“He staggered out into the street, the sunlight blinding him. Swaying, he groped along the glass and metal building, seeking purchase, stability, and a horizon that kept shifting. His arm ached, his body tingled, and his vision swam in and out of focus. He struggled to focus his mind, but had as much luck as he had with his vision and balance. He pulled himself along the wall, feeling a need to retch and relieve himself. His fingers grasped the slick, yet grimy with city dirt, sheets of glass as he fought to remain upright. The camera he’d been holding slipped from his grasp and crashed to the concrete sidewalk. He didn’t care. He just wanted the pain and nausea to go away.
He pulled himself along the wall, hoping he was progressing to his home. There, he’d feel safe and be able to rest, relax, and recover from his ordeal. A spasm shook him. He dragged himself further. He groaned as a wave of pain, unlike any he’d ever known, passed through him. He gripped the wall tighter.
He moved from the sun into shadow, his eyes adjusted, but the pain in his body remained. He looked around and the pain fled to be replaced by a fear that stabbed at his stomach and nausea that made him empty his bowels on the gathering crowd below him. They were ants in his vision. His head swam. His lungs gasped. He gripped the window tighter as part of his mind fought to make sense of his new reality. His subconscious offered an explanation he couldn’t accept—the spider.”