Tabitha Read Online Free PDF Page B

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spoonful of sugary cereal in her mouth with a cold crunch and munched it
loudly. A bead of moisture rolled down the alien tongue, dripped from the bony
spike and landed on the back of Tabitha’s neck. She scratched idly where the
drop fell and crunched another mouthful of cereal, turning to look out of the
window at the greying sky. She tutted at the weather.
The giant spider hesitated at the sound. Mog jumped up on the worktop behind
Tabitha, stood up on his back legs against the cupboard and pawed the alien
tongue playfully. His swishing tail caught the teaspoon with a tinkle in Tabitha’s empty cup. Tabitha turned at the sound.
    ‘Mog, get down,’
she said. Then she saw the bony spike above her head. She looked up at the
silver spider on the ceiling. She didn’t gasp or scream. She felt her insides
twist for a second in primal fear, and ducked down from the jabbing spike. Then
she ran. The spider dropped and scuttled after her, inches from her heels. Mog
streaked past her upstairs and into the bedroom. Tabitha sprinted in after him.
She tried to slam the solid old door behind her, trapping the spider’s tongue
in the doorframe as it shot towards her knee. The rubbery limb stopped the door
from closing. A pair of spindly silver legs edged in through the gap around the
door, waving in the air to find her. The thick tongue withdrew then, and
Tabitha saw her chance. It took all of her strength to bang the door shut on
the spindly legs. They curled, frayed and lifeless, on her side of the door.
With terrifying strength the spider tried to wrench its dead metal limbs free
from the doorframe. The door shuddered loudly on its hinges. Tabitha's shaking
hands snapped the lock shut on the door handle. Her heart was hammering; the
metal taste of fear filled her dry mouth. Her thoughtless panic gave way to
terrified confusion. She searched her head for some kind of meaning, some kind
of plan. Mog stared hunched and saucer-eyed from the top of the wardrobe in the
corner. Silver legs whipped frantically through the gap under the door. Tabitha
backed up to the bed out of their way. Getting nothing from her phone but white
noise, Tabitha slammed it down on the bedside table. So it was just her, then.
Just her and death at the door, sudden and inexplicable. She was balled up on
the bed, half tempted to hide under the covers like a screaming cliché. The
monster wasn’t going anywhere though. The door was taking a beating, and she
heard it crack on the other side. This was her only chance to stop it, whatever
the hell it was, while the door still stood between them. Tabitha gritted her
teeth and switched her brain back on. What would her movie heroes do? She
willed her hands to stop shaking, and she put some clothes on. New t-shirt, old
jeans. In her own good time. Meanwhile the thing scrabbled relentlessly against
the door. Made spaghetti of the nice new carpet in a hail of fluff. Tabitha
searched the bedroom for weapons, but saw nothing. Coat hangers, lamp,
hairdryer. TV, shoes. She glanced over at the electrical socket beside the
door.
    Crawling towards
the door, she grabbed nervously at a trapped metal limb in the doorframe. Pulling
it, the spidery leg snapped off redundantly. The metal was dull and smooth like
silver rubber. Angular grains like engravings ran up its spindly length. The
small clawed hand at the tip rolled back when she pulled it, like a cat’s paw
or a foreskin, to reveal a toothpick-thin spike. The leg was a thing of
exquisite, murderous beauty. But it was no use to her as a weapon; bendy as a
plastic snake. The spider felt her presence there and thrust another leg
beneath the door, plunging a spike into her thigh. Spurting venom into her
flesh. Tabitha screamed. A hot rush of shock filled her veins, and something
alien too. Her adrenaline surged. She yelled as the metal limb wriggled out
from her leg. Blood dribbled and streamed from her wound, soaking through her
jeans onto the cream carpet. Before the spider