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

A spider familiar… Why the hell did I even have a familiar, wasn’t that for witches? Did I believe in witches? As far as I knew, I wasn’t a witch. I guessed I’d have to put up with it for now, and she really wasn’t even hurting anything. If this was all just some crazy hallucination, I might as well keep her around to answer some burning questions.

She was cute in spider terms, I supposed. I loved her coloring—her soft little hairs were black with streaks of dark purple weaving along her body. I’d never seen a spider with such pretty colors before, and they matched my vibes.

“That’s enough, I have plenty of friendship to go around.” I stepped between them with my palms facing Mads and Jess.

I ignored Jason, but I heard pretty clearly as he whispered under his breath, “A little too much friendship.”

Asshole.

“As much as I’d love to have you stick around, Jessica, I don’t see how we could possibly hide you. No offense, but you're huge.” I eyed her up and down, wondering if we could just ride her into town. That would be freaking amazing, until we got shot down like King Kong by the police. We would totally be in the history books, though

“Oh gosh, silly me!” Jessica giggled, her tusks flashing in the moonlight. “Just hold on a second.”

Her giggle made me want to giggle, even though it would probably come out a little hysterical. The helium effect in her voice was almost too much, and it was hard to take anything she said seriously. That, and the fact that she was a talking fucking spider.

Freddy cringed behind her, shuffling a good distance away and looking a little green around the edges. Michael rolled his eyes at him. I never knew Freddy had a fear of spiders.

Jessica squeezed all of her eyes shut and seemed to be concentrating pretty hard. A moment later, a web shot out of her butt and barely missed a dodging Michael, who made a dive for the ground. Good thing he had quick athletic reflexes, because he’d probably be wrapped in a cocoon right now.

“Oops, sorry! I got this, one second!” Jessica said to Michael, who just dusted dirt off his jeans as he stood back up, while she closed her eyes again. She was trying so hard, pushing and vibrating to the point that I genuinely wondered if she was about to croak.

Then her body started twitching, and Jessica laughed in triumph as she began to shrink before our very eyes. She'd been doing it so gradually before, but it was like time sped up, and soon she was the size of a regular tarantula. Her maniacal laugh got squeakier and squeakier the smaller she got, and we all stood there dumbfounded, scratching our heads. I wondered when we’d finally wake up from this impossible dream.

She immediately crawled over to me on fast little legs and hopped into my waiting hand, her legs tickling my skin. Mads and the guys crowded around me, staring down at Jessica in disbelief.

“Take that and go pick on someone your own size!” Jessica said to Maddie, who blinked rapidly in return at an utter loss for words, before Jessica disappeared into my long hair.

“Well that was interesting and all, but I’d like to pretend it never happened. Can we fucking go already?” His voice was tired as Norman scrubbed at his face in exhaustion, close to losing his shit.

He took off ahead of us, grumbling to himself…something about ‘spidey senses.’ He was probably right, we’d had enough surprises for today. I was hoping that there was a gas leak somewhere that would explain the hallucinations.

One by one, the guys moved past me, not saying a damn word or glancing in my direction. Back to hating my stinkin’ guts, I guessed. I was perfectly okay with that. Better they hated me than pretend to love me. I followed behind Maddie silently as we went deeper into the woods, getting swallowed by the orchard that seemed to want to eat me alive. I was tempted to let it. I came to an agreement with myself that it was all a dream and nothing was real.

“It’s not real… It’s not real… None of it is real…” The chant came out of my mouth on repeat, until I almost started to believe it.

“Oh it’s real all right,” Jessica said into my ear, like the freaking devil or angel on my shoulder, though I couldn't decide which one yet. “Don’t worry, October, I’ll help you survive the night.” Her words crushed my hopes. I supposed I was stuck in a nightmare.

“I-I don’t understand. What happened to this place?” Maddie stuttered, terror coming off her in waves. I felt her hand grasp for mine, but she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes wandered the darkness of our little town as we made our way towards the welcome arch.

I didn’t answer her. I couldn't. My throat was tight, my hands were shaking, and the only thing grounding me to reality was Maddie’s grip. The guys were on either side of us, and I wondered for a second if the protective positions were intentional or not, because they were spread out around us pretty evenly. I was probably just reading too much into it.

I didn’t understand what was happening. None of us did. I could hear Norman and Freddy muttering to each other, and Jason was frantically checking his phone, trying to get a signal. Michael walked in a daze, eyes darting from one impossible thing to the next. We passed the edge of Farmer Orson’s corn field and spotted as many as four creepy looking scarecrows that I was positive had never been there before. Shadows seemed to sneak up around us like creeping spider legs, reaching out to caress my chilled skin.

Speaking of spider legs…that was going to be