"Can you keep a secret?"

“Can you keep a secret?” He asked as he led me to the room at the far end of the house. I wondered if his air conditioning went out or if he had chosen to turn it off. I was breaking a sweat just walking the small distance from the front of the house to the back.

“It depends on what the secret is,” I replied, unsure of what he was about to show me, fanning my face, trying to keep myself cool.

We stopped right outside the door and he turned around to face me. I could only see half of him in the dark hallway, but he almost looked excited.

“Danny? What’s in the room?” I asked, curious what could be such a big deal that he had to call me over in the dead of night and ask for it to be kept a secret.

“You trust me, right?” His eyes looked unlike what they normally did, but it was Danny and I trusted him.

“Yes, but…” He cut me off.

“No buts. You either do or you don’t.” His hard stare drove itself into me and I didn’t have time to ask any more questions.

“Okay, yes. I trust you!” I said, “Show me.”

He stared at me for a second longer before spinning back around towards the door and pushed it open, having it make a loud whining sound. We walked in; our feet causing the floorboards to creak beneath us. The room was darker than the hallway, but it didn’t take my eyes long to adjust.

“Danny…” I said once I saw what he brought me to see. My words caught on themselves and my eyes couldn’t quite process what they were looking at.

“It isn’t what it seems like, I swear! She… That is not a real person!”

“Danny!” I said again, this time fear rising inside of my belly, bile in my throat. What I saw before me was a girl, not much younger than we were, anchored to a bed, mouth duct-taped shut, and stripped down to almost nothing. Other than her limbs being a little longer than most, she looked like an average person.

I walked back towards the door. The creaky floor sounding like it was screaming underneath my feet.

“Stop! Listen to me!” Danny grabbed my wrist and I couldn’t bring myself to make any noise. He could see that I was scared and let go of me, holding up his hands to say he wouldn’t hurt me. He pointed towards the girl, and repeated, “That is not a real person.”

I stood quietly for a moment, “What do you mean that is not a real person? She looks very real to me, Danny.”

“I know, I know. I thought it was an actual person at first too when I saw it walking through the neighborhood yesterday. That was until it tried to bite my fucking face off last night after I found it in my backyard. It… is something else.”

I looked back and forth between him and her, “Can she speak?”

“Not that I have noticed.” He shrugged.

“Is she unconscious? Did you drug her?”

“Well, yeah. It was thrashing all over the bed and acting like a wild animal. I had to make sure it couldn’t get loose when I wasn’t here to watch it.”

I sighed and leaned against the wall opposite the bed and just kept my eyes locked on the girl.

“And you never saw her before yesterday? You didn’t think to call the police?” I asked.

“No.”

I bit my lip. I felt like I was in a terrible dream. I was so confused. Was this really happening?

“We need to do something with it before it tries to hurt someone else. I can’t keep it in this room forever.” He paused, “I need your help. That's why I called you.”

“Danny, I don’t know if I can do that,” I whispered.

“I know. It’s hard because it looks so much like one of us. But it isn’t. You said you trusted me. Please trust me, now.” His eyes looked like they were pleading with me, but the emotion looked forced. I almost didn't recognize him.

I thought for a minute, “Okay. What do you need me to do?”

A big smile came on his face, and he said, “Stay here and watch it! I need to get some stuff from the shed out back.”

He raced out the door and the girl and I were alone in the dark. My ears were ringing and I couldn’t tell if I was going to pass out from how hot it was or how overstimulated all my senses had become.

I heard her stir and my head jerked towards her. Her eyes were open, and she moaned beneath the tape. I took some hesitant steps her way.

“Who are you?” I asked.

She just looked up at me. She didn’t thrash or seem manic the way Danny had explained. Instead, she just laid there and continued to moan.

“If I take the tape off, will you promise to not scream?”

She didn’t move for a second, and I almost thought she didn’t understand, but then she nodded her head.

I reached over and gripped the corner of the tape, carefully pulling it off of her. She licked her lips and stretched her jaw.

“Who are you?” I asked, again.

“It’s me, Lu.” She whispered. Her stare looked so familiar.

I fell silent, in kind of shock.

When I spoke again, I asked, “Why did you just call me that? Who are you?”

There was only one person who called me Lu and only one person who looked at me like that.

We heard footsteps come back into the house. I looked in the door's direction, and then when I turned back towards her, her face was close to mine. I jumped, and she said, “That is NOT Danny, Lu!”

“Well, at least I know you’ll keep our secret.” I turned to see who I thought was Danny, grinning, accompanied by a strange person with long arms and legs. It rushed at me, mouth wide open, and everything went black.

Short Story by: Asia, The Colorful Writer