Sneak Peek - Spider Wars by Angela Carlie

My laptop has died. I hope Fred can bring it back to life again. Until that time comes, I'm using my tiny netbook to work--which is super frustrating because it is so small and slow.

I had planned on participating in #SampleSunday two days ago, but got sidetracked with other things. I'd like to give you a sample now, on Tuesday, instead. If you feel this is totally unacceptable, please come back on Sunday. I'll leave the post up. ;)

The way things are looking, Spider Wars will be out in a few weeks. I'm so excited! I hope you are, too.

When he woke that evening, he didn’t expect to look his fear in the eyes. All four or six of them, depending on which one stood before him at the time. Eight gangly long legs, shifting left and right, protruded from two fuzzy globes connected in the center.

Spiders.

They covered the floor, a moving carpet of legs and eyes and dagger hairs.

A virus of terror rushed through his limbs, solidifying them in place. His body a potential carcass to be devoured by tiny fangs.

Every surface of the room, the walls, the ceiling, and the only exit, moved in waves of spider parts. Big and small, brown spiders, black spiders, green and yellow, traveled up his legs and over his muscular body.

In his century of life, he’d never known terror like this. If these creatures ate his body, he’d walk the earth as a soul forever. He wasn’t ready for that yet.

Hair-like legs scurried over his unshaven cheek. He gathered every ounce of strength he had and broke his limbs free of their paralyzed state. He jerked and gyrated to shake the creepers off, but they stuck to him like maggots to rotting meat. They burrowed under his skin, sucking his body dry of life fluids. Dehydrated and close to mummified, he dropped to all fours and crawled through the masses, crunching tiny lives into smashed bits under his hands and knees as he moved for the exit.

The door swung open. A young woman with fiery hair and a tattered black corset dress cast a shadow into the small room. The carpet of crawlers scurried away toward the back wall. Spiders shot out of his mouth and ears as if he was possessed—they backed out from under his skin, fleeing from the woman.

She drifted into the head of the room, a goddess, a monster.

Two others joined her, their faces unrecognizable in the dark, but their hair glowed from the moonlight behind them. A blond and a dark brunette.

The dark haired woman nudged her long limbs past the redhead. “Children,” she hissed. “The time is near to prove to the humans your place in this world is not under their feet, but to put them where they belong, wrapped in a web and on dinner plates.”

The surface of the walls and ceiling bubbled with movement, down to the floor where he lay helpless, void of hope. His internal tissues had already begun the regeneration process as he rested on the dirt floor, realizing the horror of the woman’s words. His heart burned from new tissue growth out of half eaten muscle, but he held onto the groans of pain. His breath rattled in his chest, his body’s attempt to clear the venom the spiders left behind.

“That’s right, my children. Feed on this wretched immortal. Gain your strength. You’ll need it for the battles to come.” 

The floor snapped alive. This time, he didn’t have time to scream. Even if he wanted to.