Were Those Tentacles?

Tentacles.

It looked like tentacles. No matter how I squinted my eyes, it still looked like tentacles.

There was no way. I should have known better than to stay here.

Who stays at the home of someone off the internet?

Especially the home of someone who everyone said started a "cult."

But she seemed so nice. She was a retired marine. Maybe it wasn't her fault that her house was haunted by someone tentacled creature.

I heard a hiss in the dark, making me shut my eyes tight and pull the covers up over my head. My toes poked out at the end of the couch. I screwed myself up into a ball under the blanket and shivered.

The day had started out so crazy already.

It was just an impromptu road trip. A meeting of crazy souls in one place. We all talked on the internet, we were all crafters of some sort. The day was amazing. We had dinner, we had drinks.

"Buttscratcher!" was yelled in the distance. The laughing never stopped.

Faces were put to names and bodies put on profile pictures. It was all that social media was meant to be. A meeting of like souls.

The group surrounded our leader, well what was left of us.

The top commenters, the top contributors. Her most faithful of followers. The discussion was about books and her latest scathing review. We all knew never to mention the name Dante in her presence.

"Not to change the subject, but what happened to ole Octogrolio?" a group member asked.

At the mention of the creature who began our glorious group, our leader tensed up. She held her drink closer to her and looked away from us. I could see a visible shudder go through her before she shook away her discontent and smiled.

The moment was a few seconds, but we all felt an eternity pass before she answered.

"Um well honestly I haven't seen it in a while. Must have gotten packed away with holiday stuff." the answer seemed to appease us all and we went back to our drinks and conversation.

I should have held onto that interaction. I should have known better, but my car wouldn't start and my memory of bad juju had been wiped clean by alcohol. Our leader was kind and an invitation to crash on her couch until I could soberly fix my car was welcoming.

Now I lay here under a thick blanket terrified of some unknown thing in the corner, that I was sure just hissed at me.

There had been no tentacles there when I had laid down. There had been nothing but a basket of yarn. Our leader was a crocheter, like myself. She created things with yarn.

It was only yarn, not tentacles, I told myself frantically.

But wait was that another hiss from much closer now.

Maybe our leader's discomfort was because something was wrong with Octogrolio. Something demonically wrong.

You see Octogrolio is made of yarn. He is a giant octopus creature made of yarn. He was the whole reason the group was ever formed. Our leader should have been happy to talk about him.

My mind started spinning under that heavy blanket. Made it was the carbon dioxide of my own breath making me more frantic.

Maybe it was the five margaritas that were still turning in my stomach.

Yes! That was another hiss. Right by my ear this time!

I leapt from the couch tripping over myself, only to fall immediately into the dark scary corner of my nightmares. Immediately I was wrapped up in tentacles, strings of mucus wrapping my face as I began to scream and flail.

"What on earth is going on?"

A light snapped on above me. Our group leader stood in the doorway with a look of amusement and shock on her face.

I immediately realized as she burst into laughter that I was fighting with an unravelled Octogrolio, his strings wrapped around my head, my hands gripping the crocheted tentacles.

"Well you found Octogrolio. He is getting a bit of a redo as you can see. Don't tell the group it's a surprise!" she warned. "Thanks for helping with the frogging but you are most definitely helping me untangle all that yarn in the morning."

I dropped the stuffed octopus creature and began untangling myself from my drunken web of nightmares.

"Cooper!" our leader shouted. She walked quickly across the room and there sitting on my pillow was her snake, a little octopus hat perched atop his head. "Sorry I don't know how he got out. Try to get some sleep, we will get this all sorted out in the morning."

I nodded and slid back under the blanket on the couch. She took away her snake and kicked all the remnants of Octogrolio back into his basket in the corner.

Still when I turned on my side to go back to sleep, as I closed my eyes, I swore I saw a crocheted tentacle slide out of the basket to wave at me good night.