The Brothers Luxtenebris

Part 1: Jamison's not-so-little friend.

Jamison Arthur Luxtenebris was born October 8th at 8:08 a.m to Atticus and Gwen Luxtenebris, in a small house with three rooms, somewhat far from any other house or town. Just looking at Jamison, you'd think he was a perefctly normal baby. The only thing about him that could've caught your eye was a wisp of firey red hair on the top of his head.

The first thing he opened his tiny gray eyes to see was his mother Gwen's warm brown eyes. This, according to her, was the first time Jamison ever smiled. His first laugh, however, was because of his father making a silly face. If he had done that when Jamison was say, 15, the only reaction would've been a simple eye-roll. But for a baby, it was hysterical.

He was the best thing that had happened to Gwen and Atticus, and they would do anything to keep their little boy safe.

Which is why they would never forget what happened one foggy night, late in November. Jamison was just over one year old when it happened.

His mother had just put him to sleep, and went to join his already snoozing father in the other room. She did fall asleep, but awoke a few hours later. She felt uneasy. Not because of Jamison's cries, but for the lack of them. For the past year, she hadnt gone a single night without hearing her son's cries in the dead of night, but now, there was silence.

She decided to go into the other room to check on him, and got out of bed carefully so she wouldn't wake her sleeping husband. She poked her head into Jamison's room, and saw he was awake, and sitting up, playing with something.

Gwen assumed it was his teddy bear that she had made for him, and turned to walk out. She saw his bear sitting on the rocking chair in his room. The bear was the only stuffed animal he had, and it was not whatever he had in his small hands at that moment.

She turned back to the crib, and saw a long, hairy, grotesque leg poke out from between the bars. She rushed over to it, and to her horror, found that her son was not alone.

A huge black spider was being held gently by Jamison. He was giggling as one of the arachnid's hairy legs tickled his cheek. Gwen shrieked at the sight of that...thing. Atticus woke up and rushed into the room.
Gwen spoke not a word, and pointed a shaking finger to the crib.

Atticus went white at the sight of such horrible, dangerous thing near his young son. Gwen began to cry due to the stressful situation. It was unlikely they got the spider out of the crib with them, or Jamison, getting bitten by the spider. Jamison heard his mother's cries, and concluded that it was because of the spider.

He let go of the spider, and babbled some incoherent nonsense. It slowly eased itself out of the crib, past Gwen and Atticus, out of the room, then out of the house. The couple never took their eyes off of the bug until it was out of their house, then turned back to their little son.

He was sitting up in his crib with a wide grin on his face, and was waving good-bye to his eight-legged friend. Gwen walked over and scooped him up, and held him tightly. Soon enough, his tiny gray eyes started struggling to stay open, and he fell back asleep.

Gwen put him back in his crib, and watched over him for a few minutes before she and Atticus returned to their room. They had fixed wheels onto Jamison's crib, and wheeled it into their room so they could make sure he was safe. Knowing the threat to their son was gone, they fell asleep.

This, however, was not the spider's last visit. It came back every 8th day of each month, not always during the night. At first they tried to shoo it away, but it always cane back. It never harmed Jamison or his parents, and he liked the spider.

During it's visits, he would pet it, talk to it, and when he figured out how to throw a ball, he played fetch with it. It posed no harm at all, but Gwen and Atticus were still worried about it being near their son.

Little did they know that about 5 years later, they would have 2 more red-haired things they would have to worry about.