In the summer of 2002, my friends and I had just seen Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, and we were entranced by it. It was all we could talk about for the rest of the week, wishing we could have his amazing superpowers.
It wasn't long before Carson suggested the Spider Cave. Carson was the oldest of us, with him being eleven, he knew the most about the legend, if you could call it that. The Spider Cave is a cave that's about a ten-minute walk from our small town. It was aptly named, as everyone avoided it for one reason. The sheer amount and size of the spiders inside.
Near the entrance, which most people around here have passed, but never set foot in, is covered with small ones scurrying around the ground or hanging from the roof. They're all pretty shy, retreating deeper into the cave if anyone got too close, but then again, most people didn't.
Chuck told us that his uncle, Rick went into the cave when he was our age with a couple of his friends. They got pretty far into it too, but they claim to have found an old bicycle covered in spider webs, which spooked them enough to send them running.
So, with all of this stigma around the cave, none of us wanted to follow Carson inside. Excluding myself, none of us were afraid of spiders, but we were either told by our parents to avoid the cave, or just aware that we wouldn't find a radioactive spider in there.
We all went home, but Carson was determined to get superpowers. And after being sick for two days, he showed up on the last day of school, and it looked like he got them. Quickly, he showed us his right hand, and the big, ugly spider bite on top of it. We were all disgusted by it, but changed our tune when he flipped his hand over.
You know that scene in the movie, where it zooms in on Peter's hand and you see the barbs sticking out of it that he uses for wall-crawling? Carson had those barbs all over his palm and fingertips. His arm also looked larger, a far cry from Peter Parker getting buff overnight, but it was enough to convince us to go to the cave and get spider-powers of our own.
After school, Carson led us deep into the cave, and I was trembling all the while. I was the oldest, behind Carson, but I was deathly afraid of spiders. The only thing that kept me going was fear of humiliation and my desire to get superpowers. Still, I had to stare at the floor, I couldn't handle looking up at the countless spiders dangling from the ceiling.
Eventually, we were led into an open area of the cave, with a beam of sunlight shining in from a hole above us. I remember Carson saying something about this being the spot, and then I saw them. In the corner, there was a dozen or so spiders, except these were big, really big, with gleaming white fangs and hungry eyes. Carson said they were the ones that gave him the superpowers though, so Chuck and Tyler tentatively stepped forward.
Then, two of the spiders, each about the side of one of our hands, crawled forwards. Chuck was giving instructions to Chuck and Tyler, but I didn't hear them. I was sweating like a pig, and my breathing was growing rapid. Then, Chuck extended his right hand and a spider crawled onto it.
The spider on Chuck's hand bit into it, and stayed there with its fangs pulsating for what must've been ten seconds, until the fangs had turned from white to black. Then, it scurried back into the corner. Tyler asked if it hurt, and after Chuck, now grinning like an idiot, told him that he felt nothing, Tyler extended his hand and the second spider repeated the process.
A third spider had began to make its way towards me, and it was at that moment, I got sick, and as my friends went to ask if I was alright, I bolted out of the cave. I sat outside the cave entrance for a while, until my friends stepped outside. Carson began trying to convince me to go back in, saying something about how lame it would be to be the only one without powers, when I noticed something strange.
The barbs on his palm were now on both side of his hand, but not just there. They had spread all the way up to his elbow, and it almost looked like they were twitching. I was going to point this out to him, but then Tyler and Chuck begin bombarding him with questions.
"How long did it take for you to start feeling sick? For how long did it last?"
"You've were bitten over two days ago, what powers can you use now?"
Chuck pointed out that Carson had spider webs dangling from his wrist, but after a minute of Carson waving his arm, the web just fell to the ground, causing them to shrug and pass it off as taking more time to develop.
I'll never forget what I saw after that.
Carson muttered "My arm feels kinda heavy."
"That's because you have super strength, I think. Now show us some wall-crawling." Chuck replied eagerly.
Carson put his left hand on the cave wall, but it wouldn't stick. Then he tried it with his right hand, but the wall of the cave was rough, and suddenly a large piece of skin on his right palm ripped away like it was paper. Carson didn't scream, or show any signs of pain though, he just stumbled backwards a bit, then looked at his palm. Then he screamed.
It wasn't barbs for wall-crawling that were sticking out of his palm. It was legs. It looked like the spiders had eaten all of the meat off of his bones, to make room for their webs, eggs, and the spiders themselves. The spiders immediately began to swarm out of the hole in his hand, while he shrieked and waved it in the air.
As soon as the spiders touched the ground, they scurried into the cave. Carson's entire right arm looked deflated, and as the Chuck and Tyler realized what awaited them, they began to panic too. We all ran home, and my friends were promptly taken to the doctor soon after.
Carson was hospitalized, of course, and after Chuck's parents saw what had happened to Carson, they made the decision that their son's arm had to be amputated. And allegedly, as the arm was severed, there was very little blood, but a horde of spiders that scurried out of the window and, wouldn't you know it, in the direction of the cave.
Tyler's parents were going to have the same done to him, but after it was discovered that Tyler had as many as five more bites, two on his left leg, three on his right, his parents became indecisive. By the end of the week, the "barbs" had spread to most parts of his body. He didn't make it.
Nothing really was done about the cave. People said there was no point blocking it off as it had more entrances than they could count, and nobody wanted to go near it. The older generations wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, and everyone our age knew not to go near it after what happened to my friends.
So, why am I talking about it? I decided to visit my hometown this week, and decided to pass by the Spider Cave. Near the largest entrance, I saw one of those big spiders, looking like it had been stomped repeatedly. Its fangs were black.
I heard a new Spider-Man movie came out recently. I hope there aren't any dumb kids who got the same idea that we did.
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