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.
