I have a student that reads fanfiction and has made the terrible mistake of not reading mine. Like many people, she has a phobia. This one is of long-legged creepy bugs. And thus…this fic was inspired ;)
X xx xx xxx x x
Three left.
Only three.
But they were proving to be the most frustrating humans he'd ever met. Somehow, someone had actually given the newest set of soldiers an accurate description of how he normally sent them into pants-wetting terror. He'd even seen a BULLETIN BOARD with checkmarks beside a surprisingly accurate list of ways he'd passed his time by amusing himself with the troops. And it went back DECADES.
On the plus side, it was stretching his brain, stimulating him, and rather intriguing, trying to invent new ways to horrify. Alex had put the stop on any of his truly effective means. Red eyes staring out of a mirror in a pitch black room? For decades he'd enjoyed that. Now? The screams were not terror but of competition to find that on the list first. There was some sort of point system.
Even so, of the last 24 recruits, sent here for additional training from America, he was at a loss. Twenty-one had succumbed to his charms the first week. Fainting, losing control of bodily functions, panicked screams, and more. He'd retaliated by setting up his own bulletin board in his room, keeping score of how many soldiers had fallen prey to each tactic.
And three were unfazed. They'd taken each assault on their senses and sensibilities with nothing more than a brief startle and a blink. The others? There was a string of gold stars (Alex's contribution) after each name. A few blue stars (Sera's had terrified a few herself) were interspersed among them. And three names that neither of them had managed to tack a star onto.
This would not do. And so…he had to get creative.
X x x x
Two more stars! Well, a dozen more stars, but two of them COUNTED. Two of the last three stalwarts had been left in terror. Not of him, precisely…but right as their vehicle had crested a hill, he'd created a small flash of light. And when all heads came up to look…a stampede of horses had raced from the light and across the road, far too close for the truck to miss and far too solid for it to be a minor accident.
In the dark, the shadows that formed the horses looked surprisingly solid. And he'd given the truck a good solid thump on the side, the sound adding to the illusion to truly terrify them. At 100 kph (55 mph for my fellow Americans), hitting horses would be deadly to the horses and themselves.
Alex had made him pull the truck out of the ditch. It was so worth it. Wide-eyed panicked terror of the entire lot of them had put a grin on his face! Well. Almost the entire lot. One of the Americans had simply grabbed her seat, hunched slightly, and closed her eyes. Impressive, that she'd wisely braced for the impact rather than wasting a single second panicking or flailing like her compatriots.
And so the name "Tedeja D." was the only name on the list without a single star beside it…much less the glowing comet tail of gold that others had accumulated. He'd had to tack on an extra sheet to accommodate the stars of one of the more nervous members.
X x xx xx x x
It was accidental, which took some of the fun out of it…but she'd been terrified.
Snakes, rats, wolves, bats…she hadn't batted an eye at them. In each instance, she'd been one of the handful of holdouts that found it annoying or something that, if real, could be handled by the soldiers.
And then he'd been playing with Seras. She was in wolf form and had fallen asleep while watching a movie on the large he'd quietly covered the carpet in centipedes. As she napped, he'd surrounded her with them, waiting. He planned to nudge her gently awake and then as soon as her eyes opened…over a hundred of his shadows were waiting to pinch her.
He greatly looked forward to seeing her trying to shake them out of her fur. She would be COVERED with them and he had no reservations about cheating to keep them on her. It would irritate and annoy her to no end, and he was grinning out of the shadows as his arthropod army moved into position around his prey.
He had been totally focused on Seras and nearly jumped himself when the door flew open, the light flipped on, and several soldiers burdened with drinks and popcorn bumbled in, laughing and chatting. Each and every one had screamed, popcorn and drinks coated the floor in a sticky mess, one drink bounced off the ceiling…and one soldier was missing.
Halfway down the hall and accelerating.
He'd vanished nearly as fast to add that last gold star.
