Page 12 of Make Me Bee-lieve

I put my glasses back on and move to grab Bonnet before she can cause any damage to the hive or herself, but a butterfly flits into her line of vision, distracting her. In a moment that feels like I’m in a dream where I’m running through water, watching everything around me move in slow motion, Bonnet leaps into the air. Straight onto the back of my Shrinkatron.

“Bonnet, no! Bad girl! Down!” I yell. But it’s too late. In her panic, Bonnet falls from the shrink ray and dangles over the bright red buttons—and hits one with her paw on the way to the ground.

A beam of white bursts from the nozzle and hits me in the chest. For a moment, it feels like I’m about to pass out, vomit, and get the shakes all at once. It’s overwhelming. But then the feeling passes as quickly as it came on. Huh. Weird. Bonnet lets out a screech as she bolts to the other side of the rooftop to hide in the storage closet.

At first, I’m too stunned to realize what’s just happened. I was just hit in the chest with a laser. And I’m still standing. Reaching a hand to my chest, I look myself up and down.

“Huh. I’m … fine?” I say out loud. And then a warm, tingling sensation blooms in my ribcage and starts to spread through my arms and legs. My fingers and toes burn, and my head throbs like someone just took a sledgehammer to it. “Oh, fuck. What?—”

Realization hits me like a tractor trailer. I’ve never tested the ray on anything before. Oh. Oh, no.

Next, nausea roils in my belly, threatening to make me spill my guts all over the ground. I put a hand to my clammy forehead as my heart races. “I don’t … I don’t feel so good,” I murmur.

Then the world around me shifts. The tomato plants in their terracotta pots race toward the clouds. Or maybe it’s that I’m … sinking? It’s too difficult to tell.

“H-Help?!” I scream as my legs give out and I fall to the ground. A leaf blows past me again, only this time, it’s the size of an elephant. A scream dies on my lips, and I make a run for it to hide behind one of the Shrinkaton’s legs.

The realization of what’s happened finally starts to sink in.

I’m fucked. Royally fucked.

With no way to reach the controls of my Shrinkatron—because I’m now the size of an ant—getting back to my original size is literally out of reach. Panic grips me, and I’m too paralyzed to put one foot in front of the other, even though I know I need to find cover before … before … before I end up something’s lunch. Oh, god.

I run my sweaty palms down my face and look around. Bonnet’s left the cover of the storage closet and is now scratching at the rooftop door, no doubt convinced I’ve left without her. My poor little sweetheart.

The thought of her being trapped out here feels worse than the possibility of being stuck like this forever.

Morning turns into the late afternoon, and no one, not a single soul, has been up on the roof today. Not even Kyle. After a few failed attempts at climbing up the Shrinkatron’s legs, I finally resign myself to plopping down on the ground to recover. I’m parched, my stomach is growling, and Bonnet is napping in the corner while her dumbass owner is too powerless to help her.

As the stars overhead begin to twinkle in the night sky, the soft song of crickets fills the air. I smooth the creases on my shirt and look around for anything else to climb. As a connoisseur of video games, I’d like to think that my platforming skills are relatively decent. But all I see in the near vicinity are potted plants and table legs. Perched on that now-enormous table is the beehive, of course. But underneath it … spider webs.

Wait a sec. I have an idea. It’s risky, of course, but it’s not like I have much of a choice. I make a run for the spider webs and place one of my feet on the silken thread. My pulse spikes as my cheeks burn. I only ran for what was probably thirty seconds, and I’m already out of breath. Pathetic. If I ever get back to my original size, I vow to hit the gym at least three times a week, because being this out-of-breath from doing so little is embarrassing. I steady my hands on the trembling thread and pull myself up along the web like it’s a rope net on a playground. I used to love playing on those as a kid, until I realized that when you fall and hit the ground, it hurts. A lot.

I let out a grunt. The muscles in my arms strain each time I pull myself up inch by agonizing inch.

“Come on, Calvin,” I huff. “Let’s go. Just a little … further…”

When I look back down at the ground, I cringe. Haven’t exactly made much progress, but I’m doing better than I thought I would. Once I’m on another level of the web, I shuffle across until I see the leaf of one of the tomato plants. Huh, I guess I could jump on to it and hope I don’t splatter on the concrete. I try not to think about that as I climb up to the leaf.

I’m almost to the leaf tip when something dark skitters in the corner of my eye. I turn my head so sharply I lose my balance and stumble forward. But instead of falling to the ground, I find myself stuck in the sticky web. The dark body skitters forward with alarming speed, and it’s then that I notice the mandibles and the pale gray, womanly torso glowing in the darkness.

The spider moves into a sliver of moonbeam, illuminating her ghastly features. Dozens of glossy black eyes peer at me, and her jet-black hair falls over her bare, globe-like breasts. The spider-woman monster has no arms to speak of, only eight legs. She brings one up to her ruby red lips and grins.

“Oh, my, my. What a delicious little morsel! What are you, I wonder? Not a fly. Not a bee. Not a butterfly, either. A shame. I do so love the sound of their shrieks as I snap off their wings…” she coos as she skitters closer, closing the distance between us.

“H-Help! Help me!” I scream in vain. I’m done for. My muscles strain against their bonds as pure, undiluted terror pumps through my veins. “Help!” I manage to croak out before the spider-woman descends on me and grabs my body like a rag doll. But before she can wrap me up in her paralyzing web, the sound of buzzing distracts her.

She jerks her head up and blinks. “What? Who dares disturb my meal?”

I strain against the web to look, but I’m forced to stare straight ahead.

“Save the Caretaker!” someone cries in the distance. And then the buzzing grows louder, louder, until dozens of honeybees launch themselves at the spider, brandishing swords that look suspiciously like stingers in their fuzzy hands.

I watch in bewilderment as the honeybees cry out, striking the spider repeatedly with their swords. At first, the spider-woman tries to mount a counterattack and defend herself against the bees by grabbing them with her legs, but it’s no use. There are way too many of them.

One of the honeybees, covered head to toe in silver armor, pierces the spider-woman’s abdomen as she tries to flee. She lets out a dying wail and collapses to the ground below, curling up into a ball.

I gulp. Great. Is it my turn next? I flex my arms and try to yank them free of the sticky web again, but it’s no use.

---