Dread Detention by Jennifer Killick

Author:Jennifer Killick [Killick, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2024-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

I’m desperate to look behind me to make sure Hallie’s made it to the sty with Candace, but I know it will slow me down. Instead I focus on Klaus. He’s scared, so he’s still running surprisingly fast in the opposite direction. He’s the kindness pig, and it suits him; he can read my feelings like no human can. He’s the first to come and nuzzle my hand when I visit the pig yard feeling frustrated or sad. There have been lots of times when hanging with him for twenty minutes has helped me get through the rest of the day. I never really appreciated it until this moment, when if I’m too slow, or if I trip, or if I lose my courage, he’ll be gone.

I pick my way through the minefield. There are places that I know to avoid, but those are the easy ones. There could be hundreds more tunnels and trapdoors. Every time I plant my foot, I brace myself for disaster. And as I’m darting across the field, which is enormous, I wonder again how it was possible for the spider to get to each of the chickens so fast. Usually a spider has only one trapdoor, not loads of them dotted around a large area. And then there were those legs, which looked gray from a distance and brown close up…. A new fear starts jabbing at my brain that maybe I’ve underestimated the situation.

The rain has started again. A mass of fine droplets fill the air, clinging to my eyelashes, then dropping down into my eyes, making my vision blurred. I don’t notice a rogue mound of tufted grass, and my toe catches it, sending me lurching forward. I manage to keep myself upright, but I’ve lost my stride and my breath. I picture the spider in its dark runs below me, gaining ground, lunging ahead. Will it reach Klaus before I get to him? Or will it lie in wait for me, springing up with no warning, and dragging me under the soil. I wonder what happens when it gets you. A bite first, most likely, to release toxins into your body, paralyzing you. Then it probably wraps you in silk, stores you for later, secured on a tunnel wall, while the enzymes in its toxin slowly turn your insides into soup. I wonder what that feels like.

Klaus is slowing now, either worn out or thinking he’s far enough away from the danger to be safe. His spotted butt is in my sights, just five feet or so away. And behind him, so quietly that he doesn’t even turn his head, the ground starts to quiver.

The lid of earth rises slowly, revealing the hulking figure of the spider below. It emerges above the surface until three-quarters of its body are visible. It’s the darkest brown—the color of the nasty chocolates that always get left in the box, then thrown away after Christmas. Its body is about a third larger than its basketball head, which makes me think it must be a male.

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