Mom
DANNY? Please, please answer me.
Mom
I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
Danny
Long wait. When here
Mom
I have to be careful about leaving the lab.
Mom
It would’ve raised suspicion if I had left suddenly.
Mom
We have to take care of this ourselves.
Danny
When will you be here
Mom
And I took the bus this morning.
Mom
It’ll take some time to get a cab.
Mom
I’ll be there as soon as I can.
Mom
I’m on the way. I promise.
Danny
WHEN WILL YOU BE HERE?
Mom
What did you mean when you said Mama?
Mom
You said Mama earlier.
Danny
I was repeating. What you said.
Mom
Danny, I need you to tell me what you see.
Mom
Right now, what do you see?
Danny
Webs. I see webs everywhere.
Danny
It’s dark. Where are you?
Mom
Who am I talking with?
Danny
Why are you asking me that?
Mom
How do I know this is Danny?
Danny
I don’t know, maybe because it’s me?!
Danny
Are you serious right now, Mom?
Danny
Who the hell do you think it is?
Mom
What’s going on there?
Mom
I need you to tell me. Danny, what do you see?
Danny
You mean besides a million fucking spiders?
Mom
Okay. I believe this is you, Danny.
Danny
Who the fuck else would I be?
Mom
Danny, you have no idea how happy I am to hear you swear.
Mom
I’ll never say that again.
Mom
But that means it’s you.
Mom
OMG, Danny, I love you so much.
Mom
Danny, what do you see?
Danny
I’m in my bedroom, next to my bed. I don’t know how I got here.
Danny
Last thing I remember I was hiding in the closet!
Mom
I think Mama was in control.
Danny
What? What are you talking about?
Mom
I’ll get to it in a second, but first, tell me what you see.
Danny
Shit. Globs of them are covering the lights and windows.
Danny
Freaking globs of spiders. Should I kill them?
Mom
Clutters. Groups of spiders are called clutters or clusters.
Danny
Spiders crawled out of MY FACE.
Danny
They killed OUR DOG.
Danny
And you’re correcting my vocabulary?
Danny
Mom, what is happening?
Danny
Where are you? What is going on?
Mom
I’ll tell you everything, I swear.
Mom
But first, what are they doing?
Danny
There are like, thousands of dead ones all around me.
Danny
The ones I see, they’re different. Bigger.
Danny
The size of a nickel, I guess. How’d they grow that fast?
Mom
They aren’t dead. The ones around you.
Mom
Those are shells. They’re molting.
Danny
Great. Awesome. Molting.
Mom
Spiders have an exoskeleton.
Mom
We suspected that our experiment could have side effects.
Mom
Rapid growth seems to be one of them.
Mom
The fact that these are molting so quickly is problematic.
Mom
Yes. It means they aren’t babies any more.
Mom
You need to be careful.
Mom
If anyone hurts one of them now, things could get bad.
Danny
Yeah, cuz things are so fucking great otherwise right now.
Danny
My throat hurts so bad, Mom.
Danny
I think I must’ve passed out or something.
Mom
What makes you say that?
Danny
I remember all of them marching up my legs.
Danny
I remember them in my nose, down my throat.
Danny
There is so much blood.
Mom
Blood? Danny? Is it yours?
Danny
I don’t think so. Maybe.
Danny
It’s around my face.
Danny
They’re covering the hallway mirror. I can’t see.
Danny
The hole from the bite, I can feel it growing.
Mom
I’ll be there soon, Danny.
Mom
I need to know more about when you blacked out.
Mom
So you woke up in a different position?
Danny
Yeah. I was hiding in the closet.
Danny
Now I’m in the hallway.
Danny
There are streaks of blood along the walls.
Mom
Did you wet yourself, Danny? I need to know.
Danny
For fuck’s sake. Why?
Danny
Yeah, okay. I pissed myself.
Danny
Why do my hands keep twitching?
Mom
I said I would tell you the truth and I’m going to do that.
Mom
She’s listening and learning.
Mom
But I’m going to tell you anyway.
Mom
I’m going to tell you both.
Mom
Let me explain. You remember Bryan?
Mom
He wishes he were my boss.
Mom
But I’m the one making breakthrough after breakthrough.
Mom
We altered the DNA of a test group of spiders, splicing in different species of spiders.
Mom
And then other predators.
Mom
We had to make them controllable, accountable to a queen or alpha.
Mom
Bryan wanted to stop there. Tomas and I continued.
Danny
Tomas? The guy who had a heart attack?
Mom
It wasn’t a heart attack, but I can’t get into that now.
Mom
I added other aspects to the spiders.
Danny
Can you skip the science lesson?
Danny
Just tell me how to get out of this spider house.
Mom
This — all of it — is my fault.
Mom
I added parasitic DNA, derived from tapeworms.
Mom
I wanted them to be able to find a host and burrow inside.
Mom
To become part of the victim.
Mom
It was a major breakthrough.
Mom
When we tested it on an orangutan, we were blown away.
Danny
You tested it on monkeys?
Mom
One orangutan. It was enough to shut down the program.
Mom
The spider was able to tap into the mammal’s nervous system.
Mom
We knew she was successful when the orangutan lost bladder control.
Mom
It manipulated the orangutan’s own nervous system.
Mom
Like it was a gigantic web.
Mom
All spiders’ webs are external brains.
Mom
The strands function like nerves, alerting them to pain and opportunity.
Mom
This spider, it locked into the orangutan’s internal web of nerve and used it to control the host.
Mom
It seemed to read its thoughts, Danny.
Mom
The orangutan knew limited sign language.
Mom
After the infection, it articulated complex thoughts it had never been taught.
Danny
You’re scaring me, Mom.
Mom
That’s when I shut the experiment down.
Mom
Bryan wanted to hold off, to see what else it could do.
Mom
Tomas suggested a compromise. One more test.
Mom
But, Danny, listen. It heard us talking.
Mom
It heard me saying we were no longer in control and had to shut it down.
Danny
They’re listening? They can hear what I say?
Danny
Is that why we can’t talk? Why we’re texting?
Mom
That’s one reason. But let me continue.
Danny
I’m thirsty. Going to the kitchen to get a drink.
Danny
I am — but they’re moving to the side as I pass. They’re following me.
Mom
Listen, Danny. The test spider heard and it tried to attack. It KNEW.
Mom
That final test was a disaster.
Mom
Today we were going to eliminate all of the altered spiders.
Danny
Mom, what are you saying?
Mom
You’re a host, Danny.
Danny
A spider is in my head? MOM!
Mom
I think, from what you said, she’s in your throat.
Mom
I suspect she laid her eggs in your cheek and then crawled into your throat to wait for the spiderlings to hatch.
Danny
This can’t be real life.
Mom
Just remember, Danny. You’re not alone.
Mom
She’s watching, Danny. She’s waiting.
Danny
The spiders! They’re moving!
