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“See anything else?”
“No.” The flashlight was switched on and haloed the tree in glare. Then she switched it off again. “May as well wait for better light. Think I’ll check the creek banks.”
I gave her space, following her with my gaze as she walked to the water.
Yeah, it had been a dick of a thing to say.
A movement coming over the rise caught my attention.
The ground moved, a mudslide of red.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled.
Violent, electric, like neon light the swell oozed down the bank where Zara was walking to the creek.
She didn’t see it.
I had a second to ponder that before the horror struck me.
The ground wasn’t moving.
It wascrawling.
Spiders swayed at the ends of the array of fine, arachnid legs, turned me into a gaping idiot for a few seconds, as did the young geisha holding them. Wait, no, those wereherlegs. My mouth going dry as she wavered from woman to giant spidery creature in a kimono.
Zara kept wading into the swarm.
She couldn’t see it. Fuck. Just like the creature on the backseat.
I opened my mouth—
TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE.The Darkness chuckled.
“Zara! Stop! Come back!”
Struck by my cry, she teetered; foot raised to step over a root and pick her way down the slope. A few yards more and she’d be face to face with this nightmare creature.
She/it didn’t walk, she swayed, shivered, and skittered forward, a seven-foot-high monstrosity of furry legs, dark chitin, and pretty silk with cherry blossoms.
Unimaginable.
Vaguely familiar.
Something I’d seen in my youth in graphic novels—a Jorogumo.
Half lady. Half spider.
Seducer.
Devourer.
I quelled my shudders.
The crawling mass screeched.
I ran.
Without a plan, my legs were already carrying me into danger.
