The sharp cold cut at his face like razor blades as he ran through the streets. There was no moon to light up the darkness around him, and the streetlights in this part of town were broken. He would have been a strange sight if there was anyone around to see him, but the area was desolate.
He could feel it. He could smell it. He could taste its putrid flavour in the air. There was a monster near. Then a scream echoed in the distance, and he closed in like a moth to a flame.
He slowed down as the sight in front of him confirmed that there was no one to be saved. The body on the floor being ravaged by the monster on top of it couldn’t scream anymore. But while no one could be saved, something could be destroyed.
He picked up a grate from the gutter and threw it at the monster. It went through it, as if the creature didn’t exist, and loudly clanged against the floor. It served its purpose. The almost human-like thing stood from its dinner and turned towards him.
Human-like. No clothes covered it, but it didn’t have any sexual organs to cover. That was one of the many things that differentiated it from a human. It lacked any facial features other than an unnaturally large mouth filled with needle-like teeth, running all the way down its neck as it opened it to reveal its wet tongue that tasted the air around it, throwing specks of blood around.
He didn’t know how it could sense him without eyes, but it ran towards him, bringing his attention to its last defining feature: Claws. Deadly claws. Where a human would have fingertips and nails, this thing’s fingers and toes curved into sharp points that looked like they could playfully rip people apart.
He stood there, mouth open, drawing in deep breaths, eyes wide against the wind, as the monster ran towards him. He could feel the vomit rising in his stomach, but the adrenaline rushing through him kept It down. The smell of human blood reached his nose, shocking him like a sudden wake from a nightmare. For a split second he felt like he was falling, and the thought that he might pass out ran through his mind, but he narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, readying himself.
The thought crossed his mind that if the creature had eyes then he would be able to see manic hunger clear within them. He tackled it to the ground by crouching low and grabbing its legs. Unlike the grate, he didn’t go through it. He felt sharp pains as the creature’s claws cut him as it flailed wildly, but he could ignore the pain as rage filled his mind and clouded his vision. He had one last brief thought that he wasn’t much better than this creature: Just following his own destructive instincts. Then he was in the fight for his life.
It tried to bite at him but he used his arm to keep its head down and mouth mostly shut as he punched it. It tried to grab him with its claws but it wasn’t a smart creature. He managed to wedge it’s arms down with one arm. Then its disgusting mouth pushed its way open and the tongue lashed out, wrapping itself around his neck. He’d had no idea the tongue could be this powerful as it started to crush his only source of air. He panicked, but the fear and desperation led him to what might’ve been the most effective course of action. He grabbed the tongue with both hands and jumped to his feet then stamped down on the creature’s face. Its sharp teeth pierced his shoe and foot, but he didn’t care. He pulled the tongue as hard as he could, and he could feel it as it started to rip from the monster’s throat.
As his vision started to cloud, his determination won through. With a sickening sound, the tongue came free and the monster convulsed on the ground. He unwrapped the tongue from his neck, then punched the monster in its open wound until it stopped spasming. He had to be sure before he could calm down.
He surveyed the scene before him: Two bodies and a lot of blood. Truly a nightmare. As the adrenaline left him, he felt unconsciousness and nausea greedily gripping at him, fighting each other to pull him into their caress.
*
It was Edward’s first day of college. He’d recently moved to Crowlford, because of his father’s job, which involved moving around a lot. And he had enrolled into the nearest college. However, he didn’t go.
Was last night a dream?
His memories of last night were surreal, and horrific. He was too scared to leave the house. Instead, without even brushing his teeth, he made his way out of his bedroom, past the empty room that would be his father’s when he eventually got there, and went to the living room, with his laptop, and turned on the TV to check the news. He turned his laptop on as well to see if he could find anything online, but there was no mention of what had happened the night before. Had it even happened? He hoped not. He hoped it was just a nightmare. It didn’t seem possible for it to be real.
The hours went by without any new stories relating to what he remembered happening. There had definitely been a body. Someone died. The college opening hours came and went. Perhaps it had just been a dream. Perhaps he was just being paranoid. He thought about going to the place it had happened to see if there was any sign of it being real, but he realised he didn’t even know where it had happened. He looked at maps of the town online but nothing seemed familiar. The day came to a close, and he realised he hadn’t eaten anything all day; but he had no appetite. Tiredness came to him, but he didn’t want to have another nightmare.
*
It was night, and Edward had somehow ended up missing the entire first week of college. Paranoia had him firmly in its grasp. He had convinced himself that a news article could pop up late. The “nightmare” had felt too real.
That night felt different. There was something in the air. Confused, Edward looked around his apartment for anything out of the ordinary, but there was nothing. It was as if there was a smell that he couldn’t place. Edward worked up the courage to leave the house to follow it. He had his phone, so he could follow the map of the town and would be able to find his way back. However, as he got further and further from his house he found that he was paying less and less attention to the map. He put the phone away.
Whatever it was that was drawing him to it felt stronger and stronger until he turned a corner and saw an unexpected sight.
Confirmation.
He could see the monsters from his nightmare.
It was dark and they were in the distance down the road, but he was sure they were what he’d seen before.
He froze. A cold sweat enveloped him. They looked…. Unnatural. Something unknown. Something impossible. Something that shouldn’t exist in this world. Seeing them felt wrong. Their clawed fingers, their hairless body, their lack of facial features.
This time, however, was different. They weren’t alone. There were also dark figures with them and they looked to be…. Fighting? Edward carefully and quietly crept closer, until he could see that the dark figures looked like people; people fully clad in black clothes and masks. He heard the sound of laughter and turned to see a group of people crossing the road from the corner he’d come from. They glanced in his direction and then carried on, as If they couldn’t see the monsters and the people fighting in the middle of the road.
One of the monsters set its sights on him and started walking his way. He instinctively took a step back. Memories of that night came back to him. That night he had killed one of these things. But right now he didn’t feel that instinctive desire to rip this creature apart. He just felt fear.
“Civilian!” one of the people shouted, and the nearest person to Edward looked his way, looked at the monster, and sprinted towards it. As it prowled towards him like an eyeless monstrosity eyeing up its prey, the person closed in on it with what Edward could just about make out to be black knives, one in each hand. As Edward watched the person sliced at its legs, causing it to fall to the ground. The person then expertly dove down on top of it, stabbing it with their knives. Edward continued to back away as the display unfolded in front of him, like a professional killer taking down their target.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The creature stopped moving and the person looked in Edward’s direction.
“Can you see me?” the sound of a woman’s voice asked.
Who the hell are they? Edward thought erratically. I’m sure the people crossing the road couldn’t see them, just like the monsters. And…. They might be even more dangerous.
Edward decided to turn around and run away. He didn’t hear any footsteps behind him, and as he turned the corner he glanced back to see all of the people clad in black busy with the naked, human-like monsters. He carried on walking, constantly looking between the map on his phone and behind him in case anyone was following him.
Right, so either I’ve gone insane and I’m seeing weird scary creatures out of some horror story and people who fight them, or they’re real and for some reason no one else can see them.
Neither possibility seemed good.
*
It was a typical day at Crowlford College of Technology. Students filtered their way through the front doors, some loitering in the lobby, others heading straight to their classes. A variety of different looking people, from all sorts of different walks of life.
The students of one particular class noticed a new addition. A blonde girl wearing a leather jacket watched as a guy walked in with short dark hair, wearing a plain black zip-up hoodie and jeans. However, what stood out was the t-shirt.
As he went to sit by himself, not knowing anybody in the classroom, having missed the first week, the girl got up, much to the chagrin of the boy next to her, and went to join him, surprising him.
“Hey, I’m Beatrix” she beamed at him, making him feel very uncomfortable.
“Err… Nice to meet you. I’m Edward” he replied. The rest of the classroom was abuzz with chatter as everyone waited for the teacher to turn up.
“That t-shirt looks like some kind of metal band” she inquired, staring at it. Edward looked own to see which one he was wearing.
“Ah yeah. They’re an old Iranian rock band. Popular in the 60s. My dad kind of collects them.”
“Iranian rock?” she seemed shocked. “Interesting. I’ll have to look into it. Hey, do you do any martial arts, or, like, boxing or anything?”
Edward was pretty taken aback by the strange change of topic. Before he could answer, the room went quiet. Someone had walked in, who seemed considerably older than the rest of them. The teacher.
“That’s Mrs Clark” Beatrix whispered to Edward.
Mrs Clark went to her desk and looked around the room. Her gaze lingered on Edward. She was obviously aware of his late start. However, she didn’t say anything.
“Right, let’s begin, shall we?” Mrs Clark said, signalling the start of the lesson.
*
The next and last class of the day saw Edward entering a room already full except for one seat. He had no choice except to sit down next to a boy with bleached-blonde hair who was already reading a book. Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Pretty fitting for an English Literature class. The boy didn’t acknowledge Edward sitting next to him, which suited him. Perhaps this lesson will be peaceful. Beatrix had bombarded him with questions about music, keen to find out what he listened to. If his new neighbour was the silent type then that worked for him.
The teacher turned up and started to talk about the structure of basic plot in stories and how every story followed a certain structure. He then told the class to get into pairs and each come up with a basic outline for an introduction to a story. Edward turned to his silent partner.
“Nice to meet you” his partner said. He sounded fairly posh, surprising Edward, and he flashed a charming smile. “My name is Arthur” he continued, extending a hand.
“I’m Edward, but feel free to call me Ed for short.” Edward replied, shaking Arthur’s hand.
“Do you mind if I go first? I’ve already got an idea” Arthur asked politely.
“Sure” Edward replied.
“Well, I find for an introduction two things are important. Firstly, the setting of the story needs to be shown, as well as an interesting situation to keep the reader interested. It should display the author’s skill at writing as well as slightly confirm the basic theme of the book, and spawn questions in the reader’s mind that will cause them to keep reading to find answers.” He paused, seemingly waiting for Edward’s approval before continuing.
“That sounds…. Right” Edward answered, slightly out of his depth.
“So I’ve got a basic setting in mind for what I think would make an interesting story, although I’m not sure how to make an effective introduction for it. In this story, demons exist. They roam the world hungering for human flesh.”
A chill ran down Edward’s spine. Demons, huh? He thought back to the monsters he’d encountered. Could they be demons? The first one he’d encountered had been eating a person….
“But demons are pretty overdone… So I was thinking, my setting would be in this time. Maybe even this town. Only certain people can see demons…..”
Only certain people? A memory of the night before entered his mind. The couple crossing the road, looking down the road where the monsters had been, and walking on as if they couldn’t see anything. “Can you see me?” The woman in black had asked.
“If people believe in demons then they can see them, otherwise they can’t. However, once a person does believe in them, the demons will hunt that person down until they kill and eat them….”
Does he know? What I’ve seen? Has he seen them too? Are they real? Edward was suspicious now. What Arthur was saying rang too true.
“What do you think? Seem interesting?” Arthur asked.
It could just be a coincidence… This is English Literature, and he was reading Dracula. An idea like this shouldn’t be that surprising…
“Sounds… interesting. Perhaps a bit… scary?” he replied, thinking of what to contribute to the conversation.
“Well, of course. It would definitely be a horror. I think being able to bring out fear in the reader is a real sign of skill as a writer” Arthur said.
“Well…. Where would you go with it? Would it just be a story of demons hunting down and killing people?” Edward asked, curious now. Arthur turned thoughtful.
“Hmm. Well that might work for a horror book. Or maybe a short story. After all, if demons were real, what could normal people possibly do against them? I think it would be fun to explore the helplessness of a person being hunted down by demons, with nothing they can do to fight back.” That chill returned to Edwards spine.
“Well… that if there were people that could fight them?” Edward asked. He had seen people fighting them, after all. Them? Was he associating demons with the monsters he’d seen? It’s just a coincidence. He assured himself.
“How would they fight them? Who was it that said… the only way to fight a monster is to become a monster yourself?” he replied, seemingly having an answer for everything. “Wait, no, that’s not the quote. ‘Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster’. That’s the one. It could be an interesting notion to explore if the story was about people fighting monsters, but that would be more of a fantasy action story than a horror story I’d imagine. I’m not ruling out the idea, but I like horror. Perhaps if my horror story sells well I’d then write a story in the same setting with people who can fight demons. For a horror though, having no way to fight back would be effective I think.”
Maybe I’m not trapped in a horror story, then. Edward thought.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
“How’s it going?” came an interruption; their teacher. A middle-aged, balding man. “How are your ideas for introductions going?” he asked.
“Whoops.” Arthur said, almost charmingly bashful. “We’ve gotten caught up in discussing settings rather than the structure of an introduction.” He admitted.
“Well, it’s great that you seem… motivated, but try to get a basic outline for an introduction done first. We’ll be talking about what makes a good setting eventually, but this lesson we’re looking at introductions.” He said.
And so Arthur and Edward worked on the less interesting subject of structure and dropped the talk of demons for the rest of the lesson.
After the lesson finished, Edward returned home. He spent the rest of the day looking up theories on demons and monsters online to see if anything rang true with what he’d experienced, or even what Arthur had talked about.
The now-familiar feeling returned. Something was pulling him outside, somewhere where he knew monsters would be. Monsters that only he could see. People that only he could see. That night, however, he ignored the feeling. It did, eventually, disappear.