Just Peachy

Never turn around to check behind you. You’ll see nothing, but once you start doing it you won’t be able to stop, and an ominous feeling will follow you until you don’t lock your house’s door behind you. 

If you stand very still and listen you will hear the woods calling for you. Don’t answer. Never answer. 

You’ll hear things quietly following you, hidden in the trees by your sides. It’s okay, they’re just checking on you. 

Don’t be scared, but be really, really wary.

If you have a bad feeling about taking a certain path, don’t. You’ll avoid whatever is waiting for you at the end of it. 

You never know what may be buried under the soil you’re walking on. Remember that every time you take a step. Pray that whatever it is, it won’t wake up. 

Be careful not to step on any beetle, or you’ll never get rid of them. 

If you bring a knife with you, name it. Otherwise the blade will turn against you as soon as you try to use it. 

You lock all the doors day or night. You tell yourself and others it’s so no person can break in, but you know you’re protecting yourself from something much worse.

The house ghost watches you from the top of the stairs, disappearing when you look in it’s direction.

It’s eerily quiet.

You thought you shut the basement door, but it’s always open when you walk by again.

What is that sound?

Your dog stares down the hallway and whines at nothing.

You know there’s something.

You go down to the basement to get something. There’s a being at the end of the hall. You are paralyzed. Its eyes stare into your soul as it approaches you. When it gets close it disappears.

You feel different and go back upstairs without grabbing your item.

You don’t even bother shutting the basement door.

There’s blood on the kitchen counter. You ignore it.

Suddenly it’s dark out. How long were you in the basement?

You close the curtains and blinds, knowing they don’t stop anything that truly wants to see inside.

The front door isn’t locked anymore.

Your favorite show goes to commercial, so you go to the kitchen to grab a drink. You come back to the TV playing static. The channel hasn’t changed. You sit and watch anyway.

The being from the basement has replaced the house ghost’s spot at the top of the stairs. It doesn’t let you go.

There’s a knock on the door. You realize every door was knocked on at the same time.

You haven’t seen your dog in a few hours, but you hear it whining from a location you can’t get to.

Your family member gets back home, they look different from when they left. An entirely new face.

They shut the basement door.

The dog greets them, tail wagging.

The TV plays the news.

The kitchen counter is blood free.

“Why are the curtains closed?”

They open them. Sunlight pours in.

Willing sacrifice~

The function of a growl is as a warning. It is a communication that violence is available as a tool, but is not preferred. Other outcomes, besides your death, are available and should be considered.

But the creature that wants to kill you will not growl.

If your death is the goal, then growling will only serve as a delay and may result in your escape, which runs counter to the goal. There will be no growl, no warning. There will be no snarl or hiss or bluster. The creature that bares its teeth with the intent to kill only does so to bring closer its fangs to your demise.

The creature that growls does not want to kill you, but will if it must.