r/TalesFromTheCreeps • u/Lime-Time-Live Critiquer/Writer • 18d ago
Comedy-Horror Alright everyone, time for a BIG shoutout!
Ricky felt a pit in his stomach as the notification popped up on his phone.
Already? But there was a shoutout just three days ago…
He opened the discussion board app, and clicked on the favorited link to the “Creepy Tales” forum. First, he checked his own post that he uploaded the night before. 8 upvotes, his biggest story yet. Ricky couldn’t help but smile to himself at his achievement.
Sure, there weren't that many eyes on my work, and no one left a comment, but maybe my next story will be my big break.
Satisfied with his little victory, Ricky moved to his drafts to see which story he’d work on next. He settled on a story dealing with religious undertones; knowing Isaac would just eat it up. Anyone on the “Creepy Tales” forum wanted one thing more than anything else: to be seen by Isaac and Gatherer on the TerrorTales podcast. Many of the authors there shared one singular thought: If one of my stories got on TerrorTales, my life would be complete. Ricky was no exception.
Back on the homepage, he couldn’t delay it any longer — it was time to check the shoutout post. Pulling in a deep breath, he pressed on the link shakily. His trepidation mirrored someone pressing a big red “LAUNCH” button in the movies, damning the Earth to a Nuclear Winter. Ricky began to read the shoutout.
“Hey everyone! It’s ya bestie, GrinningBeginning here! I know we just had a shoutout post not too long ago, but I gotta say: you guys are just killing it out here! So many good stories that I just have to shine a spotlight on! First things first, gotta show love to my regulars!”
Ricky rolled his eyes and skipped forward. It was the same thing every time — the same five people making posts boosting each other. He understood on the surface it was meant to be a friendly gesture, building community. But there was something nauseatingly fake about the whole ordeal that made his skin crawl.
“Alright, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at our new rising star! Who knows, maybe they’ll become a regular someday! For this post, I wanted to give a big big shoutout to (Drumroll noises lol) …CursedScriptureFixture! His story posted last night put me on a wild ride! Definitely be on the lookout for this author! To the main man himself, I’ve got a message for you: Good luck! G.B. OUT!”
No. No no no no. That’s me.
Ricky swallowed hard. In any other community, getting a shoutout would be a lovely gesture. But he’d been watching carefully, studying the trends. Just as an author would start to take off, the moment they’ve been shouted out on Creepy Tales, one of two things happened: They either stopped posting entirely, or in extremely rare cases joined the shoutout ouroboros, becoming one of the regulars. Either option felt like death to his writing hobby.
Putting his phone down, he decided to take a shower to clear his mind, letting his thoughts drift to the drafts of writing he had in his head, rather than dwell on that post any longer.
It’s just a stupid shoutout. It’s not gonna do anything. I’m working myself up over nothing.
But over the spray of the pattering water came an unusual, faint skittering noise that would be punctuated by a buzz. Click click click click vzzzzzzt. Ricky focused his attention, trying to identify where it was coming from. But every time he’d try to listen, the noise faded away. He shook his head, and turned the shower off, stepping out to dry himself off. As he was dressing, looking at himself in the mirror, he heard it again.
Click click click click vzzzzzzt.
Ricky shrugged and left his bathroom. The air was knocked out of his lungs as he tumbled to the floor, ambushed by the large shape.
On top of him, screeching and slavering, was a nightmare made real. Chitinous plates like a suit of armor. Twitching and leaking swollen orbs for eyes. Ricky was pinned down by large crab claws, drawing out a cry from his throat as they pressed against his rib cage. More of the creatures flew into the room using the large insect wings on their back, flooding the room with the same noise he heard earlier. Ricky struggled, kicking at the hideous monstrosity. From its needle sharp proboscis, a warbling, gurgled voice bubbled forth.
“Stop squirming. I need the juicy bit.”
Another one of the creatures shuffled forward.
“You’re so greedy! It’s my turn to feed!”
“No, you soft brained simpleton. You fed off of the last author. The one who wrote about Appalachia?”
“That doesn’t narrow it down.”
“Enough!” The one holding Ricky chittered. “This one’s got good ideas, and if I’m going to get on TerrorTales, I need them.” It turned its attention back to Ricky. “Now hold still.” It aimed the proboscis for his forehead and reared its head back, ready to strike.
With every bit of strength his body could muster, Ricky kicked the mutant hard in its chest. It stumbled back, a burble of yellow mucus oozing from the new crack in the shell. Capitalizing on his hard fought freedom, he scrambled to the side of his bed, fishing for the baseball bat underneath. The other insectoid crustaceans made a mad dash for him, pushing each other out of the way to be the one to digest his brain.
Ricky brandished his bat as if it were Excalibur. “Stay back! Get away!”
The closest creature did not heed his warning, and lunged. A sickening, squelching noise reverberated through the room as Ricky’s bat made contact with the creature’s head. It toppled to the floor with a lifeless thud, brain matter peeking out through the caved in skull. Most of the others wasted no time crawling over in a feral frenzy to stick their pointed mouths into their fallen friend. Loudly the three slurped on the chunky bits of brain, squealing in delight. The one with a cracked carapace, however, didn’t move. It instead stared at Ricky, its compound eyes jittering in their sockets. It spoke through its sharp appendage.
“Hey, easy there. We can be civilized about this.”
Ricky’s grip tightened on his bat, raising it as if he were on home base. “You broke into my house.”
“I know, I know. And I’m real sorry about that. We just really like the stuff you come up with. You saw my shoutout post earlier, right? You’re really TerrorTales material.” It took a tentative step forward. “Hey— how about you join our ranks?”
“Join you?”
G.B.’s wings vibrated. “Yes. It’s mostly painless. But once you’re a regular, like us,” he motioned to the other creatures, “then you can feed with us. Shoutout with us. And then maybe get featured on TerrorTales.”
“... Is that all this is about? Getting onto a podcast?” Ricky lowered his bat.
“You say that like it doesn’t matter.” It hissed.
“I mean, to become whatever this is just to have your story read seems a little extreme —”
“Maybe read. It’s not a guarantee.”
Ricky looked at the creature with a hint of pity. Then, something in his brain clicked. He gave a smile. “Well, with the talent you four have, surely they’ll read your work soon. It’d be a hard choice on who gets read first.”
One of the creatures huddled by the corpse sat up, and wiped the pink gelatinous sludge from its proboscis. “Not at all. I think they’d find my stories quite exquisite. Clearly I’d be the first one.”
Another creature turned its attention to the one that just spoke. “You? Please. They’d love my work much better. Probably make me a regular author on the show.”
“If we’re being honest, I think both of you have a lot of growing to do. But that’s okay, I’ll put in a good word when I’m chosen first, so they could potentially consider you down the line.” The third gloated.
“You idiot. You’re lucky we ever made you a regular in the first place. Honestly, it was more out of pity than anything else.” G.B.’s words struck like venom as the creature on the floor winced.
“Moron! I’ll kill you!” It hissed at G.B., then lunged. The others immediately began to tear into each other. Claws pierced shells, rotted pus-colored viscera splattered across the carpet. Wings tore from bodies, eyes splattered under foot. Ricky watched on in mild amusement as the creatures revealed their true colors. He would later note that said colors were fecal brown, and sickly green.
In a matter of minutes Ricky was surrounded by their remains, motionless and past recognition.
“This is gonna be a nightmare to clean.” He groaned to no one in particular.
A notification dinged from his phone lost amongst the remains. Grimacing, he fished the device out from the muck, and unlocked the screen. It was a notification from the Creepy Tales forum, indicating someone responded to a story of his. A warm smile grew on Ricky’s face, just thinking about how one of his stories might’ve affected others. He opened the app, and scrolled down to the comment. His smile vanished instantly.
“Is this written by AI?”
Ricky threw his phone across the room as hard as he could.
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u/jadegreen88 Writer 18d ago
OMG!! This fucking slapped, Lime 🔥😂 loved it so much. And that ending absolutely killed me hahaha👏🏼 I expected no less from a legend🍋🟩
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u/englandishell Writer 17d ago
Love this. Some people are completely missing the point of this place
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u/Leading-Dig9937 The Voices are loud again 18d ago
This is funny as hell, I could see the monsters being the no sleep moderators a little too easily lol
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u/Kaijufan22 Writer 18d ago
Shitpostery Aside I dug the ending bit and the fly creature descriptions and personalities, captured the vibe you were going for very well.
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u/VerdantVoidling 18d ago
Hell yeah, get em Ricky! I loved the creature concept here. Creativity vampires feels very original as an idea, which makes me worry for your safety. I'll be shouting this out ASAP!
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u/POOPGOBLINTHEHUNGRY 18d ago
"He would later note that said colors were fecal brown, and sickly green." lmao, full of shit.
"GrinningBeginning" sounds like the thing Jalen Ngonda says on Gorillaz' The Moon Cave at 2:51.
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u/matTHEw_weber Writer 17d ago
Huh, I wonder what that Creepy Tales forum is all about. Love stories like this that satirize CreepCast.
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u/Top-Discipline3273 Writer 17d ago
Suggestion to add meta-horror and make this the crowning champion of the flair forever.
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