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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/MutedCantaloupe7942 on 2024-11-29 06:25:53+00:00.

So a little context to this I’m a young guy in a town that no one in the last century would be able to pick out on a map, and I met someone who I don’t think was human.

It all started out so very, plain.

I woke up on a crappy bed that should’ve been thrown out last year with springs that are killing my back. Went to work at 8 at the Home Depot on the only road that ever gets any traffic but it’s still just a 10 minute drive from my house.

Work just passed by, a few customers would come in to get big loads for construction sites but they mostly just need us for the forklift they already know where pretty much everything is and almost all the rest of the customers were looking for returns and refunds or which isle the bathroom seats were on. I clocked out at 4, nothing exciting happened no weird customer, nothing.

I went home and tried to make something resembling a stir fry but I realized a bit too late I was missing half the ingredients that made it any good. So I decided to go the store to see if anything was on sale to make the food taste like food.

Food prices are far too high for someone making barely 15 an hour, basically robbery if you ask me. I must have sat there calculating my budget with my stomach for a good hour before deciding on some cheap frozen veggies and the smallest bottle of soy sauce I’d ever seen.

People don’t appreciate the relationship they have with food nearly enough.

I haven’t eaten the same since that day.

It happened while I was leaving the store.

It was almost like a grunting and grinding sound mixed with weird muffled noises.

I know I should’ve just minded my own business and kept it pushing, but something broke through. I couldn’t see anything and couldn’t hear it well, but I did recognize one thing.

A cry being muffled by a hand is something that even if you’ve never heard it before, your brain just knows what it is.

It makes you wanna see what it is.

So I put my stuff down in my car and I go over to check what the noise was about. Dumb I know but what can I say habits are hard to break and I don’t know what else to do with them.

I don’t see it when rounding the corner, it’s a weird array of buildings and the lights seem to be only on in the parking lot. It wasn’t pitch black out but not much better with the lights too far.

So I walk into what look like an area for employees to go in through the back.

And that’s when I see them.

There must have been at least 6 guys on the ground. It was hard to tell with some of them being on top of each other.

But that’s not what caught my attention.

The girls or women maybe? Idk how old they were but they looked college age maybe? There was 4 of them.

I knew because they were just sitting there staring, hands over their mouths trying to push the cry’s back in ; almost scared to make a sound. Yet none of them seemed to be gearing to run away.

Almost like they were in a panic attack but trying to put it in a box if that makes sense.

But the strangest thing of all was the guy standing next to the guys on the pavement.

He looked as if he had just come into the situation too, he didn’t feel hostile you know?

Like that feeling you get when someone’s been aggressive or threatening just wasn’t there. He seemed almost bored.

The closer I got the more things I noticed about the scene. By the time I stopped I was about 30 feet away I could start to make out some objects on the ground, pipes and broken glass, a broken piece of wood. Almost all of it had some trace of struggle tied to it.

None of the girls or the guy had any sign of struggle or something that made me think they had anything to do with the fight.

The guy standing there looked to be early 20s, light skin and couldn’t have been taller than 5’11. He had almost black hair or maybe it was dark brown hard to tell. Just an average guy you’d pass on the street.

But then I saw his eyes, they were so brown. And what first looked like boredom on closer look almost seemed like, I don’t know what the word for it is.

Like someone looking for the secret image in a picture but can’t quite tell if it’s even there.

I don’t know what made me not call out or ask him what happened. After all this whole situation felt off.

Did a big fight happen?

Was he involved or just a passerby?

Why wouldn’t the girls take their eyes off him?

And then he looked over to me.

He didn’t say anything but I could almost feel the words popping up in my head from his stare.

Like as if he was saying something about modern art or the state of affairs of young people. As if the vision couldn’t be realized and he couldn’t be bothered to try and understand anymore.

While he kept taking glances at me he began to walk around looking at the debris. Like he was searching for something in particular, he kept giving me side glances almost as if picking out a gift for a friend and he couldn’t decide.

The girls started crying harder as he moved almost petrified when he came near them.

Finally he picked up a piece of rebar and inspected it closely and he gave me a look of something along the lines of “ a mighty sword”. And he swished it around him, like a kid playing with his new favorite stick.

Then he threw it near my feet.

The sound of metal and concrete will never be the same to me again.

Then while I’m looking between him and the rebar a small grin began to form on his face with a look of “ you don’t like my present?”.

My brain being sensible told me I should pick it up, after all if he was the one who messed up six guys by himself a weapon was mandatory.

Quick of a thought that was, came something far more sinister.

His grin was beginning to widen and morph to a bigger smile. His feet I noticed were almost sideways, his legs sounded heavy and the way he walked seemed almost as if it took great effort to do so.

He walked so casually as if he was about to greet a long time friend he hadn’t seen or heard from in a while. Maybe that’s what it would’ve looked like from a camera.

Every one of his steps triggered something in me, something almost instinctual. I still hadn’t said anything and I barely so much as twitched. But I knew, I knew what this feeling was.

Prey isn’t the right word for it, I was a part of the dinner show. Something like a cat would do with a mouse he had no interest in eating only making it suffer before the end. Priding itself on the pain of things weaker than it.

It was suffocating when he was in front of me. He looked down at the rebar and then back to me, almost pleading for me to pick it up, like a kid whose dad won’t play make believe anymore.

When I didn’t move he lifted his arm and pointed at me. Close enough to almost be touching me but not quite there. His eyes gave me a look of “I’m not touching you”.

One of the girls was starting to curl up in her knees but her hand never left her mouth.

Then he did something strange. Keeping his finger pointed at me he slowly began walking in a circle around me. I stared straight forward but I could feel his eyes on me the whole way around.

The first time he came around his smile was still playful, and he stopped right in front of me again. He held a finger up and looked at me as if I had one of something.

Then I realized he was telling me I had one question. So I asked him the only question I could think of.

“What are you ?” his smile got bigger.

“Hungry” almost too high of a voice for a man. Almost slurred.

Then he began walking around me again but this time felt different. When he stopped behind me the girls faces changed and the cry’s almost couldn’t be covered anymore. Everything in me was telling me to turn around and try to fight for my life before the thing behind me took it without a fight. But I did nothing.

As he was coming over my other side his smile hadn’t changed but the way his eyes looked hasn’t left me. Almost like they had sunk further into his face but they contained an anger that hadn’t been there before. But just like last time he held up one finger only this time I couldn’t think of a better question. Then it came to me.

“Who are you ?” I barely stuttered out.

His smile almost seemed to tear at the points of his mouth as he spoke.

“Fun”

Only this time his voice was almost split, like two people saying it at once. He tilted his head from side to side almost debating on his next corse of action.

He settled on walking around me again, only this time he didn’t stop behind me. His face looked almost unreal as he rounded my side. Like it couldn’t decide if he was experiencing euphoria or anger so hot it would burn him alive. This time though the finger that had been pointing at me was the one he held up, he kept making a swirly motion with it as if telling me this would be the last question.

My mind was racing trying to figure out what to say so I could leave alive. I thought about asking to leave but what about the rest of the people here ; what happens once I leave? I still didn’t understand what was happening now. I could only think of one thing to make it stop, one way so the girls and those guys might be able to leave so that someone might survive. I tried to summon all the bravery I didn’t have to ask him the next question.

“Can you please leave ?” I squeaked out. I don’t think that’s what he wanted to hear. His hand came right in front of my neck and he began snarling at me. He moved forward and began sniffing around …

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