` “It’s another one of these again…” Complained a man wearing a police officer’s uniform. He had short black hair and was inspecting the broken front of a house. The hole was shaped in an oddly specific manner, as if a gigantic creature made it. “You know the drill, Joey. You’re bound to run into some monster cases on the force.” said his partner, dressed in the same manner but this time he was completely bald. “It’s annoying though! These things cause so much damage.,” says Joey. As he said that, he looks to his right and sees another house broken and shattered to pieces. Entire sections are ripped apart, it was as if a powerful tornado arrived and ripped everything apart. “God these things are terrifying…” Suddenly, a voice is heard coming behind Joey and his partner, “Fortunately you don’t have to deal with them, lucky bastards.” The two officers look behind them and see a man in a three piece suit. This was the same man from before, the one who killed the old man. He had his hands in his pockets and walked with purpose. Joey tried to reply, “The hell you say-”. The suited man shoved both of them aside and walked towards the house that wasn’t completely demolished. “Buzz off, how about you go and handle the kid to make yourself useful.” Joey grumbles and his partner nods, both decide to follow the man’s advice, making their way towards a clearly scared boy with messy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was standing, watching as the suited man made his way into the house. “Don’t worry kid, everything’s going to be okay,” Joey reassured. “Your parents had plenty of insurance, so you can move somewhere nice and cozy. In fact, you’re pretty lu- OW!” Joey was cut short as his partner gave him a jab with his elbow. The officer sighs, “Listen kid, my name’s officer Dave, and I know what you must be going through. It’s going to be hard adjusting to a new life, but the government will help you out. Your parents left behind some money, and you just need to bounce back. We’ll have some nice people relocate you, alright?” The boy shook his head, “Nuh uh, I want to live here! I want to live here in my parent’s house, I don’t want to move!” Dave and Joey both gave each other a look. “I get it, it’s hard to move on, but you can’t live here. It got pretty destroyed from a nasty monster, it might be dangerous to live here.” says Dave. “That won’t be a problem.” The two officers turn around again to see the suited guy return. “What do you mean not a problem? This house was clearly ransacked.” replied Joey. “I inspected it thoroughly, and the damage is minimal at worst. The only thing destroyed was the front door and the kitchen. The only issue is staining.” Dave was confused, “Staining?” The suited man lets out a heavy sigh, “Let me explain what I saw…”

The suited man walks through the door and notices the outline. Definitely a medium sized monster attack, didn’t seem too strong. Notably large head and hands. He continued to walk inside the house. He looked around, and to his surprise most of it was unscathed. He walks past the living room, and gets startled when he looks to the right. What the… The monster's corpse was there, chunks of flesh were flung around. Pieces on the kitchen counter, some on the walls, blood stains all across the house. He looks down and sees claw marks and slashes on the floor and walls. These clearly aren’t an animal of any kind, and these are too small to be the monster’s. He inspects the scene, furniture destroyed, glass shattered, and blood not only near the corpse but also at the dining room. This isn’t normal weaponry, clear signs of a struggle but no bullet holes or normal slashes, these are claws. He touches the monster’s skin, he feels sharp indents and scratches. This has to be the work of a slayer, but how did one get here so quick? He goes over to the corpse and sees a small cellphone in the middle. Here it is, the artifact. Wait, every slayer collects the artifact after the kill, this is interesting. Just as he ponders, he hears a sound upstairs, a small thump noise. Huh? The boy said he was alone in the call. The slayer quickly runs up the stairs and notices an open door leading to the boy’s bedroom. He goes in, and sees things scattered across the floor. Cabinets are open and all sorts of drawing equipment such as markers, pencils, and crayons are littered around. He sees the closet closed and heads over towards it.. The man reaches out towards the handle and… hears a thump from behind him, similar to the one from before. He quickly turns around and sees a book now on the floor. Damn… this place is making me paranoid.

“...and that’s the gist of it.” explained the suited man. He removed all the parts involving his own thoughts and the artifact when describing it to them.

“Hmmm… so the overall house is fine, it’s just the stains of blood on the wall and some broken furniture.” answers Dave.

“A contractor can handle that, just a paint job and some clean up,” says Joey. He turns to the kid, “It’s your lucky day son, looks like you can stay in there after all. Alright let’s head back to HQ and fill out some paperwork.”

“Just one more thing,” says the suited man, crouching at the kid. “Did you see anyone during that night? Anyone with a weapon of some sort? Did they have a badge that said “MRI” or “MDF” on them at all?”

“Ummm… no. I was upstairs then heard scary noises and hid in my room. When I went down after a bit I saw the monster corpse.”

The suited man puts his hand on his chin, So the monster was killed by an unknown slayer, I’ll need to investigate this further.

“Alright, I believe you, it must have been terrifying. Listen, if you notice anything unusual, don’t hesitate to contact this number.” The suited man hands over an all black card with the words “Todd Wayward, FMO Agent” and his cell phone number on it.

The suited man and the cops wave the kid goodbye, mentioning some officials will arrive soon to fix the house and bring some food. As the suited man makes his way towards the car, he begins thinking about what he saw while staring at the cellphone. There had to be some sort of confrontation, so why didn’t the slayer pick up the artifact?

-Later-

Contractors had arrived to clean the house up. Carpenters replaced the front door and furniture, cleaners got rid of the monster’s corpse and blood, and a demolition team was seen demolishing the next-door house that got mostly ravaged by the monster. There were also mysterious men in the same suits as Todd, they didn’t talk to the boy or ask any questions. They just looked at the floor, walls, and the monster’s corpse and left quietly. Ethan Marshall was identified by father’s id and birth records, and was placed under child protection services. They brought groceries and did basic chores around the house every once in a while. The only thing no one has ever touched is Ethan’s closet, he guarded it closely and never allowed anyone to open it. Inside was where Clawster hid whenever another human entered the house. Even as a twelve year old, Ethan eventually signed documents to allow him to live without the supervision of an adult after passing an exam, but child protective services still came every once in a while. One day, a contractor went up to Ethan, “You are… Ethan. Okay, so all the work has been completed and everything has been fixed and filed out. You’ll be left alone for now, but CPS will come biweekly for a checkup and for groceries. You did well on your independence exams, but remember this is a privilege that can be taken away at a moment’s notice.” Ethan nods along as the worker asks him to sign one last time. After all the workers cleared out, Ethan ran up the stairs into his bedroom. He opens his closet and sees a towering figure emerge. Blue eyes, pale skin, a mask on its head. Its mouth went agape, revealing the still sharp teeth. The boy smiled and held out his hand, “Hey Clawster, it’s time to learn.”

–four years later—

A sharp alarm sound played and filled Ethan’s bedroom with sound. The screeching forced him awake as he looked over to his right and saw his phone vibrating as the alarm played. He grabbed it, closed the alarm, and checked the date. “September 30th, 1976” was displayed on it. He got out of bed, gave a big yawn, and went on with his daily routine. He goes downstairs and hears chopping sounds emanating from the kitchen. Slashes and cuts are heard as he sees Clawster with his mask on going nuts on some vegetables.

“Hey Clawster, whatcha cooking over there?”

“It’s a…” Clawster checks the cookbook, “Omelette.” Clawster pronounces the word as “ohm let”, which Ethan corrects.

“Ah-me-let is how you say that word.” Clawster responds with a knowing nod, as if making a mental note. Over the span of the four years, Ethan has slowly taught Clawster English and a basic education. Ethan thought that this would be extremely difficult due to their differences, but it was much easier than expected. Clawster learned at an accelerated rate, much faster than a normal human. With the help of the internet, Ethan has taught Clawster to read, write, and understand English, do basic algebra, and human history and culture. He also taught him how to do chores and skills like cooking. Cooking was something that Clawster was especially good at, his claws and slashing skills make him an excellent chef. This was not one sided though, Ethan also learned from Clawster, asking him all sorts of questions. Some questions included: Where did you come from? How did you come here? Why did you not kill me? And Why are you good at fighting? Clawster didn’t have a lot of answers, he knew nothing about his origin or how he was created, but he did answer some of them. Clawster didn’t want to kill Ethan because he felt the need to protect him, as if his body’s purpose was to do that, and he’s good at using his claws and fighting due to natural instincts.

Ethan ate the delicious omelet and packed up his school supplies in his bag. As he was getting ready for school, he gave Clawster some orders, “Okay, study up on religion and do all the chores on the chore list. Go on the computer and watch some videos on religion if you want.”

“Got it, have a good day at school" (pronouncing it “suh-ch-ool”).

“It’s “skool”, also, if anyone comes here, quickly hide and do not answer the door.”

Clawster nods, having needed to do that plenty of times in the past.

Ethan makes his way to the stop and gets on the bus when it arrives. He finds a seat in the back and stares out the windows. He reflects on what happened with his life. Life is weird sometimes, isn’t it? Both my parents are dead to a monster, I should have been dead too, but Clawster saved me, as if a gift from the heavens. How lucky I am, yet how unlucky. I am independent, I have no father, I have no mother, but I have one great friend. I think Clawster is a monster too, but from what I’ve researched all monsters kill, is he really a monster? He has all the body parts of a human, he has all four limbs, he has two eyes, one nose, and he has a p- he has all male body parts. He even has all the features I gave him, his mask, his claws, a one to one replica. What really is he? As Ethan thinks this, Todd Wayward is also thinking something similar. All the evidence doesn’t make any sense, a slayer that doesn’t pick artifacts, a slayer that doesn’t reveal themselves and shows off their bounty, what exactly killed this monster? A voice is heard suddenly behind Todd, “Hey, we found some new information.”

“Let me hear it,” replied Todd.

“This phone was owned by Sterling Williams, a normal office worker. In the phone he has pictures of two women, both identified as Hazel Williams, his wife of 15 years, and another younger woman by the name of Patricia Fitzgerald. From what we analyzed, he was two-timing, setting up plans with Patricia under the guise of ‘hanging out with friends’. He was caught and Hazel’s emotions of betrayal and hatred of his phone manifested within it, creating the monster. After the autopsy, it was concluded that it was killed with the use of steel claws, the claw marks were put with considerable force as well.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Hmmm… what does the phone artifact do?”

“The phone has multiple apps in it which can track a person’s location at a considerable range, a camera with infrared sight and an ultraviolet flashlight. It has more apps that require testing.”

“I feel like this boy is lying… he must have something to do with it.”

“Multiple officials interrogated him, he always told a straight story. He was scared and hid, he heard strange noises from downstairs, and the monster’s corpse was found.”

“That’s a likely possibility, but there has to be more to this case.”

“I’m sorry Todd, but we can’t waste anymore time with this. For now, the higher ups have told us to resolve this case as unsolved.”

“What if the boy knows the secret of monsters? What if he used an artifact to defeat it? What if he-”

“TODD, none of that is true. The monster was formed outside the house, there were no signs of artifact use, and he was clearly scared. Go solve another case worth your time.”

Todd sighs, “Alright… I’ll give it up.”

“You know… MDF is always recruiting. With your experience you should land a pretty comfortable position.”

Todd puts his fingers on his chin, “MDF you say…” Becoming a slayer is interesting, I can use artifacts but I’ll be put in the frontlines, my life will be at stake. But, it’s boring being a monster detective. No action, just what comes after action.

“I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Alright, I can walk you through the process…”

FSHHHHHH, a loud hissing noise is heard as the bus comes to a stop. Ethan steps off the bus and begins to walk towards the school building. As he walks, some boys notice him.

“Ethaaan!” says a medium sized boy with curly brown hair. He wears a leather jacket and some torn up jeans.

“What’s going on man?” shouts a tall boy with short, dirty blonde hair. He has a hoodie and some sweatpants, both saying “Treefall High Football” on them.

“Nothing much,” replies Ethan, he performs a special handshake with the two of them, as if some sort of ritual. “Just been tutoring my little bro.”

“Always you and your brother, you need to make him more independent,” says the guy with the curls. “Otherwise, he’ll never grow up to be a man.”

But what if he isn’t a man or a human, what then?

“Oh, by the way Ethan, how’s it going with Jessica?” nudges the tall blonde.

“Oh her… Come on guys, you know I can’t ask her out.” says Ethan.

“Dude, she’s been a part of the squad for years now, she’s practically your wife.”

Jessica Clipton is a girl in Ethan’s grade with long blonde hair and very… fortunate features. She’s popular with the girls and the guys throughout the school, and has been friends with Ethan ever since middle school.

Curls brings up a point, “You’re the star athlete of the soccer team, you can get anyone at this point.” Ethan begins to blush with embarrassment. Without the need for chores to be done, Ethan could funnel all his time into sports and school, allowing him to rise above the rest. This excellence in soccer made him pretty popular and well known through Treefall high.

“It’s just a bit awkward asking her out…”

“Wuss!” replied both of his friends. After some catching up, Ethan made his way into his first class, monster studies and history. He set down his backpack and sat down in a corner with some guys he knew. After the teacher told everyone to settle down, he began the lesson.

The teacher discussed the “calamity event”, an event foretold by almost all religions in the world. It’s an event in which thousands of monsters appear due to an unknown cause, these monsters terrorize and assault the world and its population, leading to the end of civilization. As the teacher discusses this, Ethan thinks about this class. I’m learning all about religion and monsters, this calamity event seems pretty interesting though. I wonder if Clawster is also learning about this? Would he protect me, or would he suddenly turn on me? What if Clawster betrays me and… I shouldn’t think about this stuff.

Clawster was, in fact, learning all about this. He started slowly typing away on the keyboard, having difficulty doing so due to his inexperience with typing. Ethan thought it was more important if Clawster knew how to write rather than type. As he began searching the web about religion in monsters, he made some massive discoveries. He read articles on how religion told stories about monsters even in ancient times, and how monsters are a blessing, not a curse. He learned about God, the ultimate creator of the world, and how he created monsters to kill and ravage humans, as punishment for sins. God, the creator. This means he created me, and Ethan, and everything, even this computer. He knows everything and can destroy everything. Humans get punished eternally or rewarded eternally based on actions, does it work on me? God said all monsters destroy, why do I not destroy? Am I a monster God, or something else? Clawster begins to have an existential crisis, he looks up at the ceiling and ponders… then a video pops up on autoplay. Clawster gets intrigued and watches it, it details the Calamity Event. It’s written in the Bible, Quran, and Torah, and the video talks about the location of it within the books and what it is. People claim that old versions have more pages, talking about the cause, and signs that pages were ripped off. These humans claim there is more to this event, more to monsters. They think the… government… is hiding something, and these other humans say they are insane. I need to learn more! Clawster types away, slightly faster, and starts researching the Calamity Event and monsters in religion.

Ethan hears the lunch bell and begins walking towards the cafeteria with the same two guys as before. They discuss sports, practice, and their plans to hangout after school. The blonde guy then brings up Jessica, “Hey, look it’s her.” Ethan looks to the right and sees Jessica laughing with her friends through the windows of the cafeteria. He begins smiling without realizing it as his two friends look at each other with a grin. The boy with brown curls catches with the corner of his eye a chubby, nerdy looking boy staring at Jessica. He begins whispering to the tall blondie, and then they nod to each other. The three guys sit down at a table near Jessica’s. The medium sized guy taps Ethan, “Ethan, listen, me and AJ came up with a plan to get Jessica.”

“What is it?”

The boy leans in closer and whispers, “You see that boy over there? The one with glasses? He was staring hard at Jessica, probably likes her. We’ll tell Jessica to lure him into a secluded place, then you can mess with him in front of her and impress her. After we get the twerp to confess his love to Jessica, confess to her, she’ll most likely say yes to mess with him and BAM!, girl acquired.”

Ethan gives him a confused look and then shifts his gaze to the blonde boy, he’s smiling widely and nodding as if coercing Ethan to go along with it. Ethan, without any sort of parental guidance or role model, makes the decision to accept it.

“Alright, I’m down. Let’s do it.”

His two friends pump their fists and give a quick “Booyah” and make their way towards Jessica. They whisper some words into her ear and she gives a surprised look.

Jessica turns to her friends, “Sorry girls, I need to do something real quick.” She walks towards the nerdy boy, sitting alone, his eyes widen and his cheeks turn red as she stands over him. Ethan can’t hear what he’s saying, but he can tell what’s going on. She gestures to the boy to come with her, and Ethan’s friends go up to him and motion him to follow her. She leads the boy into a secluded area of the school, no cameras are found and no one’s there. The nerdy boy has the highest expectations of this encounter, thinking this is the moment she confesses her love to him. He is oblivious to the three boys stalking them, waiting for the moment. Ethan watches as Jessica says something to the boy, and then looks behind her and mouths the words, “Come here”. The curly headed boy looks at Ethan, “It’s time, show that nerd how it's done.” The nerdy boy is giddy with excitement, but then he notices three figures behind her.

From the shadows emerges Ethan and his friends, all three smiling with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, clear evil intentions. Ethan may have his grin, but behind that smile lies him thinking. Is this really going to work? This poor kid is going to get a major reality shock. I wonder if this is really the right thing to do… He still searches for the answer, but with the lack of parental figure, he is subject to his environment. The nerdy boy, who was once enthusiastic and hopeful that his dream would come true, realized the true meaning of “too good to be true”. When he saw the three towering figures, he recognized them immediately. Ethan Marshall, AJ Goodwind, Derek Woodling. These three boys have tormented him since middle school, yet every time they forget who he was. His name was Elliot Freeman, and he was subject to their bullying, getting sprayed with water, getting hit by thrown paper balls, and getting called names when the teacher wasn’t looking. The worst part was that they always forget who he is after they do it, treating him like some sort of NPC and not a human being. The moment he saw them, chills went down his spine. No, not these three, anything but these three! I knew it, Jessica would never like a loser like me, this isn’t some sort of romcom manga… The three boys cornered Elliot from all sides, there was nowhere to run.

“What do you think you’re doing, pipsqueak?” said AJ as he shoved him.

“Look at this kid, trying to rizz up a girl way out his damn league.

“You really think a baddie like her is attracted to your scrawny ass,” laughed Derek. “How the hell do you fall for something like this?”

Elliot’s heart raced, his mind conjured up the worst of possibilities as nothing was at the end of this terrible tunnel. This was the single most uncomfortable situation the trio of bullies have ever put him in, embarrassing him in front of his crush, a girl he very well knew was out of his league. He’s always had a crush on Jessica, and as he looked over Derek’s broad shoulder, he caught a glimpse of her. In his heart, he held a seed of hope that she would have a concerned look, or cry out to end this torment, but no. On her face was an expression of amusement, she was laughing, LAUGHING, while this took place. Derek grabbed Ethan’s shoulder and pushed him towards Jessica. Ethan stumbled but got his footing, staring directly into her blue eyes. Wow… she’s beautiful…. Thought Ethan, not caring about the glasses wearing boy getting hoisted up by Derek and AJ. They grabbed both of his arms and forced him to watch Ethan, getting a good hold of his head to make sure he couldn’t turn away. Ethan suddenly spurted something as Jessica and him stared into each other's eyes, “Hey, wanna go out sometime.” Jessica, looking behind him towards Elliot, said with a smile, “Sure! Here’s my number.” Elliot tried to turn away, he wanted to close his eyes, desperately wanting to leave this situation, but his body refused. It was as if telling him to accept his fate, to watch his demise. Elliot saw his long time crush just get with someone who bullied him for the same amount of time. Elliot’s eyes watered, and down came tears of defeat, his mouth drooping on each side just like his heart, down at the bottom. Derek and AJ had sadistic smiles and looked at each other, telepathically cheering at their success. After Ethan and Jessica exchanged numbers, Elliot was let go.

“Look at that twig shit run!” cried out Derek, seeing Elliot scramble away. He lost all coordination, stumbling around.

“What a loser, anyway congrats Ethan on getting the bag.” congratulated AJ. Ethan looked at Jessica one more time, and his phone which now contained her number. “Thanks man.”

“Look at that fucking nerd run! You guys are soooo funny.” laughed Jessica. Ethan looked at Jessica having a good time and then looked at his hands. Holy shit! I just got a girlfriend, and she’s hot as hell. But… that kid must feel pretty bad. Would my parents be proud? Ethan pondered on his actions, reflecting on if it was worth it. Hell yeah, my parents would be happy I finally got a partner. As the victors relish in their spoils, the defeated gathers his footing. Elliot is seen in a back corner of the school, his backpack on the floor as he sits on the floor, crying with snot dripping out his nose. “Why… Why must you be so cruel God… Please conjure up a monster and just kill me…” Ellion whimpers. “They always do this to me, yet remain unpunished by the world… it’s not fair. If the school won’t take action, then I will.” Elliot stands with newfound resolve, finally for once in his life he will find victory against Ethan and his crew. Elliot opens his backpack. Jessica doesn’t like me and never will, I got humiliated as well, there’s no point in trying to continue this suffering. I’ll take matters into MY HANDS. On Elliot’s face was a newly transformed expression, tears and snot still remained but a fearsome grin of malice appeared. It’s time to end ALL of this. He reaches into the backpack and pulls out… an assault rifle.

Ethan goes back into the cafeteria, talking with Jessica about plans. Him and his friends take a seat and eat their lunch. Someone forcefully opens the cafeteria doors, catching everyone’s attention. Ethan looks behind him and sees Elliot. Oh, he’s back. Wait what… Screams are heard as Elliot removes the safety on the gun. Clawster pauses the video he’s watching. “I feel like… something bad’s about to happen…”

–End of Chapter 1–

Next Chapter:

Chapter 2 - The End of the Ordinary