[|/^*^|] I CAN FEEL THEM WATCHING [|/^*^|]

[Forest]

This is a sort of "Creepypasta" that I wrote...about squirrels. I wrote about squirrels because me and Robin were talking about squirrels, and this came into my mind...xD Open to criticism...





I CAN FEEL THEM WATCHING


My name is Abby Baker. For the 15th year in a row, me and my family are staying out at a trailer park for the summer. Our trailer’s lot is out on the east side of the park, near a small river. There are only a few other people camping out in the area near the river because all the water tended to attract mosquitoes. Besides mosquitoes, the park displays a wide variety of animals living in the woods around it, from deer and foxes to squirrels and even stray cats. The squirrels…anytime somebody saw a squirrel in that park, there was a group of others not far behind. Quite an odd occurrence, but the owners and most of the campers said that it was just a large litter of squirrels that were sticking together. I thought this answer to be unsatisfying, but since I could think of nothing better, I just accepted it as it was.

I looked out the window at everyone else. My parents and a couple of their friends were outside talking and laughing, along with their children. A few seconds later, my mother saw me peeking out at everyone, and waved her arm, motioning me to come outside and play. I, however, wasn’t exactly keen on going outside this year. I turned away from the window and put my arms around the neck of my dog, Rudy, as he came up to me. Yet another time the words of the newspaper article floated back into my mind.

Two weeks before we had come out to the trailer park, there was news of a ten year old boy (two years younger than me), at the trailer park who had been beaten so brutally that several of his ribs had been broken, and his skull had been smashed in. After the whole park being alerted, he was recognized by his parents. His name was Woody Lambert. The police were immediately contacted, and though they completely and thoroughly searched the area of the crime scene, no traces leading to the killer could be found. It is now suspected that the violator escaped the city, and probably the state as well. But there was a seemingly unrelated and unimportant detail that the article included nonetheless. This was the fact that the squirrels had been prancing around the area while the police had been there, as if they were helping to solve the crime.

After recalling the eeriness of the accident, I was left feeling a bit shaken, when suddenly the door leading outside opened. At first it just let in a crack of sunlight, but then it suddenly swung wide open. My collie dog turned his head, and soon both of us had our eyes fixed on the door. I waited for what seemed like minutes, my arms still holding onto Rudy, when I saw a shadow appear, and then a loud crash not even a second later. I gripped my dog and squeezed him tight in my arms. The next sound I heard was even more unexpected. The sound of laughter. I refused to loosen my grip on Rudy until I saw my mother enter, her eyes sparkling and her mouth wide open and smiling. She looked at me and said “Sorry if I scared you honey, I’m a bit clumsy today.”  I sighed with relief and patted Rudy’s hips as he skipped over to greet my mother. “Come on outside, you can play with Rudy and your friends” she encouraged me. I took a deep, silent breath and stood up. Rudy charged outside, then turned around to make sure I was following him.

I immediately felt the warm sunshine hit my face, arms, and legs as the grass softly bent beneath my bare feet. The birds were chirping, making their own sort of song as their calls mixed in with the gentle rushing of the small river behind our trailer. I stepped over to where my dog was and turned to look in the trees which were placed past the glittering river. My breath rushed in faster than I would have liked when I saw what was in those trees. The squirrels were sitting there, about ten of them, each on a different branch. All twenty of the glossy, beady eyes were fixed on me, as if they had been waiting for me to arrive. A few of the animals flicked their bushy tails when they noticed that I had realized they were there. I don’t know why, but I felt slightly disturbed by this. ’Squirrels aren’t scary!’ I told myself. ’Stop being an idiot!’ I turned away and looked at Rudy instead. My dog didn’t seem to have even noticed the little critters watching from the trees, so I shook it off and ran to go and play.

Hours later, I crawled into my bed as Rudy took his spot on the woven rug on the floor nearby. “Goodnight” came my mother’s voice as she turned off the light and swung the door so that it was only open a crack. ‘Lucky me…’ I thought. ‘I get the only real bedroom in the whole trailer.’ And it was true, my parents just slept together on the bed that folded out of our couch. I flipped over onto my side, pulling my light blanket over me. I wasn’t really cold or anything, I just liked being covered while I was in bed. If I didn’t have a blanket on me, I don’t know why, but I just felt insecure and vulnerable.

I let my hand dangle off the side of my bed and soon felt Rudy’s cold wet nose make contact with it. I lifted my hand and let it rest on top of my dog’s head. My fingers found their way to Rudy’s ears and began to fondle them. I loved how soft his ears were. It was like holding velvet in your hands, just more plush, and doggy-smelling. Suddenly the ears slid out of my hand as Rudy lay his head on his paws. “Goodnight” I whispered to my dog. Taking a deep breath and then slowly letting it out, I closed my eyes and soon drifted off to sleep. However, my peaceful, dreamless slumber did not last as long as I had hoped.

My eyes fluttered open and gazed around the dark room. Groggily, I sat up on my bed, wondering what had awakened me. I mean come on, seriously? Tomorrow, or rather today, as I guessed it was past midnight, was my second day at the park, and I wanted to pump stuff up! I didn’t need a phantom alarm clock to wake me at 2 in the morning. I looked down at the dull red color of the carpeted floor. There was Rudy, breathing slowly in and out, still laying beside my bed. ‘So it couldn’t have been him’ I realized. ‘I probably just woke up on my own then.’ I simply shrugged and lay back down, pulling my flowery blanket over me again.

Tap tap tap!

My muscles froze in the positions there were in. I squeezed the blanket in my left fist. Horrible thoughts seeped into my head as ice crept through my veins. What if there was a beast outside? A stalker? Or even worse, the person who had viciously murdered that poor Woody Lambert. My heartbeat increased; it sounded like someone was sitting inside my head, playing the bongo drums. The only thing that I could hear over the hammering of my heart was my quickened breathing. Air was rushing in and out, though not nearly keeping up with the pace of my racing heart.


Tap tap tap!

There it was again! I looked around my room slowly, expecting the killer to jump out from one of the dark, shadowy corners. Or maybe he was beneath my bed, waiting for me to stand up to investigate, ready to reach a hand out and snatch me away, never to be seen again. I shuddered. I couldn’t think of anything worse than this, until, almost as if on cue with the thoughts that had just entered my mind, I heard movement down on the floor, quite close to my bed. I gasped. I thought it might be the last breath I ever took. Something slowly began to rise up off the floor until it was level with my face, expelling hot and foul-smelling breath onto my face. The eyes were reflecting light coming from who knows where, and I could see fangs, fierce and fatal, hanging down from the roof of its mouth. The pointed ears set atop its head seemed to form the horns that belonged to the Devil himself. The breath I had drawn into my lungs to scream were let out in a happy sigh a second later.

Rudy. The wave of relief that washed over me was so strong I thought I might lose consciousness. I reached out a shaky hand to pat my dog on the head. Now that I knew there was no danger in my room, or at least for the moment, I pushed myself up and out of bed. I had to find out where that sound was coming from. I glanced behind me at the window, placed just to the left of the headboard of my bed. I took a step to get over to it, then slowly pulled back one of the curtains. I held my breath as I peeked out the window, nervous expectation filling my curious yet fearful eyes.

Nothing. All I saw was a section of  the river, a few trees, and most definitely the grass on the ground, all of this visible thanks to the light we had out back behind our trailer. I narrowed my eyes. There had to be something out there that had tapped on the window and woken me up! There had to be, unless this place was haunted or something. I turned away from the window and looked down at Rudy. The collie was looking up at me with his doggy-smile, his tail wagging. Confused and tired, I shrugged at him and climbed back into bed. If the dumb thing that had made that noise was too scared to even show its face to me, then there was no reason for me to be scared of a coward like that. As I pulled the covers over me once more, I heard Rudy lay down on his special rug beside my bed. Even if there was something out there, I knew that Rudy wouldn’t let it get me.

Almost as soon as I closed my eyes, I heard the tap-tap-tapping again. By now it just seemed annoying. I was trying to get some sleep here! I threw the light covers off, got up, and marched over to my window. ‘What the heck is out there, and why the heck won’t it shut up?‘ I wondered angrily. Rudy watched me with wondering eyes as I pulled back the curtains. The sight that I saw made the fiery annoyance in my eyes glaze over with a frozen terror. The porch light we had out back of our trailer was currently illuminating three pairs of eyes, watching from behind the trees. The light’s glow didn’t reach far enough for me to see what those eyes belonged to, but I’m not exactly sure I wanted to know. Before I could do anything else, an irregularly shaped shadow passed over my window for a split second, and when it disappeared the eyes had vanished along with it.

I jumped away from the window, the icy sheet of fear that covered my eyes cracked and my eyes widened with absolute terror. I tripped over Rudy as my clumsy feet desperately tried to get out of the room to alert my parents. I landed against my bed with a crash, the springs in it still vibrating as I sat on the rug where Rudy has been laying peacefully. Rudy, a bit frightened after seeing his human come crashing down on top of him, whimpered and began licking my face. My terror-stricken gaze still locked on the window, I almost involuntarily began petting my dog. My shaky hand ran over his long, multi-colored fur as I tried to calm down.

Then, without warning, my door swung wide open to reveal a figure standing in the doorway. The only thing that stopped me from screaming was the sound of my mother’s voice. “Honey, is everything all right?” I swallowed hard once, and nodded. “I just thought I heard something, got up to look out the window, and when I went back to my bed I tripped over Rudy” I explained. “Okay, try to go back to sleep.” And with that my mother left the room, closing the door behind her. I got up and crawled into bed. I knew I hadn’t lied, I just left out certain details. But that wasn’t what bothered me. What bothered me was the fact that it had felt wrong to tell my mother what had happened. Oh well. If it happened again, I would be sure to tell her.

I basically slithered back under my covers and pulled them tight over me. I tried to ignore the fearsome eyes and the grotesque shadow that I had seen. But no matter how hard I tried to think of rainbows and butterflies, the horror of the woods penetrated through these childish thoughts. They were like a fly that kept coming back, no matter how many times you swatted it away. Since this was the case, I began giving myself semi-reasonable explanations for what I had seen. But my subconscious mind kept proving all of my theories false. It was just a car’s headlights that shone off the eyes of a group of little critters, and then as it drove past, the car created an odd-looking shadow. But I would have seen the light. And besides, how could the light be shining right onto those menacing eyes when the road was on the other side of our trailer?

As more of my false hypotheses were debunked by a seemingly different part of my brain, a question passed over the arguing sides of my brain, just as the bizarre shadow had passed over my window. I had seen two things. A group of animals watching me, and some weird shadow. But it didn’t seem like either of those things had caused the tapping I had heard. Was it one of the animals I had seen watching from the cover of the trees? Or someone trying to break in? The latter was definitely more terrifying than the former. I bit my lip and turned onto my side so I could pet Rudy. I was scared beyond reason now, so I whispered quietly to my dog. “Rudy. Rudy, up.” The collie got to his paws, wagged his tail, and jumped onto my bed, where he lay down next to me. I put my arms loosely around his neck and scooted closer, feeling much more calm now that I had my dog with me, and soon fell asleep.

I awoke next morning to the wet tongue of Rudy licking my face. As soon as my dog saw me open my eyes and begin to stir, he leapt off my bed and began to prance around in circles. I slowly eased myself out of bed, and began to follow my collie out of my room and towards the kitchen. As I passed through the kitchen and into the small living room, I saw my mom preparing breakfast, and my favorite, too. Pancakes. “Good morning, Abby” she said, smiling at my over her shoulder. I smiled back, and proceeded into the living room. There was dad, sitting and watching the news, as usual. I didn’t really care for the news, so I headed toward the door with Rudy. Just as I reached to grab the handle of our sliding glass door, I heard the name of the campground on the news. I stopped to listen, to Rudy’s disappointment.

The news announcer gave a brief intro of the circumstances of Woody Lambert’s death, before stating that there had been another death. What made me shudder was that the announcer said it had happened very early this morning. The events of last night flashed through my mind as if playing a slideshow in hyper speed. My mind quickly snapped back to the television. The name they gave out was that of someone who lived on the opposite side of the campground.. This sent another series of chills scurrying down my spine with icy claws. The voice went on to say that the body in this murder was killed in a different manner than that of Woody Lambert. The body looked like it had been torn apart viciously clawed by not a human, but a large animal, most likely a cougar or something similar. How the animal had gotten the body was not something anyone knew. The police said it was probable that the victim had heard noises of the animal outside their house, and when they went outside to investigate, was attacked. When I thought it was over, I took a step toward the door.

“Another death was reported, most likely occurring not long after.” I froze. I strained my ears, watching as my mother walked into the room to stand next to my father. When the announcer gave the location of the second death, goosebumps rose all over my arms and legs, and the room temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees. It had happened to the people living a little way down the river from us. The person had been killed in a different way than the two previous deaths. The police reported that there were several stab marks covering the body, four fingers had been chopped off, one hanging on by an extremely thin strip of tissue, and one of the victim’s eyes was missing. I bent my knees until I was at Rudy’s level, and put my arms around him. My mother and father exchanged worried glances. The report continued to state that it was thought that the attacker sneaked inside through an open window, and dragged the victim outside, where they began to stab. A relation between the two deaths, and even Woody Lambert’s, was that they both took place outside, and both victims were ill at the time.

My dad grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. “We’re going home” he said. He looked at me and said “After breakfast, start packing.” I nodded. I was glad to be getting away from this place. Besides, I was anxious to see all the pets that we couldn’t take with us. I wanted to ride my horse, Blitz, again. My show rabbit, Marshmallow, was probably waiting for me. And hopefully none of our fluffy sheep had been killed. My dad got up to let Rudy outside, following the dog outdoors to make sure whatever was prowling around didn’t snatch him. I sat down at the table and tried to eat as much as I could, despite my stomach feeling sick. Once I was done, I went into my room and gathered up all of my things; I was ready to blow this place.

My dad shut the trunk of our car and sat down in the driver’s seat, next to my mother. I took a seat in the back, and Rudy climbed in next to me. After I snapped my dog’s “seatbelt” on, I gazed out the window at our trailer. We hadn’t even bothered to seal it up like we usually did, in case the murderer decided to pay us a little visit before we left. As we began slowly driving through the gravel roads of the campground, I felt something pierce my arm. I quickly turned my head to see a mosquito sipping some of my blood. Faster than a bolt of lightning my hand stopped the insect’s feeding. I could tell that it had already bitten someone else, since a little smear of blood was left on my arm. I licked my thumb and gave the area a quick swipe. Just before my father turned out of the park, I looked at the trees behind the campground’s swimming pool. The group of squirrels were there, watching, as if they were saying goodbye to us.

We got home to our ranch in Texas late at night. I was exhausted from not having slept well the night before, and from sitting in the car for over twelve hours. As soon as my pajamas and other necessities were unpacked and put in their proper spots, I changed clothes and slowly crawled into bed and creeped beneath the covers. I sighed, knowing I could sleep in peace, the threat of a serial killer gone. All that was outside of my window that could hurt me now were coyotes, and I knew the sheep would alert us when one was nearby. After my parents came in and said goodnight, I fell fast asleep with Rudy laying on the floor beside my bed.

However, not everything went as planned after we returned home. The headlines all over the newspapers reported the same thing and showed the same picture. The picture showed a tall, emaciated creature standing, hunched over, facing the camera. The thing had long arms with claws twice as long as my index finger. Add that to the incredible arm length and the bent over figure, and the tips of the claws brushed the ground. The beast seemed to have almost no facial features except a very narrow mouth, and something else that made my head swim. Glowing eyes. I thought back to that night at the trailer, when I had spotted the pairs of eyes staring at me maliciously. And that horrible shadow seemed to match the brute’s figure exactly. By now I wanted to vomit. Why hadn’t I told my mother?

But soon I had more problems to deal with. Not more than two days after we arrived back at the ranch, I fell ill. It was a terrible sickness, more devastating than any other I had been struck with before. My head and body ached all day, I always had a fever, and I was so weak, sometimes I could barely sit up in the morning. And the most disturbing thing was that I began to notice small, hard lumps forming at various places on my body. When I touched them, I immediately whipped my hand away. They were obviously very sensitive to touch. My mom, who had become very worried about me, especially since I had told her about the strange bumps. She took me to the doctor in the morning one day, just to make sure I didn’t have a serious illness. Turns out her fears would come true.

Not only did I have a serious illness, but I had the bubonic plague. Like, the Plague. The Black Plague that had killed so many people so many years ago. This not only scared my mom beyond reason, but it scared me as well. I didn’t want to end up like those poor people who had died from this disease. My mom asked what could spread the disease, and of course the doctor said mice and rats. Once my mom stated that we didn’t have a problem with either of the creatures, the doctor gave me my answer. Squirrels were also possible carriers and spreaders of the disease. I shivered, both from cold and anxiety. After we confirmed that this was the case, the doctor sent me home with advice and a prescription for antibiotics.
Once we left the office, my mom immediately drove to the nearest pharmacy. I sat in the car as she ran inside to grab my medicine, and then drove home.  

As I lay in bed later that evening, still somewhat in shock from what I had been told, the most truly terrifying thought of my life came into my mind. The victims of the “campground beasts,” as they now called them, had all been ill before they were attacked and killed. The beasts had to be linked to the squirrels somehow, right? Maybe mind control, if the beasts were a powerful new species that had recently evolved. I thought about how I could be the next victim of those…monsters.  I told myself his was just coincidence, but as I got ready for bed, with all my muscles aching, I could feel something. I could feel them watching.

[Thundo Puffs]

GREAT. JUST GREAT. NOW I CAN NEVER LOOK AT SQUIRRELS THE SAME WAY AGAIN. I am terrified of camping grounds now... xD

[Forest]

xD EXACTLY

And it's a good thing I decided to write this AFTER I spent the night at my grandma's trailer in a campground...

[Robin]

. . . Wonder if this is a good time to tell everyone I collect squirrels... I even have a squirrel skull and a glassblown squirrel from the thirties...

[Rain]

Problem...
Solved...
xD

[Luna]

Wow... Forest! Forest!! Forest!!!

I was sooo curious what happened in the middle of the story. And what I thought was the 'middle' was the end...... What's the creature that was killing Woody Lambert and the other person? A beast that was something to do with the squirels? I'm thrilled.

[Forest]

All will soon be revealed in the sequel that is now under development...I just need to read this one over again for specific details so I can come up with a knock-you-on-your-butt plot for the next story...

[Thundo Puffs]

Reminds me of something that I need to do....

[Luna]

Your gonna do what?

[Forest]

Hey guys ._. Thanks to this new app on my iPad, a movie trailer for the sequel "I Can Hear Them Moving" is now in production! Whether I make this into an actual movie myself...is probably not likely xD I lack the equipment to do so...if I didn't, then this material would be sent to Hollywood ._. But anyways, once the trailer is finished, I will get it on YouTube for you guys to see, so you can get all excited for when the actual sequel comes out xD I also have to write a one act play for my English class, and I have decided that it will be an introduction to the main character, Vincent Villemarrete. It will take place when he first arrives at le police station to work, since he will be the investigator for the case. And keep in mind, throughout the sequel will be proof that he is indeed inexperienced...

[Thundo Puffs]

Bro THAT WILL BE AWESOME! I will eagerly await the finished product, Director Forest

[Luna]

Oooooohhhhh!! Fabulous!!!! xD ~

[Rain]

Amazing! ^^ I can't wait! x3 Looking so much forward to it, I'm wiggling xD

[Robin]

. . . *bows before the God that is Forest* WHAT CAN YOU NOT DO?!

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