Desmond cleared his throat. “Brace yourselves for a truly scary story.”
Suddenly, a weird feeling came over us. It felt like we were being watched. We peered at the darkness, but we didn’t see anything out there. I tried to relax.
“My story starts just like Andres’s story,” Desmond said. “It was a bright and sunny day. After raining for a week straight, the clouds parted and the sun shined down. All the Kersville kids couldn’t wait to go outside and play. So that’s what we did.”
I smiled. There was nothing better than getting to go out after a bunch of rainy days.
Desmond continued. “We all went down to the playground, but the playground was different!”
Zax and I looked at each other.
Desmond leaned forward on his log. “The whole playground was covered with a giant spiderweb!”
Now Zax and I shivered.
“None of the other kids wanted to get near it,” Desmond said. “But I walked right up to that web and studied it. Up close, the ropes of the web were thick. It was sticky, too. But with some work, I was able to pull it apart, kind of like cotton candy.”
I made a face. “That sounds like the most disgusting cotton candy on the planet.”
“Once the spider-web was gone,” Desmond said, “the kids started playing on the playground. But I couldn’t stop thinking about that web. I checked every hiding place at the playground for whatever spider could make something that big. But I couldn’t find a thing.”
The look on Desmond’s face told me that there was more to this story. A lot more. My heart started beating a little harder.
Desmond kept going. “I tried to enjoy the park, but I had an extra case of the creepy-crawlies. It really felt like something was crawling in my hair or on my arms and legs. I knew a web like that had to be made by a whole nest of spiders, not just one.”
Just thinking about that freaked me out. I jumped up off my log and did a creepy-crawly dance. I shook every part of my body, even my baby toes, just to make sure there were no spiders on me.
Desmond and Zax laughed, but the fire crackled loudly. It almost sounded mad at us for interrupting the story.
I checked the log to make sure there were no spiders on it, and then I sat back down.
“Okay,” Desmond said. “As I was saying, we had a lot of fun that day, and there were zero spiders around. Or so I thought. I climbed to the top of the big slide, and when I got to the bottom, I bumped right into . . .”
Desmond stopped talking to leave us in suspense.
It worked. Both Zax and I were on the edge of our logs, hanging on Desmond’s words.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Who did you bump into?” I asked.
Desmond laughed. “I bumped into Super-Healthy Hannah.”
I sighed. “That’s not scary!” I told him. “That’s not even weird. Hannah is always at the park. She loves being outdoors.”
Super-Healthy Hannah was a girl from our school. She was a true vegetarian and loved hiking. I have no idea how she got her nickname, but it was perfect for her. She really was super-healthy.
“Oh wait”—Desmond paused—“I left out the weird part: Super-Healthy Hannah was eating fast food! She had a Double Biggie Burger with extra-large fries and a gallon of soda!”
Zax gasped at this, but I was pretty sure he didn’t even know Hannah.
I shook my head. “No way. You’re making this up. Super-Healthy Hannah is always super-healthy.”
Desmond replied, “But this was before she was Super-Healthy Hannah. Actually, this is why she became Super-Healthy Hannah.”
I still wasn’t ready to believe him, but I wanted to hear what else Desmond had to say. “Go ahead.”
“Cool,” he said. “So, I slid down the slide and bumped into Hannah. She spilled that huge soda all over the place, and let me tell you that she was really mad about that. But instead of yelling at me, she pointed behind me and screamed.”
Then Desmond screamed, and my heart practically stopped.
“Don’t do that!” I hissed.
Desmond just smiled and kept going with his story. “I turned around. You wouldn’t believe what I saw. It had eight legs, eight eyes, and two fangs that were dripping with red, red blood!”
I sucked in my breath.
Desmond looked at both Zax and me and said, “I was face-to-face with a vampire spider!”