Random Short Stories/Written Ideas

Another Strange Encounter (B.S P2)

The next time she encountered the creature, it seemed to... Hesitate. Again. It didn't immediately finish her off.

Player Rollex hadn't even realized she was being followed by it. She'd been paying more attention to the chat, and what her friends were saying, than her surroundings.

CurseBringer: think u can decipher the last book, babe?

××OathBreaker××: no way. roll's bettvr at ib

She huffed, fingers flying across the neon keyboard floating in front of her avatar.

R○lle×: u guys just suk <3

That, of course, caused a bunch of denial amongst her two besties. Which she thoroughly enjoyed, giggling to herself in an almost hysterical manner.

She didn't feel the eyes that bore into her back.

But she did, however, take notice of the subtle darkening around the edges of her vision, and the sound of a quickly beating heart attempting to claw its way out of her avatar's chest. These were the que's that every player had to look out for when playing this particular game. They were the warnings of the creature's presence. This meant it was close. She scrolled through the chat, looking for any signs of the other players coming into contact with it. Maybe someone was being chased around, and if that were the case, she wanted to avoid their path as much as possible.

When she didn't see anything hinting at the creature being after another player.

That meant it must have been lurking somewhere nearby.

Her eyes swept over the area around her, and she immediately remembered why she hated wide, open spaces more than tight hallways with limited hiding spaces.

The empty dining room was about the size of a small trailer and was completely stripped bare. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, and the walls, in thick, swaying strands. Dust coated the floor, interrupted by the footprints of fellow players. The wood beneath was dark and must have been quite beautiful when polished and speck-free. Open doorways that connected to other different rooms littered the walls. One that, she knew, lead to the kitchen. That had a few good hiding spots... The rest were just interconnected hallways. The dining room was a middle ground in this twisted mansion, but the least visited room.

She was so busy looking everywhere else that she forgot to look up.

Above her, attached to the ceiling, was the very tall, monstrous figure. Its raven-black, feathery mane was hanging from its body and nearly covered its pale face. Wholly white eyes peered down at the player, the thin, black ring around where its irises would be contracting in reaction to its inquisitive nature.

Ever since that one encounter, where the player offered Creature the items it'd been tasked with retrieving, it had felt... Different. Or, rather, it felt as though it had been asleep for quite some time, and was only now waking up. But it remembered everything it had done before that single moment that seemingly changed something in its coding. Though, its memories were foggy, and they felt more like someone else's memories rather than its own.

"Please, please, please, no jumpscares," the Player was mumbling, interrupting Creature's thoughts. "I will die if something else jumps out at me."

Perhaps it should alert her of its presence, then? Ah, but maybe not... She would scream, maybe combust, at the sight of it. Much like every other Player that has wound up on the wrong end of its jaws.

Although, the mental image did send a shudder of anticipation through it.

Maybe Creature's coding hadn't been changed that much after all if it still craved to kill, to follow its programming, rather than listen to this newer, quieter voice telling it to watch. Pay attention.

It managed to obey the latter. It continued to watch from its spot, confident that the Player would not spot it.

...

It was proven wrong.

Rollex had finally picked up on the sensation of eyes on her back, causing the hairs on her neck to prickle. But she'd checked the area around her, and had even poked her head out into the halls...

What could she be missing?

She shifted uncomfortably as she pondered this. Then her head snapped back, and her eyes darted upwards.

Oh.

Seeing the 6'0-something hunter with its claws buried into the ceiling to keep it suspended directly above her had her throat closing up. Instinctively, the rest of her body locked up as well. Her fight-or-flight hadn't quite kicked into gear yet.

Surprisingly, it didn't lunge at her. It just stared silently as though it were studying her. Could it see Rollex? Was this another bug?

No matter what was causing it to just... Be there, watching her like a menacing rock, she was not in the right mindset to handle the fright it caused. She'd been doing so well at avoiding it the last few rounds, but- Well, looks like her luck was running out.

Almost running out.

Feeling reentered her legs, and she was suddenly able to move again. She didn't hesitate any longer before taking off with a long string of cursing, and a chant of "fuck that, nope, no."

Whatever happened freaked her out, but what bugged her more was the fact that she got away.

It let her get away.