This story is a continuation of The Fright Train - The Dark Games, Chapter 2  - head over to @fright to read who John turned out to be...

My senses slowly bring me back online, but there's nothing. No light. No wind. No smells. No sound. No real temperature to speak of, either. My feet aren't touching the ground, but I can't feel any ropes holding me up. Am I floating? But how?

My heart starts racing remembering what 'John', or whatever that creature is really called, said. I'm going to face my worst nightmares. Oh God. My real nightmares give me nightmares, and I've got a whole host of phobias that I don't even want to consider what these sickos can do with.

Can they read my mind? Because then they can tap into my memories and ... my blood runs cold at the thought of the multitude of horror novels and movies they could access. Why do I have to be such a fan of anything scary?

At least I can breathe normally. A shudder of dread runs through me of when they'll get to suffocation and drowning. I'm just glad it's not this round. Although that means I still have to face it. I taste bile at the back of my throat.

Something brushes my hand, and I snatch it back.

"Hello?" I call out. My voice doesn't echo.

I gently bump into a cool, hard surface. Luckily when I put my hand down, I activate a switch that bathes the room in white light. I squint in pain against the sudden glare, then gasp and jerk backwards when I spot the hairiest, blackest, largest spider I've ever seen in my life just millimeters away from my where my hand rests on the wall.

Shrieking, I push away, flipping effortlessly backwards, feet over head, through the zero gee atmosphere.

The hint of claustrophobia that creeps in when I realize the perfectly round room has no windows or doors is nothing compared to the stark fear that makes me open my mouth to release a scream of pure, unadulterated terror when I see that I'm floating in a sea of spiders. Large ones. Small ones. Black, grey, red, green. For whatever reason they haven't spun webs - but as a spider the size of my head floats by so closely that I can see the facets of its eyes and the venom dripping from its fangs, I'm not sure if a lack of webs is a good thing.

Looking down at myself, I jerk and whimper when I see what I couldn't feel through my spacesuit.

Spiders. Spiders crawling on me. Spiders crawling up me, towards my face.

I flap my hands wildly. "No! No! No!" I cry out.

Brushing them off means I have to touch them. Sweat breaks out on my palms at the thought. But if I do nothing, they'll just keep climbing until they reach my face. Another large one lands and starts crawling up. Tears are splattering on my space suit, making dark circles on the pale grey fabric.

I scream as one lands in my hair. Instinctively I swat at it, sending it flying off. But then another takes its place. Then another.

My breath hitches as my silent tears turn to sobs. "No, no, no, no, no..." is all I can say.

The more I flail, the more spiders I connect with until I'm covered in them. They seem to be multiplying from thin air.

A hissing noise finally breaks through to me. When I concentrate I make out "Grab on!"

I spin in the air, but I only see spiders.

"Grab on!" the voice hisses more loudly.

I look down and see a spider with a bulbous torso almost as big as mine. It's holding my foot with a three-inch claw and staring at me intently.

My heart stutters in my chest. 'John' must be getting such a feast from my brain right now, but that'll stop if I have a heart attack, which I think I might be.

The spider's multifaceted eyes catch the light like jewels, not like the flat black of the others. It shakes a hairy leg at me, another long claw at the end. "Grab on if you want to get out of here!" It shakes again, making the hairs wave.

"Dear God, no," I whimper.

A large red spider lands on my bare hand. I scream and flick it off, then grab onto the hairy lifeline this creature has extended. It's warm, and hard. I shiver in revolt at the bristly hairs under my bare palm.

All eight legs hook me, gently, and move me beneath its bulbous, hairy black torso. Before I can blink, the legs start spinning me around and around. A small cloud of spiders forms around me from where my saviour is flinging them as it plucks them off.

I'm getting dizzy from the spinning and try to touch my face, but my arm is pinned to my side. Looking down, I moan when I see my body has been cocooned from my feet up to my armpits in the creature's own silky thread.

Delicate as a feather's touch, the strands land across my throat. The creature's hind legs move the silk to land in equal strips across my face, muffling my shrieks. Just before my eyes are covered, the creature's multi-faceted orbs look back at me. Its fangs click together, and venom drips onto my legs.

I scream so loudly my vocal cords tear, and I black out into unconsciousness.