as if it was scared. Garofița hesitated, then slowly moved the bowl closer to the wall.

Before it was even close, the spider was shaken again by the silk Garofița was disturbing. Threads reached all the way to the floor, only faintly visible in the light. When did it have the time to weave all this?!

Garofița wondered what to do, when the spider started climbing up towards the windowsill. She gasped and slammed the bowl against the wall, trapping it inside.

She half-panted and half-laughed, then realised she had no paper to slide underneath.

"God fucking damn it!!" She said out loud, both hands on the bowl to keep the creature inside.

She looked around the room, trying to remember what was in her backpack.

"Buddy! Walker!" She called out.

Walker stared at her questioningly, which he always did by default.

Garofița yelped when she felt Buddy suddenly press his nose against her back, almost dropping the bowl.

"Dude!!"

Buddy backed away, tail between his legs.

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" She said. "Bring me the backpack. The backpack! There! Bring here! Bring backpack! Being it!" She explained slowly, as if that would help him understand human speech better.

"Bring" Walker repeated, not helping.

Buddy circled the backpack, sniffing through the sealed pockets.

"Bring it here!" Garofița repeated, impatiently.

Buddy pushed it with his head and it limply fell over.

She pulled the bowl and the spider inside along the wall until she was somewhat closer to the backpack, and stretched her leg to reach it, flailing her foot to grab one of the straps or the handle loop. She accidentally pushed it further away.

"I'm gonna crash out." Garofița said.

One hand on the bowl and the other down for balance, she put the backpack between her feet and pulled it closer, rubbing the hell out of her pants on the floor. At least she gathered the remaining dust.

Garofița took out the forager's guide with one hand and opened it to the front page, mostly empty except for information like when and where it was printed and who had copyright. She ripped it out, holding the book down with her feet, and cursed when it came off uneven.

She slid the paper under the bowl, wondering if the spider was even in there, and stood up.

"Buddy, come with me."

She took the spider further away into the woods, to the small river where she first saw the giggling fox (fitting place for cursed beings)(cursed in the annoying sense).

She removed the paper from the bowl and the spider rolled out, falling gracelessly on the grass and stones. Garofița worried she killed it, but it slowly opened its legs and cautiously looked around the new environment. The sound of running water helped calm down Garofița too.

"Uhm, listen..." She said. "Please don't come to my house anymore. I don't know what you are, or if you are what I think you are. But, uhm, please stop. I-I have nothing against spiders, but I don't think it's a good place for you to live in anyway."

The spider stayed put, listening either to her or the river.

"Are you okay?" She asked, gently reaching her finger in front of it.

When her nail was about to make contact, the spider drew its front leg away, in a quick and exaggerated manner, almost disgusted by her.

Garofița felt like she would pop a vein.

She returned home stomping, full of rage. The forest floor full of leaves and greenery felt like a nuisance, tugging at her pants and touching her hands, leaving behind ghosts. Wind blew through the trees, tousling the leaves and shoving around her hair. Cool air touched her skin and it started to itch again, around and down the back of her neck and her spine. Garofița dropped the bowl, shut her eyes tight and grit her teeth as she roughly scratched her whole head, shaking her locks and clawing at her scalp.

Buddy whined and pressed against her legs. She stopped and picked the bowl back up.

Inside she found Bezea under the windowsill, and another spider hanging underneath, in the very same place, like it never left. It had the same spots, and the face was frowning this time.

Without thinking, Garofița grabbed the foraging guide and slammed it against the wall, turning the spider into an indistinguishable dark splatter.

She huffed, still mad at it and herself and everything, when she saw movement. Slowly but determined, spider legs pulled through from between the wooden boards of the wall, barely a millimetre of space, and the spider was out.

It was the one who had been on her leg, the one Vitalis killed, the one she saw on her shoe, the same one, with harvestman legs and a pencil dot for a body, the exact same one. It crawled, as light as air, next to the fresh corpse of the previous one.

Vitalis lit a cigarette as she walked down the street together with Garofița.

"Did you manage to recycle the bottles?" She asked.

"Oh, uh, I, uhm, I didn't get around to it..." She replied.

"Is everything good?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"You seem upset, that's all."

"Oh..." Garofița forgot to control her face.

"Can I help in any way?" Vitalis continued.

"I don't know if you can..."

"Try me."

Garofița sighed. "There's... a spider in my house."

"A spider?"

"Yes, and... it keeps coming back. It looks different, like there's several of them, but it's the same one."

"What, like...?"

"I don't know! It, like, rotates between forms! But they keep appearing out of nowhere, no matter how many times I take them outside. I-I did it like 9 times yesterday!"

"Wait, so you got a spider that keeps showing up in your house?"

"Yeah."

"The same one?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-Yeah."

"...What if you kill it?"

"It still comes back! That's the problem! It's freaking immortal!"

"Oooh-kay..."

"I'm not crazy!!"

"I wasn't saying you are! I guess, uhhhh,... kill it until it gets bored and leaves you alone?"

"I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"I feel bad..."

"It's just a spider!"

"It's got a little life too!"

"You don't want it in your house, though!"

"Yes, but...!!"

Garofița groaned, holding her own head.

"Look, it's... It's gonna be okay." Vitalis tried to encourage. "There's no such thing as no solution."

"I don't even know what it is!" Garofița lamented. "Maybe it's a forest spirit?"

"Maybe."

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't freaking know."

"You don't...?"

"Never heard of immortal spiders until now..."

"I thought you'd know..."

"Girl, how?"

"Y-You've been here for a long time!"

"I don't hang around the woods! I'm not dealing with all the shit in there. Fuck no."

Garofița looked at her like she was about to cry.

Vitalis scratched the back of her neck. "Wanna go to church about it?"

"To church?"

"Doesn't hurt to try. You don't believe in God?"

"I do!" Garofița quickly said.

"Let's go."

In Ferești there was an orthodox church, a catholic one and a protestant one, situated pretty close to one-another. The orthodox church was white with a pale mauve roof, surrounded by a white wall with tall and fluffy pines on each 4 corners, and an old magnolia tree to the right of the front door. Vitalis told Garofița that local girls came to take photos with it when it was in bloom. She also snuffed out her cigarette on her shoe before walking in. Garofița took her mask off.

Inside the church was dark as if it was night, and the wooden floors creaked loudly in the deep quiet. A gigantic chandelier dyed the main area a warm, sleepy orange. Above the golden swinging doors leading to the altar was the bible illustrated in blue, red, gold, brown and maroon, and on every inch of wall there were portraits of saints. Garofița's eyes first fell on Mother Mary, and Grandmother Anne nearby.

Close to the front entrance was an ornate cylinder with holy water, and a stack of paper cups. Vitalis took over and turned on the tap.

"Chug." She handed the cup to Garofița, laughing at herself.

Garofița drank it. It tasted like normal cold water.

They sat down in one of the wooden pews. It was eerily quiet, despite the front door being wide open. Cars down the street and a barking dog on a walk sounded like far away echoes.

"When did this spider show up?" Vitalis asked, speaking quietly although it didn't seem like anybody else was there but them.

"I think the day before yesterday." Garofița said. After I left with your bottles."

Vitalis paused. "Is... is it my fault?"

"I don't think so. I saw a lot of spiders the day before that too. I just kinda didn't think about it until now..."

"Well... maybe it's like that thing, if you look for a red car, you'll find it eventually. Does it make sense? I don't fuckin' remeber how it was worded."

Garofița glared at Vitalis for swearing inside the church.

"It's real..." She said, looking down. "There really is a spider..."

"I'm not saying there isn't. Plenty of strange things exist in this world. I'm just trying to make sense of it. Is this spider doing anything malicious?"

"No, it's just... there. I'm going about the house and it's there again. I keep trying to get rid of it and it's back. It doesn't even do anything, it just sits on the web all day."

"... maybe it likes your vibe?"

Garofița burst out laughing. "What?"

"Maybe it likes you? Since you're close to the woods and got 2 dogs."

"I have a kitty now too."

"Oh, really?"

"I named her Bezea!"

"That's cute! See, maybe it likes that you love animals. Forest spirits appreciate that, I think."

"I think I also saw a dog spirit in the woods."

"What? At the same time as the spider?"

"Uh, a couple days before."

"Damn girl, you're a magnet."

"I guess so..."

They both fell quiet for a moment. Garofița kept looking at her sleeves, at the dark corners around the walls and under the pews, trying to see if she was followed there too. Was it hiding on purpose, to make her look dumb?

"If the spider is just kinda hanging out, do you mind it being in your house?" Vitalis asked. "If it's a tiny one, you could ignore it."

"... I'd rather it wasn't there to begin with." Garofița said. "It's not like W-... m-my dogs, or Bezea. It won't listen to me."

"Well, it sounds messed up, but if it comes back after it dies, you can just do whatever you want to it then."

"..."

"I saw an aquarium in a trash can once. You trap it in one of those. Keep it like an actual spider pet."

Garofița smiled with half her mouth.

"I've heard of ghosts or demons attaching themselves to people and places. Like the ghost at the Balint manor, you remember." Vitalis said. "Never heard of spiders until now, but hey, anything is unfortunately possible."

"I heard about attachments." Garofița said. "Wish it didn't happen to me..."

"Can't really do much about that." Vitalis said, eyes lowering, mouth twisting in a bitter expression. "The supernatural is a bitch."

Garofița side-eyed her for cursing again.

"And life is a bitch in general." Vitalis continued, looking up and wiping her nose. "Throws curveball after curveball at you, and when you think you got a moment of peace, another one drops right on your head."

"Pretty much..." Garofița said.

They fell quiet again.

"What do you do, then?" Garofița asked.

"You keep going." Vitalis said. "You scream, cry, gnash your teeth, punch a wall, then up you get and keep going. You don't have a choice."

Garofița glanced at her.

"Sorry, I got dramatic at the end." Vitalis said.

"It's fine, don't worry."

"Wanna stay here a little longer?"

"No, it's okay. We can leave."

"I got a vinted package coming." Vitalis got up with difficulty. "And the only easybox in this damn down is on the other side of it."

"What did you order?" Garofița smiled.

"Some trinkets."

Garofița took another cup of holy water with her. They split in front of the church. The way back to the periphery was easy enough for Garofița to follow by herself. She was getting the hang of Ferești, even if she avoided it and the people in it. She didn't want to be found.

The forest stopped feeling safe too. Who knew what else was in it? If it stayed there and she could chase it away, it was fine, but if it got inside her home? And refused to leave? What was she supposed to do? Leave again?

She passed an apartment building with small decorative bushes along its small garden. It looked like her old house and she flinched for a moment, pulled out of her deep thought. The holy water spilled over her fingers.

"Shit...!" She wiped them against her shirt before the drops fell on the ground.

As she walked by the bushes with glossy green leaves, she noticed many holes in them. Inside were spider webs like floss. They were infecting the whole row.

She pulled a leaf and dropped it in one of the holes, and it remained suspended as if by an invisible force. Moments later the weaver appeared. It didn't look like any of hers. It peeked from the shadows, only one leg visible. She pulled another leaf and tried to drop it on top of the spider, but it ran away as soon as her hand's shadow was above it. Garofița wondered how many spiders were in total in the whole garden.

She wondered how many there were in the alleys and window corners and under sidewalk benches. Spiders were everywhere, omnipresent. She landed on the one literally omnipresent. Just her luck.

In the days since she ran away, Garofița spent more time outside than she ever did before. She was told the world is a scary and dangerous place, both directly and indirectly, and it wasn't untrue. But there was also good in the world. There was Vitalis and Roxi, and Buddy and Walker. She could do so many things. She lived with a skin-walker, she ran through the woods and through the fields, and scared away beasts by herself, yet a small spider was making her feel like she was trapped in her old house again.

Garofița ducked in an alley, put the cup down, crouched and cried. She felt so so so stupid, crying over a stubborn spider when she had much bigger issues going on.

She tugged her mask off and wiped her eyes with her sleeves, the stupid fuzzy fabric absorbing nothing.

She sighed deeply, trying to keep it from turning into sobs, and glanced to the side, towards a trash can and away from the street.

The spider was there. It spun a line and hung down the trash can lid, near her head. His face was still frowning.

She looked at it with furrowed brows and twisted lips, more irritated than sad or scared. Like seriously? This little asshole made her so upset?

Garofița noticed it a couple times before: when she was angry or annoyed or riled up, she couldn't feel scared. It was like those feelings couldn't coexist. Was this the solution? To be always angry?

She stared at the spider for a long time, then stood up without a word and left. Her head hurt and her nose felt full of gunk.

At home she was first greeted by Buddy, as usual, and she hugged him with her free arm.

"Drink some, please!" She held it under his nose. He did without question.

"Bezea, baby, you too!" She carefully tilted the cup. She lapped a bit, then wiggled away.

"Your turn!" She held it before Walker, the other hand under his chin. He took a sip too.

"None of us are evil!" Garofița giggled after she drank from the cup as well.

She turned her head to the windowsill, and sure enough the same frowning spider was there.

"What about you?" She asked, stepping closer. Her eyes were still red from crying. Her jaws and her ribcage felt tight, heat pushing from beneath the bones. Her heart pounded with fear and anticipation.

The web shook as she pushed the cup closer and the spider tried to climb upwards. She swooped the cup of holy water upwards and caught the spider in it.

The little creature flailed in the water, trying to find ground or an edge or anything.

She pulled the spider out with her finger and wiped it against the windowsill, leaving it there. It stood up wobbly and shook the water off one leg at a time.

It didn't feel as good as she thought it would. It was easy to be cruel against something so small, yet the fear of the spider and its possible retaliation was still there. She was too sensitive for everything, she thought and frowned.

She picked up a tissue and held a corner over the spider, absorbing the puddle around it.

It didn't combust, so at least it wasn't a demon.

"This is my house." Garofița said. "You can stay, but you'll do as I say."

In elementary school she had an aquarium with fish. They were neon tetras, bright blue and red. Her father told her that if she wanted pets, she had to look after them by herself. She ran late on cleaning the tank because of other chores, because of school first becoming the Torment Nexus, and because she was fucking 10 years old. (If she didn't get angry, she would start crying again, so anger it is.) It began to smell like still water, and after being yelled at that she can't be trusted with anything, the fish were thrown out.

If Garofița had a goal in life, besides getting away from her parents, it was to not be like them.

She drank the rest of the holy water, picturing it cleaning her chest as it went down, and gingerly reached a finger to pet the spider.

Buddy hopped on the windowsill and ate it.

"BUDDY!!!" She shrieked.

A new spider walked up from the outer wall under the window, taking the dead one's place. It was one of the ones she saw before, the golden one.

Garofița grabbed the torn page and convinced the spider to climb onto it. On her tip toes, she slid the paper against the wall as close to the top corner as she could reach. Eventually the spider grabbed onto the wood.

"You can stay there." She said. "I promise I won't hurt you anymore. And, uhm, I am sorry for squishing you yesterday."

"Good morning, missy!" Mr Gliga greeted her first, losing breath on the last word.

"Good morning!" Garofița walked up to them.

"You seem more cheerful today." Vitalis said.

"I recycled the bottles!" She said, hopping on her heels. "I got 9 lei!"

"Only 9? I could have sworn it would be more."

"I got 8 bags of ramen with them!" She presented the shopping bag, very proud of herself.

"You want me to cook some for ya?" Gliga asked.

"Yes, please! For all three!"

"Ramen is the easiest thing in the world, come on, I'll show you."

Garofița sat next to Vitalis and Gliga around the stove, a pot with a black bottom and silver scratches set atop of it and filled with water.

"Did you deal with the spider?" Vitalis asked as she took a drag from her cigarette.

"It's alright now." Garofița said.

"Glad to hear."

"What spider?" Gliga coughed into his elbow.

"Oh, uh, a spider problem in the place I squat in." Garofița replied.

"I hate those damn things." Gliga shuddered. "One time when I was a kid I poked a momma spider with an egg sack and the whole army came out to greet me. Urrgh, I still get nightmares."

"They're just bugs, Gliga." Vitalis said.

"They're arachnids." Garofița whispered.

"They're bug-adjacent." Vitalis scoffed.

"Whatever they are, keep them far away from me!" Gliga declared.

Garofița fixed the plastic bag on her lap when she saw her spider curiously coming out of sleeve, as if hearing they were talking about it. The face was almost smiling. She quickly looked at Gliga, then picked up the spider and placed it in the grass by her feet.

"Hmm?" Vitalis turned to her.

"Nothing!" She smiled as she straightened up.

Bonus Illustration: