Creep Book 1, Charlie-Charlie

CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5

"Sam, Sammy, come on sweetheart open your eyes for me okay? Samantha can you hear me? Come on please, yell, scream, curse ... just let me know you're okay." Cooper's voice sounded anxious and although I could feel him touching my face I could not open my eyes.

"Okay, here we go," He said as I felt myself being placed on something soft.

"Coo ... what?" I stammered still locked in the battle to open my eyes. The sharp shooting pain of the bright living room light piercing through my lids like needles.

"Oh thank God. I thought you'd never wake up, you had me worried there for a while." I could hear the relief in his exhale. Somehow I was not as relieved, remembering what had happened. I leapt from the couch; my eyes wide open as I searched the house room by room.

Cooper ran after me like a headless chicken trying to keep the blanket around my shoulders until I guess he could take no more.

"Sweet Jesus woman will you stop!" He forced; his large hands firmly placed on my upper arms.

"You just had a nasty fall down a flight of stairs, which left a gash the size of the Grand Canyon in your forehead and God knows what else, and you're running around like ... like."

"Where is he?"

"He? He who?"

"That kid, that kid who pushed me down the stairs. I swear if I get my hands on him I'm going to wring his little neck."

"Okay you know what, you need to sit down and I need to look you over. Now please sit," I could tell by his tone he was not making it my choice.

My eyes kept searching for the child while Cooper did his thorough examination, "Okay, looks like the cut's, the worst of your injuries, but look at me, but that does not mean you can run around like nothing has happened. You still need to rest ... hey you good?"

"I... I don't ... yes, I guess I'm okay." I assured him.

"Now can you please tell me how you ended up at the bottom of the basemen stairs, and what has you so spooked?" His hands cupped my face after he secured the sterilized gauze over the cut above my left temple with adhesive tape.

I lingered, staring into his supportive gaze for a few moments, "I don't ... it's all a bit fuzzy, like I was there, but,"

"Alright, start by telling me how you got the door open when it has been nailed shut since well since Nina and my brother got locked down there, but that's a story for another time though. What were you doing down there, Sam? What possessed you to,"

"I didn't ... I mean the power went out and when I ... Cooper I ... there was a kid. After I fell there was a kid at the top of the stairs. At first he was just standing there and then before I passed out I heard him laughing," I explained and I had to admit it sounded bizarre, even to me.

"A kid? Sammy there was no one here when I got here, maybe you ... the blow to your head,"

"NO, don't you dare say I imagined it you hear me. I know what happened and I know what I saw. The door was open and that kid pushed me. I wouldn't make this up." I felt disappointed that he would think I was lying.

"Sam, Sammy! Hey, look I believe you okay." His signature smile made its appearance along with a supportive squeeze of his warm hand,

"You saw something too didn't you?"

"No, no when I got here all the lights were on, the television and radio were blaring and all the appliances were going crazy in the kitchen. After I switched everything off I went looking for you and found you at the bottom of the stairs."

"Coop what aren't you telling me? And don't say nothing, you know I can tell when you're hiding something." I had noticed him playing with the shirt button in the center of his chest right above where the scar was. Something he used to do when he was anxious. Somehow I could not shake the feeling that there was something else, which made him believe me.

"Sam I ... I don't,"

"Just tell me, don't over think this," It was my time to be supportive, "After I left here earlier, I got a call from the hospital."

"Oh God Nina," I gasped, "Is she,"

"No, Nina's still okay. It's just for some reason Nina's monitors out of the blue were going crazy, even though she was still fast asleep. It's only after all the chaos stopped that I noticed ... Sam, I stood there watching as,"

"As what?"

"On the wall above Nina's bed, there was ... it was covered in blood ... Nina's blood."

"I thought you said that her wounds were still,"

"They were all still bandaged that's what made it so bizarre. I couldn't understand where the blood on the wall came from. That's not the strangest part though, while I was trying to figure out how so much of her blood could be on the wall there appeared writing, and until you mentioned the text message it didn't make sense."

"Wha-What did it say?"

"I wanna play."

"What?"

"The writing it said, I wanna play with a bloody hand print as a full stop at the end."

"Cooper?" His face was all scrunched up, "By the angle and the way it was written, it was almost as if,"

"Asif what?"

"It was as if a child wrote it, even the hand print was small, but it doesn't make sense because, if it was a kid ... there is no way he/she could have reached that high."

Our conversation continued until, "Sam what's wrong?"

"Shuuu, do you hear that," I traced the origin of a faint melody I heard bouncing around in my head, just hoping that I was not going crazy. Cooper trailed behind not saying a word until he too heard something.

"It's in here," He stated pointing to Nina's bedroom door. I could hear movement inside; shuffling and humming almost as if someone inside was contently playing.

"Cooper?"

"Stay here," He instructed.

"Wait don't you think we should call the sheriff? What if it's some kind of psycho or ..." Before I could finish however Cooper had already opened the door,

"Somehow Sammy I don't think the sheriff is equipped to deal with this."

My jaw dropped when I laid eyes on the terrifying sight before me. A horrid looking brown bear; blood-tears running down his face as two pencil's one through each eye anchored him to the wall, short stubby candles decorated every inch of the room, a peace of torn paper with the words yes/no written in red placed in the center of the desk its edges curling up unevenly.

"Won't you play with me?" The bear asked as Cooper and I watched its drawstring recoil, "Pleeease, I don't want to play alone. I promise it will be fu-un. We can play forever and ever a-n-d e-v-e-r," The sweet voice soon faded slowly changing, turning into a scratchy, throaty gargling voice. It made my skin crawl at the amount of malice it projected.

The pencils simultaneously started moving, vibrating to the point where both shot across the room; missing our heads by inches straight into a family picture that hung outside in the hall; impaling and destroying Nina's and my faces.