Page 2 of Spinning Out of Control

“Cael, you got me into this, now I need you to tell me what to do,” I told him when he arrived at my house, slipping unseen inside, but my senses immediately knew where he was. I held out my phone to him, Caleb’s profile already on the screen, as it had been for the last four hours just today.

“He matched with you,” Cael said, as if I hadn’t realized the obvious.

“I know that,” I said with a sigh. “But I don’t know what to say to him.”

“Ask him about things he likes,” Cael suggested. He seemed to look closer at the profile, and I felt his smile, the strange vibrations of it going through me like a handshake. “You watch enough movies to know what things humans like to do.”

“But you watch actual humans,” I said, feeling like this was the same conversation we had had last week but in reverse.

“Caleb seems nice,” Cael said, and I rolled all eight of my eyes.

“You’re saying that because his name is similar to yours,” I said, not actually joking.

“His last name is Webster?” Cael asked with a laugh that probably would have a human unconscious on the floor but did nothing more than annoy me. “That is perfect, Teracht, maybe even meant to be.”

“Can you be serious, please?” I asked. “I don’t want to mess this up.”

Cael was instantly back to his usual sincere self. “Just be honest with him,” he said. “Tell him you haven’t done this before, and you’re nervous but want to make a good impression on him.”

“What if he doesn’t like me?”

I felt Cael shrug. “All you can do is be yourself. If he doesn’t like that, then he isn’t worth your time.”

I sighed again. “He’s the first human that’s matched with me. Is that too soon to think about anything beyond friendship?”

And then I could have kicked myself. Cael had struggled to find someone to connect with on the Monster Match app. I think he only was able to find his current human after a lot of trouble, and yet I had a gorgeous human who had messaged me within days of joining the site.

“Just see where it goes,” Cael said, not seeming affronted by my good fortune in relationship-hunting. “It might not work out, but cross that bridge if you get to it.”

“Okay. Thank you, Cael, I appreciate it,” I said, giving him a tentative smile. “I’ll message him back tonight.”

Chapter 3

Caleb

I had butterflies in my stomach as I walked through the “monster” area of Edgewind. Some of the creatures passing me looked humanoid, others did not. I wasn’t the only human in this area, at least. Most of them did not spare me a glance, which I was grateful for with my scarf wrapped securely around my face and my winter hat pulled down over my head. With the cold weather, at least I could get away with hiding my scars beneath a scarf.

It had been several days before I had heard back from Teracht on the Monster Match app. I had assumed he had not been interested when I didn’t hear back within the first day or two. But he finally did message me. His very first message was an apology that he took so long to contact me, but he was new to relationships and had been nervous. That was kind of endearing, a monster being nervous about contacting a human. We had only exchanged a few messages back and forth, but I had already agreed to come over to his house that Saturday afternoon.

I wondered about the wisdom of that choice as I took the bus the short distance across town to Teracht’s area. But what worried me even more about it was the realization that I didn’t actually care. I hadn’t told anyone where I was going either, not having anyone I was still friends with that I felt comfortable telling about my monster meeting. If something went sideways and this monster was actually a serial killer or something else, no one would know or care where I had disappeared to. And that was strangely okay with me. I knew that was probably just the loneliness and PTSD talking, but nothing was pulling me out of the spiral I had pushed myself into. I debated being that asshole and just cancelling the whole encounter, but the thought of going back to my empty apartment to once again be alone with nothing but my thoughts felt like it might crush me like a bug. So, I forced myself to walk the block and a half from the bus stop to Teracht’s house.

I double checked the address on my phone. It was a simple two-story house with a white picket fence that didn’t stand out in any way from those around it except that the curtains over the window were a little more lacy-looking than I usually saw. I opened the gate and crossed the short distance from the sidewalk to the step leading to the front door. My jaw clenched a bit. I could still turn around and walk away. I wasn’t sure if that would be more painful than potential rejection once Teracht saw my face.

Fuck it, I thought grimly. If a monster judges you too, then you’ll know it’s worth giving up. I pressed the doorbell with my thumb, hearing it chime inside. There was a slight pause, and I took a few deep breaths before the lock clicked and the door swung open.

I was not sure what I had been expecting beyond the basics of Teracht’s picture. I was expecting the dark skin and black eyes. He had mentioned in our short text exchange that he was a sort of spider-looking creature, but actually seeing him in person, slightly larger than me, was something else.

Teracht had dark gray skin that had a slight sheen to it, like the wings of a beetle. His hair was a lighter shade of gray, almost white, and stood straight up from his head like an anime character; the strands were silky, almost like thick webbing. I wondered if it naturally stayed like that or if he used an insane amount of product to keep it that way. His body was segmented in a way that reminded me of a centaur, with a human torso leading down to a round, furry abdomen, followed by a bulbous hind part that seemed much too big for the rest of his body. He had eight spider-like legs that were attached to the middle part of him, in addition to two arms on his torso that were fairly human-like except that his pointed fingers were more visibly segmented, like a robot or an anatomical doll. His eyes were bright black. Two of them were set on either side of his nose like a human’s, but then he had six smaller ones scattered across his forehead. They were like onyx gemstones stuck into his flawless skin. And all of them were focused on me.

“Caleb?” he asked. His voice was soft and sweet, a little airy too, and he hit the hard ‘C’ of my name with just a bit of a hissing sound.

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah.”

He smiled slightly and held out his humanoid right hand toward me to shake. “I’m Teracht.”

I was glad he pronounced that first so I didn’t have to guess on it, but then I realized my first dilemma. I extended my left hand, taking his right awkwardly and giving it a slight shake. He looked a little confused but then gave me another shy smile. He had beautiful lips, I noticed.

“Please, come in.” He gestured aside and stepped back so I could enter. “You can leave your boots on if you like, I’m not on the floor that often.”

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