"Don’t you think we should go back, buddy?”

Said the teen who is walking his dog around the city. It’s early in the morning, the ideal time for some exercise and vitamin D. He shifts his arm to get a better view of his Casio digital watch.

“It’s eight AM already, I don’t even recognize this place. I’m sure you’re tired either way, right?”

He speaks to Ken, his Golden Retriever of three years. Friendly, playful, and fluffy. He bounds across the crosswalk energetically.

They’ve been walking for hours. Trees started emerging more frequently along the road, as if the road was cutting in the middle of a forest.

“I haven’t seen a car once. This doesn’t look like the same city.”

He pondered, raising a hand up to shield his eyes from the yellow dwarf in the sky. Giving him a better view of the road ahead.

They traveled for another ten minutes. Unexpectedly, he found a girl at the side of the street.

The young girl probably his age appears to be looking for something. She was kneeling down while her hands rustle through a bush. analyzing it’s content for something important.

“Someone’s here? Uh, good morning miss.”

Her search was interrupted when the boy called out to her, she was facing away from Haruki, so she couldn’t see him at first.

“What are you doing? Need some help?”

When he asked this, the girl turned around to face him, and stood up.

As he approaches her, he notices just how pretty her face is. She had shoulder-length brown hair, with a white hair pin attached to her side. Her blue sapphire eyes locked onto him, making him nervous.

“Woah... I, yeah. So like, need any help?”

He swallows hard, trying to keep a nonchalant face. Meanwhile, Ken was moving a bit too much so Haruki was forced to pull on his leash. “Sit.” He demanded, and Ken complied.

“A human?” She tilts her head.

“Wha... Just call me, Gabriel. Why did you say ‘human’ for?”

He replied back, bewildered. Careful not to use his real name, and using an alias.

“Um, I’m looking for... A friend.” Her voice was soft, and gentle.

“In a bush... That’s not right, or maybe they’re just playing hide and seek or something?”

He kept a straight face while he said this to himself. At the same time, he looked around to check his surroundings. There was nothing to note, just tree’s and the never-ending road ahead and behind.

Besides, this shouldn’t even be a place to play hide and seek in the first place. Perhaps the girl is just joking with him?

“You’ve gone quiet. Didn’t you say you’ll aid me? If you’re wondering about my friend, it’s a male.”

Her voice snapped him out of it and he looked at her sapphire eyes once more.

“Sorry. So it’s a guy? I didn’t see anyone pass by me, so it’s safe to assume he didn’t go where I came from. Do you know what he was wearing?”

“He wasn’t wearing anything. He’s about, hmm... As tall as my knee, and his black too.”

“Oh cool, tall as your knee? What are you describing, woman? He’s wearing no clothes too?”

He replied back in a sarcastic, but confused tone. Wondering whether or not this girl is still joking or is genuinely being serious, hopefully the latter.

“No, he can’t even wear clothes. He has eight legs. His as tall as my knee because he’s not a human.”

The girl answered with a completely straight face. In fact, maybe a little too straight. As if she’s forcing that reaction to not ruin the mood. But he can see her eyes slightly twitch, did he offend her? He probably thought.

“Okay... I’m sure you can find him... I’ll be on my way now, my uber has been waiting for the past thirty minutes now.”

He raises his wrist to give her a thumbs up.

Slowly, Haruki began to scooch away from the girl ever so slightly. This movement causes Ken to stand up from his sitting position as his leash is pulled.

“You’re silent again. What happened to helping me-”

“Ring-ring! Oh, that’s my phone, gotta go!”

He suddenly blurted out, and promptly sprinted out of her presence.

“Hahhhhh..!?” She stammered.

She blinks a couple times to process the situation.

“Hey, wait up! Gab!”

“Didn’t you say you were going to help me?!”

After finding the right words. She called out to him but he’s already long gone.

“I did? Well, it was nice talking to you! My uber really needs me ASAP!”

“Bitch.” She uttered to herself, grinding her teeth.

“Woof!” Ken barked with ecstasy, leaping with energy while his tongue hang freely out his mouth. Haruki’s legs only run this fast on P.E class, even his dog was astonished by this.

He looked back to see if she’s following him, she didn’t even move from there previous encounter, she was just staring at him creepily from the distance as he ran.

“I’m such a bad person.” He thought to himself.

For good measures he ran an extra kilometer. Not daring to look back a second time. The tree’s never stopped appearing, but there was one thing that was going to disappear, the road.

After running for a kilometer, he stops to rest in a nearby tree, He sat down beside it and shuts his eye for a moment, while his head resting against the base of the tree. A Joro Spider was observing him from the treetops, nesting comfortably in it’s web.

The boy was panting so heavily that each inhale caused his stomach to convulse inward and expand outward, as if it were bloated.

That’s when it hit him, Ken was nowhere to be seen. He must have dropped the leash in a panic while he was running.

“Crap. Mom’s not gonna be happy.”

He stood up and quickly fixed himself up. The boy went back to the street, and started searching for his beloved dog. Sticking close to the sidewalk.

After wandering for ten minutes, the road was beginning to fade into nature. However, there was a clearing on the right side of the road. A pathway was straying away from the street, made of gravel and dirt.

“There’s nowhere else to go, I might as well see where this leads me.”

The dirt path led to an old house. It was huge, but not a mansion. It looks like a modern Timber frame home.

He noticed that there was no life inside or anywhere, the pool in front was dirty with algae floating around. The walls had holes and cracks everywhere, even the paint was fading away. It was nothing more than a house in the middle of a forest.

“Damn, this makes my room look clean...”

He cups his hands around his mouth, preparing to announce a message to the empty forest.

“Ken! If you’re hearing this, I have your favorite snack!”

His eyes shifts back to the house.

“You better not be inside!”

He yelled out. The sudden commotion awakened a flock of birds which erupted from the treetops nearby.

“Birds really do that, huh? I thought that was just a movie thing.”

Impatient, annoyed, and most importantly, hungry. He made his way to the front door. It had a doorbell but he figured no one would be living here anyway.

“Ain’t this that part in the movie where the main character gets jumped?”

Upon opening the door, it responded with a sharp, creaking noise that made his entire body shiver. Clearly it’s been years since it was last opened, a couple tiny specks of house spiders scattered.

“Oh hell naww.”

Despite his disgust, he reluctantly enters the house. His next step was on a fragile tile, it shattered, which startled him. A grim reminder of the many years it had been embedded on the floor.

“I’m getting fat now? Nah, it’s probably cuz the tiles are weak, probably.”

Haruki takes a few more steps inside the house. Then, he heard a deafening slam from behind.

“The hell..!?”

His neck was close to snapping from how fast he turned around.

“Who’s there!? Sh..show yourself…!”

If anyone was truly there, they wouldn’t be able to take him seriously due to his voice crack.

“This shit is haunted, why did I go inside? This is why I wouldn’t survive in a horror movie.”

He was still staring directly at the wooden door, gradually walking backwards, and increasing his pace. After creating some distance between him and the front door, he turned away from it and begun to run.

The petrified teen fled from the area, there was no way he was going anywhere near that door. A hallway extended straight from the door, with rooms adjacent on either side.

It was completely dark in the hallway, and you can’t even see the end because it was pitch-black. The lights on the ceiling was just decorations at this point, not a single one was working.

“I’m never trusting my intrusive thoughts again.”

He muttered to himself as he continued to dash through the corridor. With his right arm positioned in front of him which was holding his phone, he was using the built-in flashlight to see in the dark. Meanwhile, his left arm was typing something on the screen.

“110-ban. This is the police.”

“Is it an accident or an incident?”

The operator on the other side said. He had a deep, but friendly tone.

However, Haruki couldn’t even respond. Just a few meters ahead of him, a fifteen foot tarantula stood in front, blocking the way. It had eight eyes which stared down on him, probably the size of a golf ball, it was glowing red and giving off an eerie vibe. The long and hairy eight legs of the spider wrapped around the cramped hallway.

In the middle of a pitch-black hallway, the only thing the built-in flashlight of Haruki’s phone illuminated was a colossal arachnid. It could swallow him whole, and leave no trace behind.

“Neither..!! I need the entire NPA now!!’

He shouted at his phone.