Creeps, true stories from Reddit (Second book)

There's Something Evil Growing in the New Inmate

The guards glanced at one another in confusion. It seemed as if the other prisoners were scared of Zero. They thought this strange considering he was nearly in his sixties by then, and even the weakest prisoner there could likely pummel him into the ground. However, their bafflement was only a surface-level reaction. Deep down they could feel it too, the waves of precarious horror that seemed to emanate from the old man. When they looked at him, they felt as if they stood on the edge of a towering cliff, the wind strong at their backs and their lives suspended in the hands of fickle and mysterious gods.

They pretended not to notice it. Similarly, they pretended not to notice the shiver that ran down their spines every time he passed. It was as if there was some abomination lurking within Zero, set to burst forth at any moment and devour all they knew.

During those few days, Zero was put in solitary confinement many times. He never truly did anything to deserve it. While more vocal and perhaps more assertive than before, he wasn't violent and still complied with any orders he was given. The guards put him there simply because they couldn't bear to be in his presence. At least then he was safely out of sight, but not quite out of mind. Somehow, they could still feel him. Whatever emanated from him was like a dark blanket that slowly suffocated the prison.

One day he was particularly outgoing. His disposition could almost be described as giddy. He danced about the prison, eagerly informing all of his fellow inmates that the time had come, and the seeds would grow.

The guards tried to convince themselves that he was speaking nonsense. It became their own kind of mantra*. It's only nonsense.* After a while, it became a sort of prayer. A strange tension filled the air, as if something large was finally coming to a head. Everyone was on edge that day.

That night, Zero was oddly quiet. No one heard a peep from his cell. This was unusual considering how vocal he had been as of late. One of the guards was even prompted to investigate, but upon reaching Zero's cell, he felt a strange desire to retreat. A deep wrongness filled the air, and the shadows that enveloped the prisoner's sleeping quarters seemed especially dark that night. He felt that if he stepped into that blackness, he would suffocate in it. He felt that whatever laid beyond the leering darkness would swallow him whole.

He went no further and returned to the guard's quarters, claiming that he had seen nothing strange. The others didn't believe him, but they saw the look on his face and pressed no further. They knew that look well. It was the expression one adopted when they lived too long in a state of imminent terror. They saw it everywhere, on their fellow guards, on the inmates, and in the mirror every morning.

The next day, a dozen guards stood clustered outside of Zero's cell. One couldn't help but notice the strange perimeter they formed, always keeping a few inches back from the bars. They muttered to one another, hollow words of curiosity that did nothing to mask the fear beneath.

They stared at the thing in Zero's cell. His body was laid precisely in the canter of the floor. What could be seen of his skin was dry and sunken like that of a mummy. Milky, sightless eyes bulged out of his skull and his arms were spread in a such way that he appeared to be some grotesque parody of Jesus on the cross. However, this bizarre display was not what drew the attention of the guards.

A tree sprouted from the dead prisoner's chest. Its wood, if it could be called that, was pitch black and looked as if it had been carved of obsidian. It stood like a gnarled, twisted hand that reached from Zero's very soul, clutching at the world with an unending hunger. The guards stared at it, and it seemed the tree stared back. It called their very bones and their gums ached as even their teeth were drawn by an unrelenting force. Upon first glance, they knew that to touch the tree was to die and be cast into some nightmarish abyss. They knew it in the same way that one knows fire is hot. They knew it in the same way that they knew the tree could not be allowed to exist.

The guards talked. At first there were whispers. Then there were shouts as they argued amongst themselves. Next, there was crying. And finally, there was cold, blank acceptance. During all this time the prisoners had remained unusually quiet. They could feel the blackness that permeated the prison, the horrid thing that stood as a god among their paltry sins by comparison.

The guards began the process of doing what was necessary. It was dark business. It was empty business. Everything was done in grim silence. They gathered the necessary tools. Security footage was turned off, electricity was cut, and all of them gathered in a mournful cluster around that damned tree.

The gasoline was poured, the match struck, and the prison set ablaze. They felt the weight of the tree's rage at being foiled. They burned in silence, guards and inmates alike. For they knew that everything was happening as it must. The fire burned hotter and longer than anyone could have rightly guessed. Only the crackle of flames could be heard from the prison's thick walls. But within that crackle a whispered phrase, "The seeds have grown."

They died silently, neither as heroes nor martyrs, but as victims of something beyond fathom. However, they died knowing that they had succeeded. They thought about how the cursed tree would wither and burn away in the heat of the blaze. They thought about how the terrible truth would die with them.

However, none of them thought about the twenty-three bodies that had been buried three decades ago. Nor did they consider the rotten black roots that now dug their way into the earth, clutching ever deeper and cementing themselves in the soil. They thought not of the darkness that radiated from those graves nor the plants that began to wilt and die around them. They thought that they had won. And, after the fire had burned long enough, they thought of nothing at all.

Posted by u/ travisluebert