WARNING! The following story contains adult content and graphic scenes of violence!
Ever since Elle was a little girl, she always was afraid to put her feet over the edge of the bed. She'd always tuck her feet under the covers at night so nothing would grab them. It didn't matter that it didn't make sense. Of course she knew that a blanket couldn't actually protect her from anything that would attack her. It was just some sort of irrational fear she had.
She remembered from when she was little, screaming in the dead of night because she heard something under her bed. It's long claws scratching as it clawed it's way towards her, or so she imagined. Her parents running into the room, still half asleep, and then blaming her because they claimed there was nothing under the bed.
"There's nothing under your bed. You're just imagining it. You must have had a nightmare."
"I didn't! I heard it! Something was clawing under there! It's gonna get me!"
"Maybe we need to check for rats?"
"There's nothing under there. Whatever you imagined isn't there. We'll check for any signs or rats or something in the morning. Just try to get back to sleep."
That's how it went most times she screamed in the dead of night, fearing for her life, fearing the creature she knew must be lurking under her bed, waiting to grab her. Her parents wouldn't believe her and she'd lie there clenching her blankets tight around her until she'd inevitably fall asleep out of exhaustion.
She wasn't a kid anymore though. She just moved into her first apartment, albeit with roommates. She had a nice sized room, with a shared kitchen and bathroom. She has already lived alone in the college dorms for quite some time now, so she was used to it a bit.
Somehow she had managed to get a job directly out of college with a company she interned with. A lot of her friends weren't so lucky. It almost all fell apart though, as it was in an entirely different city than she grew up in, and where her parents lived. If she hadn't managed to find a place she might have had to give it up. Thankfully her job agreed to give a bit of a stipend to move into a new place and she managed to borrow a little for first and last months rent. It all seemed to somehow come together.
Now if only she could do something about all these boxes piled up in one side of the room. She barely had any room with it all. She had already started her job and was too tired every day after work to unpack everything but she was determined. She asked some friends to help her unpack on her next day off. They were mostly new friends she had made between work and moving here, but they seemed to be alright.
She got up that day already dreading the job of unpacking, but determined to do it anyway. She made some coffee for her and her roommates, and some toast for breakfast. Not the best of breakfasts, but she'd get something better for lunch when her friends were there.
*BZZZZT!* They were already starting to arrive. That was the sound of the door buzzer.
"Hello?", Elle clicked the button, still not really used to it.
"Yeah, it's me, Jane. Sorry, I'm a bit early. I woke up at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep. You know how it is."
"Yeah, it's okay, just come on up. I'm still not fully dressed though." Elle pushed the button to buzz her in. Did she had time to rush to put some different clothes on? It's just Jane. It's fine. First, coffee. She drank a bit more of her coffee and took a big bite of toast. She barely had time for another sip before Jane was at the door.
*knock knock knock*
"Come in. Come in. I was just having breakfast."
"Oh really? Because I brought -- DUN DUN DUN -- DANISH!" Jane pulled out a sugary frosting caked desert out of the paper bag she was carrying.
"Ooh! You have no idea how much you saved me! I didn't wanna make anything. All I had was toast!"
"No problem. Pour me a cup of coffee? I figured you had some so I didn't get one."
"Coming up! But we only have oat milk and this weird non-dairy creamer thing one of my roommates got."
"Oat milk's fine. You really gotta get more used to city life. If you can't even take some non-dairy creamer, this city is gonna break you."
"Oh ha ha. I was drinking it just fine before you arrived. I was just worried you might not like it. I really need to get to the store but this new job has me tired every day. I'm making up for some employee they lost a few months back. They're always talking about her and how much she kept that place together. I hope I can manage to find my place, because it really doesn't seem like I can take hers."
"You'll be fine. Didn't you say they really like you there?"
"Yeah, they --" Elle unceremoniously took a bite of the danish in the middle of her sentence. "SO GOOD!"
"Well, if they like you that much, there will be nothing left of you." They had a little chuckle and finished their danishes and coffee before starting on the boxes to unpack in her room.
"Why are there so many? Did your parents think you have your own house? Couldn't they have kept some of them there for storage?"
"Some of them did get moved up to the attic, but my mom wanted to move as much out as possible so she could fit her exercise bike and a few hand weights in there. She had a TV set up and was doing her exercises in there before I even left."
"Sometimes parents can't hide how much they wanna get rid of us. So what's in all of this? Where do I start."
"Well, I know what's in some of them, but I had help packing, so I don't know what's in all of them."
"Oh hello! Does this one have a name?"
"No! How did you manage to find those in one of the first boxes you opened?"
"It's a gift."
"Whatever, it's better that you found them than they were found later when more people arrived."
"Like Chad?"
Elle silently stared at Jane for a second. "Yes, like Chad."
"I dunno what you see in that guy. He's such a big oaf."
"He's sweet -- in his own way. Plus he's big and tall and I thought he could be helpful with moving big things."
"Maybe big things are exactly why you keep him around. Maybe you want him to take over for Mr Big-And-Floppy." Jane wiggled a giant purple sex toy from the box in front of her.
"Oh come on! Stop it! I dunno that I even see him that way. Though he does have some big muscles... Just put that back in the box and shove it under the bed."
Jane put it back in the box and tried shoving it under the bed. "Oh, I don't think it's gonna fit. I think it's a bit too big for you. Kinda like Chad."
"Stop it! We'll just have to move them to a smaller box."
"What about this one?"
"Fine. Dump it on the bed for now."
"No! Not the sex toys! The other box!" The toys all fell out of the box and flopped unceremoniously onto the floor.
"Ugh! I don't think it's all gonna fit."
"Just like Chad."
"OMG! Stop! You don't even know!"
"I don't. But if the rest of him is any indication..."
"Whatever, just shove that in here. We'll make it fit." Elle quickly dumped the smaller box on the end of the bed and held it out.
"Pfft!" Jane couldn't contain her laughter and a second later Elle was laughing too.
*Bzzzt!*
"OH GOD! I hope that's not Chad! Quick! Shove them in the box."
Elle quickly ran to the buzzer. "Uh. Hello?"
"Yeah, it's Chad. I'm here to help you with moving or something?"
"Oh damn." She pressed the button. "Just a second and I'll buzz you in." Elle ran back to her room.
"Did you get it all in there?"
"It won't fit! Your box is too small!" She paused for a second. "Pffft! Who was that?"
"It's Chad! We gotta get all this stuff put away before I buzz him up!"
"Don't want him seeing how small your box is or all the big things you stuff in it."
"Oh come on! You're doing this on purpose!"
"Maybe."
"Here, these ones I can put in my dresser drawer." Although she didn't take much furniture from home, she did manage to find a dresser on Craigslist that seemed pretty decent for the priced. She hadn't really unpacked most of her clothes yet though, so it was still mostly empty. She opened the drawer and she only had a few underwear left that she had unpacked. She quickly stuffed a couple of toys under them.
"Okay, somehow I managed to get them all in. It was long and hard and your box was just too small but with a lot of effort and some good college try I managed to fill it up. I think I even stretched it a bit,"
"You done?"
"Yeah, I guess. I'll put it under the bed."
"I'll go buzz Chad in."
She ran to the door and hit the buzzer, then pressed the intercom, "Sorry about that Chad, come on up!" Just as she said that, she realized she was still in her pajamas. "Oh god." She ran to her room. "Quick! I need to change before Chad gets here. I need a shirt I can move stuff in. Pants! Pants!"
"Don't let me stop you. I dunno why you're acting like I know where your clothes are."
"Ugh!" She ripped her sleep shirt off.
"Wow. How do you manage to look that good? You got a gym membership or something?"
"You're not helping!"
"I wasn't trying to."
She quickly grabbed a shirt from one of the lower drawers and pulled it over her head. Then she tried to quickly pull her pajama pants off. As she was hopping on one foot, trying to pull her pants off of the other, she fell directly into a pile of boxes. "Ugh!"
"Found some clothes!" Jane was looking at a box that had been knocked over by Elle falling and had spilled some clothes onto the floor. "Here, let me help you up." Jane outstretched her hand for Elle.
Elle didn't have any time to try to recover. She needed pants! NOW! She grabbed a pair of grey shorts from the box that had overturned and quickly put them on.
"Are you trying to look good for Chad?"
"What do you mean?" She looked down and noticed her shirt was barely big enough for her, exposing just a bit of her midriff, and her shorts were far shorter than she realized. She probably would have been better off staying in her pajamas. "Ugh! Whatever! Just shut up! It's too late now! Chad's probably he..." She didn't even get the last word out before she heard the knocking at the door. "See."
Elle ran to the door. "Sorry about the wait. Things are already pretty hectic."
"It's okay."
"Ugh! What's with all the racket?" One of Elle's roommates, Shirley, opened her door. She stood in the open bedroom door, in front of an absolutely trashed room with clothes strewn about the floor, in only a pair of panties and a small shirt that exposed her belly button, and it's piercing.
"Sorry Shirley. I didn't mean to wake you up. But it's already almost 9."
"Than I should be able to get a couple more hours sleep." She rubbed her eyes and blinked, trying to focus on who was at the door. "Oh, heya Chad."
"Shirley, maybe you wanna get some pants on."
"Why? I'm sure Chad doesn't mind. Do you Chad?"
"Uhh..." Chad had no idea how to respond.
"Or maybe he'd like to help me find some? I hear he's gonna help you move today. Maybe he can help me with something. What about it Chad, wanna help me, in my bedroom?"
"I already said I would help Elle. But if you need me to move something later I guess I can help."
"Ugh. Whatever." Shirley turned around and closed her door behind her.
"Come on Chad, we already started. Just this way."
"Okay. Wait, was she hitting on me?"
"What? I don't think so. I think she just was still half asleep and her room's a mess."
"Oh. Okay." They made it to Elle's room and Elle walked through the door, surveying the mess of boxes. "Heya Jane. What happened here."
"Oh, Elle was in a rush and she fell over and so did all the boxes."
"Oh, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just scraped my elbow a bit." She looked at her elbow and there was a bit of blood.
"Oh, you should get a band aid."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll check the bathroom."
Chad stood there awkwardly with Jane waiting for Elle to come back.
"So. Uh..." Jane tried to fill the silence but nothing came to mind. "I guess I'll get started on these boxes." She reached down and put some clothes back in the box. "This should probably go over there with the dresser until Elle can put them away. Can you get them for me?"
"Sure." He picked up the box stuffed with clothes and moved it over to the dresser just as Elle was coming back, pressing a band aid on her elbow.
"Actually, Chad, I wanna move that dresser over a bit into the corner. Can you help me with that first? Just put the box down and we'll move the dresser, then you can put the box of clothes on top."
Chad awkwardly moved the box off of the dresser and seemed to struggle with figuring out where to put it.
"Anywhere is fine for now." He put it down in the middle of the floor. "Jane, would you help me with this side? Chad, you get the other side." Everyone moved into position. "1, 2, 3, and heave!" She and Jane scuffled towards the corner while Chad seemed to have no effort, even holding it with outstretched arms as he moved the dresser into the corner. "Ho." A slight thud of an object moving inside the drawers was heard but no one paid attention.
"What?"
"Heave ho. You know, like the saying?"
"I thought you were...never mind."
"Wait, did you...?"
"Shut up. I did not. I didn't do anything."
Jane muffled a slight laugh. "Okay Chad, I can take that box now. Just put it right up on top." Chad moved the box and Elle started to open the top drawer when she saw a pink tip poking out from a pair of underwear. She quickly closed the drawer. "Um, uh, Jane, can you...?" She tried to motion with her eyes and head to get Chad's attention.
Thankfully Jane took the hint. "Hey Chad, can you help me with this heavy box over here? Just move it over there."
"This one? Over there?" He picked it up with ease. "Is not heavy."
"Not for you. Big man. You're huge." Jane awkwardly patted his muscles.
"Okay." Chad looked down at her with a blank look on his face.
"Yeah...what am I thinking..."
By this time Elle had thankfully gotten the toy stashed under some underwear and was unpacking clothes into drawers. "Chad, why don't you help by picking up some of those boxes and sorting them. If you find any more boxes of clothes, put them over here. Any random junk I guess put by the closet and we'll slowly sort through it. If you find anything that goes in the kitchen put it by the door."
"Okay."
They slowly sorted through the boxes and started to make some real progress. Most of Elle's clothes had been unpacked into the dresser or hung up in the closet. A few things were being sorted into boxes to go into the back of the closet.
"Hey, what's this?" Jane pulled one of the creepiest dolls you have ever seen out of a box.
"Oh god. I forgot I even had that. Why did mom pack that?"
"She must not have wanted it at the house."
"Ugh! I don't really blame her. I think we got it at a garage sale or something when I was little. I don't know why we got it. It always gave me the wiggins!"
"Well, yeah, it would."
The doll had comically long arms and legs and messy hair. It was missing an eye but had a button sewed on in it's place. It wore a small hat that was sewn on it's head and a small blue suit. It should have been just an odd doll, if you looked at it objectively. A bit unusual but nothing about it was that much off that it should feel as creepy as it did. Yet it did. It somehow was one of the creepiest dolls they had ever seen.
Photo by Ben Mason (Source) Taken December 24, 2008
Used under the CC BY 2.0 Attribution 2.0 Generic License
(no, this is not the doll)
"Just put it in a box in the closet for now. Maybe I'll get rid of it." Jane held it at arms length and walked it over to a box near the closet and put it inside.
They continued working for a while. "It's staring at me." Jane said, looking over at the doll, whose head was peaking out of the box.
"I thought you put it down in the box. Why is it poking it's head out now?"
"I don't know! I did put it down in the box! There was even stuff I put on top of it! Maybe someone moved it?"
They all looked back and forth at each other before Elle walked over and put it back down into the box.
"I don't like this." Chad said, despite being mostly silent all day. He went back to sorting a box for a bit as everyone went back to work, before eventually saying "I'm hungry."
"We have been working for quite a while. We've gotten most everything done and sorted. I really appreciate you two helping me so much. Lunch is on me." She checked the time. A bit after two. "Late lunch."
"Oh? I'd love some lunch." Shirley had appeared out of nowhere at the bedroom door. She was dressed in mostly black with a short black and white tartan pleated skirt that ruffled out to the sides, and black fishnet stockings with heavy leather boots. Her lips contorted in a slight smirk with their blueish black lipstick and black lip liner.
"For you, I'm not buying. You could have helped."
"Whatever. I had to get ready. Besides, you had everything in hand. I still wanna get lunch. Err, breakfast."
"Where is even still serving lunch? We're almost in early bird territory."
"What about that place on third?"
They argued a bit back and forth on what to get and where was still serving lunch before finally deciding.
"Wait! I gotta get changed!" Elle was a bit sweaty and Jane's shirt was more than a bit dirty.
"You got any shirts that I can wear?"
"I didn't bring a change of clothes." It was clear that Chad wouldn't fit into anything she owned. She didn't even have any exes clothes or anything with her.
"I've got something. Come with me big boy." Shirley took Chad's hand and started leading him away.
"Shirley..."
"Don't worry. I'll be good. We don't have any time anyway."
"Whatever. We gotta get washed up first. I'll pick out some things that might fit Jane."
"Let me know if you need anything." Shirley led Chad off to her room.
"We gotta hurry. No telling what she'll do if we take too long." She riffled through the drawers she had just meticulously sorted. "What about this?"
"Ugh! You got anything else?"
"It's slim pickings! I didn't take a lot of things!"
Jane looked over at all the empty boxes they just sorted through, decorations around the room, bed covered in stuffed animals, etc. "I'd beg to differ."
"Ugh! Okay! Whatever! We gotta hurry! What about this?" They went through a few more options and Elle rushed Jane off to the bathroom after picking something.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Shirley's room.
"i know I have a few things in here. Things exes left. I tried to return some of them but for some reason they never seem to want to risk it. You know, once I get my claws in someone..." She clicked her long blueish black sharpened nails together. "What about this?" She held up a shirt for him.
"Okay."
"Then lets get that shirt off of you." She pulled up on the bottom of the shirt as he grabbed the sides of the fabric. Just as he was getting it to his head, she pulled the fabric back a bit, getting it stuck on his head, restraining his arms.
"Ugh! I'm stuck."
"Oh no, whatever will we do." Shirley ran her claws down Chad's tight abs, before leading him over to the bed and pushing him down.
With a crash Chad fell back on the bed. It barely held without breaking. It may have damaged the wall as the weight forced it to bang against it though. "Oh no. I fell. Is soft though."
"That's good. We don't want you getting hurt." Shirley crawled on top of Chad and ran her tongue up his abs. "Mmm. Salty. Musky." She breathed in the scent of him and kissed his abs with her lips.
"Wet. What are you doing?"
"Oh, nothing. Just getting a taste for you. You taste good."
"Taste? Why are you tasting me? Are you going to eat me?"
"Maybe." She pulled hard at his belt and started to undo the pin from one of the holes.
At some point the door handle had been turned and the door creaked as it swung open. Shirley, in her fervor to get a taste, hadn't noticed however.
"Oh? I thought you weren't going to do anything. I thought you said you didn't have the time. I thought you were going to be good."
Shirley sighed loudly. "Humph! Well clearly I didn't have any time. I figured if I got started it would be too awkward to interupt. Guess that didn't work out. And I was going to be so good!"
"Ugh! Whatever! Just get him up and dressed. We don't want Elle to see..." Jane looked over her shoulder to see Elle glaring at Shirley.
"Fine! I'll be good...if I have to." She swung a leg off Chad and got up off the bed. "Come on, big boy. Lets get that shirt off you and get you dressed to go." She pulled hard on his shirt and her whole body seemed to be putting in effort to pull it off of Chad without him moving much at all. Finally the shirt came off and Shirley almost fell over.
"Why is my belt undone?"
"Oh, uh...I thought maybe I could find you some pants too. Unfortunately I don't think I have anything your size."
"Oh, that's for sure. He'd wreck you."
Shirley got a huge smile on her face. "Good."
"Enough of that. Get dressed."
Shirley sighed in disappointment and threw the shirt to Chad. He pulled it on and then looked down at what it said. "Your pain...is my...pleasure?"
"Oh, I hope so."
"Shirley! Don't you have anything more...appropriate?"
"Maybe? But I liked this one."
"Whatever. Lets go."
Chad fixed his belt and they all left to go get a late lunch.
* * *
Despite their conflicts before leaving, lunch seemed to go well. They just made it before the bistro stopped serving lunch and they all seemed to get along well. Although Shirley seemed to make the occasional suggestive and dangerous comment toward Chad, and even occasionally towards Jane. Maybe even once or twice towards Elle.
"We have to get back. We're almost finished. Only a little sorting left to do."
"I think I have to go." Chad said.
"Aww, but I was hoping you could help me with some things in my room. I got some tight spaces that need something stuffed in them."
"Shirley!"
"What?"
"No. I think I should go. That seems...dangerous."
"Oh, it is. But it would be so good. Don't you want to help me?"
"No." Chad looked directly at her. Although his face was locked in an expressionless look, there seemed to be fear in his eyes.
"Ugh. Whatever." She pulled some money from her purse, fingered through it, and threw some on the table. "I'll be going back first then."
After getting the check and paying the tip, Elle and Jane said goodbye to Chad.
"Wait, don't you need your shirt back?"
Chad looked down. "She can keep it. I'll give you this one to return to her next time you see her."
"Uh...okay."
* * *
They managed to get back to Elle's place and do a bit of final sorting and decorating.
"Where does this box go?"
"That one goes in the closet. We're pretty much done here, so you can go after this. Thanks so much for the help today!"
"Uhh, it's no problem. This is what friends do. They help each other. I'm sure if I...WHAT THE FUCK!"
"What is it?" Elle went over to the closet to see the creepy doll sitting on a stack of boxes in the back.
"It's that creepy doll! Did you move it? This isn't funny!"
"You know I didn't. I've been right here with you. You've seen me the whole time. When could I have moved it?"
"I don't know! Maybe when I went to the bathroom or something? If you didn't move it, then who?"
"I don't know. Maybe Shirley did it before we got back. She probably thought it would be funny or something."
"That bitch. She's gonna get what's coming to her one of these days."
"She certainly was trying today." They both cracked up a bit.
"Whatever. No one was hurt. Just a harmless prank. A really mean, horrible, but ultimately harmless prank."
Jane stuffed the creepy doll back in the box and then put the other box on top of it. The two said their goodbyes before Elle saw Jane to the door.
When Elle got back though, the closet door was standing open, and the box was toppled over on it's side.
"What the fuck? How did this happen?" She picked up the box and put it back on the other. "Whatever. I'm beat. And I still gotta look over those proposals for work." She took out her laptop and climbed into her bed.
* * *
Before she knew it, it was already late. She had completely lost track of time in her work. She probably would have worked for another hour or more if not for the sound of her AC window unit dying.
"Uh. What the fuck? What? No! No! No!" She put her laptop to the side and went over to the AC. She pressed buttons frantically trying to get it to turn back on. "No! No! No!" She unplugged it from the wall and counted, hoping somehow it would reset itself. She plugged it back in, hoping it would work. Nothing. "Ugh!"
She climbed back into bed and picked up her laptop, now realizing just hope warm it was. She looked at the time. It was already after one. She closed her laptop and put it away, before taking her glasses off and trying to roll over and go to bed.
* * *
It wasn't long before Elle's room grew warm, with the AC no longer working. At some point, in her sleep, Elle had kicked off her covers, and one of her feet hung dangling off the edge of the bed.
It was then that she woke up to the sound of what she thought were claws scratching under her bed. It brought back all the memories and horror of her childhood. Scratching late at night. Her parents never believing her. Her legs retreated from the edge as she pulled herself into a huddled position in the corner against the wall.
Still, she heard the scratching.
Screech. Screech. Screech.
What was it? Did somehow an animal get into her room?
She inched towards the edge of the bed. She had to look. She had to figure out what it was. It had to be just her imagination, right? There was nothing under there, right?
She put her hands on the edge of the bed and pulled herself over, She tried looking under the bed. She couldn't see anything.
She grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight setting, then looked once again.
Nothing. Just dirty floor boards. She moved the light towards the other corner that was still in the dark. Then she saw it. A single eye and a button. To either side of it's head, it had grown long claws on it's hands, pressed against the floor boards.
Elle's eyes widened in fear. He mouth opened to scream but nothing came out.
It was then that the doll moved. It's claws pulling itself towards Elle. Before she knew it, it's claws dug into her shoulders and pulled her down off the bed. She fell with a thud.
Somehow, the fear and adrenaline overcame whatever normally would have stopped her, even as the wind had been knocked out of her. She pulled herself up and tried to get up but it was to no avail. Two hands with long claws were on either side of her waist. They yanked, hard.
In her final moments, Elle herd a crunching as she was pulled under the bed, followed by gurgling as she choked and drowned on her own blood.
* * *
It was after 3AM when Shirley finally got home with a man's arm around her. She fumbled with her large set of keys and all the various key chains she had to unlock the door.
"Won't you come inside? It'll be fun."
"Oh no. No. No. I remember what you consider fun. I can't afford the stitches."
"Oh come on. I won't bite."
"Oh yes you will. Hard. And it's not just the bites I'm worried about. It's your claws. And if I'm not mistaken, you've freshly sharpened your claws."
Shirley smiled. "Yes. I did." She ran he claws up his shirt before inching one down the front of his pants. "Come on. Don't you want to play?"
He breathed deeply, tempted, but well aware of how dangerous her playing could be. "The way you play? No. I don't need any more scars. I couldn't have sex for more than a couple weeks after!"
"Rawr!" Shirley bit at the air in front of him. "Fine. But if you change your mind, you have my number."
"And if you learn how to play nice without leaving scars, you have mine."
The man walked off down the hall to leave the building, throwing his leather jacket over his shoulder, as it dangled from a finger.
*Sigh!* "You're no fun! No one wants to play!" Shirley pushed her door open and went inside her apartment.
She made her way to the kitchen, getting a glass, and grabbing a bottle of OJ from the fridge. While in the middle of pouring a glass of OJ she heard the distinct sound of scurrying claws on the floor.
"Elle? Are you there? You still awake? Maybe you wanna play? I could teach you some things." She made her way down the hall. "I can't see shit." She fumbled with her phone and turned on the flashlight, holding it up to see down the hall. "Elle? Elle, are you there?"
She made her way to her door, which stood ajar. "Elle, are you in there? You wanna play?" She shone the flashlight in Elle's room, before it hit her bed. "Jesus fucking Christ! Elle! When did you get such a macabre sense of humor? How long did it take you to set this up? Maybe you could teach me a few things. This is fucked up! Look at all this fake blood!"
The light from the cell phone shone on Elle's lifeless corpse, already growing cold from death, but not too cold with the AC having gone out. Her head was poking out from beneath the bed, frozen and contorted in a scream of pure terror and agony. Her arms were on either side of her, with claw marks in front of her hands where she ripped off her nails having tried in vein to claw at the floor and stop herself from being pulled under the bed. Her legs were laying on either side of her hands, her feet contorted and frozen in place.
"Jesus fucking Christ! How did you even get into that position? Limber much?" As she got closer, Shirley realized that Elle wasn't bend at the waste. He legs were too far out. Her head was nestled in her lap. She had been bent and broken at the back and pulled under the bed.
"Elle! This isn't fucking funny anymore! You had your laugh! Stop fucking around! Fucking say something already! Move! Something! Anything! Elle! Elle! Jesus Fucking Christ Elle! Don't be fucking dead! Don't be! Elle! After I finally made a real fucking friend! ELLE!" Shirley started to cry and sob uncontrollably.
It was then that she heard it. This distinct clicking of claws. She knew that sound well. She loved to do it herself.
Shirley slowly turned, her phone clenched in her shaking hands. Then she saw it. That doll that the others thought was so creepy. She hadn't even seen it herself before now but she knew it was what they were talking about at lunch. It's head was cocked to the side and it's face distorted in a smile. Two hands with claws on either side of it's face, clacking together.
"FUCK!" Shirley screamed in horror as her feet hit the ground in an instant run. She ran too fast and slammed right into the wall, not even stopping for an instant as she coughed and ran for the door. She overshot, sliding on the rug and scrambling back.
She stole a look for an instant down the hall back to Elle's room, where he mangled remains lay bent and broken under her bed. It was there, out of her room, that she saw it, crawling on all fours, it's claws out in front of it, tapping as it crawled it's way forward. It craned it's head to the side to look at her and started to scurry down the hall towards her at breakneck speed.
"FUCK!" Shirley pushed off fast towards the apartment door, pushing the rug in a crumple, and grabbing the door knob. At some point her bladder began to release itself and piss was running down her leg and all over the floor.
She ran as fast as she could out of the apartment and tried to dial 911 on her phone as she ran. She slammed through the door to the stairs and down a flight of stairs, and directly into a wall. The wind was knocked out of her.
"911. What's your emergency."
Out of breath, Shirley gasped. "My roommate. Something killed...my roommate. It's after me. It fucking killed her!" She started to break down again but couldn't afford to stop.
"Can you give me your location."
Shirley gave her address as she ran down the stairs, trying not to kill herself along the way and run into any more walls this time.
Finally, she made it out of the building, and looked behind her at the door to the front of the apartments.
Nothing. Nothing was there. The door stood there, like it did every day, slightly shadowed in the dark of night, with a street lamp not that far down the road, and two lights on either side of the door.
She made her way down to stand under the streetlight and wait for the police, not taking her eyes off that door.
* * *
"Can you explain to me once again what happened?"
Shirley sat on the edge of an ambulance, wrapped in a blanket.
"I got home late from a club. When I got inside, I got a drink, then I heard something. When I went to investigate, that's when I saw her, in her room, bent in half."
"And then you saw...the monster puppet?"
"It wasn't a puppet. It was a doll. Or it looked like a doll. I don't know what the fuck it was. It had big fucking claws." She motioned with her own fingernails, carefully painted and sharped to look like claws.
"Right. Claws. A lot like you seem to have. What are those made out of anyway? They seem rather sharp. You know, we found claw marks on the body."
"They're custom made. I know a guy. He makes them out of a mold or something and he glues them on. I don't know. I just thought they were cool. They fit into my persona."
* * *
Another cop exits the front of the building, takes off his hat, and wipes his face. "Jesus fucking Christ! Did you see it in there?"
"Yeah. It's a fucking horror show."
"How the fuck does something like that even happen?"
"I don't fucking know. Maybe she used a winch or something. Did you see her claws?"
"Yeah. They looked sharp. There are claw marks all over the body. She must be into some really fucked up shit. Guess she finally decided to take it out of fantasy and try her hand at murder."
"Can someone that small really kill someone like that? Did you see her? What is she, 5'3"? She's a little waif of a girl. And did you smell her? She pissed herself. Why would she piss herself if she was the one that murdered her?"
"I dunno. Must be some kind of kink shit. Above my pay grade. Maybe she had an accomplice or something."
"Are you even fucking listening to me! I didn't fucking murder my roommate! She was my friend! Do you know how hard it is to make real friends? How the fuck could I do that to anyone, let alone someone that actually fucking accepted me for who I am!?" Shirley screamed from over at the ambulance, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"That's enough. You're coming down to the station. Turn around. And don't you fucking move those claws of yours!" The detective forcefully cuffed her hands, even as Shirley protested and let out sounds of pain.
