Page 5 of Spinning Out of Control

Teracht frowned a little. “Why did you stop?”

I raised a brow. “They fired me.”

“Why?” Teracht asked in surprise.

I stared at him. “Uh, it’s pretty obvious.” I gestured to my face.

Teracht still looked confused. “Is it?”

I glared at him. “It’s the first fucking thing that people notice, so yeah, I’d say it’s pretty obvious.”

“But it’s your face.”

“Yeah, and it looks terrible.” I realized I hadn’t said those words out loud to anyone, and the realization hit me like that car had.

Teracht tipped his head again, studying me intently with all eight of his eyes, unblinking, which was more than a little disconcerting. “I don’t see what’s so terrible about it.”

I snorted. “Oh, you don’t?”

“Caleb, are you angry with me?” The words came out sounding like Teracht might cry.

“No,” I said, shoving my hand through my hair in frustration. “I just… you’re not like what I thought you’d be.”

“What did you think I’d be?” Teracht asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know… More fearsome.”

“You wanted to be afraid of me?”

“I-” The words caught in my throat, and I went silent.

Teracht’s many eyes narrowed a little, and the effect was slightly terrifying. “You thought that because I was a monster, I would be evil and might hurt you?”

“I don’t know,” I said, though I did. I knew exactly what I had thought. I had thought maybe if Teracht had been ugly and cruel and had hurt me, it would make me feel less angry at myself. I could blame him, and every other monster out there, for rejecting me over the thing that made me so upset. That I would realize I was the monster I envisioned every day.

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Teracht said, his voice surprisingly soft, his eyes a combination of sadness and hurt. “I’m probably one of the few monsters in this world who doesn’t have fangs.” He curled his lips back so I could see inside his mouth, and I realized he was being literal. He didn’t even have teeth at all, it looked like, just a hard protrusion on the top and bottom inside his mouth. “I couldn’t bite you even if I wanted to. And anyway, I don’t eat humans. None of us do.”

I nodded numbly. Of course he didn’t. If monsters were killing humans, they wouldn’t be signing up for dating apps and living in houses with grocery delivery. The military would be hunting them down and slaughtering them like animals.

“Why do you want to be afraid of me?”

Teracht still sounded hurt, and it burned inside of me like icy fire. “I don’t know,” I said, hearing the anger in my own voice, but I suddenly felt like I was unable to control it. “I guess I wanted to know what monsters were like. To see if they actually cared about humans.” About me.

“You can’t judge all monsters by one,” Teracht said, and I felt guilt tug at my stomach. He was right; it wasn’t any different than judging an entire group of people because of one person’s skin color or sexual orientation or religion. It wasn’t okay. I knew I was being an ass. I didn’t want to be. I realized that my first major attempt at socializing since my accident should not have been a date, and especially should not have been a date with a monster when I knew so little about them. I had made a bunch of assumptions, all of which had been wrong.

“Caleb.” Teracht’s voice was cold, much colder than he had sounded the entire time I had been here. “I wanted to find someone who didn’t care that I was a monster. Someone who treated me like… I don’t know. But not like this.”

Inwardly, I cringed. He was right again. He deserved so much better than me. Someone who was not angry at the world, who had their shit together. “Look, um, I don’t think this is going to work,” I said, feeling guilt wash over me like a tidal wave. Teracht had been nothing but kind. I knew it was my own hangups that were bothering me. “I’m sorry. I’ll just go.” I got to my feet, took two steps toward the door, and promptly tripped over absolutely nothing. Both of my arms shot out in front of me on instinct, but I realized too late that I was not going to be able to catch myself with only my one hand. I braced myself to hit the floor face-first.

I had squeezed my eyes shut, but when the impact didn’t come, I cautiously peeked them open. The floor was only inches from my nose, but I had not hit it. When I glanced down, I saw several pairs of dark, jointed, spindly legs wrapped around me, from my waist to my knees, and one pair of more human-like arms around my shoulders.

Teracht pulled me upright. “Are you all right?” he asked as I got my feet under me again. I could feel that my face was bright red as he drew back all of his appendages and gazed worriedly at me.

“Um, yeah. Thanks,” I said, starting to push my hair out of my face instinctively with my right hand and then quickly switching to my left. “How did you move that fast?”

Teracht smiled sheepishly. “I can move very quickly when I want to. It’s how I would catch prey in the other world.”

“Oh,” I said. That made my skin crawl a little for reasons I didn’t want to think about. “You’re really strong.” I had been falling weight, all 180 pounds of me, and he had caught me like it was nothing, even with those slender legs.

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