CreepCast - Where Caterpillars Die | CreepCast

Episode Date: October 18, 2026

A boy tries to bring back his mother with a mysterious statue. And Isaiah talks about something really big. Get $10 Off at BRUNT with code CREEPCAST at https://www.bruntworkwear.com/CREEPCAST  #Bruntpod Try Rocket Money today, and unlock more features with premium at: https://RocketMoney.com/creepcast 3 Million Butts Love TUSHY. Get 10% off TUSHY with the code CREEPCAST at https://hellotushy.com/CREEPCAST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Crepecast. Today we're going to be reading a fine... This is Japanese, right? Like a Japanese horse story? Yeah, yeah. Well, at least I don't think it's written in Japan. I think the subject is Japanese horror. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. So, but it's called Where the Caterpillars die. And we were told this one's pretty fun. I mean, it's not a super long story, but I was told that it's a pretty fun one. So I'm excited to get into it. Also, we've read this author, right? Yeah, I believe it's a fun one because this is Michael Page. Michael Page, we read, I believe it was a Patreon story, but it was the man who ate ghosts

about the guy who has like the ghost crawling out of his throat and stuff. Yeah, that was sick. That was a very fun story. And I liked the way it was written and it was creepy and had this. It was one of those horror stories where when you get to the reveal, you're like, oh, this is so cool and terrible. So I appreciate getting to read him again. He has his own website or blog spot called Michael Page blog.

and he has a ton of short stories and novellas on there. Again, the one we're reading today is where the caterpillar's style, but he also has a few others that are highly rated, Hitchhikers Haven, the Heart in the Cabinet, Angels Burned. So a lot of interesting stories. I said then that I want to check out this guy again, and I'm glad we're doing it again now.

The name Angels Burned is so fucking sick. It sounds like a Threshment. It's pretty cool. I want to read that one. I do like to, I always like when we come across these guys. Like this is at least what creepypasta.com says is that this was written in February 12th, 2021. I always like this kind of contemporary guys too. It's always fun to see some of the newer stuff made.

Yeah. There's like the great divide between like the old creepypastas and the new stuff. And you can certainly tell how the new was inspired by the old. But I think a lot of the newer ones, at least on average, tend to be a bit stronger storytelling, I think, because there's more competition in it. But like I said, I really liked Michael's other work. So I'm excited to check them out again.

Do you think the, you said you think the newer work is stronger than the older work? Or do you think the older work was stronger? On average. You said the competitions because the old ones are new ones. The new ones. So like the old ones, you have like Jeff the killer and stuff like that.

Sure. Sure. It's strong in a cultural sense, but I wouldn't call it a strong story. No, that's not to say old stories were devoid of good stuff because that's and like pen pal was written and barrasca and stuff like that but like do you look at a lot of the newer ones and that's when we get a lot of the longer feels like the more like the pieces that seem more like marcus cleaver stuff stuff like that stuff that seems more adapted and sure of itself versus the old just creepy pasta stories yeah it definitely does feel like the new stuff either feels

like people that grew up on it and have been writing since that time they're like honed and refined their craft you know it definitely feels like a more realized stories than the more newer they are. Like we said, though, not to say that there wasn't stuff like that back in the day, but it feels like there's more plentiful options now in like the 2020s or like late 20 teens, whatever. Yeah, I agree. But guys, if you are listening to this on audio platforms, consider giving us a nice rating over on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or if you're on YouTube and you're taking a drive, maybe consider listening to our show there. We're a nice commuting podcast, I hear. That and sleep time. I don't know why people listen to the show before they go to sleep.

I see that a lot. I don't know if you see any reels or anything like that. I think it's just because it's long, like long, long, videos. Uh, I think it's a horrible idea to go to sleep to this show because there's

periodic screaming. There's a lot of screaming. There's a lot of screaming. There's a loud sound effects. So I don't think that's conducive. It's your nice to southern draw that Lola buys them. That's the, that's the real charm is it's like a little nighttime medicine.

Uh, you know, you're sitting there and they listen to you talk. It's funny because, uh, people from around here will be like, Where's your accent go? Why don't you have an accent?

And then people who aren't from around here are like, why do you have such a strong accent? So a bit of a day walker. Between two worlds. It's not, yeah, you're blight. You're literally blayed. Yeah. Well, the people that you're talking to are conjoined twins that live in the misty hills of the, of the Appalachia. So, you know, right.

You know, they're like, where's your accent? And I think that's, I think that's okay. if you aren't registered. You met him. Exactly. Hi, Uncle Curtis. Uncle and Uncle Curtis and Curtis. Yeah.

Uncle and Auntie Curtis. Hello. And also, guys, we do have a Patreon if you want some bonus episodes. We've been posting some stories there. We also, I think by the time this came out, we watched the Ice Cream Man movie. I had a few too many drinks at the movie theater and got a little angry at the movie. It doesn't matter. That's, you like extra content?

Patreon. Patreon.com. slash creepcast. Feel free to check it out. Otherwise, Isaiah, are you ready to dive in? I'm ready to get into it. Let's go. Where the Caterpillars die by Michael Page.

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows. It's my mother's favorite idiom. Growing up, she never hesitated to use it against my childish fits, whether it was upset about sleeping alone in my bed or trying to convince her there was an ony in the closet. It was what she lived by, even as the cancer finished it in her lungs. When the light in her eyes disappeared, it grew to loathe every syllable of that idiom, burning with a blistering hatred.

I knew that I would never hear it spoken in her voice again. It became the cruel reminder of change, and yet without it, I wouldn't have survived the horror I'm about to share. It's funny, though, how something you've rejected for half your life can turn out to be the only thing holding you together. Was it it breeds Was it it breeds? Was that the one where it also started with the guy Whose mom was dying of cancer too?

No, that's Marie on the moon Marie on the moon That whatever story starts this way It always just fucking doesn't just rip your heart out My God I mean it just opens with like And baseball bat Like it does

Whatever tone you were gonna bring in here Leave it at the door It really does It feels like the same I know that people say What do they say If you want to make a villain have them kill an animal or something.

Like they say that in whatever like writing. It feels this way too of like if you want to make it immediately sympathetic person, it's like make them like give them the heartbreak of having someone die from cancer. Because also I'm immediately brought in to like if they're about to do anything, I'm like well, of course they would. You know, like that act of desperation or something I guess feels a lot more true. It's an easy move to establish someone as in dire straits, you know,

emotional stuff like that. So it lends itself to putting people in desperate circumstances. Yeah. When I was 13, three months after mom's passing, a father told me I would be going to Akita to stay with my uncle during Dad's Marine exhibition in Hokkaido. I wanted to die. Not literally, of course, only about as much as I wanted to die in the dentist chair

before the needles slid into my gums. This pain wasn't going to be a quick pinch. It's going to last for the next week. It wasn't seeing Uncle Hory I was dreading, though. It was my cousin, soda. Dad's cell phone rang. Moshy, moshi, yes, pulling in now. Okay.

A fair size, two-story home with the thatched roof came into view. It fit perfectly with the other picturesque houses in the secluded community straddled by deciduous forest. A slate path of stepping stone stretched to the front door where my uncle waited. A woman stood next to him. probably the new girlfriend that had mentioned. She was wearing a Nordic gray sweater. About time.

Tori called to us as we pulled ourselves out of the car. Did she get lost or something? My father closed the car door. Maybe if someone knew the specifics of their address better. Learn to listen better. Corey jeered at my father, exaggerating a smile. Now, where's my yuki? Hi, Uncle Hori.

I grabbed my bag from the trunk and walked over. His arms wove around me in a tight hug. then gestured to the woman next to him. Yuki, this is Hina. Peter Hina Tori. She nodded her head at me and extended her hand. I smiled and shook it. Her black hair was very short

and complimented her young features. She's nice to finally meet you. She said with an ivory white smile. I can change it if you and I try. I want you to know, I want you to know that was a legitimate try by me. That was an action. Okay, so, so I know it was, but subconsciously, You added a twinge of a Chinese accent in there.

I can hear it. I'm sorry. I was just trying to do a cute Japanese woman. It wasn't just. It's nice to finally meet you. That one's fine, but the first time you're like, it's nice to finally meet you.

Like there's just a little bit of a fortune cookie in there. That was not intended. That was a legitimate try. And I think that I was just, I didn't know. It was directionless. I'm sorry. Right.

Right. Sure. Sure. It just conjured out of space. It just came down. from the heavens. It's nice to finally meet you. See, it's back again.

The giggle didn't help. The giggle put me in a... That was... I could see the agatia face paint rising up out of the void. You was fucked up. I just got done watching memoirs of a gaysha. Such a good movie. I don't know if you ever seen it. Good movie. That's probably why I'm all fucked up by it.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what it is. You'll be staying on the upper floor. Second door on the left. So does We'll be right next to it. Go say hi to him. I wandered upstairs and found the guest room while my father caught up with his brother-in-law. Although my uncle and his ex-wife had separated months ago,

the room still had Aunt Mackey's decor scheme, a tiny space full of bright, vivid colors, and furniture that screamed dollhouse. Her special touch. I imagined an unblinking eye peering in around the flowery curtains that shuttered. The entire house would probably look like this at some point before the divorce finalized.

So hold on catching up with his brother-in-law So this guy's dad's sister was married to Horry And then they separate and he's still hanging out with Horry And like taking his kid to stay at his house Wait sir, we Hold on just so I'm following You're saying that this wasn't his blood relative This is the one that it was married into

Yeah because it says my father comes caught up with his brother-in-law. Oh, yeah. So Uncle Horry is his dad's brother-in-law. I don't think that's... Are you saying that's strange? Oh, no, I see the connection. The...

Horry was the brother of the kid's mom that died. Correct. Not marriage. Okay, I was getting the connection there. That's why I thought... I thought what was being implied is his uncle divorced his aunt, who is his dad's sister. And his dad's like, ah, who needs her?

Who needs my sister? You want to take my kid for a week? You know, if you've been around for a while, I mean, you could still be like, oh, this is my uncle, couldn't you? Or no? I think so. I mean, I've had like extended family members get divorced and stuff like that. And I may not seem as much, but I still think of them as like aunt and uncle and stuff like that.

So my buddy Joe. I could see it. My buddy Joe had this great story. He would talk about where it would be his father passed away. and then his stepmom that was married to obviously his dad who passed away he like would still feel obliged to go talk to her it's like every christmas he would still go over and like meet up with her but it was just like really awkward and it just put into perspective that thing of like oh yeah i mean like i guess they're still considered your family depending on the amount of time but it's always

just like it is it's a it's a very odd delineation like at what point are you like okay i never have to see this person again or is it a thing where it's like well now i feel like i obligated to see this person every year of my life or something. Yeah, I think it's a very case-by-case kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I plopped my bag on the tatami floor mat inside. One week, I thought it's groaned.

It's just a week, right? The door beside mine was the restroom, which had a sign on the door, broken, use other downstairs. Next to that was most likely Soda's room. I stepped up to the door and stood there for a bit. I knew that it would be rude to not at least say it. high to him, but I couldn't help hesitating. My cousin wasn't a rude or overbearing person, but his obsessions worried me. We were both going to be 14 this March. Our birthday is precisely

a week apart. The majority of my memories of growing up with him involved his eerie fascination with insects. Family gatherings, he would often be outside interacting with any creepy, crawled, little thing he could catch. But Soto wasn't the kind of kid who enjoyed pulling off bugs, limbs, or pitting them against each other in a plastic container deathmatch, you prefer to treat them as friends. He gave them names, voices, different personalities. All he was missing were tiny clothes. I was all on board until the voices and different personalities, then I'm clocked out.

Yeah. Okay. Like, it's fine if you like insects or whatever, but if you have a caterpillar or a grasshop in your hand and you're like, hello there, little boy. I'm your friend. And then you hold up another one. Oh, he's cute. That's too much for me.

Okay. I've had some insect friends are, they're always weird, aren't they? Why is that? What is it about insect people that are so odd? Well, it's because typically you're feeding them other insects. So there's a weird, like, kind of structure. But I have a pet snake now. We feed it rats like frozen mice.

So, you know, uh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't approve of the snake. I know, I know you don't. But when I was a kid, I used to catch preying manuses. And I would keep them for a really long time in this big terrarium I had. And then when I was in the third grade, we were for science, we were learning about insects. And I mentioned I had a pet preying manus.

And the teacher was like, oh, you should bring it to school. So I brought this praying manus to school. And this thing was huge. It was like, it was like ridiculously large for a praying manus. I mean, how bit? If you had to compare it to something, how big is it? It was like, I would say 9 to 9 inches, probably.

What? That's like 8 or 9 inches. It was, it's like the biggest I've ever seen. It was, I remember the teacher being like, oh my God. Daddy gives it this toxic sludge. He says it's his, he says it's his grow, grow juice. Maybe, maybe 7, but I want to say it's 8 or 9 inches. But we, I brought it into class in this big terrarium.

And like at recess, we went out and, bugs and we would bring it in and feed it and everyone would watch and it was like a cool cool class thing well like over the weekend we leave and we came back Monday and it was dead and I kept this thing for like months and it was fine and then the first week at school it's dead and I'm pretty sure what happened in hindsight is maybe like you know just setting in a terrarium in a in a school it got too cold or something over the weekend um but what in my head had happened is there was this guy who I had beef with, we'll call him John,

who I thought for whatever reason, John had killed the praying manis to like get at me somehow. That's fucking horrible. I remember, were you just like a week later? No, I don't think I had any reason to believe he did. I think he just,

because like we were in this, me and this kid were in like weird competitive stuff with each other. Like you go to recess, you play basketball, whatever. And I was just like always kind of passively annoyed by him. It wasn't like a bully or anything. It was just kind of like we didn't like each other. I can't even remember

what the... You were his bully. Inception of this one. I think what it was is like we would be at the cafeteria and stuff and like every story I had, he'd have one a little bit cooler. You know? Like if I was like, oh, I found like a raccoon outside the house last night. I'd be like, I found three. I found two raccoons. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Exactly. You guys, this is what I'm, the real competition I'm seeing in my head is that you guys were the people with giant trapper keepers sprinting, dead sprinting to the lunch line to be first. You were those kids. Yeah, yeah,

exactly that. You beat him some days. He beat you some days. And you would gloat in the line as you received like an extra hot roll at lunch or something. Yes. A million percent. But I remember while I had the preamass in class,

he was like openly not interested. because I had brought it. Yeah, only the coolest bug ever. Come come see this. And he's like, that's lame. I see them all the time or whatever. Yeah, I see insects with sword hands all the time. I'm fine.

So when it was dead, for some reason in my head, I'm like, he did this. He killed his praying manus. So we were at recess a couple days later. And he had like thrown something at me or done something. And I was like, you killed my bug. And he's like, what? You got him! They're going to!

A tone for your sins! It was funny. So, like, I didn't see that guy after the fourth grade, and then we met again in college. And we were talking, and I kind of brought it up, like, I was like, I remember when we were like, Oh, no. Not the bug thing, but like us being competitive or whatever. And he was like, yeah, what was our problem? Oh, I was really hoping he was still holding on the grudge.

Yeah, the time the kid was screaming. I mean, that would be fucked up. That has to happen, too. I mean, maybe he did, and he just didn't bring it up. The thing was, to go back to my original question or whatever, I think that the reason bug kids always freak me out is because I feel like they, I feel like they, they know too much about bugs, but also they always say something that makes you think they want to be more bug than man.

I mean, like, there was a time I hung out with this kid, and he would say stuff like, If only I could be in a cocoon. And I was like, why? And he was, like, very big on sleeping bags. And I feel like he, like, went through a cocoon phase. It was really fucking strange. But he's like, I wish I could be in a cocoon. And it's just, I was done that.

But it's always some shit like that with bug people. I don't know. But I will say, anytime someone has those cool, those cool cases and they display, like, moths or, like, butterflies or, like, anything, like, with, like, the little tacks in there. That shit's cool. I fucking love that stuff. The, you reminded me about the bug kids wanting to be bugs. I remember one time, same, same class, third grade.

God damn, this class is haunting. We, yeah, we were, I was a weird kid. They were, it was around Thanksgiving and the teacher's like, oh, everyone named something you're thankful for. And it gets to me. And she's like, what are you thankful for? And what I think what I was trying to. say was like I'm thankful that I have life as like I think I think the way my brain worked at

the time is that every thing that is alive on earth has the same level of consciousness right which really makes you question the whole praying man is saying and how I was cool with that but I remember the teacher was like what are you thankful for and what I meant to say was I'm thankful that of out of everything living I get to be a human but the way that came out is, I'm not a grasshopper. And she was like, what? And I'm like, I'm not a grasshopper or a bug. And she goes, I'm not a grasshopper.

Okay. And every other person, like, they would, we had this big whiteboard with like stuff we're thankful for. Every other person when they said what they were, she would ride it on the board. I was the one student who she didn't write on the board. What was thankful for? That's not a bad answer, though, still. I'm not a grasshopper.

I'm fucking thankful. I'm not a grasshopper. I'm not a grasshopper. Because I'd be able to do a lot worse if I was. What? I could cause a lot of problems for a lot of people. Yeah, a lot of people would be very afraid if I was a carous oper. Isn't that right, Mrs. Wilson?

What? Why are you singling me out? No reason. No reason at all. Hey, we have to, we should cut this from the episode because it's still an active investigation. I know. I was like, dude, no way. While he collected insects, I ran from them. That was the gaping chasm that separated us.

I didn't doubt that his latest collection of new friends waited for me behind his door. I'll pop in, say hello, pop out, I thought. As I was about a knock, I heard a muffled conversation on the other side. Soda was already talking to someone. Just as I decided to say hello later, he said, come in I did so it shut the door behind me

the inside was dark very dark save for the bright laptop screen outlining its seated body few streaks of sunlight peeking around the floral curtains you can turn on the light he said with distracted awareness

I'm sure your majesty beside flicking the light switch after the darkness melted away I saw the hanging scroll paintings and mounted pieces of calligraphy that covered his walls as expected, several diagrams of different insects' anatomies joined them. A framed picture of Aunt Mackey sat on his desk.

Situated on a table below his window was a miniature cherry blossom tree with missing branches. Sharing the space next to it was a foreboding glass terrarium. Upon hearing my voice, he turned to look at me. Oh, hey. He said quietly, rolling towards me on the chair's castor wheels. We gave each other a light, two-second hug, then he returned to his laptop and shut it off. I saw you pull in. I wasn't sure when you'd come by. I shrugged.

You sound like you were already talking to someone. Oh, that was just my mom. You replied in the same monotone. She scabs me from her trip whenever she has time. Where is she? Europe. She's during France right now. Oh. He suddenly cried with spontaneous eagerness, catch you a

me off guard. Do you want to meet someone? It's going to be a bug. Of course. This kid does not end up in a fucking cocoom by the story. I'm going to be so sad. It's going to be this kid's talking to bugs. He's a bug kid. I want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor, Brunt Workwear.

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sent you, we'd really appreciate it. Thank you to Brunt for sponsoring the show. Their link will be in the description, and we are now back to the episode. I told his chair toward the window and ushered me to follow. He was no doubt, referring to the glass container. Pop in, pop out, the thoughts reminded me.

Pop in, pop out. At that moment, I wanted to tell him that I wasn't interested. But the words never reached my mouth. It didn't take much to hurt soda. His feelings were like pieces of paper mache living in a world of knives. Instead, a measly... Sure.

Woffed out of me. I'd feel awful destroying that ray of excitement on his face within the first five minutes, as long as I didn't have to touch anything. There's no immediate problem. As I joined him at the window, pulsive images were already firing off in my head. A spider outweighing my hand with its hairy limbs, a mannice with those alien claws folded in prayer to thank the evil gods for giving it wings horrible things like that i looked down peeked inside and saw a horrible enormous nothing the missing branches of the cherry blossom were planted in a patch of black soil can you see her can you i finally did attached to one of the brittle stems was a worm-like thing but no worm i'd ever seen before this looked to me

much worse. Its bloated squishy skin was black and orange with a dark pointy tail. Four spindles protruded from its backside like black curling tendrils. Goose bumps puffed up my arms. Fears only as deepest the mind allows, the thoughts repeat up reluctantly. Her name is Kodami. She's a Brahmin Caterpillar. Soda lowered his finger an inch from its chewing mandibles. When she turns into a moth, she could have a wingspan of up to seven inches. just like Isaiah's praying mantis. What?

How am I here? It is funny. I mean, like, not to keep throwing myself under the bus, but how much this sounds like the music. Yeah, exactly.

When she turns into a moth, she can have a wingspan of up to seven inches. That sounds exactly like me. Also, have you ever seen a Brahmin Caterpillar before? No, let me go over quick. You should look it out.

Those things are weird. The moth looks fucking sick from it, though. shit. Yeah, the moth is cool. Oh yeah. Look at that. Those are weird. Yeah, those like weird horn things coming off the front and back of it. Did they base the Pokemon off this guy? Uh, the Pokemon. Did they base a Pokemon?

I don't know, Pokemon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Caterpree. I'm pretty sure Caterpree is based off this dude. I don't, I don't think that. I think catarprie just looks like a caterpillar. He has a little horn though and stuff. I don't know. I thought it was that. Yeah, but there's a, there's a

there's a green caterpillar with a horn. Hold on. Oh, I don't fucking know. It is. The, uh, well,

you're the one to mention Pokemon. I know. I'm already disinterested. I'm already disinterested in the only thing I even brought up. Horn worms. That's it. Hornworms. All right.

Caterpree is a home word. Hornworm. When she turns into a moth, she can have a wingspan of up to seven inches. All right. Don't do my voice. Don't do the me impression for this character. How do you know it's a she?

I just do Holder they don't buy it okay all right this is defamation this is slander I just do

he shrug what a holder they don't buy it no no I'm good someone went back to our first interaction when we did

when I did the horror movie thing with you like five years ago and there's one part where you say that I'm a delight and I go oh my gosh thank you and someone

clipped that and said, Hunter has built his entire perception of Isaiah around that sentence. Not wrong. Not wrong. I said, promptly backing away. Just the thought of that thing's rippling, squishy mass touching my skin made me want to die again. I tried to think of anything I could say to change the subject. So, what do you think of Hina?

Smile melted. Dark cloudiness replaced the enthusiastic look, a bit deeply into. the skin of his bottom lip. It was clear I'd accidentally struck a nerve. Before I had the chance to apologize, he answered me. I don't know. Mom, is it going to like her when she comes back, though?

All right. So now you're making the impression of me even works. I know it's an impression of me, but you're being even more intense about it. Come on. It's good. It works for the character. Also, it is creepy.

Imagine being, you have to be around the insect kid, but then also he can't stomach the fact that his mom is dead. Yeah. No, no. This kid's mom got separated. She's just in Europe. That's right. Never mind.

Yeah. But our protagonist's mom is. Yeah. My apologies. What I meant was he can't handle the fact that he hasn't stomach that they're not together anymore. Yeah. You know?

And his stepmom's in the house. And it's like, oh, my mom isn't going to like her. I am curious to see how both of their, because it's two different iterations of of a mom being gone. One literally physically deceased. And the other one is just like now not a part, basically not a part of his life. Gone from the family.

Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic. I wonder how the bug thing ties in as well. Because there's that whole, really I think the only, well, bugs have come up before like the one with the golden house.

But I remember in Forest of a Thousand Legs, it's like the forest of spiders was kind of represented. of like the loss of his daughter and stuff like that. So I wonder if the bug thing ties into the mom thing. The one thing I can think of is some kind of metamorphosis. I mean, I hope, especially just with a caterpillar. Yeah, a cocooning of sorts. Yeah, I'm telling you, if this kid does not cocoon, I'm going to be so fucking sad.

Maybe he gets cocooned. That's what I want. Do you remember that movie ate like it freaks? Oh, yeah. I haven't seen it forever, though. But I remember the- Oh, it's so good. The VHS cover was always like one that popped out at the movie. Marquette screaming with like the big

giant giant CGI spider in motion blur happening. Perfect. It's so good. I watched it recently and it still holds up as a campy horror movie. It's so fun. But they've got that. I remember as a kid getting freaked out because there's a scene with like the giant black widow thing

where it's taken a bunch of people and wrap them up into like these web cocoons. And you can see all the cocoons on the ground squirming and she just comes over and like has this giant pinch her mouth that she just impales them with and starts to suck them dry. I remember being seven being like,

wow. Holy shit. That's how spiders are cool. Holy molly. See, you've siopped me into doing the voice for myself. That's your natural talking.

I don't want to hear it. Okay. All right. I wasn't sure what he meant by that. You mean after a trip, right? He looked right through me and tightened the left side of his face into a smirk. Yeah, after a trip. I finished unpacking and waved my father goodbye as he left for his new venture,

leaving me to sulk over mine. It's been the rest of the day killing as much time as possible with the books and handheld games I'd brought. And that wasn't enough to sedate me. I'd wander around the tea garden in the back. backyard. I slept well that night and thankfully, okay, do you have to Google preview images or not the banner ads? They're like on yours right now. They're always loading. It's, they never actually populate. Okay. So my smile's loading and it ended right after that. And I want you to see what this image was. I thought it was part of the story. And I got so confused. Hold on. I said it at

let me just sit it to you directly he's here Tuesday what the fuck is this is just an ad for a guy selling his car what the fuck I said I think so it fits perfectly with the story though it makes it seem like an actual photo

for the story doesn't it? Yeah well it says I've one around the Tegar in the backyard and I'm like is he in the backyard with the car is that what's in the backyard? He's like hello also editor be sure to put the photo

I love this guy. This guy's handsome. Look at him. He looks cool. I mean, he looks so happy. Like, he's just hanging out by his car in the trees. He's so peaceful. Don't really expect a muscle car in a Japanese tea garden, but you know what?

Who am I to judge? I slept well that night and thankfully did not wake up to an eye watching me sleep through the windows. When morning came, I went to the kitchen. And it was there standing over a purple kettle. Good morning, Yuki. She said, flashing the same ivory smile. Breakfast isn't ready, I'm afraid. Care for some long while you ate?

Oh, thank you. Took a seat at the table. The room of dry, roasted leaves, graced my nose. She poured some tea into a mug and placed it in front of me. Your uncle always likes a hot batch wedding for him when he wakes up. It's the only tea you ever asked for. I blew on it, slurps them up, and then gas. Hell yeah.

I blew on it. some up and then gas. I was hoping you would just let that. There's no way. What a fucking string. I blew on it. Slurp some up. Poor choice of words,

surely. I mean, there's a balance. And then afterwards she says, burn yourself. It's a freak. It's an animal. God damn.

Yuki, come on now. I looked at my dark reflection in the bird. room. The complex woody flavor mixed nicely with the subtle creamy nuttiness. God damn. This whole

section's got us bricked up here. Good Lord. Just a very poor choice of adjectives. You bring yourself? I appreciate the subtle creamy nuttiness. It wasn't perfect, but it was close.

For a moment, I felt happy. And the next moment, I felt sad. next one I was so sad God, I felt happy The next one I felt sad That's called post nut clarity my friend Welcome to the club brother

Welcome to the club brother No sorry it's just My mom used to make her tea Someone away It's her special touch And who do you think showed her how That'd be so creepy Your uncle comes in doing that voice

Yeah Uncle My uncle said strolling in while Hina preemptively handed him a cup. He smacked a quick kiss on her cheek. That's about to say he slaps her butt where it says he smacked a quick. It's like, this is crazy. Crazy vibes happening in this house.

You smacked a quick kiss on her cheek. I blinked him. But mom said she had a secret method. Well, she may have perfected it, but I'm the one who gave her the idea, mind you. I don't think ours will ever be as good as hers, though. Scrant faded. So to then walked in. and poked his head into the fridge.

Hey kiddo. How'd you sleep? He asked. He did an answer, smothered under his breath. Would you like a cup of... No. No. Interrupted audaciously.

Soda. Poor, he said, uncharacteristically stern. His son gave him a passing glance and returned to the stairs, leaving an invisible heaviness behind. Sorry about that. He told me, pressing a massage in his left temple. I took another sip of tea.

Later that same day, so wanted to show me one of the nature trails near their house. If anything, I figured it would help the day pass a little faster. Corey's only condition was for us to be back before sunset, or else we go to sleep hungry. Luckily, the day still had plenty of its golden hours left, just in case. You made us take the tactical flashlight that he kept in the garage. We followed the neighborhoods gently sloping hill, which quickly led us to the park. Behind its empty playground was the trail entrance, a boardwalk.

cut through the old growth forest. A cold breeze sighed between the beech tree canopies. Soda whistled every time he heard it. The wooden path brought us to a bridge hovering over a small creek. The moss floating over the surface smelled like wet fertilizer. Kind our janitor used on the school lawn, only much more pungent. Before I had the chance to cross, so does hand clamped over my wrist. I would have to show you something cool.

His eyes suddenly had that electric eagerness again. what is it in one swift moment he had leaped over the wooden railing and walked head first into the foliage come on his voice swifted back at me really grown angrily and sluggishly followed what else was i supposed to do sheer lack of a distinct path to follow made me nervous but it appeared he was following the creek some gangly saplings crunched under my shoes no matter how many times i tried to to coax him back to the trail, all I'd get was one of his whistles harmonizing with the wind. We came across an abandoned railroad track. It was, for the most part, buried beneath a bed of weeds. Whatever route its ancient metal and wooden ties had once followed now belonged to the underbrush.

A rusted rail spike was jutting from its iron harness like a snapped bone. I thought maybe this was the cool thing my cousin wanted to show me until he stepped over it and continued. The treetops thickets above us dark in the area. Less and less sunlight slipped through. Piles of dead leaves were everywhere, but the occasional bell-shaped mushroom poking out of them. The trees here were different too. Their bark was covered in sunken dead cankers.

Slimy brown ooze leaked out of them like pussed from a pop set. The visual made me cringe. I didn't like it here. It was cold. It was different. The air felt stale. and damp. Here, Soda said merrily, finally breaking the awful silence. A Tory gate stood over us, the sort of gate you'd find leading to a Shinto shrine. This large structure was held flimsily together

with decaying wood. The horizontal crossbar connecting both pillars had a tablet caked in slime mold in its center, impossible to read. It was honestly a miracle the gate was still standing. Beyond it was a set of rocky steps covered in fuzzy orange. orange clusters that led up the hill in a disorganized mess. I found this place two months ago. Don't bother asking how I did. It just happened. It's where I met Kadami.

Your caterpillar? The amount of enthusiasm you get when you can make fun of my voice, the amount. To be fair, the bug child is very happy right now. So I'm leaning into it. Yeah. To be fair. Because that's what I haven't been to you. Fair.

TBF. I asked, which he nodded. I clamp my nose shut to keep out the musty smell of wet socks and rotting cedar. Okay, you showed me. Can we head back now? Not yet. He answered and began hiking up the rocky steps towards the top of the hill. Losing my foot.

You know, anytime I like a TikTok gets posted to me where I say something enthusiastically, all the comments are like, and that's because of Hurricane Holine. And like other quotes from the show that you've like honed in on me saying in a way, or now because of the whole half. tour thing. The new one is I love the back splash. Every video I post. That's in the comments.

I love that. That's a good thing. I love the backslash. Oh, my God. I love that. It's good, man. You're an enthusiastic boy. No enemy of mine has ever resulted in

hardship. No enemy of mine. Come on, man. We're pals. We're buddies. Yeah. Yeah. Allegedly. I want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor Rocket Money. I know that expenses can get away from you, from personal projects to hobbies, to things you need around your house, to food.

It feels like more money's always going out, the money's coming out, especially when you're stupid, like me. Sadly, it's a lot easier to spend money than make it, and it's even harder to keep track of where all that money's going. Thankfully, today's sponsor Rocket Money is here to help. Rocket Money is an easy-to-use app that helps you save more and manage your money better. I love using Rocket Money to set budgets. With them, you can create a customized budget in seconds.

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But again, you can just check it out at rocketmoney.com slash creepcast to get started with Rocket Money today. Thank you to Rocket Money for sponsoring the show. Their link will be in the description and we are now back to the episode. I want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor Tushy. If you like the show, then you probably like scary stories. And you know a lot of scary stories are made up of really dumb decisions. One of the biggest mistakes you're probably making right now is wiping with dry toilet paper.

And think about it, you're not even really cleaning anything. You're just rubbing a lot of it off and rubbing the rest into your skin, which is gross. Thankfully, today's sponsor Tushy is here to help. Every time I talk about Tushy, I say this, I mean this no bar, I'm not asked to say this specifically. There are very few sponsors I've had across any of the stuff I do online that I can say have changed my life, and Tushy is one of them. I would have friends who would talk about how I need to get a bidet and I would just wipe it off as something I didn't want to go down the rabbit hole on. And I wish I did because I could have become such a better person so much earlier in life. I mean, as soon as you start using it, you're like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Anytime I clean anything else, I make sure that I use water or a cleaner to make sure, you know, all the materials off.

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If you try a bidet and then send it back, I'm just going to assume that you're the kind of person I don't need to interact with. I mean, who becomes so much more clean? And is like, no, the dirt was better. Clean enough isn't good enough. And you can get a good clean today thanks to Tushy's special offer. That's because for a limited time, if you head to hellotushy.com and use discount code Creepcast to check out, you can get up to 10% off your first bidet order.

That's right, 10% off. Again, just head to the link in the description at hellotushy.com and use discount code Creefax. to start making your life substantially better today. Thank you to Tushy for sponsoring the show. Their link will be in the description and we are now back to the episode. I followed losing my footing a few times on loose patches of dirt. Situated atop the incline was a large dead tree. I clambered to the top and joined him.

The foul odor infecting the air was stronger up here. You pointed at something in front of us. A sculpture stood at the foot of the lonesome tree. It was clearly of a naked woman. roughly the same height as one too. Her copper skin was dark and coated with a film of green residue. Spiny black catkins with red and black spindles covered the majority of her body. Her disturbingly thin neck was bent to the side as though broken.

Not just that, but her mouth was open in a tooth-bearing grimace that displayed a set of uncomfortably realistic teeth and gums. Her tight, skeleton-like arms were digging their fingers into her chest. portraying great agony Jesus Well that's kind of a weird A weird statue to come across Kind of a bit of an odd statue near a Tory gate

I don't know if I like that but Watch this So Soda whispered Clutched a small rock and then tossed it at the sculpture's leg The rock clack loudly against it Sculpture's skin started a move Wreckling and squirming with life

the slim spiny objects I'd mistaken for cacons were caterpillars swarms of them all rising over each other in tight jerking clumps they wormed out of her eyes her open mouth her ears everywhere nightmares could reach good lord i staggered back and fell over nearly sending myself spine first down the hill my heart leaped into my throat my muscles tinsed and refused to move i wanted to scream but i couldn't I wanted to run, but I couldn't. All I could do was let the deafening static wash out my thoughts. Static always came with the fear started to blossom. I couldn't turn to any fight or flight instinct buried within.

I could only freeze your heart out natural selection. I could have used without that. I could have gone without that last sentence, but okay. Eat your heart out natural selection. We're going to pretend that wasn't in there. Brayman Caterpillars. every last one. Soda muttered.

They all come to the sculpture. Lots and lots of them. But none of them become moths. They just die sooner or later. It's even funnier to imagine this voice coming from a Japanese child named Soda. He sounds like a closeted Appalachian youth pastor child. I'm just imagining a big-lipped Chinese boy. With a little, with a hair part of the middle.

like in my mind too he still has he has a Hawaiian shirt on he's like bugs I love bugs you know that's a great clip out of context because out of context it just sounds like you're describing a Chinese stereotype but if you watch the show you know it's me yeah no that all that's just trying to get me check it out yokey bugs I love big bugs I like small bugs too I mean, I set myself up for it. I mean, what the fuck are you? I have no one to be mad at with myself.

So, you know. Yeah. This is just one of those. Take it on the chin. Did you burn yourself? Take it on the chin. All right. We can get back into it.

Yeah. Yeah. I caught it. I saw what the joke was. I worry about that. Over explained. He wasn't wrong. The ground of the skulls.

his feet was riddled with their dried, deflated bodies. Kodami didn't want to be here. She wanted to come home with me. His eyes didn't scan the small corpses. Look how the caterpillar never wants to fly someday. There you go. There's your connection between the mom's stuff and all that. Yeah. Yep. He sighed and then lifted his sleeve to itch his arm. Something was written on his skin.

Before I could read it, he tucked his sleeve back down. Turned to being smiled wildly. It's getting dark. We can head back now. We made it home just before the peak of sunset. Hina was cooking tepaniaki. The cornerstone of our love, said Uncle Horry. Unfortunately, she didn't join us to eat any of it afterward,

which Soda seemed cheerful about. For the last few weeks, Hina had been experiencing spontaneous episodes of feeling unwell. Sometimes she felt better in minutes. Other times it took hours. Calling it now, Soka's going to, or Soda is going to use the caterpillars. to do to her what was happening to the statue. Yeah. They're just going to like rip her apart.

Unfortunate. Yes, it would be. The food looked great, but my appetite had triveled up and crawled away. I couldn't stop thinking about the woman, horrible woman, drowning in a living, wriggling coat. I tried to push the thought back. Ufeless. That god-awful image wasn't going anywhere. I mean, it's hard not to think that the statue doesn't.

he doesn't just see his mom in that statue. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say so. That's a good connection. The worst version of his mom's here. It probably makes him even sicker thinking about it that way. And it's like, I mean, it has like a paranormal effect to it as well,

like moving and wriggling and having all the dead corpses around it. It's just, it's the literal embodiment of death right there in front of them. So I looked up Japanese spiders. because I was like, what kind of spiders do they have in Japan? They have huntsman spiders there? What? I know there's some yokai that are like spiders and stuff too

or like mixed with like people. Yeah. I know that it's the woman's spider thing, the hybrid. Yeah. Choro spiders. Oh, these are like big or they have, they have the things I hate so much. Classic insect kid.

That's awesome. Deerailing story. I just heard. I just went to you. You know what? I went to Yahoo and I just Yahooed the craziest thing. Did you know they have huntsman spiders over there and Yokinaki? All right. You know what?

I walked into that one because I did the thing. I did the meme. And I'm not going to. Oh, my God. They have so many cool spiders. I can't. Again. Just, yeah, I guess.

Yeah, I guess. Later that night, a dream that I was back there standing in. in the abandoned shrine. The woman's grimy face and broken neck faced me. Her mouth started to move. Yuki. A hushed voice saying, where are you, Yuki? The voice was cruelly familiar. I gasped. Mom? Yes, Yuki. She whispered and crooned. I miss you. I screamed to ran to her. The ground squelched and clung to my soul like thick, muddy pools. The face staring at me was no longer the pain-infused face of the woman. It was mom. Her neck wasn't broken and she was smiling.

I want to move, Yuki, but my legs won't bend. She said softly to me. Will you help me move again? I wrap my arms around her cold, metal skin. Yes, please come home. Please, please come back to me. Screamed, unable to wipe the cascading tears. Her mouth elongated, a flurry of Brahmin caterpillars slithered out. They engulfed her, swallowing her body up into a twitching silhouette.

Will you help me, Yuki? I'll do anything. Just come back. Mommy will come back home. But first you must let me in. Oh boy. Let me breathe again. Let me move again. Let me inside. Yes, yes, yes. I'm blubbered, thoughtlessly digging my hands into the mesh of larva and pulling out two meaty handfuls. They struggled and jerked to my grip. All at once, I forced them into my mouth. Oh, God.

They're flexible, squishy bodies popped between my teeth. Their spindles cut into my gums and the roof of my mouth like a dentist needles. A bitter, slimy flavors covered my tongue as I'd choke them down. Oh, God. Yeah, just the idea of them like popping and stabbing your gums. I start, have you ever, have you ever eaten a bug before for anything? I mean, I just, I'm going to let it lie there. I mean, I just could, could you see any more bugged shit?

I mean, I feel like I'm on my third grade playground again. I didn't even, I didn't even eat it for a bug thing. It was for a YouTube thing. Did you ever eat it was for a YouTube thing. And it was dried crickets. It was dried crickets. Oh, I have not. But I've seen actually in stores before.

I've seen flavored crickets before. Like I've actually seen like a chocolate flavored or like a like a like a barbecue dusted one. Crickets are, you know, they're popular, man. People like I did that one time for a spin the wheel like challenge thing. And it was like the punishment. You had eat the crickets. Dude. Oh, you can feel the legs between your teeth.

Oh, I can imagine. I heard they're super, super crunchy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. because they're all they're completely dried out so it's like it's like a cheese puff but cricket flavor so bad uh i startled myself awake looking wildly around for a few blurry seconds no shrine no caterpillars just cold sweat and a miserably tight bladder and climbed out of bed and walk next door

the please use downstairs sign mocked me still not fully awake the grogly stepped downstairs and through the dining room to reach the West bathroom. After relieving myself, I washed my hands and headed back, but this time, I froze. The lights were on. Keena was sitting on her knees at the dinner table. Oh, God. It had to have been two or three in the morning by then. Why is she up so early?

I passed by her, intended to apologize if I had woken her up. Something wasn't right. She was doubled over at the short table, blowing out deep concentrated breaths. The blue sleeves of her jimbe hung loosely from her wrist. Her neck was bent, and her shoulders were hunched and locked stiff. A black pool of Sumi ink had been spilled on the table with a pungent, sickly sweet odor. She was dipping her fingers into it, sloppily riding on her left arm, repeating the same characters again.

again and it looks at Japanese here and it just says offering yeah offering that has to be that has to be what was on soda's arm too right yeah they're like offering themselves up to the spirit or like the thing that's possessing these caterpillars yeah what almost seems like that the dream that uh our protagonist had it seemed like that was maybe after i i have a feeling he's probably going to be in the same boat as them like maybe they all that seems like his that seemed like his commissioning like his first step over into giving themselves towards it. So yeah, I'm sure he'll get to this point in a minute. I lean towards her.

Is everything all right? She abruptly twisted toward me. Her sleepless eyes were bloodshot and rapidly rolling around in their sockets utterly independent of each other. She croaked through a grimacing, toothy smile. Well, I've got ahead of bed. Thank you for...

Yeah. Thank you for that. Hey, so by the way... See you in the morning. Hey, could you just keep it? down a bit, you're waking up the house. What do you do? You come downstairs.

It's two in the morning. Allison's awake. You're like, what are you doing up? And she looks at you and makes cicada noises. She makes cicada noises? Perfect. That's what I imagine the, I imagine the kicka is like a like a like, you know, an insectoid noise. Like that kind of thing.

And it's like accurate bloodshot eyes and she's looking at me. Yeah. And she's not responding to what I'm saying. Right. I, okay, so then I. she probably her hair spying. I put her hair back. You know,

I pat her head and I grab a cast iron skillet and I drive it into the side of her temple. Because there's no, there's no point. And then I leave. Once again, as always, I leave and I never look back.

Yep. Aruba, Jamaica. So the kid, you're just not even concerned. So you kill Allison with a frying pan. Oh, I'm concerned. There's a bug woman in my house.

Trust me. No, I'm saying for the child, for the child. I'm concerned that there is potentially a future bug person. Oh, oh, the concern is that maybe you need to hit her with the frying pan too. And see, that's when I, but I don't do it. I leave and I say, well, we'll let whoever stumbles upon this figure that out. We'll let the police figure out this mess. Yeah, we'll let the authorities because, listen, I mean, that's just that that's their job.

right? Well, it seems Hunter murdered his wife after he found her awake in the middle of the night and her to cicada outside. Yeah, her to cicada outside almost instantly attributed it to her being a bug and squashed her. Ding, ding, ding. Yep. Again, just want to get you to the

point of like abandoning your family killing everyone. I'm already there. I mean, I could, I don't think I could be any farther away. I think I've gone. Aruba. Exactly. Exactly. The wall touched my spine

before I realized I was backing up. Pina stood up and her neck slumped to the side and hung there. She turned to me. I swiveling like a chameleons. Streaks of saliva slipping down her chin and slowly approached.

Her legs seemed rigid. She clumsily forced them to bend like a puppet learning how they work. I pressed further against the wall. wishing I could fade away into it. My mind was saying run, but my muscles rejected the order. The static was taking control. Just scream, my thoughts echoed.

Wake someone up, just scream. Her wet fingers grabbed my wrist. She leaned forward. Her musty breath smelled like old, used up moth balls, and pressed a finger against her lips. She let go of me and trudged awkwardly to the front door, where she disappeared into the night. My trembling legs dropped me to the floor.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, trying to take back control of my sporadic gasping and disabled motor functions. Once I was able to feel my legs again, I rushed into Horry's room, nearly giving him a heart attack in the process. What's going on? He jumped in a drowsy panic. I told him what had happened,

showing my wrist smeared with black fingerprints. He pulled himself up and wandered into the dining room. The black pool of spilled ink was coagulating on the table. Orr reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and dialed the number into it. From the front door camera, the vibrating buzz of a cell phone on the floor. He in a cell phone. He picked it up and glanced at me, concerned. Did she take her car?

Before I could answer, he was already checking the garage. The car was unmoved. I heard him curse under his breath. Fuck. I'm going to take a look around. Stay here in case she comes back. All right. I nodded to him and sent on the stairs while he got dressed and headed out with a flashlight. He came back shortly after.

Flustered and empty-handed. She isn't anywhere close by. Let me make a quick call. The call was to the police. So another bear trap I'm laying out there. His mom being gone, maybe the caterpillars got her, and the boy,

wasn't Soda wasn't Skyping earlier. He was talking to the caterpillar. Oh, yeah, probably. I mean, yeah, I would assume that. Yeah, like she's not actually gone. She's, well, yeah, I could see that.

I guess I'm curious. I think you can go a couple different ways. I don't know. I'd be bought in. I could also see a thing of him attaching himself to Kadami, the caterpillar, just because the mom is gone or something.

he's just attached himself to that awkwardly. And he just said he was talking to his mom as a lie. Yeah. To not come off as weirder than he already is. I also like the idea that if this is the second mother he's had that's gotten got by the caterpillars, the dad's waking up from bed like, oh, not again. Yeah. Just going off to the caterpillar god.

Yeah. Every time. Oh, boy. Here we go. With that voice he's. singing like he's thinking what's

there's a song I'm trying to think of a country song about losing a girl to like a guy I can't remember it but just in my head it's being replaced with Caterpillar God the guy that steals all the women an officer came by shortly after the call

his barrel shaped chest protruded out of his dark blue uniform he had dry scabby lips and scream for chapstick My uncle talked with him while I waited in the kitchen. I'm washing the ink off of the wet cloth. I idly wondered if I should wake soda, but decided not to. The officer came in and asked me questions, one after the other.

100% sodas and I could care anyways. How do you feel about your uncle's girlfriend? Has she ever acted differently around you? Has she ever told you about any secret? I answered him as best as I could. what uh what did you say about soda a second ago he's like i was going to wake soda but decided not to him like that motherfucker's going to be in a cocoon oh yeah yeah that kid he's up they're like billion percent

okay that's all i'm saying boy he smacked his chap lips together and finalized his notes about hena's physical description and the jimba she was wearing given the circumstances we aren't able to conduct a search for an adult who just doesn't wish be home. I could hold on to the information you've given me for the time being, if you have not heard anything for at least 24 hours, or of any reason to fear for her safety, we can provide more assistance. Please keep us informed." He bowed and returned to the park to cruiser. We watched him drive off. Uncle Hoary looked at me.

Get some sleep, yokey. I'm sure she'll tend up in the morning. I nodded to him and went to bed where I laid for hours staring at the ceiling. As exhausted as I was, my mind had no intention of resting. I called my father, who answered grogly. I told him what had happened and how scared I was. He promised to cut his Hokkaido exhibition short and said to get me the day after tomorrow. 24 hours never felt farther. I was scared, not quite sure what to do with myself.

Why had Heena written on her arm? What was wrong with her eyes? What was happening in this house? The next morning, the cold breeze from the day before, had brought an overcast gray sky. Horry was making Ulong tea alone in the kitchen. He didn't say too much.

His look of exhausted defeat said enough. Sleep must have been scarce for him also. Soto was in the backyard, seated in the garden. His elbow was lifted and pointed outward as though striking an invisible person. Oh, fun. He was giggling and talking out loud,

a jaunty, ear-to-ear grin radiating from his face. I thought he was talking to himself at first, before spying the glass terrarium in his lap and the caterpillar's four spindles crawling across his arm. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it, Kadami. We didn't hear from Hina that day, nothing but silence through the morning, noon, and evening. All we could do was wait while the pale clouds wafted over us. Despite this, so does upbeat attitude never left him. He was joking, smiling, and perkier than usual.

I'd never seen his spirits higher. It wasn't right, and it also didn't seem real. He was hiding something. And for both Hory and Hina's sake, I had to find out what it was before tomorrow. Around sundown, Hory left her another drive around the neighborhood, another attempt to find her. It was now or never. Just as I was about to tap on Soda's door, I heard him talking on the other side. I pressed my ear to the frame and listened intensively.

Don't understand. It's okay now. Your trip can be over. The distressed weight lowered his voice. Another voice replied, Too quiet and distorted to make out clearly, but I was almost certain I heard the word complicated. There was a bang on the table.

I don't care. But this is for you. So why can you do this for me? You need to be here. Dad need you here. More distorted words. More complicated. His voice rose.

to a volley of incoherent screams. There was another loud thump and muffled sobbing. No more talking. The discussion must have been over. A creaked to open the door, slid inside, and gently closed it. The room was dark in the laptop's white void screen once again blinded me.

Curled up on the bed, where the light couldn't reach, was a vaguely outlined body. A desk chair lay on the floor, probably thrown there. Was that your mother? I mean obviously so does a freak but I love the idea of this kid

like in a very personal fight with his mom it's like I don't care I love you you said you never leave me and then like your cousin comes in so is that like your mom it's fucking heartbreaking be crazy also too if he's like talking to a bug and you think it's the

you think it's a Skype call also just creepy but so sad yeah I'm talking to a bug mom can't come home That's definitely me as a kid No answer I scooped up the dash chair And placed myself next to him

You know whenever I was upset Mama would tell me to cheer up before my face got stuck that way The dark lump that was my cousin didn't move His stifled sniffling Sounded in the sheets Come on Just talk to me okay I did everything right

Everything right Everything the woman said to do and it still isn't working. She said it would, so why isn't it? I rolled the castor wheels closer, reminded myself of one of those psychiatrists you see on TV. What woman?

The woman of my dreams. He sat and rolling over to face me. His eyes were wide and drenched with tears. Blotches, flinted off his wet pupils. She came because I brought Kadami here. That's how you let her in. They're the caterpillars. She said Hina would leave and mom would come back

She's real Yuki I've seen her I didn't like the seriousness in his voice I also don't like a lot of other things About what he just said The look in his eyes was both real and terrifying Sure there was living in your own world Where Bugs had voices and their own personalities

But this was different This was the real world where real people went missing This is a dream you had Oh, from that creepy place. I want to. Listen, if you know what happened to Hanna or where she is, you have to tell me. Abruptly, in a whirlwind of speed,

he leaped out of bed and paced around. Words in flaky, dried ink were written down in his right arm. Oh boy. Inon Tory. Curse. There you go. Yeah, so he drew, he drew the curse and her name on his arm.

I see. The woman's a liar. That is what is. I didn't work. She came back because of Kadami, so if I take Kadami back home, then maybe she'll leave two. Dash to the glass case and scooped it up in his arms. I can fix this. Bolted for the front door. I grabbed his shoulder and tried to yank him back. Wait, wait, you need to calm down. Something struck me in the head. It took me a moment to realize it was his elbow. Pain throbbed in my temple and blood rushed to the forming goose egg. My knees buckled and dropped me to the floor.

I could hear the sound of feet pattering and swinging open the front door. A tear's left dark blotches on my shirt. I thought about Hina. Thought about Ulan T. Thought about Mom. I'm sorry. Blubbered pitifully to myself. It felt like I was losing her all over again.

Stupid idiom bounced around my aching skull. I wanted to tell it to shut up. Why was I even crying? So to said he'd come right back. But what if he doesn't? I blinked my eyes, both marinated in tears. But what if he doesn't? Here I was, crying my eyes out while he was going to that awful place all alone.

No, I couldn't let something happen to him. I couldn't let Horry lose him too. I reached into my pocket and called Horry's cell phone. I rang him to Lilleen delivered me to the voicemail. A few more attempts, same result. Of course, why not? I thought sorely. I texted him a message filled with misspellings and panic.

He'd read it eventually, and it would probably give him a heart attack. But it was all I could think to do. Before any more regretful thoughts could sprout up, I grabbed his tactical flashlight from the garage and rushed through the front door. I raced down the sloping street to beat the sundown clock. I'd find soda and bring him back. Then there would be no more need for hysterics. I hope so anyway.

I crossed the empty playground and reached the trail entrance. As much as I tried to find them back, poisonous snots were still breaking through the monsoon, wriggling caterpillars all over her skin. I pressed on, trying to ignore them. Slender, broken neck. The damp mossy smell hit me when I reached the bridge. That grimacing open mouth, those real looking teeth, both my hands gripped the wooden railing. Let me end, Yuki. Let me in.

Shut up already. I mumbled to the ugly thoughts and hopped over. If not for the creek, I'd have completely lost my sense of direction. Everything looked the same, especially with so little sunlight breaking through the canopies. It was only going to get darker from there. Something metallic crunched under my shoe. I reached the abandoned railroad track. Still no sign of them, though.

This has already crossed. Something also felt different about the tracks, like something was missing. regardless I pushed forward the forest was losing what little light it had left from the day my eyes played tricks on me meshing the branches and shrubs into monstrous shapes

then I saw soda hunched over against a tree he was breathing heavily clearly exhausted from the run here he pressed a glass terrarium carrying his precious cargo into his side I quickly caught up with him are you done running away now

You can't raise his head No I I need to I still need to take Kadami back there Rested my hand on his shoulder It's getting dark

Your dad's gonna be worried about us Do you think he needs Do you think he needs that on his plate too Please Yuki Lifted his red Weary face Throat of spittle dangled from his mouth Just let me do this first

I have to do this then we can go back okay why don't just squish the thing and be done with it shook his head she'll come back i don't know how but i know she will i took her out of that place now i have to take her back i sighed deeply thought of wrestling him all the way back to the trail and then dragging him back home said it'll be quick right yes said with exasperated relief and started walking again i'm sorry i hit you i didn't mean to It's all right I'll also have to get you back for it later Shrinegate

And all its decrepit glory was waiting for us A pungent rotting smell was back Floating through the air It had gotten worse somehow The earthy wet sock smell Had intensified to an outhouse Full of moldy meat

I'm gonna wait here You go do it and come back I don't want to see that thing again I said Laving my nose shut Before he took another step We heard a sound. The crackling of dead leaves being repeatedly crunched, footsteps coming closer, a set of fingers curled themselves over one of the gates supporting pillars and pulled a trudging body forward.

It was Hina, slogging towards us with unbalanced steps. Her bare feet caked with grime. The seams of her dirt-stained jimbeys split to the point that it was virtually falling off her. her head swayed limply on her shoulders stretched across her face was that ugly twisted smile those eyes they were still twisting freely in their sockets thanks for moving all over clusters of spindly caterpillar scrambling endlessly across her body before i even realized it the crippling fear had already squeezed between my joints my heart rattled around my rib cage trying to burst its way to free him. So to step forward and dropped to his knees in front of her, he was saying something,

but it was difficult to hear anything over the deafening static. Sorry, take back, didn't want this. He had clenched a handful of his hair. He screamed and struggled in her grip, dropping Kodami's terrarium into the dirt. She breathed stiffly and croaking moans that sounded like. From behind her back, her other arm, lifted. Brandished between her dirt-caped fingers was a rusted train spike. Uh-oh. I stood there succumbing to paralysis.

My thoughts couldn't free themselves. I was losing myself to the static. This isn't real. It's just a bad dream. No, it isn't. I'm somewhere else. Somewhere safe. No, you aren't, scream broke through. Is that soda? Yes, someone's hurting him. Yes, I have to help, and you're going to have to move. Before even realizing it, I had fired into a sprint.

The day's muscles of my legs were pumping like steam-powered machinery. I was scared, absolutely terrified. But it didn't matter. I was moving. My mother's idiom rang off the walls of my skull, guided by her voice. Fear is only as deep as the mind allows. I swung the tactical flashlight. Its toothed head met Nihina's face and splattered a caterpillar on her neck into a blue-green paste.

Her neck swung back with a loud grunt. Although she stumbled a bit, her fingers still clenched Soda's hair. Three bloody wheels opened on her still smiling face. Put her back! Soda yelled, batting at Tena with a small fist. Put Kadami back! all rationality was gone. Maybe he was right.

Perhaps everything would turn back to normal. The terrarium was lying on its side. I ran towards it and shined the flashlight in. The caterpillar was crawling along the tipped black soil. I tucked the flashlight into my jacket pocket, cut the small thing in my hands. I couldn't believe what I was doing. The feeling of it's small,

probably legs tickling my palms and shivers at my spine. As I ran for the gate, Hina swayed in my direction. Her fingers unhooked from Soda's hair. She curled herself at me with a shocking burst of speed. I started up the slope, doing everything in my power to ignore the harsh, fruity sounds behind me and the tickling sensation between my palms. A hand locked around my ankle. I tumbled forward into the dirt.

When I looked back, Hina's eyes were no longer rolling. They were dead set on me. Her arm rose displaying the rust-coated spike. I screamed, trying to kick my free leg at her, but my awkward position on the slope made it difficult. She struck with the spike. I forced my body to roll to the side. My ankle, her hand still clamped around it, popped. Sparks flew as the train spike struck one of the stone steps.

Tight, searing pain resonated for my ankle up to my leg. She made a guttural cackling sound and hoisted the spike again. but this time Soda was behind her. Glass terrarium held over his head. He mashed it over her, sending a fine spray of glass and grime everywhere. Her grip slackened, just enough for me to escape. I pushed off my elbows and got back to my feet. I trekked the rest of the way up to the hill, fighting through the sharp pain of my ankle.

The sculpture was waiting for me below the lonesome rotting tree. Its frozen grimace matched Tina's perfectly. Only this time, there wasn't a single. single caterpillar on its filmy green skin. Ena tromped up the hill as I staggered at the sculpture. I wasn't sure what you expect. Does it even do anything? Horrible.

Gutteral scream came out of her as I forced the caterpillar between the sculpture's realistic teeth and into its coppery gullet. The train spike slipped from Hina's hands. She took a few weak steps and fell limply to the ground like a filthy rag doll. numerous caterpillars she was wearing all toppled off of her curled into unmoving ovals i collapsed my swelling ankle couldn't handle anymore so to help me back up supporting me with my arm over his shoulder i'm sorry he was weeping uncontrollably i'm still not sure if he was apologizing to hina or me we left her behind with the sculptures and the caterpillars who worshiped

it no more. Just as we staggered out of the trails entryway, we saw Horry in the parking area, speaking to the same barrel-chested officers before, most likely because of my message. He quickly spied us and dashed from the officer to meet us halfway. He pulled us into a tight embrace. What happened? Is everything all right? I'm so sorry I didn't answer your calls. The officer followed shortly after. My cousin and I looked at each other with the same addled uncertainty. The aftermath of everything left our minds, haggard, and broken. Even I wasn't sure what exactly the truth of what happened was.

We found her in the forest. Soda said, quietly, to the man with chapped lips, a tear trailing down his cheek. I know where she is, but I can take you there. An ambulance and a few other officers arrived at the scene. Both Soda and his father accompanying them back into the woods while I stayed with one of the EMTs to have my ankle treated. They gave me some ice, wrapped it in an elastic brace.

After some time, everyone returned. Or he was wearing a face I never seen before. Dazed, foggy stare, like a ghost trying to remember how to feel. They asked him to remove us from the scene and to return home for the night, to be in touch.

The drive home was long and quiet. We pulled into the driveway, walked into the house, quietly went to our beds. No one said a word. I wanted to say something, anything, but absolutely nothing could clear that trouble there. None of us were going to find sleep that night. I kept the closet light on.

It provided some comfort from the shadows that were continually morphing into an upraised arm, waiting to pierce my heart with its rusted spike. When the sun rose again, I started packing my things. Now and then, I'd eye the window, expecting his window, expecting his arm. see my father's car beloved any moment. I heard someone crying downstairs. The kitchen was empty, but the crying came from the connecting hallway. Or he was standing there facing the wall, his face buried in his forearm.

I could tell he was doing his best to stifle the sounds, but failing miserably. It had to be something I could do, but what? An idea struck. I hobbled to the purple kettle. When he came into the kitchen, a cup of oolong tea was waiting for room on the table. He looked at me. Puzzled at first, but then he gave me a subtle smile. I watched as he picked up the drink, blew on the steaming liquid, sipped it. He suddenly winced. It's probably the poor taste.

Sorry, I'm sort of a lousy tea maker. No, no. He said, waving his fingers at me. It just caught me off guard, how familiar that taste was. It's, it's perfect. It had eventually pulled into the driveway. Fortunately, I was able to give Soda a proper goodbye through his locked bedroom door. It was later released that Hina Atori was found dead at the scene. But according to pathology reports,

her time of death was the night she disappeared. Same night she walked out the front door. The next time I saw Soda was at the memorial service for Hina. For the most part, he disregarded me. every so often granting me a passive glance. It wasn't until the end that he pulled me aside and started talking. Everything was gone. He said in a rattled, trembling voice.

There's no gate. There's no sculpture, only Hina and the weapon. Where did everything go, Yuki? Was because of the adults I brought? Is the woman somewhere else now? Looking for someone else to let her out of the sculpture? I did have any answers for him. How could I have? We both felt crazy. We probably were both crazy.

But there was no denying the horrors I witnessed that night. They were real, sickeningly real. Something tried to stomp us from returning to that sculpture. The nightmares that followed were constant almost every night. That place haunted me. Tori Gate choked with slime mold, the rotten, pus-bleeding trees, the woman burying her opening mouth grimace, the place where the caterpillars went to die. Without my mother's idiom, the fear of falling back asleep would have caused me to collapse mentally. But progressively, the nightmares became less and less frequent. I guess even bad dreams can grow bored of their host. Even now, when one man just claw its way back up and wakes me in a cold sweat,

I always pull myself back. It became increasingly difficult for me to keep in contact with soda. He seldom returned my messages. Horry mentioned to me that his son had been seen a therapist on a regular basis, most likely to help him cope with the dark guilt on his shoulders, reshaping it, making it easier to chew up. Regardless, he'd have to live with it. The ungodly force that he had conjured and used to rip Horry's new love away, all for the sake of keeping his father from moving on.

I've changed a lot since the last time I saw a soda, but how much didn't strike me until recently. I was typing a last-minute essay trying to beat my midnight deadline. Something fluttered in my peripheral. Large moth had flown in through the window. Two intricately patterned eye spots on its wings resembled skulls. Its black and brown body was robust.

I didn't know until later that it was a Brahmin moth. Taking an interest in the light for my computer monitor, it whiffled over and landed on the surface. screen. It was so close that I reached my finger out, touched its feathery antenna. It was kind of cute. And that is the end of where the caterpillars die. Very interesting story. Two people who have lost like an important motherly figure in their life. I don't know. I put importantly it's their mom. Motherly figure, but it's kind of interesting. The links one will go in order to bring that love or like basically that family back together

and how even our protagonist, I feel like wanted to do the same, but was able to refrain from like giving in to that temptation as well. Yeah, I think it's interesting how they both lose mothers and one of, and one of them isn't even physical.

He can still talk to her. She's just not around. And his solution is to kill a woman and conjure up this ancient evil as a means of making it happen. And then sure, he's guilty for it at the time of the funeral, but he still kills someone.

to get back his still living mother versus our protagonist whose mom died, but because of his mother's teachings and not giving it into fear and stuff, he was able to be the better person than Soda coming out the other side of it. I think that's a pretty cool little thing. And I also like the note how earlier in the story we have Soda, who is refusing to let on the fact that his mom's gone. So he stays trapped in the past. He uses the caterpillars.

begins to talk to them and make friends with them and then eventually uses them to kill a woman try to get his mom back. And then years later, when our protagonist sees him again or Yuki sees him again, Soda still hasn't let it go. And he's still kind of trapped there. Whereas Yuki learns from this, doesn't do it. And at the end of the story, he encounters a moth. So it went, like,

there's that line from Soda earlier. What kind of caterpillar would never want to fly? That would be soda and yuki is the one who sees the moth sees the transformation it becomes better from yeah the tragedy he went through yeah who would want to move on who who would want to like sit here and like linger in this kind of uh this hell you know and it's it's weird too because soda and yuki i mean they're only 13 years old so yeah soda coming to this conclusion isn't i wouldn't say i don't think he understood the repercussions of that maliciousness it's weird if you and i don't know if you feel the saying, but if you age him up to like 17, it feels so much more nefarious, doesn't it?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's a, innocence goes a long way here and a lack of recognition of how heavy the stuff you're doing is, you know, I think that saves so a lot from just being a monster because he did kill a woman, you know? Yes, yes, yes, yes. No, you know, you can't definitely innocent person died in the story. but it's, it's always interesting when it comes from maybe like a weird kid.

Somebody was just like, you never really know how deep the intentions were. Not necessarily, like obviously, I mean, he meant a killer, but I guess it's just like, at what point does the age factor and stuff come in?

I don't know. It's just an interesting thought. It's like, oh, he was 17. Then it becomes even creepier. But you just, I guess what I'm saying is I just feel bad for the fucking kid.

Feel bad for him. Did something they has to live with now for the rest of time. I do wish that Yuki had more of a struggle with that, like having to really swallow that idea that his mom is gone, and then he has to, you know, live with that. It felt like he was very grounded, which is fine. But, you know, just more of the temptation of the caterpillars or more of those things would have been fun to maybe be explored in a longer story.

But, I mean, I like that, you know, one of them chose the wrong path and one of them chose the right path. I think that that's always a fun, a fun dynamic story. I think this was a, I mean, like obviously the caterpillars are kind of like a unique twist and stuff, but on the surface,

it is a basic setup of, very simple story, you know, character going through loss, someone can't get over it, but it uses that narrative to tell an interesting story about like these caterpillars. And I thought the whole part with it possessing her,

like the, it sounds like she's literally full of caterpillar, pillars. Yeah, gargling and shit. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's a really creepy visual. And I thought it used the simplicity of the story to its strength to kind of get this

idea across. I thought it was good. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I thought it was fun. I think that I would have liked more moments with more creepy things happening, more mystery around like the sigils and stuff. I think like, especially when you're going to something like Japanese, you know, mythology or folklore or anything like that, I think there's just so much.

much there's so much you can pull from it would have been fun to dabble on that which i'm guessing that he chose this to be japanese maybe because of that statue i'm sure that statue exists in some kind of like urban legend or something i would imagine um which is why he chose it to be like a japanese story versus like it just being like something maybe more american or something uh just because the guy's names michael page i would assume that he's just uh i assume he's not from japan i guess is what i'm saying um but yeah a lot of cool stuff uh uh Visually a lot of fun. And, you know, his other story, too,

what was it called? The man who ate ghost or something. Or what was it called? The man who ate ghost. Yeah. That story was great, too. Really fun, punchy short stories that I think, you know, I really want to check out the Angels Burned story, too.

Just that title is fucking crazy. But really liked this one. Really fun. Nice little time. Yeah. So again, Michael Page has a ton of other. stories and so far he's two for two. So if you'd like to read more of his

stuff, we'll have it linked in the description. Please show him some love. He certainly deserves it. Yeah. Thank you so much guys for listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Consider giving us a nice rating. And to all of our beautiful patrons out there. Thank you so much for supporting the channel. And if you're looking for some extra content, feel free to head over there at patreon.com

slash creepcast. Until next time, guys, we will see you in the next one. Bye-bye. And also, bye-bye, bug boy. Yeah, see you in the next one. So I know I kind of set up the bug boy thing a little bit by talking about bugs and him doing the voice, but still from a professional sense, from a interpersonal sense, from any sense this podcast has the level to which we make Chevrolet vehicles, but what you do with them makes them so much more. You make the mobile offices, your kids' personal taxi, a concert shuttle, your hockey equipment

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