ReliaRobot

The door to the house creaked open, the darkness beyond laced with the barest, flickering light. Micra crept inside, then jumped as the door shut behind her. She grabbed at her wings with her lower arms and shivered, antannae trembling in the still air. "Eudae...?" she called out into the darkness, her voice small and seemingly swallowed by the house. There was no response.

"I, I got your message..." She said, creeping forward. "You said you needed help..." She stepped on a creaky floorboard and froze, antannae twitching at the slightest vibration. Nothing.

"Eudae," she said, voice barely a whisper, "where are you?"

A thump sounded from above her, then silence. As quietly as possible, she tiptoed her way up the stairs. A flickering orange light glowed from behind a door. Slowly, she pushed it open to see her worst nightmares confirmed.

Eudae was suspended in the air, stuck to the silvery webs of a spider. Her ankles were bound to her thighs, all four arms stuck behind her back, her beautiful wings pulled almost to their breaking point. Her eyes and antannae had been completely covered in more silky strands, and her mouth was full of the stuff.

Micra screamed and fell back against the door, scrambling desperately for a way out. The room was covered in spiderwebs, she'd never get out, she'd be consumed here, totally helpless in the control of her unseen assailant...

"Hey! Hey, easy, it's okay! Listen! Please stop screaming, you're fine! She's fine!"

Micra fell against the door in exhaustion from her burst of panic and turned, slowly, to see the other occupant of the room. From her perspective on the floor, she first saw a pair of gleaming black legs, then a tiny waist with a corset, then six black, sharp arms, most of which were held at awkward angles, and finally, eight gleaming black eyes above a pair of sharp mandibles. A spider. She scrabbled back away from it, wings dragging on the floor.

It took her a minute to realize it wasn't pursuing her. It took her another to realize the spider was waving, awkwardly. It took a third to realize that some of those arms were strategically positioned to cover the spider's mostly-nakedness. Micra blushed.

"Uh, hi," said the spider. "I'm Arane? I was the one that texted you. We got, ah, a bit carried away, and," she wiggled three of her arms, which pulled at strands of the web, and Micra realized that Arane was actually stuck to them. She laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, if you could hand me the safety scissors, I'd really appreciate it."

Micra glanced at the place Arane pointed and snatched up the funny-looking scissors before holding them in front of her like a sword. "Wh, what did you do with Eudae?"

"Huh? She's fine??" Arane looked perplexed. "Although I should cut her down soon, poor girl has been up there a bit longer than she bargained for."

Something moved in the corner of Micra's vision, and she spun to see Eudae moving, struggling weakly against her bonds. This time, her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized she was also very naked, with more strands of spider silk running across her body and... enhancing some of her features. Then her antannae finally registered the low buzzing noise emanating from her direction. Her face went ladybug red.

Her face was still ladybug red a few minutes later, sitting on Eudae's couch while slicing noises came from above. After a while, Eudae herself came down, wearing a simple robe and struggling a little with her movements. "Hey, ah," she started, hesitated, then picked up again, her voice slightly hoarse. "Thanks for coming. You, saved us both from a real problem."

Micra avoided looking too hard at her or the exposed red marks revealed by the robe. "Um. How did you text me when you were...?"

Eudae coughed, and started to turn on some additional lights, still limping slightly. "Well, ah, I, ah... I gave Arane access to my phone. So she could take pictures, and threaten to send them to-" she cut herself off with another cough. "Anyway, it's good I did, huh?"

Micra leaned towards her, glancing at the stairs. Lowering her voice, she said, "with a spider, though??"

"Don't be cladist," Eudae admonished her, quietly. Then she shivered. "Besides, have you seen her?"

At that moment, Arane came down the stairs, wearing a suspiciously similar robe, which did absolutely nothing to hide the curve of her abdomen. Micra imagined she could just see the barest tip of her spinarettes. She gulped. "Yes," she said in a strangled tone.

Arane strode across the room to hold Eudae in four arms, draping the other two over her shoulders before giving Eudae a peck on the cheek and addressing Micra. "Sorry about all this again, this never happens. We should meet up again sometime so I can introduce myself properly."

Micra's flush burned even brighter, and she couldn't meet Arane's gaze. She mumbled something, her fingers curling in her skirt.

Arane's eyebrows quirked, "Oh?" She glanced down at Eudae, who was also blushing, glancing away, and trying not to smile. "Well!" she turned her gaze back to Micra, and grinned. "Perhaps a nice meal first, though?"

Micra risked a glance up towards those eight, beautiful, captivating eyes, to her very pretty friend held in six strong, chitinous arms, thought about what first might imply, then fainted dead away on the couch.