Book Five: Chapter 43

The Arachne turned to look away from him, her fingers swiping at her face. “Sorry,” she said with a sniffle. “It’s just...this was my dad’s car. Back when I was small, he would take Lala and me for rides around the forest. He would spend hours out here keeping it in working order. It was how he got supplies from town.”

“It’s hard seeing it like this, isn’t it?” Mike moved to the side of the vehicle and put his hands on the cool metal. “When I was a kid, my mom and I bounced from home to home a lot. The only constant we had in our lives was our station wagon. I’m surprised the damn thing even ran. It was totaled in an accident, caught on fire and burned to the ground. The picture made it into the paper, I felt like I was looking at the murder scene of a friend.” He didn’t mention to her that he had been inside, and so had his mother. The fire had claimed his mother’s life and freed him from her abuse, but not before leaving a mass of scars along the side of his body.

“My