Page 16 of Love at First Fright

Except they hadn’t opened the door.

The manor remained still. No movement at the entrance. No sound of footsteps approaching.

“Hello?” Brad called again, though quieter this time. “We’re from ExorSquad. We’re here about—”

The curtain twitched again. Same window. But this time the face pressed closer to the glass, features clearer. Pale. Too pale. And the eyes—

Christ, were they… hollow?!

My mouth went dry. Neither of us moved. Had Brad also stopped breathing?

The face remained there, motionless now. Watching. The longer I stared, the more wrong it looked. The proportions weren’t quite right. The head too large. The neck too thin. And those eyes…

I blinked hard. When I opened them again, the face had shifted. Closer to the glass. So close I could make out individual features now—

Something brushed my shoulder.

Fingers clamped down. Hard. Vicious grip, fingers digging in through my jacket like talons.

I jerked sideways with a strangled yelp, my spine hitting the stone column with a thud as my pulse roared in my ears.

Brad had grabbed me. Brad. Not the thing in the window. Not some ghost. Just Brad, his face twisted in concentration as he—

He made this weird grunt-swipe motion with his other hand, brushing frantically at my shoulder.

Then I saw it.

Eight legs. Fat, bulbous body. Dark and hairy and wrong.

A spider. A massive spider that had been crawling across my shoulder and now tumbled through the air in a graceful arc before disappearing into the long grass.

The world tilted.

My skin erupted in a thousand phantom touches. Every nerve ending screamed that there were more. More on my back. More in my hair. Crawling up my neck. Under my collar. I could feel them—legs, so many legs, skittering across my skin even though I knew, knew they weren’t there.

I thrashed backward, slamming into the gate this time, the clang reverberating through the courtyard. My hands clawed at my jacket. Got to get it off. Got to check. Got to—

“Get it off! Get it off!” The words came out high and tight.

“It’s gone, mate. It’s—”

“Check! Just check!”

I spun around, yanking at my jacket collar, twisting to see my own back like a dog chasing its tail. My hands shook. Everything shook.

Brad burst out laughing.

Proper belly laughs that doubled him over. He braced his hands on his knees, shoulders heaving.

“Oh my God,” he wheezed. “Your face! You should see your face!”

Vicious heat flooded my cheeks. Then my throat. Then my entire body, until it felt like it was burning from the inside out.

“It’s not funny!”

“It absolutely is.” Another wave of laughter. “All that! Over a bloody spider!”

My hands curled into fists. The urge to punch him right in his smug, grinning face surged up so strong I had to lock my elbows to keep from acting on it.