Alex hated camping. Going out in the wilderness where all kinds of killer animals live did not sound like his idea of fun, his idea was more of a friendly sleepover inside where they were safe behind locked doors and windows.
With my luck, he thought, I’m either going to be eaten alive by a grizzly bear or contract some sort of disease from a mosquito. The only reason that he was going out into the forest in the first place was that his friend Marco, a self-professed nature nut, had bet that they would go on a camping trip if he won the next hand of poker. Sure enough, he won. Alex bristled at that memory and for a split second, he wondered if Marco had cheated, but he shook his head. “How could I think my best friend would cheat at a game to make me miserable?” Alex mumbled under his breath. “What was that, hermit crab?” replied Aurora. “Nothing,” Alex replied, “Nothing you need to worry your makeup over.” Aurora rolled her eyes at his admittedly lame comeback and went back to apply another layer of foundation in an attempt to make her even paler than she already was. Aurora was Marco’s sister who never escaped from her high school goth phase, even all of these years later. Her name was actually Cassie, but she had demanded that everybody should use her “true name” of Aurora. Alex continued to call her Cassie for as long as he could just to get on her nerves, but after a few too many punches in the shoulder from her made him decide that it was probably safer for him if he plays along. “Alright, you two,” Marco replied as he walked out of the gas station, clutching an armful of snacks and adjusting his signature letterman jacket. “You promised to try to get along over this weekend.” “Yeah, yeah.” Aurora responded with another roll of her blue eyes, “As long as we can go back to hating each other afterwards.” “Yeah,” replied Alex, “For once, I agree with her.” Marco sighed and shook his head as he climbed back behind the steering wheel, throwing the bag of goodies in the back seat beside Alex. He couldn’t help but miss the days when he, Alex, and Cassie would be an inseparable trio. But once Cassie started getting into the goth culture and demanding people to call her Aurora, it almost immediately seemed to cause a strong hatred between the two former friends, with Marco being stuck in between them. As he continued to reminisce about those times, Marco turned the key in the car’s ignition and began to drive the last few miles to the campsite that he had rented. The trip there was mostly quiet with Marco having given up on trying to get Alex and Aurora to work things out between them after his previous attempt at reconciliation ended in an explosive argument that made Marco glad that the two were on opposite sides of the car for fear of one strangling the other. After about half an hour of awkward silence, Marco was relieved to see a sign pointing them toward their campsite. “Alright, guys,” Marco said, turning around slightly to look at Alex, “Only a couple more miles and we’ll be at camp-“ “Holy crap! Look out!” yelled Aurora. Marco immediately snapped his eyes back onto the road to see what had caused Aurora’s out-of-character freakout and saw a large black shape in the middle of the road. In a panic, Marco tried to brake, but knowing that it would be too late, he tried to swerve around the thing. Unfortunately, he misjudged how close the side of the road was, and found his car gliding down into a large trench on the side of the road. He felt the front of the car slam into the dirt and stone wall, causing the airbags to inflate and that was the last thing he remembered before he slipped into unconsciousness. -- Groggily, Alex woke up and found himself lying on the back seat floor. At first, he was confused at what happened as he didn’t remember falling asleep, but then he remembered the car crashing and he sat up as fast as he could. “Marco!?” he yelled out to no avail. He sighed and then yelled out, “Cassie!?” He heard a loud grunt come from the front seat and he glanced up to see Aurora attempting to force the airbag away from her face. “For the last time,” she grumbled, “My name is Aurora.” Alex shook his head, even after a near-death experience, her priority was to insist on her name. It was so silly that he almost laughed. But before he could, he realized that the car was missing one person. “Where the hell is Marco?” asked Alex as he glanced at the empty driver’s seat. “How should I know?” Aurora replied, “I regained consciousness a few minutes before you and he was already gone.” “Do you think he went to get help?” Alex asked as he tried to bring himself to a sitting position. “No,” she replied, “If there’s one thing I know about Marco is that he wouldn’t leave us, especially with us both being unconscious.” Alex was about to agree before he yelped in pain. “What’s wrong?” Aurora asked, genuine worry sneaking into her voice. “I think I screwed up my ankle when I fell on it,” Alex replied, “I can’t move it.” “Okay,” Aurora responded softly, “Hold on, I’ll check it out once I get the doors open.” She attempted to open her door but found that it was stuck. “Probably got damaged during the crash,” Aurora muttered. She then tried to force the car door open by slamming her shoulder against it and after a few attempts, she got lucky and the door swung open, accompanied by the sound of metal scraping against metal. She got out of the car and opened the backseat door, which was luckily less damaged than the front. With help from Aurora, Alex limped out of the backseat and onto the dirt ground. As he sat on the ground, Aurora checked his ankle to see it swollen up three times the regular size. “Well, the good news is that it’s just a sprain.” Aurora stated, “But the bad news is that you’re probably not going to be able to walk on it for a few days.” “A few days?” he responded, “How am I going to get out of here if I can’t walk?” Aurora sat beside him and thought for a moment when she had an idea, “You have your cell phone, right? We can call for help!” “Why did I not think of that?” Alex responded with a light laugh as he checked his pants pockets for his phone. A few seconds later, he found his phone but the screen was completely cracked and wouldn’t respond to Alex’s attempts to unlock it. “Crap, I must have landed on it during the crash.” Alex said, “I guess this is what I get for not following Marco’s advice and getting a case for my phone.” Aurora couldn’t help but laugh at that, even if she knew that he was just trying to lighten the mood. “Hey,” Alex said, as he suddenly sat up, “What about your phone?” “I-“ Aurora stuttered, “I don’t have one.” Alex gave her a confused look, “I thought everyone had a cell phone these days.” “Yeah, well...” started Aurora, “I didn’t want the government and tech companies to know my location 24/7, y’know.” Alex burst out laughing, “That sounds more like something I’d say.” “Oh god, you must be rubbing off on me,” Aurora said with a playful smirk before joining Alex in laughing. “What are we going to do then?” Alex asked as the laughter subsided, “There’s no way we can just wait here in hopes that someone will drive down the same road and see us.” They both sat there for a few moments, trying to think of some way to get a person’s attention. At first, Aurora was going to recommend trying to climb out of the trench, but she quickly shut that idea down as there was no way that Alex would be able to get far with his ankle. Then an idea dawned on her. “I think Marco packed an emergency flare in with the camping gear.” She told Alex as she stood up. “I’m going to go check.” “Good idea!” replied Alex, “I’ll be here when you get back.” Aurora rolled her eyes and chuckled as she walked a few feet away to the wrecked car to look through the equipment in the trunk. She was looking past the tents and found a Swiss army knife, a map, and she had just grabbed a flashlight when she heard a scream from behind her. She turned around to see the same big creature they had almost run over previously, quickly dragging Alex towards what looked like a cave entrance in the dirt walls. In a panic, Aurora grabbed the Swiss army knife & flashlight and tried to run after the thing. But whatever this thing was, it was faster than she had expected. She couldn’t keep up with it, even as it dragged a grown man along with it. As she entered the cave, she turned her flashlight on and moved it around; trying to figure out which tunnel the monster took Alex. As she looked around, she couldn’t help but feel unsettled by the walls of the cave. They looked almost like human flesh and she could almost swear that she heard the walls breathing, but quickly shook that idea out of her head as that was too insane. “As if this whole situation wasn’t already insane,” Aurora muttered as she continued to check the tunnels for her missing friend. Finally, after what felt like hours, she found Alex. He seemed to be hovering in thin air, but the closer she got to him, she realized that he was trapped up high on what looked like a gigantic spider’s web. “Alex!” yelled Aurora, “Are you okay?” “I... I don’t know.” Alex stammered, “I’m alive, at least.” “Hold on,” she replied, “I’m going to get you down from there.” She then pulled out the knife from the Swiss army knife and tried to cut apart the parts of the web securing it to the cave’s walls. As she was going about doing that, she heard what sounded like scuttling come from behind her. She stopped her cutting and looked around behind her with the flashlight but found nothing. “Cass- Aurora,” Alex said as he quickly corrected himself, “I’m sorry for being so mean to you. I guess I was hoping that if I was mean to you, you’d get out of the whole goth thing. Please leave me here and get out of here for your own sake.” “Stop talking like that!” yelled Aurora, “I’m going to get you down and we are both getting out of this together.” But as soon as she finished yelling, she heard the scuttling behind her again, but even closer this time. She swung around with her flashlight and was relieved when she saw Marco’s letterman jacket in the flashlight’s beam. “Oh, thank god, you’re okay, Marco.” Aurora said, “Help me get Alex down and we can all get out of here...” Her words quickly left her as the beam of light expanded to show that it was Marco, or at least, his torso. But from the sockets where his arms and legs would normally be instead contained several elongated spider-like legs and his head more resembled a giant ant than anything remotely human. She screamed and just stood there, frozen in fear. Meanwhile, the spider-Marco continued on its way as if it didn’t see or hear Aurora at all and began climbing up the web toward where Alex was trapped. She was snapped out of her stupor by Alex’s screaming as the spider-Marco got closer to him, but all she could do was watch as it walked over him until it was standing above Alex. She watched as the monster’s head split open, covering Alex’s head between the pieces of its divided head, and then abruptly slammed its head closed onto Alex’s head with an ear-piercing snap as blood sprayed everywhere. As she felt Alex’s hot blood cover her, Aurora knew she had to get the hell out of there. She turned and ran as fast as she could. She could hear what sounded like several of those things scuttling behind her as they tried to stop her from escaping, but she refused to turn to look, knowing that it would just slow her down. She continued to run until she was outside of the cave, back under the sky. Swiftly, she sprinted towards the car and climbed into the backseat and locked all of the car doors. As she sat there, she felt the adrenaline leave her as she broke down sobbing. Not only did she lose her brother, but possibly the only real friend that she had. She didn’t know how long she sat there, keeping a watch through teary eyes for any more of those spider monsters to come crawling out of the cave. Thankfully, they seemed to have lost interest in her and eventually, she passed out as the exhaustion of the day overtook her. -- She was awakened by a loud banging on the car door, she was almost too afraid to look in fear of it being one of those spider monsters trying to get inside. But as she looked, she saw the concerned face of a firefighter mouthing if she was okay. She carefully sat up and unlocked the car door as the firefighter helped her into an ambulance’s stretcher. “Ma’am, are you okay?” asked the firefighter as the medics checked her over, “Was there anyone else in the car with you?” “Yes, two other people” Aurora pointed towards the monster’s cave, “They were taken by a large monster to that cave.” Both the firefighter and medics turned to look in the direction that she was pointing towards, but there was no cave or tunnel anywhere on the trench’s walls. “Ma’am, are you okay?” repeated the firefighter as he looked worriedly toward Aurora. “No, there was a cave there and there were giant spiders that killed my brother and friend and...” She replied in a frenzy as she felt tears forming in her eyes again. “She must be in shock, sir.” One of the medics responded, “We’ll take her to the hospital.” “No, I’m not in shock!” yelled Aurora, “I didn’t imagine it! They must still be in there!” But even as she continued to insist, they just put the stretcher she was on into the back of the ambulance. After a few attempts from Aurora to jump out of the moving ambulance, they injected her with a sedative. As she felt the sedative take hold, she slowly lapsed back into sleep as she heard nothing but the ambulance’s sirens. Even after months of searching, they never did find Marco or Alex. When she was eventually let out of the hospital, she went back down the trench where they had crashed, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find any semblance of the cave. But to this day, she insists that it did happen and that on some nights, she swears that she can still hear the spider monsters scuttling around her house, waiting for another opportunity to catch her.
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After working hard at the local grocery store and hearing my boss complain about how I didn't stock the shelves the right way for the fifteenth time. I was ready to come back to my house to turn on the television set and watch the 5 o'clock news and have that old fuck sitting beside a beautiful woman telling me about a catastrophe happening in some third world country halfway across the globe.
Once I opened the front door to my apartment complex, I walked slowly up the several flights of stairs leading to the door to the only place I have ever considered home. Ignoring the sounds of the couple in 308 arguing and the loud smack coming from behind that door, I pulled the key out of the pockets of my black jeans and quietly opened the door to my apartment and shut it just as quietly. Putting the chain through the lock on the top of the door and after hearing the click of the second lock, I threw my set of keys into the small clay bowl on the desk beside the door. I then stretched my arms, since riding my bike always seemed to make my arms tense up. One of the few positives of getting older, your body actively tries to kill you. As my mind filled with that happy thought, I lied down on the dark green couch in a room that was almost too small for the couch and the small television set in front of it. I turned the TV on and lo and behold; there were the two chatting about some explosion in Cairo. After listening to them chatter on about the "horrific event," my eyes began to close by themselves, and I soon found myself asleep, curled up on the two-seated couch. About two hours later, I was jolted awake from my sleep by some ear-piercing sound emanating from outside. Jerking myself up from the couch, I pulled back the curtains, expecting to see some teenagers breaking into one of the cars parked in the lot beside the complex, only to see nothing. All the cars seemed fine, but the noise remained. It took me a few moments to suddenly look down at the lawn to see a small dog yelping away. I stared at it for awhile, stunned that such an abrasive sound could come from such a small lump of fur. Two minutes went by, and I suddenly noticed a door for the house next to the opening and out stepped a young girl, possibly in her 20s, looking at the dog. She stood on the patio and patted her knee and yelled something I couldn't hear properly, whatever it was made the dog turn around and rushed to the house. She petted the dog and walked inside with the small thing happily following behind her. Still annoyed by the sound having awakened me, I glanced down my watch and noticed it was about the time for that show that my coworker refused to stop yammering about every new episode. I figured that since I was up, I might as well switch to that channel and give it a try, so I could have something to add to the conversation other than just being a machine nodding and muttering 'mmhmm' every few minutes. After turning on the program though, it was only ten minutes before I gave up on this stupid show and I turned off the television and laid back down on the couch to try to sleep once more. I was just about to get to sleep when I heard the yelping again. Growling in anger, I moved myself up from the couch to look out the window to see a light on in the house with a small bit of fur continuing to bark and I'm not sure if I just stayed there at the window, but I do remember not sleeping at all that night. The next day at work, it was the same exact thing as usual, other than my sleepless brain making it harder to focus. The day was full of stocking the shelves, getting yelled at the boss again, and hearing my co-worker gabbing about how she couldn't believe that the main character in the show picked the zombie instead of the vampire to take to prom. I thought that no way working at the cash could be worse, I was just proven wrong. Thankfully, the day went by fast, and as I was riding my bike back home, I realized that I had just passed by the house of the yipping dog. I suddenly turned my bike around and rode back to the house with plans to give the owner a piece of my mind. I angrily approached the door and began pounding on it, not expecting it to suddenly open with the 20-year-old woman that I had seen last night. I quickly put my fist down as I realized that I still had it up. "Um, hello?" she said meekly, "Can I help you with something?" For a brief second, I was unsure of why, but my brain quickly cleared of anger. "Are you the owner of that dog that was barking away last night?" "Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" she said as her tanned face turned bright pink, "I didn't hear Paddles at first, I'm a deep sleeper, and I was exhausted after classes. I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Classes? So, she must be a college student. Huh, didn't think a college student would want to live this far away from the local college. Focusing once again on what I had come here to talk about, I didn't know why it was so hard for me to focus around her. "It's fine," I accepted her apology. "But please make sure that it doesn't do it again, it kept me up all night." "Yes, of course, Mr..." she paused, looking at me and it was at that moment that I hadn't introduced myself. "Maloy, Edward Maloy" I replied to her confusion. "Mr. Maloy," she repeated my name and smiled as if she liked the sound of it. "My name is Rebecca Sufton." Quietly groaning under my breath, I knew this usually meant that I would have to be a part of some conversation, the same way that my co-worker roped me into hearing her Zombie High recaps. But I decided to play along regardless. "Nice to meet you, Rebecca," I replied with a forced smile on my face and tried to walk away subtly. She nodded, "Nice to meet you too, Edward." I now wish I didn't call her by her first name; I didn't want to be on a first name basis with the 'heavy sleeper dog owner.' Her voice shook me out of my complaining thoughts though. "Well, um... I should probably get back to studying," she replied with a tone that sounded like she wanted to get away as much as I did. "Oh, of course," I responded, thankful that she came out with an excuse for me to escape. "Thank you for understanding about your dog." "No problem, Edward," she said with a smile as she started to close the door. "Paddles probably won't be barking anymore; she just wasn't used to the new place yet." I nodded my head as if I understood why the dog would have problems; it was just a dog anyway. As soon as she closed the door, I hopped onto my bike and rode it back to the complex. The rest of the day went on as normal with the news about some new incident that people were taking credit for and I soon fell asleep. A few hours later, I woke up again by the same sound from last night. The yelping. Well, it's like the old saying; if you want something done well, do it yourself. I spent a few hours just sitting on the couch with a scrap piece of paper and a pen, attempting to figure out the right way to get rid of this dog, all while trying to ignore its infernal barking. Finally, I had a complete plan, all I had left to do was to wait for the perfect moment. I stood beside my window, staring through the white, almost transparent curtains at that house with only the sound of the morning news to keep myself company. After what felt like days went by, I saw the door open and watched as Rebecca walked out, stopping only to bend down and pet that piece of fur. She then walked away, most likely heading to her class, and after waiting for an hour more to make sure that she wouldn't be coming back, I put my plan into action. I grabbed a pepperoni stick that I had bought at a gas station and placed it onto the hot plate in my make-shift kitchen, which was basically two TV trays. After waiting for a few minutes, I slipped on my oven mitt and picked up the pepperoni stick, slowly carrying it down the stairs, making sure to cover the smell, so to avoid any other dogs' attention. Opening the front door, I noticed a beer bottle lying on the ground; I thanked random choice as I grabbed the perfect weapon off the ground. Carrying the meat in one hand and the beer bottle in the other, I walked towards Rebecca's house. The closer I approached the house, so began the infernal yapping. I tensed my shoulders to try to make sure that I was going as slow as I possibly could and approached the door. Ignoring the barking, I placed the pepperoni stick onto the porch and waited as I heard the dog stop its yelping and then beginning to make what sounded like sniffing noises. As I hear the pattering of the dog approach the door, I tested the doorknob in the hope that she didn't lock it. Thankfully, she must have been late for class because she left the door perfectly unlocked. I was enjoying my luckiness when I was suddenly shaken out of it by the barking and scratching coming from behind the door. Smiling, I placed the stick on the ground and moved on the side of the porch to slowly open the door. As soon as the door opened, the small dog padded outside and grabbed the meat in its tiny, tooth-filled jaw. Once the thing was fully outside, I quickly closed and grabbed the dog with my other hand, holding inside my arm, the same way that a football player would carry a ball. As if it knew what was going on, it opened its mouth, dropping the pepperoni and began to howl. Infuriated at the sound, I gripped harder on the beer bottle and smashed it against the doorway. Thankfully, it split apart in one smash, and no one could possibly hear the sound over the dog’s yelping. Taking the shattered bottle, I plunged it into the dog's body, marvelling at how this small thing could make such a racket. It made one last whimper as blood started gushing out of the wound, covering the hole as best I could with my hand, I carried it up through the front door, up the stairs and through my door to then throw the body onto one of the trays. After a few hours of sitting on my couch, staring at the subtly decomposing body of the dog I hated and occasionally glancing through the window to look across the street, waiting for my neighbour to come back. Finally, after what felt like forever, she finally appeared on her doorstep and began to place a key into her keyhole when she suddenly froze. I couldn't help but smile as she slowly moved her head around, having her brain processing the blood and broken glass on her doorstep. Even from up here, I could hear a light scream carry over the wind as she hurriedly rushed inside of her house, yelling what I presume to be her dog's name. Feeling weirdly pleased with my accomplishment, I turned on the television to watch the latest "news report," while occasionally glancing over at my prize of a dead pooch. Whether it was because of relief of not having that loud, obnoxious barking anymore or because the adrenaline from my kill disappearing, I fell asleep, only to be rudely awakened by the bright red and blue lights of a cop car. Jumping to my feet, I slowly pulled the curtain to the side to see a man in a police uniform talking to my neighbour. A brief moment of dread passed over me as I began to wonder if I had somehow left any evidence pointing towards me. But nothing appeared to happen, the cop just scribbled some stuff on his notepad and shook his head as he placed his hand on her shoulder. He then got into his car and drove away, turning the lights off as he reached the corner. I slowly peeled myself away from the window to lie back down on the couch and let loose a large laugh. Not a big, maniacal laugh or anything like from a crazy man, but one you would hear from someone enjoying their favourite comedy. Once I was able to stop myself from laughing, my curiosity began to get the better of myself. What did she say to the officer? Does she know who did it? Even though I tried to fight back my morbid curiosity, it won out, and I began walking down the steps to talk to Rebecca. As I approached her door, the more I began to doubt whether this was a good plan or not. But before I could back out, I noticed my fist raising up to bang on the wooden door and knew it was too late to stop my curiosity. As soon as I finished knocking, she opened the door, almost as if she was expecting someone. "Oh!" she said in surprise, her eyes still filled with tears daring to fall. "What are you doing here, Edward?" "Well, I could see the flashing lights from my apartment, and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay," I replied quietly, obviously lying because even if I didn't do it, I could still tell from the unspilled tears. She smiled, a weird match with the tears and running mascara. "That's sweet of you, Ed." As quickly as it came, her smile disappeared. "But everything's not okay..." "Oh no, what happened?" I said, trying my damnedest to hide a smirk. "I-I believe someone killed my poor Paddles," she said as she began to sob. "Oh, that's horrible!" I said in faked horror, "Do you know who did it?" She looked back up with tears now streaming down her small face, "Well, don't tell her, but I think it was Mrs. Ratherton. She always hated my dear Paddles." Hearing that, I could no longer hide my smirk. Thankfully, Rebecca had her head down as she sobbed, so she didn't see me again until I regained my composure. "Don't worry, Rebecca. I won't tell anyone, but are you sure Puddles didn't just run away?" Looking back up at me with an indignant stare, "It's Paddles. And no, she would never run away from me; she's a good girl." Feeling a bit of disdain for myself for forgetting the name of the one I killed wrong, I then apologized. "I'm sorry, Rebecca. I hope everything works out in the end." "Thanks, Ed," she said as she closed the door in my face. I smiled as I knew that I had gotten away with it. But then I began to wonder; if I could get away with that, what else could I get away with? As I slowly approached my apartment building, a macabre plan began to form in my mind. After getting back inside my apartment, my plan was then put into action as I grabbed the butcher knife that my mother bought for me, just in case I ever needed to cut a raw steak or in this case, a small dog. After the job was finished, I placed the knife down as I briefly marvelled at the creation in front of me. What was once whole was now in many parts, covering one of my trays. As blood began to drip slowly off the tray, I grabbed the next part of the plan; a large cardboard box that I kept over from moving. I began to slowly move the parts into the box, initially attempting to place it, so that it looked like it was all together, but as the parts slid apart with a moist sound, I realized that there was no chance of that happening. Once they were all in there, I taped the box together and wrote the address for my neighbour on it with a black sharpie. Then the next phase of action was just to wait simply. I laid down on my couch and fell asleep as the smell of fresh blood reached my nostrils. I woke up to my phone's alarm going off to let me know that it was time to go to work, after having a quick shower obviously. Work was just as stupid as usual, spending most of my time, checking out mothers trying to use expired coupons and my co-worker recap yet another episode of Zombie High. But this time, I didn't mind, because unlike usual, I had something important to come back to doing. By the time I got back to my place, it was dark with the streets illuminated only by the streetlights’ glow. At first, I was afraid that I was too late, and that Rebecca would be back from her classes already, but thankfully, the lights were still turned off. I quickly rushed up the stairs, unlocked my door, grabbing the box and running back to place it on the path leading up to her door. Then just as quickly, I went back to my place and closed the door before those nosy neighboring apartment-dwellers got intrigued by what was going on. Throwing my key into the clay pot, I then sat down on the couch, turning on the TV on low enough volume that I could still hear the outside. After what felt like forever, but most likely, was only an hour, she came home. She cocked her head to the right as in confusion once she noticed the box but took it inside anyway. Unlike last time, I could hear that beautiful scream all the way from down below. A few days went by with nothing else happening to the point of boredom. At first, I planned to stop by Rebecca's place, but I figured it would be too suspicious and beat back my curiosity. Then on the weekend, there was suddenly a loud pounding on my door. Hearing the pounding, I approached it and unlocked the two locks and opened the door to see Rebecca standing there. "Oh, hello there, Rebecca." I said, trying to let my surprise not appear in my voice, "What can I do for you?" "Don't you hello me, Edward!" she yelled with unbridled rage in her voice, "I know what you did." After being stunned for a few moments, I then tried to reply casually. "Uh... What are you talking about?" "I know you're the one who's been leaving parts of Paddles." Rebecca answered, "Ms. Ratherton saw you drop the box off from her window." Crap. I was so preoccupied with making sure that Rebecca wasn't home, that I had completely forgotten that she also had neighbours. But I wasn't about to go down that quickly. "How do you know it was me?" I replied with a slight bit of nervousness accidentally appearing in my voice. "It's not exactly hard to figure out that it's you from your distinctive limp and the glare on your glasses from a streetlight," she responded, crossing her arms. "I'm going to the police." "Wait-" Before I could say any more, she had already turned around and started running towards the stairs. This couldn’t possibly be happening. I wasn't going to go to jail all because of some pathetic dog and its idiotic owner. I quickly ran after her, rushing down the stairs two steps at a time. By the time that I had gotten to the start of the third flight, I saw Rebecca standing there, holding her cell phone up to her ear. As fast as I could, I ran up behind her and wrapped my arm around her neck. She was still trying to talk on the phone, but luckily, her voice was quickly getting more and raspier. I could feel the pulse in her neck slow down as she tried to elbow me and kick me with her black boots. Before she was able to do much harm to me though, she had collapsed onto the black metal ground, dropping her phone on the floor. After making sure that she was unconscious, I put one arm under her head and one under her knees and hurriedly carried her back up the stairs before any more neighbours catch sight of me. Fortunately, no one came out of their apartment to see what caused the noise, so I was able to carry her all the way into my home without anyone seeing. With her in my arms, I carried her bridal-style past the doorway, kicking the door shut as we went past and brought into the bedroom that I hadn't used in all the years I lived here. Placing her on my bed, I suddenly had an idea on how to make sure she wouldn't be able to escape before I was able to finish what I wanted to do with her. I started quickly pulling her clothes off, even while I was rushing to get everything off before she woke up, I couldn't help but realize that she was a rather attractive specimen. Her skinny stomach had a four-pack and her breasts, while small, were still perky and beautiful. Shaking my head to clear my mind and focus on the task at hand, I finished with her clothes and rooted through my drawer until I found a roll of vinyl tape. Promptly, I started wrapping the tape around her and the frame of the bed to make sure that she was attached to it and was not going anywhere. Just as soon as I finished applying the last piece covering her, she started to move her head around, trying to figure out where she was and what was going on. I watched her move around until her eyes locked onto me standing there beside her. "What the fuck? Where am I?" she said, trying to sound as angry as her grogginess would let her. Her voice quickly changed to fear as she looked down and realized that she was completely naked with only transparent tape covering her. "What- What are you going to do to me?" I couldn't help but chuckle as I knew exactly what she was thinking. "Relax Rebecca. I'm not interested in forcing myself on you; I have no interest in such a thing." Even with the fear in her eyes, she seemed confused; I decided to explain myself. "You see, if you try to escape without anything covering you, it will cause you so much more pain than if you were clothed." She shivered at my words, but still trying to appear strong; she decided to ask the fated question. "Then- then what are you going to do to me?" "Well, you see, Becca." I answered as a grin started to appear on my face, "I don't want to go to jail, so I can't let you go to the police." "Wa- Wait!" she responded quickly before I could finish explaining, "Let's make a deal, I won't go to the police, and I'll never come near you again, and we can just go on with our lives." I tilted my head, almost thinking of taking her deal until I realized one massive fault with it. "Well, that won't work, Becca. Obviously, if I let you go, you could go back on your word and talk to the police anyway, and I would be sent to the slammer just for your stupid bitch." I spat that last word as if it was poison; she winced as my spit hit her face. "So, there's only one way that I can get away with it." I slowly left the room to grab something from my makeshift kitchen, I could hear her struggling to escape, and even though I had what I came for, I couldn't help, but stand there and listen to her struggling. In some weird way, it was rather addicting to imagine her trying to escape from her tape prison without ripping her skin off. After listening for a few minutes, I slowly began walking back towards the bedroom. As she saw me in the doorway, I watched her get more erratic with her movements as she tried ever harder to escape from her constraints. Part of me just wanted to watch and see if she would be able to get out, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get her again. I continued walking towards her as she looked down to see the large butcher knife, still dripping with her dog's blood, which I was holding in my right hand. "Wait, please no." she started begging, "Please, I'll do whatever you want, but please-" If there was one sound that I hated most of it all, it was the sound of whining. "Shut up!" I snapped, "I don't know if you're aware, but you're not in the right position to be in power." I brought the blade down to her left foot, and slowly, as she started whimpering and begging as tears rolled down her face, I brought it up to her chest. "You have no power, only I do!" I exclaimed with a large smile, almost feeling like my lips had stretched impossibly long and reached to the sides of my ears. Enjoying the feeling of power that I had over a fellow human, I reached the knife back, holding it right beside my ear and plunged it deep into her heart. As I did so, her body began convulsing, as much as it could while being contained and blood began flowing out of the wound, beginning to cover the bed frame and floor underneath in crimson red. Enjoying the sight, I brought the knife down several more times until her body completely stopped moved and I couldn't see her beautiful chest moving up and down. As her body lied there, I was able to get a much better look at it than I could before, it was a gorgeous body. It was a shame that it had to have ended up like this. Then something in my brain clicked as it suddenly dawned me that it would be a waste to chop this body up so soon. I began to unzip my pants and was in the process of pulling them off my legs when I heard yet another pounding at the door. I rushed towards the door and peered through the peephole to see two police officers standing there. I opened the door, making sure to stand in the doorway. "Uh, hello officers," I said, trying to make sure that I didn't sound suspicious in any way. "What can I do for you?" "Supposedly, a Rebecca Sufter was here and was on the phone with her friend," started the female cop as she started flipping through her notes. "Anna Stackhouse. After Ms. Sufton saw you and Ms. Stackhouse said that she heard a struggle." I swallowed quickly, in a rush to get her upstairs, I had completely forgotten that she was on the phone when I found her. "Um, sorry officers," I quickly came with a lie. "I haven't seen anyone all day, it's my day off, so I was just resting and watching television." It appeared that they believed it until a poodle wandered out of the 308 apartment into the hallway and started barking with an old, balding man following behind it. "Oh good, officers." he started saying as he slowly leaned down to pick up the runaway poodle. He spoke in such a halting way; it was if he was afraid that if he talked too fast, he would have a heart attack. "You finally showed up for my noise complaint." "Noise complaint?" the male officer turned to look at the old man, "We didn't hear anything about a noise complaint." "Well, I filed one." Mr. 308 replied grumpily, "It was hard to hear the game between my wife's cries and the screaming coming from there." As he finished the sentence, he pointed towards my home. Both of the officers turned back to face me; the female officer was the first to speak. "Excuse me, sir. Would you mind if my partner and I examine your place of residence?" "Um..." I replied, trying to think of some excuse. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. "It's... um... very messy in here and..." Before I could come up with anything, they already pushed past me and already started searching through everything. One of the nice things about owning a small place is that you can find things quickly, it's not so nice if you're the one trying to find things. I stood there, dumbfounded and unsure if I could figure out a way to get out of here quick. But it turned out that I had run out of luck as the male officer walked into the bedroom, I tried to back slowly towards the front door, but before I could run, he ran out of the room and grabbed my arms. "Mr. Edward Maloy, you have the right to remain silent..." as he continued with his spiel, he gestured his head towards the room, and his partner walked into and came out, looking completely shaken up. I felt him place handcuffs on my wrist, as soon as I heard the click, I knew that was it. But I wasn't done yet. As he attempted to place the handcuff on my other wrist, I took my chance and was able to shake my hands out of his grasp and started rushing towards his female partner. Within a few seconds, she had pulled out her gun and pulled the trigger, point blank, into my head. I fell on the ground, and I could feel blood and what felt like brain matter escaping from the wound, but through all the pain, I couldn't help but smile. I wasn't going to jail. I used to suffer from schizophrenia, now before you all start thinking that I'm some sort of seed of evil, who is ready to whisk your child away and mail you parts of their body to you. I'm not that kind of crazy.
Sure, sometimes I hear voices and see things that no one else has the ability to gather with their senses. But unluckily, I do. At nights especially. You ever hear those stories about a person being caught sneaking around a stranger's night and how terrifying that sounds. Good, now imagine that every night with a new person and voice, so it's impossible to predict what's going to happen. Or how about blaring music to ignore the voices echoing through your head, wishing you dead or at least, threatening to take control of your body to maim you. Only for the music to end and you hear someone whispering your name into your ear, just for a second until the next track to play, but long enough for you to wonder if that actually happened or not. But guess what. I figured out a cure for schizophrenia, or psychosis, as those quacks love to refer to it as. You don't have to worry about seeing or hearing anything if you don't have those senses anymore. Now all you need to do to solve this problem is to grab the largest knife and the sharpest knife out of the drawer, probably the ones you use to cut up those vegetables that you never eat. Have you found it? Good. Now take the sharp blade part of it and place it into your ear, pointed right towards your ear canal. Then when you're ready, push with all of your might and you're done! Sure, this may cause massive pain and may involve the blade getting stuck, but after a few quick shakes, I'm sure it'll be loose enough for you to pull it out. Fine, it will also be quite bloody, but just pretend those beads of blood pouring out of your ear are sweat and move on to the next step. Now grab the nearest paper towel or tissue to wipe the blood, earwax, and possible brain matter off of your knife. The last thing you want is an ear infection. Then do the same thing with your other ear. Now, this is going to be a bit more difficult than the last one because with one of your ears dead, your sense of balance is going to be thrown off for the foreseeable future. Have you done all that and not passed out from blood loss yet? Great! Now throw that knife away and grab that sharp knife I recommended you to get at the beginning. Do you have it in your hand? Alright, two quick recommendations before you continue - if you have glasses, you probably should take those off and make sure to finish reading the rest of the instructions before starting. Take that new knife and point it towards your eyeball and quickly, before the warning bells in your brain go off, thrust that knife into it. And keep going until you can feel the tip of the blade scraping against the back of your eye. Now I seriously recommend you do this AFTER your ears because you won't have to worry about hearing that hideous squelching sound coming from your eye socket. Then just like last time, wipe off the knife, as best as you can with one eye anyway. And into the other eye, it goes! Now if you've done this completely right, you should no longer be able to hear those voices or see those people any longer. Congratulations! You're fixed! Now that you no longer have to worry about seeing or hearing those people, then there's one final step. Accept your fate. THIS WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON HORROR ADDICTS
Late one night, I was talking to Bryan, my boyfriend, over the phone. We were just talking about the typical things that we’d talk about, like the movie that we had gone to see in the theatre and when we would be able to see each other again. Continuing my habit of walking back and forth as I talked on the phone, I was next to one of the vents that led to the basement and as I stood there for a second, I heard a sound coming from down there. Something that sounded like a ton of items had just been thrown on the ground. I leaped back, making sure to keep the vent and myself far away from each other. “What the fuck was that?” I yelled, completely shaken and almost leaped out of my skin when I heard a voice coming from beside me as I had almost forgotten that I was still holding the phone to my ear. “What was what?” asked Bryan worriedly, as he had no clue what was going on since he was not able to hear the noise that came from the vent. After composing myself for a second, I explained to him what had just happened. He was extremely worried about what could have made the sound, but that worry quickly changed to anger after I told him that I was going to head downstairs to find out what caused it. “What? Are you crazy?” he yelled, “You don’t know what’s down there, it could be anything!” Even though I knew he was right, I needed to see what was going on, to satisfy my curiosity and to make it easier to sleep at night. “I’m not crazy,” I told him, “I just need to know what’s down there, besides it’s probably just the wind.” Bryan sighed, he knew that when I was like this, there’s no talking me out of it, I’ll do it no matter what. “Fine, but please just be careful.” “Of course, I’ll be careful.” I replied, “When am I not careful?” I heard him mutter something, probably some sort of snarky comment, but by that time, I had already put the phone and began to head towards the basement door. Once I got to the door, I unlocked it and opened the door as I turned the light on. At first, everything seemed completely normal and I was about to completely close the door when my eyes caught the shadow of something zip along the wall. I quickly opened the door, when I saw what looked like a humanoid figure standing at the bottom of the stairs, seemingly staring at one of the steps. It moved its head up and when it noticed me, it started charging up the stairs, running so fast that it looked like it was gliding. I stood at the top of the stairs with the door in hand, completely shocked at what was happening. Unsure of what to do, I waited until it made it to the final step and then I grabbed the thing’s neck and I began squeezing. The thing began flailing its arms and moving its head around to escape from my grasp, but I continued choking it until I heard a loud ‘crack’ come from it and I felt it go limp in my hands. I stared at the body in my hands for a few seconds and I laid the body on the ground. I ran over to the phone that Bryan was still on, unsure of what I was going to do now. -- I was sitting on my bed, staring at the window while I waited for David to get back on the line to tell me that everything was alright. I had almost convinced myself to drive over to his house when I heard deep breathing come from over the phone. “David? Is that you?” I answered, “Are you okay?” “No, no, I’m not.” came the shaken reply, “I-I think I just killed someone.” “What?” I yelled, “Are you serious? Cause if this is one of your jokes, it isn’t funny!” “I’m not joking, I swear!” he said, sounding like he was on the brink of tears, “I killed someone in self-defense and the body is-“ “David?” I yelled into the receiver, “David, what’s going on?” “OH MY GOD!” David yelled over the phone, “THE BODY – IT’S GETTING BACK UP! BRYAN, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO-“ Suddenly, there were screams and growls coming from the phone and then everything went silent. “David! David!” I screamed, “Speak to me? Are you okay?” I was about to call the police when I heard a click, like someone picking up the phone. “David? Are you okay?” I heard heavy breathing come from over the phone and after what felt like a year, I got a reply. “Yes, he’s okay.” came what sounded like several voices all growling together, “In fact, he’s better than okay, he’s delicious.” THIS STORY WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON CREEPYPASTA
The phone rang. Phoebe looked at Heather confused, “Um, are you going to answer that?” “Nah, don’t bother.” responded Heather, “It’s just going to be that annoying creep again.” “Huh?” asked Phoebe, even more confused, “What creep?” “Wait, I never told you about this guy?” She noticed the blank look on her friend’s face, which basically answered her question, “It’s just this guy who somehow got my number and has been leaving messages of him breathing heavily.” “Oh my god!” exclaimed Phoebe, clearly startled, “Are you okay?” “Yeah, I’m fine. No need to worry about it, I’m sure he’ll stop calling eventually.” Phoebe was about to continue the conversation, when the phone suddenly started ringing again. Heather’s only response was to sigh, but Phoebe grumpily began walking towards the phone. “What are you doing?” yelled Heather, nervously. “I’m going to stop this creep from calling you.” “Don’t-“ started Heather, but Phoebe had already picked up the phone. “What do you want?” she yelled into the phone. “Who’s this?” a raspy voice responded from over the phone. “I’m Heather’s friend and I want you to stop calling her!” “Oh, you’re her friend,” said the voice, “then I’ll certainly stop calling then.” After that sentence was spoken, there was manic laughter over the phone. “Tell you what. If you open the front door, I’ll never call again.” “Fine.” Phoebe stated as she slammed the phone down and she started walking toward the door. Heather realized what Phoebe was doing and began to protest, “No please, don’t open the door!” Phoebe rolled her eyes, “Chill, it’s not like he’s going to be there.” She opened the door and revealed the completely empty porch. “See. I told you that there would be no one here.” She closed the door and locked it. “Now that pervert won’t call-“ Before she could finish, a man leaped out from inside the closet beside the door and plunged a knife deep into her chest. Blood started flowing from where she had been stabbed; Heather started screaming and began running upstairs while she heard the sound of footsteps coming quickly behind her. Then everything went black. Anne threw the remote over to the couch after pressing the power button and tried to ignore the glare that her best friend was giving her. “Dude, why did you turn off the movie?” asked Chloe, “We were just getting to the best part.” “Because these movies are so stupid.” Anne said as she rolled her eyes, “I mean, seriously, would you go and actually open the door?” “Well, no.” Chloe admitted, “But if they didn’t do that, then this awesome movie would exist.” “You and I have very different ideas of what’s awesome.” She started to get up to go to the kitchen when she realized that Chloe was still sitting on the couch, pouting. “Tell you what,” she sighed, “How about we get some snacks and then we can continue watching the rest of your silly movie.” Chloe visibly perked up, “Alright, let’s see what we can get find.” She stood up and they both walked into the kitchen. Anne decided to have what she insists as the ‘real movie experience’, grabbing a bag of popcorn and threw it in the microwave. As she waited for it to finish and for Chloe to finish scrounging around for something to eat, she decided to continue the conversation that they were having before. “I honestly have no clue why you like these kinds of movie,” she said as she pointed at the cover of the movie that they were watching, “they’re either about some psycho stabbing teenagers or some demented doll forcing people to cut off their limbs.” “Well, sure, some of these movies are total garbage, but that’s just like any genre.” Chloe responded, “If you dig enough, you’ll find those masterpieces that will scare the crap out of you.” Almost as if to prove her point, she grabbed a bag of pretzels that she had found in the back of the cupboards. Anne shrugged, “I guess they just aren’t my cup of tea.” The microwave decided to pick that moment to beep, which made the both of them jump. Anne grabbed the bag out of the microwave and poured its contents into a bowl, contented with the smell of buttery popcorn, she began to head out of the kitchen along with Chloe. Chloe continued to walk a few steps, but quickly realized that Anne was no longer beside her. She turned around to find Anne standing in the doorway of the now-darkened kitchen. “Hey Anne, everything okay?” asked Chloe, worried about her friend. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She replied, “I just thought that I heard something.” Chloe started laughing, “Wait a minute, Anne Douglass, are you trying to scare me?” “No, I’m not.” She said gravelly, “I swear I heard something.” “Must have been the wind,” Chloe shrugged, “or maybe that movie did actually scare you.” “That movie scare me?” Anne said defiantly, trying to pretend that she didn’t see the smirk on her friend’s face, “No way something like that would ever scare me.” “Well, let’s get back to the movie that totally isn’t scaring you.” She replied with a joking tone in her voice. Chloe had started to turn back around toward the living room when she saw what looked like a black glove wrap around Anne’s ankle. Before she could yell to warn her, Anne was yanked backwards into the kitchen, making the bowl fly out of her hand and spill the popcorn everywhere. Anne started screaming and tried to get a hold on something, but all that she ended up doing was leaving nail marks on the wooden floor. Chloe ran up the stairs and into her bedroom, locking the door behind her. She sat on her bed, terrified and unsure of what to do next. Her cell was still downstairs and there was no phone upstairs, so she had no way to call the police. She was trying to keep her thoughts focused on surviving instead of panicking, when she heard the sound of footsteps slowly going up the stairs. She started to panic and grabbed the baseball bat that she kept under her bed for protection. “Stay back!” she yelled, “I-I have a gun!” She was hoping that this thing would take her bluff, when she heard a knock on the door. She tightened her grip on the bat, when she heard a familiar voice. “Chloe? Are you okay?” “Anne, is that you?” asked Chloe, unsure of what was going on. “Yes, it’s me.” Anne responded, “I’m sorry, I was trying to scare you, I guess I went too far.” “Y’think!” Chloe yelled angrily, she started to head toward the door when she thought of something, “Wait, what about the glove?” “Huh? What glove?” asked Anne, sounding extremely confused. “The glove that pulled you into the kitchen.” Chloe told her, moving the bat up against her shoulder again. There was a brief pause before Anne responded, “There wasn’t any glove pulling me back. I was just pretending that I was being pulled, you must have imagined it.” Chloe tried to think if she could have imagined the glove, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that her friend’s voice was coming from behind the door, sounding fine, if not a bit out of breath. She dropped the bat and walked toward the door, pulling the chain through the lock. She opened the door and was shocked to see not Anne, but a tall man with a white shirt stained with red smudges. Chloe was taken aback and tried to close the door, but he forced it open, pushing her down on the ground in the same motion. He moved one hand to the right pocket of his pants pulling out a knife that was still dripping with blood. In his other hand, he had a white box that he moved up to his lips and when he spoke into it, out came the voice of Anne. “Surprise.” |
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