A Most Terrifying Engagement (closed)

[Poprockz]

Andrea made her way up the path of her childhood home with two large suitcases rolling loudly behind her. It was odd how time could make a place look different even if things remained largely unchanged. Perhaps it was simply the context of the house that had changed. It used to be a house out in the boonies where your closest neighbor was two miles away. Now though? Now there were houses and such all around, and there was even a grocery store and a pizza place.

Perhaps that made it less creepy. Her parents used to use the word “peaceful,” but it had largely been a scary place for her even after her night terrors stopped. It had always felt like there was something watching her, regardless of the fact that it had been proven time and time again that there wasn’t.

Now as she approached, it didn’t hold the same power over her as it used to. She was 20 now- an adult with aspirations and accomplishments. The darkness didn’t scare her like it used to… or at least, that’s what she told herself. Despite it all, she couldn’t help a feeling of unease settling upon her as she unlocked the front door, the woman grateful she wouldn’t need to stay long.

The house had been left to her from her parents. They weren’t dead or anything. No, they were over in Florida with their new beachside house and had offered the house to her for her to do what she wished. What she had decided to do was sell the place and get herself something elsewhere. There were just a few renovations and repairs she needed to see to first.

It wasn’t long before she had her suitcases in the master bedroom, though she paused on the way back downstairs when she passed the door to her old room. Hesitantly, she went inside and looked around, the nostalgia hitting her as she took in the sight. It looked like a teen’s room, though there were still some stuffed animals and such from her childhood. Reaching out, she picked one up and pet its soft fur fondly before putting it back down.

It was best not to linger too long in memory lane, she figured, so she turned and left, closing the door softly behind her.

Several hours and a pizza dinner later, Andrea took a soak in the tub before going to bed. She was an average-height brunette with lovely features. Her lips were cute and plump while her eyes were a grayish green that almost looked blue in certain lights. Long locks of wavy hair usually came down several inches past her shoulders when it was dry, a little further when it was wet. As for her body, one could say she had filled out in certain areas. Her ass wasn’t anything to scoff at, round as it was, but it wasn’t super big either. Her breasts were solidly D’s though, and she had gotten a lot of male (and sometimes female) attention over the years. Other than that, her body was mildly fit from the regular practice of Pilates.

Currently she was unattached, but she had dated one or two guys before. One to pop her cherry and the other to put her off dating entirely for a while. Right now, she just wanted to focus on her work and on selling the house. After that… well, she’d see what would happen.

A yawn escaped her as she slipped into bed and clicked off the bedside lamp, her small silk nighty riding up slightly as she scooted down a bit and pulled the covers up. Now… now it was time to sleep.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

"Anything. Anything. An-y-thing." It mused to itself, stretching out the word and savoring each syllable like a delicious bite of cake. That word, that beautiful word. It was the source of its joy and freedom. Such a simple word, yet when it had been uttered by a certain little girl who had been cowering under her covers, it had given the Thing that Sat Inside the Shadows a most wonderous power it had never before considered.

What it was...well, not even it knew. One day it had appeared in the shadows of a child's room and caused them to scream out when it made the shadows on their wall dance and merge into snakes. That was its first taste of the ambrosia that it would come to know as fear. It tormented the child night after night, exploring their fears, making them wail until their parents would come bursting into the room, weapons in hand, as though they could hurt a shadow with a staff or a knife. The child would speak of "the shadowy man" to their friends and they would call them a liar, only to try and spend the night and create a chorus of shrieks that would lead to them all getting hit with switches until they could barely stand, let alone sit.

When that child reached their adolesence, The Thing Inside the Shadows, moved on, tormenting that child's younger sibling, then moving on to another house by traveling in that child's shadow when they went over to play, then to another house, then to a boat, another continent, another house, until many years had passed. It had picked up many names: Bogeyman, The Thing in the Closet, The Monster under the Bed...but its favorite was "No." It loved hearing that word when it would scrape a child's bedframe, when it would poke its head up at the foot of their bed, when it would sit on their bed, when it would crawl atop their sheets to where they lay quivering under their blankets, trying to fight the urge to look...a fight they always lost before giving it another delicious serving of fear. And that was how The Thing Inside the Shadows existed for many more years, until it had met Andrea.

Andrea had been a particular delight as a victim. Like a loving audience she screamed for every trick. If her door was open, he would make a silhouette stand in the frame, slowly tilting its head in, only to vanish when she would call her parents. If she went to grab a stuffed animal, he would nudge the one next to it so it appeared to come alive. Other nights, when she was too terrified to scream, he would just sit on her bed letting her shuddering and soft whimpers flavor her fear as he drank it up. In fact it was one such night when she had uttered that fateful word. Cowering and sobbing, she had said she would do anything if It would leave her alone.

It was an act of desperation, a plea for mercy, a grasping at straws and any number of other cliches The Thing Inside the Shadows had heard countless times...yet, that final word, "anything" popped an idea into the ancient terror that was seated on her bed. Whatever Andrea intended by that word, whether it be that she would never cheat on a test, she would always say her prayers, do her chores without complaint, or any number of tasks a child might find laborious, The Thing Inside the Shadows did not know. What it did know, however, was that agreements had power and while the Andrea that huddled under her blankets had nothing to offer but the fear he had already laid claim to, there was an Andrea in the future that held something it wanted far more. So for the first time, The Thing Inside the Shadows spoke to Andrea.

"Anything?" It had said in a voice that sounded of tombstones dried lakebeds.

"Anything?" It repeated.

And eventually, Andrea gave an affirmative answer.

And so, The Thing Inside the Shadows left Andrea alone. It haunted other kids, other houses, but never traveled too far from her old house. It spent the years of her adolescence educating itself on new types of fear like a sommelier might taste various dirts and metals to refine their palette. It experimented and, more importantly, it observed the children's parents and older siblings. It saw Andrea leave for college and it would sneak back to her house to listen to her parents talk about how Andrea was doing, occasionally it would listen form the shadows to Andrea when her mother would put her on speaker, trying to get a taste of what fears his darling victim had picked up.


And now Andrea was finally home. His victim and savior had finally returned home and she was all alone. The Thing Inside the Shadows had been careful as she had explored the house. It had merely sat in corners, watching her from afar as it waited for her to get tired and slip into bed. She had certainly grown since he had last seen her; where once there had been a scrawny girl was now a curvaceous woman...and where once there were childish fears, there now was a mind full of terrors that had matured along with her. Fears that The Thing Inside the Shadows had long waited to age. Fears that it was willing to give a prime victim a respite in exchange for.

Adult fears were something it had been denied since its birth. It knew of adult fears, could even get a whiff of them when parents rushed in to protect their children...but it could not savor them. It had tried of course and it wasn't like adults were immune to fears of a stranger in the house or someone watching them, yet whenever it tried to feed off of them or even their adolescent children, it was as though a cosmic force barred him from doing so. Like an urchin stuck window shopping at a candy store or a teenage boy held up by a bouncer at a strip club, it could only imagine what the taste of the fear of death was, what existential fears tasted like, what anxieties tasted like, and what the more carnal fears were like to experience when they had been aged in a mature mind. It could only move on to another child and hope their far more immature fears would at least provide a novelty. But now, as it watched Andrea fall asleep, hiding amongst the shadows of her stuffed animals, it could finally begin to dine on an adult's fears. What's more, an adult woman's fears, which it had learned offered a unique blend compared to men.

The shadows moved like liquid as The Thing Inside the Shadows slipped down from the shelf holding the animals to wall, and then the floor. Once there, the shadows congealed into a featureless humanoid, with very long arms that ended in digits that curled like snakes, and a head that was smooth like an egg. Its form was like someone had sculpted smog into being and the tiny bits of light from Andrea's sharging phone and the sliver of moonlight that snaked their way in seemed to almost be more absorbed by the figure than reflect off of it. It was easily almost 7 ft but it seemed to glide over the floor as it made its way to Andrea's nightstand and laid a ring atop it. A ring that was so black it almost seemed like a crack had appeared in the space around it. While it was impossible to read it with the limited lighting, a single word was engraved into it:

ANYTHING

That had been the loophole. That was its salvation. It could not scare adults...but Andrea had promised it anything. So it found a role that would make it so it could come back for Andrea and stay with her after her fears had matured like a quality wine: he would become her husband.

Now it was time to see if its plan worked. It could barely contain itself as it stared over Andrea's sleeping form. It had never touched her as a child, would it be too far if it did that now? Perhaps. It had to be careful. Ultimately, it decided to go for a classic. It slithered outside of the room and leaned its expressionless head into the room so it was pressed between the upper right corner of the doorframe. it the took one massive hand, forcing the wriggling fingers to still, and ran it down the hallway, letting a scraping noise fill the silence.

"Andrea. Andrea." It whispered through nonexistent lips, "An-dre-a."

 

[Poprockz]

She had been slowly drifting off when she heard it. It had been so long since she last heard that voice, but it wasn't a voice one truly forgot. Not when it sounded like the void and perhaps even like the darkness itself. It had only said one word to her before, the word "anything," repeated back to her several times as though confirming that she truly would do anything to make it go away. At the time, she had continued to tearfully respond that she would indeed do anything, even sacrifice her beloved "Baabaa," which was a sheep stuffy she had truly treasured. The next day her sheep had gone missing and the thing had left so she had figured the exchange had been made. Little did she know that the dog had actually taken the stuffed animal and buried it in the backyard.

Now, as she lay in her bed, she felt a shiver down her spine. Andrea was all alone- there weren't any parents to rush in to save her from the dark anymore. Was this an auditory hallucination? Was this a nightmare? She wasn't sure. What she did know was that it felt like someone had put ice in her stomach, a familiar fear running through her veins.

Like a child, she tried to pretend that she hadn't heard anything, though she gave herself away by pulling the covers up over her head so she could hide underneath them. Under the covers at least, she was safe. The thing had never touched her, and she assumed that the rules were still the same. She didn't know that she had promised far more than she had ever intended.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

It could feel Andrea's terror. Like a man in the desert who had finally found an oasis, it drank deep and gorged on her fear. It was as though her fear filled a hole in its being, completing what it truly was. Andrea had always been a special victim for it and now it was appreciating how special she had been as her fear's flavor filled its being. It was so lost in its ecstasy that it forgot that it wanted to push the rules and see if it could prey on adult fears. Scaring her with the old tricks was satisfying but if it couldn't prey on a new set of fears, then it had wasted its time.

Reluctantly, it stopped and returned to the shadows once it made sure Andrea wasn't looking. It then waited 30 agonizing minutes without making a sound and then, still concealed, let a different noise out. It had learned to copy sounds centuries ago. It had found great success in getting children to poke their heads back out by mimicking their parents, or scaring children by making the sounds of knuckles rapping on glass. Now though it focused on different sound. The house was old and the heating/AC vents carried sounds from the basement through the house like a crude PA system. Now it made a sound:

drip...drip..drip.drip...drip-drip the sound of dripping water came from the vent.

It concealed itself, wanting to see what would happen. Was Andrea's fear of it greater than the fear her parents felt when the basement had flooded years ago? It wanted to know. It also wanted to see if it could draw her out of her bedroom. She thought she was safe under her covers...why not let her pretend that for a while longer? It continued to make the noise, making sure to add the sound of drops hitting the imaginary puddle in the basement

 

[Poprockz]

Andrea breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to calm herself and get her head back on straight. She wasn’t a child anymore; she was all grown up and she didn’t have to cower under her covers. There was no use being afraid of something that couldn’t hurt her, something that was likely a figment of her imagination. What she needed to do was turn on the light, and perhaps play with her phone for a bit until the fear subsided and she could sleep.

She took some time to simply breathe and let herself be more in control. It took a while, but eventually she had calmed herself enough to slow her heart rate.

And then the dripping started. Now, dripping was a more real threat that had to be dealt with. Back in the day, she remembered a flood happening in the basement. It didn't really matter much to her as a child, but now that the house was hers and she knew the ramifications of water damage, she couldn't help but feel her heart flutter once more. What if it flooded and resulted in structural damage? She couldn't afford to repair the house to that extent if the damage was extensive. Her parents didn't have the pocket change to help her, and she was just starting out in life. Taking out a loan would only put her into debt on something she was trying to profit off of to begin with. Interest rates were abysmal at the moment, and she hadn't built her credit enough to even get one of the semi-decent ones.

It was time to act. Andrea threw off the covers and looked around. To her relief, there was nothing there. Nothing in the doorway, nothing near the closet, nothing near the stuffed animals... Just nothing. Like she thought, it had all been in her head.

The woman quickly grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight, getting out of bed and rushing out of her room and down the hallway. All the while, she could feel her anxiety building as she made her way to the basement. It wasn't long before she got there, but when she did, she was confused to find... nothing? There couldn't be nothing. There had been dripping sounds, so there had to be something. She stood still and listened hard in the darkness, her only light coming from the phone's flashlight in her hand.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

If it had lips, it would have grinned as Andrea rushed down to the basement armed only with a flashlight. Instead, it merely enjoyed the flavoring of financial anxiety that now was mixed in with her fear. Adult fears were already proving to be quite delectable and very easy to manipulate. It moved through the darkened house after her, maintaining the sound of the dripping water in the basement but being careful to not take any form that the flashlight would capture. While the flashlight couldn't do any lasting harm, it could temporarily dispel any form The Thing Inside the Shadows would take, which would make the experiments it wanted to do tonight quite difficult.

It aught Andrea continuing to search for the nonexistent drip as she wandered about the darkened basement and inspiration struck. The Thing in The Shadows kept the dripping sound going but made it sound as though it was coming from the back entrance: an old door that Andrea's parents had long meant to get a locksmith out to replace the long rusted bolt lock. It then carefully closed and locked the basement door Andrea had entered, wedging its own phantasmal flesh into the hinges to cover the sound of any possible squeaks. The lock was on the inside, more a quick deterent to keep a much younger Andrea from sneaking down when her mother was wrapping Christmas gifts than any real obstruction from an intruder but if Andrea double backed, she would lose time having to undo it.

The Thing in the Shadows, its movement unimpeded in the basement's virtual darkness, split itself between two projects: First, it created a copy of the body it had used upstairs, but had it hide amongst the pipes and beams so its egg-like head descended only slightly below a pipe. That body dripped a black viscous fluid on to the floor of the basement in time with the sound of the dripping. Then, after the dummy was created, the Thing quickly formed a new body behind Andrea that silently stalked behind her as she explored the basement. It was similar to the form it had been using to terrorize Andrea, but a crude set of ebony lips stuck out from the otherwise smooth skull. It carefully matched her steps and waited for the opportune moment to strike. If the trap went as planned, Andrea would investigate the dripping and find the propped up body. While the flashlight would dispel it, the active body would take advantage of her surprise and grab her with its long arms and toss her phone away, allowing it to finally have her right where it wanted.

 

[Poprockz]

Andrea paused, looking down at the small puddle on the floor. It wasn’t water. No, it was darker than the darkness itself, like the blood of something from the abyss. She told herself not to look, begged herself not to look, pleaded with herself not to look, but… it was useless. It was the human condition to do things that were unwise, even if one knew that they wouldn’t like what the result was.

She looked up and saw it, instantly bringing a cry of fright from her lips. So startled was Andrea by the horrifying sight that she jumped and flung her phone in the air, the device sent bouncing off a shelf and behind it. One would have to either move the heavy shelf (unlikely), or strain to reach under it to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the phone landed flashlight-down, so it would be a blind scrabble in the dark.

At this point she was panicking, considering making a desperate break for it when she felt something wrap around her torso like that of a demonic seatbelt. She wasn’t prepared for this ride, so all she could do was freeze and tremble in shock.

“N-no!” She uttered, a terrified little word. Was this it? Was she going to die down there? Was it going to consume her soul or suck the life out of her?

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

For the first time in its existence, the shadowy being was overwhelmed with the fear it was feeding off of. Fear of death, the unknown, regrets, and a host of never before experienced fears poured into it like a garden hose pouring into a waterballoon. It felt like it could burst and the assumed form it had taken continued to grow, its melting out into a black puddle that grew over Andrea's feet, covering her in cold, creamy flesh. Limbs and tendrils spung forth and whipped wildly in the pitch-black basement, striking pipes and shelves, and entwining themselves around Andrea's exposed limbs. Yet despite the fear being so intense that the creature couldn't even wolf all of it down, it wanted to make the experience even more intense.

Its limbs, which were normally constructs of shadows, ectoplasm, and unknown substances, grew facsimiles of blood vessels and nerve endings so it could feel the trapped young woman writhe in its grip, feel the heat from her body, feel the bumbs rise on her skin, and the sweat drip down her body. It had never touched any of the children it had terrorized, one of the unwritten rules that it had lived under, so it had never seen fit to make a body that could experience tactile sensations and taste, yet now it could touch her and it wanted to enjoy the feeling. Her body language and panic responses were like spices; bringing out the true flavor of her fear. Her panicked protestation of "No" was the perfect accompaniment, like wine sauce added to a particular choice bit of lamb. It ran a a tendril up her nightdress and get as close to her heart as possible, not caring that it was rubbing against her breast, while it placed its new lips against her neck, letting the sensitive new anatomical structures feel her jugular vein pulse in a rapid tempo. This was ecstacy, THIS was undiluted fear.

Yet as he held Andrea, the fear of death pulsing out from her, it realized that it had to pace itself. While its knowledge of physiology was still growing, it could tell it wouldn't be healthy for his bride to be to be trapped in such a state. It needed to calm her before her heart gave out. If she were to die, then his entire gamble and plan would have been for nought. So, following the sickening crackle of bones and a respiratory system in a being that was never meant to have one, it opened its face into the semblance of a mouth and spoke in a tone that was...to an extent...more natural than the one he used when he rarely deemed to talk to his prey.

"Andrea." It rasped, the experience of using lungs, teeth, and a tongue to speak being quite the learning experience, "Andrea. I'm pleased to see my dear friend have such a strong reaction to our reunion but I can't have you dying (it held back the temptation to add "just yet") when we only just got to meet again after so many years. Please relax. What have I ever done to make you think I would want you to die? You're the dearest person to me, I would never harm you."

It maintained its hold on her but stopped its physical expansion so she would not be anymore submerged in its mass. It kissed her on the forehead, mimicking what it had viewed her parents doing for her as a child.

"Please...we have so much to do before the wedding. Calm yourself."

 

[Poprockz]

The experience of being held by a monster in the dark basement as its grotesque body grew and wrapped around her was undoubtedly the most horrifying thing that had ever happened to her. She was absolutely sure that it was going to literally absorb her into its inky tendrils and digest her whole. Andrea was trembling like she had never trembled before, tears streaming down her face. And while she didn't struggle against it, she did flinch whenever a new tendril touched or wrapped around her.

It didn't take long before she was at the cusp of hyperventilating. She felt dizzy, as though she might pass out from the extreme stress of the situation, though maybe it would be better that way. After all, she didn't want to be conscious when she was finally consumed. The thing had haunted her childhood and now it was back in her adulthood to gobble her up. When it touched her neck, she was sure it was simply trying to find the best place to first drain the blood from her veins.

And then... to her utter surprise, it spoke to her. It seemed like it was trying to comfort her, but why? It felt bizarre to hear it speak to her as though it was pretending that they were fond friends, reunited and happy to see each other. Perhaps that thing was happy to have its meal back, but she was not happy to be the meal. Obviously it was lying through its... teeth? Did it have teeth? God, she hoped not. In any case, she was highly suspicious of its words.

On the other hand, why was it saying these things? What purpose did it serve to speak to her when it was going to eat her in just a minute? Andrea didn't believe that it considered them "dear friends," but perhaps it had a reason for delaying the inevitable. She shuddered from its forehead kiss, finding it absolutely repulsive rather than comforting.

What really gave her pause was the mention of "the wedding." What wedding? Who was getting married? It was such a bizarre thing to throw into the situation that it actually grounded her just a bit in her confusion. Make no mistake, she was still afraid, but she was no longer in danger of passing out or having a heart attack.

It was hard to speak with her chattering teeth, but she managed to get out, "W-what? I d-don't unders-s-stand."

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

The Thing in the Shadows for once was experiencing a mix of emotions. It was still feasting on Andrea's fear, even though it felt fit to burst, yet it also felt frustration and an ounce of worry for his restrained fiance. It didn't understand: she had always calmed down so quickly when her mother had kissed her forehead as a child. Perhaps she needed more kisses? From its shoulder, the creature grew another head which began kissing her right cheek while his orginal head began kissing her left one, starting towards the bottom of her quivering jaw, up to her eyes, where it lapped up her flowing tears, the taste of salt providing a most interesting experience to a being that had never eaten or drank tangible objects before. It soon realized that it couldn't talk and kiss Andrea's face at the same time, so it grew another two heads: one which snaked around to resume kissing its cool lips against her forehead, and another to try and talk to her and get her to calm down.

"Relax Andrea, relax," it said, shushing her with a breath that was as cold as the void, "I'll tell you and it will all make sense." Its voice tried to emulate a warm, parental tone, though its lack of experience with that emotion, combined with the multiple limbs and mouths that pressed against, restrained, and explored Andrea's body did not help sell that intention.

"Once upon a time, there was a shadow that liked to play with a little girl. He would come to her room night after night and give her a good scare." It said, growing a massive grin on its face that Andrea was fortunate enough to not see in the pitch black, "the shadow loved scaring the little girl. She never got bored with seeing it, and she made the most adorable little sounds when it was around." It paused for a minute, warmly remembering the way a little Andrea would shriek or whimper under her covers, "But the little girl didn't like the shadow." It said, attempting to add a note of sadness to his voice that made it come off more as accusatory, "and she said that she would do anything if the shadow would leave her alone...the shadow asked if she meant Anything. She said she meant anything. It checked again and she said anything."

It paused and embraced her tighter, as though it was trying to thank her.

"Now "anything" is a wonderful word, isn't it?" It said with its free head, "And it gave the shadow a wonderful idea. You see, the shadow loved spending time wiht the little girl, but like all the other children it had scared before, it would have to leave her when she grew older. It wouldn't get to see her grow up, it wouldn't get to see what she acted like when she was scared, it wouldn't even get to know what scared her as an adult...and the shadow didn't think that was fair. So, even though the shadow would have to say goodbye to the little girl sooner, it took that "anything" and turned it into an opportunity for," his body swelled around her, "growth."

"So the shadow waited, learning about the world of grown people and what they were scared of. It still thought of the little girl and checked in on her when it could but it kept its word and left her alone, no matter how much he missed her, because it knew it would all be worth it once she grew up and came home. Because once she did, he could finally turn that "anything" into what he had wanted for so long. And that "anything" would let him touch and hold her, feel her shiver, taste her tears, and let him stay with her forever."

"And do you know what that "anything" was?" It paused its kisses and spoke with all of its heads at once: "It would take her as his bride."

 

[Poprockz]

Oh God, what was it doing? Was it kissing both her cheeks? And now her forehead? How was it- no, no, no. She didn’t want to think about that thing growing multiple heads with multiple mouths. It took a positively Herculean effort for her not to break down into a sobbing, incomprehensible mess. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat. Focus on your breath, remember the practices your therapist taught you. She was (mostly) successful, only letting out pathetic whimpers occasionally as it spoke.

While still off-putting, its voice did give her something to focus on rather than the utterly claustrophobic embrace she was locked into, so she tried to ignore everything but the story it was telling. It helped, though only a little.

When it was done speaking, she blinked, rendered utterly speechless for a moment as she processed its words. This monster, this horrible, unspeakable terror wanted her hand in marriage? It was unthinkable- almost laughable. Andrea wondered if it truly understood what marriage was and what it entailed. Why would it want something like that? From what she could tell, it was a creature who delighted in tormenting children, so it made absolutely no sense as to why it would suddenly decide that it wanted to entangle itself in the bonds of holy (or perhaps unholy in this case) unholy matrimony. Though… come to think of it, perhaps it was more that it wanted to ensnare her and keep her from being able to leave it. Marrying her was just some twisted means to an end.

Maybe she wasn’t the first though. Perhaps this was something it did: torment a child, wait for them to grown into adulthood, marry them, and then consume their soul. It was feasible that the ritual of marrying someone was needed for it to get the full nutritional value from its meal, like a witch fattening up a child for the oven.

Perhaps it was a foolish thing to say, but she couldn’t claim that her mind was working at its best at the moment when she said, “y-you’re lying. You’re just going to kill me or eat me sooner or later!” She shuddered, “do you even know what marriage is? What it means?”

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

Ironically, the creature felt comforted by being called a liar. After all, it meant Andrea was talking to it! And that meant she had to have at least calmed down enough to talk to it. Besides, this was yet another new experience for it: an actual back and forth conversation with its wife to be. It was so excited that it decided to address the latter question first:

"Of course I know what a marriage is, Andrea." It chuckled with its multiple heads, which resumed kissing her face and neck under the belief that it was helping Andrea's mood. It spoke in its wretched voice with all of the confidence of a child who heard one fact about a subject and believed they were now the foremost authority on the subject, "A marriage is where we put on rings while you wear a dress and we make a vow to be together for all time and then we kiss on the lips to seal the contract. We then go on a trip called a honeymoon and then we sleep in the same bed, hold each other close," It paused, soaking in the moment. If it had a better grasp of the function, it would likely have licked its ebony lips, "And share all of our hopes and fears."
Satisfied with its definition, it then turned to her accusation, "If I killed you, I couldn't enjoy our marriage, Andrea." It said. The creature was reluctant to let that slip; Andrea's fear of death was quite intoxicating but it also seemed to be causing her the most stress, "A dead person can't be afraid and that's no good to me, so I would never kill you. "As for eating you, I lack a digestive tract, I've never eaten anything solid before...how would I even do that?"

The question amused it and gave it pause. How would he eat Andrea, if he was so inclined? It had only figured out how to make a tangible body fairly recently and didn't even know it could hold Andrea until it did. The thought made it forget about its efforts to comfort Andrea and explore the idea.

"Doing it all at once would be no good," It mused, "so it would have to be something that took awhile. Maybe lots of little bites?" The faces that were kissing her neck and the sides of her face paused and erupted into hundreds of tentacles and tendrils that poured over Andrea, going under her dress and inside of her panties, and wrapping around every inch of flesh below her shoulders. If there had been enough light to see in the basement, it would appear the young woman had a nest of snakes she had somehow coaxed into becoming a full body suit. The end of each tendril swelled into a little ball that then sprouted forth with a set of teeth, lips, and tongue that licked the nearest bit of flesh with its cold, wet texture and then moved aside along with the lips so the countless teeth could press against Andrea's skin: not enough to break the skin, but poised to bite.

"I supposed I could nibble you bit by bit," It thought aloud, not caring for the woman who it was resting innumerable pairs of teeth against, "But that would be quite painful, and besides, you'd probably just be afraid of the pain." Suddenly, inspiration struck and its talking head, who had tentacles coming from where its eyes would have been, let out an "Ah-ha!"

The teeth retracted and the mouths unsprouted back into their tendrils. However, this was not a release of the young woman but rather a metamorphosis of the creature's form. The tendrils danced upon her flesh, the separate ridges connecting and and then melding together into one mass. That flowed over her body and began to compress into a large, wet, leathery bag that began to compress around Andrea, forcing her arms down against her, and kept working its way up until it was at Andrea's chin.

"Perhaps like a snake then? I just put you inside of a piece of me, slowly digesting you for days or even weeks. I'd get to spend lots of time with you and you wouldn't be in any pain. Maybe i could even bring you food and water to slow it down further" It said, before adding, "but you'd still die at the end of it Andrea, so that's no good either."

The bag retracted into tentacles and tendrils and then back into the heads which resumed their kisses, though now several other heads joined them over her body, licking up the left over residue from the tongues and bag.

"So you see Andrea, I have not intention of eating or killing you." It said proudly, "Does that put you at ease, Andrea? Andrea?"

 

[Poprockz]

The definition it spouted to her was… elementary at best. It was as though a child had been given a very storybook version of the matter, though understandably without the common addition of “love.” It was a bizarre image to think of: her in a wedding dress, holding hands with the thing, and then kissing it on the lips. The very idea of it made her shudder. Obviously it had conjured lips since the last time she saw it, but she doubted she could ever bring herself to kiss them without feeling sick to her stomach.

Speaking of…

The sudden eruption of sensation all over her body from the tentacles made her squirm. Things were getting much more intimate than she would have liked, especially with the little tongues going into her panties to lick at her lower lips, the ones teasing her breasts, and the others at any number of erogenous zones on her body. Andrea was a sensitive woman, so even though she was shaking in her boots, it did send a tingle down her spine.

Any small fizzle of arousal that her body had summoned was quickly squashed by the addition of the hundreds of poised teeth and the words that followed. The last words she was conscious of hearing were, “bit by bit.”

There was simple silence for several moments after it stopped speaking, Andrea not responding to it whatsoever, not even with her intangible fear. It wasn’t defiance or some new-found courage that had ignited a rebellion within her. No, she had simply passed out and slumped forward slightly after reaching her upper threshold of terror.

When she came to a few seconds later, she blinked blearily in the dark as she reoriented herself. Oh, that’s right-she was in the basement with the thing. Fortunately, it seemed as though passing out had reset her in some ways, so she was able to breathe deeply at the very least. It said it didn’t want to eat her yet; it wanted her to suffer first. That was at least good in the sense that she would have more time to try to figure something out.

“Ngh!” She squirmed again as one of the tongues cleaned her left nipple. “Could you stop… “ Another shiver went down her spine from a tongue working its way up her inner thigh. “-touching me!” Andrea tried to keep her tone even though it was obvious (or would be obvious to most) that she was feeling extremely uncomfortable. “At least under my clothes!”

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

The thing in the shadows had paused when Andrea passed out. It wasn't feeling any fear from her...but it wasn't feeling anything else from her as well. Perhaps she had fallen asleep? It liked the idea of knowing it could help its bride feel comfortable enough to sleep while it was holding her after giving. It had observed couples like Andrea's parents falling asleep in each other's arms, sometimes after kissing and other physical activities.

"We've only been together for a few hours and we're already acting like a married couple," It mused. The thought was a pleasant one and the creature didn't for a moment that the constant flow of fear had been cut off.

Then Andrea woke up and a strong but more controlled current of fear poured out from her as she squirmed, along with something...different. Andrea had shivered, but it wasn't from cold or from nervousness but rather a different kind of arousal than the thing was used to. Her blood was rushing and her breathing was deep, as though her body was going to enter a fight or flight state, yet during that shiver, something other than panic had entered her. Like an ember of a more carnal involuntary experience had sparked for a moment. It made the thing curious.

What was more, the creature felt something it had never felt before: it felt full. Not so much that it couldn't eat more but enough that it felt closed to satisfied with its banquet, leaving it interested in finding other activities to entertain itself with. Then Andrea had made her panicked demand, discomfort (a close cousin of fear), radiating from her, and it had the post-meal activity it needed to explore its curiosity.

It heard her words, and like a child being told to stop touching a sibling, decided to follow the letter of Andrea's words, if not the intent. it retracted its many tendrils from underneath her clothes and wove them into a single set of arms while it also pulled its extra heads back into its body after delivering one last kiss with each of them on her cheeks. It even withdrew the puddle from the floor that had covered Andrea's feet...yet it did not release her. Instead, following her instructions to keep its touches above her clothes, its left hand crossed over in front of Andrea to grope her right breast, while its right rand snaked down and began to rub against her crotch. It knew Andrea's reaction had come after parts on her body were stimulated so it began to see if it could recreate the reaction.

"Is this better, Andrea?" It asked, a tiny bit of wicked glee flavoring its grim tone, "These parts of your flesh feel so different. I know tonight's the first time I've gotten to touch you but these softer bits of flesh on the front of your body that have these little nubs on them," It said, working its fingers up to her areola, where it tried to pinch and squeeze her nipple through the fabric of her nightgown, "Are these your 'tits?" Expecting Andrea to ask where it had learned the term, it immediately gave an explanation: "I heard your father's friends say you had a 'great fucking pair of tits."

Like how it mimicked the sound of dripping water, the creature played a series of sounds without moving its mouth. Though in this case, it was a conversation that sounded like it had been recorded on an old cassette. A conversation that started with what sounded like several aluminum cans being cracked open.

"Soooo," the first voice said, "Did you see Andrea?" The question was followed by a low whistle and a chorus of laughter.

"Oh my god, THANK YOU. It was so awkward after past in those shorts, her ass looked like two fucking hams!" The next voice said, which was rewarding with the sound of kneeslaps.

"Her ass is fire but what about those tits?"

"She has a great fucking pair of tits. I know I shouldn't say this cause I'm her godfather buuuut..."

"C'mon, Mike, safe space here."

"Okay, ever since she posted those pool party pics, I've been thinking at least once a day about how much I would hit that. Hell, I think I caught Sally even checking her out." This led to an eruption of hoots and hollers, "again, I know she's my goddaughter but-"

"Fuck, if she were my daughter I'd want to hit that," the first voice said, leading to the sound of a bunch of stifled laughs.

"Uh guys, you coming in to watch the game, or not?" A voice which sounded like Andrea's father asked, leading to whispers of "oh shit!" as the conversation ended.

The thing had not stopped rubbing and groping Andrea as the conversation played out, unaware of how a young woman might react to hearing such a conversation. The hand that was rubbing against her panties pressed against a groove it had found and sped up.

"I know what an 'ass' is," it said, picking up from its conversation as though nothing had happened, "so these things are your 'tits' right?" It then posed another question, "but what was the "that" they were going to 'hit?" It asked in a tone that made it difficult to determine whether it already knew and was teasing, or if it sincerely didn't know, "It must be a part of your body, am I right? Tell me what they meant, Andrea." It ordered, still wanting to see if it could bring forth the reaction that its multitude of tongues had earlier.

 

[Poprockz]

Oh thank god... it was actually retreating. There was a moment of relief where she believed that it was going to actually release her, but this was short-lived. The woman sucked in a breath when one of its hands went to her pussy and the other to her breast- two places that she decidedly did not want it touching. Being that the residue from the tongues and bag was still on her skin, it made the thing's movements more slick against her body, the silky fabric of her nightgown sliding easily over her nipple and nethers.

Another tingle went down her body as it started to play with her pert little rosebud, and each of her hands went to one of its arms, trying with utter futility to push or pull them away. It didn't matter when she closed her thighs tightly; like a shadow, it simply continued to slip between them to do what it wanted.

When it started to speak, part of her wondered if it wasn't being vindictive. Perhaps she had offended it by telling it to get off, and thus it was punishing her in a very passive-aggressive way. It talked like an alien, which she supposed was somewhat true. It wasn't human, certainly, and it spent most of its time around children. Sex probably wasn't something it knew very much about, but if that was the case then how did it know to tease the right places?

Her thoughts were cut off as she listened to the conversation it was repeating for her, her eyes widening in shock. Her father’s friends had been ogling her? It had to be lying, right? She had moved out to a two-year college program when she was eighteen, so in all likelihood they had been watching her before then. God, she had been at pool parties with them around! Some of them were still close with her father and visited during the holidays. They had always seemed happy to see her, given her a big, tight hug…

No... she didn't think it would have been able to come up with all that, much less mimic exactly how they spoke if it hadn't heard it first-hand. Now that it brought it to her attention, there had been some things here and there that were unusual. Last summer Dan had accidentally walked in on her when she was showering. Now it didn’t seem so accidental. He had lingered as though in shock, but his eyes had flicked all the way down and back up her body. Another of her dad’s friends, Seamus, had snuggled up to her in her bed at Christmas. The man had acted mortified when she called him out, apologizing profusely and saying he thought this was the guest room he and his wife were in. It had been awkward after that, but she had gotten over it. Looking back, she couldn’t help but shudder from the memory of him pressed up behind her, squeezing her hip, and taking a deep sniff of her hair near her neck.

Come to think of it, Mike was coming over the day after next to help her with tiling one of the bathrooms. He was her dad’s closest friend and one of the few men she felt comfortable being alone with. To think that he wished he could fuck her... it was repulsive. Should she cancel with him? Now she didn't feel safe having him around. She was going to be all alone in this house with him and she doubted the shadow monster would save her if the guy pressed his luck- more likely it would simply watch with interest.

The whole thing was so disgusting and disappointing, her eyes once again tearing up from such a horrible revelation. Though, her attention was soon brought back to the present by the hand between her legs becoming a bit quicker and more insistent.

"Ah!" A soft sound escaped her lips. She could feel her pussy getting moist from its attentions, and in the darkness her cheeks flushed with humiliation. The situation reminded her partly of her ex-boyfriend and how he had insisted on fingering her in a clothing store dressing room. It had turned out that public sex was a kink of his, one that wasn't reciprocated. Andrea was strongly opposed to the idea of doing that sort of thing because she didn't feel the thrill, only the fear of being found out. She didn't want it then and she didn't want it now, but her body was very responsive to being played with despite her own feelings.

If things went on like this, then there was a possibility that it could try to take things further, like her father's "friends" wanted to, apparently.

To its question, she wasn't sure whether it really wanted an answer or not, but she decided to respond anyway. "You're not even human, so what does it matter what they wanted to 'hit' or what any of that means? Just let me go and we can just talk. I won't run away, so just let go of me and-"

Her foot bumped something, and it took her a moment to realize that it was the button for a lamp. It was a risk, but one that she decided in that split-second to take. With one swift movement, she stomped on it and a click was heard, the lamp lighting up the basement and freeing her from the monster’s grasp. The unfortunate part of all of this was that the lamp was old and she knew it. Its lightbulb needed to be replaced and was practically burned out, so a moment or two of light was all it could give before it went dim and then completely dark again. Hopefully… that was all she would need.

Andrea practically flew up the steps of the basement and ran right into the door; it was honestly a miracle she hadn’t tripped before that. The force with which her body hit that wooden barrier would have sent her bouncing off and down the stairs if she hadn’t grabbed part of the railing, caught her balance and righted herself in time. It was surprising to find it closed, as she knew for certain that she had left it open on the way down. The only explanation was that the thing had closed it before springing its trap, though how it had managed to do so without the hinges squealing obnoxiously was a mystery to her.

Her hand went to the doorknob and she tried to open it. It was locked. Why was it locked?! The door didn’t lock automatically, so this must be another measure that creature had taken. Shit. Shit shit shit!

The woman was cognizant of the fact that she had lost precious time because of the locked door, and as a result her movements became more frantic as she fumbled and unlocked it in the dark. She could feel the darkness pressing upon her, watching her, probably just a hair’s breath from snatching her back up again. By flashing it with the lamp she had essentially spat in its face, and she feared the repercussions of its wrath. Would it drag her back down the stairs with a bruising grip on her arm the way Josh had? Would it break her limbs so she couldn’t try to get away anymore? Or maybe it would suck the eyes right out of her skull to leave her blind and helpless. All she could hear was the sound of her rapid heart-beat pounding in her ears as the door finally opened.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

Something had gone wrong. When it had played the conversation, the creature was partially interested in seeing what specific terms meant but it had mainly wanted to see what kind of a reaction it could get out of Andrea. However, the reaction the conversation had gotten from her was NOT what the creature had expected. It wasn’t the strange type of arousal it had felt before, it was…disgust…betrayal…hurt and not the type the children it tormented knew about, this was a more insidious feeling. The creature tried to ignore these unanticipated emotions but to its shock, its capacity for fear had been reached and it could no longer swallow any more of Andrea’s.

When it heard Andrea speak, it considered letting her go. It would need to trust her, at least until the wedding preparations were complete, yet as it began to slacken its grip, Andrea turned on the lamp. The bulb did indeed die but it did not go quietly. The filament ‘popped’ and what would have normally been a dim, dying light, was instead a brief flash of pure white light, that struck the thing in the shadows, instantly destabilizing its form.

Normally, this would be no problem. Its forms were always fluctuating and temporary, but those forms were of shadows and simple constructions like the one it had hung up on the ceiling. But this current form had structure. It had a facsimile of blood vessels. It had a respiratory system…and it had nerves. The light couldn’t kill the thing but as it collapsed into Itself and tried to purge the bits of nerves that were sticking out, sending constant messages of agony, that fact did not give the thing much comfort.

It heard Andrea fleeing, already fumbling with the lock and, lacking the time to make a proper form, instead shot forth a thin, whip-like arm that looked like its shadowy flesh was sloughing off, leaving only obsidian bones. It was too late to stop the door from opening but it was able to do a simple loop around her waist. However, even though the light was minimal due to the waning moon, combined with the thing’s uncertain state, the skeletal arm was not a particularly strong construct. With enough effort, Andrea could fight her way out of it, but a quick enough tug could also send her back down the stairs.



“Andrea. I hurt you, you hurt me. Fair.” It found itself unable to generate vocal cords so it instead spoke as it had at the start of the night, though its uncertain state made the conversation more broken. It started again, trying to force the words to come together properly. “You said if I let you go you would talk to me and not run. I will let you go if you agree to talk and not get under your covers or go to your parents’ room…and don’t turn around.”

The last term was a matter of protection for Andrea and a matter of opportunity for the creature. While it was not as omnipotent in the near dark as it was in the total darkness, it could hold a form and unlike the basement where Andrea was spared the sight of the creature the little bit of moonlight showed a most terrifying visage lumbering up the stairs. At the other end of the arm was a massive, shifting menagerie of nightmares that walked up the steps. The creature couldn’t pick a stable form so it had become a shifting creature of countless nightmares, with branch like arms scraping against the wall while chitinous legs scampered on the steps, heads made of nothing but teeth bobbed up and down like fishing lures, the light only seeming to hit their ever expanding maws, animal like claws leapt out like salmon before being swallowed up and transforming into brief structures of wildly waving tentacles.

…while it couldn’t stomach anymore fear, it was sure that by tomorrow it would be able to, and it would hate to miss the visceral reaction Andrea might have to this form. It slackened its arm.

“Deal?”

 

[Poprockz]

The woman froze when she felt it wrap around her waist, not knowing how strong or weak the thing was at the moment. Hopefully the light had hurt it enough for her to get away, but it was hard to know whether she should chance it or not. One yank could send her tumbling down the stairs to her death, or worse.

Its voice sounded like it had earlier, so that at least was promising. It meant that it was having a hard time maintaining whatever facade it thought she wanted to hear. It didn't want her under her covers or in her parents' room? Ah, so those were the safe places were they? Good. It was comforting to know that there were still places that were inaccessible to that thing, and it gave her a plan of action for tomorrow.

She considered its offer.

While it was possible it could be weakened at the moment, there was no guarantee that it would continue to be weak. It could be attempting to buy time while it puts itself back together to drag her back into the basement. Still...

"Just for tonight- Deal."

With that, she shrugged off its arm and walked forward. It took a lot of self-restraint not to look back or high-tail it to her parents' room, but she needed answers and was currently in a position of power. Andrea might not get another chance like this, so she figured she ought to take advantage of it. They were going to talk on her own terms, and certainly not down in that basement. Besides... she didn't know if she could outrun it, being that the thing had abilities she likely wasn't aware of.

The woman made her way over to the couch, sitting in a pool of dim moonlight that was streaming in from the window. There were plenty of shadows in the room for it to occupy, but it was not going to be groping her during this conversation. Her knees went up against her chest and she hugged them, making herself smaller but also finding the position to be a comforting one. Andrea cast her eyes downward, not wanting to catch sight of the thing, knowing in her gut that she would regret it if she did. There had been scuttling and scraping behind her, and she knew that whatever form it was in at the moment would give her nightmares for years to come if she chanced a peek.

"Why are you back? Didn't you already take my sheep in exchange for leaving me alone? What will you do if I refuse to marry you?" Her tone was very wary, suspecting that she might already know the answer for that second question.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

It was weak. Far weaker than it had expected. It had never known the concept of exhaustion but it was as though it could only stretch a small part of itself out from its main body, which had retreated further into the basement so Andrea wouldn't see it. That part of it was twisting and writhing without any input from it: an experience the creature had never experienced before. As it strode along the moonlight floor, its current form: a flat humanoid shadow that crawled across the ground, it did its best to not let Andrea know the worry that was plaguing it. Instead, it looked at her curled up into a ball on the couch and tried to carefully listen to Andrea and pick its answers carefully.

"Sheep?" It asked, puzzled. On the ground, it made the shadow it was within to move its arm up to scratch its head. After a minute, it finally spoke. "Oh! BaaBaa!" It exclaimed, finally remembering the little sheep stuffie. The creature tended to remember its children's totems of protection or the little rituals they would employ to try a and keep it at bay. They didn't offer any true protection but when children used them, they felt safe enough to not call their parents and the thing in the shadows was free to sit in the corner of the room or on the child's bed, drinking their fear until sleep finally found its prey. It remembered the little sheep and how a much younger Andrea would cling to it under her covers.

"I never took Baabaa." It said perplexed, "BaaBaa had no value to me. It could not think or feel emotions so I couldn't feed off of it. Why would I think to take it when I could have you?" It explained, "After you promised me anything, I stopped bothering you. I never touched your little stuffed animal." It paused, "Hmmm, I do recall though that next night, when I was hiding in the basement, that your dog...what was his name?" Animals had always seemed to give it a wide berth, so it rarely paid them much mind. Even the most loving dog tended to just leave the room when it was present, "I saw it carrying something into the yard that seemed soft and animal shaped."

It hoped that explanation won it some points with Andrea, at least enough for her to keep talking to it, as the second question gave it some pause.

"I wouldn't do anything because you can't refuse." It explained, matter-of-factly, "The moment you offered me anything, the deal was struck. I left you alone till you were an adult and had more mature fears that I could come to eat. I could have left you alone for one night and my end of the bargain would have been met but I wanted you to live your life till you were old enough to live on your own and have a more experienced life." It stated, not intending to sound defensive though its lack of tact didn't help things regardless, "The marriage ceremony I am wanting however will make things official."

"I've already explained that if I killed you, I would not gain anything." It said, the shadow trying to spread its "arms" under the moonlight, "Even if you fight me on this, I would not kill or injure you...but I will marry you during the new moon in four days from now and there's nothing you can do to stop that." It stated in its usual bluntness, "I'd rather you be a willing bride and I'm wanting to get to know you so I can learn how to be a spouse to you." It opened up, as much as it was able, "Andrea, the moment that deal was struck I began changing. I could start comprehending more complex fears and tonight I not only touched you but I felt emotions from you other than fear...as we spend more time together, I think I can grow and learn more but if I stopped seeking this marriage, I might lose that and have to go back to what I was. I can't do that. I WON'T do that." it said in a sudden bellow.

It realized for the first time, there was something that scared it. It didn't fear death but it feared losing what it had gained. It had only gotten to drink of these new sensations for a night and it now felt like these abilities were inseparable for what it was now. If it lost the ability to touch and taste it felt like it would be less than it was before.

Calming down, it decided to put forward a question to her that she had asked it: "Andrea, you asked me what I thought a marriage was but what is a marriage to you? I may have mostly scared children but I have observed adults. i have seen mothers and fathers talk to each other in hushed tones away from their children and speak of fears they don't want them to know and work together to accomplish things they alone could not. I have seen them comfort each other...I can learn to do these things, what does a marriage entail that we could not do?" It asked, genuinely curious.

 

[Poprockz]

Ah, so Snuffles the dog had taken her sheep- that made sense. The creature’s logic also made sense, so she chose to believe it. After all, she could corroborate its testimony tomorrow by giving her parents a call. They would have been the ones to clean up the mess and hide it from her, so she figured they would be able to give her the truth. She supposed she hadn’t really needed it anymore though…

Andrea turned her thoughts to his next comments, frowning slightly at the idea that it was certain that it was going to marry her regardless of whether she refused or not, as though it was already fated to be. She was a child when she made that plea. It was rather cruel to hold a child responsible for a promise it didn’t understand and was made under duress.

It didn’t seem like it cared whether something it did was cruel or not though, seeing as it was fixated on feeding on fear. By human standards, it was a detestable creature of darkness that delighted in the fears of children (and now an adult Andrea). It was either ignorant of the sort of suffering it put her through, or it simply enjoyed that perk. It was frankly hard to tell what was ignorance and what was simply evil.

Her entire body flinched at his unexpected outburst, the woman squeezing her knees a bit tighter as her wide eyes looked at him as though expecting him to continue to rage. When it didn't, she relaxed slightly, though she shuffled slightly on the couch so that she was again in the pool of moonlight. It had shifted ever-so-slightly as the minutes went on.

"What could..." She stopped and simply stared at it. Was it insane?! How could it think that it could ever be a suitable husband for it. Comfort her?! How?!

"You're a creature that feeds on fear. What makes you think that anyone would be happy in a marriage where their partner terrifies them every day? You can't comfort someone when you're the source of their fear. All those kisses you gave me in the basement horrified me. I literally passed out from terror not fifteen minutes ago. You'll never- I don't know how you-" Andrea was at a loss for words for a moment before she took a tense sigh and closed her eyes as though she had a headache.

"You want to know what I think a marriage is? It's the result of two people falling in love and deciding they want to spend their lives together. It's a bond where two people bring each other joy and take care of each other. When you look into your partner's eyes, you want to know that they treasure you, that they'll protect you, and that they never want you to suffer. When they kiss you, you want to feel either the raw passion or the soft love they have for you. Marriage is where you never truly feel alone because there's always someone who cares deeply about you..." Her words trailed off, the woman suddenly feeling a wave of deep sadness and loneliness come upon her. She had hoped that Josh would have been the one to be that person for her before he changed. Now... now she was likely going to have to marry a demon and be terrified for the rest of her days until her heart gave out, it decided to eat her, or she took other more drastic measures.

Her hand came up to wipe her cheek dry before she glared at the thing, "I'm a plaything to you. A meal. How could you possibly make me happy?"

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

It listened, and as it did it felt something else from Andrea, something that made it feel like it was drowning and had no hope of surfacing before it was too late. Unable to eat fear, it had no shield from these feelings. The pain was excruciating, enough to make it consider retreating to the basement, but it held on, listening to Andrea say her thoughts, even if it only added confusion onto its pain. Passion? Love? it didn't know what those were! It had thought when it had made that deal all those years ago, it would have a constant source of delectable mature fears from its favorite prey but it didn't think it would come attached to all of...whatever this was. Everything was so complex, everything hurt, what was the point of all of this if it only led to pain and confusion?

...but it had gained too. Not just a new source of fear but other sensations, other emotions, even if it was painful it was not the dull life it had led up till now. It considered what Andrea had said and it finally responded.

"You aren't wrong, Andrea," it admitted, "I did think of your fears as a source of nourishment...and I don't understand a lot. When I kissed you I thought it would comfort you like when your mother kissed you as a child. I don't know what love is, I don't know what passion is, and while I feel satisfied when I'm full, I'm guessing that isn't the same happy you mean." It continued, focusing on the pain, "But I do know that I don't want you to suffer...because while you've been talking I've been feeling pain from you...and I don't think it was all from me, was it? Something hurt you and I can barely stand feeling the pain from it. When you heard your father's friends talking I felt other emotions from you that made me feel sick. If this is loneliness, and sadness and betrayal I want to protect you from it, since I don't want anything to feel this way...and maybe if I protect you from that I can feel other emotions from you like joy and happiness and passion."

"But you are wrong about one thing," It said, its shadowy finger pointing up at her from the floor, "I don't-no, I can't see you as a plaything. Especially not now. You are someone who can carry emotions with you that tear me apart. You are someone who can be terrified one second and then talk back to the thing that terrified you. I don't see you as a plaything," It said, "How could I? Even if I don't understand some emotions and concepts, I understand strength and you are very strong Andrea. I might not understand love and passion but as of tonight, I want to be more like you. I may not understand passion but I feel I need to get stronger so i can be a match for you. You say a partner should treasure you and i think I at least can do that right now."

"I'll never leave you alone Andrea, I'll protect you from sadness and loneliness until I can comfort you and make you happy so I can know what that feels like, and I will use this time to learn and grow so I can be strong like you. I'll still need to feed on your fear," it admitted, "But I won't try to scare you. I just ask that each night you don't hide under the covers or go to your parents' room, and just spend a few hours with me. I left a wedding ring in your room, you don't have to put it on until you trust me." It said, trying to think of some terms Andrea could agree to. It then thought of another request, "Also, since I would like to be more like you, I'd like you to choose a name for me. Something you'd be all right calling me."

 

[Poprockz]

For a monster of the shadows the thing was incredibly eloquent, and in different circumstances she might find its claims incredibly romantic and sweet in a bizarre sort of way. She found herself wanting to believe the words she was hearing, though Andrea knew that the thing could simply be trying to manipulate her. It made her feel a bit conflicted, her mind going back and forth about how compliant she was going to be with its demands.

Wait a second, did it say that it felt her pain? It occurred to her that what she had breezed past in previous mentions (likely due to her own horror) that it seemed to be saying that it didn't just feel her fear, but could also feel all of her other emotions as well like some kind of empath. The thought wasn't particularly comforting, especially when she thought back to when the thing was groping her. Had it been able to sense her arousal? She really hoped not, or that would be incredibly embarrassing.

Andrea cleared her throat. "So what you're saying is that you want me to spend a few hours with you each night, you don't want me to hide from you, and you want me to name you? I'm not going to promise you anything, but I'll consider it." Obviously it was a bad idea to enter into any kind of agreement with it again, being that the last one was what brought about this whole situation in the first place.

She sighed and laid her head sideways on her knees, her brown locks running down her leg. Now that the danger had seemingly passed (for now), she felt rather tired. "And as a free lesson in human things, I'll give you an idea of what love and passion is. Love is like warmth and light- it's comforting and soft. Passion is... very similar to hunger, you could say. It's when you strongly desire or are very enthusiastic about something. In relationships, it usually pertains to... more intimate aspects of it." Her eyes closed and she listened for a response.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

“that’s all I ask, Andrea.” It said, thankful she was at least willing to give it a chance. It didn’t know how much it could resist its own desires for fear come tomorrow, but for the moment her pain has subsided and that let it feel relief, if not happiness.

It then listened to her lesson and watched her hair descend down her leg. It heard her talk of passion and love and wondered if it could elicit those emotions from her, and if so, would it feel them too?

The moment she mentioned intimacy, the thing briefly flickered. It recalled touching her in the dark, not just how for a brief moment Andrea had expressed something like pleasure. It wanted to feel that again, no, it wanted the whole experience, to know the taste and warmth of her body, to feel her writhe, even if it was without the fear. As it looked at her from the pitiful shadow it cast on the floor, it longed to wrap her in its form and know what she felt like…but it was too weak.

“Thank you for your lesson, Andrea. I hope tomorrow we can both feel some love towards each other.” It paused and with great effort, it rose from the floor, so thin it might appear to be thin paper doll, and lengthened a tiny arm until it was able to touch her face with a small, doll like hand. It brushed a strand of hair back and rubbed her cheek before its exhaustion forced it to retreat, “and that the next time I kiss you and we’re…intimate , it will make you happy.”

With that it fell back into the floor and made its way towards the basement, moving slowly in case Andrea wanted to speak to it. while it didn’t understand passion, it was Understanding regret: it really wanted to feel Andrea in its arms again and to be able to carry her to bed

 

[Poprockz]

From her seat on the couch she watched it slink back into the basement, still feeling the ghost of its lingering touch on her cheek. It had been a surprisingly tender gesture, and it was difficult to be sure whether there was any feeling behind it or whether the thing was simply mimicking things it had seen others do, like when it kissed her forehead.

Andrea decided that she was too tired to contemplate the thing's words any further at the moment, so she got up and went back to bed. For tonight at least, she knew it wouldn't be coming back to scare her.

....

Once she woke up, she had a little more bandwidth to consider what it was proposing. It was a demon, and demons were known for tricking mortals so they could extract the maximum amount of pain and suffering for their efforts. No doubt it was simply trying to lure her into feeling a false sense of security before it ripped away her hopes and drowned her in despair. Its ignorance could be a well-played act- she had no way of knowing whether it spoke genuinely or not. All she knew was that it wanted to force her to marry him, and she simply couldn't allow that to happen.

Thus, after her coffee was brewed, she got straight to work in trying to figure a way out of the engagement. Since the thing was demonic in all likelihood, so she needed an exorcism or something similar. She called around, getting nowhere. The priest in the area shrugged her off and said that she should perhaps find a good therapist. When she had finally exhausted all her other options, she dialed the last number: the local witch.

That woman had always been very strange, and many parents had whispered to their children to stay away from her, crossing the street as she approached. She was unpredictable, dangerous, strange… three words that also described Andrea’s situation. It was worth a shot, so she dialed the number.

“Hello?” Came the wizened voice of an old woman.

“Oh, hello. My name is Andrea. I was looking for Eliza Holland and I was wondering if she could… help me with something.” She swallowed, not quite knowing how to breach the subject.

“Hmmm. This is she. You sound scared. Spit it out- what’s bothering you?” The woman asked.

“I have a problem. I-“ she let out a little breath, “I think I have a demon in my house.”

“What makes you think that?” There was a curiosity in the witch’s tone rather than judgement, which encouraged Andrea further.

“I’ve seen it. When I was a child, it would scare me at night. It was gone for a long time and then last night it made me think there was dripping in the basement and it locked me in when I went to look. It… grabbed me.” Her voice became small, recounting the experience.

There was silence on the other end before the other woman responded, “That’s very serious. It sounds like your entity is powerful and aggressive. Did it try to harm you?”

“No…” she admitted, “it just kind of held onto me and it seemed like it was trying to get me to calm down. That’s what it said, anyway.”

“It spoke to you?”

“Yeah.”

“What does it look like?”

Andrea thought for a moment, “that depends. It’s like a shadow- it can change its shape when it wants to. It grew lots of heads and arms at one point, then seemed like it was bubbling over like a liquid. Normally though, it’s kinda humanoid. It’s black… it’s so black it looks darker than darkness. I think Vanta would be a good name for it since it’s the darkest thing I’ve ever seen.”

There was a sucked breath on the other end, “no no no, are you crazy, girl? You named it?!”

“What?” Andrea felt a little embarrassed, shuffling where she stood in the kitchen. “Is that bad?”

“Names have power, girl. Words have power. This thing already has more than enough power and you want to give it more?!”

“I haven’t used that name around it,” she said defensively, nervously casting her eyes around the room as though making sure the thing wouldn’t pop out from the silverware drawer or something, “and it sleeps during the day so it’s not like it would overhear me or anything.”

“Assumptions,” the woman huffed, “you don’t know what that thing is capable of. Unfortunately it’s not in my power to help you with something as ancient as that, but I can give you some advice. One: try to stay in the light. Two: try to figure out if it’s tied to you or your house. And three, the most important one. Don’t enter into any kind of agreement with it. That’s all I got. Good luck girl.”

Click.

Andrea stared at the phone. Ah. So she was indeed royally fucked.

“Ha… Haha…. Ahahahaha!” What had started with a little chuckle slowly morphed into a hysterical fit of laughter. She wasn’t sure why, but once she got started, she just couldn’t stop. Seamlessly, her laughter started to sound more like sobbing and her cheeks became doused with fresh tears. What the fuck was she supposed to do in this situation?! The people who were supposed to be able to help her couldn’t, and everyone else wouldn’t believe her if she told them. Even if they did, what were they supposed to do?

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, pacing, napping, and baking. Her original plan had been to make chocolate chip cookies for Mike and the consultant coming in tomorrow, the one who would assess the home and tell her what exactly should be done to get the place ship-shape and ready for sale. That plan hadn’t changed, though whether she saw them the next day or not depended on whether she was able to keep the monster at bay that night.

Her course of action was simple: turn on all the lights in her immediate area and never go into the dark. That way, the thing would be confined to the dark parts of the house and wouldn’t be able to get near her. In fact, she was going to sleep in her parents’ room where she knew it was safe.

And so, as it reached the early afternoon, she turned on all the lights including the basement and retreated to her parent's room. She wrote a note that said, "I don't want to talk tonight." and taped it on their door.

She wore a dark green silk nightie that night, sitting on her parents' bed cross-legged with her laptop and a bag of chips. Hopefully... Hopefully she would be safe tonight.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

By the time the creature finally made it back to the basement, it was run ragged. It felt as though it was drained, despite the fact its belly should have been full. There was so much it had learned that night that the ancient but ignorant creature was overwhelmed. Hurt, disgust, loneliness, happiness, passion, and love, as well as a host of fears that it had only begun to appreciate. What was more, it now had a desire other than finding a source of fear large enough to fill its belly for all time. It thought of Andrea on the couch, who, after being terrified of him for most of the night, was able to talk to him in a kind tone. It wanted to have more moments like that with her. It wanted to learn what passion and love were and feel those from and towards Andrea.

But why did it feel so weak?

The answer was in the corner of the basement where its main body was situated. Far from the swirling menagerie that had stalked the basement mere minutes before, there was instead a large ovoid that its tiny form was being drawn towards. The creature felt concerned. It was centuries if not millennia old and it had never encountered a time where it did not know what its own body was doing. Yet as it struggled to make sense of what was occurring, the only answer it received was to see a lengthy tentacle extend forth from the shape and gingerly drag Andrea's phone from under the shelves, carefully doing its best to avoid striking itself with the flashlight's beam. The tentacle then wrestled with the device, burning itself and reforming as it carefully felt the subtle grooves and marks on the surface of the screen so it could work out Andrea's passcode. Over the years it had observed children and parents use devices just like this and it used that knowledge to turn off the flashlight and then toss the phone inside of the Ovoid. This appeared to be the last step of whatever strange ceremony was taking place and the tiny fragment that had been brushing Andrea's face was drawn into the strange monument like a noodle that had been slurped up into a giant maw.

Now combined with its full being, the thing in the shadows was only more terrified. Within that obsidian egg, its thoughts became a magnified tempest of confusion and madness as all of the new fears and experiences it encountered that night. The fear it had once so treasured as a source of sustenance now battered it and tore into what could best be described as its psyche while betrayal and pain ricocheted around, pulverizing it. Grasping at straws, it looked at the phone, whose battery was almost dead, for some kind of warmth, hoping some insight into Andrea might help it weather the storm going on inside of it. But what it found in the phone only confused it more.

It had gone for the photos, one of the few apps it understood and what it was met with were pictures of texts between Andrea and a boy named "Josh." The story those images told filled the ancient being with anger, confusion...and a deep pain. The texts were from different times and they weren't all in order but what the creature gathered was that Josh and Andrea had been together as a couple. Josh had hurt Andrea terribly and had inflicted that pain over the course of some time. The texts showed Josh making comments that the creature had only heard uttered in houses where it did not try to dwell as the children were more afraid of the people saying them than any shape the creature could take. Andrea in the texts would make accusations and Josh would admit to them but try to twist events so Andrea was to blame for her own suffering. What appeared to be the breaking point was an incident where Josh had kicked Andrea's cat outside and it was mauled by a dog...and considering the cat was not poking around the house, the thing could only assume it had died. There were other texts about things like "court dates" and "restraining orders.' But by the end of the texts, the thing in the shadows was too hurt and terrified to try and make sense of them.

It hurt like its whole being was cracking under an incalcuable pressure. Someone had hurt its prize...no, they had hurt Andrea. It shouldn't matter, if anything, this pain could be used to exploit Andrea's fears, to make her crack and bleed forth with all new fears and trauma but the thing wasn't concerned with that. It thought of how Andrea had sounded when the pain had sprung forth from her and it felt sorrow even if it didn't understand it. It didn't understand a lot: it knew why it had scared Andrea: it needed to feed and it was trying to learn...but why would another human want to hurt Andrea? And how could someone who said in the texts that he loved Andrea hurt her. That was what confused it the most: despite all the pain in contained in the texts, there were times where Josh would say he loved Andrea and couldn't live without her...and there were times where Andrea would say she loved him back.

While it hadn't understood love, Andrea had described it as warm and soft...and it didn't seem like she was lying. Yet these texts made love look like a trap that could keep someone in danger. It didn't understand...it just didn't understand and the confusion felt like it was going to unwind it. Why did it ever try to understand adult fears? Was the life it had lead before really so bad? it had steady food and it could explore different locations if not complexity. All tonight had done was introduce hindrances to its eating. In fact, it had run out of room to stuff itself with fear and all that had led to was frustration and being trapped inside of itself for purposes it had yet to understand.

It could run. Now within the strange self-made structure, it at least had enough strength to grab what mass it could and bolt out of the house. What was the point of gaining more opportunities for fear if they came with caveats? Besides, Andrea was right: it didn't truly understand love or what a wedding entailed. It could leave, find a child, and start its old life. Andrea would forget it in time and it would just give her a wide berth...only, it didn't want her to forget it. It looked through the other photos and it saw Andrea. Some photos focused on her breasts and genitals, some she was clothed, but regardless of her state of dress, the pictures that truly captured its attention was Andrea's eyes and smiles. Those photos showed an Andrea it hadn't seen before. An Andrea that was truly happy and an Andrea whose eyes showed desire, love, and...passion. It had only heard the words for those emotions yet as it stared into Andrea's eyes, it could only describe her emotions that way.

...It couldn't run. As the battery on the phone died and the device slipped out of the egg, it still thought of Andrea. it thought of her eyes, the tired girl on the couch, and how it felt thinking about her. It finally understood what this strange new shape it had taken was. When it had first thought of the loophole, it thought it was escaping the rules but there was one rule it couldn't escape. If it wanted to understand, and it did, it would need to change and if there was one rule that couldn't be denied it would be this: Change hurts.
It stopped trying to hide from the whirling emotions and pain. It instead grew a form within the egg, one of nerves, blood, bone, and tears. It released a small tendril and cast it off to observe Andrea within the house the next day from within the shadows and floorboards of the house. It then shrunk the egg, smaller and smaller until it was barely the size of an atom. As it grew denser, time slowed around it...and within that microscopic egg, it began the painful process of a long overdue metamorphosis.

 

[Brandnewbuddy]

###

The egg grew to full size the next night. Or at least, it tried to. The lights in the basement immediately forced it to roll into the nearest darkened corner, which was only a tenth of the size it needed. As it tried to figure out what to do, the tendril, which had been equally weakened, finally snaked its way to the egg and reintegrated with it, sharing the days events...as best it could. Within the egg, it heard fragments of the calls but it was difficult to piece it all together. Andrea had called for help with a demon..which it assumed was her talking about it. She had chosen a name for it, Vanta, and then she had laughed and cried...but it couldn't understand the context.


But it didn't matter: Andrea had been crying and it couldn't let that stand. A leg burst out from the egg, a limb that was far bigger and larger than the egg, let alone the opening it had burst from. it was followed by seven other limbs all conjoined into a twisting ball that impossibly was still partially covered by the egg. The tangle of limbs began to dissipate in the light, though slow enough that the thing, which was embracing the name Vanta, was able to generate new limbs as it rolled towards the breaker box. Using the knowledge of watching Andrea's exacerbated father in the past, it flung the box open and hit all of the breakers, shutting the lights off in the house. In that darkness, The egg finally grew to full size and Vanta burst out of it. The limbs reconfigured themselves and it became a living shadow that had two pairs of green eyes that glowed in the dark despite there being no source of light to reflect off of them.

It considered searching the house through the vents but, in a thought that would have shocked Vanta's past self, it didn't want to scare her. Instead, it made a new form that walked up the stairs and opened the basement door. It then slowly walked through the house, checking each room.

"Andrea?" Vanta called out, "Is everything okay? I'm sorry if I kept you waiting. You must have fallen asleep with the lights on," It rationalizaed. It saw she wasn't in her bedroom and was about to check the kitchen, when it saw the note on her parent's door, and felt Andrea's emotions coming from within. Vanta was starving so it took a moment to feed on the emotions so it could restore its strength before it read the note.

"I don't want to talk tonight."

The note and Andrea's location shocked Vanta. While it had told her about not hiding under the covers so she would try to futilely use them, its warning about her parents' room had a secondary purpose: while it didn't know too much about weddings, Vanta did know that two married adults did things away from the eyes of their children so it had expected not to be alone with Andrea in that room until at least after their wedding. Still, Andrea could have just been going there for what she thought was extra protection...but the note suggested otherwise. Within Vanta's mind, played memories of Andrea's mother waiting for her father on the bed and ordering him to not say anything before he would strip and their bodies would come together in a lustful meeting, or Andrea's father, after putting Andrea to bed, would pat his wife's butt and shush her before carrying her over the threshold and tearing her clothes off once she hit the mattress.

Did Andrea want to be intimate? Vanta was shocked. It had hoped its metamorphosis would lead to being able to be emotionally intimate and eventually physical but this was a genuine shock. Vanta knocked on the door: even if Andrea didn't want it to talk, Vanta wanted to at least get something off of his chest.

"Andrea, I saw the note so I will try to be quick. I want to say I'm sorry for scaring you yesterday," Its tone was gentler and more natural. While it had talked like it was just learning to use lungs before, now it spoke like using its mouth and throat was something it had always done...though it sounded like it was talking with two voices, "I'm sorry I made you fear for your life. I know for you it's only been a day but for me it's been far longer and I've learned a lot. I have a lot more to say but we can do it after this. Thank you for trusting me with this chance and I promise I'll do everything I can to comfort you."

With that, Vanta zipped under that door and reappeared on the bed. Unlike the night before, what was on the bed was not an abstract human form but rather one that much better resembled a human being, with soft wavy hari and a soft yet athletic masculine body that aside from its nostrilless nose, jagged ears, 7'5 frame, and skin that was so dark that it seemd to absorb what little light the laptop was putting out, could be considered normal looking. Vanta placed its left hand on Andrea's right cheek. It stared into her eyes with desire that at first was just an emulation of what it had seen in Andrea's photo, but as it remembered the loneliness it had felt within the egg and its desire to see Andrea again, the look became genuine and tears began to spring up.

That look was soon joined by another pair of green eyes welling up with tears, and a right hand was soon caressing Andrea's left cheek. The eyes belonged to a second, feminine body that was a of a similar complexion but slightly smaller at 6'8. Like its masculine counterpart, this form had the same nostril free nose and jagged ears, and soft yet atheltic frame, though unlike it, it had had long hair that descended down its backside to a pert buttocks, and a pair of pear shaped breasts. It also wore the same expression of desire and need its counterpart had.

Both bodies lunged forward and kissed Andrea on the cheek. "I didn't know what you preferred, so I went with both." Vanta explained, speaking with both forms, "This is my first time, so please don't be too harsh on me-sorry, I know, you don't want to talk." The male body kissed her lips then broke off so the female body could kiss her. unlike the previous night, the bodies were warm and fleshy. Their lips were full and they let out satisfied moans and sighs as they kissed the object of their affection and ran their hands through her hair. Their Free hands began to work Andrea's nightie up until her belly was exposed.

Vanta sighed: while it wasn't sure if it was love yet, it felt so relieving to be with Andrea again. It was sure Andrea would feel the same way too.