Short Stories

Creep (Metallica)

1983

You had grown up with Lars, so it was no surprise to anyone when you both had started dating.

Things were going well, you'd moved in with him and the guys at the beginning of January. You worked at a nearby hotel 5 days a week and you babysat the neighbours kid the other two days.

Today was one of the other two days, the guys had left yesterday for New York and Sammy had been dropped off when they had left.  He stayed overnight while his mom went out of town for work.

It was nearing 11:30pm when Sammy's mother came to pick him up, she'd given you the money and hurried off across the street. It seemed to you like something was wrong, she usually stopped to chat with you but she hadn't said more than a quick thank you.

Things had seemed strange these past few weeks too but you didn't bother mentioning anything to Lars or the others because you assumed you were just tired. You had been working late more often than you usually did.

The mail flag had been up on the mailbox four days in a row and there had been no mail. You heard a knock on the door yesterday when the guys had left and there had been no one there. It had snowed a bit too and there were no footprints so you must've been hearing things.

Now you were getting ready for bed, that familiar ache in your heart was persistent, you longed for Lars to be there with you. Throughout the day it would disappear when you distracted yourself but now you were alone with your thoughts and you didn't want to sleep alone in the double bed if he wasn't there. It was easy to distract yourself last night when you had a child who needed looking after.

The moments in your day where you weren't busy were when your worries caught up to you.

Was there someone spying on the house? Someone looking for one of the guys?

Maybe someone just wanted an autograph and didn't know how to approach the situation.

You relaxed at the thought, it was fine. Everything was fine.

You curled up underneath the covers after changing into one of Lars hoodies, as you leaned over to flick off the lamp a piece of paper on the nightstand caught your eye.

You were exceptionally tidy and never left paper around, it was always on your desk in the corner.

You stared at it for a minute before gently unfolding it, your heart stopped as your eyes flicked over the words on the page.

I love you forever, soon he will be out of the picture and we can be together forever.

It was not Lars handwriting.

You sat motionless in bed for a while trying to figure out what to do.

You knew it was probably the early hours of the morning where Lars was, but calling him might be the best option. The doors and windows were locked and the blinds were closed. Maybe hearing his voice would give you some piece of mind.

You dialled the number and hoped and prayed that he would answer. After ten rings it went to the voicemail. You slammed the phone down and read over the note a few more times.

After ten minutes of anxiety the phone rang, "hey Y/N."

You could hear the grogginess in his voice and felt guilt form a knot in your stomach, "hey Lars."

You fell silent and Lars knew that something was wrong. Usually while he was away you'd call him and tell him how your day was. You'd ask him the same and then you'd pester him about the sights of where he was visiting.

"Baby what's wrong?"

"Um... well.." you weren't sure how to respond, "these past few weeks the mail flag was up and there was no mail, yesterday after you left it snowed and there was no one at the door after I heard a knock. There weren't any foot prints either."

You went on to explain the note and how all the doors and windows were locked.

He was taking it seriously too, you were glad he didn't just assume it was the kids in the neighbourhood playing around or something of the like.

All the other people you'd dated before would've done that, they didn't care enough to help you with things that were bothering you.

"I miss you," you sighed after a few seconds of silence too.

"I miss you too," he said making kissing noises into the microphone, "I got to go now, I love you."

You hated for this phone call to end, you'd be in deafening silence again, "I love you too, bye."

You set the phone back down, the cord tangling around itself, you sighed but didn't bother fixing it. You didn't want to get out of bed now.

You had almost dozed off when a knock sounded on the front door, and you jumped up knowing you were definitely not imagining it this time.