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You stared up at the ceiling, laying in your bed. You couldn't sleep, for what felt like the 2763rd night in a row.
It was probably because you could feel that you were being watched. Again.
"Dude, can you not? I'm trying to sleep!"
But the creature did not respond. Not that you expected it to. You had said the same exact thing to it several nights now, and it still refused take its eyes off you.
You sat up and looked towards the corner of your room. The room was dark, and you could barely see the creature, but it never revealed itself when the lights were on, so this is probably the best view of them you'll get.
It's just standing there, menacingly. You let out a long, annoyed sigh, and put your hands over your face. "Just what do I need to do to get you to leave me alone?"
Still no response. No surprise there. You'd never even heard the thing's voice, actually.
The only thing you could see clearly was a round white circle that you assumed was an eye. You could've sworn it looked like it was floating up she down, but surely it's just your imagination, right?
As the creature stared at you, you decided you wouldn't sit there and do nothing anymore. It'll probably just stay with you forever if you do that, and you can't get help either, you thought - surely no one you know would believe you if you told them about this... thing that haunted your house.
So all you have left is to try approaching it. Besides, it's practically your roommate now, so why not say hi?
You hopped out of bed and took a few steps towards the corner it was in.
"Hey, uh... I realized we've never really introduced ourselves. I'm y/n." You reached your hand out to the creature. "And you are...?"
It still said nothing.
Its eye slowly moved to the side, as if the creature was tilting its head.
Ok, at least it seems sentient enough to acknowledge your attempt. You weren't sure if that was a good thing or not.
Now that you were a bit closer to it, however, you were able to slightly see its silhouette in the darkness, and make out its appearance.
And oh boy was this thing TALL.
It otherwise looked humanoid, having arms, legs, a body and a head. Even though none of it is exactly the shape of a normal human.
If only you could get it to come out of the corner. The soft moonlight from your window could give you a better look if it just came a little closer.
You lowered your hand after a little while of having it ignore you. "Why are you even in my house? Don't you have anything better to do?"
...
"Why me? Why just sit there and watch me all night? Don't YOU need sleep?'
...
"Still not gonna say anything, huh? Can you even hear me?"
...
"Y'know what? Fine! Two can play at that game!" You crossed your arms and looked it in the eye. "I'm not moving until you either say something or come out of the corner!"
You stood in place, staring at it. Right into its soul, if it even has one. And it stared into yours.
You wanted to stay there and assert dominance in an attempt to intimidate it into responding. But the longer you let it stared into your soul, a deep sense of fear and discomfort grew within you.
Trying to aura farm to further assert dominance, you pretended to not care, and smirked at it. Though deep down, you were terrified. You didn't know how long you could do this for. It felt as if darkness was seeping into the very culmination of your being.
Then, after what felt like forever, it finally moved.
It stepped- no, floated towards you- into the moonlight where you could see them in full. It hovered slightly above the floor, up and down, leaving afterimages in its wake.
Oh god. It looked terrifying.
You took a few steps back, scared of being too close to it. You could already tell it was tall before, but now you could really see just how freakishly large it was. This thing had to be at least 3 meters tall!
"Oh, h-hello there..!" You said nervously, cowering a little.
You inspected its appearance. Its shoulders extend far on its side and are super pointy, its lower body is extremely thin, and there's sharp antlers on its head. And it had no facial features besides the eye.
What the heck are you even looking at?
And why do you find it... oddly pretty?
"It's, uh, nice to see what you.. really look like!" That came out sounding like you were trying to appease it out of fear, but you really did mean what you said. You were rather captivated by its looks.
Its eye transformed into something like a mouth while something really dark materialized in its hand.
A sword. A sword that's longer than your entire height.
"WOAH!" You put your hands in the air and backed up as far as you could until you bumped into your bed. Now you had instantly lost any composure you had. "Hey, hey, HEY! What are you doing?!"
It hovered closer and closer to you, and raised up its sword...
You fell to the floor and curled up into a ball, your hands protectively on the back of your head. "PLEASE!! DON'T DO IT!!!"
You awauted your death.
Then you felt something sharp poke at your side. You flinched.
Then at your arm. You flinched again.
"Please... don't hurt me..."
You felt several more pokes around your body, and heard creepy, distorted laughter coming from the creature. You very slowly opened your eyes and looked at what it was doing to you.
It was still just poking at you with the sword. You could feel how terrifyingly sharp that thing was, the creature could've probably sliced you cleanly in half if it wanted to. But it didn't. It just poked at you, laughing at your fear.
Was it... messing with you?
Okay. So it has the capacity to find things funny, and make (awfully unfunny) jokes. It probably has a personality too. Probably not a very pleasant one given the fact that it had you thinking you were about to die for its own amusement, but you were still very intrigued nonetheless.
Once it stopped fake-stabbing you, you got back up on your feet. "That's not funny!!" You yelled, still greatly afraid. Your whole body was shaking and your heart was beating out of your chest.
Despite your fear, you wanted to know more. You wanted to get to know this horrifying creature beyond your comprehension that just had you fearing for your life.
There was just something so alluring about this creature. The mystery of it, how it chose you of all people to haunt, its fascinating appearance, and strangely enough, the way it treated you with such disregard just now, like terrorizing you was no big deal. No sane or normal person does that. This thing is not sane or normal.
You should've tried to run. You really should've. But you couldn't bring yourself to leave it. Not when you're finally face to face with it after being eluded by it for so long.
"So. Uh. Who... or, what exactly are you?"
...
Maybe it's mute?
"You're, um. Really interesting. I've never seen anything like you before, you're.. really cool. I like you."
It tilted its head again, looking at you curiously. It reached its free hand towards your face, and booped your nose before you had a chance to get away.
"H-huh??" You looked up at it, confused, but also flustered from the physical contact. "Wha- ??????"
It watched you. Observed your reaction.
Its hand felt cold and hard. Something most would consider objectively uncomfortable. But for some reason, you wanted more.
Ah, crap. Are you falling for the creature that's been haunting your house? Only a few minutes after properly getting to see it?
You stayed put, hoping it would reach out again and maybe pet your head or even hold your hand, but nothing happened.
You turned your attention to the trail of afterimages it left behind as it floated. "Can I...?" You asked quietly, extending your hand towards the trail.
It nodded its head a single time. Great, it's finally decided to communicate.
You reached out further and tried to touch the afterimages, but there was nothing physical about them. Your hand went right through.
"That's so cool..!" You stepped forward to take a better look, and found yourself standing very close to the creature. You were still rather scared. But it didn't seem to have any intention of ACTUALLY killing you.
"You're amazing..!" You gazed up at it, completely awe struck.
"I-" you had to stop yourself from saying something much, much more.
Now feeling a little bit more trusting of it, you stepped back and sat on your bed, simply admiring its beauty.
Then, an idea popped into your head.
You swung your legs over the edge of the bed, now sitting fully on the bed, scooting over a bit to leave an empty space beside you.
"You never answered me earlier.. do you sleep at all? You don't need to talk, you can just nod or whatever."
Your gaze alternated between the creature and the empty spot you left on the bed.
"..or, not. It's fine." The disappoinment of it ignoring you again was noticeable in your voice.
You sighed, looking away from the creature. Of course it wouldn't join you in the bed, what were you thinking? It just sees you as some random person, why would it want to be close to yo-
"AHHHH!" You yelped as you were abruptly pulled into a pair of strong, cold arms and brought to a position of laying down on the bed.
"W--WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" You squirmed a bit from the surprise. Your face was now pressed against the creature's chest, with it holding the rest of your body in a tight embrace.
It started laughing once more at your surprise, then put a hand to your head and harshly ruffled your hair.
You were now a blushing, stuttering mess who could barely get a single coherent sentence out.
"T.. t-thank you.." Your breathing was heavy and your heart was racing. "No one's... held me like this before.."
Oh boy did this give you the chance to see just how strong this thing was. Even if you wanted to there was no way to escape its grasp. Your only option was to sit there and let it hold you. Not that you were complaining.
Once you got over the initial shock, you hugged it as tightly as you could. "P-please. Don't let me go."
And thankfully, it didn't.
You laid comfortably in its arms for a little while, silently enjoying the closeness despite now shivering from the cold.
And this time, you couldn't stop yourself from saying it.
"I love you.."
You hugged it tighter, and some tears fell from your eyes. You'd never gotten to say that to anyone and mean it before until now.
Of all people, or... things, to say it to, your first was the strange creature that just showed up in your house one day and didn't leave. That's certainly not how you expected it to happen, but here you were.
It seemed a bit surprised at your confession, but responded by resting its head on top of yours.
Confessing your love to the weird creature you barely know who you fell for like 10 minutes ago was already crazy, but what if you went even further?
"I.. I know this sounds crazy, since we sort of just met, but... is there any chance you'd, umm, like... w-wanna, date...?"
You waited. You weren't sure if it'd respond at all, but if it did, you were expecting just a simple physical gesture.
"okay......"
You gasped loudly. Both out of shock from hearing it talk, and shock from it actually accepting you.
"W-what?! Really?!?!!"
"yes........"
You couldn't help but start crying again. "Thank you...!" You hugged it even tighter, never wanting to let it go.
Despite your excitement, it didn't take too long for you to fall asleep after that. You were already sleep deprived after all.
When you wake up the next morning, you'll most certainly have an interesting day ahead of you.