Awake | Wattys Winner!

ONE: attraction

   PICTURED: Aspen Conway

   You know that state of consciousness between being asleep and awake? Things are goofy. Mismatched. Instead of time running along a linear track, it follows a chaotic system of loops and tunnels, disconnections and connections. You can't quite differentiate between what is real and what is not.

   That was why I didn't really process the scream immediately.

   It wasn't the kind of scream someone gives when they're in pain or a piercing shriek of desperation. No, it was more of a horrified sound, tumbling through the layered veils of fog my dreams had coated around my mind.

   When I finally realised that it wasn't something my mind had concocted I sat upright, my fingers fumbling to find the lamp switch on my bedside table.

   I could hear the shower running, the hot water system of our small on-campus apartment was groaning. With a thump, the water stopped, causing a water hammer to ricochet through the thin plaster walls.

   It had to have been Isobel. She was the only one crazy enough to be showering so early that it was still dark outside. I tossed off the thick layer of blankets encasing me and ran to the bathroom, thumping my fist hard against the door.

   "Bel?" I asked loudly, my hand continuing to pound against the wood.

   "Aspen?" I heard from the other side. Half a second past before the door opened to reveal Isobel clasping a towel around her body, her blonde hair slick with water, the droplets still clinging to her skin. There was a terrified expression on her doll-like features. "Oh God, please kill it!"

   I was dazed for a moment, my mind still slow from sleep. "Kill it?"

   "The spider," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She pointed to the wall behind her, which was home to a black, skinny-legged spider the size of a coin.

   "That's why you screamed?" I asked, giving a sigh as I stepped past her into the humid room, the air sticky with moisture. "A spider?"

   "Sorry," she said, grimacing. "It just spooked me."

   I gave her a tight lipped smile before pulling the lid off of a can of hairspray which was sitting on the counter. Isobel's pale eyes followed me in terror as I sized up the spider and trapped it under the plastic.

   "What are you doing? Why don't you just kill it?"

   "I'm not going to kill it," I said. "If you wanted someone brutal you should have woken Gia. I don't think he deserves to die just because he happened to wander into our bathroom."

   Isobel didn't say anything. She just stepped aside as I carefully pried the lid from the wall, pressing my palm to its rim so the spider was sealed inside.

   I returned to my room and used my shoulder to push open my window, the cold air hitting me instantly and clawing through to my bones. The sun was just starting to creep over the crests of the trees around our building.

   In one movement I removed my hand and shook the lid, my eyes barely catching the small black critter falling to the gutter just below me. Hopefully he wouldn't find his way back into our bathroom anytime soon.