Both boy and monster hit the ground with a dull thud before slightly bouncing off the soft dirt. Jacob had stopped screaming by then, having formed a new plan in the heat of the moment. The monster had chased him through the woods, maybe it only ate live prey? Would he be safe if he just played dead?
The monster uncurled around him as he let his body collapse as limply as he could. The creature backed away as all of his limbs flopped flat.
Jacob hoped for the creature to go away as he tried his best not to open his eyes. Instead, the creature approached slowly and watched his torso. Its ears were drooping, and its eyes were half closed. It brought up one of its many legs and tried to nudge him from side to side. The monster let out a low whine as he failed to move on his own.
The monster laid its head on his chest, letting out a few more pained whines which brought images of a sad dog to his mind.
He started to feel a little bad for some reason when the monster adjusted its head and laid one of its ears right on his chest.
Its eyes grew wide as Jacob suddenly felt just how strongly his heart was beating. Its head rose and it gave him a careful gaze.
Jacob debated on what to do. The monster hadn’t actually ‘done’ anything to him besides chase him. It had even looked pretty broken up while it thought he was dead. In fact, it almost looked like it had been mourning him. People tended not to mourn their dinner.
“Okay, you caught me,” he finally admitted as he tried to move his limbs.
The monster was rushing up to him before he could move a muscle. He braced himself for the bites and claws to come, only for the monster to instead come up and nuzzle him. His arms reached came up out of reflex, accidently wrapping around the monster’s head.
Its skin wasn’t what he would have expected. It was smooth and dry, nothing like the slimy texture he’d been bracing himself for. It was also warm, a comfortable kind of warm which almost put him to sleep.
“Warm…” he mumbled, causing the creature to suddenly stiffen before retracting its head and putting a bit of distance between them. It shuffled around, trying not to look directly at him. Jacob took the chance to sit up and get a good look at the rest of the creature for the first time.
It was larger than he would have thought, just a bit bigger than a Doberman, with the body to match. However, unlike its chest, none of its three pairs of legs were dog-like at all. The first reminded him of cat legs, while the second were a pair of long spider legs bent above the monster’s back. Its last legs reminded him of a rabbit’s legs, but hairless. The entire thing was covered in the same black chitin, making its eyes the only source of color on its body. The last thing it had was a long tail that looked almost normal at first, until he noticed something off. At the very tip, the tail split in six.
Jacob followed the breaks and realized the monster didn’t have a tail, it had six tails twisted together like a length of rope.
Watching it move around, he started having trouble believing he had been scared of it. After it had mourned him, nuzzled him, and then shrank away in what looked like embarrassment, he couldn’t help but feel like it was somewhat… adorable.
Not something he would have expected to think at the start of all this, that’s for sure.
“Sorry about all that,” he put his hands on the ground and tried to push himself to his feet. He held in a grunt as he put weight on his foot again. He tried to balance himself, only to stumble and begin to fall over.
The creature was next to him in an instant, allowing Jacob to catch himself on it. He noticed the creature wince a bit as it caught him, its four eyes looking up at him in concern.
“Hey, I’m fine,” he looked the creature over one more time. “It was my fault for running over that hill like an idiot.”
It gave out a strange, noise that reminded him of laughter. Now that he had the time to calm down, he couldn’t help but feel this was by far the coolest thing that had ever happened to him.
“On second thought, mind helping me back down? Don’t think I’m ready to walk right now,” he said, the monster slowly lowered its head to let him down gently.
“Thanks,” the monster took a step back to give him a little space. He watched as the monster stretched out like a cat, only to flinch and stop in place.
“Are you alright?” he asked as the creature went back to standing still. It looked at him carefully before slowly turning around a bit to show him its left side. It took him a second to figure out what was wrong, not until he noticed the monster’s left spider leg lifted off the ground.
“Something happen to your leg?” he asked as the monster looked at him before looking straight up. He followed its gaze and tried to figure out what he was looking for. From down here all he could see was the full moon and the cliff they’d both fallen from.
The realization hit him like a thunderbolt.
“I guess that’s my fault, huh?” he forced himself to look at the monster’s injured leg. He scooted closer to the monster and gently touched its leg. “You took the hit for me when we landed and got hurt.”
The monster let out a sad whimper as he looked the leg over.
It didn’t look broken. Of course, he had no clue what a broken spider leg would even look like. Could spider legs even ‘break’ that way to begin with?
All these questions rushed through his head as he began to gently rub the monster’s leg absentmindedly. By the time he realized what he was doing, the whimpering had died down and the monster was looking down at him.
“It was the least I could do,” he said as it brought its head down and he hugged it. As he held the monster in his arms, he couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. The monster pulled back and gave him a worried head tilt as it watched him laugh, its ears flopping to the side.
“I’m sorry,” he managed to get out between laughs. “It’s just… A little while ago I was running for my life away from you, and now I’m hugging you,” he explained before the creature started making the same breathing noises Jacob had already realized were laughs. “This is not where I thought this night was going when I went up to the attic. Speaking of, I have to get home…” He tried to get to his feet again.
The monster stopped laughing just long enough to help him to his feet and keep him steady. He placed his arm over its shoulder and got himself comfortable.
“Think you can help me back home?” he asked as the monster carefully nodded. It lurched forward as the two began to move forward.
“Hey,” Jacob said as he noticed something. “The way we are, neither of us have to put any weight on our bad legs.” The creature preened at his words, taking a haughty air as they kept walking. It had apparently done it on purpose.
Jacob wondered just how smart the monster was as they walked around the hill they had fallen off of. They made it to the other side and were soon following the trail the pair had left behind.
With all of the adrenaline clear of his system, he found himself amazed at just how peaceful the night was. Between the low light from the moon, and the gentle sounds of the forest, he was in danger of just closing his eyes and heading to sleep right then and there.
“Just have to make it home, and I can sleep all I want,” he said as the two walked. Determined to stay awake, he started humming the beginning of a song he had heard a few times. A few notes in, the monster suddenly stopped. Jacob watched as it dipped its head and its ears drooped down.
“Are you okay?” he asked as the monster shook its head around and started walking again. He wondered if his humming was really that bad.
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They spent the rest of the walk in silence. By the time they made it to the wooden fence with the hole in it, they had a fallen into a comfortable rhythm.
“This is it,” he said as they came to a stop. “Give me a second.”
The monster watched as he carefully got back onto his feet and walked through the hole and bushes. He made a quick check to make sure all of the lights in the house were off. His parents hadn’t noticed he’d been gone. The coast clear, he looked back into the bushes behind him.
“It’s safe to come out, everyone’s asleep,” he motioned the monster to come forward. It took some hesitant steps forward until they were both standing in the middle of his backyard.
“This is unreal,” he muttered as he walked over and sat on the edge of the porch, the monster following him before jumping onto the porch. It curled into a small ball and rested like a dog.
“Home sweet home,” he looked up at the moon and took a deep breath. “Now all I have to do is get cleaned up, toss out my ruined clothes, and clean my not ruined clothes. You think I missed anything?”
The creature just gave a quick breathing sound which was probably a chuckle.
“Oh right, I have to do all of it while not waking my parents up, and I have to come up with an excuse as to why I was up all night because there’s no way I’m not going to be acting like a zombie tomorrow,” he finished before leaning back a bit more. “You know, saying it all out loud like probably made it sound harder then it’s actually going to be. Maybe I shouldn’t overthink it?” he asked as the monster gave what might have been a shrug. It was hard to tell with canine-like shoulders.
“Yeah, you’re right. I have to be confident. I gotta believe,” he said, ending it on a quote he’d heard… somewhere. He tried to remember where he had heard the line before when he was interrupted by a low, rumbling sound.
He looked around for a bit before zeroing in on the monster as the source of the noise. It took him a second to figure out what exactly he was hearing. He couldn’t help but smile as he realized what it was.
“Are… Are you purring?”
Whatever it was, it stopped the second he asked. The monster froze in place before scrambling to its feet and jumping off the porch. It turned back around towards him before looking away.
“Alright then,” he got up and tried to not laugh at the fact the monster in front of him was embarrassed of all things. “I’m going to go inside and do all the things I said I was going to do. You wait here.” He waited for the creature to look like it had understood before sliding the door open.
He stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and headed straight for the first-floor bathroom. He smirked as he turned the lights on inside. He had laughed when he’d first seen the room, thinking no one would ever use it. His parents had agreed, and had installed the washer and dryer in there to get some use out of the room.
Now all of this stuff was going to come in handy for him. He popped open the dryer and saw someone had set a load of laundry to dry overnight. Included in the load were just enough of his own clothes to change into after this.
He removed the clothes he already had on, trying to figure out what was too damaged to be salvaged. Between all the cuts and bloodstains, the answer was not much.
A quick shower later, he was walking out of the bathroom wearing a set of clean nightclothes and holding a bag of bloody and ruined clothes ready for the trash can. He hooked the door to the bathroom with his foot, pulling it closed. It made a bit of noise, but not as much as Jacob made when he heard a certain skittering sound from the living room.
He turned around and saw the monster just laying down and looking at him with a light glare. Off to the side was the now open sliding glass door.
“What are you doing?” he said in a whispered scream as he walked over and slid the door closed. The monster just looked at him indifferently before curling up on the floor and ignoring him.
Deciding that fair was fair, Jacob ignored the monster and took a quick step outside to throw out the trash before coming back in. The creature watched him from its ball as he walked over and collapsed onto the couch.
“Still need to come up with some kind of explanation,” he muttered before hearing a grumbling sound loud enough to catch both of their attentions. Unlike the last sound, this one was coming straight from his stomach.
“Guess all that running built up an appetite,” he justified as he walked over to the kitchen, the monster following him.
He probably shouldn’t have been eating this late, but he was hungry and a midnight snack wouldn’t be…
Jacob stopped and looked up at the clock on the wall. It read as half past two.
Well, a half past two snack wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
He threw the fridge open and saw he had two options. The first was a container filled with chicken his mother had cooked earlier that day. Surrounding it was everything he needed to make himself a ham and cheese sandwich.
As he was deciding, he heard a skittering sound from right behind him. He looked down as the monster pocked its head out and stared at the chicken with an intense glare. He could almost see the hunger rolling off its face.
“You want some?” he asked as he reached for the container and popped it open for the monster to look inside. Its eyes went wild as it surged forward. He braced himself as the monster pushed into him. “Hey, careful with that, you almost knocked this stuff all over the floor. The last thing I need is to clean up the kitchen and then get changed a second time…”
He set the container on the table next to them as he reached out and grabbed the monster’s face. He pulled it up to his own, which was sporting fully opened eyes and a wide grin.
“That’s it. I came down here to get something to eat, tripped in the dark, hurt my knee and spilled sauce all over myself,” he informed the monster. “That’s my cover story.”
Despite their solid red color, Jacob couldn’t help but feel as though the monster would be rolling its eyes if it could. He frowned a bit at the apparent lack of appreciation for his genius before setting the container of chicken on the floor and grabbing what he needed to make his sandwich.
He propped himself up on the counter, sandwich in hand, as the monster ate out of the container below him. He took a quick bite out of it and allowed himself to savor it as he felt his hunger lessen.
“Man, and to think all this started because I couldn’t sleep because of some dumb ghost story,” he said before taking another bite. Half way through chewing, he noticed the monster no longer eating and was looking at him carefully.
“Want to know about the ghost story?” he asked as the monster gave a hurried nod. “Well what basically happened was…”
He told the monster about the foul deeds that had apparently taken place in the house and backyard, taking the occasional bite of his sandwich as he told the story. The monster kept its eyes on him the whole time, making him wonder if it even needed to blink.
“And that’s how the story goes,” he said, finishing the story. “You know, the only reason I even want up to the attic and saw you was because I thought you were one of the ghosts.”
The creature gave him a slight glare before going back to eating its chicken.
A few minutes later, both of them had finished their food and Jacob got to work cleaning the kitchen so his parents would believe he’d done so to clean up a spill. To his surprise, he found he didn’t really have to clean up after the monster that much. It was a surprisingly neat eater, and its lack of fur meant there weren’t any stray hairs to pick up.
Something to be especially happy about since the monster was currently curled up on the carpet in the living room.
As he cleaned the container the monster had eaten out of, Jacob soundly realized there was still one thing bothering him about this whole night.
He set the container to dry before walking back out to the living room. The monster had apparently switched from the floor to the couch at some point so Jacob sat next to it. He bent down until the two were at the same eye level. The monster opened its two left eyes and gave him a curious glace.
“Why were you in my attic in the first place?” he asked as the creature began to uncurl itself and get off the couch. It walked over to the sliding glass door as Jacob realized he had no clue how the monster had managed to get into his house in the first place. He had been more worried about how he was going to cover up the night’s events to worry about that kind of thing.
Now that everything was handled, he had time to learn just how the monster had broken in.
Despite his expectation it would use one of its spider legs, it actually reached up with its tail. He wondered for a moment how it could use its tail to open the door before remembering the ‘tail’ was actually six tails wrapped together like a rope.
Almost like it had been waiting for him to remember that particular fact, the monster split its tails apart at that very moment. Where had been one, there were now six narrow, tendril-like tails separated at the base. Two of them reached for the door handle, wrapping around it and pulling it slightly open. At that point, the other four tails reached around the door before all six pulled at once.
The process was pretty quick, and soon the monster was standing outside and looking at him. He wondered what it was waiting for when he suddenly realized needing all six tails to wrap around the door to open it meant there was no way for it to close it. He let out a quick apology before closing the door for the monster.
The door closed, the monster immediately crouched down and sprung into the air. He watched as it jumped high enough to make it to the still open attic window.
He followed after it, making his way through the house as silently as he could. By the time he made it to the attic, the monster was waiting for him and motioning for him to get closer. It pointed its nose to a specific point on the ground.
Jacob knelt and put his hand over it. It was cold to the touch. A quick glance to his right and he saw an open air vent spewing out cold air.
“Did you sneak into our house to have a cool place to sleep?” he asked as the monster gave him a shamelessly happy nod.
He wanted to come up with some sort of counterargument, it had just admitted to breaking into his house. But as he looked into the monster’s smiling eyes, he found himself unable to do it. Florida summers were brutal, even at night. He knew he couldn’t sleep unless his own AC was on full blast.
“You know what, you can stay here,” he finally spit out as he took note of the window it had used to get in here in the first place. A lesson his mother had drilled into him from a young age reared its head as he walked over to it. “And if you’re going to be using the AC, close the window.”
If he couldn’t get away with doing so, then the monster wouldn’t either.
It took him a second to readjust his eyes after that, the moon having been the main light source in the attic until now. He carefully made his way to the stairs below before looking back and waving at the four red, glowing lights in the dark.