Arches - Cameron Wilson (Patreon)

Sprite art is by Paintfox who will also illustrate the CGs for the upcoming visual novel "Arches".

The first time I saw something "serious" was the day I turned eight. My mom had bought me this old handheld and a few games to go with it, and even though it was a generation out-of-date and all of my friends had the newer version, I was still happy to have it. It was cool to just own something.

I was alone; Mom let me stay home from school that day as part of my birthday present. I was on this little sofa, sort of slouched down as far as I could, practically laying my back on the seat cushion with my head propped up against the back. I was playing this game that I can't even remember, I just know I was staring at the display and I saw this weird reflection on the plastic screen, easy to see because it didn't actually light up like the new one did. Anyway, there's this reflection of something really tall and dark in the corner next to me and all I can think is that Mom somehow hung up one of her long jackets or dresses on the floor lamp we have there, but that doesn't make sense, so I look up and to the right.

And then I saw a face was staring down at me. Two yellow eyes with slit pupils, no muzzle, the face flat, and the edges of its mouth curled up in a grin, its teeth long and sharp, all of them. I don't remember seeing ears, I don't think it had any. I just know that it wasn't a person, it was a thing... a creature. The yellow eyes were standing out from the black, matted fur that covered its face. I could only see the edges of its mouth because it had on what I think was a raincoat, or something, and there was this big collar that was turned up and covered the lower half of his face. And he was tall. His shoulders and the back of his head and neck were up against the ceiling, so he was looking straight down at me, and the rest of his body was pushed back into that corner next to the sofa, his arms out to the side and pressed to the walls, like he's bracing himself. What I think were long black claws stuck out from the openings at the ends of the sleeves, dug into the walls. And for the few seconds I stared up at it, it didn't move at all, not even a little bit, kind of like it was stuck in a still frame.

It's weird to see something that you know shouldn't exist. Like there's this extra moment where your brain absorbs what its seeing, then instead of making you react right away like maybe seeing a spider would, there's this extra beat where that brain is really analyzing it, like "yep, this is really happening, and it really shouldn't be, but here it is". 

It's hard to remember what exactly happened next. I just sort of ran, or at least scrambled on all fours trying to get the hell out of there. I didn't hear anything, didn't feel him move, and I was too scared to look back. Then, I was tumbling out onto the wet grass because it was cloudy and drizzling like always, and then onto the little paved walkway that wound its way through the trailer park. Then I was just running away, up that walkway, getting as far from the thing I didn't understand as I could.

What kind of fucks me up to this day, even worse than when I first saw it, is that when I was a good three trailers away, I looked back, not really expecting to see anything, but I did. There, framed in the little window of our trailer, was the flat-faced creature, still with the same expression, the collar still up, looking frozen in time. The blinds, which had always been bent and askew, were moving though, gently swaying behind its head as it grinned right at me with those yellow eyes.

I sat at the entrance of the park, shivering in the rain, telling one of my neighbors that I was fine, but not able to tell her why she saw me running out from my trailer, or why I couldn't go back to my trailer. So she brought me into hers instead, and I guess she thought that maybe someone broke in and scared me, because then the cops were there, then my mom was there, and I think she got into some trouble for leaving me alone, and then I got in BIG trouble, but I was just happy to have people around. Of course, I couldn't tell them what happened, because it couldn't happen. But it did, and then it happened again, and again, and again...