CREEP

1 ~Monster~

It was raining earlier that night.

Leo West was there too long that the rain had even stopped while he waited.

He tapped his feet nervously under the table.

He was afraid that Julia would not show up at the restaurant. He had tried calling her but she did not receive any of his calls. Had tried to text her but did not get a text back.

There is nothing that frightened him more than rejection. He would go to the extreme just to avoid the shame that came with rejection…

This was their second date and he was afraid she didn't want anything to do with him anymore so she chose to turn him down.

"Anything else I can bring you, Sir?"

The attractive waitress in a flary, short, black skirt asked with a sweet smile. It was the third time she had come to inquire and it pissed him off. The first two times he had asked for coffee.

It felt like she was laughing straight to his face. Like the whole restaurant was laughing at him.

Fidgeting his hands under the table, he plastered a smile and said,

"No, Thanks… I am leaving…"

There was really no reason to stay any longer. It had been sixty minutes of him waiting and trying to reach her. Sixty minutes of him sipping two cups of coffee slowly, staring at the entrance door and praying for a miracle. Sixty minutes of him tapping his feet under the table and glancing around nervously.

And now, he was tired.

Tired of the sympathetic looks from the customers. Tired of the pathetic pity on the waitress' face every time she brought another cup of coffee.

"Sorry…" she said softly.

And maybe the waitress was really sorry but Leo took that as mockery. He thought she was internally laughing at him for his date turning him down.

He ignored her and grabbed his black tux.

He walked past the customers nervously, feeling hundreds of eyes glued on him. Everyone secretly scorning him.

It was such a huge relief when he finally got to the parking lot.

He took in a deep breathe, leaning on his car.

Atleast he could breathe now. It's like he couldn't inhale the air while he was in there. Like the restaurant had somehow sapped all of the air and he felt suffocated.

A cute couple sailed past him, laughing heartily. A heavy feel of bitterness mixed with jealousy surged through him just staring at them.

How happy they were. How touchy they were. How loud they were. How close they were. How inlove they were.

That should have been he and Julia tonight…

But she chose not to show up!

He glanced away and stormed into the car.

Angrily, he started the engine and drove away.

*******

"Poor boy…"

Vanessa ran her hands gently on his back, giggling, as Leo leaned on the kitchen counter in frustration.

She went on. "It's sad that absolutely no girl wants to be with you-"

"Shut the f**k up!" he snorted, spinning around to glower at her. "That is not true!"

"Oh please!" she rolled her eyes. "You and I both know that it's true! That the truth is, you never seem to found love… And when you are this close to finding love… The girls just… POOFFFF!!!"

He stood still and stared at her in silence for a moment.

Then he scoffed bitterly,

"What do you know? You are not even real…"

She burst out a loud, sardonic laugh.

"What do I know? Oh baby! I know a lot about you! I know what you do to those poor women. You lure them in with your sweetness and then in a snap of a finger, you crush them and make them vanish! Poof!!!"

"That's not true! Shut up!!!"

He turned away from her and poured some whiskey into a glass. He took a gulp and shut his eyes, hoping she would disappear.

But she was still there…

"You know it's true," she whispered, standing so close to him. "We both know it's true…"

"No it's not!"

"Then, what happened to the three women you dated after me? Explain how they just vanished!"

"You are not real!" he screamed. "Shut the f**k up and leave me alone!"

"Leave you alone? Do you really want to be left alone? We know how scared you are of being alone! All those ghosts that keep talking in your head… They creep on you when you are alone… Reminding you who you really are. A monster."

He took another gulp of the drink, blocking his ears but he could still hear her voice in his head.

" Maybe that's why Julia didn't show up tonight…. She found out who you really are. A f*****g monster!!! "

Her evil laugh inside his head was disturbing.

There was no way he could run from her.

She was always in his head…

Even the liquor was not enough to get rid of her.

Even after a whole year of Vanessa being gone, she still lived in his head. And maybe his heart too…

"A monster!" she kept singing in his head.

"SHUT THE f**k UP!!!"

He completely lost it and smashed the glass on the wall, the shattered pieces raining down on the marble floor.

Vanessa was gone in a flash…

Silence…

He had started to get a little tipsy but that instance sobered him up. He cleaned up the messed up floor and picked up the broken pieces of glass.

When he was done cleaning up, his phone suddenly blew up.

Julia.

His heart leaped in a rush of excitement.

But then he was still mad and mortified that she did not show up for the date that night. So he was kind of skeptical whether to receive the call or to put her through the torture she had put him through…

To make her feel as frustrated as he had…

But his exuberance gave in and he picked up the call finally.

"Hey…"

"I'm outside your house."

"What!"

She repeated with a giggle.

"I am outside your house."

*******

Julia was beautiful.

Yes, she had beautiful, big, brown eyes and this curly, wild, brunette hair that she let down all the time. She had a lot of freckles on her face that made her look ten times more attractive. To add on top of all that, she was not as skinny as most of the girls he had dated. She was a bit curvier with perky breasts that showed through her pink crop top and wide hips that drew perfectly through her blue, ripped jeans.

And even though she had all these amazing external features, it was her inner beauty that impressed him ever since that first date.

How graceful and forgiving she had been to the waitress, who had poured red wine on her white dress on the first date. How he enjoyed just watching her laugh; She had this care-free, loud laughter that was rhythm to his ears.

And now that they were both sitting on the floor beside the fire, he enjoyed watching her laugh as he narrated how embarrassed he had been earlier at the restaurant. He was no longer mad at her.

"What happened though?" Leo asked softly. "Why didn't you show up?"

She poured herself some more wine and gulped.

"So you won't believe what happened…"

He sipped. "Make me believe…"

She cleared her throat and started.

"I dressed up early and left my house for the date. Just when I got into my car, I realized I had left my phone so I had to go back to get it. Before I even got to my house, I heard my neighbour screaming out for help. I've never talked to the woman but ofcourse I had to go check up on her. Can you guess why she was screaming? "

" Why? "

" She was in labor! " Julia exclaimed. " The woman was in f*****g labor, can you believe it! I've never seen anyone in labor and I didn't know how to handle that s**t! Dude, I was freaking out! I called her husband but the piece of s**t was not picking up so guess who had to step in his shoes? Me! I had to be her f*****g husband! "

Leo couldn't help but laugh.

" You are laughing now but trust me, that s**t was not funny at all! Wanted to call an ambulance but I figured it would take hours. So I walked her out of the house and rushed her to hospital. She was screaming and cussing the entire time. About an hour after we got there, she delivered a bouncy baby girl. She called her, Julia, after me… "

" Maybe turning me down was not so bad after all… " he chuckled. " Atleast you got someone named after you… "

" Plus, I got to be someone's husband, " she added, laughing.

He stared at her in awe and said,

" Our second date couldn't be more perfect…"

" I know, right? More perfect than our first one."

To Leo, it was more perfect than any date he had ever been on. It was simple, easy, fun. And she made it even more magical with her raw humor.

"So…." she giggled. "I want us to play a game…"

He noticed that she was tipsy and starting to get a little more seductive with the way she was looking at him.

He rubbed his hands in glee. "Sounds interesting…"

She bit her lower lip. "The game is not that interesting though. I just have a goal I want to accomplish tonight through the game…"

"Share the game!"

"You'll ask me a question you've been dying to ask me and I'll answer. Simple."

Not as interesting as he thought the game would be but he nodded,

"I'm in!"

"So, who will start?" she asked.

"Ladies first…"

She did not hesitate to go straight to the question.

"Would you kiss me now?"

His heart leaped. Completely surprised.

"Would you want me to kiss you now?"

She nodded vibrantly.

Being a hopeless romantic, this is not how Leo had thought their first kiss would be. He had thought some magic would pull them closer together and their mouths would find their way to each other without either of them having to ask. He loved it when things like this just flowed…

But to his surprise, the kiss was passionate. Fierce. Mind-blowing.

The kind of kiss he had read in those cheesy romance novels. The kind of kiss that made you breathless and hungry for more. The kind of kiss that made you tear apart clothes because they blocked your way to taste more skin.

The taste of her tongue in his mouth lit up a fire inside him. A fire of thirst. To quench it, he carried her to his bedroom and tossed her on the bed.

He stripped her naked and made love to her.

When they finally climaxed together after the steamy, passionate, love-making, they clung on to each other on the bed.

Julia quickly drifted to sleep in his arms and he couldn't help but stare at her as he softly ran his fingers through her silky hair.

Vanessa stood in the darkness, smirking at him.

"You have done it again..."

And she was right…

He had fallen inlove. Again….

*******

Julia woke up in the middle of the night.

She was starving.

Starving for food. She just wanted to eat. Her stomach was grumbling. The intense action a couple of hours ago had drained all the energy.

She glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was 3.00am.

"Babe" she called Leo. "Babe please wake up! I want us to cook some food! I'm starving! I know you're starving too! Please wake up!"

But he did not.

He just let out a groan of exasperation and turned on the other side of the bed.

"I hate you!" She grumbled, crawling out of the bed.

She shambled out of the bedroom in Leo's huge, white t-shirt, stretching and yawning.

The livingroom was too dark and cold as she headed to the kitchen, through the darkness.

But something stopped her…

A strange silhouette…

The shape of a man, sitting still on the couch, his head bowed down.

Her stomach lurched.

She froze in fright.

*********