A Fault in the Code

Chapter 6

I sit upright almost immediately. The voice sounded so close, as if it was in the room with me. I examine the room, making sure no one is in here. The voice didn't sound like the demonic gibberish that played inside my head last night when the white-eyed man was present. It sounded like a regular man's voice. But it's still creepy to hear while you're alone in the dark.

I breathe heavily and shaky, and my head keeps changing direction because I can't tell where the voice came from. I stutter out the words, "Who's there?" and I feel fear tears sting the back of my eyes.

"Just listen," the voice says. I can feel the blood drain from my face. I wasn't actually expecting it to answer me.

"Where is that coming from?" The sound seemed to fill my head as if two people were whispering the same thing into each of my ears.

"Does it matter? Look, I don't have much time to talk right now. He will cut me off any sec-"

And then the voice is gone. As quickly as it had come. I sit there in the dark, alone. I wonder who this voice was, who "He" is, and why the man was suddenly cut short.

I decide that sleep is more important than thinking about all these questions, so I force my eyes shut, and finally, sleep comes over me.

The sunlight in the window wakes me, and I am glad to say that it is actually the sun, and I crawl out of the comfort and home feeling of the bed. I put the bed in my backpack and walk over to my crafting table and furnace to put them in as well. But on the furnace is something I don't remember putting there last night. It's a book.

I open the book to the first page, and there's a letter written to me.

Rocky,
You are in big trouble.
But I cannot tell you why.
I'm sorry.
Look for my clues. They are alphabet letters. Put them together and make a word that will help you greatly.
Maybe you will hear from me again.
Maybe.

There is no sender name, so I do not know who sent this to me. I flip through the book's other pages, but they are all blank. I stuff it into my backpack along with my workbench and furnace.

I walk out of the house into the cool morning breeze and take a deep breath. It's really beautiful at this moment. I wish it could be like this all the time.

But this moment can only last a brief amount of time. I have to get moving, and fast. That man may try to track me, although I have almost no doubt he knows exacly where I am at the exact moment in time. He probably just wants to keep me from thinking it so he can jump out at me and scare me at certain times.

I walk away from the house, not caring to take it down, and go the opposite way of the mountain, toward the forest. When I get 10 feet away from the trees, I look deep into the darkness below the canopy of leaves. I see a very disturbing creature that I have not seen, or do no think I've seen, before in this place.

It's all different shades of green. It's shape is about as tall as me and has a skinny torso. It has no arms. Two extra legs, with a total of four. Two in the front, two in the back. It has large eyes and its mouth looks as though it's stuck in a permanent frown. It creeps me out.

Eh, let's just call it a creeper.

I get closer, wanting to see how it reacts to humans. Does it want to eat my brain? Shoot me with arrows? Pff, who am I kidding? It can't shoot an arrow with no arms. Suddenly, the creeper looks right in my direction. It's spotted me. It starts to walk right towards me, and I freeze. I want to run, but I can't. My feet seem to be stuck. My whole body seems to be stuck.

It keeps walking toward me with that glued on frown, and when it gets about three feet away, it starts to flash white light, sizzle, then expand.

Then it's followed by an explosion.