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I need answers. The way Dr. Lauda looks at me, she seems almost…. excited…. to hear about my experiences. And she believes them all. That’s good, right?
-———————————————————
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Fuck, fuck fuck…”
The Creep Game is real.
I started looking around frantically for the lighter.
The first candle went out.
Then:
“Franklin.”
A raspy, unfamiliar voice.
I turned and opened my mouth, but one twin, Mandy?, slammed her hand over it. “Idiot!”
“Is that a creep?” Mindy called calmly.
There was no response- but from the direction my name had been called, on the ground—
The lighter.
“Hurry, dude!” Chris shouted.
I took off running toward the lighter. It wasn’t terribly far from our circle, but as I ran, the distance seemed to stretch out, and my nerves turned my legs to jelly. Frenetic thoughts swarmed my mind.
The game is real.
The Creep game is real.
What if we lose?
As I scooped it up and started hustling back, I could see another candle had gone out. Chris was staring at me urgently, as if willing me to run faster- meanwhile Mindy and Mandy were scouring the surrounding area.
I made it back to the fountain, and as I dropped the lighter into the pile of offerings, the two candles that had gone out began to burn once more. I breathed a sigh of relief and started hard at the lighter for a moment, determined to make sure it was really there.
Nothing happened.
“The lights have gone out,” a twin observed. I was starting to be able to tell them apart, I thought, but then…
Creeping about the edge of the courtyard, a shadowy shape. It was tall, moving with long, almost human strides.
“There,” I whispered, pointing at the creep.
It stopped and looked at me- faceless, featureless, motionless. Shadows rolling over shadows- smoke in a humanshaped lava lamp. I could feel its attention weighing on me. Staring at it, I could feel myself, especially my eyelids, growing heavy. My eyes burned, and I could almost see its faceless head mouthing something at me. With no mouth, no words spoken–
Blink.
It didn’t make any sense, but once I understood, I tried to open my eyes as wide as possible.
“Can you guys see it?” I asked.
“Keep looking,” Chris urged.“But we can’t all look,” Mindy said.“What if an offering disappears?” Mandy added.
I think. I couldn’t look to see who was who. Didn’t much matter—they were right. We couldn’t all look at every creep, lest we not notice that something was missing.
“Mandy.” Chris said.
“It’s not me!” Chris shouted. “I know it’s you, Creep!”
I wasn’t looking, but now that I thought about it, the voice had sounded a little bit off.
The creep in my vision stood up straight and clapped its ugly little paws. Then, it vanished.
“It’s gone!” I said.
“Stay focused,” Chris said. I was looking at him when he said it, so I knew it was actually him.
All of our offerings were still in the bowl.
A door slammed suddenly. We all jumped.
“We hear you Creep!”
A heavy wind blew through the courtyard, kicking up all sorts of dust and debris. I tried to keep my eyes open—we all did—but something dark flew directly at my face. Out of reflex, I flinched away. Cursing, I looked immediately to our offerings.
The bronze lid was missing.
“Lid, Lid!” I called to Chris.
“What?” Chris opened his eyes, looking to me. “Oh fuck!”
We made eye contact over the offerings. I took it all in. The pale face of Chris in the dim light. The way his eyes practically bulged as he scanned the courtyard….
…the creep looming over him, licking its ‘lips.’
Chris didn’t notice. I didn’t tell him. He must have seen the lid somewhere because he took off. I kept my eyes on the creep at the edge of our circle, watching as it paced slowly back and forth, back and forth.
Something skittered across the ground behind me.
“Creep!” I called.
The creep in front of me stopped pacing and started to dance, swaying back and forth, its fingers intertwined above its head, its hips rocking. Meanwhile, shadows fluttered at the edge of my vision for just a second.
“Don’t turn around, Franklin!” Mandy shouted.
“I won’t!” I called back. “Just keep your eyes on it!”
There was another sound behind me, quiet and muffled, like someone muttering into the wind. But whoever or whatever it was, it wasn’t speaking.
-it was laughing.
In front of me, the creep I was watching slowly dragged its thumb across its throat.
“Ignore it,” Mindy said. “They are trying to throw us off.”
“Are you watching the offerings?” I asked.
“Everything’s here,” Mindy confirmed. “Everything but the lid.” From the other direction I heard the huffing and puffing of Chris.
The lid clanked into the circle. The extinguished candles flared back to life. The creep in front of me vanished.
I breathed out, long and slow. I could practically feel the thumping of my heart in my ears. I looked to my friends in the circle. Chris, hands on his knees, catching his breath. Mindy and Mandy vigilant on our surroundings and the offerings respectively.
“How long has it been?” I asked.
“Ten minutes.”
“No, twenty!”
“I lost count!”
All our voices, coming from the creeps. Though there was still something off in their imitations, their voices were getting closer and closer all the time…
“One, two, three, four…” A Creep was counting out on its fingers—in my voice; it looked to us with its faceless head, then vanished.
I ignored them, kept my eyes focused on our offerings. They couldn’t take them if we were watching them, could they?
“Bracelets!” Chris shouted. “Both of them!”
I guess not.
The twins started off in opposite directions, toward lit rooms in the complex. Just me and Chris in the circle. Lid and lighter in the center.
“I’m not so sure about this,” I said, forcing a grin I didn’t feel.
“Dude,” Chris whispered. “I didn’t think it was real!” He looked after the girls.
“Well we know better, now, don’t we, Chris?”
It sounded so much like me, for a second I was convinced I had said it.
“Chris, don’t–”
“Yeah, man, I—” Chris’ eyes widened as he realized what had happened.
First, he began to choke. Then his skin turned pallid and gray, and he began shuddering in place like he was being electrocuted. I watched helplessly as a Creep stepped out of my shadow and walked over to him. The Creep looked back at me mockingly as it did the impossible.
It lifted its foot and slid it daintily into Chris’ open mouth, the way one might slip on a shoe- yet the leg slid in further and further, ankle, knee, hip all swallowed.
“No!” I shouted, rushing at it. I tried to punch it, tried to grab it, but my fingers passed right through, leaving me with nothing but a sickly grainy feeling. It slipped its other leg in, then the torso, then the head. Then it was just Chris and I in the courtyard, along with a quiet, comfortable chuckle blowing around in the wind.