Coffee mug

I went to get a mug of coffee and, for the first time, I actually glanced into the pot of coffee granules. I thought I could see cobwebs enmeshed between and joining the little flecks of coffee. I didn’t quite know what to think. 

I continued to move the coffee and sift through the pot to see what I could find. I examined the pot in detail from the outside and from the inside but I couldn’t find anything unusual. I began to think my mind was playing tricks on me, and that because my coffee was organic there was just some dust and dirt still present. 

I considered throwing it out, but the coffee had been expensive and it was a lovely chocolate-flavoured variety that I just couldn’t fathom not having at that precise moment. I was weighing my options: should I just go to the library and buy myself a Tall Americano at Starbucks for £2 or just risk this one and save money? As the broke student that I was, I opted for the latter. 

I scooped out a sizeable spoonful and placed it in my empty mug. It looked normal and it smelled normal, apart from the cobweb-looking stuff. I hesitated again, and poured the hot water. The heart-warming smell of full-bodied coffee reached my nose. Bliss. I enjoyed a long breath of it with my eyes closed, opening them languidly as if awakening from Shavasana at the end of a yoga lesson. I looked down and to my horror I saw the coffee water move. I watched it closely, and again I saw something move like a small turmoil underwater. I was incredulous, I could not tear my eyes or hands away from my mug. I peered in, straining my eyes to see what it was precisely. What I saw, you might think unsurprisingly, was a spider. However, it was like one of those grow-in-water toys you could get as a kid that would start off as a small piece of polymer and would grow and grow and grow. In this case the spider was alive and it really was growing and I was petrified – not the best combination considering the mug was still in my hand. The spider was now the size of my mug’s circumference. Its claws suddenly clasped on to the sides of the rim of the mug, just above where my fingers were. I dropped the mug and I passed out.