Creepy Creature dragged branches across the clearing just below the cave mouth. The moon hung low and pale, not yet full. He had until moonrise tomorrow to finish. Every stick had to point toward the town. Every stone had to mark a path down the mountain. When the people saw what he could do, they would have to look up. He worked in silence, placing rocks in a line from the clearing down to where the trees broke open. Three paths. One straight toward the main street where the shops would be dark. One curving toward the houses on the west edge. One leading to the square where they gathered on market days. He counted each stone as he set it down. Forty-seven. Forty-eight. Forty-nine. Tomorrow night, when the moon rose full, he would follow these paths and make noise at every door until they came outside. Until they saw him. Until they were too afraid to look away.

Creepy Creature woke before sunrise and climbed to the cave mouth. He stood where the clearing began, where the first stone path started its line down the mountain. The moon would rise full tonight. Everything was ready. But his hands wouldn't stop shaking. He heard footsteps on the path below. Small ones. Careful. The girl came around the bend carrying a stick like before, her head tilted up toward the cave. Creepy Creature's breath caught. Four moons he had counted. Four moons of waiting. He opened his mouth to scream the way he had planned, to send her running so she would tell everyone what lived on the mountain. But his throat closed. He thought of the purple crystal hidden under leaves. He thought of her saying hello. Instead of screaming, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the lollipop he had taken from the candy store three full moons ago. He set it on a flat stone at the edge of the clearing where she would see it. Then he stepped back into the shadows and waited. The girl stopped at the base of the steep path that wound up to the cave entrance. She looked at the lollipop. She looked at the stone paths leading down in three directions. She took one step forward. Then another. Creepy Creature's chest felt too tight. She was close enough now that he could scream and she would run and tell everyone and they would all come up the mountain afraid. His terror plan spreading out before him like the three stone paths. But he stayed quiet. She picked up the lollipop and turned it over in her hands, studying the colors. She looked toward the cave mouth. "Hello?" she called. Creepy Creature stepped forward into the light. The girl didn't run. She smiled. "Did you leave this for me?" He nodded. She took another step closer. "Can I see inside?" His hands stopped shaking. He turned toward the cave and heard her footsteps following behind him. The terror plan could wait. Maybe it could wait forever.

The girl stepped deeper into the cave, her footsteps quiet on the stone floor. Creepy Creature walked ahead of her, his shoulders tight. She was here. Inside. The thing he had imagined for four full moons was happening now, and his hands felt numb. He wanted to show her the back wall, the crystals he had mapped in darkness, but his feet wouldn't move. What if she didn't care? What if she looked and left and never came back? He stood frozen until she walked past him toward the far corner where the pink crystals caught the dim light. She made a soft sound of wonder. His chest loosened. He stepped forward and pointed to the upper left, where the leaves covered his secret. The girl wandered toward the back wall and reached for the leaves hiding the purple crystal. Creepy Creature's breath stopped. She pushed the small purple pebbles aside, the ones he had scattered there to hide the spot even more. Her fingers found the wire frame he had built years ago, a delicate gate he had woven from scraps to protect the crystal from falling rocks. She looked back at him, her eyes asking permission. He nodded. She lifted the wire gate carefully and the purple crystal caught the light, brighter than any of the others. She didn't take it. She didn't even touch it. She just looked, then turned to him and smiled. "It's the most beautiful one," she said. Something in his chest cracked open. He had shown her the thing he kept hidden, and she had seen it the way he did. When she left the cave an hour later, he didn't feel invisible anymore. The terror plan was finished. He wanted something different now.

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.

Creepy Creature woke to footsteps on the center path. Not the girl's light tread. Heavy boots, deliberate and angry. He pressed himself against the cave wall and watched a man climb toward the entrance, kicking colored pebbles aside as he came. Allan stopped at the lollipop pole and pulled something from his pocket. A wrapped candy, red and gold foil catching the morning light. He turned it over in his palm, then shoved it back and crossed his arms. "I followed your trail," he said to the cave entrance. "Melissa thinks you're her friend. I think you're using her." His voice was tight. "The wedding is in three days. You stay away from it. You stay away from her." He pulled out a length of chain with a heavy lock and set it on the ground near the pole. "This is what happens if you don't listen. I'll make sure you can't leave this mountain." Creepy Creature's chest went cold. The girl had told someone. But not about the crystals or the purple one hidden under leaves. She'd told them about the paths, the lollipops, the invitation. And they'd sent Allan to close it all down. He stepped out of the cave. Allan flinched but held his ground. "Melissa invited me," Creepy Creature said. His voice came out quieter than he meant. "She asked me to come. I made the paths so people could find me. So they'd know I was here." He looked at the chain on the ground, then at Allan's face. "I don't want to scare anyone anymore. I just wanted them to see." Allan stared at him for a long moment. Then he picked up the chain and walked past the lollipop pole to where the path split toward the carved wooden bridge that crossed the stream below. He hung the chain on the bridge railing where anyone climbing up would see it first. "Melissa can invite who she wants," he said without turning around. "But if you come, you sit in the back. You don't make a scene. And after the ceremony, you leave." He started down the path, then stopped. "She thinks you're lonely. Maybe you are. But don't mistake her kindness for something more." He disappeared down the trail. Creepy Creature stood at the cave entrance and looked at the chain hanging from the bridge. He'd been invited. But Allan had drawn a line around how much he could matter. The girl had told them about the paths, and they'd come — not to see him, but to set limits. He went back inside and sat near the purple crystal. He would go to the wedding. He would sit in the back. And maybe that was enough, or maybe it would hurt more than staying away. But at least now he knew: being seen didn't mean being wanted.