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

another problem. I was all too aware of the strange arachnid perched on my shoulder. I should have been freaked out. I should have been squirming away from her hairy legs and her buggy eyes, but I felt no such inclination. Instead, her presence sort of made me feel…calmer. Yeah, I was losing my mind for sure. A spider named Jessica. I snorted out loud for the upteenth time. A talking spider, named Jessica. Honestly, nothing really surprised me anymore. I was just waiting for the next part.

We passed the cemetery on our right, across the road from the cornfield. The gates were tall and black, spiked at the top and woven through with old dried up vines that were more grey than brown. A shiver snaked down my spine. The crisp atmosphere of the place gave me the heebie jeebies. Everything was gnarled and twisted, reminding me of a place I’d once seen on a trip to Salem a few years back. Something about the place just gave me weird vibes.

The gate had an archway reading Midnight Hollow Cemetery in spindly wrought iron letters.

What the hell is a Midnight Hollow?

Behind it was a series of skinny hilltops covered with old stone graves and creepy, broken statues that I didn’t remember being there before. I knew more than anyone what the cemetery should have looked like, as I’d spent hours and hours out there lying at the base of my mom and dad’s gravestones.

We kept walking, and I could feel Jason’s burning gaze on my back but he didn’t say anything. I wondered if he knew about my frequent cemetery visits, but he probably couldn’t care less what I did these days. Reaching the edge of town seemed like a blessing, until I realized how empty it was. The familiar silhouette brought me comfort, but there was something different about the place I’d called home my whole life.

The one and only gas station in town across the street was deserted and quiet, when usually, it was filled with teenagers and college students grabbing snacks before peeling out of the parking lot and heading to parties. I stepped closer onto the blacktop where the street met the parking lot, drawn towards the gas station.

“Don’t,” Freddy said suddenly in a hesitant gruff voice. “It feels…off.” His whole body was locked up tight at my side, as if his muscles were frozen. His eyes were darting around the area frantically, and his pupils were dilated until nearly all of his iris was gone.

I turned and watched as the lights that illuminated the pumps started to flicker. It only lasted a brief moment before all of them shut off at once, leaving it pitch black and eerily still. The orange tinged moonlight almost made things worse, as the only part of the darkness we could make out was the rolling orange fog and a little bit of the parking lot. It took too many heartbeats for my eyes to adjust.

“You guys hear that?” Michael asked, his deep voice breaking through the silence. His hand was held out, as if to stop anyone from taking even a single step that might shatter the silence.

“I don’t hear anything,” Maddie whispered, tilting her head as if she was straining to hear what he was.

He looked at us incredulously. “Exactly. There’s nothing.”

Goosebumps instantly covered my skin. He was right. No buzzing insects, no rumbles of car engines, or the sound of human life. Absolutely nothing. The silence only made the stillness all the more fascinating and eerie in equal measure. Once again, everything about the town I’d lived in my whole life seemed both familiar and alien at the same time. It was as if a lense had fallen over my world.

A single light flickered back on under gas pump number five, and we all froze. I felt someone grab onto my arm, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the man standing underneath the pumps. He wore dusty blue coveralls with the gas station logo over his breast pocket.

“Finally, someone who can explain what the fuck is going on.” Jason shoved past us, but I grabbed his sleeve in a tight grip before he could take another step.

He jerked to a stop. I knew he could have shaken me off easily. Instead, he turned his head to snarl something nasty, but stopped when he noticed how the blood had drained from my face. I lifted my shaking hand past his shoulder and pointed in the direction at the man. Jason spun on his heel and instantly backed up until he was grabbing the waist of my dress, pulling me close to his side. My fingers curled in his T-shirt. I’d never been this scared ever.

The man was staring right at us, and the light above him started going crazy, flickering like a strobe light. It flickered off his pudgy features and sunken eyes in such a way that it seemed like his face was contorting. His paleness was stark, and the stillness of his body compared to the flickering of those deep set eyes made me want to turn and run. But what almost made me almost piss my pants was the way his face changed.

Despite the light playing tricks on his face, he was staring off into space, just an ordinary guy with pale skin and blue eyes. Creepy but just a normal guy…until he wasn’t. He slowly lifted his hand and pointed right at me, his skin turning a sickly blue-grey with little spots that looked like…mold. The spots started to cover his skin in patterns, like they were growing right from his pores.

“Tell me this isn’t happening…” Maddie whimpered. “Tell me it’s the drugs… I swear I’ll never drink another drop of alcohol again in my life if we get out of this.” She made a sign of a cross before saying a little prayer under her breath.

We were frozen in place, watching as his mouth opened in a silent scream, expanding wider