Creepypasta Stories

I Grew Up

By: Samantha Miyake

My father died from pulmonary hypertension when I was only four years old. I still remember the night he had the heart-attack, watching from the third-floor window of my great-grandmother's bedroom as he was wheeled on a stretcher across the driveway. Hell, I still remember the bare and twisted trees in the front yard, their shadows creeping like eerie tendrils across the lawn.

This has little to do with the story I am about to tell, but it illustrates a point to all those who have questioned my validity in the past. My memories of early childhood have always been very clear, especially during that time of loss in my life. This is not something I imagined. This is not a memory that is vague to me. If I can remember that fateful night, I am sure that I am remembering this perfectly.

The real story started in the middle of October, not long before I lost my father. Halloween was my favorite day of the year and the entire month leading up to it was always a time of excitement. There would be nights where I would lay awake in bed, thrilled by the thought of dressing up as a cat for the third year in a row and what have you. One night in particular, after my mom stuck her head in our room and scolded me for still being up, I forced myself to close my eyes and attempted to drift off.

I was almost there, just on the edge of sleep when I heard the door slowly creak ajar. Being a clever kid, I thought it was my mom and kept my eyes closed while feigning cartoon snores that, in reality, she totally would not buy. It was my assumption that my mom would eventually leave, satisfied that I had finally nodded off.

But instead, the door creaked even wider and heavy footfalls began to trot into the bedroom.

Eventually, I dared to peek with one eye open to see what was going on. What I saw was not my mom at all, but a monster.

He was by no means scary. In fact, he was kind of cute. Covered entirely in thick orange fur, he towered over my bed with a wide grin of pointed teeth. Two gnarled ram horns sat on either side of his head and due to his size, they almost scraped against the ceiling.

The monster did not acknowledge my sleeping little brother in the bed across the room. Instead, he held a clawed hand out for me to take. I'm not sure why I thought it was okay, but I accepted his gesture and placed my tiny palm within his and held it tightly.

Slowly, he led me across the room and towards a blank space of wall where my mother had been intending to put some sort of wicker furniture. I watched in curiosity as the orange monster gently scraped a wide door-shape against the wallpaper with his claw and in an instant, a gateway had appeared. Still leading me with the utmost care, he stepped through and we were engulfed in a bright flash of light that forced me to squint. As it faded and my eyes adjusted, I found that we were no longer in my bedroom.

We were in what I can only assume to be 'his world' and it was a world that I marveled at. A cobblestone marketplace stretched on before us, filled with stands and carts manned by every kind of monster you could picture. Witches cackled from a booth full of frothing potions and they gave me candy corn as we passed them by. Vampires chilled beneath the shade of an awning, selling decorative vials of blood that glowed like obscene stained glass. There were werewolves, skeletons, mummies and so much more, all of them busy preparing for Halloween and all of them very friendly.

Making our way through the market seemed to take hours, but it eventually led out into a wide park filled with trees and another glimmering gateway at its entrance. My monster guided me there and, after exchanging a warm embrace, he ushered me through the gates and gave a cheerful wave goodbye.

And then I woke up in my bed. My brother was still sleeping soundly across the room and the blank wall was back to being blank. During breakfast, I told my family the wild tale. My mom reacted the way you'd expect the mother of a 4-year-old to react to some made-up story; my dad just smiled weakly. It was a dream and I figured that was the end of it, but it had been such an exciting one! I wished I could have had it all over again.