Chapter 43

Stacey

Spiders. Ive always hated them. There is something about those creepy crawlies that makes my skin crawl. Even as a young girl, I never liked them. Aurora once challenged me to eat one as a kid. We were playing dares, and she knew how much I hated spiders. I refused. She didn’t. I watched as she ate it for me; I don’t think that girl is afraid of anything. She laughed the entire time, watching my face as it drained of colour. I still can’t believe she did it, even now. I’m not sure if it is the legs, the eyes, or how they hunt and kill their prey, or what it is that terrifies me so much, probably all the above. But I hate them.

And right now, as I stare around the darkness, my heart hammering like a drum as my blood runs cold. I realise what it is that’s living down here. The fact that I walked through its web means unlike the ones I have come across before, the largest being the size of my fist. I have never been entangled in a web. At least not my entire body, perhaps my hair o