Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (free novel 24 TXT) 📗

Maddie’s voice was squeaky, and she didn’t even sound like she believed herself. She took a small step back, her brown eyes darting everywhere at once.

My blood was rushing in my ears and sweat dripped down my back, because something was coming, and I didn’t think it was our missing classmates.

“Norman, run!” Jason shouted loudly, turning around to face us with wide, horror filled eyes. “Take her and fucking run!” His grey eyes met mine before his face contorted. He shook his head back and forth, repeatedly smacking his palm into his temple, like he was trying to get something out of his brain. I could have sworn I saw a flash of yellow in his eyes…

I was about to tear my hand from Norman’s and run to Jason, but Michael and Freddy were shouting, frantically waving us on, telling us to move it. Maddie took off towards the woods, and Norman, without hesitation, swooped down, lifted me off the ground, threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and took off running.

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy fucking shit!” Freddy cursed like someone in a horror movie—the part right before the bad guy inevitably offs the rest of the campers with a rusty chainsaw. His expression was pure terror, but he kept pace with us with relative ease.

I was hanging upside down over Norman’s shoulder, straining my neck upwards as I placed my hands on his lower back. I pushed up to see better, just in time to watch Maddie trip over a root sticking up from where a crack split the road, almost face planting in some gnarled bushes off to the side.

“Maddie!” I screamed, reaching out for her, but Norman wouldn’t slow down. “Maddie, run!” She was up and on her feet in seconds, catching up quickly, all those years of cheerleading working to her advantage.

Something was moving at full speed behind her. A huge, dark shape raced through the shadows. My eyes went wide, and I pounded on Norman's tight ass, as if I could will him to run faster. “Faster!” I screamed. “Holy crap, it’s coming right for us!”

“What is it?!” Norman tossed over his shoulder. “What’s coming?!”

“I don’t fucking know! Just run!” I was hysterical now. There was no way I was seeing this…

"I can’t turn around, so you gotta tell me what it is!” he shouted in panic, starting to slow down to look, but the ass slapping continued so he kept moving.

“It’s a…” I fought for a coherent thought. “It’s a giant s-spider!”

I was pretty sure Norman was going to have a bruised ass if we ever got out of this nightmare forest, because I was still slapping his butt cheek as if it would make him run faster, and I couldn't stop.

“A spider?!” he yelled back hysterically. “What are you talking about?!”

“A fucking giant ass spider! Just run!” The panic and the mad laugh I let loose must have been convincing enough that something scary was chasing us, because he listened.

Legs…so many legs. All fuzzy freaking eight of them moved in perfect sync, and the speed those bad boys were moving at was nearly a blur. I screamed again as the spider slid right past a screaming Maddie, who was zigzagging down the path. It didn’t even stop, as if Maddie wasn’t there. All eight of those beady black eyes were focused right on me. Heck, I could see my reflection in all of its eyes.

The tarantula spider was literally the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and inches away from my face as I bounced up and down on Norman’s shoulder. Its fangs—no, its tusks were dripping with saliva as it kept pace. The sound of its feet battering the ground was nearly deafening, like a herd of horses galloping over hard earth.

“Wait!” a squeaky voice called into the night. I had to shake my head, my eyes bugging out of my skull. “Seriously, wait up!” it said again. The voice seemed to be coming from the spider itself as its mouth moved.

What the fuck is going on?! There’s no way…

“It’s me, Jessica, yo girl!” the spider cried out, catching up with us. “Holy crap, you guys are fast!”

Yep…check me into the nearest mental institution and throw that key down the drain.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a strange girl, I guess you could say. I’ve been quite proud of that fact, actually. I even had a love of spiders and insects at a young age, keeping a few of them as pets, much to my mom’s horror. But I never, and I mean never, had one talk to me with real human words. Until today. I never even imagined what a spider might sound like…because the notion was absurd. But the squeaky voice yelling at us to slow down because of her asthma had my head spinning.

“Whose voice is that?!” Norman shouted over his shoulder at me, still running as fast as he could.

We didn’t even know where we were headed at this point, but with how fast we were traveling, we had to be getting close to the edge of town by now.

“It’s the freakin’ spider!” I said with a hysterical note to my voice. “She says her name is…is Jessica!” I was laughing now, but I felt like screaming.

Is this what it feels like to completely lose it?

The thudding sound of her legs slowed down. She was making these weird wheezing sounds… The asthma, I was guessing. Oh my god, a spider with asthma? We kept going, but I watched in disbelief as an honest to god tear rolled out of one of the spider's eyes.

Can spiders even cry? Is that a thing?

I really didn’t think so. But she was completely stopped now and just standing there, crouched down low to the ground with her legs bent inwards, letting out a rough sob. I couldn’t explain why, but my chest felt suddenly tight. Was I really feeling bad for a giant tarantula? Was this how low