{-—-}
"Monsters, like secrets, often hide in
plain sight among us."
{-—-}
Kane Sullivan awoke with a start as the first rays of morning sun streamed through his window, painting his room in a soft, golden glow. The warmth of the sunlight washed over his face, awakening him from his deep slumber. He blinked his eyes open, disoriented for a moment, as he adjusted to the brightness that flooded his room.
*Yawn* Kane let out a deep yawn.
As his consciousness came to be, he concentrated on where he was. Apparently he had fallen asleep on his couch in the living room. Bad choice to sleep on his part, since he could already feel the back pain coming from sleeping on this old hand-me-down couch from his grandparents as a celebration for buying his first apartment.
That’s when something clicked in his mind, and he whipped his head to the digital clock on the fridge in the kitchen.
Panic surged through his veins as squinted his eyes to see the numbers clearly on the digital clock. It was already 9:00 AM, and college started at 8:30 AM. He completely slept through his alarm clock.
Frantically, Kane leaped out of the couch, his mind racing as he stumbled over his dog's bed. He cursed under his breath, cursing his bad luck and the digital clock that had betrayed him by not being loud enough to wake him up. He rushed to the bedroom to grab clothes that looked somewhat clean and then he rushed to the bathroom, almost falling when he tried to put on pants while running.
As he rushed into the bathroom, hastily searching for his toothbrush and some gel to get his hair fixed. He cursed himself for his stupid idea of gaming till late night. His backpack was nowhere to be found, he tore through his living room in a frenzied search, knocking over a chair and sending a pile of books crashing to the floor.
Finally, he spotted his backpack wedged beneath his actual bed. He slung it over his shoulder. As he was running back to the kitchen, he nearly tripped over his shoelaces but managed to regain his balance. The realization that he was late for school and the consequences of it filled him with dread.
Grabbing a leftover granola bar and stuffing it into his mouth as he ran for the front door. Hastily locking the door behind him. Grabbing his bicycle that was standing against the wall, he jumped on it and hastily paddled to the bus stop, panting as he tried to catch his breath, his backpack bouncing on his shoulders. The bus stop was a block away, and he knew he had no chance of making it in time. The morning sun, once a source of serenity, now served as a reminder of his tardiness.
Kane arrived at the bus stop just as the bus pulled away. If only he had found his backpack earlier, he could’ve still made it. He knew he’d have to come up with a good excuse once he finally made it to school.
Kane had no choice but to ride his bicycle to school. His heart sank with every paddle as he realized that he would be significantly later than he originally thought. The morning sun, now higher in the sky, bore down on him, casting long shadows across the sidewalks and roads.
As Kane hurried along the familiar route to school, he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. He imagined his classmates already settled in their seats, the teacher taking attendance, and his friends gossiping about him being late.. His tardiness was sure to become the talk of the class, and he cringed at the thought of facing their curious gazes and the professor’s stern reprimand.
While the morning sun warmed his skin, Kane played out excuses in his mind, wondering which one would be the most believable. Maybe he could blame a bus delay or traffic, but it felt like a flimsy excuse, never mind his professor, even he thought that was a flimsy excuse.
As he was creating ‘believable’ excuses in his mind, he saw something in the corner of his eyes, moving abnormally fast. As Kane tried to whip his head around to the spot where he thought he saw something, something crashed into him.
Kane got launched off his bike and crashed on the ground, rolled over the streets and hit his head on the side of the sidewalk.
As his head hit the sidewalk, his vision went black and he lost consciousness.
As Kane was laying there down on the ground, the thing that smashed into him, stood up. Apparently, it had also fallen over because of the impact, but it had taken no damage at all, not even a scratch or a bruise.
As it was standing up, it made a soft, low growling sound. One that shouldn’t come from a human being. It took slow steps towards Kane, swinging its arms around, probably because they had become a bit sour from the impact. While it was taking slow and steady steps towards Kane, it was mumbling something in a foreign language, if it was even a human language.
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Surprisingly, the whole street had gone quiet. No one, not even the street rodents or insects were in this vicinity. Which was quite unusual, since usually this was a busy street because it connects with the shopping industry of the city.
As Kane slowly woke up again he groaned out loud and slightly cursed, he had never experienced something like this before. His head was searing with intense pain and his whole body felt like it was run over by a car.
His head throbbed with pain and his vision was blurred. He tried to push himself up, but his body felt heavy and unresponsive. Panic surged through him as he couldn’t figure out the situation he was in.
His hand went towards his head but he felt a slimy and liquid substance sticking on his hand, when he brought his hand down and looked at what he had touched, his eyes widened.
His hand was soaked in blood.
“Wha- What is even happening?” He said with a wavering voice.
He tried to think of what happened but the pain in his head didn’t allow that. As he was looking around him, to find out where he was and what happened, he saw a human figure walking towards him.
Relief coursed through his body as he saw the human figure walking towards him. He was about to call for help when the human figure came into the visible range of his distorted vision. The first thing he noticed when the human figure came into view was his slender arms and hands, what he first thought to be human hands, was far from it.
He saw a part of the skin on the figures arm squirm and change from normal skin to dark polished emerald colored scales, his fingers extended by around a cm and his nails grew longer and pointier.
Confusion started running through his mind as he kept his gaze on the morphing hand of the figure that was coming closer to him. As it clicked in his head that this is not something normal, panic and horror surged through his eyes.
The creature was now almost standing in front of his feet, Kane slowly pulled his gaze from the monster's hands up towards its face. What Kane saw edged itself into his memories.
Its appearance defying all reason, its head was squirming and morphing into something utterly horrifying and grotesque.
Its once human irises dilated, expanding until they consumed the entire visible eye. The pupils elongated into vertical slits, like those of a snake or a lizard, shimmering with a malevolent inner light. The human white turned a sickly and sickening yellow.
The human skin began to ripple and squirm, as if something was crawling beneath the surface. Gradually, patches of ordinary human skin gave way to something more sinister. Scales began to emerge glistening with an eerie illumination, spreading across the face in a chaotic yet mesmerizing arrangement.
The nose elongated and sharpened, resembling a reptilian snout. Its once-normal human teeth changed into menacing sets of fangs that seemed almost too big for the creature's elongated jaw.
The human ears seemed to melt into the sides of the creature’s head. They grew smaller and eventually disappeared, leaving only a series of jagged, scale covered holes along the side of its face.
The once human hair, if it even existed, withered away, leaving behind patches of scale-covered skin on the creature’s head. It was as if the hair itself recoiled in fear.
Throughout the transformation, the creature’s expression remained menacing and cruel. Its gaze remained locked on Kane, the eyes now devoid of any humanity or emotion. A sinister smile twisted the once-human lips into a horrifying grin, revealing the rows of serrated fangs beneath.
Fear coursed through Kane’s body as he tried to scramble away from the creature, but his body refused to cooperate. He felt utterly helpless, trapped in a nightmare from which he couldn’t awaken.
As the monster saw Kane struggling with fear, it spoke, its voice a sinister and low growl that sent shivers down Kane’s spine.
“You got some bad luck, human” It hissed in clear disdain and slight sympathy.
“Wh- What do you mean by that?” Said Kane, trying to figure out what he meant.
Kane’s mind raced, trying to figure out what the creature meant and what was going on. It was as if he had been placed inside a rollercoaster without any safety.
As the creature continued to loom over him, its malevolence intensified. Kane knew he needed to escape, to find some way to get as far away from this creature as he possibly can. Summoning every ounce of willpower, he managed to crawl a few inches away from the creature, his body responding almost too slowly to his commands.
The creature’s eerie chuckle filled the air, sending a chill down Kane’s spine.
“What are you even trying, human?” it taunted. “You won't be able to escape. You definitely can’t outrun me and never mind your measly strength. You are simply just too weak to escape.”
As the creature came closer, staring menacingly at him with his claws out like it was going to pounce on him and rip him into pieces. It said something one last time.
“Don’t blame me. You’re simply at the wrong place and wrong time.”
As the creature brought his claws up, ready to slash his throat and despair threatened to consume him, a distant sound could be heard as if someone was running towards this place.
With significant speed, someone came running towards this place and looking around as if scanning the area. When the person saw Kane laying on the ground with the creature looming above him, it took both its dual wield sabers out and dashed with inhuman speed towards the creature.
The creature noticed the person dashing towards him and an annoyed expression surfaced on the creature's face.
It tsked in annoyance and gave one last look at Kane before dashing away from the street into a dark alleyway between the buildings.
…
As Kane lay on the ground, gasping for breath and shaking from fear because of the encounter with that creature, he couldn’t believe that the creature suddenly ran away.
Kane, still disoriented and in pain, felt that the coursing adrenaline pumping through his veins began to wash away, leaving him feeling weak and making all damage he had to his body more intense.
When his vision blurred, he saw the blurry figure of the person that apparently scared the creature away coming closer to him, against his will, he once again fell back into unconsciousness.
When the person came to a halt next to, he took out his phone and dialed a number.
“Yes, hello sir. I found the creature, it's one from the Kecuala race I believe.”
“No, sir. It ran away.”
“Well, Uhm.. no sir. We might have a problem.” He said while looking down towards Kane.