Nightly Creatures (part 6)

“Let’s go outside.” Hooker opened the door for me. We both saw Mint and his father talking in the yard. I approached them and said, “Are you two right?”

Mint looked at me. “What are you doing here interrupting the sweetest moments with my father?”

His father said, “Let her be.”

“Dad, do not.”

I sighed, “At least you two are fine.”

“But, why not control your boyfriend’s actions towards my father? He is the one who started it all.”

Hooker was under a shade and ignored his blabbering. I looked at him, and he was silent. Then looked back at Mint’s toga and wreath. “How do you get this?”

Mint observed briefly. “I got them from the house in Safe Haven. I stole the clothes so I could wear this.”

My eyes went to the bag of books. “May I have these?”

Mint gave that to me. I searched through one book. It reads, “Soon, the creature will look for its love interest in a toga and wreath.” I gasped.

Mint gave the stolen clothes to my hands. I said, “That is quick.”

“It got me in the Backrooms, yesterday. I do not want to be the lost child in that particular room.”

“What room?” I said anxiously.

“The very last one surrounded by the voids.”

“Let’s finish this task.” I wore the toga and wreath. I looked a bit taller than the toga.

Mint smiled, “You look good in that dress.”

Hooker and I went to my house while Mint and his father entered their house. He was in the shade with arms crossed. I put my hands above the mud. The creature sensed it and grabbed my hands. Before it pulled me into the mud, I found something wrong with the creature. “Its left eye damage,” I said.

“I do not care!” Hooker said.

“Girl?” it said.

“Me?” I was confused.

“I saw her in the Backrooms earlier.”

“Huh?”

“The one in toga and wreath.”

“How?”

Hooker found me staying above the mud too long in the sun. He shouted, “What taking you so long?”

“The reptile is describing the girl in a toga and wreath. Is it talking about the goddess in Greek mythology?”

Hooker’s face was silent. Surprisingly, the claws released my hands. I was about to ask another question. The creature was gone from the mud. It appeared on the surface, its eyes locked on mine.

The tail pushed me away as Hooker was right behind me. He said, “I think you should move it to the tunnel.”

I sighed and led the creature to its home. The creature’s tongue stuck out like a dog's. I ignored that sign. I do not want to lick by the venom.

I said by the tunnel. “You stay here. Do not move around.”

“You are the girl from the Backrooms!” it said.

I blinked at it. “Girl? Do you mean the marked one? Or the goddess from the Greeks?”

“You!”

I just walked away and mind my own business. The creature followed me. It was looking for me the whole time. I stopped by the fountain, where Bubbles died. I turned around and the tongue licked my face. “I found you, girl! Can you stay with me for the night?”

I showed confusion on my face. “The- Oh, I was your girl. No kidding,” I giggled softly.

It was about to lick my face twice. I fell on the grass. I put my hand out. “Do not do this again. Please.”

“I cannot wait. You know what I mean.” It was slightly angered.

I thought of being flat like a pancake on a cooking pan. It can do that again. If it did, I am not your love interest or whatever it thinks of me. I can. I need help to get rid of this creature.

“What do you mean to get rid of me?” it asked.

I was shocked for a hot minute. My feet gave away. I escaped from the tongue. I ran around the town. So the creature would fall into the tunnel or mud. My thoughts said while I ran, “Come on, creature. You will get tired soon. Once you get tired, you need some sleep and forget about me until night.”

“I won’t!” it ran faster than my legs.

I found my house with sharp tools. I ran towards them as Hooker rushed to put me on the side. The creature paused before the installation of pointed items. It looked confused and returned to the tunnel. My heart beats faster. I do not want to think or say at the moment. Plus, I cannot sweat.

Hooker said, “It ran after you. What did you do to the creature?”

I looked at him, still in shock. “I-I-I. I do not know. It can read my mind.” I pointed my head with my finger.

“It goes against you if you are not careful.”

“I am scared to be marked! Can you unmark me, please?” I bent my knees down, and my head bent over my body. I looked defeated once.

Hooker knelt and caught my shoulders. “Buttercup, I marked you because you must lead the nightly creatures to kill it tonight.”

“Does it work for whoever you marked on?”

“I did it once on you. You carry out your saying.”

“Please, unmark me!”

Hooker stood and walked into my house and locked the door. Well, I was here in my lonely spot under a roof. I had to figure out myself.

I slept through the day until it was dark. The reptile came for me. My body was untouched on the grass. Its tongue licked my face. I did not feel anything. Then, I was snatched away and put in the Backrooms, back in the Safe Haven.

I felt the floor cold and hard. My eyes opened, and it was the yellow room. I sat up quickly, turning my head. There was no reptile on site. I was relieved, but I looked at the bag of books. I grabbed one for the solutions. But there were no solutions. “These books are not helping me at all. But why help only in the beginning when Bubbles and her mother are alive.”

Oh, I began to cry. The reptile sensed moisture at the back, so it came and licked my face. My hand pushed its tongue. “I am not crying.”

It stared at me. It said, “No crying allowed!”

“Because I am a girl.” I cleared my throat. “I am a young lady. I can cry whatever I want. I do not understand the books that were written long ago. You may like somebody else in the past.”

“I can tell you why I was here in the tunnel and the Backrooms. I am one scary reptile with thick claws. Who is trying to figure out the truth.”

“I am here,” I said.

“Listen carefully, I will say it once. Let’s begin before your town existed. The lady that looks like you, but in a more fashionable way. She was smart and very eager to find me. Her purpose was to extract DNA from me while I slept with a drug.

“I thought it was no problem after she got my DNA. But I realized I was in the yellow room like this one, but bigger and quieter. I was scared and fought my way out to find that culprit.

“It took a very long time since she disappeared. I have no idea where she went. She might have covered her tracks with trash smells, a floral perfume, or mixed chemicals to make me dizzy.

“I went back to the Backrooms, dug out to the tunnel, where your town existed. I finally found she worked on my DNA in her laboratory. By the way, I hate scientists or professionals, who stole information without consent.”

Its tongue clicked, and its tail slammed on the floor. Its left eye with a knife moved a bit. “My eyes used to work well and see well about the information she took from me. She was so excited to make into known for the town to expect of my existence. She even said about making more of me.”

I raised my hand, “This is horrible.”

“It is horrible. How could she make offspring of me? If I were the only one existed. I do not have parents or siblings as humans do. No genders as well.”

“How can you eat and live during those times?” I asked.

“Unexpectedly, I ran away from the town and ate the normal stuff which were fish and smaller reptiles. I lived in deep water, mud, and anywhere that contained moisture. But I did not threaten yet until she revisited me in the tunnel. How she got there? What a spy!

“She had her lab coat and nerdy glasses and high heels. She was not pretty, I assumed. Anyways, she carried a big syringe of sleeping drugs. I escaped to the Backrooms.

“I hoped she skipped the Backrooms and back to the lab with nothing. Instead, she brought a whole team of scientists to capture me in a big net. I was abducted by the drug she put into my side.

“It seemed like an eternity. I woke in the sunlight. One figure appeared and said, ‘Welcome to the lab.’

“I lashed my tongue and moved my tail to kill anyone close to me. I was in a cage with sharp tools ready to… Just like you put around the house, girl.

“Either way, they wanted me dead for sure. But why needed I to make more of myself? Funny, they laughed.

“I rattled the cage as my tongue found the light switch to turn it off. It was dark. The lady showed up and turned it on. I was in front of her. She said, ‘Calm down, guy.’

“I want to say ‘I am not a guy. I am a reptile without people.’

“She walked towards the computer to type out stuff I did not understand. I attached her with my tongue. She fell unconscious. The scientists ambushed me with fire or some chemicals into my lungs. I fell asleep again.

“If I did not sleep, I would have destroyed their data about me, and I am sending myself free. Reality took its turn for the worst. I was in the yellow room, back in the Backrooms.

“The lady ended up alive and continued experimenting on me for DNA and other information. As a result, she created a new creature that was similar to me, but smaller with thin claws, and they only came at night, known as the nightly creatures.”

I blinked. It said, “Since the creation, I was their archenemy. Hooker, who was the first to come forward in the room. I scratched his face with my claws to remember to get away from me at all costs.”

I swung the bag over my shoulder and threw it at the snout. I do not want to hear more stories from the creature. My back was to the creature. It said, “You see the truth. That is unchangeable, but I lived with that up to this point to share it with you.”

I crossed my chest and thought about how Hooker came to scratch my right thigh and even hurt Bubbles a month a week ago. Why did Hooker want to do that? All he wanted was to mark one female to lead his nightly creatures to hunt the creature down. But that is not all. He did not hear half of the truth from the creature or their creator. Is she still alive? I asked out loud.

“Sadly, she never appeared in the laboratory. Perhaps, dead. The town knew me and the nightly creatures coexist, but we never lived in harmony.”

“It is troublesome,” I said. “Have you met Bubbles and her mother?”

“I sensed that her mother had the books the author wrote about me and the nightly creatures’ existence. The books were old and not used. I would not believe every word of it. The books were outdated and chicken scratched by the townspeople. All gibberish.”

“I disagreed with you, reptile.” I turned to face it. “I saw some facts there. I read some to the nightly creatures and even about you.”

It stood taller than me. I thought I would run. It said, “You believe every word that the author wrote. You are no longer with me. You are not the girl I was looking for!”

I looked into the voids. I could not wait to be in the human world. I perched between the supports and fell into the abyss.