Creepy Creature's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Creepy Creature sat near the cave entrance after the girl left, staring at the three stone paths winding down the mountain. He had built them to bring fear. Now he wanted something else. The paths were still there, waiting to be used, but screaming at doors felt wrong now. He began gathering sticks from the forest floor, searching until he found one with a flat top. Back in the cave, he wedged it upright between rocks near the entrance. He fetched a lollipop from his stash and pressed it onto the stick. Then another. Then five more. The colors caught the sunlight streaming through the cave mouth. It looked wrong, too small. He went back to the forest and found a branch as tall as himself, thick as his wrist. He spent two hours mounting every lollipop he had until the pole gleamed with spirals of red, pink, blue, yellow, green. He dragged it outside and planted it at the cave entrance where the three paths met. Anyone climbing any of those paths would see it. But the girl wouldn't come back tomorrow. Maybe not for another full moon. He needed the town to come now, while the feeling in his chest was still bright. He carried pebbles down the nearest path, placing them every few steps in a line of color. Red. Pink. Blue. Yellow. Green. Purple. The pattern repeated all the way to where the mountain met the first houses. He did the same on the second path, and the third. By sunset his hands were scraped and his legs ached. He climbed back to the cave and looked at what he had made. The pole stood at the cave entrance like a declaration. The trails led up from three parts of town. But the paths were empty. No one was climbing. He sat on the stone floor and counted the lollipops left in his pile. Twelve. He had used seventy-three. The girl would see the pole when she returned. Maybe she would tell others. Or maybe she would keep it secret, the way he had kept the purple crystal secret for years. His chest tightened. He couldn't make them come. He could only show them the way and wait.