“No! No! Nooooo!”
“Eughhh!!”
What’s going on? Hinata was torn. Help Chris, or help the others? In the end, he decided to find out the cause of all the panic and ducked down to look under the cart.
“!!”
A chill shot up his spine. Hinata was so alarmed, he couldn’t even scream. He fell onto his bottom and slid backward, trying to get away from what he’d just seen.
Is that…is that a tarantula?!
He’d seen them in a book about animals but never in real life. It was about the size of his palm, with fat, hairy legs and a squat, hairy torso. Its body was a blackish color, but there were parts of its legs and abdomen that were a beautiful shade of orange.
It was crawling around, so this one had to be the real thing! Chris was terrified of all creepy-crawlies, but even someone who wasn’t would freak out over one of these guys.
Hinata swallowed hard and tried to remember the spider facts from his book. Then he got to his feet.
“M-Mayuka, tarantulas aren’t nearly as poisonous as everyone thinks… Almost no one has ever died from a tarantula bite. S-so it’s fine…”
“E-e-even if it wasn’t poisonous at all, it’s s-still a huge, s-s-scary spider!!” she replied, keeping her face pressed against Kobayashi’s chest.
“Y-yeah, she’s got a point… I don’t think I can handle this one, either,” said Kobayashi, eyes squeezed shut and voice trembling.
But what about Chris? Hinata fretted.
“Th-they’re quite docile, so it won’t jump on you. I—I need to go find Chris,” Hinata said. When he turned around, however, he found the man with the glasses standing in his way.
“Mary?” he said.
Huh? Hinata froze as the man dropped to the floor and peered under the cart. Then he reached into the little gap with his gloved hand. When he pulled it out, there was a very large spider calmly sitting on his palm.
He sat down and, with one hand, deftly opened the plastic box he’d placed on the floor. Once he had guided the tarantula inside and closed the lid, he heaved a long, relieved sigh.
“I’m so glad she’s fine…”
He stood up with a big smile. Then, without sparing so much as a glance at Hinata or the others, he went farther down the hall, opened the door to a cabin, and headed inside.
The door slammed shut, and the hallway fell silent for about thirty seconds.
Wh-what’s with that guy?
“Hinata…?” Mayuka pulled her stricken face away from Kobayashi’s chest at last.
“Wh-what happened to the spider?” Kobayashi opened his eyes fully, and Hinata finally began breathing again.
He exhaled and said, “It’s all right now. A man put it in a box and took it away. And now, I’m going to find Chris.”
He turned and ran back to the elevators. Where had Chris gone?
While he was peering around, a voice called out, “Hinata!” It was Chihori, exiting the elevator with Mito. “If you’re looking for Chris, he’s over there.”
She pointed to the row of decorative plants. Chris had stuck his head behind one of the large pots and was shivering with fright. Hinata scooped up the leash, relieved that the dog was okay, and gave Chris a firm hug.
“I know, it was scary. Everyone wanted to run away from that thing…”
Chris whined and whined, rubbing his head against Hinata for comfort.
“What’s wrong, Chris? Are you all right?” asked Chihori, bending down to look at him.
As Hinata relaxed, his eyes teared up. “Ch-Chihori,” he said. “There was a tarantula in the hallway!”
“A t-tarantula? What do you mean?” she asked, taken aback.
Mito said calmly, “I think he means the large variety of spider.”
“O-oh, I know what a tarantula is. I just meant, why would one be on the Primavera?”
Hinata shook his head, rubbing Chris’s back. “I don’t know. But it was there. A man caught it and took it back to his room…”
“Wh-where? Which room?” Chihori asked, suddenly glancing around.
Hinata lifted his hand and pointed. “I—I think it was Room 4156. It was the man who was wandering around in the hallway when Mr. Soga barged into our cabin this morning.”
Chihori straightened up and clenched her fists.
“Understood. You all go back to your room. I’ll get to the bottom of this…”