Arachna

Prologue: 'Til Death Do Us Part

What does it feel like to die?

The questions repeated in the back of her head. Will it hurt? What happens after? Every muscle in her body tensed. Will we get away in time?

Her steps creaked the dusty floor. She glanced back every few seconds, anticipating a gunshot with each breath. She counted the numbers on each old wooden door as she traveled the narrow hallway, which only seemed to extend the farther she walked as every groan of the walls, every clap of thunder outside resembled his heavy footsteps behind her.

She'd nearly been caught.

She stopped at a door with the number three on it, and after another quick look around, she knocked.

The device was burning a hole in her pocket, and she stretched the tense muscles in her neck. All throughout her life, her nerves had been made of steel. But tonight... tonight, something was different. A crack of thunder sent a rumble through the building.

As if it isn't already falling apart, she thought, frowning at the rotten walls and torn wallpaper.

A man opened the door, his curly black hair disheveled. His brown eyes softened as they settled on her.

Before he could speak, she dashed into the room and closed the door. Then she locked it and jammed a nearby desk chair under the knob.

She turned, and a smile grew on her face as she embraced the man before her. "Jacob."

The man squeezed her tightly. "Willow," he whispered as if saying her name was confirmation that she was real. That she was alright.

When they parted, she fished the drive from her pocket. "I got it... I almost got caught, but I got it."

Jacob stared at the flash drive and gulped. He plucked it from her fingers as if it was made of glass. "This..." He held it up to her. "This could be our biggest one yet."

Willow wrapped her arms around herself, the cold biting into her bare skin. "I'd have brought a jacket if I'd known it was going to be so cold in here."

She surveyed the room as Jacob shuffled through something hidden behind the desk. The room was barely large enough to walk around in. The dresser in the corner had only two drawers, and the air conditioner in the corner of the room lay broken on the dirty floor. She grimaced when her eyes came to a window with stained white curtains blocking the view.

"I thought we agreed no windows," Willow muttered. "That makes another entrance for them."

Jacob rounded the desk with a bundle in his hand. "And another exit for us." He handed her the black bundle. "A jacket. For milady."

Willow couldn't suppress a grin as she took the jacket and wrapped it around herself, savoring its warmth. "Dork."

"But a chivalrous dork."

"Still a dork."

Jacob laughed at the same time lightning flashed in the window, yet even as a shiver of fear crawled up Willow's spine, his laugh broke through it and brought a smile to her face. Jacob inserted the flash drive into his laptop.

"By some God-given miracle, this place has Wi-Fi." Jacob clacked the loud, bulky keys of the computer. "Still, it'll take a few minutes for the drive to put everything on here. Even longer to send it to my colleague. In this hellhole, it's the best I can do."

Willow leaned against the dresser, and it groaned. "I know it's not great, but this was the safest building I could find."

Jacob gave her a knowing look. "Why is it that all the 'safest' places are drug dens? I think we'd be equally safe at a four-star hotel."