CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio - "I've been stalking a monster called 'The Wheel'. It's unlike anything I've ever seen" Creepypasta

Episode Date: December 12, 2021

CREEPYPASTA STORY►by Darkly_Gathers: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comm...Creepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO-SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd...iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...CREEPY THUMBNAIL ART BY►Zack Cy: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aR...SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS-►"Good Places to Start"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YCb...►"Personal Favourites"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEa2R...►"Written by me"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6RA...►"Long Stories"- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...FOLLOW ME ON-►Twitter: https://twitter.com/Creeps_McPasta►Instagram: https://instagram.com/creepsmcpasta/►Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/creepsmcpasta►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreepsMcPastaCREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic ♪►http://bit.ly/Myuusic ♪►http://bit.ly/incompt ♪►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM ♪-This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only-

I've been watching the wheel for a month now. That's the name I've given this monstrosity. The wheel. I saw it for the first time on one of my night walks with my dog, Benny, beyond the edge of town and out down by the fields and the forest. It was hard to see at the beginning. In the darkness, I mistook its body for a fallen tree at the edge of the woods. Benny noticed it before me, anyway.

Or felt it at least. He stopped and stiffened, tensed and focused. Benny made the mistake of investigating the nest of a hive of a yellow jacket wasp once. He got an awful sting on his nose, and he developed a hatred of anything even slightly resembling that nest that we find on a travels. His reaction here made me first think that he found such an object. What is it, boy, I murmured to him, but he wasn't looking down at the ground. he was staring right out into the field,

growling softly from the back of his throat. I remember this feeling of... Of cold, just slithering sickly over my skin. I remember crouching by the hedge and peering through, looking out on the farmland and following his gaze. At what I first thought was this fallen tree, stuck in the ground at an unusual angle

with branches outstretched and overlapping. I remember a feeling of terrible icy dread dropped like a stone into my stomach as the fallen tree shifted and adjusted his branches on that cool windless night. My eyes grew used to the darkness and the moon drifting out from behind a cloud and the thing was washed in a faint silvery light. I could see it a little clearer. Massive, you must understand, the size of an elephant I guess, though far more scrawny and spindly. I still shiver, thinking about seeing it that first time, watching it rise up onto all fours. It sickened me then, and it does now, even before I knew what it was capable of. I didn't dare speak, but I kept a warning hand on the back of Benny's neck.

Stay, boy, stay low, and stay quiet. How to describe the wheel's body? Picture the werewolf, if you can, from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ascaban. My nephew loves that movie A bizarre reference perhaps But that's the best way I can think to describe it Large, hunched and hairless

Stretched over animalistic bones Though more metallic looking I don't know Rusty almost And its head The creature's head Its namesake The monster's head is scarcely ahead at all

Imagine if you will A huge layered wheel again metal-looking and ringed with dozens of miniscule little amber light Ben and I watched as the creature crept to the night to the edge of the farmland we watched as it leaned back on its haunches with a low creek and looked up to the nearest tree a pine I think we watched as the great wheelhead began to spin

slowly at first then faster with a sound like a rising wind the wheels within the wheels began to rotate round and around till there were nothing more than a blur. The lights that ringed it burst into a fiery intensity and the pine tree found itself caught in the beam of brightening orange light. I stared in confusion and awe, heart pounding as the tree began to grow, rapidly, right before my eyes.

And up it went. Up into the air, the branches creaking and cracking with duress as they sprouted with surprise from the sides of the trunk. As the pine needles burst from their ends and fell onto the floor in the constant rain, ever growing and ever falling. And still, the tree climbed taller. Up, up, up it went,

far up, high beyond its brothers. The trees groans and cracks grew louder and louder, but the wheel scarcely adjusted his position. I remember watching the monster's ribs shift, its silver stomach bulge as his head spanned round and around. The tree grew upwards for about a minute, before it grew no further, and not long after that the needles stopped falling too.

No new leaves were grown and the wood began to rot and the bark began to split, though still the wheel held the tree in its gaze. The branches drooped and dropped from the trunk. The tree began to stoop and waver, groaning under the stress, until at last its roots gave out and tumbled to the side, crashing loudly into its neighbour and resting there, dead, and its base began rotting away. away. Only then did the wheel's head begin to slow. The lights dimmed and the creature took a measured,

careful step back. It waited perhaps a moment or two more for the spinning to cease and the lights to fade. And then that was it. I watched as it looked around and then bound away across the fields on heavy feet, disappearing into the shadows at the edge of the forest. That was all it took. all it took for me to become obsessed, obsessed with the beast. How could I not be? Benny always knew where to go. He seemed to sense which of our walks would be, wheel-hunting walks beforehand. His whole demeanour was always totally different.

He's normally such a happy and carefree guy, with the nights we went after the wheel. It's like he could sense their importance. So, just under a week after this incident, and several sleepless nights spent attempting fruitless research. We found the creature again. Penny and I, a few miles south of its previous spot, at the edge of a field filled with sheep.

The moon was not so bright that night. The air was still at first, but I still recall the sudden fright I felt at seeing the shadowed rim of the wheel rise up from the ditch at the edge of the field, merge for a second with the shadows of the broken wooden fence, then climbing up and above, clambering over and into the night

its limbs long that circle of light brightening and slowly starting to spin then faster and faster it's right Benny stay low boy I murmured in a wavering voice as we watched crouched from our position nearby

most of the sheep awoke and fled bleating as they bounced clumsily across the field but one poor creature did not caught in the beam of the wheels brightening light and froze in place, we could only watch as the light grew stronger still, as the wheel spanned faster and faster, and the monster drew hungrily closer. We watched as the wall began to burst from the sheep's body, graying and billowing out as the creature's ears began to droop, and its horns grew out from its head

at an impossible rate. We watched as a sheep was enveloped in its wall and eventually collapsed to the ground, down into the dead grass it fell as a pile of wall and bones, and only when it was little more than dust did the wheel pull back and allow the spinning of its head to slow. I ducked instinctively as it seemed to pass its gaze over our position in the strawberry. It's difficult to tell

where the creature is looking. The only clue is that circle of lights. It didn't come after us though. It seemed to enjoy the sheep more than the tree as it went after three more at night before disappearing. It came back the next night too

and took some more. though on the third night I found myself warned away by an angry farmer two of his vehicles positioned in the field with floodlights blaring Benny and I didn't see the wheel that night or the night after that but then at the end of the week

Benny caught the wheel sent yet again all our walks were in pursuit of the wheel by this point I was losing sleep over the monstrosity but I had to see it again get some proper footage or something My phone doesn't record so well in the dark, but I have an old camera that might do the trick.

I swear it had a setting specifically for night. So out we went. Out into the night. We didn't leave the town this time, just to the outskirts. We walked for the better part of an hour and passed a homeless man, leant against the side of a building,

bare feet stretched out over the cobblestones as the drizzle began to patter down all around us. Evening, he nods, me and I nod back. I pause at the sound of a noise from the far end of the street but it's only a group of kids teenagers I guess

drunk and stumbling home from one of the local bars. Benny stops beside me too though, fur risen and ears pinned back and the homeless man seems to notice. They're not a bad group of lads you know he chuckles. They often have money left over at this kind of time

it's why I'm still awake after all nothing to be afraid of In fact, quiet, I hissed to him all of a sudden. Then, sorry, but please. Shh. The man raised an eyebrow at me, but does as I say, as I suddenly dropped to the ground, peering out down the street from behind a nearby bin.

What the hell? He mutters, following my gaze, as a lad's shout and laughed the way up the street. Behind them, clambering down the side of the building in the rain. Is the wheel. avoiding the direct glare of the street lamps it creeps its way over the road like an enormous spider

watching his prey down below I'm telling you mate I could have banged her one of the guys blurts out as his friends start laughing his speeches slurred and one of them still carries a bottle in his hand she has a boyfriend mate

didn't you see that guy at the bar another manages to choke out through laughter though the laughing stops the second the wheel's shadow falls long and dark across the stones and puddles before them What the? The sound of the wheel spins rises swiftly and suddenly, like a wind.

The head of the beast becomes a quick blur and the lights around the rim begin to brighten. The lads look up. Jesus, what the? In a frenzy panic, they start stumbling and staggering in different directions off the road. Chaos sets in. I can feel the tension of both my dog and the homeless man tightened beside me. The shock and sheer disbelief. I remember what I'm here for and start fumbling with my camera

Johnny! One of the lads shout above the sound of the wheel and the wash of the rain But the boy in the middle, the one with a bottle, is caught in the centre of the road And the amber glare of the creature's beam. His eyes are bright and terrified with the light's reflection and his mouth open It looks as if a scream is caught in his throat. Help! He stutters before his jaw is locked in place. I struggle with the camera We got to help him, the man beside me mutters, hand on my shoulder. But what could we do? What is there to do?

One of the boys' mates sprints off into the night. The other shouts and panics, hands on his head. But the wheel has its prize. I watch as the lights brighten and the wheel spins faster, as the boy grows a little taller and fills out. I watch as hair burst from his head, and I watch as creases and wrinkles appear across his face. The skin on his arms start to loosen

And the colour of his hair begins the grey His jaw trembles He looks as if he's trying to speak As a tear rolls down the side of his face The crow's feet aside his eyes deepen and darken And he is forced to stoop as the rain falls Sir, please What can we do?

The homeless man hisses shaking me But I don't respond There's nothing we can do We can't help this boy now As Sop escapes the victim's throat, caught in the sounds of the rushing wind, and he closes his eyes one final time. His friends have all gone now. I don't know where to. I watch as he exhales and collapses to the ground with a crunch.

And still, the wheel draws its energy. His body convulsing and twitching until he has crumbled to a skeleton. And then, as with the sheep to dust, already washing away across the stone in the rain. The lights of the wheels start to fade, its spinning slows and the targeting beam fades away. Silence, but for the gentle patter of the rain. The ancient camera at last is finally roused to life. Da-da-da-ding, it proudly proclaims, a digital jingle, loud in the strained tension of the street. Too loud, actually.

Far too loud. Benny jumps at the sound, and he's not the only one. To my utter horror, the wheel, still balanced between the buildings and perched above the street, swings round his monstrous head right towards our position with a terrible creek, and the lights reignite. Damn. Benny barks, the homeless man swears and staggers back up against the wall, splashing in a puddle that he has formed beside us. Terror strikes me.

Run, I shout, and with Benny at my heels, we run down the street and race round a corner, sending up great splashes as we do so. So, help, wait, the homeless man cries out from behind me, and as I round the corner, I shoot a look back over my shoulder. I watch in dismay as he forwards to the ground and thuds against the stones with the grunt. I watch as he is caught in the beam. His eyes meet mine, and I hear the terrible whirring, both eerily metallic and yet natural at the same time. The rising wind. I see the shadow of the beast creep into the position from around the corner.

Don't leave me, mate, the man pleads in a horse voice, but it is already too late. He reaches out a hand to try and lift himself off the ground, then suddenly he freezes. The air above and around him shimmers in orange. I watch as he starts to shake, as his eyes roll back and a tooth loosens from his gums, falling to the stones with a clatter as his fingernails lengthen and hands become wrinkled and spotted. I'm sorry, German. he whispers before his lips crack still. A moth flutters into the beam and disappears before my eyes into powder.

Benny is barking and I become aware that I've stopped running. I'm standing and staring and gassed as the man on the ground takes his final, ragged breaths. Benny bites my sleeves and pulls and the spell is broken. I watch as the man dissolves into bones with a quick, sad sigh and I turn tail and run. Running through the streets, round corner after corner, as far away from the wheel as we can, heading roughly back in the direction of the house, back to my lane, back inside. Slamming the door shut tight, I claps against it, falling to the floor with my head in my hands. Jesus, oh hell, oh hell, what do I do? What the hell do I do? It's been a week now since our last

encounter with the wheel, and I see that night in my dreams. The crumbling and disintegration of the people in the street, the glare of the monster. Benny rests his hand on my lap, looking up at me with those big eyes of his, and I scratch him behind the ear. You know, don't you boy? Are you ready to go out again? He barked softly, and I rise from the desk. I grabbed from the side my latest purchase,

a high-intensity LED floodlight, a massive thing and the weight of a brick, but it's bright all right. It's bright as hell, and the creature hates the light. That's what I've assumed at least. I need to stop jumping into these situations so carelessly. I need to think more, be a little more rational, have a bit more of a plan. I fasten on my coat and crouched down to my dog. You ready, boy?

He looks at me, panting, and with a deep breath I lead us out into the street. I'm nowhere near as confident walking at night as I used to be. Benny leads us through the deserted street, sniffing his way through the darkness. A faint mist hangs unwanted around the edges of lampposts in the distance and clings to the base of the buildings. As we head further and further through the town, I find myself startled by every shifting shadow, every miscellaneous noise. Come on, I muttered myself, get it together. But it won't be far now. Benny's gotten so good at following the subtle trail of the wheel weaves behind.

Benny stops and winds a little, and quietly I lead us to a nearby skip to use his cover. A moment or two later, a figure, a shadow at first, then more clearly a girl comes walking out from the mist and down the street. She has her headphones in, walking alone, her footsteps falling in time to some unheard song. This will be the wheel's target. Benny has begun to growl and I see the collapsing bodies of the boy and the homeless man in my mind's eye my heart rate increases

and I start to sweat despite the chill it's all going to happen again I hear the man's voice in my head we gotta help him sir please what can we do and I realize I have to do something

what's even the point of these exhausting midnight excursions if I'm not going to do something Hey, I call out with a hand cup to around my mouth. Pst, hey! But the girl can't hear. She walks right by on the opposite side of the street, humming quietly. She hasn't even seen me.

Nor has she seen the looming shape through the shadows behind her. A towering behemoth, rising up and out of the mist. A long limbs stretched out far to grab a hold of a nearby building's emergency exit staircase, creeping as it did before, hungrily watching her. its prey. Though it moves with less care this time, it makes more of that creaking, metallic noise as it clambers. Has it grown less cautious in its hunts, more feverish for the taste of a human life? My voice catches in my throat. I can't call out now. I just can't. It'll hear me. It'll take me instead. The lights around the rim of its enormous head starts to intensify. It's happening.

My eyes darts from the head of the beast to the oblivious girl, alone and foolish on a late-night walk. The wheel tightens his grip on the side of the building right by me, and dust crumbles from between its claws to the street as its namestakes starts to spin. Faster and faster, and the whirring grows louder. The girl finally noticed something as amiss as a shadow multiplies and splits right beneath her feet. She turns to look up and behind her in confusion, and her man. mouth falls open in horrified shock. The orange of the fiery glare of the wheel is caught in her eyes, and she is trapped. The wheel leans hungrily down towards her as she begins to age right before my eyes.

She grows in height, right through her twenties, as dark circles appear beneath her eyes, creases deepened between her eyebrows as she stares with horror at the source of the light, and a light of my own ignites with a burst of dazzling sun. A white bright beam swung round up to the face of the monstrous wheel. I would have thought of something badass to say, had I not been literally shaking with fear as I burn the floodlight into the wheel. Its own lights falter at once, and with the head still spinning, it disengages its target and scurries backwards. A low in disturbing metallic shriek echoing from its head as the girl, now woman, crumples to the ground, moaning. Get back, get back!

I bellow, finding my voice at last as it knocks chaotically into the nearest wall, sending shards of crumbling brick raining down. On heavy feet and claws, it staggers back and turns, hastening away into the night, away from the intensity of the beam and into the safety of the shadows. Still trembling and not daring to turn off the floodlight's glare, I go to join Benny, already sniffing around the girl in the street. Hey, I say to her, Hey, are you all right? We've got to get out of here. She raises her head at me, and propping herself up on her arm, she shakily takes off her headphones. What?

What was that? She murmurs. Ben seems surprised at the sound of her own voice. I feel... I don't know. She clears her throat, distressed. Something's off. She winces as she climbs to her feet, looking down at her hands.

her fingernails reach out from the far ends of her fingers, though she broke a couple in the fall. What the hell is going on? She whispers, and my heart goes out to her. How old is she now? How much time has been taken from her? I'm sorry, I mutter. And what else is there for me to say? What do you say to someone in a situation like this?

The sound of the whirring is returning. I can't see it, but I can hear it. Benny barks and growls. It's all right, Benny. It's okay. I grabbed the woman, the girl, by the color of a coat. You have to go, all right. Get the hell out of here. If it catches you in its light, it ages you.

You hear me? It takes years from your life until you're nothing but bones. It... What? She looks down at her hands again, turning them over. It ages you? I give her a startling shove as a shadow creeps around the roof of a very. a nearby building. I swing the floodlight up towards it and it disappears for a second time,

slinging back into temporary shadow. Go! And to her credit, finally, she does. I hold out until she has finally vanished from sight, and then I break too. I retreat down a nearby alley, panting and waiting, listening close. I don't want the wheel to know where I am, so I switch off the footlight, blinking as I tried to force my eyes to readjust to the darkness. It's here that I catch my breath. It clouds and fogs before me, as I listen as intently as I can for the sound of the wheel. What's even my plan here? Keep it out in the open till sunrise?

What am I expecting to happen? Where does it go during the day? We have to keep following. We need to know where it goes, where its hideout is. So, mustering all my courage, I leave the relative safety of the alley and continue on down the street keeping close to the shadows.

Benny leads me through the town and now back to the fields. We walk for most of the night. He and I, and I can tell he's getting tired. Hell, I am too. But we have to know where it goes. Benny seems to lose the scent

a few hours into our quest. I check my watch with tired eyes. 4.35 a.m. Damn. We're out by the fields. Not the same ones as before. No sheep here. Just a rusty old scrapyard and a disused barn.

It's morbidly tempting, but I refrain from checking the barn tonight. I just can't bear it. So, resolve to try again tomorrow. Come on, boy, I say, stifling, a racking yawn. Let's go home. I'm back in bed once the sun has risen and the birds. have begun their morning chirps. Benny and I sleep

until late afternoon and I awake feeling groggy and exhausted. I can't keep going on like this. I push myself through a day of work, grimly trying to recoup the lost time before it gets noticed, but my thoughts are all on the night,

on the next night, on scoping out that barn and drawing attention to the monster and driving it out for good. I found myself doodling in the margins of my notes, watching the hands on the corner, clock tick by. The slow, crawling passage of time. I will it to go faster, waiting for the sun to set

and the night to fall. Come on, hurry up. Why can't the time go just a little bit faster? As it always does, however, the day draws to a steady close. I've been ready for hours, but when midnight strikes, I'm out the door in an instant, camera around my neck, floodlight held in one hand. Come on, Benny, I say, there's a good boy, and we go out, out into the darkness. I want to head straight to the field, straight to the barn, but Benny has other ideas. He keeps barking and trying to lead me back to the scene of the attack last night. Come on boy, no, we're heading back to the barn. But he won't budge, and eventually I relent, following along as he hurries back across the cobblestone street

and between the buildings to the road with a wheel strike. the girl. What are we doing here, Benny? I murmur, as Benny comes to a stop walking out over the street, tail wagging. I squint and see at the far end a figure stood beneath one of the street lamps, her silhouette.

Carefully checking around for signs of the wheel, though emboldened by Benny's relative chill, I walk out down the street and toward the figure. As we draw closer, it turns to us, and I recognise her at once, as the girl from the previous night. Thank God, she mutters as she marches towards me,

taking me by surprise as she grabs me by the collar and stares angrily into my face. Benny barks at her, but she ignores him. Her eyes. Her eyes are the same, but the face that I look back into now, the face I see clearly in the light. It's of a woman in the late 30s, maybe early 40s. What happened to me?

she shouts and already the tears start to fall she loses her composure almost at once and releases me crying softly into a sleeve how do I go back what do I have to do to go back I run a hand through my hair with pity I'm sorry I tell her I don't think there is a way back she sniffs and wipes her hand across her face

she looks back at me I've had literally the worst day of my life you know she says. I say nothing. All the problems I was faced with yesterday, whether or not my boyfriend likes the other girl, what I'm going to study at college, lyrics for the song I was trying to write,

and the gift I was going to get for my mother's birthday. She forces a humorless laugh. All meaningless now. My friends and family don't recognize me. And why would they? I would kill to go back to the problems I was dealing with yesterday. But yesterday is gone. She looks at her hands.

again. It's not fair. I feel so much older. It's just not fair. I want it back. I want to go back. Benny nudges a leg and she smiles sadly, scratching his head. She sighs. He's a nice dog. What's his name? It's Benny, I reply. And she nods. I'm Celia, by the way. It's nice to to meet you, Celia. Ben. Ben? That's right. She cocks ahead of me. But isn't that your dog's name? No, his name is Benny. She laughs for real now. It's a nice sound, though it's broken by a snort of amusement. You named your dog after yourself? What kind of person does that? I didn't name him after myself, damn it. I got him from a shelter. He already had the name when I found him. Ah, I see, I see. She grins down at Benny, his tongue lolling happily.

Still very funny, though. Hmm. She scratches his head a little longer. So, enough chit-chat. How do we kill it, Ben? How do we kill the monster? Kill it? Listen, this thing is the most dangerous.

She cuts me off. Do I look like I give a damn? I have nothing left, you hear? I have nothing left. Her eyes shine in the light of the street lamps. So I'm telling you now, I'm here to kill it, whatever it takes. And so, with a sigh, I gesture her to come with us, and Benny now leads us the way I expect him to,

sniffing the stones and taking us out to the edge of the town, towards the fields, and the abandoned barn. I tell her what I know. The wheel, that's what I've been calling it. It seems like it has to stay more or less in the same position while it eats, and it takes a moment or two to warm up too. But once you're in that light, you're caught, you're stuck. What's its weakness?

I don't know about weakness, but it hates the light. Other than its own, obviously. It avoids the street lamps and the sun, and it hates this thing. I left the floodlight. That's how I was scared it off last night. Is that it? Just light? Anything else you've learned at all?

What is the light, do you think? The light the wheel makes itself. I shrug as we leave the town behind us. It's another. a silvery moonlit night. I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know much at all, really.

It can eat trees and plants as well as animals. Insects too. Trees, plants? She repeats. Insects? Yeah, same method. It just focuses the beam and takes a life of its target. She rubs her chin in thought.

So it targets insects and plants? Well, no. They just got caught in the beam. grass around the feet of the sheep, a moth that flew into the light, that kind of thing. Her eyes light up. So the beam isn't all that focus then, is it?

If it kills anything caught in the light? I consider this. We climb the fence at the edge of the dark field, and carefully, quietly, make our way across the grass towards the barn, and Benny starts the wine, ears pinned back. All right, she whispers to me as we approach,

I have a plan, but I never get to hear it. From behind us, from the scrapyard nearby, there comes the sound of twisting metal and creaking machinery. Benny near enough jumps out of his skin with a yelp, and I do essentially the same. Light rises up from the cluster, and a long, silvery arm reaches out to provide leverage as the body and head of the wheel rise up from the wreckage.

It wears with menace as the lights blink into life, and the great head starts the spin. It clambers down the hill of junk towards us with a sickening speed I had not yet seen from the behemoth. Benny races forwards to face it, barking loudly and angrily, teeth bared. Benny, I call out in a panic. My companion's shadow sent out long and dark across the grass,

now illuminated orange. Benny, heel, come back, boy! The wheel raises itself up, angling its light down to Benny. and I sprint towards him. All fear temporarily forgotten as I rushed to grab him up. He's not a little dog by any means, and I grunt with exertion, but I haul him up and fling him out into the side, to the safety of the shadow as I find myself caught in motion.

A flying resin, eyes wide. My body stiffens, and I'm just about able to turn my head to look up to the wheel's almighty gaze as it starts to draw from me my life force. paradoxically Everything slows Is this it then I think to myself I feel the passage of time as water

rushing swiftly over my body Waves of warmth and ice Wash alternatingly across my skin As I feel it tighten in places Loosen in others My wisdom teeth ache with sudden throbs of pain As they push themselves through the back of my gums The joints in one of my hands start to seize

I can feel my fringe Grown long down my face and into my vision. Did I lead a good life? Did I do enough? Is this all my fault? My obsession has done this. It has taken my time from me.

Time I can surely never recover. But my thoughts are interrupted by a sudden shriek from above, and I catch a blur of motion through the darkness. Celia leaps from the roof from the barn, and, like a mad woman, down under the wheels back. I cannot see what it is exactly that she holds. But it is sharp, and is metal, and she hacks into the monster's neck, eyes wide and burning with fury. The wheel creaks and cries out with a metallic distress call, the light's faltering, and with a crack it tears away its gaze, leaving me gasping in the darkness, clutching my chest and looking down to my hands.

How much did it take? A decade, perhaps, or a little more. I look back up. Benny is barking and gnawing at the wheel's leg. The monster itself swings its head around from side to side, furiously trying to shake off the attack on its back. I return to my senses and grab the floodlight, switching it on with a blast of light and aiming the beam at the monster. It recoils with frustration, but alas, Celia is knocked from its back and down to the ground.

She immediately grabs a hold of one of the wheel's legs, stabbing a weapon in it as deep as it'll go and keeping a firm grip on the handle. The wheel, in his rage, looks down to his feet, The great spinning head starts whirring round and around, and Celia is caught in the intense orange glare, as indeed is the wheel itself. He or Benny, I call out, and this time he does, running towards me, but still looking back at the scene in the field. Celie's hair starts sprouting from her head, greying and thinning, falling to the ground. Her lips start to wrinkle, the lines aside her eyes become deep and many.

but still her bitter grip persists She will not let the wheel go The wheel makes noises I've never heard before The whirring of its head starts to grind Rust and dust falls from his joints Its posture becomes more hunched And the colour of its body begins to lighten and pale Unaware of what it is doing to itself

Or perhaps too caught in the frenzy to care Celia I call out Aiming the floodlight as best as I can But it isn't enough At last her grip is lost and she tumbles to the grass The wheel screams with rage Drawing everything from her Until she's nothing more than a cloud of dust

To be lost in the wind The wheel staggers away Limping and away it goes Slower than before Far slower out to the darkness and retreat He looks back at me and arrays my own weapon I catch it in the fire of my own light aimed right into the centre of this horrible, monstrous head.

Go to hell, I mutter, as a flood-like buzzes with power, and the creature collapses. Down it goes onto the grass. And there, it disintegrates. Its body falls apart, as if it were a toy dropped from a great height. A black, oil-like substance spills into the grass as the wheel and all the wheels within simply disconnect. They break apart, some roll around a little, before. they drop, but drop they do, into nothing more than another pile of junk in the field, silent, still, and lightless.

I dropped the floodlight and raced to join Benny, but there is nothing here but dust blown out across a patch of dead grass. She was here, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone. I'm sorry, Celia, I murmur sadly, into the night. I inspect the corpse of the wheel If indeed it can even be called a corpse Earlier I likened its body to a werewolf from afar But now, up close and deceased

It looks like a discarded art project Just a wreck, a great pile of Nothing, substanceless really Come on Benny I say to my friend Let's go home pal I get more sleep these days I still do my research, don't get

me wrong regarding the wheel about whether there might be more like them out there there are important questions that remain unanswered but you'll be pleased to know i do allocate my time more carefully there's nowhere near as much of it to waste i have a little less of it than i did before after all and ain't none of us getting it back