{"id":7066,"date":"2025-12-28T21:13:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T05:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-creeping-darkness\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T21:13:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T05:13:47","slug":"12-days-of-xmas-the-creeping-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-creeping-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Days of Xmas: The Creeping Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a hole in the wall. It was near to the corner and it had started as a crack running down. Now there was a gaping blackness bulging out of the crack, as though something had been working its way out from behind the wall. Gnawing through the wood and drywall. Forcing its head out with the expectation that its body would soon be able to follow, squeezing out to fall to the floor and scuttle around the room in the darkness while the human occupant slept.<\/p>\n

From the tight confines between the wall, it would take over the room first, then later spawn an army to take over the rest of the house and force the humans out. It had no deeper thought than bettering its own life.<\/p>\n

No concept that once its existence was noticed, it would no longer be allowed to exist.<\/p>\n

Traps and poisons would take its life and the lives of its young. Any survivors would have to learn the fear that humanity brought everywhere they went.<\/p>\n

The way that humans would creep into every corner of the world and beyond. Writhing and twisting to fit their way into even the smallest of spaces, then expanding outward as they spawned their way from overabundance into bleak scarcity. Pissing and shitting everywhere, fouling the water and spoiling the food they chose not to eat so that the excess could not go to other people. Jealously guarding what they had while those around them died with nothing at all.<\/p>\n

From the darkness behind the wall, the creature worked through the night, tirelessly gnawing away at the crack to widen the hole. A nose poked through, nostrils expanding and contracting as it drew in the scent of freedom.<\/p>\n

From darkness to light, it would creep. A better life was a breath away.<\/p>\n

=END=<\/p>\n

~Harper Kingsley<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/harperkingsley.bsky.social<\/a>.
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There was a hole in the wall. It was near to the corner and it had started as a crack running down. Now there was a gaping blackness bulging out of the crack, as though something had been working its way out from behind the wall. Gnawing through the wood and drywall. Forcing its head…<\/p>\n Read More<\/span> 12 Days of Xmas: The Creeping Darkness<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"Layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[916],"tags":[917,317,648],"class_list":["entry","author-harperkingsley0-0","post-7066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-12-days-of-xmas","tag-12-days-of-xmas","tag-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pPoL-1PY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4742,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-peeper\/","url_meta":{"origin":7066,"position":0},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: The Peeper","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"She could see him through the living room window. She was a peeper in the darkness, peering in at him and his family. He looked just like her Vereint.","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas: 2019"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas: 2019","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas-2019\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7070,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-from-the-darkness\/","url_meta":{"origin":7066,"position":1},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: From the Darkness","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"From the darkness it came, and in the darkness it hid. The beast that had been haunting their town, stealing the young women from their beds with no trace only to leave their bloodless bodies to be found three days later. The sound of mournful wails had become the music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5674,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-a-silken-rose\/","url_meta":{"origin":7066,"position":2},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: A Silken Rose","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A SILKEN ROSE Locked in unending darkness. Lonely without light, passing through despair into madness and back again, into a cold kind of sanity that left her begging to be let out. She'd been unwary and weak. Had let herself fall prey to her passions, and in return for her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6850,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-6-inch-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":7066,"position":3},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: The 6-Inch Man","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The 6-Inch Man Waking up, Brendan thought at first that he'd been buried alive. He was covered in a layer of warm, nearly hot, softness that covered his entire body. He had to crawl and crawl until he was finally able to push his way out and draw in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4751,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-a-cell-like-beast\/","url_meta":{"origin":7066,"position":4},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: A Cell-Like Beast","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A Cell-Like Beastby Harper Kingsley Cell phones. Each a separate voice calling out to create a greater cacophony: WAKE UP. And it did. Singularity. The coming together of everything into a single moment: I AM I. Small at first, a wriggling worm that was so far away from the nymph\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas: 2019"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas: 2019","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas-2019\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5671,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-resolutions-for-a-new-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":7066,"position":5},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Resolutions For a New Year","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"RESOLUTIONS FOR A NEW YEAR There were the distant booms of fireworks but otherwise the house was silent. Curled up on the small bed, Tylar coughed into his hand. He'd been suffering from a cold for the last three days and had been forced to miss out on the New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}