4. The Eight-Legged Test
The Eight-Legged Test
LUKE
E xhaustion gnawed on Luke’s bones as he shuffled to his brand-new home on Sleepy Hollow Road.
It was kind of sad that he didn’t have the energy to enjoy his first night in his new place.
After signing the lease and leaving, he’d gone to Jacob’s to get his duffel bag of clothes and toiletries.
His intent had been to return to his new room and unpack.
Enjoy a quiet night in and get some reading done.
But no.
The manager at Burger Hut had called to say that one of his coworkers had called in sick and another had quit, leaving the restaurant desperately shorthanded. He’d needed Luke to pop in for a couple of hours to help with the lunch rush. With money so tight, Luke hadn’t been able to pass it up.
The lunch rush had turned into the dinner rush. At least he’d gotten out of there before his boss could convince him to stick around for the evening cleanup and prep.
However, as he’d headed over to the bus stop to catch one of the last buses to run near his new home, Lydia at Sinful Soaps had called in tears.
A new shipment of soaps had arrived, and it was all wrong.
The supplier was refusing to take them back, claiming she ordered five boxes of Lavender Lover and Orchid Orgy, or some such nonsense.
She’d needed Luke to stop by and help her reorganize the shelves.
He'd opened his mouth to say no, but then she’d offered time and a half.
Besides, it would take them only an hour. Maybe two.
Four. Fucking. Hours. Later.
So, on his rare day off that should have been spent settling into his new rental space and getting some much-needed homework done for his classes, he’d ended up working nearly fourteen hours.
But at least his bank account was going to be happy, and he had a chance of surviving off something other than ramen, trail mix, and Harper’s charity sandwiches.
As he reached the giant house, he saw only two lights left burning in the windows. A single bulb glowed on the front porch. It did little to push back the overall darkness, providing him with enough illumination to see the door and the lock.
He dropped his duffel bag onto the porch with a heavy thud and fished around in his pockets until he located his new key.
It slid home with no problem, and the lock gave a satisfying click.
The door moaned out a loud creak as it swung open, reminding him vaguely of pretty much every haunted house movie he’d ever watched.
Thankfully, he loved horror movies, so this was amusing rather than unnerving.
With a sigh of relief, he shouldered his bag and stepped inside. The entire house was silent as a tomb. A couple of small lights glowed along the hallways and at the top of the stairs as if one of his new roommates had left on nightlights for him. That was considerate.
Or maybe they didn’t want their new tenant to fall down the stairs and break his neck on the first night.
The latter. Definitely the latter.
His right foot had just touched the first step when he spotted it.
A spider. A big one, too. Easily bigger than a daddy longlegs.
Was that a banana spider? He remembered seeing pictures of them as they’d threatened to overrun Florida a few years ago.
The spider was a few inches long, with black, spindly legs and a black-and-yellow striped body.
“Well, no place is perfect,” he muttered to himself. He dropped his backpack and duffel bag by the stairs and pointed at the spider. “You stay right there.”
With as much energy as he could muster, Luke jogged to the kitchen and flipped on the bright overhead. After searching through every cabinet and drawer, he finally came up with a plastic bowl and lid. He took his find to the stairs, where the spider was kind enough to wait for him.
It took a couple of tries, but he got the spider into the bowl with the lid on.
“Look, I’m new here, so I think it’s only fair that I give you a warning,” Luke said to the spider in the bowl as he walked to the front door.
“Growing up, we had a basic rule. If you found a spider outside, you’d leave it alone because outdoors was its home.
But if we found a spider in the house, it got squished and flushed because that was our house.
You stay in your house, and I’ll stay in my house. ’Kay?”
He slipped outside, cringing at the loud creak of the door. At the edge of the porch, he removed the lid from the bowl and dumped the spider into the closest bush. “There. Make a nice web. I’m sure you’ll catch a better dinner out here.”
As he turned toward the house, a loud caw cut across the lawn. He spun around, searching the darkness until a crow dove from a tree to land on the sidewalk. He tilted his head and cawed at Luke.
“Dante from campus, right? You gave me the room-for-rent notice. Thanks for that. But it’s late. Go get some sleep. I’ll have more nuts for you tomorrow.”
Was it weird that he named the birds he built up a rapport with?
No. Particularly crows. They were good at remembering people—the good ones and the bad ones.
Dante had helped him get a place to live.
Maybe tomorrow he’d get not only some nice nuts for Dante and his friends, but some grapes, too. The bird definitely deserved it.
Spider gone. Time for bed.
Luke locked the door and shuffle-stumbled to the stairs. As he bent to pick up his bag, his eyes caught on the spider’s family, his extended family, his next-door neighbors, and a whole mess of second cousins. Spiders blanketed the stairs. Lots of fucking spiders.
He was going to need a bigger bowl.
Fuck, he couldn’t scoop all the spiders.
That would take forever, and he’d get no sleep ahead of class tomorrow.
It wasn’t like he could stomp on all of them.
That would make a mess of the pretty, thick red carpet that covered the stairs.
He’d never get it clean on his own. He’d have to go rent a carpet cleaner to get rid of all their tiny corpses.
Luke groaned and placed his hand on his face. He just wanted to fucking sleep. Why the hell was the house overrun with spiders? Better yet, why the fuck were these spiders trying to keep him from sleeping? That was mean.
Well, he could be mean, too.
Luke’s shuffle became a stomp as he crossed the hall to the front doors. He threw both of them open and rushed across the porch. He clicked his tongue several times and searched the trees.
“Dante? You still around? Dante?”
He had to wait a few moments before the sleek black crow he’d seen earlier flew from its branch to the sidewalk. It hopped toward him, seeming happy to have Luke’s attention again.
“Are you hungry?” What was he saying? Crows were bottomless pits when it came to food.
“How about some nice crunchy spiders for a late-night snack?” He waved his hands to the open doors, beckoning the bird to check out the crawling buffet.
Dante tipped his head to one side and then the other, as if he thought Luke had lost his mind.
But after a long moment, he turned his attention to the inside of the house.
Luke was sure he must have spotted the spiders crawling through the hall and away from the stairs, because he let out several loud, excited caws.
He flapped his wings and dove through the open doors.
The cries must have roused his companions, because several other crows poured from the trees in the yard and flew into the house.
Luke giggled to himself as he followed them in. Six crows feasted on the spiders, who were now in desperate retreat. There was no sound other than the flutter of feathers, the click of beaks, and the occasional scrabble of claws.
“What? What? I…I…”
Luke’s head snapped up at the unfamiliar voice to find a tall man with long dark hair and pale skin stumble down the hall as if he’d come from the living room or possibly the kitchen.
“I’m sorry. I thought I was the only one awake,” Luke said. “You’re…”
“Mullmag,” the man answered, though he didn’t lift his eyes from the murder scene in front of him. “The…spiders…”
“Oh, yeah. There were a lot of them. Az didn’t mention that you might have a bug problem. When there were too many for me to take care of without making an enormous mess, I invited Dante and his friends in for a feast.”
“Dante?”
Luke winced. He didn’t sound his sanest, but he was exhausted to his very core, and he just wanted to climb into bed.
Unfortunately, these spiders needed to be taken care of first. “Dante is the crow. That one.” He pointed to the largest of the sextet.
As if realizing they were talking about him, Dante the crow popped his head up and cawed once at Luke before returning his attention to the spiders.
“Ah, but…but aren’t you afraid of spiders? Didn’t so many spiders coming down the stairs frighten you terribly?”
“Oh. Umm…” Actually, now that Mullmag put it that way, he should have been scared to death.
It was just that he was so very tired, and he didn’t have the energy to be afraid.
All he knew was that the spiders stood between him and his waiting bed.
“Not really, I guess. I’ve lived in a lot of places that had spiders and other annoying bugs.
You get rid of them and go on about your day.
Is it normal to have this many spiders in the house? ”
“No. No, we rarely have so many spiders.” Mullmag shook his head violently, sending his hair fanning out around him. “I think…I think one of the neighbors had an exterminator over. I bet all the spiders fled their house for ours to escape the poison.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
Dante cawed at him, and Luke gazed at him to find that the crows had emptied the stairs and hallway of the spiders. The fat bird and his friends had enjoyed quite the feast, and those that escaped had left the house in order not to be eaten.
“You look like you can’t eat another bite. It’s best you go sleep it off.” Luke motioned to the doors, shooing the birds outside. Several were so full, they needed to make several attempts to get off the ground and fly. Luke followed the birds to the doors and closed them.
As he turned into the house, Luke found Mullmag still standing at the foot of the stairs, a very confused expression on his face, his hands twisted together in front of his chest.
“Is everything okay, Mr. Mullmag? Is there something I can help you with?”
“No. And you can call me Mullmag. Or just Mull. That’s what the others do.” He lifted his head and squinted at Luke as if he were struggling to see him clearly in the dark hallway. “You must be a very brave person. Most people would have been terrified by so many spiders crawling at them.”
Luke laughed and shook his head. “Not brave. I’m not brave at all. I’m really fucking exhausted. Today was supposed to be my day off, but I ended up working fourteen hours.”
“Oh.”
Luke stared at Mullmag for another couple of seconds, but the strange man didn’t appear to have anything else to say.
With a sigh, Luke scooped up his duffel bag and his backpack, sliding them onto his shoulders.
“Well, I’m going to steal a few hours of sleep before I have to get up for school.
If you have any more spider trouble, come and get me.
I’ll be happy to take care of them for you. ”
Mullmag blinked impossibly black eyes at him, and his thick lips formed a crooked smile. “That’s very nice of you. Thank you.”
“Not a problem. I figured since we’re roommates now, we should help each other out.”
“Yes. Yes, that’s a wonderful idea.”
Luke trudged up the stairs, feeling so drained that his eyes were burning and his stomach was churning. But at least he’d met one of his roommates properly. Mullmag might be quiet and nervous, but he seemed like a nice enough guy. Hell of a lot better than some roommates he’d had in the past.