The busy city of Haven is a striking contrast from my mundane life in the country. I had a serious case of culture shock when I first moved back here. The frantic streets were a pain to cross, and I constantly bumped into distracted pedestrians, but I finally made it to work. “Let’s do this!” I mumbled, pumping myself up for my first ever job. I opened the door and was hit by the smell of freshly baked desserts. I wish I could eat it, but I must stay focused. I walked to the counter and was greeted by a red head. “Hey Elena, uniforms in the back, when you’re dressed, I’m going to show you the ropes.” I nodded at her instructions and left to get change. After getting dressed I took a few photos to commemorate this event, it’s important to keep mementos of the highlights of your day. I left the back and met up with the lady who greeted me. I think her name was Jessica, but I was told to call her Mrs. Tayler. My mother requested that I work here, and sense my mother is her childhood friend she instantly said yes. “You’re finally done, hope you’re ready for your first day.”
The cafe was a fairly small business with at least three employees, including Mrs. Tayler, the woman that owns the establishment. They all seemed nice, but I didn’t get a chance to get to know them properly. I immediately was stationed as a waitress, taking orders and delivering meals to the customer. The job was actually fun I even got some compliments from the regulars,
“This new waitress is incredible.”
“Yeah, the desserts are being served faster than they used to.”
I couldn’t hide the wide smile on my face from these comments. Soon the day went by and I was mopping the floors. “You did good today.” Mrs. Taylor said, handing me a frappe. I took the drink and grinned, “It was surprisingly easy.”
“You just got lucky, usually this place is packed with customers.” I finished cleaning and started heading out. “Wait let me come with you, people’s been disappearing as of late.”
“Yeah I heard, but don’t worry I’m going to be fine. My mom wouldn’t let me travel here if I didn’t pack something to defend myself with.”
“Still your mother would kill me if something happens to you, here’s my contact. Call me if you run into any problems.” She handed me her personal phone number before we closed up and left.
I’m sort of familiar with this place because we used to live here when I was younger. I decided to stop by a shop that we always use to drive by. I actually moved here to remember something from my childhood. I have gaps of the events that happened here so I don’t remember much of the city, but I know something significant happened. I heard that when I was younger the apartment that I lived in collapsed while I was still inside, not many people survived, but I was one of the few that did.
“What! You got to be kidding me!” I complained, staring at the ‘closed for good’ sign. I was very excited to see what they sell in this old antique shop; my childhood dreams are ruined. What now? I reached into my purse, pulled out my camera and took photos of the building. “Walking here was a waste of time. Guess I should just head home.” I looked back at the building and started heading back.
I was walking on the sidewalk taking photos of the busy street, maybe I was too deep in thought to notice that the hectic road was slowly emptying out, and the suffocating sidewalk full of life was becoming a bit too breathable. My mother always said that my absent mindedness would get me in trouble someday, I just never thought it would be today. Maybe it was a work of God, but I dropped my camera lens, and when I slowly arise, I noticed ‘it’ in the corner of my eyes. I rushed behind a trash can and peeked over; my eyes glued to the sight in front of me. A shirtless man stood there, a sickening crunching sound can be heard in this silent night, what really made the gut wrench was the way his spine can be seen squirming around like a centipede underneath the thin skin, it looked like he can be snapped in half even with the slightest touch. I gasped and quickly covered my mouth. Come on Elena, calm down, it’s just a man. I said comforting myself, but part of me knew this was far from the truth. I slowly got up, getting ready to crawl away. Whenever that disgusting crunch starts up again, I'm going to make a run for it. I started creeping away, not feeling the camera slowly slip out of my purse, CLICK!
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I got up and sprinted, never looking back once. I can hear a loud gurgling behind me, as if something was right on my tail. I turned around and looked, the man in the alley was now catching up to me. His stomach seemed to be cut open and a cluster of tendrils emerged out of the wound. I almost threw up at the sight of this. “HELP!” I shouted, I’m not ready to die, I just got a job for crying out loud! All my screaming and shouting was for nothing, a tendril latched onto my leg and pulled me down. I landed on the ground with a THUD kicking and clawing at the slimy creature trying to get free from its nasty grip. I turned on my back as the man slowly crawled on top of me, opening its disfigured mouth and unhinged jaw as if he was trying to devour me whole.
I reached into my purse and pulled out a taser. I tased the man but it did nothing, he didn’t even flinch. I heard the sound of a gun, bullets were shot at the monster and following it was a kick to the creature's face. The creature launched itself off of me and hissed violently at the attackers. “Jackson, I thought you secluded the whole area.” a woman asked, “I did Iris, somehow she got past the barrier,” Jackson responded, “but that’s not important at the moment, move the young lady to a safe spot, I’m going to deal with the rest.” Jackson dashed towards the monster while reloading his gun, he shot twice and got close enough to punch some sense into the creature's head. Of course, the monster didn’t allow the guy to win this fight, soon it launched its tendrils towards the man aiming for his vitals. This was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Iris rushed to my side, “Are you alright Miss.” she asked, I nodded not taking my eyes off the fight once. “Good, come with me.” she said. We ran into an alley before she left me to join Jackson in the fight.
I moved behind a dumpster and accidentally slipped on something. “Oh no.” I panicked. I had a cut on my leg and was bleeding at an alarmingly fast rate. I took my jacket off and tried wrapping it around my leg, the same way I saw people in movies do it. I looked back up at the fight, hoping that one of them would come back and send me to the hospital. I witnessed the man’s gun turning red, he tossed it to the monster’s head and it exploded, killing the beast in the process. “Boss, these monsters are evolving, they’re looking more and more human.” Iris stated, “I know Iris, though it seems like these guys are just level 4 or 5 monsters.” Iris pointed to me. I froze like a deer in the headlights. “What are we going to do about her? She’s seen everything.” Jackson walked to me and crouched to my height, “I’m Jackson, head of the elimination department of a secret organization dedicated to hunting, studying and killing monsters, this is Iris, my second in command, and what you just witnessed was a class four humanoid monster.” I clutched my head at this sudden barrage of information. “Monster?!”
“Yes monsters, don’t worry you’re soon going to forget everything that happened tonight.”
“Can I spray her with the forget me not spray.” Iris said, excited. “What does that do?” I asked, worried about my safety, “You’ll see.” she said with a sinister smile before spraying me with a weird substance. It smelt like cheese cake. I then blacked out.