@ Creature

Either the phone’s battery went bad and quit charging, or the cable was shit. The warm rain running down the screen made the phone’s UI, flicker back and forth, as Ethan turned the screen on again to check how much battery he had left. Not a lot: 4%. At least the thing was water-proof, he thought. Today was also shit. First his parents confiscated he car keys after finding booze in his closet, now the fucking charging cable went bad. (Hopefully it’s the charging cable and not the battery), he thought. A car drove by splashing him with a fan of muddy water. “Hey!” he yelled, but the red tail lights were too far away now for the driver to hear. “Fucking fuck!” he swore looking down at himself. It was too dark to see how dirty his shirt and pants were now. The light of the gas station still far away. (Oh, well), he thought and continued walking, wet gravel and sand of road’s shoulder making wet crunching noises underfoot. Ethan’s thumb moved on the phone to turn the flashlight on, but he stopped himself. There was almost no chance that Casey’s gas station won’t have USB cables, they always did, but with today's luck they might just be out. Then he’d be screwed without a phone for the rest of the night and all day at school tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but he was too irate after everything today to accept not having a phone right now. A pale form moved to his right a few yards away. He turned and saw a figure standing by the trees. Ethan stopped and squinted through the rain. A cold, creepy feeling suddenly gripped him. It stood there and watched him. A female form, he realized, tall and pale, with black hair longer that he’s ever seen. Something was off. The face… It’s head… The mouth grinned widely, forming a dome above the eyes, eyes that were down close to the neck, under the nose, mouth and chin up above them. (It’s fucking head is upside down..) he realized. Ethan’s thumb pressed the phone’s power button, battery be damned. He aimed it at the figure, brought up the camera app and pressed the button to take the picture. Just as the shutter sound clicked the face was suddenly full-screen, as if a few feet away from him. Ethan gasped and the phone tumbled onto the ground. There was a moment of relief when he realized that the figure was still far away and didn’t suddenly teleport right in front of him, but then something long, black, and wide, like a cross between a ribbon and an anaconda flicked itself toward him and the last thing he felt was a thick spiderweb of hair wrapping itself around him and pulling him forward. *** “Hey, Riley, when did your dad say you needed to be back home?” Alex’s mom yelled from downstairs. The two girls glanced at their phones to see the time. “Eleven!” Riley yelled back. They still had half an hour of “study” time. The two really did mean to study for the calculus exam, but ended up chatting the whole evening. “Oh shit! I got to show you something,” Riley said, turning on her phone’s screen again, “You know that ‘Grin Reaper’ thing on social media?” She scrolled through her phone’s picture gallery. “Like, that smiling ‘monster’ with upside down head?” Alex asked. “Yeah, the one they said kidnapped those kids” “That’s so fake!” “Yeah, but look!” Riley turned her screen towards her friend. Alex took the phone from her, “What’s this?” “It’s her! Caleb was driving me to the movies and I saw her out the window. You know where Casey’s gas station is on Maple av? There’s like a wooded area just past it when you’re driving downtown.” “It’s just some blurry figure. Probably some homeless person… What’s that?” Alex heard some kind of scratching at the window. She walked over to look. They were on the second floor, but there were no trees close enough to scratch against the window. She opened it and look outside. No one. Just a vine attached to the wall of the house outside. Or was it a vine? Along, curly splotch of dark. Alex frowned. “No, I saw her, for real for real. It’s looks bad on the photo because it was dark and we were moving, but her head was on upside down and grinning.” Riley insisted. (Is it ivy?) Alex thought, only half listening to Riley, (Since when do we have ivy on the house?) Riley wondered if she should tell Alex that when she snapped the photo it looked like the woman’s grinning, upside down face was up close suddenly, right up against the car window. Caleb almost veered off the road turning to see what was wrong when she gasped and dropped the phone. When she fished her phone from beneath the seat, the photo looked normal. Blurry but normal. (Maybe a mud splash) Alex thought, examining the black, vine-like shadow that stuck to the house aiming at the window. (Some asshole splashed mud on the house as a prank. Someone from school?) “You think I should post it to TikTok?” Riley asked, looking pensively at the photo. The question brought Alex’s attention back to her. She walked back over and sat on the other side of her friend, taking the phone from her hand and looking closer at the photo. “It’s dark,” Alex rolled her eyes, “Also, some troll could have just been wearing a mask trying to scare people. That shit’s all over social media.” “I guess…” Riley decided against telling her more. She didn’t want to sound weird. Just then, Alex heard her phone ding somewhere behind her. She looked back to find it when she heard a choking noise from where Riley sat, “You ok?” she asked looking back and froze, not quite sure what she was seeing. Riley’s eyes were wide, her hands at her throat tugging at something black, like a scarf wrapping around her neck. More dark, tentacle-like locks reached in towards them through the window. It looked like hair, but it moved as if through water, snaking itself forward and wrapping around Riley’s arms, neck and face. Before Alex could utter a sound or register what she saw, the hair straightened, pulled back, yanking Riley out through the window. *** Alex sits on her bed in shock, glancing back at the window every thirty seconds. She tries to resist getting up and walking over to it. It's weird feeling of being pulled towards it to make sure it’s locked and being afraid to approach it for fear of what she might see outside. What if she sees it again? It’s tentacle-like locks crawling up the house, surrounding her window ready to snatch her like it did her friend. Can it seep through the cracks and unlock the fragile latch? She feels herself standing up and walking over to the window briskly, her hands smooth over the window latch, making sure it’s still locked, her eyes darting back and forth outside. Nothing. The dark splat on the house Alex first mistook for ivy or mud is gone, too. She sits back on the bed. Alex can hear her parents arguing downstairs. They think she's using drugs. They searched through her room the day after Riley was taken. They yelled at her that night, them and Riley’s dad, all convinced that the girls were high and Riley wondered off somewhere. Alex knew they would not believe what really happened. But lying wouldn’t help anyone find her friend. She lets think it was all a drug-induced hallucination. (Maybe I’m crazy,) Alex thinks. Her mind searches for mentions of schizophrenia among any of her relatives. Isn’t that shit genetic? A chill goes through her body again, suddenly. A scratching at the window? Like the one she heard before Riley was taken? “It’s not real,” she whispers out loud. It’s not real. She keeps thinking she hears it almost as often as she walks over to check the latch on the window. “It’s not real….” She has to check. Pushing through the fear, Alex briskly walks over to the window again. Nothing it the trees out back across the lawn. She can’t see the outside of the house without opening the window but she can’t risk it. “It wasn’t real” she affirms again. Then she has an idea. The parents’ arguing grows louder as Alex quietly opens her bedroom door and tiptoes down the stairs toward her mom’s office, trying to avoid attracting their attention. They are still pissed, she doesn't want to deal with them. She looks for scotch tape, quickly founds it, grabs a stack of paper from the printer and goes back upstairs. If she blocks out the window, it can’t see her, even if it is lurking somewhere outside waiting to snatch her, Alex thinks as she starts to cover the glass with paper and tape. She feels better now, suddenly. It feels like she was doing something to protect herself, even if it involves being near the window and risking seeing that thing. As the final page of printer paper is about to go up to block the glass completely, Alex freezes. A figure stands on the grass in front of the trees. In panic, Alex tries to decipher the face in the dark. The head, it is right side up. Not grinning, no hair tentacles: not the monster. With a wave of relief, she looks closer, trying to figure out who it is, and a surge of adrenaline and excitement suddenly hits her, (It's Riley!) “Ril--,” she almost screams, fumbling with the latch. As she pulls the window up and looks back out again, the figure is gone, “Riley!” she yells into the night. No answer. Alex pulls the window closed and runs for the door, briefly coming back to latching again, just in case. “She’s out there! Outside.” Alex almost yells as she barged into the living groom, pointing towards the back door. “Where? Outside?” her mom says then quickly goes to the door, dad and Alex following her. In the yard they yell Riley’s name, scanning the grass hill beyond and the tree line behind it. “Are you sure you saw her?” her dad asks. “Yeah, it was her, for sure.” “Are you high again?” her mom turns to her with an annoyed grimace on her face. “I’m not fucking high, mom!” “Don’t you talk to me this way! Get back to your room.” her mom yells. “I’m not fucking high, mom! I saw her.” Mom isn’t listening, she turns to dad “We should call her parents. She could really be out there,” then to Alex, “Upstairs NOW!” Pissed, Alex walks back into the house. It feels good to be angry, anger is better than fear. She runs up the stairs and tares down the paper she had just put up on the glass. She leans against the window and scans the tree line up in the distance. A few hour pass. Alex still gets up from time to time to check the window, but this time she is looking for Riley rather than checking the lock. Her parents have finally quieted down downstairs. It's late. They are probably asleep by now. Alex considers going to bed herself, but she knows she wouldn't be able to sleep. She looks back out the window. "Riley!" Her friend is there again, closer this time. Alex opens her mouth to call to her, but stops as she saw Riley raise her finger to her lips, gesturing for her to be quiet. Alex frowns, “What the fuck are you doing?” she mouths, shrugging dramatically. Riley motions for her to come out then puts her finger to her lips again. What is she doing? Alex thinks about waking her parents, but decides against it. They’ll just be useless and tell her to go to her room again. She quietly creeps downstairs and sneaks out the door. She half-expects Riley to be gone again as she walks out of the house and looks out to the hillside, but Riley is still there. Further back, almost past the tree-line. She motions Alex to come closer and takes a few steps back, disappearing in the trees. “Fuck!” Alex swears, looks back at the house one last time, then takes off across the yard after her. *** Past the tree line in the woods, Alex crunches through the trees, lighting her way (poorly) with her phone’s flashlight. Thorns scratch her arms and legs as she walks as fast as she can, navigating among the trees, yelling Riley’s name. From time to time she can see Riley's figure moving away from her, weaving among the trees. Her friend moves effortlessly, as if gliding above the ground, unimpeded by the greenery. Alex trips. She catches herself before she tumbles to the ground. For a second it is pitch black. She bends down to look for her phone. It is a glowing outline among the plants. Alex grabs it and gets up. For a moment she’s disoriented, not sure which way she was going. She looks and listens for her friend but sees and hears nothing. She looks back. There’s a bit of light glittering through the trees back where her neighborhood is. She looks forward and yells Riley’s name again, moving her phone trying to catch a glimpse of her friend’s figure. Nothing. Should she go back? Is Riley playing some stupid game? Maybe she is high. Without a second though, Alex continues forward, “Riley, it’s not funny! What the fuck are you doing?” Alex can see pale gray light between the leaves and the branches up ahead. She quickens her pace, almost tripping again. Alex walks into what looks like a small clearing. The trees are further away up ahead, but not much moon-light is coming from up above. She looks up towards the wide canopy, forming a dome overhead. Her eyes suddenly focus on a humanoid shape hanging parallel to the ground from the branches above. Its face is white, torn in two by a wide smile that almost reaches its ears. The top of the head is attached to the neck. Bands of hair suspend it from branches above. Alex freezes. For a second she feels herself cease to exist except for her breath that moves rhythmically in and out. Moments pass. How long, she can’t tell. (Run!), the thought echoes through her head, and she almost moves to obey but stops herself. To run is to turn her back on that thing. What if that’s when it grabs her. She stays still and so does the figure. The thing blinks and its grin becomes wider. It sways back and forth, its prehensile locks making branches creak overhead. Alex’s chest and throat grows hot and and she gathers herself. She throws herself to the side, tripping yet carrying herself forward through the snapping bush branches. With sudden agility, she rights herself and runs back into the woods. Tree trunks fly at her as she runs trying not to trip on the uneven ground. She bursts into another clearing and looks back swinging her phone to light the trees behind her to look if that thing is following her. Then her vision turns off. She feels leaves and dirt against her face, a small pointy stick poking her in her right cheek. There’s a pressure on the side of her head and her hand moves there trying to feel what’s pushing against her. There’s nothing. The side of her head is numb. Memory of where she is and why rushes back into her and she pushes herself up with a jerk. When her vision comes back online she can only see a mosaic of black and gray forms, bushy undergrowth letting in pale light ahead of her. There is a glow coming from her left. She turns and her eyes focus quickly on phone, flashlight still on, its light flooding her vision. Alex grabs it and points it forward then all around, trying to see if she’s alone or if that thing is hiding somewhere near. She doesn’t see anyone. Only trees and quick shadows jumping away from the light as he moves it. She’s in a sort of a clearing again, except for a large tree trunk close to her. Alex reaches for the numb spot on her head and feels that it’s wet and sticky. It’s blood. She must have ran into that tree when she looked back trying to see if that monster followed her. Alex shines the light around her again. No sign of that thing. It could be hiding in the trees just out of sight. Or… her blood runs cold. She slowly looks up, remembering where she saw that thing first. For a second, all she can see is branches and flowing, black vines like spider webs snaking through the canopy, then her eyes discern three small, slender figures hanging like poppets from these “vines”. Children. Two smaller ones and one teenager her size. The teenager, Riley, stares at with a blank expression on her face. Then her body moves, or is moved by the tentacle “vines” holding her up. Hair, Alex realizes. He is held by the hair, not wrapped around her like back in the bedroom before Riley was pulled through the window, but growing into her flesh from behind, like thousands tiny marionette strings bunched up in locks. The hair brings Rile's hand up to her side and waves it back and forth, as if in a mocking greeting gesture. Alex tenses. At any moment, she feels, the figures can leap at her, grab her. But, no, they stay suspended. Then, between them, higher up in the branches the hair moves, like slithering snakes or tentacles moving across each other. A fourth figure is slowly lowering itself from above. The Grin Reaper. Smiling lady with an upside down head. It stops shortly after reaching the same level as the three bodies hanging by its hair. It stares at her, the grin seemingly growing wider and wider without really changing size. “It’s not real?” Alex, whispers to herself. They aren’t moving any closer, neither the woman nor the bodies suspended by her air. Alex’s hand tightens around her phone. (Phone can’t hallucinate) she thinks to herself. Maybe now they will believe her. She aims her phone right at the woman, her figure, looming above her, looks small on the screen. With a practiced gesture her thumb touches the camera button. As the phone snaps the photo, the screen refreshes showing the things face close up, filling the frame of the phone, as if jumping out at Alex. The girl squeaks, dropping the phone. It lands light up, still illuminating the four figures far above her, as if the woman hasn’t moved despite what the photo showed. Slowly, like a coiling snake, a tentacle-like lock of hair moves up in front of the the woman, pointing at Alex like pulled-back tongue. Then, in a flash, it flies toward her her and Alex’s vision goes black. #story #shortstory #creepypasta #horror #fiction #writing #nostr