Pt 2 - 12

“Forfeit! Forfeit!” Her friends chanted, apart from Kenny, who jumped on the coffee table and chanted “Burn the witch!”



“I am not doing anything. Let me go now or I swear I will...” Alissa searched the room for something she could use as a weapon. A small table. A vase. An antique fire poker. Perfect. Alissa knocked the other tools off the brass stand as she made a grab for it.



Pacing backwards in a crouch, she almost tripped over a leather beanbag but managed to steady herself by some miracle.



“I’ll hit you if you come near me,” Alissa warned Zach, wielding the poker in two hands like a broadsword.



When he advanced, she swung as hard as her small arms would allow. He blocked the hit with the meat of his forearm then disarmed her as she pulled back and readied another assault. A second later she was in a fireman’s lift and being carried through the dining and living rooms and up the stairs.



Her head bumped painfully into his solid back with every stride. The metallic taste of blood seeped into her mouth.as she bit down on her tongue.



“Ouch!” Alissa cried. “Let me go, you Neanderthal.”



“You really should have done your dare,” Zach spoke so quietly she could barely hear him. “Now you have to do the punishment, and we will find out if your arachnophobia is real or simply... more attention seeking.”



What? Alissa froze.



“What is the forfeit?” It had not occurred to her to ask until now because she had zero intention of going through with it.



“What is the forfeit?” She shouted.



Zach laughed softly. “I’ll show you.” He carried her up another set of stairs. The landing was dark and hot. Why was it so damn hot?



“Say hello to my little friend,” Zach said in some accent. It was a quote from an old film, but Alissa couldn’t recall which one. The floor had a shower room and another room at the end of the landing—a humid and dimly lit room that felt like the tropics. Zach dropped her gently beside a row of glass tanks contained foliage, sand and bits of bark. It took a moment for Alissa’s eyes to both focus on and register the monstrosity nestled inside the hollowed-out tree branch.



Two long pale brown legs and grossly oversized mandibles protruded from the hole. Alissa did not have to tell her feet to move, they started pedalling backwards on their own accord. She twisted onto her front and was half crawling, half running out of the room and into the corridor.



Flinging herself onto the tiles of the shower room floor, Alissa kicked the door shut before positioning herself against the wall with her feet flat against the door. The sour taste of vomit filled her mouth as the image of the thing flooded her brain, filling every inch of her mind.



“You think you can keep me out?” Zach taunted.



“Leave me alone!” Alissa shouted. The door pushed back, bending her feet. With every fibre of strength she could muster, Alissa strained her legs. For a second it seemed to work. Just a second. Then he came crashing through the door.



“No, no, no nonononono.” Alissa cowered.



“You only have to hold it for a second. We all agreed on the forfeit. Just a shame you were late and didn’t hear about it.”



“I can’t.” Alissa shook her head so hard her hair whipped her cheeks. Sweaty hair stuck to her face in clumps but for once Alissa did not care about how she looked.



“Oh, I’m sorry.” Zach paused. “Were you under the impression you had a choice?”



As Zach advanced Alissa put up her hands like two tiny, ineffective shields. “Wait, please, just give me a minute.”



“For?” Zach asked.



“Just give me five minutes, I need to talk to you about this,” Alissa asked waving her hands in subconscious effort to distract and keep him at a distance. It wasn’t working. As he advanced she knitted her fingers together. “Please?”



“What is it? One minute or five?” Zach teased. “Or do you wanna make it ten?”



Alissa didn’t understand what he was blabbering about. She could barely hear the words coming out of her own mouth as though they were detached from her. Fear had taken over and switched her mouth onto autopilot.



“Please will you give me five minutes,” she repeated dully. Zach said nothing but stood fiddling with his phone. He turned it to reveal a timer set at five minutes. Okay, so he isn’t unreasonable. That is good to know, Alissa thought.



“I know I pissed you off when I threatened you. I shouldn’t have done that. It was bitchy and selfish and mean and I’m sorry.” Alissa started to babble. She had become good at apologies since dating Andy. Every little thing she said or did seemed to offend him.



A tickly sensation, something running across her cheek, made Alissa freak out and claw at her face with her fingers until she realised it was just her own hair. She was on edge—everything looked and felt like spiders. The charcoal toothbrush bristles. A stray thread hanging from the hand towel. Her own hair...



“I gave you a chance to apologise and you didn’t take it. It’s too late now. You are just wasting your minutes,” Zach warned after she’d calmed her breathing, tapping the screen of his phone as though it was a real watch.



“Okay, fine, don’t forgive me. But do you really have to do this? Haven’t you already turned all my friends against me? Everything was perfect until you showed up, now suddenly I have nobody!”



“They didn’t take a lot of turning,” Zach confided with a smirk. “You made them hate you, not me.”



“Whatever. Have them, I don’t care, I don’t care about anything except getting out of here,” Alissa lied, tears filling her eyes. In her own, bitchy way she loved each of her friends, but there wasn’t space in her head to worry about that now.



“I’ll do a different forfeit. I’ll do any stupid dare you want,” Alissa offered.



“I don’t want anything from you,” Zach stated. She believed him.



Tears fell onto the floor of the elegant shower room. Alissa remembered being filled with envy the first time she had entered the Rivers household with its sleek modern décor and underfloor heated bathrooms. It occurred to Alissa that she would never come back to the house she loved to imagine as her own.



“Then why are you doing this?”



Zach smiled. “Maybe I want to see you freak out.”



“Why? You wanna see me piss myself? Shit myself? Puke up? Go into a fugue state? Because it will happen.” Alissa explained. “I promise you I’m not making up my phobia for attention. I have to get my mum to check the house every day. I have to tape up every nook and cranny, so they can’t sneak in during the night. There are so many places I can’t go and things I can’t do because I’m afraid a spider will jump out at me.”



“Most spiders don’t jump,” Zach pointed out.



“I feel like they will. I know... My phobia is dumb. But it is real.”



Alissa stared up at Zach with the biggest, most pathetic eyes possible. “That thing in there is my worst nightmare. Please don’t drag me in there again. I’m sure I will die. Like. Literally. Die.”



As Zach stood in silence for a moment, Alissa prayed he was considering letting her off. Then she heard a high-pitched sound and couldn’t figure out if it was in her head or—



“Looks like your minutes are up,” Zach announced with a sympathetic smile. He grabbed her wrist and pulled, and as determined as she was to stay on the floor, it was useless.



“No, please, wait!” Alissa went into a panic. It was way too hot, too hot to breathe, as though someone had sucked all the air out of the room and replaced it with the heat of Death Valley. She wanted to shake off her own skin, like a snake, and slither off into a cooler place. Or go the extra mile and release herself into the atmosphere as the puff of perspiration she was sure now comprised the entirety of her molecular structure.



“Don’t do this. I’ll do anything!” Alissa knew her mouth was moving but had no control over the words. “Whatever you want.”



“You shouldn’t ever say that. Not to anyone. Not ever.” Zach warned; his tone now deadly serious.



“Why?”



Zach sighed, “Just trust me. Lesser guys would take advantage of that.”



“What else can I do?” Alissa asked, staring at Zach with pleading eyes.



He shrugged, uncaring, advising her to, “Just accept it.”



“Please, no, don’t do this,” Alissa whispered as fresh tears formed and blurred her vision.



“Zach, I’m begging you,” Alissa felt every bit of her dignity and pride trickle away as she lowered her head to the floor. She continued to beg until it occurred to her that the sounds coming out of her mouth were the formless sounds of desperation, but she couldn’t seem to stop. The word verbal diarrhoea sprung to her mind and she was almost sick.



Alissa felt Zach grip her by the chin and lift her head off the floor. “Clean yourself up. I’ll get you some clothes. I’m not foraging through Lorie or Ravens bedrooms, so you will have to make do with mine.”



“What?” Alissa frowned. She followed Zach’s finger to the puddle between her knees. She hadn’t even felt it. Maybe it was the schnapps. Or perhaps it was the sheer panic. It certainly wasn’t the first time and probably wouldn’t be the last, but either way it was mortifying. Not knowing what to say in this situation, Alissa sat perfectly still and waited, afraid that anything she did might provoke him into changing his mind. Maybe he hadn’t changed his mind at all. Could she hide? Run? Her legs were as good as jelly.





When Zach returned with neatly ironed and folded piles of grey and white Alissa did not dare look at him. He placed them by the sink and left after telling her that the doors were open, and she could leave whenever.