Just Another Creepypasya Fanfiction

4. The First Day

I wake up to the smell of pancakes overtaking the air. I roll out of bed, feeling groggy. After Liu and I left the bunker last night, we decided to finally get some sleep. Unfortunately, I ended up spending more time worrying about hypothetical situations than I did sleeping. It doesn't feel like I got any rest. But I guess that means I get to take a nap later. That'll be nice.
I leave my room with a bundle of clothes and head for the bathroom. I saw last night that the man who had lived here had tastes similar to mine. My favourite kind of soap was already there, which was really great because I was starting to run out. They also left a few, brand-new toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet. It feels amazing to take a shower, and better to get rid of my morning breath. Then I discover some deodorant underneath the sink and life gets even more cool. I hate smelling like garbage. When I'm sure that I look, and smell, a little better than last night, I grab my clothes. I put on an old band tee and my standard black pants.
When I walk out of the bathroom, I immediately hear Alisper laughing. She's alive, that's great. I walk to the front of the house and find her sitting on one of the bar-stools. She's talking with Ben on the other side of the kitchen bar. I sit next to her silently and listen to their conversation about dreams. It's nice to see how they interact. It feels like he's already growing attached to her, with the way that he playfully teases her from time to time. It's nice to see. It's also nice to see him cooking for once.
"Jeff! Good morning!" Ben shouts enthusiastically, "Do you want some breakfast? We have all of the important foods; eggs, bacon, and pancakes."
"I could eat."
He does finger guns at me, then pulls a plate out of one of the cabinets. While he's piling it up, I turn to Alisper and ask her how she's doing. She tells me that she's doing alright, then describes the dream she had last night. I'm thrilled to hear that it was about unicorns and rainbow boats rather than anything traumatising. She really does seem happy. Actually, she's so happy that most of her words blur together in a way that makes it impossible to understand what she's saying. All I can do is smile and share amused glances with Ben. She certainly has a very active imagination.
When she's finally done speaking, I tell her about how amazing her dream was. She nods and starts eating the plate of food Ben placed in front of her. "Where are the others?" I ask him.
He hands me my food as he answers, "Clockwork went home, maybe hunting. Definitely hunting, but I'm not sure if she's going to come back when she's done with that, you know? And Liu and Smile are out scouting the woods."
My paranoia from last night starts creeping back up on me, "How come? I thought everything was good."
"Just to be safe. That's what Liu told me. They should be back soon."
I relax, "Okay, thanks," He gets a third plate ready for himself, "When are you thinking of heading back home?"
He straightens up, just as anxious as I just was, "I haven't given it a lot of thought yet. Why?"
"I was just wondering."
"Do you want me to get out of here?"
"No, no, you're fine. I'm happy to be able to hang out with you a little bit before you do go. I was only curious that way I could keep that in mind in case we decide to do anything today."
"Oh, cool," He smiles, "I'll probably hang around for a few hours then. Get to know my niece a little better."
I raise an eyebrow at him, "Niece?"
"Sorry, sorry. I meant god-niece."
I chuckle. I tell him that either way is alright. Alisper listens to us talk, looking a little confused. I wouldn't doubt that she's lost here. I think everyone would be. She just left her actual family last night and now she's living somewhere completely new with totally different people. This has to be a shock. She might not even know why she's here or realise that this is her permanent home now. She seems okay right now, but is she? I'm worried about what could be going through her mind, and what's going to go through it when all of this finally clicks. It occurs to me that I didn't think through enough. Am I a father now? Would she be okay with that?
"You alright?" Ben asks, pulling me back.
"Yeah," I answer, "Just thinking."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
I shake my head, "Not right now," I glance at Alisper.
He gets the hint and instantly changes the subject. He asks Alisper about her interests, specifically what she likes to read, watch, or play. She tells us that she doesn't really get to do a lot, so she mostly just plays with Peppermint. It's pretty sad listening to it and how that's the only toy she's ever really had. After a little bit, she mentions something called Sailor Moon. I'm not sure what it is, but I know I've heard it before. She tells us that she found a book in the park once and it looked really cool. Even though she only got to experience one book, and even though she says she couldn't really read it, it's clear that she liked it a lot. She'd probably like a copy she can keep. I'll have to find it for her.
When we're all done eating, I take it upon myself to do the dishes. Ben offers to do it, but I refuse. I figure that it would make sense for me to clean up since he took the time to cook. He rebuttals that my logic doesn't make sense and explains that the person who makes the mess should fix the mess themselves. We argue for a while over which opinion makes the most sense before getting cut off by the door opening. Liu and Smile walk in, giving us the good news that the surrounding area looks good. Before I can thank them, Liu crouches down and shakes Alisper's hand. They properly introduce themselves to one another, then he introduces Smile to her. I appreciate their attempts to make sure she feels at home here. It means a lot to us both.
"Hey, how about you two take Alisper outside to play?" Ben suggests politely, "It's a pretty nice day and I'm sure the fresh air would be good for her."
Liu gives him a confused look but agrees. It would probably make more sense to him if I were the one to say it. Alisper clearly loves the idea and runs to put her shoes on. He talks to her about what they should play as they're walking out the door together. Ben and I move from the kitchen into the living room. Once we're sitting, he looks at me expectantly. I stare at him, not talking. I have a lot going through my head, but nothing that I can think to clearly say. We listen to the clock tick together. It almost feels like a game of conversation chicken. He's waiting for me, I'm hoping that he'll start, it's very awkward. But, in the silence, I can hear Alisper having fun outside. I'm glad that she isn't feeling uncomfortable here.
Eventually, I sigh. "I'm worried about her, about this. I have such limited experience with children already, let alone one that's gone through what she has. At least with Sally, Slenderman was taking the most care of her. Now I have to take on that role and I don't know how to handle that. She's old enough to know that I'm not her father. What if she doesn't listen to anything I say because of that and gets hurt? What if she wants to go back home? What if she realises what happened and breaks? How would I handle that? How would I get her the help she would need? And what about school and medical care and all of that shit? I don't know how any of this works or what I'm supposed to do or if I'm going to have to answer any questions about me not being on her birth certificate. I'm freaking out. I've been planning this for weeks, but I never considered this stuff. I thought it would be a 'when I get to it' thing. It's not. I'm stressed out. I want a new plan. This was not thought out. I don't regret it, but - fuck, dude - I'm panicked."
He listens patiently as I ramble through all the things I have to worry about. When I finish, he calmly tells me to relax, "Most of that can be dealt with when or if it comes up. When I get back home, I can talk to E.J. and see if he's okay with doing a check-up on her. If so, awesome. If not, we'll look into other options. It's not that hard to recreate a birth certificate, so I can do that for you, no problem. I'll just switch out the father's name for yours, or fake adoption papers for you. Either way, it'll work."
"What if she asks about them?"
He pauses to think about it, then shrugs his shoulders, "Just tell her the truth, I guess. Not the whole thing, but say that she isn't able to see them anymore and you'll explain it better when she's older."
I thank him for the advice. I'm still anxious, but I do feel a little better. I ask him for his opinion on schooling her. He doesn't really give me a direct answer. We end up sharing our school horror stories - the failing, the belittling, the bullying, the stress. But then he starts talking about the friends he had and, yeah, I guess that I had some classes I loved. While some weren't so great, other teachers were amazing, my friends were great and the food wasn't always bad. The more we talk about it, the more we remember. Soon, we're making the connection that school was really cool until middle school when everyone turned into full-time bullies. He makes the suggestion that I enroll her just for the elementary years. His reasoning for it is so that she can get the chance to make some friends and experience a little bit of what the real world is like. And if she hates it, I can just pull her back out.
"It's not a bad idea," I say when he's done explaining his thought, "But what about school shootings? They seem to happen the most in elementary schools."
"We're Creepypastas. We'll kill the threats."
"Violent bullies?"
"We'll kill the threats."
"Kidnappers?"
He gives me a questionable look, "Dude, what part of 'Creepypasta' is suddenly confusing to you?"
"It's a reasonable concern," I say, "But, yes, I get your point. Most things we can handle before it becomes too dangerous. It would also give me some more time to get used to this parenting thing."
"Exactly."
"It wouldn't be too late to enroll her, would it?"
"I doubt it would be. Some parents enroll their kids in the last month. I'm sure two months into the year will be fine."
We agree that it'd be a good idea, as long as Alisper is okay with it. I need to remember to talk to her about it. I can't make decisions about her life without her opinions or consent. Well, I guess technically I could, but I'm not an asshole like that. Ben and I move on to lighter conversations after that. Nothing important, nothing life-changing, just a bunch of jokes and funny stories. We'll talk about the serious stuff again another time.
Alisper and the guys come in after thirty minutes. Liu gets her a bottle of water from the fridge, which she immediately chugs. After she throws the empty bottle into the trash, she runs up to Ben and I. She talks excitedly about how they played tag, then went to check out the lake. She tells me that Liu promised to teach her how to fish and asks us if we want to join them. I see Ben make a face at the idea, but he says yes anyway. She gets really happy, jumping around gleefully. She asks me if we can go camping sometime too. I agree and she asks everyone else if they want to go camping. Liu and Smile like the idea, but Ben can't lie. He starts going on and on about how we'll never see him again if we try to make him sleep with worms. She laughs at him and calls him a baby. He sticks his tongue out at her playfully, then sarcastically apologises for liking his normal bed. The conversation doesn't last long after that.
About an hour later, the guys decide it's time to go. Pleasantries are exchanged and we all agree to hang out again soon. I realise how loud they are when I close the door and the house falls completely silent. The sound of the door shutting echoes through the main areas of the house. It feels kind of eerie now. To break the quiet, I turn on the television. There's a cooking show on. Even though I'd rather watch something funny or kind of thrilling, I decide to keep it on. I need to learn how to make proper meals now, and that means paying attention to things that can teach me.
Alisper comes up and sits next to me on the couch. I ask her if she'd rather watch something else, but she says no. I glance over at her from time to time throughout the show. Quickly, I discover that she's actually enjoying it. When I was a kid, I would have hated this. But perhaps it's easier to be entertained when you've never had the chance before. Knowing that she doesn't despise it relaxes me. I worry a lot about whether or not she's happy.
When the program ends, I decide to come up with something more fun to do. I ask her if she likes playing board games. She seems confused, so I open up the door to the entertainment center. I pull out all of the games the previous owners had; Candyland, The Game of Life, Chutes and Ladders; even chess and a couple of decks of cards. I place the stack on the coffee table. I gesture to let her know she's allowed to look at them. She gently lifts all of the boxes off of one another and looks at them closely. I patiently wait while she decides on one.
She ends up picking Candyland. I open the box, set everything up, and do my best to explain all of the rules to her. When it seems like she understands, we start to play. It takes a little bit for her to catch on, but once she does, we have a great time. We end up playing all of the games that we can find. I win some and she wins some. It isn't up until we get to chess that the win-to-lose ratio is significantly off. It turns out that she's really good at it. We play a few rounds together before I finally decide to give up. She celebrates her unmatched victory and I congratulate her. Of all the games, I thought for sure that'd be the one we'd tie the most on. She completely proved me wrong. She's a little champion in the making.
"I have a question for you," I say to her as we're putting the games away.
"Yeah?" She responds.
"What do you think of going to an actual school? In a real classroom with kids your age and a teacher?"
She doesn't answer immediately. Rather, she stops to think about it. She continues to pack up the games with me, but she does so quietly. I wait patiently, making sure that I don't do anything that could accidentally make her feel pressured to answer faster. For a child, this is a big decision. I don't want her to blurt something out because I made her feel like she has to immediately, then regret it. That would be stressful and unfair for both of us. I already know that.
"I guess that it sounds cool," She finally answers. She sounds uncertain.
"Are you sure? If you'd rather learn at home like you always have, that's fine too. It's just an option available to you. It's your decision, and yours only," I feel like I sound pushy and quickly add, "You don't even have to decide now if you don't want to."
She thinks a little bit more, then looks at me, "I want to think about it. I'm not sure."
I nod my head and smile at her to let her know I meant what I said, "Okay, that's fine. You go ahead and let me know after you've figured out what you want to do, okay? There's no rush," She smiles in response, seemingly appreciative, "What do you want to do now?" I ask her, moving the conversation along.
"I just want to be alone for a few minutes," She says.
I'm surprised by the straightforwardness, but I don't try to change her mind, "Not a problem. Let me know if there's something you want to do later and we'll see if we can," She nods and turns to go down the hallway, "Are you feeling okay?" I ask, worried, before she can disappear into her room.
"Yeah. I just want to be alone."
I tell her that I'm here if she wants to talk, then let her leave. I'm worried that something might be wrong, but I'm not about to force her to talk or spend time with me. We all need alone time every once in a while. The same should apply to kids to, right? I feel like it would. I really need to do some research on kids and parenting soon. I don't know a damn thing. But she hasn't run away or cowered in fear of me yet. So far, that's good. And as long as that continues to not happen, everything should be great. Still, I should probably figure out how to do this properly so I don't totally mess her up. Dead parents will definitely get to you, but at least there's a chance of normal in her current state.
I get on my phone and start searching for parenting books. The first few options are about pregnancy, so I filter those ones out. Then the ones that show at the top of the list are about physical discipline. After filtering those out, the top ones are about raising children through religion. I sigh, realising that it's going to take a while for me to find some parenting books that are just about what kids are like. Maybe I should be checking the psychology categories instead. I edit my settings and start to see the results that I want. I put a few that sound good into an online shopping cart, then pay for them with a gift card I found. A month seems like a long time to wait, but that's better than winging it and hoping I don't totally screw her up. Well, on my own. Screwing her up without any preparation or advice sounds worse to me than screwing up after researching the topic. I wonder if Ben would agree?
After I finish my online shopping, I decide to watch some more TV. Because of Halloween coming up, I'm able to come across a horror movie marathon. I watch Jeepers Creepers alone until Alisper comes out of her room. She asks if she's allowed to watch with me. I hesitate and consider telling her 'no', but then think that maybe she needs to make that decision herself. I tell her that it's a scary movie, then explain that I can shut it off if it gets to be too much for her. She says she understands as she sits down next to me. She flinches a few times throughout the film, but she never seems scared. Just grossed out.
'Hopefully, E.J. can give her a mental evaluation as well,' I think, feeling somewhat amused. I guess that it's a good thing the kid likes horror movies. Being around us will be easier to deal with if she doesn't fear the monsters. I hope.