Creepy - Welcome to Bedside Manor Part 6

Episode Date: January 29, 2022

Oh Jack...***Written by Jack Townsend with narration by: Owen McCuen, JV Hampton VanSant, Cole Burkhardt, Alicia Atkins, Nate Dufort, Megan McDuffee, Michelle Kane, Jimmy Ferrer, Heather Thomas, Nichole Goodnight and Joe Stofko***Check out Jack's other podcast The Snake's Paw at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-snakes-paw/id1438590701***Find our reward tiers and how to get your bonus magnet at patreon.com/creepypod***You can also subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/creepypod***Sound Design by Steve Blizin of Black Crow Audio***Title music by Alex Aldea Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the bloody disgusting network. No. This is creepy. A podcast dedicated to sharing the most famous chilling and disturbing creepy pastors and urban legends in the world. Whether these stories truly happened or are simply fabrications is for you to decide. These stories may contain graphic depictions of books. violence and explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.

Creepy presents. Tales from the gas station. Welcome to Bedside Manor. Part 6. With performances by Owen McCune, Megan McDuffey, Nate DuFort, Nicole Goodnight, Joe Stofcoe, Michelle Kane,

Jimmy Ferrer, Cole Burkart, Alicia Atkins and J.V. Hampton Van Sant. The following story was written by Jack Townsend, author of the four-volume book series Tales from the Gas Station, now available on Amazon, Kindle, Audible, and everywhere else books are sold. To learn more about Jack's work, visit his website at gas stationjack.com. The room around has disappeared, blinking out of existence for a moment. Before my mind had time to register the frame skip, my surroundings have been replaced.

The walls were concrete, the air, thick and wet, the only light coming from a single bear incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling, have been transported to the basement. Cota the bear was gone now. In his place, or her place, is Cota a girl's name? Stood an upright wooden coffin. Before I even had time to say, what the hell? The scene had already been set in motion. The door of the casket creaked loudly open to reveal a woman sleep standing inside with her eyes closed and arms crossed. So how did she open the door without her hands anyway?

I recognized her instantly. This was Bridget, or at least some version of Bridget. I almost diverted my eyes because there was something undeniably creepy about watching an unconscious woman, especially when wearing nothing but a thinner than paper-thin white gown. The way her outfit hugged her features like a second's skin. She may as well have been wearing nothing at all. But before I could turn away, her eyes opened. Two burning red pupils immediately fixed on me.

She uncrossed her arms and stepped forward. Although the way she moved might better be described as floating, her long red hair rippling behind her like light trail photography, obeying its own laws of physics. Is he ready? She asked, freezing in place a few feet. in front of me, just out of smacking distance. Her strange accent was now far more exaggerated, and as she spoke, it exposed two elongated

canine teeth. I'm sorry, I said as politely as possible. Do you want to, like, borrow my jacket or something? It's, uh, a little cold in here. He's ready. The second voice came from right behind my ear. I turned around to see Lauren, scant. mentally clad in what can only be described as a dominatrix swimsuit, black leather, fishnets,

mascara, lipstick, and nothing else. The mind fling is complete. He has no idea where he is or what has happened. He is utterly confused. I absolutely agreed with the last thing she said. Everything else felt like gibberish. Excellent. Bridget exclaimed.

She was right behind me now. Her hand wrapped around my torso, her fingers settling over. my heart, and she pulled me to her, pressing her cold chest against my back and whispering into my ear. I've wanted this one since the moment he walked in. I stammered. Do you ladies know how much a polar bear ways? They both laugh cackled.

I could see now that Lauren bore the same fangs as Bridget. I felt awkward as hell. Right then the door to the basement stairs broke at the lock and slain. against concrete wall. Jerry stood on the other side with a shirt covered in blood, a crossbow in his hands, and a look of gleeful madness in his eyes. The woman immediately stopped laughing. Impossible.

Bridget hissed. You're supposed to be dead. Yeah? He responded, taking a step into the room. Well, you're supposed to be stupid. I guess I'm the only one here defying expectations. With that, heamed the crossbow at Lauren and let an arrow fly. As it pierced her chest, she screamed, fell to her knees and exclaim.

Ah, you killed me, you butthole. Her final words lingered in the air as she burst into white flames that quickly extinguished, leaving behind only a pile of ash. Bridget pushed me in the wall with way more force than someone her size should be capable of. I hit the ground and watched as she floated towards Jerry. You're too late, Jeremiah Cumberbatch. The mind's flaying is complete. Your friend now believes that none of this is real.

Nothing you say will convince him otherwise. Your only choice is to join us. Jerry threw the crossbow to the ground as she closed the distance. She bore her teeth, hissed, and went in for the attack. She must not have seen the wooden stake tucked under his belt. He pulled it out, thrust the weapon into her heart, and quipped, Suck on this, blood sucker. She wailed in pain as her skin burst in a brilliant white fire.

I guess they should have been wearing a little more armor over their single vulnerable organs. But nobody asked for my opinion, so... I stretched and wiggled my extremities to test for any broken bones. My shoulder took most of the brunt force from the attack, but, save for a nasty bruise, I couldn't complain. As I got back to my feet, Jerry ran up to my side and started shaking me like a human Maraca. Jack, are you okay? Talk to me, damn it! I waited for him to stop shaking me before answering.

I'm fine. He smacked me and said... Snap out of it! I smacked him back as hard as I could. Don't hit people, dude! We've talked about this! He pressed his hand against his cheek and asked. Do you know where you are?

Can you remember what's going on? Well... I looked around. I think we're still trapped in bedside manner. I looked at the pile of ashes on the floor and then at the blood on Jerry's shirt. However, I feel like I might have missed something? You grabbed me and shook me again. It's your mind.

They flayed it. Who did? The vampires. Oh. Okay. What? Here's what happened. Your name is Jack Townsend.

I'm your best friend Jerry. I loaned you $10,000, pay me back when you can, and then we went on a cross-country road trip until the car mysteriously broke down outside of the spooky manner. We came here to ask if we could use the phone, then bam! Turns out, this was just another one of them classic sexy vampire dens. I've been killing them all night. They captured you because they wanted to turn you into their Renfield sex slave, but the only way to do that was to erase your memories. He went to grab the crossbow off the floor. So you're telling me that I'm not.

brainwashed by sexy vampires to believe that this was all just a simulation? Simulation? He repeated, pulling an arrow from the quiver slung across his shoulder and loading it into the weapon. You mean like the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix? No, more like Jem-M... He shoved the weapon into my hands. No time to discuss genre-defined and cinematic masterpieces. We have to get out of here before their king, Wolfgang, recovers from my garlic bazooka.

That's a long story. Remind me to tell you later. He was already at the stairs when I stopped him with one simple quest, What kind of pet does Lucy have? He turned around to see me aiming a weapon at his face. He blinked a few times, then said, Easy there, Jack. You don't want to shoot me. I'm your friend.

You have no idea who Lucy is, do you? That's just your mind-flaying talking. So you do know Lucy. Of course. Prove it then. What kind of pet does she have? She has a pet snake. I gave him a few.

seconds, just in case he wanted to do-over. Then I said, Wrong again. I aimed at his foot, but crossbows aren't nearly as intuitive as you might believe. The weapon went off about a half second after I expected it to. The arrow ended up lodged in his knee. The thing calling himself Jerry put his hands on his hips, gave me an RU satisfied scowl, and shook his head. The walls disappeared.

I saw nothing but darkness. Then I opened my eyes to a blinding light. A blinding flashlight, to be exact. I could hear Hope's voice before I could see anything. Pupils are equal and reactive. I sat up, but she pushed me back down. Another pair of hands joined hers, holding me in place on my back. The metal ceiling was only a few feet above me.

This room was small. There were shelves on either side with individually wrapped packages. The air smelled like a strange combination of sterility, dirt and copper. Interesting, I thought. This is something new. I was prone on some kind of slab with Hope standing to my left, and, I just now realized, the detective to my right.

They were both dressed in matching blue uniforms, with the snake-wrapped staff of Hermes emblem on their left breast. I recognized it all too well as the symbol of a paramedic. Hope had a syringe in our hands. Not for long, though. The detective may have been shushing me and whispering for me to calm down, but I had no intention of letting a needle come anywhere close to me. I bent my good leg as far as it will go and kicked Hope's square in the face, assuming you're crashing onto the ground.

That sounds impressive, unless you know that I was actually aiming for the syringe. The detective released me and raced his partner as I sat up and looked at the open back doors of the ambulance. We were parked on the side of a lonely country road. The sun was setting. Nearby, my Nissan was crumpled around an oak tree. The vehicle was utterly destroyed. The only part that wasn't a twisted mango was a small section on the passenger's side. Blood spray decorated the hood and remaining bits of windshield.

Between the ambulance and tree, two more paramedics stood by something shaped like a body, lying beneath a blanket. The detective helped hope to her feet, then turned to me and said, Please, sir. Calm down! We're not here to hurt you. You've been in a terrible accident and suffered major head trauma. We're trying to help you.

I rolled my eyes. Oh, come on, dude. This is the worst one yet. I'm not trying to trick you. When we arrived at the scene, you had already lost a lot of blood. Skip intro! I said, cutting him off. I've actually been inside ambulance just plenty of times, so I know this doesn't look right.

I mean, seriously, you guys aren't even wearing gloves. The detective and hope shared a look. I waved my hand in the air and said, Next! The ambulance vanished with a poof. When the world came back to me, I was in a very different place. The floor was made as stone. The brick walls were lit by torches and decorated with medieval-style weapons and shields,

with a pair of windows looking out at smoke clouds flickering red with reflections of fires burning deep below. I sat up just as the enormous wooden doors at the edge of the hall swung open. The man who entered wore a suit of armor, scuffed with dirt and blood from a recent battle. As soon as the door closed behind him, he removed his helmet. Tobias. My lord, he said, looking at me for some reason. He took a knee before continuing. The undead army has reached the castle gates.

Our warriors are preparing for their final stand. We await your command. I looked around the giant room, but we were the only two here. Why are you asking me? Oh shit. Am I like king in this scenario? I mean, I guess that's a step up. But did you say undead army? At this point, I realized I was also wearing the suit of armor.

It fit miraculously well, like it had been tailored for me to my exact dimensions. Like Tobias's silver, mine was shining gold. Interestingly, my bad foot had been replaced with a bejeweled peg leg tipped with spikes. an interesting, if not totally impractical, battle aesthetic. My lord. Tobias said with a tad more urgency. Your tongue belies your majesty's wisdom. What false spirits have nested in your mind?

What manner of dark enchantment has bewitched you? I have no idea what you just said. Tobias stood and called into the air. Great wizard, show yourself. In this very hour your king requires aid. A purple burst of smoke took to form of an old man. man in a dark robe. His eyes were hidden beneath the black veil. He held a staff with etchings of snakes running up and down the hilt. His face contained an all too familiar overgrown

walrus mustache. Why have you summoned me away from the front line? The undead army has breached our castle walls. Great wizard. His majesty speaks madness. The enemy must have inspelled his mind. Nathaniel wizard waved his wand, dimming the lights temporarily and conjuring a giant bird made a fire. It soared from his staff into the air. Crashing against the ceiling, he's going a fireball to every wall before dissipating. With a solemn tone, he gave his answer. A dour of fate has befallen our precious king. The necromanic sorcerers have placed a curse upon his memories. He truly believes that he is not the true heir of our kingdom, nay that he is even from our world.

Can this madness be undone? I fear it may be too late. But there is hope. A counterspell is yet possible. At this moment, the door swung open again. Jerry raced in. Covered head to toe in mismatched armor. Holy fucking shit, you guys.

The goblins are here, and they are like angry as fuck. These fuckers have like boomerangs made of human bones and shit. Have you seen this shit? That shit is crazy. He saw me and gave a quick nod of recognition. Yo, Jack, what's up? Tobias led out an annoyed grunt. Jerry shrugged and said,

Sorry, dude. I explicitly told you all before we started that I have no idea how to do the Dungeons and Dragons voice. Tobias lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. So, maybe you guys overshot with this one. The detective materialized out of the shadows. With a snap of his fingers, the others disappeared. Leaving just the two of us.

You are an enigma, Jack. Maybe I've been going about this all wrong. You don't seem particularly accepting of excitement. Perhaps a compromise can be made. I looked up from the typewriters clear under the room. She smiled and said, knock, knock, a moment too late for it to have mattered. Knock knock. Still, I couldn't help but return her smile.

It was, in a word. enchanting. I looked at the clock on my desk. 5.30. I'd worked late again. Claire must have realized that I was in the zone and she didn't want to interrupt the creative process. That was the one thing I loved about her. How's it going?

I checked my progress. Five thousand words today. Not terrible. Two or three of them might even make the final cut. Did you finish the vampire scene? She asked, walking over to my side. Yeah, but you may not want to read it. I can't read any of your stories.

She said before leaning in to give me a kiss. They're too weird for me. Fair. Let's pack it up for tonight, though. I need help in the kitchen. I left the story of Bedside Manor open an award document, even though I knew I probably wouldn't be returning to it for another few months. That was fine, though.

My publisher already told me in no uncertain terms that the concept of absolutely no merit whatsoever. My time would be better spent writing the scripts for car insurance commercials. That's where the big money is, he always said. We passed through the living room, where the twins were sitting in front of a cartoon on Disney Channel, completely transfixed by whatever it was the talking cow and kangaroo deer had to say to them. Claire's step between them and the TV to get their attention. It's time to get ready for dinner. She explained in her mom voice.

Your Aunt Lauren and Uncle Jerry are coming over. Our kids cheered like lunatics. as if they didn't see Lauren and Jerry on a nearly weekly basis. As they raced into the bathroom, a thought occurred to me. A dark, sour thought. A feeling like a scab being ripped off my brain. Claire looked at me. Her piercing blue eyes registered the same thought at the same time.

We both knew that we both knew. We talked over one another, stopped, then tried again. She laughed and insisted. No, you go first. I shrugged. None of this feels right. Yeah, I know. I sighed to be the weirdest one yet.

I mean, no offense, it's not you. I think you're cute and all. She smiled. Oh, I get it. You're ace as hell. She held out her hand. I took it in mine and shook it. Her group was firm, professional.

and totally platonic. I looked around for the emergency exit but couldn't find it. Instead, I saw my children staring up in me with sad, dead eyes. Daddy? They said in unison. Sorry, kids. It's nothing personal. They evaporated into puffs of smoke and the world around me drained away,

leaving nothing but the darkness of eternity, an unending void. What is this place? The void responded, putting the words into my head. Don't you understand? This place is whatever you wish it to be. You want this to be a secret government experiment so you can be the hero? You want to make this something you hate so you can destroy it?

You want this to be heaven so you can finally relax? This can be anything and everything you want. Deep down, all you have to do is play the game, I said. An idea just struck me. Can we go back to the castle one again? Seriously? Whatever the void was, it seemed as if it couldn't read my mind. Yeah, seriously.

It had no idea what I was planning. The eternal nothingness vanished with a poof. I was back in the castle. The enormous wooden doors at the edge of the hall swung open. The man who entered wore a suit of armor scuffed with dirt and blood from a recent battle. As soon as the door closed behind him, he removed his helmet. Tobias. My lord.

He said before taking a knee. The undead army has reached the castle gates. Our warriors are preparing for their final stand. We await your command. I command you to... I looked around to see if there was anything here to stop me. There wasn't. Hey, what's that over there?

Tobias turned around to look over his shoulder. whatever I was pointing at. While he was momentarily distracted, I made a running break for the closest window. The last words I heard before diving out face first were, My lord, no! Just as I expected, I was far enough off the ground to get the job done. In the distance, goblins and skeletons fought manifold knights, clad and battle armor. My focus was on the ever-approaching ground.

I was weightless, falling, speeding towards an inevitable collision. They say that jumpers almost invariably regret their decision the moment they jump. My own experience was no exception. But it was the only thing I knew to do. The only way I could jolt my system. I've heard it a million times before. Dream logic. You can fall, you can fly, but you can never hit the ground, or else you'll die in real life.

That's why you always wake up before it's too late. It may have been an old wife's tale, but at this point I didn't have anything to do that left to lose. The earth came up to meet me, and because I could not stop for death, he kindly, yada, yada. My eyes shot open. I was awake. I was finally awake. I took in my surroundings. Here we were again, seated around the dinner table. To my right, Jerry, to my left, Lauren, across from me, I could barely make it out, but that looked like it must have at some point. and Wolfgang. Myas stung like the been brining and salt for hours.

My muscles were jello. My head was heavy and off balance. As I moved my neck, I could feel something readjusting itself. Something that felt like a series of shallow knives stabbing into the skin in my hair, releasing streams of blood on my forehead and behind my ears. I reached up and pulled at the heavy bowl-shaped object on my head. But as I did, the knives dug deep. deeper. The pain was almost too much to bear. In a moment filled with panic and adrenaline,

I pulled with all my strength yanking the object free. I looked down as a thing in my hands and saw an insect, kicking its six pointy legs in the air. Chunks of my own flesh attached to the serrated feet. It looked like a gray mite, only was about a foot in diameter, with a shell like a horseshoe crab. Where its mouth should have been, there was instead of thick white segmented tube running into my own mouth. Something beneath the hard crab shell vibrated, emanating that loud chirping noise. I dropped the mite onto its back, grabbed the tube inside my mouth, and started pulling. It was sticky, slimy, rubbery, and worst of all, long.

I could feel a wiggling in my throat as I pulled it out, three or four inches at a time. But the more I pulled, the more I pulled, the more. emerged until it was just a coil of white tube several yards along. When I finally reached the end, I saw that I had a pair of black eyes and a mouth of its own, with concentric circles of hundreds of yellow hooked teeth. I was looking into a tiny lamprey face. The noise it made when we locked eyes was loud and shrill. I tossed it aside and dry heaved as every muscle in my body screamed.

A tingling feeling was returning to my arms and legs. Tears washed the burn from my eyes. Now I could see with clearer horror exactly what surrounded me. The helmet bugs were sitting atop all the others. The calumari mouth tubes suckled at their insides as the creatures clenched themselves in place. The room was the same, but oh, so different. The light came from a bioluminescent white film that coated the surface. the walls around us and looked like glowing coagulated fat.

The mouth tubes on the creature I tossed the side was no screeching. It whipped around like an uncontrollable fire hose. As soon as I was strong enough to stand, I stomped it into oblivion. The mite creature's leg stopped skittering in the air and slowly curved in on themselves. It got off lucky. Death was too good for the bastard. My next move was to try and wake Jerry. He would know what to do.

Or he would, at least, have something funny to say about our predicament. But the creature on his head had six legs firmly embedded deep into his skull. I couldn't figure out any way to remove the bug without risking a fatal scalping. As I considered pulling it his mouth tube, I realized that Jerry had grown a beard since the last time I saw him. Even with the helmet bug, I could see that his wild hair had grown significantly longer. We must have been sitting here at this table for a couple weeks, at least. Realizations came to me in waves. He was wearing the same clothes he'd had on when we walked up to Hill to Bedside Manor.

I was also backing my jeans and t-shirt. The floor was sticky. Patches of spaghetti noodle plants wiggled out of the carpet every few feet, releasing clouds of ashy spores into the air. On the table where our plates should have been, there were clusters of translucent egg sacks, with each egg about the size of a ping pong ball and containing multiple, tiny helmet-bug embryos. To top it off?

Everyone else at the table was different now. They were all emaciated. The worst being Tobias and Bridget, mummified corpses with dark-tanned skin stretched across skeletal remains. Wolfgang was naked, taller, gaunt, and stretched out like a starving child that had aged into malnourished adulthood. He and his mother must have been sitting in place for, for years. Claire and Lauren were wearing the same clothes as when we attempted our escape together.

It felt like such a long, long time ago. I couldn't tell how long the sisters had been here, but they both looked like they were starving. I needed to check to see if any of them were even breathing, or if the insects had sucked the last of the life from their husks. Stripes of blood had dried in lines down Claire's face long ago. The tube of the insect pulsed. as I got closer. The parasitic monster was clearly aware of my presence, even if none of the others were. Maybe I could scare it away or pry it off. But first I needed to see if I was wasting my time on a futile effort.

I put my hand to Claire's neck, hoping to find a pulse. Her skin felt cold under my fingertips. If there was a trace of a heartbeat, I couldn't find it, but I didn't need to. Her hand shot up and wrapped her on my wrist. Her eyes opened wide and stared ahead through me. And then I heard her voice inside my head. Get out while you still can. Do not try to save us.

She released her grip and let her hand fall to her side. Her eyes closed and she went as still as a frozen lake. Claire, I'm not going to leave you. There's a different voice in my head now. Not Claire is not mine. Someone. Something else. You're not supposed to be here, Jack.

I felt the blazing heat upon my back like a fire run amok. I turned to face a source and nearly missed it. The thing emitting this invisible radiation was sitting there at the head of the table. The same place where it had been this entire time. I knew he was there, only I couldn't see him. He didn't reflect any light, like some kind of dark hole. He absorbed everything around him. But I could sense his presence if I focused hard enough.

He was a shape of a human, one head, two arms, all that stuff. Except he wasn't made of flesh and matter. He was made of negative space. I physically couldn't even point my eyes at him, but I knew he was there. Hey, is this whole thing your idea? Yeah. He said back in a voice that sounded like a hiss of steam. Well, it's quite awful, and I hate it.

I know. What are you supposed to be anyway? We are as the microbiota who live in your intestines. We help you. We keep you alive and strong. You feed us. Our species are symbiosis. We wish you no harm.

Oh really? I said, wiping the fresh blood trail out of my brow. You could have fooled me, what with all the death and torture and everything. We survive off the emotional energy you throw away. Excitement, fear, love, hate. It all tastes the same. When our hosts allow it, we sow euphoric sustenance. If our hosts try to starve us, we make darker withdrawals in the name of survival.

do you understand? Understand my dick! I screamed. This negative void entity was really starting to piss me off. Perhaps. The void said with some hesitation. A compromise is in order. For a brief instance, I felt a flicker of hope.

The entity running this nightmare wanted to come to the proverbial table. Gods don't need to negotiate. The fact that it was willing to bargain could only mean it knew I. I was capable of harming it. I just had to figure out what I was afraid of. Compromise, huh? I looked around the room. Well, you could start by letting us all go.

And maybe buying me a new car. That is not possible. I'd settle for an old car. You may leave one of the other players with you. Choose well, for this is the only chance you get. It made sense. The game needed to continue, no matter what the cost. These creatures survived for years without me or Jerry,

but their nest had reached max capacity with six hosts. If any more than two of us left, there wouldn't be enough to feed the brood. I wasn't going to leave any sleep over leaving Wolfgang to dream it out forever. But running away wasn't much of an option either. I looked at Jerry, then turned to Claire. Her words echoed in my mind. mind. Get out while you still can.

Don't try to save us. This wasn't fair. I'd beaten the game. I'd escaped and this was my reward? Another impossible moral dilemma? Even if I did make a deal and rescue another person, or even if I stayed behind so Claire and Jerry could both get out, I'd just be delaying the void's plans. Two other poor suckers were replaced the empty rolls.

then the game might actually get played. Then, whatever the next step was supposed to be. Just I'm not completely sure what they were planning. There was only one real option. Everything else was merely a distraction. I had to stop the game for good. I didn't know how, but if there was one person in the world who could fuck shit up enough to save the day, it was Jerry.

I walked over to where he sat and grabbed a fleshy. umbilical cord connecting him to the bug on his head. With both hands, I began yanking it out of Jerry's throat. Stop that! Commanded the entity at the head of the table. He didn't like what I was doing. That was a sign that I was on the right path. The thing wriggled in my hands as I removed it inch by inch. It was a yard long when I finally heard the sound of...

Gah! The head of the creature popped out of Jerry's mouth, recoiled to my face, and screeched. Jerry's eyes popped open. He gazed, sputtered, looked around and said, What in the holy name of Zeno? The wormy tentacle whipped out of my hands and darted for Jerry's mouth like a moth to a lamp. Considering how many benders had seen him recover from,

I shouldn't have been so surprised by how quickly Jerry's reflexes returned to him after regaining consciousness. Thought he'd been taking time to panic, he punched the creature in its tiny face and said, At least buy me a drink first. Jerry! No time to explain. We've been tripping a deep-throating monster, Juju, this whole time. He looked at the others in the room, and all the bugs latched onto their heads. With a grossed out expression, he put a hand to his own head and felt a creature there.

Quick! He yelled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a metal lighter. Grab the prehensile proboscis. The what? The prehensile proboscis, Jack. I don't know what that means! The teethy tube! Jesus, Jack! Learn context clues!

I grabbed the teethy tube out of the air. He wriggled and fought back. I dodged its snapping teeth as Jerry worked a lighter. He took a few flicks, but eventually you managed to catch a steady flame. Which he then held against the bug's shell. It screeched in my hands. The body portion detached from Jerry's head, kicked the lighter out of his hand, and jumped away. As soon as it was loose, I swung it around in the air and gave it my best hammer throw into the wall.

Enough! shouted the void. I command you to stop. Jerry pointed at the entity at the head of the table, turned away momentarily to vomit on the floor, then asked, What is that thing? I don't know. Something stupid? It seemed to rise like it was standing or growing.

There are eight billion hungry mounds waiting to be of us. Jerry picked up his chair and flung it into the void, shouting. Try me, bitch! The void disappeared with a sound like a crack of thunder. Still, his voice lingered. You will end this senseless violence. Or else, we will not be so kind the next time we put you back into the whole species will have you to blame when they wake up in a hellscape.

I heard a noise that nearly stopped my heart, an avalanche of stabs. I turned around to see hundreds of the insects. Pectoids crawling through the door, skittering towards us on thousands of feet, emerging from the fat in the wall, burrowing out of holes in the floor, crawling across the ceiling. Most of them were smaller than the ones that had grabbed onto us. Fresh hatchlings, bodies the size of coins and mouth tubes as long as rulers. They covered every inch of the floor, climbing over one another, flowing towards us, reaching out with her lamprey mouths, screeching that horrible noise. Jerry jumped onto the table,

grabbed my hand, and hoisted me up. As they expanded to the wall and began to cover the white bioluminescent film, the room grew darker and darker. All right, don't panic. I have a plan. First, I'm going to jump onto the chandelier and swing across to the... He didn't finish what he was saying. One of the legs of the table broke under our weight. We toppled off of it, slammed into a pile hatchlings of Bridget's feet. I stood and went to bug goo out of my shoulder, then jumped onto the chair with Bridget. Now that I was this close,

it was hard not to see exactly what these creatures had done to her. Her hair was long and gray. Her clothes worn down to tatters. Her jerkified skin clung tightly over the bone like it had been vacuum sealed. And in the dim light, I could easily see her pupils rapidly bouncing back and forth behind her clothes lids.

She may have been sucked dry. But the insects were keeping our lives somehow. I couldn't focus on that, though. Not right now. An idea struck me. I pointed at Tobias, scribbled husk, and shouted it to Jerry. Weapon! Jerry didn't miss a beat.

He sloshed through the puddle of insects, grabbed Tobias' skeletal arm, put his foot against the man's torso, and said, Oh, sorry, T-bone. Before ripping the limb free from its socket with a sickening... One of the adult insects slept through the air. Jerry punted it across the room with Tobias' arm. I meant his gun! Oh!

Jerry dropped the arm, bent down, ripped a fabric from Tobias' decaying pants, and picked up the gun where it had settled on the floor by his ankle. Bugs spread up his arm and legs. An army of the little bastards were stabbing their way up Bridget's chair and onto my leg as well. There were too many. We'd never be able to kill them all. For the briefest of moments, I consider begging Jerry just to shoot us both.

But then Jerry pointed at a cluster of eggs on the wall and fired. The sound of the gunshot in the tiny room was loud, but the reacting screams of hundreds of shrill, otherworldly monsters, was nearly deafening. The walls reverberated from the collective hissing, and all together they float away from the noise. They dropped from my clothes and skin. They ran back into the holes in the floor and walls.

They were treated en masse. It would seem that they weren't used to their food fighting back like this. Jack. The voice was weak. I turned my head to see Claire. Her eyes were unfocused. Fresh crimson lines ran down her face. She looked at me, tried to stand and collapsed into her chair.

The creature that had been draining her had retreated at the sound of the gunshot, along with all the others. A pained moan escaped from Lauren's throat. I could say anything. Jerry screamed a word that I'd heard him scream far too many times. Fire! He was pointing at the other side of the room

where his lighter had landed with a wick still lit. A ring of flame steadily expanded outward on the carpet. When the fire hit the wall, it ran up the edge like a dry fuse. Egg sacs sizzled and popped. Tiny monsters screeched and fell to the floor.

And before I knew it, the fire had reached the ceiling. I forced myself to ignore it for now and focus on the escape. I ran to Claire's side. Jerry took my lead and rushed over Lauren. Claire's eyes opened momentarily. Her head rolled to one side as she focused on me and said, Don't, please, save yourself. We're getting you and your sister out of here. She closed her eyes. She was too weak to fight. That was it. She was unconscious again. I assume she was trying to say something like, I don't know how to thank you.

But I could feel fire against my back. Real fire now. So there wasn't any time to reconsider. I put an arm around her back, another beneath her legs, and scooped her up. It was shocking a little she weighed. Somehow, I found room in my heart to hate this house even more for what it had put us all through.

I looked over and saw the Jerry throw him lower and over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. She continued to moan as he led the way out of the burning room. The walls of the great room were completely covered in that same waxy, white, flammable substance. A hexagonal pattern emerged, a beehive shape, with each section containing clusters of translucent eggs. They vibrated as we entered, swelling and bouncing in tandem, like the house was breathing. A pair of mites, both the size of English mastiffs, crawled down the wall on either side of the door. Their tube appendages were as thick and long as elephant. trunks.

Wait. The command came from the creature closer to us, in the same crepidating voice that Meggy used when she invited us into the manor all that time ago. You can't go. It's dangerous out there. Another voice entered the room, a man's voice. This one sounded just like Nathaniel, and it sounded like it was coming from the other creature.

I believe now would be an excellent time for us to all come together and work as a team if we are to solve the mystery of bedside men. It's not matter. Jerry took him and fired at the one that sounded like Maggie. Its hind end exploded in red goo, prompting the other monster to dive onto the ground and burrow into a crack. Jerry pointed the gun at the floor. I think it could be anywhere now. Jack. Claire's voice was in my head.

She was weak and losing a lot of blood. I looked at her as she struggled to tell me something. I don't have it. What are we waiting for? Jerry blurted. He moved through the door. I followed her. Whatever Claire needed to confide in us?

She could do it outside. We hit the door, came out on the other side and kept running. It was in the middle of the night. The only light coming from a full moon. The air was fully humidity and cicada screams. We kept running until we were halfway down the driveway, and then I stopped. I needed help, Claire, to stop the bleeding. I laid her down in the grass and started searching my pockets for something to help.

sunscreen, trail mix, useless. Lauren sounded like she was coming to with a gnarly hangover. Jerry let her down, and she instantly went to her knees. He didn't even hesitate to pull off his shirt and start ripping it into bandage shreds. I took the fabric, wrapped it around Claire's head, and tried to get her to wake up while he tended to her older sister. Claire, can you hear me? I repeated myself a little louder.

Claire! Can you hear me? Her eyes opened, then focused on mine. Lauren staggered over to our side just as Claire began to speak. Where, where are we? Awake, I answered, hoping with every last bit of hope that it was the truth. Damn. Jerry said.

I turned around as Siddi was looking at the manor. The flames grew quickly, heavy smoke billowed from the windows, and unearthly screeching succumbed to silence. Before I knew it, the house was entirely aflame, fire lapping at the underbellies of clouds. Should we keep running? I said at last. No, we need to make sure none of those things get out.

Nobody voiced any objections. After everything we'd been through, we were all so tired. It felt good to relax and watch the house die. Once Lauren and Claire were able to walk again, we left the manor for the last time. As soon as we had the front of the property, we saw the car graveyard on the other side of the road. It was hidden in plain sight. A huge field, with at least 20 different vehicles parked haphazardly. Most of them with all their doors open.

Some had seemed to have been rusting away for decades. At the very back, I found my shitty little Nissan waiting for us. Who parked this here? I asked. But as soon as the word was, it came out of my mouth, I remembered. The bandaged memory fell out of place. It was no longer under the spell.

We parked here. On purpose. Jerry saw the house and we thought it would be smart to leave the car and check it out. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. I shook my head. There was another conflicting memory taking up the same spot. We broke down a mile up the road and walked here to use the first. phone. There weren't any other cars. My head throbbed. I was getting a migraine for the record books. And I still can't tell which of these memories, if either, was real. The engine started

right away. Jerry offered a drive. I gave Lauren's shotgun while Claire and I took the back seat. We sped away from that place as fast as Jerry could drive. Only when we were miles down the road did I dare to quit looking out the back window. It was done. Gone. Behind us. When I finally let myself look away, I found Claire staring at me. What was it you were trying to say to me earlier?

I wondered. I received the answer to my question before I could even ask it. Jack. She said softly. I don't have a sister. I turned my head to see Lauren, leaning back in her seat. looking right at me. I felt a familiar buzzing energy run up and down my spine as she smiled and winked.

The preceding story was written by Jack Townsend, author of the four-volume book series Tales from the Gas Station, now available on Amazon, Kindle, Audible, and everywhere else books are sold. To learn more about Jack's work, visit his website at gas stationjack.com. Music, sound design, and dialogue editing for this series was provided by Steve Blissin at black crow audio.com. For more information on this podcast, including how to submit your own story for consideration, please visit creepypod.com.

You can also follow us at creepypod on social media and YouTube. All stories told on this podcast are done so through Creative Commons share-a-like licensing, or with written consent from the authors. portion of this podcast may be rebroadcast or otherwise distributed without the express written consent of the creepy podcast production team and the stories author.