Page 198 of Love at First Fright

The beam cut through the blackness, illuminating—

Oh God.

Oh God.

Spiders.

Everywhere.

Massive ones, their bodies fat and dark. Smaller ones scuttling across the walls. Different species. Huntsmen, their legs spanning my entire hand. Garden spiders with bloated abdomens. False widows, glossy black against the stone.

And webs.

Webs upon webs upon webs, stretching from floor to ceiling, corner to corner, draping across the sarcophagus in the centre of the room like funeral shrouds.

My breath came in short, sharp gasps.

No.

No no no no—

A huntsman the size of my fist dropped from the ceiling, dangling on a thread directly in front of my face.

I screamed. Stumbled backwards. My shoulder hit the door, slamming it shut with a boom that echoed through the crypt.

Trapped.

The walls pressed in. Too small. Too tight. Just like that gap in the stone wall, that tiny cave filled with—

My hand.

Plunging into the nest.

Eggs bursting under my palm.

Hundreds of tiny bodies swarming up my arm, into my hair, down my shirt—

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Just spiders, everywhere, crawling on me, inside me, consuming—

Stop.

Stop it.

I pressed my back against the cold stone door, forcing air into my lungs. One breath. Two. Three.

Bat was down there.

Bat needed me.

The sarcophagus sat in the centre of the room, just visible through the maze of webs. I’d have to walk through them. Let them touch my face, my skin, my—

Bile rose in my throat.

Bat’s smile. That night in bed. His fingers so gentle as he plucked the money spider from my hair.

“Got it. You’re safe now.”

I took one step forward.