Undisclosed - Zach Bo1inger
Dream: Another Spider Dream
I'm playing some cheesy online game. I think it is a Yahoo game, if there is such a thing. The graphics are only slightly better than Super Mario Bros. The goal of the game is to get these spiders to jump around a ring of stones. The stones look a lot like Stonehenge, but no cross-beams. Maybe it's a circle of really old gravestones. You click where you want the spider to jump next. The computer makes a cheap ding noise, and a little red circle flashes where you clicked. The spider makes his best effort to jump there. If it is too far, he jumps as far as he can in that direction. Hopefully, he lands on a rock. If he falls short, you lose a life. I start playing. As the game progresses, the graphics get better. I'm clicking on rocks and my spider is jumping. He gets about halfway around the circle and by now the graphics are as good as Doom 3. It's dark and creepy like Doom 3, too.
Now, when I click on a spot, instead of just blinking a red circle, a red glow fades in and out on that spot. Instead of the generic ding, there is a sound that starts out like a piano note, but as it fades out, it sounds like a hot air balloon's burner. As the graphics get better, I can recognize that the spider is a tarantula. In the last tarantula dream, the tarantula was one of the brown furry ones. This one is black and does not have as much hair. It creeps me out that he jumps so well. Also, his posture is like an Orb Weaver - he keeps his body low, but his legs arch way up. I figure that's what a tarantula needs to do if he is going to become such a good jumper.
He's about halfway around the circle, and I realize I might be rushing the game a bit. I just now notice that there may not be a timer. I continue with a sense of urgency anyway. I think it's because the spider is creeping me out and I would just as soon finish the game and stop playing. The spider comes to a pretty wide gap, and as he jumps, he comes up a little short. In the game, I lost a life - but the spider is not dead. He's crawling around on the floor. He's not happy with me.
My second spider comes up to start his jumps. I realize my mistake from the first try. On the stone before the wide gap, I should have clicked on the front edge of the stone before the gap and then clicked on the back edge (closest to the wide gap). That would have been two hops on the same stone, but it would have given him the best chance to cross the wide gap. It's a pretty simple solution, but I have this feeling that I am going to rush myself and make the same exact mistake.
As the spider makes it's way around, the graphics quality goes from Doom 3, to movie quality, and then as the spider gets to the wide gap, I realize this has become real. As I predicted, I rush the game and I make the same mistake. The spider falls at the wide gap and gets mad at me. Both spiders look up at me with an eerie focus. Such single-minded spiders scare the hell out of me.
They start to run towards me. I throw a wad of cotton in their path. I'm not sure why. The spider who was in the lead decides that he wants to get me by himself, and he turns on the other spider. The predator spider pounces on the weaker spider and starts to wrap him in a web. He gets impatient with his web producing speed. He grabs the cotton I threw, spreads it thin and wraps the weaker spider up in it. This scares the hell out of me. I don't know what scares me more - the spider's cunning use of tools, or the cannibalistic nature of his attack.
I briefly take my eyes off the spider to look around for more cotton. I'm not looking for something to throw - I'm afraid there might be enough cotton to wrap around me. I look back at the spiders, but the stronger one is gone. The weaker one is wrapped up tight and immobilized. I don't know where the stronger one is, but I know he is stalking me. I'm so scared, I wake up.