After a tiring extra shift at my local 9-to-5 job, I decided to drive down to my favorite spot of the town: the football pitch. I’m talking about a soccer pitch, for my American readers. It was around 6:30 PM, and the field was always empty at this hour. I love relaxing here, taking a smoke break, and it’s only a few minutes away from my job, so I usually always pay a visit.
This time it wasn’t any different. When I arrived to the field, I saw the empty seats, and a deflated ball in the football goal that hasn’t been picked up for ages. I smirked, remembering my childhood at the sight of it. I got out of my car and started walking to my favorite place on the field: the top row of the seats. I sat down, took out a cigarette, and released a painful sigh as I recalled the events that happened in my workplace.
Only a few minutes must’ve passed before I felt a shift in the atmosphere. Yes, it has always been a place that could be regarded as “creepy”, since it wasn’t used by anyone anymore, only a few kids in the neighborhood, but they were also gone by 5 PM. But this time, it was something different. Something sinister. I decided to shrug it off, while lighting another one of my… wanted to light another cigarette, but for some reason, I couldn’t find the pack anywhere.
I remembered placing it on the seat next to me, but oddly enough, it wasn’t there. I searched my backpack thoroughly, getting more agitated by the second – yes, I am an addict – before throwing it on the ground in frustration. “This day couldn’t get any worse”, I whispered, even though it wasn’t an abnormally bad day – just a few annoying people bothering me at work. After a few seconds of contemplating my dull and empty life, I picked the bag up and was about to leave. But then I felt it again, stronger this time.
Not only the atmosphere, but the air also became harder to breathe. I started pacing back to my car while trying not to cough my lung up. The walk felt like it took much longer than it should’ve, but I forgot about it once I reached my car. I sat inside, and instantly felt a sense of relief wash over me. That instantly disintegrated though, when my radio turned on out of the blue. Since it was connected to my Spotify, it continued playing the podcast that I was listening to this morning: “The Horrid Tales of Attertown”.
If you look it up now, there will be no result for this podcast, as it’s been around 3 months now, and the podcast wasn’t doing as well as it should’ve. Nevertheless, Attertown was the town that I was living in at the time, and even though the title has “horrid tales” in it, there was no paranormal activity, or ghost sightings in that village, only groundless rumors about them. You could even say that the people living in Attertown were extremely superstitious and would go on to theorize about every little thing that happened there.
The football field, for example, was abandoned due to the scary stories surrounding the place. Parents used to tell their children not to stay outside and play for too long, as the field would eat them alive. This, of course, terrified the children and caused the field to become desolate after 5 PM. There were days when it wasn’t visited for weeks on end. With my mature mindset, I assumed these were only told to stop children from staying outside for too long and to prevent the kidnappings and abductions that gave the town its notoriety.
There were always bizarre occurrences around the field, but its abductions were probably the most infamous. A total of 51 people have gone missing near it since the founding of the village, but the weirdest thing of all is that no trace remained of them. Police searched the place for years and years after every single disappearance, but couldn’t find anything that would even hint at a kidnapping. The town itself was also astronomically peaceful, and crime rates couldn’t have been lower. But this one place had no explanation for it.
The government implored everyone to stay away from the field, as there was no rational explanation for the events happening there. That’s how the rumors started around the place: “The police are the ones behind it”, “Child trafficking”, and even “An old witch is casting spells and manipulating people”. Oddly enough though, I never seemed to mind these unfounded theories and continued to visit the place after dark.
As I said at the start, it’s my favorite part of Attertown. Whenever I have a difficult day, I come here to unwind, and I haven’t seen any shady men, any white vans, and especially not a witch. I didn’t mind it either, as I like being alone, and having this time to myself was probably the most cherished thing in my life. That’s the reason why I was freaking out in my car after getting inside it; it’s like the field is willingly pushing me away. I stopped the podcast and closed my eyes to calm my very agitated mind. “You’re probably just tired, and forgot to turn the radio off”. This was impossible though, as I clearly remember shutting everything off before exiting the car.
I opened my eyes again, finding comfort in the silence of my brain for once. I was about to start the car and drive home, but that’s when I had seen a kid walking towards the pitch from the other side of the road. It was an unusual walk though since it looked like the kid was in a trance-like state, swaying from the left to the right. I sighed and decided to ask the kid whether everything was alright.
Leaving my comfortable and silent seat, I exited the car and started brisk walking toward the young boy. After about a few steps, I felt that uncanny feeling again, even stronger than before. But now, it didn’t tell me to go. It was beckoning me. I can’t really describe the feeling but imagine a huge thunderstorm, and a gust of wind pushing you from the back. It was something like that, without the thunderstorm, the wind, and the umbrella, and instead with a weird “calling” from the field.
At this point, I could still resist it, so I quickly confronted the boy. “Hey kiddo, you know you shouldn’t be outside at this time, right?” He looked like he was around 12 years old, but his face wouldn’t even flinch after my comment. His eyes were closed, with his mouth slightly agape, giving me goosebumps across my body. The boy didn’t say anything, but instead walked by me, walking through the entrance of the field’s gate.
“Are you searching for the football? It’s inside the…” there was no use in finishing the sentence. I saw that the kid wasn’t heading toward the football goal, but instead towards the seats. He was slowly making his way up to the top row, still walking in an unnatural manner. I was about to boot it and say “Fuck it”, but something stopped me. Well, not something, but someone. Not even someone, as there were more.
People from all around started to gravitate towards the field, in that same uncanny and creepy way that the young boy did. I looked around me in confusion, with my hands fiddling with each other. This was my natural reaction to feeling nervous, but it didn’t help one bit. Everyone was slowly inching toward the top seats, with me being helpless and unable to do anything but watch. I was going to call the cops, but searching my pockets, I realized I left my phone inside the car, which seemed to be miles away. Not only that but I was also frozen in place at the sight of the horde.
They all looked like mindless zombies, not even trying to break free from their hypnosis. Some of them I recognized, especially Walter, who was a close friend of mine. We met at my job and quickly found common interests, such as the supernatural. The irony is great, isn’t it?
When I finally realized the danger that I could be in by staying here, I forced my legs to move – no, to run towards the car. The cold air of the night was sharp, and my breathing was starting to get shallow. As I was about to open the door, it got me. This thing, this “call”, finally had enough effect on me to capture my soul. I don’t remember too much after this point, but what I do remember, I can’t get out of my head.
There were these flashes of pictures. I started walking towards the top seats, next to everyone. There must’ve been around 20 people up there, and due to it being a small pitch, we couldn’t all fit. We had to stand there for a long time because I remember more people slowly making their way toward us, and at the end, the 20 rounded up to a good 50. Thinking back to it now, it’s insane how many people were caught in the vicinity of this thing’s aura. It wanted something from us. But I didn’t know what yet.
And that’s when it revealed itself. The pitch started trembling, with the goals falling down, and the deflated ball being sucked into the ground. The seats around us were also starting to break and gravitate toward the center of the pitch. That center, where usually a football is placed to start a friendly game between friends, now opened up to show a large eye staring at us from below. It’s indescribable, as there is no such thing that could be compared to it. It was ginormous, and it quickly looked at every one of us and showed a hint of satisfaction at the number. I know that it’s just an eye and that there was nothing else that I could see, but I knew that the thing was proud of the number of victims.
After a few seconds, everyone – including myself – started walking toward the middle of the pitch. I could see, from the corners of my eyes large tentacles erupting from one end of the pitch, then the next. They were used to pick people up, and slowly devour them all through a big hole in the tentacles, while the rest stood there, awaiting their inevitable doom. That’s when I “woke up”. I still don’t know what happened, and why it was me that could be saved. Maybe the hideous monster spared me, as I was a frequent visitor. That would also explain why, at first, I was pushed away by the field, and not called toward it.
In contrast to my previous state, my legs were now fully functioning. I dashed off, not even daring to look back toward the horrid scenes that were unfolding behind me. The ground was still shaking, so it took me a lot of focus not to fall down. When I got to my car, I unlocked it with godlike speed and inserted the key to take off. My human instincts took over me that second, and curiosity got the best of me, so I glanced over to the pitch.
Nothing. There was absolutely nothing left of the people, of the 50 or so people that have been called to this field. Not a shirt, a shoe, or even a piece of torn clothing. The monster swallowed them whole, making sure to leave no evidence behind itself. I was staring for a good few seconds, with a feeling of great dismay forming inside my stomach and my head. Its eye was still visible, which now portrayed the look of extreme gratification and pleasure. I don’t know why, but I swear on my life, I saw that goddamn eye stare back at me. It gave me a mocking look, filled with amusement like it was nothing but a game to him. Like it was its plan all along, to just play with me, and give me nightmares for the rest of my life.
Well, it succeeded. I’ve been to numerous shrinks since then, but no one could help me. They all looked at me like I was crazy. No surprise there, honestly. I wish I were. That would be better than this state of absolute terror I feel daily. I’ve moved to a different town since then, hell, a different continent. But every night, I can still see its tentacles coming out of the ground, and it locking eyes with me, laughing at me. I can even hear it in my head. And it wants me to go back to Attertown. It wants to see me again. To play with me again. To toy with me again.