The Grim Crawler @

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"You alright back there babe?" The man asked while clipping his helmet into place.

"Yes hun, you don't need to keep asking." The woman replied while adjusting her helm.

The man got on the front of the bike, fumbling for the correct key.

"Oh! Did you hear about new spider species they discovered recently? The one they said was in our area?" The man asked as the woman got on the back seat of the bike.

"The one that looks like a little booger on six legs? Like I could care, the fella's harmless, I checked with the web." The woman said while looking at her nails.

"Honey, spiders have eight legs, not six. Besides, you can't always trust the net." The man said after fitting the right key in the slot.

"You're just saying that 'cause you're a coward."

"Am not. If I was, would I even be riding this bike right now?"

"... Point taken. Now let's head back, it's well after ten o'clock. "

The man turned the key and the light on the front of the bike flickered to life like an old TV screen, illuminating the asphalt road in front of them.

"Hang on to your buns sweetie, we've got about twenty minutes before we reach my house."

The woman shrieked with delight as the man pushed on the pedals, expertly turning to head down the road.

The city softly glowed on their right from behind a metal fence, it wasn't going to do much if he suddenly swerved, but it was a nice way to show cars where the edge was. On the opposite side was a free range forest, which seemed rather spooky at this time of night without a chain link fence to keep the nasties away. It was a living contradiction, the dark and bleary forest versus the bright lights of the small town they were headed towards.

"You good hun?" The man asked when he felt one hand leave his hip.

"Yes, I've just got this itch on my ear... it'll probably go away, but... it's the strangest thing. Like... the itch is going deeper. Towards my brain if that makes sense." The woman said while having a hand raised to the left of the helmet.

The man tried to shake off his confusion. "You're right babe, it'll go away. I always have itches on my face when wearing my helmet, it's like the unspoken law between us and the helmet creators.

Silence ensued for the next several minutes, the forest and town still visible on either side.

"Uh... babe...?" The woman called out through the mesh speakers connecting their helmets.

"Yes dear?" The man asked, the woman's anxiety getting to the man.

"I... I can feel something... something... moving... in my head..."

The man almost stopped the bike at that comment. "Wha-what? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I- just stop." a strange splotching noise entered his ears not a second later, something slimey now covering his shoulders. A heavy body slumped against him and made the man lose his grip on the handles, effectively losing control of the bike.

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                      Five Days Later
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"Lay it on me Ross." The detective said while flicking away the toothpick he had been using.

Ross quickly picked up the toothpick to dispose of later before answering. "I-I uh... twenty one year old Janice Miller and twenty two year old Harold Brock where f-found here o-only two days after th-their accident, having been reported missing by both sets of parents exactly tw-twenty three hours after they did not come home on time. Th-The body of Harold was found to have died upon the impact of being crushed by his motorcycle after it tumbled into the f-forest, but Janice... Janice's body is where this story seems to go... homicidal."

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