A widower gives spiders--including two secret eating spiders from Japan--the run of his home so that he'll feel protected from the dangers of the outside world. From Paul Tremblay's In the Mean Time, this tale is one of fifteen "finely crafted" (Locus Magazine) stories of fear and paranoia, stories of apocalypses both societal and personal, and stories of longing and coping.

ChiZine Publications (CZP) curates the best of the bizarre, bringing you the most excitingly weird, subtle, dark, and disturbing literary fiction. Look for more titles in the ChiZine short stories collection to build your digital library.