CHAPTER SEVEN:
❝︎I Hate Spiders❞︎

THEY ALL STARED DOWN AT Dana's body. Harper felt her stomach churning the longer she looked at it. Eventually she had to look away, closing her eyes tightly and MG placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

     "Should we call your dad?" Hope asked Lizzie, though her eyes never moved from the body.

     "Why? So he can take another bullet for you?"

     "No." Hope scoffed in disbelief. "Because whatever did this is not a vampire. It's got to be another monster from the knife."

     That's when Kaleb looked at Landon, stepping towards the boy. "Well, maybe the monster's been right in front of us all along."

     "What?" Landon frowned at the accusation. "Are you serious?"

     "Hey, none of this started happening until you showed up and stole that knife, which is exactly what the other monsters came here to do."

     "Kaleb, not now." Harper breathed, finally looking back towards the others but refusing to look at the body. He ignored her.

      "You saying it's a coincidence?" The vampire continued.

     "Yeah." Landon nodded. "Yeah. Yes, I am." He looked at the others who had a look of doubt on their faces, even Hope. But not Harper. She believed the boy. "You believe me, right?" He looked at Hope and the girl only turned her gaze away from him. "Got it. Say no more."

    "Landon." Harper called out to the boy as he started walking away. She looked at the group and scoffed. "Really guys?" She started after the boy, ignoring Hope's calls for her. Harper ran until she was standing beside the boy.

     "I believe you." Harper told him. Landon looked at the girl as they continued to walk. "I do. But you can't blame them for their doubts. I don't judge people by coincidences, Landon. I judge them by their honest actions, and so far the only bad thing you have done is steal that knife―︎which was really stupid by the way. But that besides the point." Harper stopped and looked at him. "If you want their trust, don't pull something like that again, alright?" She offered the boy a small smile before turning on her heel and walking back towards the others.

By the time she had gotten back, they had rid the place of Dana's body and MG was wiping her guts from his shoes. Hope looked up at the girl and Harper just crossed her arms over her chest as she looked down at the spot that Lizzie was spraying with the hose.

     Kaleb stepped forward. "Nasty. Yeah, so, um, I'm out of here. But little piece of advice― ︎Landon could be in there right now eating fools. So, I'll holla." And then he turned and walked away whilst Harper just rolled her eyes.

     "For the record, he's not in there eating people." Harper told the other three.

     "Come on, guys." Hope sighed. "If it's not Landon, then what else could it be?"

     "Spider!" MG suddenly exclaimed, grabbing the three girls attention. "A big spider. An Arachne, if you want to get specific." He was holding a comic book in his hands as he continued, turning the page so that the other three could see it.

     Lizzie snatched the page from his hand before scoffing. "This is nerd porn, not real life."

     "So were dragons and gargoyles." MG shot back. "The writer bases her comics off of Greek lore. An Arachne was originally a beautiful woman who was cursed by a jealous god and turned into a giant spider. Uh, all it wants it to be human, so it wears the skin of its prey to pass. Oh-oh my god! It's fangs are huge, so they could pass for a vampire bite. And its bite liquifies its victims! Plus, I found a web in Dana's hair."

     "That actually makes sense." Harper mumbled.

     "That would explain why it couldn't follow the knife out of town. An SUV-sized insect can't exactly hitchhike unless it inhabits the body of someone." Hope continued, nodding her head in agreement.

     "Who, though?" Harper questioned.

     "Sasha maybe?" MG tried.

     "My money is still on your boyfriend." Lizzie finally spoke up.

     "It's not Landon." Harper denied.

     "He's not my boyfriend." Hope replied with the roll of her eyes.

     "If we had something from it, we could do a tracking spell."

     That's when Landon suddenly ran up to them, quickly asking, "Would its face work?" He then showed them the bloodied skin he had managed to grab and Harper met Hope's eyes before they both looked back towards Landon.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

     THEY RAN THROUGH THE WOODS WHEN SUDDENLY MG'S PHONE WENT OFF. They didn't stop as he glanced towards Lizzie before quickly saying, "It's for you. No way am I telling your dad about what we're about to do."

     Lizzie took the phone before saying, "I suck at lying." She handed the phone towards Landon. "You're great at it."

     Landon took the phone before handing it to Hope, quickly saying, "You're his favorite."

     Hope took it before glancing towards Harper. Lizzie spoke up. "Either you or Harper are doing it. You're his favorite, and everyone believes Harper and trusts her." Hope handed it to Harper and Harper scoffed before handing it to Lizzie.

     "You're the hero, remember?" She gave Lizzie a sarcastic smile before quickly catching up with Hope whilst Lizzie slowed down in order to talk to her father. But then she put it on speaker.

     "Hi, daddy." Lizzie spoke, and all of them stopped and turned towards her.

     "Hey, thought I'd call, check in, see how things are going."

     "So good." Lizzie quickly spoke, meeting Hope's eyes who just nodded her head.

     "Really? Define good, Lizzie, because I don't think that involves me tracking down Dana's body to the glove department!"

     "The glove department!" Harper whispered, looking at MG, Hope, and Lizzie with disbelief. "I was gone for five seconds."

     "Listen, dad, it's fine. We cracked the case. It's a spider. But, like, a big, huge nasty spider. And MG's comic books know how to kill it."

     "Comic books? Really?" Alaric asked in disbelief. "Lizzie, listen to me, whatever you're thinking of doing, don't, okay? So just tell me where you are, and Matt and I will be right there. And where is Hope?"

     "I'm sorry, Dad." Lizzie frowned. "You're gonna have to trust me for once." And then she hung up the phone. Harper clicked her tongue.

      "The glove department?" Harper looked at the three, waiting for explanation.

     "It was Lizzie's idea." MG quickly spoke.

     "Really, MG?" Lizzie scoffed. The blonde sighed before shaking her head and looking towards the group. "Let's do this."

     They made it to the place in which the spider was, and Landon went in first, tapping against the metal of the stairs to grab its attention before yelling, "Hey, douchebag!" When the spider turned to him he was quick to say, "Oh," and moved out of the way whilst Hope entered the scene.

     "I hate spiders." Hope muttered as Harper joined her side. The girl froze when she saw Josie and Rafael stuck in the spider's web. And her heart seemed to drop even more when she saw Josie kiss Rafael before saying a spell to get herself and Rafael out of its webs.

     "Lizzie, Harper, I need your help." Hope called to the two girls and Lizzie was quick to join the other side of Harper. Hope then looked towards Josie before calling out to her, "Josie take my hand." The girls did as they were asked before the four witches all looked at the giant hideous spider. "Repeat after me. Imperium fluctus malleus." The group repeated the words over and over before they threw the spider back and up into the air, throwing their hands out and watching as the creature exploded.

The four girls walked out towards the three boys who had managed to get Sasha from the spiders web. The orange guts of the spider were all over them and the group stopped in front of the three boys, looking at them for a moment before Harper was the one to break the silence.

     "I hate spiders."

Later that night, Harper scrubbed and scrubbed until all of the spiders guts were out of her hair and off of her body. MG had compelled Sasha to make her forget about the spider, Josie was with Rafael as he finally gave in to being a part of Jed's pack. And now Harper sat in her room, alone, listening to soft music on her record player and writing down the events of today. Her eyes then glanced at the black ink that was still written on her arm and a small smile found its way onto her face. That's when a knock came on her door.

     "Harper?" It was Josie. The Saltzman girl stuck her head inside and Harper closed her diary, nodding for Josie to come in whilst she quickly hid the numbers written on her arm.

     "Hey," Harper breathed. "How was your Lizzie free day? Minus the whole spider thing."

     "Not as relaxing as I had hoped." Josie admitted as she sat on the edge of Harper's bed.

     Harper cleared her throat before saying, "I, uh, saw you and Rafael. Is that a thing now?"

     "I don't know." Josie mumbled. "I kissed him because I needed to syphon magic in order to get out of the webs."

     "Hey, he seemed to enjoy it just as much as you did." Harper said, though a smile was on her face. She was happy for Josie. She truly was. She deserved this. "I'm happy for you, Jo."

     Josie looked at the girl for a moment, and she almost wished that Harper was angry at her. She wished that Harper would disagree with the kiss, but she knew Harper would never do that. That wasn't who she was. So, instead, she changed the subject. "What about you? How was your day at normal school?"

     "Well, it wasn't normal, that's for sure." Harper answered with a small chuckle which caused a smile to form on Josie's face. "Though. . . I did get a girl's number." She rolled up her sleeve, revealing the digits to Josie. Josie smile faded and her heart dropped. "Her name is Scarlett, she seems really nice. I think I'm going to call her in the morning."

     "Harper Hayes, look at you!" Josie was quick to put a smile on her face, even if it did hurt. And it seemed to hurt even more when Harper's cheeks turned bright red and that shy smile that Josie adored fell on her face. "You'll tell me how it goes, right?"

     "Yeah, of course. I mean, maybe she just wants to be friends. So, it's not like she gave me her number as anything more than wanting to be friends." Harper answered with a shrug. Josie looked at her with disbelief.

     "You're joking, right? Harp, with someone as gorgeous as you, there's no way that it's simply just to be friends." Josie swallowed and nodded her head as she offered Harper a small smile to which Harper returned.

     "You think so?"

     "I know so." Josie assured her. The brunette stood up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's getting late, we've both had a long and eventful day. So, goodnight, Harper."

     "Goodnight, Jo." Harper softly replied before watching Josie leave her room. When it was just her, Harper found herself frowning. Just like Josie had hoped, Harper had hoped the girl wouldn't be thrilled for her. And that made her feel guilty, and for the rest of the night, that was the only thing that was on her mind. And the urge to call Scarlett seemed to grow just a little bit more.