The Suspicious Activities of the Tentacled Creature
By Yuito Fujita and Isaac Baker
Chapter 1
Alexander drove back from work like he always did every day. Today was a bit different though; he was held up late, and it was almost midnight when he got out from work. The stars glittered above, clear because there was no moon.
As he drove down the road, he noticed a shadow on the road. As Alexander approached the shadow, it was starting to become clearer that it was a body. Alexander thought it was an animal at first, but as he got closer and closer, the shadow changed into what looked like a human body, and it was evident that someone had collapsed there.
“Oh, shoot,” he said to himself, knowing what this meant.
Alexander stopped the car and rushed outside to see the body. He thought it was dead, but when he approached closer, he noticed that the body’s chest was rising and deflating, making it clear that it was breathing. It was an old man, probably in his 70’s or so. He was wearing a bland T-shirt and shorts, stained red with blood.
Alexander knew he was still alive because he was breathing, so he dragged the body onto the patch of grass nearby, as it was a jungle apart from the road. Alexander poured some water into the man's mouth and gave him rest until he was conscious. Soon to find out, that this was a horrible decision.
Chapter 2
The old man opened his eyes.
“Are you alright?” Alexander asked in a scared voice, wondering if he was okay.
“Wh-where am I?” the old man stuttered. “Wh-who are you?”
“My name is Alexander, I’m here to find out what you’ve been through,” Alexander said. “Why are you here?” Alexander exclaimed in a threatening voice.
“Wh-what?” the old man spoke loudly, sounding confused.
“I’m telling you, why are you here?” Alexander exclaimed again. The man calmed himself down. Alexander noticed that he was a very, very old man with pale, wrinkled skin on his face.
“I’m not sure… I don’t even know who you are?” the old man stuttered in an afraid voice.
“Okay, I’m Alexander, I need to know your name and what you have been through,” Alexander explained. “You know that you aren’t supposed to be here, right?”
The old man didn’t reply.
“This is a very dangerous government facility, you aren’t supposed to be here, and I’m not supposed to be here,” Alexander said, wondering why he was. “I need to know how you got here because it could lead to something very dangerous.”
“My name is Chat, I don’t remember how I got here, all I remember is getting off work and something…” Chat went off. “Something attacked me. I remember going into one of the buildings over there, and the next thing I know, I probably got knocked unconscious, and then I met you.”
“Why did you go into the facility?” Alexander asked.
“Something forced me… Some kind of creature threatened to go into the building,” Chat explained, sounding very scared.
“Well, if you got into the facility, tell me more details about it,” Alexander asked.
Chat started, “I remember this creature forced and threatened me into the building, and inside, there was a lot of blood on the floor by the corpses that lay around the room. The room was windowless and dark, the walls were smooth but covered in overgrown plants. And that’s the last thing I remember.”
Alexander was disappointed; that wasn’t much information, but because Chat was a very old man, Alexander went with it. From what Alexander knew, there were only a few creatures that had this kind of behavior, and all of them were bad news.
Chapter 3
“We need to go inside the facility,” Alexander suggested to Chat.
“Wh-why?” Chat said, not sure what to do.
“We need to take down and get more information about this monster. If the creature goes out into the world, it would be a big problem and hurt a lot of people,” Alexander explained.
“Do I need to go?” Chat questioned.
“Yes, you need to give me information about this creature; you might remember more once you get in.” Alexander said, We need to get started.”
Alexander and Chat started heading towards the building. It was an old government facility, with a hatch to get in, and it was mostly underground. It was made out of some kind of thick metal, and it was covered up with moss and rust. As the two got closer, they could hear it growling and snarling. It was clear that the monster was in there; there was blood splattered all over the hatch, some still looking recent. “Oh my god,” Alexander said in disbelief as he reached for his backpack.
Alexander put gloves that were in his backpack on and opened the hatch covered in blood. He couldn’t get the grip because of the slippery blood; he was lucky that the hatch was unlocked. The hatch creaked open, with blood dripping down, the two looked at each other, terrified.
“Let’s go in,” Alexander suggested, still sounding terrified.
Chat didn’t reply, he just nodded. Alexander stepped into the hatch, there were stairs leading into whatever was down there. The two stepped down the stairs, every step sounded as loud as a gunshot. The stairs were covered in red liquid; Alexander was tired of it now, and it was very slippery, which made it hard not to fall. Alexander saw the end of the stairs, which led to a long hallway.
“So what did this monster look like?” Alexander asked Chat.
“It didn’t look human, it was kind of animal-like. I remember it had these long, arm-like things. It blended in well with wherever I was. I didn’t see it at first, but I got attacked, and that is the last thing I remember,” Chat explained.
“Okay…” Alexander said, not knowing what that was.
The two walked down the hallway, glass panels were covering the walls. Alexander couldn’t see inside, but it was evident that something was in there. There were multiple of these glass panels, almost looking like a museum. Alexander knew some things about this place; after all, it was by his job and he drove by it every day. He has heard that this is an old government building from the 1960s. It was a secret operation of some sort, and it was soon abandoned and left there. The inside looked oddly new and clean as this was just a 60-year-old building, apart from the disturbing amount of blood and body parts of some sort. Then, Alexander and Chat heard a loud, horrifying noise coming from the end of the hallway.
Chapter 4
“What in the world was that?” Alexander said.
“Aaahh!” Chat screamed in fear and shivered.
The noise sounded like the roar of a big cat, maybe like a tiger or something, mixed with the sounds of flesh ripping apart. Then, some more sounds of some kind of meat being torn apart. It was quiet for once, but more roars arose. Alexander walked closer and closer to where the noise was coming from. It looked like there was a big room at the end of the hallway.
“What are you doing!?” Chat asked Alexander in a loud voice.
Silence entered the room after Chat asked Alexander. They could hear Chat’s voice echoing down the hallway. It seemed like the creature had heard Chat. The two froze, staring at each other. They both had faced fear and horror. They could hear the monster coming towards them. Alexander signaled Chat to quiet down and stay calm. The two heard a roar, an intimidating roar, and Chat seemed very afraid, flinching away.
Alexander was getting kind of sick of Chat’s terror now, but he kept his cool. Feeling the breeze by his shoulder, Alexander thought it seemed that the hatch opened. He turned around, but nothing was there. Then, he noticed. Where was Chat? It seemed as if Chat just evaporated or something. There was no sign of him going towards the hatch, or any footsteps of Chat, just Alexander’s. Then, Alexander saw the creature.
Chapter 5
“Oh shoot,” Alexander exclaimed.
The creature was at the bottom of the stairs, and as Chat described, it was big-cat-esque. It looked like a panther, but four times bigger. Its fur was thin and black, and it had two tentacle-ish things coming out from the back, all covered in blood. The creature roared, spitting out blood and saliva everywhere. Alexander had never come this close to a monster during his ten years on this job. Alexander was shaken. The creature roared at him again, letting Alexander know that he wasn’t supposed to be there. As the creature got closer and closer, Alexander could see that it had stepped back, forcing him to go into the big experimental room at the end of the hallway. The creature screeched once again and ran towards Alexander.
Alexander was in a panic, he ran into the experimental room, making it impossible for him to run away. He was stuck. Alexander looked around the room, trying to find something that might help him to defend himself. The room looked like it was used as a specimen room in the past. There were splatters of blood and broken bits of glass on the floor, probably from the broken incubation tanks attached to the wall. Alexander scattered around on the ground, desperately trying to find any kind of self-defense device.
On the smooth ground, Alexander found a metal rod, attached to one of the broken glass pieces. The monster got closer and closer. Alexander gripped tight on the rod, swinging it like a lightsaber, hoping he would scare the monster away. It wasn’t that easy though, the monster ran rapidly towards Alexander, roaring and opening its blood-covered mouth wide.
Chapter 6
The deep black monster lunged towards him, and Alexander swung the rod trying to stop it from hurting him. However, the monster passed through the rod and Alexander like an illusion.
“What!” Alexander screamed with confusion as he turned around to try to face it again.
Now, Alexander saw two monsters, both seemed identical. One was slowly creeping towards him, seeming like it was going slower than it should with the speed at which it was moving its paws. The other was turning around to face him, maybe it was the one that just tried to jump on him.
Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind them. Alexander backed away from the monsters, holding up the rod threateningly. The beasts attacked him again, pouncing towards him, and he swung his rod. It passed through one again, but it hit the other one in the face. The monster flinched back in pain as its nose was bruised, but not too bad. As it flinched, the other one disappeared.
“How?” Alexander wailed, knowing he probably wouldn’t escape.
Once again, the monster leaped, jumping over him and landing behind Alexander. Alexander heard a thump in the shadows, the monster probably knocked something over. “Yeah, that’s probably what happened,” Alexander thought, unsure of when he could hit the monsters.
He turned around and could see the monster snarling at him. Its teeth were yellowed and chipped. It grabbed his foot and pinned it under its paw. Its rough tentacles reached toward Alexander’s neck, and it let go of the pin. But the tentacles touching his neck felt like they were wrapping around him, not choking him from the front. Alexander swung his rod as he turned around, and it passed through the beast again. At that moment, he realized the monster was not where it seemed to be.
Alexander smacked the monster with his rod, and when the monster let go of his neck, he lunged away from the beast so it couldn’t reach him, accidentally dropping the rod. Alexander stumbled, and the monster pounced, pinning him with its paws, snarling with saliva dripping from its mouth. It reached his tentacles toward him, but a voice through the speakers said calmly,
“Don’t.”
The monster pulled away its tentacles but continued to trap him. The door opened, and someone stepped through, grinning. It was Chat.
Chapter 7
“You fell for it,” Chat said sinisterly. “I created this creature to kill you, and you fell for my trap. I wasn’t hurt when you found me, it was an illusion, just like my creature’s ability.” Chat sneered at him and continued. “The noise you heard when the monster jumped over you was the real creature landing, and it snuck around you so easily. I created so many creatures, and your organization hunted them down and captured and destroyed them, so I made one that they couldn’t, one that would help me disband the organization!”
Alexander couldn’t believe it! He felt betrayed; Chat seemed like a normal old man, but he was surprised that Chat was planning this the whole time. Alexander was rushed with emotions of betrayal.
“Wait, so you’ve been lying this whole time?” Alexander asked in a terrified voice.
“Yes, and you fell for it. It was so funny how you just believed me,” Chat said in an evil voice.
Alexander knew that Chat was going to kill him. The creature stood proudly right next to Chat, and Alexander knew that he couldn’t kill the monster by himself, but he could kill Chat. From the experience he had, most monsters were linked and connected to the person or thing that made it, and all Alexander could do was kill Chat and hope the monster would also die. After all, Chat was a very, very old man. He thought he could knock him easily.
Chat looked down at Alexander from the stairs, waiting for Alexander to make his move. Alexander gripped the metal rod he had in hand.
It was either kill Chat or get killed by Chat.
Alexander made his move. He ran as fast as he could towards Chat and the monster, hoping he’d get enough momentum just to stab Chat anywhere possible. The monster also started to run, growling and drooling on the way. It roared and ran head first towards Alexander.
Chat was commanding the monster to attack Alexander. It wasn’t like he could even fight. Even though the monster was running and attacking Alexander, his target was Chat.
The creature jumped; Alexander saw this and made his move. Alexander moved to the side and attacked Chat. Chat couldn’t react, with Alexander stabbing him with the metal pole in the chest. The pole wasn’t sharp so it didn’t cut Chat but Chat froze and fell face-first onto the ground. Alexander knew Chat was unconscious, or maybe even dead. Chat’s face was pale, he looked like there was no life inside. Alexander turned around, trying to see where the creature went; it disappeared. He looked around more, but there was no trace of the monster. He did it; Alexander killed the monster. And from what he knew, Chat was dead too.
Chapter 8
Chat was lying there, looking lifeless. Alexander was shocked at what had happened. He had thought Chat was attacked, that he needed help. Alexander felt like he had been betrayed. With no blood or flesh coming out of Chat, he probably got knocked unconscious. The second one seemed more likely because he was certainly dead. Alexander walked closer to Chat’s dead body and looked down once again. He started walking up the stairs, to the exit hatch. The hatch was still covered in rust and blood, but Alexander opened the hatch with ease. He got out, and ran back to his car, feeling accomplished.
Alexander looked at his wristwatch, it was 6:40 in the morning. Alexander turned on the car and drove down the road; heading home.
