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Chapter 2 - The Widow

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𝐈𝖙 had been a subtle life for the lonely farmer. Everyday after his breakfast, he would tend to the livestock past the hen house beside a large old oak tree. Upon the tree hung a web. The farmer had seen the arachnid structure in that particular spot for many decades. It had been there even prior to himself taking a deed of ownership to the land. Without so much a good reason, he decided to wave his shovel destroying the web. As the day passed dragging on 'til sunset, the farmer had finally completed each of his chores and found himself home before it started to rain.

Lightly first it drizzled, then came the rumbling sounds of thunder. Then after a few minutes, a release. An unexpected downpour of water was casted across the musky skies. From in his house, the farmer began to sit for a meal when suddenly... There came a knock at the front door.

Stepping from the dining table, he grabbed his shotgun and had approached the noise. Cautiously, he turned its knob slowly as it opened. Shocked were his eyes, gazing back at him standing on his front porch a young woman. She had to have been twenty years of age? Her face read of despair, as did her black withered vintage attire with the beautiful arrangement of red colored rubies. Rare, it came completed with a matching shaw which had been in use for keeping warm from the rain.

"May I please come inside?" She asked, but there came a displeased look before the old farmer's face. Before dwelling into negative thoughts, he realized what his late mother would say if he'd rejected a lady who stood helplessly in the cold.

"Right this way." Gesturing a nod, he showed her in. An hour passed. The farmer who couldn't remember the last time he had engaged in a mild conversation found that the young mysterious lass was a lonely heiress. She set out traveling after her husband passed. A call for a new life had led her here. With the understanding that she was to leave the next morning, he escorted her to a vacant guest room and sent himself to bed.

During night while the old farmer lay, through shadows snuck the creature of eight legs.

Delicately within dance, she spun her spools as if in a trance... Fangs sank deep inside flesh and left the poison to seep. Through blood in thickened silence, so too it did reap. When the morning came, the old man awaken sluggish with a heavy cough. The young lady he'd given shelter to had vanished. Thus after he couldn't find her, he carried on as best he could in routine. Only this time after passing the hen house by the oak tree, he saw a newly woven web. The once lively farmer then paid it no mind and continued his day in illness.

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