String Theory
| Published on Creepypasta.com | March 2010 |
|---|---|
| Length | 1,636 words · about 7 minutes to read |
| Story level | Short |
| Reader rating | 9.0/10 from 2,558 votes |
| Category | Strange and Unexplained |
Have you ever had an experience that suggested someone else was in your house, and just thought “I don’t wanna know” and left it? Sometimes, fear of the unknown just seems like the preferable option than facing a real, concrete danger. Normally it’s nothing, though. One time, the beeper function of my wireless housephone went off, when I was the only one home. It could only be called from the living room. Another time, I swear someone took some change from my desk. They’re all probably just slightly disconcerting tricks of the memory.
But what would you do when something truly suggestive happens? Would you run, or just ignore it, like I did?
Last Monday was a normal day. I got up, brushed my teeth, changed into school clothes… All little parts of my morning ritual. It seemed like it would be another totally un-noteworthy day, until I saw the strings.
There were three or four thick twine strings in my room. They criss-crossed between the walls around my bed, one attached to the door. No way would I have missed them before; I should have tripped over them. They were tied to pins in the walls, which had also not existed before ten seconds ago.
Nobody could have been in my room while I was in it, let alone set this up. It was early, and my brain wasn’t processing correctly. I simply discredited the sight, untied the strings and left for school, leaving them balled up on my desk.
It didn’t get any better later. Outside my house there were hundreds of them, tied between houses, around cars, across streets… This had to be some super elaborate prank. One of those hidden camera shows, or a comedy improv blog. They had gotten everyone else to play along too; passer-bys were tangled in them, tying them to objects they were walking towards and away from, as if they had been and were continuing to follow the course laid out for them.
I nervously continued my journey to school. On the bus, every except me was tied to the door. At school, groups of friends were tied to each other; teachers were tied to their desks and boards. Oddly enough, at this point all I could wonder was why I had been left out.
When my friend Lucy sat beside me in first period, she simply plonked her bag down on my lap and rested her chin in her hand, looking right past me to the window outside.
“Hey Lucy.”
No response.
“Come on, I didn’t expect you to be in on this too. “
She sighed and started taking books from her bag. All the books were tied to her hands. I grinned, and yanked one of the strings off a book. She didn’t seem to notice, instead simply disregarding the book completely, letting it drop to the floor without a moment’s hesitation.
“Um.” I leaned down, picking up her book and placing it back on her desk. She took no notice.
“Well, if that’s how we’re gonna play it.” I smiled, trying to look playful, but really just trying to hide my nervousness. I bundled all the strings attached to her together with one hand, then pulled them all free.
She blinked, turning to stare at me.
“Holy crap, Martin. You’re like a ninja or something.”
“I’ve been sitting here for maybe ten minutes.” I smiled again, relieved my friend had finally “noticed” me.
“Where did all these strings come from??” She gasped, seemingly noticing for the first time.
“I assumed you were all fucking with me…”
She stood up, backing into a corner. No one else in the class noticed.
“They weren’t here just a minute ago! Do you see them too??” Her tone made it clear she was genuinely scared.
“No. Didn’t you-. “ I was interrupted by my teacher slamming the door behind her. Everyone except me and Lucy murmured a good morning, and still, no one seemed to pay either of us any notice.
“People have been ignoring me all day.” I said to Lucy, before turning to our teacher. “Hey! Dumb bitch! You can’t teach for shit!”
No reaction.
“I’m getting away from all this shit.” Lucy pulled a few strings aside and left the class. I followed, and surprise-surprise, no one else noticed.
We wandered the corridors, leaving and entering classes as we saw fit. Whenever we untied a chair or book from someone else, it was like it suddenly didn’t matter to them. It didn’t exist
I showed her the street outside; there were more strings than when I came in this morning. Twice as many. We carefully picked our way through the tangle, making our way to a nearby coffee shop. Not particularly grand, I know. But what would you do in our situation? As I said, fear of the unknown sometimes seems like the safer option. On a few occasions, I suggested we untie a few more people. Lucy was opposed to it, remembering how terrified she’d been.
In the coffee shop, we grabbed a couple of sandwiches and drinks from the fridge. We found a table, untied all strings attached to the chairs, and sat down. We both ate in silence, both of us too scared, both of us distracting ourselves by watching the strangers in the shop, oblivious to the strings.
After twenty minutes, Lucy spoke up. “Now she’s gonna take that sandwich.” She said, pointing at a woman across the shop. Sure enough, she walked to the fridge and took the plastic wrapped sandwich she was tied to. “She pays for it and leaves.” She did so, according to the prophecies of the strings. “That guy doesn’t intend to pay.” I watched as a man took his coffee and ran out of the store, the two servers just looking too exasperated to go after him.
“This is horrible.” She whimpered. “Let’s go. Please.”
Outside wasn’t much better. Everyone just followed the strings’ instructions, going about their daily lives. Lucy announced she was going home to sleep this off, and I agreed to walk her home. She only lived ten minutes away.
Away from the busier part of town there were fewer strings. It was nicer; we could pretend it wasn’t happening.
When we turned onto Lucy’s street, she stopped, her mouth falling open.
“What now?” I broke the silence, my voice sounding surprisingly small.
”Look.” She pointed outside one of her neighbours houses.
I saw it clearly, and I’ll take my memory of that moment ‘til the day I die. A little dark imp, maybe three feet tall, walking along with its knuckles on the ground, almost like a monkey. It had two bulbous yellow eyes taking up about half its face, and no mouth or any other facial features. It was holding a hammer and a ball of twine, which it was letting out behind it.
It walked quickly and quietly from the front door of the house to the mailbox. It stopped, hammered a nail into the side of the box, and tied it’s string around it. It turned to face us, and stopped when it spotted us.
My bottom fell out even further than it had already been, but it just stared with a look of surprise and curiosity. You could almost say it was the more frightened one. Suddenly, it beckoned to us with its tiny hand.
I looked at Lucy, she hadn’t moved. I looked back at the imp, which stared at me.
I halved the distance between us, and then halved it again. This wasn’t fear of the unknown anymore; it was fear of this little guy. Didn’t seem like anything to be scared of. When I was a meter away from it, it extended its hand.
“Uh. Hi.” I shook it. It nodded in approval, blinking its massive yellow eyes up at me.
“So you’re the ones in charge of the strings?” It nodded eagerly. I called Lucy over, but she stayed where she was.
“There are more of you?” Another nod. I wanted to ask it so many questions, about what it was and where it came from, but it seemed for now I was stuck with only yes or no questions.
“Do we even have free will?”
It just looked at me, almost sadly. I immediately felt sick to my stomach, and couldn’t bear looking at the little monster anymore. I grabbed Lucy, who had been listening to our exchange, and now sat on the curb with her head in her hands.
“Come on.”
We entered her house, and I made her a cup of tea. When I found her in the living room, she had untied her dog and was curled up with it, crying. I set the tea down and sat beside her.
“I’m so scared.” She whispered after a good ten minutes of sobbing. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
“I’m going to sleep” She mumbled suddenly, and was under within the minute. Sleep was starting to sound pretty good all of a sudden, my eyelids suddenly felt like they were being weighed down.
I collapsed to the rug, and the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was the scurrying of several sets of little feet nearby.
I felt much better the next day, as if the whole affair had been a dream. I’d probably have believed that if I hadn’t been awoken by Lucy’s mother that morning, wondering what I was doing sleeping over without permission or something.
Over breakfast, Lucy asked me why I looked so pale and nervous. I turned to her and smiled, mumbling something to her about feeling sick.
But the truth was, I was scared because I couldn’t see any strings, and was wondering whether my actions were truly my own.
—
Credited to Tesla.
You Might Also Like
The Stalker
Part 1 Transferring to a new school in the middle of the semester really sucks. First off, it’s…
Read Now
Turn It Off
I rested my arms behind my head, skim-reading the credits of a movie I'd just watched. After seeing…
Read Now
The Body Farm
Part 1 I'm not a guy who gets scared easily, but I'm also not the kind who keeps…
Read Now
Tales From the Gas Station
PART ONE At the edge of our town, there’s a shitty gas station that’s open twenty-four hours a…
Read NowCopyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.
i dont get it
WOAH AN IMP oh well lets ignore it and go to sleep
nice, finally a decently written pasta. RAWR time to dig in!
interesting plot, but the ending was a letdown. sadly, i shat no bricks. 7/10 for effort and grammar!
People are saying this is ripped off Darren Shan? I’ve read a lot of his books but I haven’t seen anything like this. I guess the style is vaguely similar, but OP is a good writer regardless. 10/10!
@Mog
Final Fantasy? :3
@ The Story
Hell, this thing was absolutely awesome. :)
Summary
Wake up
Find strings
See more strings
See MOAR strings
Take strings from Lucy
Lucy has a PMS moment
Get coffee
See an Oompa-Loompa on crack
Go to sleep
Wake up
ODANG WHERE ARE MAI STRINGZ
—
The most unpredictable thing of this story was the protagonist’s name being Martin. And even that wasn’t very shocking. Ya gots good grammar, though.
but who was string?
I liked the idea, but not the execution. It feels like it is lacking…something. I would not be surprised to see something like this in a collection of short horror stories, or an episode of Twilight Zone.
Great story, summed up by a great finish. Great Pasta.
This was really good :P This was very well thought-out and something to think about. *Looks around to see if there are any strings around*
The only thing that really bugged me was the fact that there were imps doing this. I think maybe it should have been something else, something scarier than an imp. I’m not entirely sure what to suggest, but I’m sure a really good horror writer like you could figure something out XD
But still, this was really good. It’s not really something to give you nightmares, but it’s a chilling thought. I’d give it a nine and-a-half out of ten.
Seconds Please!!!
gave me chills and made we rub my arms to make sure there were no strings. 10/10, easily.
Vault24 – Fair point, but I didn’t write the story just for you. :P
9/10
Would be 10, if the author didn’t take me for an idiot and added the line “…and was wondering whether my actions were truly my own.”
Really, I already knew what was about to happen, and author thinking I wouldn’t know implication of not seeing strings was a small insult.
The ending line sealed it. Amazing.
Damn Cookie beat me. D:<
Oh, well. I liked it, it was a unique idea that kinda makes you wonder. Where the fuck do our actions come from.
Great pasta. :’D
Hey guys.
Thanks for all the praise. And to the people who weren’t happy; hey, you can’t please everyone!
This wasn’t ripped off of a Darren Shan book (I HAVE read them, and I have NO idea where there are similarities) or mean to read like goosebumps.
The free will thing and the creepy imp dude were sorta shout outs to Donnie Darko and the Heartless though. I don’t play KH, but dig the heartless design.
My inspiration is really rare and my stories are super hit-and-miss stuff. Don’t get your hopes up about any new stuff from me! :P
hello…babye…
hay guise it’s wat you’ve all been waiting for…..
THEN WHO WAS PHONE?
Not really scary, but damn fine pasta. Excellent.
Love it!
Mmmm. Good pasta there. I’d give it a 8/10. Would be a full 10 if it was a little creepier and the ending wasn’t predictable. Either way, well done. ^^
No one really explained WHY the main character could suddenly see the strings, and why didn’t anyone SEE Lucy and him when they had pulled the strings off? Of course then they were able to decide their own actions, but it doensn’t really make them invisible.
It wasn’t that scary, kind of random really… as someone already said, this would’ve been a lot scarier if the strings were only attached to people who are alive, and just as we are free from those strings, we can see the world in it’s true form.
Very, very entertaining.
I’d say it’s amazing if it weren’t ripped off from a Darren Shan story, but he did the same thing, and much better.
Great job. This was original and interesting. No, not the most terrifying pasta, but damn- I know exactly what that feeling is. The “I’d rather not know if there’s someone else in the house”.. I get that feeling all the time.
I just don’t get it
kinda funny in its own way, and the perspective of someone being suddendly able to see the “fate” or how you want to call it IS in fact kinda creepy. The part where the protagonist says that he saw the strings in the room right after exiting it and no one could have put them here did creep me out. Even if the final is kind of surprising (ok, i had figured it out before, but i forgot by the time i got to the last line) it could have been better done.
To me, the worst part in this is that when i read the creature’s description, i immediately trought of an Heartless from Kingdom Hearts (even if i’ve only played it for a little) and this was enough to almost completly pull me away from the story.
i thought it was really good(:
At first, I thought this was gonna be The Memetic Symbol 2. But then it got SO unscary.
wow, very good pasta, best recently ;)