Far Beyond Sinister By Laura Shell

David's hand slipped off the wrench and bashed into the edge of the wooden work table. Holding said hand and experiencing an obscene level of pain, he emitted a slew of curse words that would have made Samuel L. Jackson clap. What he didn't know was that he'd not only smashed into the table but also obliterated a small sac of spider eggs. 

David looked at the back of his hand and could literally see the swelling occur. Also, a small cut was on top of the forming mound with a touch of blood and green ooze. 

"Yuck."

The contusion continued to grow in size. He knew exactly what his wife was going to say—he'd need to have it x-rayed. Well fuck that shit. He wasn't going to waste the time to go into any emergency room and wait around to inevitably hear the words "It's broken" or "It's fractured." 

Boo. Pfft.

He had shit to do.

But goddamn, did it hurt. But goddamn if he was going to admit that.

He'd ice it for a while. The immense swelling was due to his blood thinners—it had to be.

So David went into the house, grabbed an ice pack, sat in the living room, and iced his wound. And sure as shit, his wife did indeed tell him he needed to get an x-ray.

"I'll be fine."

But David wasn't going to be fine because something far beyond sinister was going on with that wound, far beyond swelling and pain.

It happened when the cold met the cut. Those microscopic spider eggs invaded David's bloodstream, and the cold had sealed the deal.

That night, David woke up with a serious, sharp pain, which confused him because the swelling in his hand had gone down. He turned on the lamp on his nightstand and examined the wound.

It pulsed.

Pulsed? What the fuck?

His wife woke, knuckled her eyelids, and then she, too, examined his pulsating wound with an expletive.

Suddenly, David's flesh opened, and a burst of tiny green spiders shot up. They landed all over his hand and on the bedspread, where they dashed in different directions.

His wife screamed.

He screamed.

The spiders screamed.

Over and over, David's wife said, "I told you to get an x-ray!"

Laura Shell has been published in NUNUM, Maudlin House, Citron Review, and many others. Her first anthology of paranormal stories, The Canine Collection, was released this year, and she is currently working on her second anthology. You can find out more about her at https://laurashellhorror.wordpress.com.