Sandra kept giving the spiders her offerings, of course. She never thought about what the ants, the flies, and the aphids might think of it. It was a gesture of goodwill, after all. It was awfully difficult to write that small; if the spiders couldn’t read her notes they might think she was trying to threaten them.

The insect communities began to notice that murder was on the rise. The aphids began to hide, and travel only in groups. The ants staged a march, demanding a full investigation, demanding justice. Nobody knew what the flies thought – with no homes and no families to think of, they simply left.