Blue Letter Night

21. Mason is confused

A scream sounded through the house at around two thirty in the morning. I stepped out of my room to see what it was, and collided with frazzled Beth.

"Whoa whoa, whats wrong?" I asked grabbing her shoulder to steady her.

"I was sleeping and- and then Max's tarantula was crawling on my chest and," She shudder at the memory. Anne Max and Machelle joined us by the stairs, equally confused.

"What's going on?" Max asked sleepily.

"Beth's been visited by a tarantula," I said to Max and sent him a meaningful look.

Maybe it was a little too obvious because Machelle just asked, "what did you guys do?" Her eyes were half closed and she was fighting sleep.

We came clean about what had happened in hurried and rush excuses and explanations. Machelle looked fully awake and horrified.

"Oh my god! You guys should've told me," she was looking down and around her feet. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the wall move with nocturnal bugs and rodents. Beth shot me an I-told-you-so look. I shrugged, I wanted to be there for my little brother.

"Well with the amount of things Max had in his room, I don't think Beth was the only one with something in her bed tonight," Anne said. We all went still and silent at the revelation.

"Who's up for a camp out?" Machelle asked.

"I don't know if thats really necessary—" a loud hiss somewhere to my left made all of us jump and interrupted Max. "I'll go get my things," he decided. We all parted ways and gathered our blankets. Beth was a little hesitant going back to her room so I went with her, shook out her blankets for her to ensure nothing was hiding in them, and then we headed out side.

Setting up the singular tent and cramming us all in the took about an hour. Getting to sleep after that took me the better part of an hour and a half, paranoid that one of Max's creatures would make its way into the tent. And by the way everyone else was tossing and turning, it didn't seem like anyone else was able to sleep either.

I dreamt of spiders and snakes that night in hazy snippets, and when I woke up, I was half expecting to see an actual snake and/or spider. But when I braced myself and forced my eyes open, all I saw was Beth. I was startled for a second, forgetting for a moment that all of us were sleeping in one tent.

She looked peaceful, only her face and a bit of her hair revealed from the mountain of blankets she was wrapped in. Was it stupid for me to feel a tingle in my stomach when I looked at her? Probably, but I couldn't shake it. She stirred and I quickly looked away.

"Morning," she sighed when she realized I was awake too.

"Morning," I groaned with the stretch of my back waiting for the butterflies to die down.

She sat up and so did I, the rest of the tent was empty.

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"Probably inside. Come on," she said rubbing her eyes and then exciting the tent. In the rush the night before I forgot to bring shoes, the wet morning dew soaked through my socks every step until we got inside. Waiting there was Anne and Max, standing on the kitchen table.

"Umm what are you guys doing?" I asked.

"We saw one of Max's snakes, get
up here!" Anne said with such urgency Mason and I scrambled on the table.

"Did Machelle call an exterminator?" Beth asked.

"Yeah last night. They should be here in an hour," Max said