Dr. Nasey.

Hey Leon.

Simon said.

Put some of these up will you?

He tossed me a bag of fake spider webs.

People had started to arrive for the party.

So we were just trying to get the last of the decorations up in my friend Layton's backyard.

The place was already looking pretty good.

But I'd been distracted ever since our trip to the Halloween store.

I was starting to think I was going nuts.

That something was really wrong with my brain.

But I nodded at Simon, gripped open the plastic bag of spider webs and reached inside.

Something stung my hand and I yanked it out dropping the bag.

A large black spider crouched on the back of my hand.

A real spider, not one of those fake plastic ones that come with the spider webs.

I swept it to the ground and stomped on it.

As I was looking at the ground, I saw three more spiders crawl out of the bag with the spider webs.

I kicked one of them over with the toe of my shoe, noticing the red hourglass on its underside.

I stomped on the three remaining spiders and then looked at my hand.

I could see two little thing marks and the area around the bite was already starting to swell.

Shit.

I said, black widows.

...