# Arachnia Society The Storytelling Collective is hosting a Flash Fiction February event, in which writers are encouraged to write a piece of flash fiction every day in February. This is my second entry. [[Feb 1]] - [[Feb 2]] - [[Feb 3]] --- _White on black for all to see, This will be your sacred key._ _In the shadow of the tower, Enter during witching hour._ _Walk the path from Bone to Break, With you, the weaver, you must take._ _Tap three times on fanged stone, And DON’T forget to COME ALONE._ Ozlanna Quinn stared down at the riddle. Its words were printed in silver on a high-end black linen paper. Her mind worked the problem as she paced back and forth in her dorm. The famous annual invitation sent by the Arachnia Society to their prospects always contained a riddle with the time, place, and entry instructions for the initiation meeting. Oz had hoped she’d get one and seeing it slip under her door at midnight gave her a rush of adrenaline. One phrase was easy enough. _Enter during the witching hour._ She had to crack the riddle and find the meeting place within the next 55 minutes. “There are several towers on campus,” she said to herself. Outside her window, she could see the Smith’s Tower, the tower at the center of the library, and the Lecture Tower. “_Bone to Break_. Why are they capitalized? Maybe placeholders for names of places?” She pulled out a map of the campus. “The Lecture Tower’s shadow from the moon crosses over two paths right now…One path leads from the Fossil Garden to Dining Hall B. That must be it.” Now all she had to do was figure out the key and the weaver. “Weaver must be spider. White on black—maybe I’m meant to get the spider’s web onto the black paper of the invitation?” She read through the riddle once more. “Why is ‘forget to’ in lowercase?” Reading only the capitalized part of the last phrase made it ‘DON’T COME ALONE.’ “Double meaning? I need the weaver, which is the spider and the web. With the spider alive, I wouldn’t be alone and obviously I can’t bring another person with me.” Oz hurried down to the courtyard. The full moon illuminated a dewy web in the grass. With her invitation in one hand and a small plastic container in the other, she knelt down carefully. The spider that had built the web lived in a hole and the web funneled down into it. She laid the back of the invitation on the web and lifted it up. The spider came out and scurried around on the paper. Quickly, she gently scooped the weaver into her container. She didn’t see anyone else around. Uncertain if she was late or early to the party, she made her way toward the Fossil Garden. Once there, set her direction toward Dining Hall B and walked until she entered the shadow of the Lecture Tower. She could hardly see, but finally, a stone shaped differently than the rest caught her eye. On it, a faint etching of fangs. Oz took a deep breath and tapped three times. Before her, a stairway appeared and lead up to a shimmering building. Once she set foot on the first step, the building came into focus and the campus now seemed to shimmer away. She was greeted by a crowd of people drinking champagne and celebrating her arrival. It looked like they were having a New Year’s Eve party with confetti and streamers everywhere. “You’re the first to find us this year! Congratulations!” a woman in a red dress said. “And I see you have your weaver. You’ll make an excellent member of the Arachnia Society. I think you broke the record.” One of the men handed Oz a glass of champagne. “13 minutes and 24 seconds. You’re the fastest person to ever solve the riddle, collect your web and weaver, and arrive at the club. Now, you can watch everyone else complete the initiation challenge while you wear this.” He held out his hand. Someone in the crowd passed forward a small black box, which he opened toward Oz. Inside, a gold broach in the shape of a spider waited. Someone pulled it from the box and pinned it to Oz’s blouse. “Welcome to the Arachnia Society.”