Maya's Web
an excerpt

Dawn broke over the mountains, sending rays of light creeping over the craggy cliffs and down into the valley. He saw it only for moment, as he did each morning before it started. Rashad’s back arched, the pain always the same but never bearable. His arms and legs turned rigid, immobile as the muscles and nerves fired without consent. His skin split open to allow more legs to emerge. Searing pain shot through his every pore, and he allowed himself one animal shriek of misery before clamping his mouth shut, refusing to allow the Goddess the pleasure of his torment. His body shrank in on itself, everything screaming and throbbing as though blunt knives were being shoved into ever joint and soft place within him. Tiny, sensitive hairs sprouted on his legs which only caused the pain to worsen, and his torso broke in two. He could hear the bones cracking just before he lost his ears all together. Hard chiton formed over his soft tissues as he grew smaller, the furniture seeming to loom over him as his perspective changed and became multi-faceted. For a few moments he could still see as a human does but with the eight eyes instead of two. Then his entire ability to experience the world changed, leaving him with only the sense of light and dark. When he could no longer see, the transformation was complete.