CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio - "I live alone on the outskirts of a state park, but I've made some friends" Creepypasta

Starting point is 00:00:01 It's a nasty habit, but I've been smoking again. Pretty heavily, honestly. It started because I was bored. Stupid, I know. And it developed from there. I live alone and suffer from that. I don't have enough energy to do anything productive, but I want to feel productive.

Starting point is 00:00:20 And sitting on the porch, smoking counts as doing something, right? Again, it's stupid and doesn't make much sense. I keep saying I'll quit. But here I am, at 6 a.m., sitting on my porch with a cigarette lit, not even five minutes after the alarm woke me. I live in a rural area on the border of a state park and Route 30. There's a little apartment above the little country market here. If it weren't for the intermittent traffic, it would be a quiet home.

Starting point is 00:00:49 6 a.m. was one of the few times I could sit on the porch and not hear the constant stream of trucks and semis hauling things across state. If I was lucky, I catch glimpses of some wildlife though. Raccoon, deer, once even a bear that made eye contact with me as it steadily resumed its rummaged meal from the dumpster beneath the parking light. And that more than made up for the noise, I think. I like to think that I always had a friend or two nearby. Kind of pathetic really, but I felt to make any human friends in two years of living here. Another thing is the spiders.

Starting point is 00:01:26 Tons of them make their home on the porch's railings and the ceiling of the overhang above. They freaked me out a little, the sheer mass of them, but I like to think we have a truce of sorts. They don't try to crawl on me or take up real estate to my chair and respect my personal space. They don't get smashed or bathed in a torrent of raid. It's been working well so far, and I thank them for the cooperation,

Starting point is 00:01:51 because it's totally normal to have one-sided conversations with the spiders or whatever other creature crawls into my line of sight. I was finishing my third cigarette when I knew, noticed it. Stuck in a particularly nasty series of webs was a praying mantis, dangling from one leg. It was a pretty large one too. Green and tan with wings tipped in bright white, which I'd never seen before. I was sure it could take on the comparatively little spiders on the porch, but its frantic arm movements struck a cord in my heart. I carefully removed the little thing from the web, and it almost immediately latched on with its front legs. It took over a minute.

Starting point is 00:02:31 to release this grip as carefully as I could, as I feared harming its delicate limbs. I set it down on my chair gently. Seat of honour right there, I said, but frowned when I saw the mantis didn't seem to be doing well despite my efforts. It had its face pressed to the seat, limbs spayed as if they could no longer support its body weight. As I watched, it struggled to move, legs uncoordinated. It flipped onto its back, where it grew much,

Starting point is 00:03:01 Mostly still, except for the slow movements of legs bending and unbending. A pang of sadness hit me. Probably more than what is normal for the life of a bug. But I didn't know what to do. I whispered an apology to it, then went back inside to get ready for work. When I went to leave, it hadn't moved at all. Its colour seemed to be more muted. Good luck, buddy.

Starting point is 00:03:27 If nothing else, I hope you can pass comfortably there instead of a spider's meal. I passed to go to my car and thought about the mantis the entire way and throughout the day. I felt worried and maybe even a little stupid for feeling worried, but it occupied my mind all day. Every break I could, I took to Google. I found that the mantis was likely female due to its larger size and the length of its wings, which did not extend past its abdomen. I also read up on the malting process, which gave me a little hope.

Starting point is 00:04:01 It listed a lightning in colour and lethargy as signs of the process. I continued my research in stolen minutes during smoke breaks and bathroom breaks. I wasn't able to determine the exact species, the white-tipped wings thrown off any hunch that it could be similar green and tan species. It was much larger than the average size of any mantises known in my area too. Its length had dwarfed my hand in the brief moment I held it. I figured it might have been some sort of one-off mules. mutation of sorts.

Starting point is 00:04:33 I got home from work a little late after stopping for groceries along the way. It was still there. I went inside long enough to put groceries away, lighting up a cigarette as I stepped outside and hauling a dining chair with me, so I had a place to sit too. I studied her, looked as close as I could, and was happy to see light movement. Not much, but her antenna was still twitching and mouthpieces quivering just

Starting point is 00:05:00 is quivering just very slightly. I butted out the cigarette and went back inside the house returning with a cup of water. I went off the porch to find the leaf slightly dry, slightly curled up at the edges. I set the leaf about six inches away from her. I used my fingertips

Starting point is 00:05:18 to transfer a few droplets of water to the leaf. I searched around the porch, examining the spider webs and picked off a medium-sized moth. I apologize to the spiders for stealing a meal, reassured them that it was for a good cause and set them mostly dead

Starting point is 00:05:33 but still twitching moth next to the leaf I don't know if this will help but if you pull through at least I'll have a drink and a snack when you do The mantis as expected did not answer Not much for conversation that one I went back inside Thinking my presence might be a continued stress on her

Starting point is 00:05:54 I didn't smoke the rest of the night But looked out the door every so often. As time went on, I was happy to see that it had been a malting process after all, as she seemed to be detaching from the old exoskeleton little by little in small labored movements. In the morning, the moth was gone, the dry leaf, and nothing left of her but a shed and destroyed malt, and a surprising amount of clear, viscous goo, and a lot of it. My Google Academy session had nothing to say about the goo, but I was just glad she was just glad she had made it through and was off living a little mantis life again somewhere.

Starting point is 00:06:34 I smiled and left for work. Another few weeks passed in its usual silence and lack of fanfare. I found myself smoking more, as if I needed an excuse to sit out on my porch more often than before. In the back of my head, I hoped to see her again, see how bright and new colours were and how big she had grown. It was dumb, what with a large, expansive forest surrounding me, hundreds of people. to Vegas she could be exploring and hunting. Still, it was a nice thought. Monday nights or trash nights, the dumpster emptied early Tuesday mornings.

Starting point is 00:07:10 I'd fallen asleep at some point on my couch and when I woke up, it was still dark. I looked at the time. 5 a.m. Grumbling, I bagged up my trash, deciding to take it out before the dump truck arrived and with plans to get another hour of sleep in before work. The parking lot light was a bright. orange white above as I lifted the dumps the lid and threw the bag inside, the movement casting distorted shadows as I did. It was after I turned to go back inside that I heard movement.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Before I could even react or think about it, something hard and pointed pressed painfully into the small of my back. I did know anybody was still here, a rough, out-of-breath male voice said. I froze, too afraid to even look over my shoulder, in fear of setting the guy off. He sounded panicked himself, pressing the knife further against my back. For once, I begged for the usual noisy traffic along 30, but the night was quiet and the road unoccupied at this hour.

Starting point is 00:08:15 Please, I begged, voice barely above a whisper. I didn't want to die here, sad and alone, with the only old woman who worked in the country market there to find me. Let me go. I haven't seen your face I don't even What was he even doing to warrant worry about a sad

Starting point is 00:08:34 lonely woman living by herself? I glanced around quickly a note of the window below my apartment for the country market was open Of all places to try to rob It had to be a little store In the middle of nowhere I was going to die here

Starting point is 00:08:51 So out of the blue and unexpected An inner place so small It didn't even have a paper for me To be remembered as a passing headline a place where no one would mourn me or claim my body when it was found. I could sense him shifting from foot to foot nervously. No, I'm not. I can't risk it. I can't. He hovered behind me for several long moments,

Starting point is 00:09:17 knife alternating between pressing even harder into my back, hesitant and pulling away. My porch steps were about 20 feet away. Could I make it in time? up my steps and through the door, locking it before he could push through and make a more decisive jab of his knife? Probably not. Not with all the smoking I've been doing.

Starting point is 00:09:40 Our shadows stretched ahead of us, made grotesque from the angle of the parking lot light. As I watched and considered my fate here at the hands of an indecisive knife, something else in the shadow shifted behind us. Now, an even longer and larger shadow crept up, swallowing up the shadows of myself and my assailant until all you could see was this new shadow.

Starting point is 00:10:04 The man cursed, the knife pulling away as he turned to the shoveling steps behind us. I didn't hesitate then, his distraction my benefit. I bolted for my steps, taking them two at a time, but not quick enough to avoid hearing the man's screams being abruptly cut off by an echoing, wet crunch. I didn't look back.

Starting point is 00:10:26 I crashed through my door, Locked it and made the beeline from my bed where I huddled, terrified and in the disassociated days as the sun arose and the morning light spilled in through my window. It must have only been an hour, tops, before a commotion outside began. First, with the sound of the garbage truck pulling off, and then the sirens and more cars and a chorus of voices. Then knocking on my door. Two officers stood there, the light of their vehicles flashing below. Morning, ma'am. Are you the one who lives here? I nodded, heart hammering in my chest.

Starting point is 00:11:04 My mind immediately went to every worst-case scenario, because of course something else could go wrong. My mind landed on the idea that I'd somehow be blamed for the man's death. I assumed he was dead, because those screams and their quick end could mean nothing else. Did you happen to hear anything in the night, any unusual activity? but the two stood shoulder to shoulder and blocked the view. No, not that I can recall, I lied. Why did I lie? I was out like a light since ten.

Starting point is 00:11:39 They accepted the answer easily. I was surprised with how calmly I was interacting with them, despite the terror of my head. Did something happen, officers? They exchanged glances briefly, but didn't hesitate in their reply. Word gets around in places like this, whether they told me themselves or not. Looks like a particularly bad bear attack, a guy trying to rob the store below and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Starting point is 00:12:08 The first officer said, Not the first bear attack around here, said the second. I nodded again, not sure what to say now. All right, the first officer said after a long pause, well, stay safe, keep on the lookout for wildlife, and be careful not to leave trash out near your door or steps. They turned and descended the stairs just in time for me to glimpse the body, covered in blood in a flimsy sheet that hugged the outline of the body.

Starting point is 00:12:39 Tall, broad-shouldered, and alarmingly ended right there at the shoulders. I shut the door, called off work and stayed inside. No smoke breaks. The next day I returned to work, not able to justify another misday of, wages to myself. Talk at work confirmed what I saw. The man's head had been taken clean off,

Starting point is 00:13:03 leaving only the collapsed body in the parking lot. The head was nowhere to be found. Nobody knew the man, but an abandoned campsite was found in the park nearby. Bear must have had one hell of the munches, one co-worker said. Two-by-the-the-store security cameras were just for show, would have liked to see the thieving ass I'll get what was coming to him.

Starting point is 00:13:25 I stayed quiet. When I got home that day, I sat on my porch in my usual chair and lit a cigarette with a lot of unease. I looked out toward the dumpster and the parking lot light, not yet flicked on in the fading sunlight. I thought about the shadow that dwarfed mine and the man's, the long, gangly limbs, the thin body above the larger, rounded abdomen, the triangular head and the moving mouthpiece. I didn't want to understand yet I made my retreat into the house when a spider crawled under my shoulder and down the front of my shirt

Starting point is 00:14:02 sending my limbs flailing as I tried to get it off several weeks passed and the excitement of the bear attack eventually faded I felt okay enough to keep up my normal smoking habits out on the porch after a few days I also made a habit of not descending the stairs at night for any reason it was morning now

Starting point is 00:14:22 the sun barely peeking over the tree top. Not much had changed, except for what I called the great spider migration. I hadn't seen but a few on the porch in weeks. I wasn't too torn up about it after the little assholes had declared war and broke our truce. It was as I was putting out the second cigarette of the morning when I happened to glance up at the railing across from mine. Two little mantis nymphs perched on the top of the railing watched me. heads tilted and maxillary palps twitching in curiosity.

Starting point is 00:14:57 They were bright green and tan, their little developing wings tipped in a bright white. I smiled. Hello, little ones.

CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio - "I live alone on the outskirts of a state park, but I've made some friends" Creepypasta

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