I always go to the rooftop of our home, to get lost in my own thoughts, to read a book in silence and to get lost in my thoughts. It has become my safe space since Covid as we couldn’t go anywhere outside . Mostly during the windy and winter season, from the months of July, spending an hour there, in the evening gives me a sense of relief and peace. 

   I was a bit late today in finishing my classes and other works , so was able to go the rooftop by 5:15 pm only. It was quite windy and cloudy when i sat at my usual place to read. The houses in our locality, are very close and adjacent to each other in a way that, we could easily walk to other’s rooftops or jump from one rooftop to another. I remember that in our childhood days, me, my brother and other same aged kids of the neighborhood, used to jump from one house rooftop to another. We did get hurt a lot and always got an earful from our parents and neighbours always. 

I opened my book, which i have started the previous day, Anxious People by Fredrick Backman, when it started to drizzle a bit. I didn’t close the book immediately. I kinda liked the vibes, the breeze and the rain, at that time. Wanted to be there for a little bit more, before mom calls me back down. When Iclosed my eyes and lifted my face up towards the sky, to enjoy the vibe a bit more, something heavy fell on my face. 

    Panicking, I touched it, but it was hard and stuck on my face. I pulled it hard from my face, and it turned out to be a big spider. 

I shouted and threw it down, and started shrieking and breathing heavily. I hate spiders and have had this fear for spiders and reptiles particularly. 

When i started to move away from it, closing my book, taking my steps backwards, there were huge thumps of rain falling down. It turned out , that all those heavy thumps and drops of rain were spiders, all of them were black and hard. 

Thump thump thump.

Thud thud thud.

Lots of spiders were falling here and there from the sky, like droplets of water, and I started to shout and run downstairs. My parents were worried on hearing me, and asking on what was happening and calling me downstairs immediately. 

I ran as fast as possible, while the spiders were filling the whole place in the rooftop like the weeds covering the roadside. They were falling on top of each other, and soon it became a big black pathway, growing in size and shape. 

I heard a distant shouting and an irritating sound, very similar to my alarm. I got up panicking and breathing heavily as if I have run a mile. It really turned out to be my worst nightmare after all.