After Dark | Spec Ops x Reader

1 | A Regular Day

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I grew up in a rural town, sure, but I moved to the big city for college. When I dropped out, I moved again. And now I'm here, in the suburbs, just enough away from the city, but not quite in the middle of nowhere. A town called Calamity Bay.

Having met a lot of people and moved around a lot, I've had a lot of neighbors. I've had good neighbors who occasionally came over and gave me baked goods or invited me to their barbeques, and I've had bad neighbors who would let their kids egg my house on Halloween or would complain they didn't like my lawn ornaments. Who doesn't like gnomes and flamingos? Like seriously. Regardless, I thought I'd seen everything. Experienced it all. That was until I moved here.

I didn't have bad neighbors, but I didn't have good neighbors either. I had weird neighbors. They weren't weird because they dressed oddly or because they decorated weird or because they had odd habits. They were weird because I had never met them. I'd hardly ever seen them, either.

Today... was different.

I'd just gotten home from grocery shopping. There was a dog barking out back and, as an avid lover of animals, I quickly brought my bags in and rushed back outside to find it. I sprinted out my front door gleefully, smile plastered wide on my face. Would it have a collar? Would I be able to keep him? I lived alone, so a furry roommate would be nice. I ran around the corner of my house and made it halfway to the woods out back when somebody grabbed my wrist. I'd nearly fallen over, I'd been running, and I turned around in horror.

My nerves only slightly calmed when I saw it was my next-door neighbor. I'd only briefly seen him checking his mail before, I'd never seen him beyond that. Never spoken to him. He looked afraid every time I happened to see him as if he were afraid of the outside world. He didn't let go of my wrist.

"Don't follow it."

"W-what?" I stuttered out, yanking my wrist from him to no avail. He had the grip of an eagle.

"That's not a dog," he spoke calmly.

"Excuse me? Let me go!" To my surprise, he let my wrist go and I backed away from him by a few feet. I rubbed my sore wrist with my other hand, eyebrows furrowed in anger at the man who's name I still did not know.

He looked around to see if anyone was listening before leaning in close and whispering, "You heard the babies yet?"

I can only imagine how horrified I looked.

"Guess not. You will, trust me." The dog began whimpering in the woods behind me. I turned my head to look, but the man started talking again and I looked back to him. "Ain't no dog. Ain't no baby either. Ignore em. They'll leave you alone if you don't acknowledge em. Hellen didn't listen. Now she's gone. We don't want another Hellen, do we? Stay out them woods if you know what's good for ya."

And then he walked away.

I don't think I'd ever been so creeped out in my life. This man was well into his sixties. Thin gray hair already, wearing a wife-beater, god forsake that awful name, and a pair of aged slacks. I watched him walk away and didn't take my eyes off him until he made it inside his house. I turned and looked at the wood-line after he shut his door. I didn't hear the dog anymore. I didn't really care. Successfully terrified, I walked back to my front yard and into my house, locking and deadbolting my door closed.

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The first time I'd ever met one of my neighbors and he turns out to be an absolute creep. Of course. Just my luck. And on a Friday afternoon, too. I couldn't even enjoy the rest of my day and relax after work. Whatever, what happened happened. It's a new day. Saturday.

I did the same thing I do every morning. Drink a cup of warm tea and check the mail. There was a letter in it, crudely filled out as if it weren't placed in there by the mailman, but by someone who deliberately came to my house to hand-deliver this letter.

Lucky me.

I cut open the envelope and pulled out the letter. After reading it, it wasn't nearly as creepy as I thought it was.

Dear Neighbor.

Sorry I couldn't talk to you in person, but I had an extra shift today. I live to your right, name's Bennett, but feel free to call me Ben. There's no way to not make this sound creepy, but I saw you met Gus yesterday. He lives to your left. The old fella who talks funny. Don't worry about him. He can be a bit of an oddball, but he's nothing to worry about. I imagine he warned you about... something. Not too sure what, there's plenty of stuff to warn you about in this town, but Gus doesn't do a good job at explaining those things.

My shift ends around five, if you'd like to know why this quiet town is anything but quiet, go ahead and stop by once I get home. Until then, try not to answer the door, ignore the crying coming from the woods, and by no means should you accept the gift of a red thread if it appears on your kitchen windowsill.

I look forward to meeting you,

Ben

Still a little creepy, but not what I thought it would be. This town, like Bennett said, was quiet. But it was the quiet that felt like something was too good to be true and you were a main character about to figure out your whole life is a lie.

Everything I'd ever learned in my life told me not to go to a stranger's house. But here I was, waiting for Bennett's car to pull into his driveway.

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Hi guys! I know this chapter is short, but I PROMISE the next one will be longer. Things start getting super good around chapter 4, so if you stick around until then, I'll make it worth your while... ;)