AFFRIGHT↷ a creepypasta male reader-insert. ☆

001

It's windy out.

The air is harsh, and unforgiving on your skin.

You blink, three times, before an understanding grows within the confines of your mind.

You're dreaming.

Maybe.

The wind blows against your face, and you stand there, staring up at the clouds gently drifting past in the dimming sky. It was a splash of oranges and reds, lots of vibrant, warm colors.

..You couldn't recall how you got here, no matter how hard you tried. Nothing comes up. It's all blank.

And the longer you thought about it, your head pulsed painfully, like an incoming migraine.. Is that possible in dreams?

Maybe it's normal, and you're just crazy.

You lifted your hands up to your eyes, and saw that they were coated with dried blood, pieces of it flaking off when you flexed the muscles on your palms; the metallic odor radiating from them irritated your nose. When you inhaled and exhaled, a sharp pain in your ribs followed, prompting you to grasp at your chest. Your body was aching all over, knees close to buckling, and your eyelids were heavy.

The pain felt so real.

You looked around your surroundings, searching for a clue, to find an explanation for this- when you spot something in the corner of your eye, movement in the large bushes.

You hesitated for a moment before approaching the group of leaves and branches, anxiety swelling inside of you as you neared. You came to a halt right in front of it, and thought of clearing away the overgrown weeds with the back of your hand.

But you're afraid.

Why are you afraid? Why are your limbs so tense? Why do you feel like something bad is happening?

You're shaking.

This is a strange dream.

You push yourself, forcing your hand to come up, and clear the weeds.

It's completely quiet now, even inside these woods. You can smell something.

Something is rotting.

A voice pipes up from behind you. "Keep it safe, won't you?" You whip your head around and—

———

You jolted up from your seat, your heart was pounding in your ears, sweat dripping from your forehead. Something is wrong. Something is deeply wrong. You looked around in a panic, looking for something- someone? Who are you looking for? Huh... what *were* you looking for..?

That old lady is looking at you, and so is that little kid, and that mother, and that businessman, and that group of teenagers.

Everyone in the train is staring at you, their eyes are piercing through your very being. You could almost hear what they're thinking right now, you must look insane.

What were you so scared for?

Sit down.

"S-Sorry," you quickly sat back down and crumpled into your seat, a warmth spreading across your face while you desperately begged the man upstairs to just strike you down already in this moment.

Fidgeting with the hem of your shirt, you try to ignore the lingering stares directed at you by some of the other passengers on the train, hoping they find something else to gawk at. You dig your hands into your bag, looking for your phone as a way to distract yourself from the embarrassment, and while you do find your phone, you find a foreign item inside your bag.

An old and somewhat rusted pocket watch, one that seemed most particularly out of place. Not to mention, the color... you've never seen a pocket watch with this odd looking material. It was gorgeous— that much was obvious —but although it was gorgeous, it was completely foreign to you. It wasn't gold, or silver, or anything like the usual coating of a pocket watch; it was a dark blue... with green, cyan, and some purples too. It shined beautifully in the light, and it looked out of this world. Just... gorgeous.

You definitely don't own anything extravagant like this. Much less *afford* something like this... how did it find its way into your bag?

You fiddle with the watch for a moment, taking great care not to scratch it or break in some way, it looks expensive so it must be expensive. You can't afford to repair something like this right now, so it'd be pretty.. disastrous if you damaged it in some way. The owner might get pissed if they find their watch in that state, and demand you pay them back or whatever...

Speaking of ownership.

Who owns this little thing?

You glance at the people sitting beside you, but they don't seem to be all that concerned about the watch in your hand, in-fact, they're not even paying any attention to you. They're too busy being glued to their own personal devices, the businessman in particular seems to be pretty busy calling someone. He's loud, and ignorant to all the other people around him.

..Definitely not them, you would assume the owner of the watch would be looking for it in some panic at the very least... if they lost it. It's highly unlikely that they just gave it to some stranger on the subway, when they could have sold it for a high price on the internet, or some fancy store. It looked like a vintage item, might go for a hundred bucks, maybe more. But, who knows, maybe they're some gazillionaire who just loves to play around with the common folk like it's their favorite pastime.

No one in this train looks... uh, well-off enough to have just given it away like this, no offense to anyone on the train, so that theory couldn't be true.

But maybe you don't need to return it, as selfish as that sounds.

Maybe...

Maybe you... did have something like this? And just forgot?

Yes.

That's it, you've always had this.

This watch has always been here, this is normal.

Your head is throbbing, but that's okay.

Since you have now decided that this is a very normal situation, and that you just forgot that you have always had this watch, you could feel your consciousness slipping between your fingers, as much as you try to fight it, you're tired. Very tired.

You will sleep.

And sleep, you will.