I awoke on a cold-metal table. There were others standing around me, though I couldn’t make out their features from behind the device that pinned me to the table like a squashed fly. When I realized I was immobile, I panicked, screamed, tried to bite my way out of the madness.

I lost consciousness for a time and when I awoke the contraption on my head felt tighter than it was before. I raised my hand to my face and ran my index finger down several thin bars that separated my face from the rest of the room.

I slipped out of consciousness for hours, wondering when it would all end — how it would all end. I didn’t know the day, time, state of the world. It pained me to turn my head, for the device surrounding my face was implanted into my skull and it was heavy, solid, awkward, and scary.

I remained strapped to the table, naked and alone, until I saw the spider on the window. She moved around the web with a freedom I longed for. I liked her long arms, silken web and her home along the window glass.