“It sure is getting cold.” Allison said to her best friend, Claire.

It was a chilly day out as autumn started to close in. After a long day of school, Allison realized she needed to finish a Thesis for her Social Studies class by the next morning. She apologized to Claire in a rush to get home. She needed to get her project done.

Before she could take a step forward, she noticed a spider and screamed like a child on Halloween night. She yelped for Claire to kill it due to her extreme fear of spiders. Arachnophobia. Her weakness. It haunted her day by day. Night by night.

“I got it, relax.” exclaimed Claire.

Claire then stepped on the now-dead spider. Allison could still feel the fear and held down the urge to scream and run like she was about to die.

“Are you okay?” asked Claire.

Allison, still lost in thought, didn’t respond.

“Allison!” she shouted.

Allison looked up in despair, “Sorry, you know how they make me feel!”

“It’s okay, I understand,” said Claire.

“Thank you anyways. Okay, I’m gonna go home now. I’ll see you tomorrow…bye!”

“Bye!” Claire yelled as she walked away.

As Allison walked home, she could not stop thinking about how she wasn’t going to be able to finish her Thesis in time. She was trying to think of excuses for why it wasn’t finished in time, but she knew they wouldn’t work, because she had more than enough time to do it. Once she arrived at her house, she immediately started doing research for the project.

Allison was in her bedroom researching for her paper when her stomach started to rumble. She realized that she had been working for numerous hours on an empty stomach. She wanted to finish one last sentence before she went to her kitchen to get food.

It was in that instance that she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She saw a figure. It was unfamiliar. She tried to get a better look without making it obvious that she had noticed something.

“Dad! Come quick!” screamed Allison while running out of her room. “DAD! THERE’S A HUGE SPIDER! COME! PLEASE! KILL IT!” she cried.

At that moment, all Allison hoped was that the man standing in her closet didn’t realize she had seen him or that she was home alone.