I opened the door and pointed outside. “Leave.”
8
JOSIE
Creepingout my front door with dog food in hand, I quickly made my way to the corner of the house, pressing my body against the siding. Milo sat at the steps of Tennessee’s porch, his chin resting on his paws as he sulked.
The poor dog was getting no love from Tennessee, and he was refusing to take care of him. Hence, the reason I was playing James Bond at seven in the morning when I was supposed to be getting ready for work.
The moment I stepped away from the house, Milo’s ears perked up and he jumped to his feet.
“Shh!” I hissed, hoping he wouldn’t give me away.
As if Milo understood exactly what I was doing, he sat, his tail beating the ground as he waited patiently.
“Who’s a good dog?” I asked, bending down to run my fingers through the dog’s matted fur. The poor guy was in desperate need of a bath and probably a haircut, but he wouldn’t come over to my house.
No, he was one hundred percent Tennessee’s dog, even if the man didn’t want the dog coming anywhere near him. After pouring a generous amount of food in his dish, I gave him a fewmore rubs and was just about to leave when I heard the door handle jiggle.
Panic rushed through me at the thought of getting caught sneaking JR’s dog food. Scrambling under the gap between his stairs and the porch, I hid in the dark, praying nothing else was under here with me.
“Damn dog,” he muttered as he thunked down the steps. “Where the hell did you get food?”
Milo stopped eating in favor of running over to Tennessee and rubbing up against his leg.
“I’m not your owner,” he scowled. “Go find someone else’s porch to sit by.”
A chuckle nearly escaped my lips, but that laughter was quickly squashed when a spider made its way down from his web, hovering right in front of me.
God, I was so stupid for coming over here, and even more foolish for hiding under his porch. I knew creepy crawly things would be hiding under here, and yet I did it anyway.
Maybe there was another way out of here. Another creepy, dark passage under the porch that would be filled with even more spiders, more webs, and other disgusting insects that would no doubt crawl over my body, down my shirt, and burrow into my belly button. Because that’s what creepy crawlies did.
A whimper left my lips as I considered all the possible places a bug might decide to make a home on my body. Just the thought sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t handle the pressure. I couldn’t stay silent, not when I was on the verge of being attacked by seven-foot spiders and being wrapped in their giant webs for dinner tonight.
“I gotta get outta here,” I whispered, my panic growing by the second.
I inched away from the spider, ready to flee, when I spotted two yellow eyes watching me from the other end of the passage under the porch.
Oh, God. It was a demon spider. With big beady eyes, ready to devour me and eat me for lunch. I was about to flee when I remembered the spider dangling from the porch. I nearly crawled right into it.
I was trapped. Trapped, with nowhere to go. I would die under this porch and they would only find my remains when I started to stink. Except the animals and spiders would devour every last bit of my remains, so the only way I would actually be found was when this old house fell down and they started the cleanup. They’d find my bones, but have no idea how I actually died.
The horror of it all was too much. I couldn’t take it.
“Help!” I screamed.
Spots danced in front of my eyes and the spider became one of those black blobs. I could no longer differentiate between the things that were going to kill me and the signs of passing out.
“Someone help!” I shouted. “Tennessee!”
Boots pounded on the porch until the very man was kneeling right at the opening. I’d never been so grateful to see his face in all my life. And yet, there was a spider blocking my exit. There was no way to get out.
Ever.
I was trapped.
“What the hell are you doing under there?”
