Cairo's Mistake

“I CAN'T DO IT BOSS, I CAN'T! I'll DIE!” I said, tears coming to my eyes.

“You'll be fine, Cairo. I'm sending Ethan with you. You will kill the spider and return home just fine. Promise. It won't end up like what happened at Scorchance.”

That had been hours ago. Why, why, why had the world been taken over by spiders? Why had I decided I would join a team to fight back and kill them!? Why did I agree to go on this mission after what I did last time?

For the third time in five minutes, I wondered how we had gotten locked in a pitch black janitor's closet with no key and no escape vents.

Ethan sniffed and scrunched his face. "It smells like water n' mold in here,"

With not much room to turn, the minute he looked down his face was inches away from mine.

I tried to back up against the wall, but ended up bumping into some brooms and falling into a mop bucket. "Aah!"

"Hold on, hold on I've got you." He walked the distance between us and put a hand out to me.

I grabbed it, heart racing. The boss knew I liked Ethan. That's why she put us together. What she didn't know is it just made working with him harder.

His chocolate brown eyes were staring at me, so I looked down.

"This is what we get for being' punks huh?" Ethan asked.

"It…was a Wolf Spider. We couldn't have known it was here. They don't spin webs." I told him.

There was a moment of silence while we looked around, our heads swiveling. It was silent in here, thankfully. There were shelves of sprays and gels, sponges on the floor and the ceiling was blank. No lights, no vents. Pity, since I was getting hot with this coat on and with Ethan so close.

“Do you think if we called attendance the spider would crawl up to us?”

I giggled, then caught myself. Don't get sidetracked, Cairo. This was a murderous spider crawling around a middle school. There are still kids to save. Hopefully you don't screw this one up too.

I clutched my head. “Ethan, think! How are we gonna get out of here!?" I looked around the closet for possible weapons. A broom? Maybe. Bug spray? Com’on, that spider was three times our size!

Ethan sighed. "Alright, Cairo. I get that you're still mad about your last mission, but-”

"What? I'm not mad about that.”

"Please, ever since I said you've been pessimistic lately, you've ghosted me."

"This isn't about that! Well it is, but Ethan, you wouldn't understand!"

"You've been avoiding everyone since Zaiden died. You used to always smile, even when you got a hard mission. You told the most awful jokes and blinded people with your bad dancing. You were the life of the team. Now I barely see you. Why have you been avoiding everyone? Avoiding me?"

"I've been avoiding you because…" My lip began to quiver. It was suddenly hard to breathe. "I…I don't want…." My voice became thick and shaky, a tear rolling down my face.

His face softened and his voice became calm and low. "Because what?"

I slid my arm across my face and tried to gather my composure, but I couldn't. I began to wail as loud as I could, because who cares if the spider found me!? We were already practically dead!

A tiny voice inside of me told me not to give up yet, so I quieted down, taking breaths, then letting more tears slip.

Ethan heaved down and sat beside me.

"Cairo…" Ethan put an arm over my shoulder and I leaned towards him.

"It was…It was terrible," I whispered. "My last mission. It was a town called Scorchance. Me and Zaiden were attacking a behemoth spider that had made its home in the loading docks of a supermarket. I hit it and a bunch of baby spiders popped out of it and went around eating things and people. Zaiden pulled me away just in time, but in the process he died of a spider bite. I let him die. I let most of those people die, all because I made one wrong move. I'm no good Ethan. I can't kill that wolf spider. And I don't want to get you killed. I care about you too much to…to"

I covered my face. He let me sit and cry a minute longer before he spoke.

“Woah. That's traumatic…” Ethan said.

He was looking straight into the shelves across from us.

“I've never seen you like this. But now that I know why…It all makes sense. My Mom told me that some missions go wrong. sometimes… you lose people. And there's no easy fix or getting over that. My Mom lost a few friends fighting spiders too. She still comes to the spider control agency, to check on things. Maybe you should talk to her sometime…”

I ran my arm across my face again. “Thanks…I didn't think about if there were other people who experienced something like I did.”

It felt so good to finally have told someone about what happened. How I had been feeling for the past.. had it been months? I smiled at him, an honest smile that I hadn't been able to do for weeks.

“You’ve got a pretty smile,” Ethan rose and put yet another hand out to me.

“Thanks. You do too…a handsome smile, I mean,” I laughed and prayed my face wasn’t red.

We both chuckled until we heard a light tapping out in the hall. Me and Ethan shared a look. It was Go Time.

“I've got your back, so no one's dying today.” Ethan did one solid nod. He opened the door to the furry creature down the hall. Its two biggest eyes gleamed at us even in the darkness.

I grabbed my ice ray, and Ethan slid his flamethrower off his back.

Good thing all children got locked in their homerooms. Things could get crazy.

But I wasn't giving up.

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My latest novel, Shook, is being published to Hive in parts! See all released chapters in this post.

Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!

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