-Lain-

“Uhhhh, I am so bored… I wanna go home and snuggle with Sky!” I moan for the umpteenth time this day and clearly to the annoyance of gentlemen following behind me on our patrol.

He simply lets out a huff as he explains it to me again, “I understand, but it should only be a few more days until you can head back to base. Who knows, maybe a monster will attack us, and you can release some boredom with fighting it? Just stay focused on patrolling please.”

“Mhmmm…” I grumble, “You know… It’s not like I actually want to fight monsters or anything right? Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely some enjoyment from it, the adrenaline rush, but it’s not like I am actively looking for a fight… I'm not some battle junky looking for her next fix. Fighting monsters is scary, especially the ones that I know can actually hurt me. And the ones that can’t? Killing them is just a bother. Just a job. I would rather be snuggling with Sky under the covers… Doing this and that…” Mostly mumbling to myself at the end there.

“Hah… Teenagers complaining about having to work…”

“Hey! I am not a teenager! I’ll be turning twenty-one next month you know, and besides wouldn’t you rather be home too? Maybe get a drink at a bar or something? Hangout with friends?”

“Of course I would, but what we are doing is important. Even if it is boring.”

“Well, yes. It is important. I’m not saying it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t complain about being bored and missing my girlfriend…”

“Fair enough, but I am sort of getting the impression that you are just looking for excuses to brag about having a girlfriend.”

I look back at them and find the guy walking next to him, Bob or something I can’t remember, nodding his head in agreement. He looks away when I send him a glare and I get back to looking around the area. “So? What if I am bragging? I have a cute girlfriend; I think I earned the right to brag a little bit…”

“A little bit she says…”

“Mmm!” I send them both another glare and they look away at opposite directions.

“Hahhh…” Deciding to cut this short, I hurry up my pace a bit and head over to one of our stationed snipers, making sure that my footsteps can be heard so I don’t startle them, and then give them a poke with my foot. “Hey, you spot anything out there?”

One of the guys, again, I think his name was Bob… Or was it, Jeff? Anyways he speaks up, “Ya, our attack Imp is getting restless. Got anything for her to kill?”

The sniper doesn’t move from his spot behind his scope, not taking his eyes off of the runway of the airport as he responds, “Sorry ma’am, ain’t got nothing for ya. Fields nice and quiet today.”

“It’s been ‘nice and quiet’ for three days now. You are seriously telling me that not a single monster has come wandering into your area?”

“Yes ma’am. Not a peep. How are the other sections?”

“We’ve had a few over on the south side earlier and a big one to the north a few hours ago but I chased it off... East side had some cats come walking through the area, but they didn’t stick around. Why is there nothing coming through here?”

“Mhm, maybe it’s because of those heads you mounted out there?” Suggests Larry, the guy I was complaining to earlier. The guy next him, not Bob or Jeff… Charlee? He just shrugs.

Why can’t I remember his name? Not like I am any good at remembering names to begin with though…

“I really doubt that mounting some skulls would be enough to scare off monsters. It’s not like we are trying to ward of bandits or anything.” I tell them.

“Then why did you go and mount them then?” Asks the sniper, his name is Ben and the spotter paired up with him is Daniel. Daniel doesn’t talk much.

“I was bored.” I tell him with a shrug.

“That’s it? You went mounting skulls on spikes because you were bored?”

“Well, if you say it like that it makes me sound like a psychopath… No, it wasn’t just that I was bored. I was also trying to see if I could recreate the totem that the Kobolds built for me once. I have no idea what they do or what their runes mean, but I memorized a few and put them together. I’m guessing they are supposed to ward off monsters like a scarecrow or something, but I didn’t actually expect them to do anything…”

“Eh, who knows. Maybe they actually worked.”

“Maybe, but I prefer to not go thinking that it’s because of magic Kobold Voodoo or something. Make us drop our guard or something…” I say as I scratch at my chin and look out at the aforementioned mounted heads standing out in the middle of the field.

“Eh.” I just simply shrug and sit down on the ledge of the roof next to quiet Daniel, resting my head on my hands, arms propped up on my knees as my legs dangle over the edge. “How do you guys do it? Just lying there for hours, doing nothing but staring through a scope.”

“Training mostly. You learn to get used it, learn to find little ways to keep yourself entertained while you wait.” Answers Ben.

I raise my eyebrow at that, “Oh? What do you do?”

“I watch birds and look at the scenery. It’s not much, but it’s nice.” Daniel next to him just nods, his eyes never leaving his scope.

“Hmm… Ya, I don’t think I could do that. I have to keep doing something or my mind wonders off. Reading, sewing, playing a game or something. ADD is annoying to have and I absolutely hated taking the pills that are supposed to help you focus. They made me feel like a zombie…”

They simply nod and I decide that I should stop distracting them from their work and get back to my own work. Standing up, I give them both a light kick on the leg and say, “Alright, I’m getting back to patrolling. Be back around later.”

“Take care.” He says with a little wave as I turn back to my two companions for the day, Larry and… No, his name wasn’t Charlee, it was… Was it, Zander? Hunter?

Stopping on the spot I look at my two companions and really look at them. Two? Wasn’t it just Larry and me? No, it wasn’t, Sam was here the whole time… or was his name Victor? I tilt my head and look at the man. I really look at him… Did he always look like that, or did he look different before? No, he always looks this way, right? Zander? He always looked like this. I blink as I look at him, staring at his face. Look like this? Wait what does he look like? He has a face and eyes, his eyes are… are they green? Blue?

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I shake my head as I look at him and ask, “Hey, sorry. I don’t know what’s come over me, but I can’t seem to remember your name. Could you tell me it again? I have a bit of a hard time with names sometimes, hahaha.” I ask him, running my fingers through my hair.

He simply gives a laugh, “Oh it’s no problem at all. My name is M̵̢̺̊͜1̵̩̇̂̚͘n̵͚̟̩̈́̌̏̔n̸̗̹̄1̸̦͍̾̊͛͆>̴̧̙͆̆͋. I know I am not the most memorable of faces, Hahaha. So please don’t worry too much about it.”

Oh, his name was…! Uhm… Was it, Bob? No no no, he just said it. His name is…

…

…

Why can’t I remember it?

Wait, what does his face look like again? It looks like… like a face. A human face, a human face with human features, on a human body in human clothes…

My eyes trail down his body and I see that he is wearing… a uniform? Armor? A t-shirt and jeans…?

He’s a soldier, an ally. One of the people that I have been fighting with for weeks now. He was on that last mission with me… Wasn’t he? Afterwards we ate together, we hanged out together, he’s met my family, everyone knows him, He’s…. He’s… He’s…………..

….

Who is he again?

My head tilts to the side as I stare at him and he smiles, “Elizabeth, is everything ok?”

He reaches out his hand to touch my shoulder and I watch as his hand approaches. Did his hand always look like that?

His hand… ‘hand?’ gets closer and I can feel my skin prickle, my hand tightens around the handle of my hammer, and I grit my teeth. Every fiber of my body for some reason screaming at me to move. I open my mouth and he stops, “What was your name? Tell me.”

He just gives a small laugh, “What, already forgot it again? It was M̵̢̺̊͜1̵̩̇̂̚͘n̵͚̟̩̈́̌̏̔n̸̗̹̄1̸̦͍̾̊͛͆>̴̧̙͆̆͋. Did you not hear me before?” He says with a… is he smiling?

By now the others are all watching us. Larry, Ben, and Daniel. I remember their names; I know their faces! The person… ‘He is a person, right? He, he is…’ I don’t know his name, ‘No, his name is… Hector? It must be Bob, right?’ I don’t know his face, ‘No, I know his face, he has… His eyes were brown right? No, I think they were blue, he had blue eyes… No, green.’

I shake my head and try to clear out the confusion and I see him looking… he looks worried about me, I think?

“Lizzy, are you ok? He asks, his hand moving towards me again. Everyone is looking concerned as they watch me. They can’t see it. They can’t see the thing that is talking with me. No, he isn’t a thing, he is… Kevin? No, definitely gives off a Bob kind of energy, he has to be Bob, right?

His hand reaches my shoulder and alarms blare in my head. Before I can stop myself, my left hand goes forward, my claws pointed close and aimed forward. In less than a second, my hand, wrist, and forearm stab through his chest, plowing through steel plate armor, ‘Is he wearing armor?’ and exploding out of his back.

Noise, there is a lot of noise now. People yelling, shouting orders. I ignore it and rip my arm back out of his, ‘His? Bob, Kevin, Hunter, Sam, Victor? No! It! It ititititit! Its body! I rip my arm out its body and kick it away from me, its body sprawling, writhing about with flailing limbs, as a feeling of revulsion and disgust rips through my body. People are still shouting, saying something. I have the vague sense that something dangerous is being pointed towards me, but I don’t look. My eyes fall on my arm, covered in blood, ‘Blood? Is this blood?’ No, it’s not blood. It is pitch black and tar like, falling from my arm in black steaming sticky clumps. Soon the smell hits me. It is like rot mixed with spilt guts left to cook under the sun.

The shouting gets to a point that I can no longer ignore, and I finally turn to look at three men pointing their guns at me.

“Lain, hands where I can see them! Get down on the ground! Now!”

They think I killed a person… No, no I did. Didn’t I? No, I killed a monster!

Slowly, I raise my hand, still covered in the black tar like substance, ‘Blood? No, it isn’t blood! At least not human blood.’ and I point a single finger at the thing, ‘Person, monster? No, it was a person… A monster damnit!’ flailing about on the ground and screeching.

I look Ben dead in the eyes, he is the highest-ranking person here, and ask, “What was his name?”

“Lain, what are you saying? Why the hell would you stab him!?”

“What was his name? Tell me his name! Look at him!”

“Wha… His name is…! His name… Its, it is… What was his name again?” His eye flickers and turns from me before landing on the still spasming 'Person, monster… monster, a monster damn it! It’s not a person!’ Monster.

A hand goes up to his face as his eyes widen. He tries to shake his head as he looks at it and slowly, he lowers his side arm from aiming at me, his arm shaking as something fights inside of his head. Whatever the monster was doing, it is slowly losing its sway over him as he holds his head.

I turn to Larry, he is still aiming at me, his eyes moving back and forth between me and the monster, I don’t move, not wanting to startle him, “Larry. Larry tell me what his name was. Larry, are you listening to me? Tell me what his name was! Does that look like a person to you?”

He shakes, probably having been exposed to it as long as I had, “It, he… His, It’s? His name was… Why can’t I remember his name? It was… His name was…? He was my friend. He, it? He knew my mom. He was there when I got my promotion. We went to basic together… What is his name? Why can’t I remember his, its, his name?”

“Larry, I need you to lower that gun please. The monster is still alive. Do you see the monster, Larry? Do you remember the monster’s name, what did his face look like? The color of its eyes? Talk to me Larry.”

“It was my friend. He was my friend. We went to high school together. He, he, he. It…” His eyes snap to me and he shakes, “You stabbed him! You stabbed my friend!” His finger moves to the trigger.

“Don’t shoot Larry!” I yell.

“You stabbed my friend!” He screams.

He goes to pull the trigger, but a hand moves to grab his, stuffing a finger behind the trigger to keep it from being pulled while another forces the barrel of his rifle to the floor. He screams and tries to fight back, but Daniel moves up behind him and wraps him up in a choke hold as Ben rips the rifle out of his grip.

Larry screams bloody murder until Daniel gets a good grip around him and cuts off proper air flow. Ben turns to me and yells, “Kill that thing!”

I don’t need to be told twice, I take off from where I am standing and am on top of it in seconds as it tries to crawl away with its long gangly black limbs, a trail of black steaming blood following behind it. Landing on its back and pinning it to the floor, I grab it by its head and give a violent twist, ripping it off with everything I have. For a moment, as its face had looked towards mine, I had thought that I saw a man’s face. The face of a friend. The face of a person that I could have potentially trusted with my life. It lasted for only a moment, but in that one moment I had thought that I had killed someone very dear to me.

It quickly passes, the feeling being replaced with disgust. The thing held in my hands isn’t something that could ever be held dear. Something that could ever be loved.

I stand up, the head still in my hands, and look back at my squad mates. “Is everyone alright?”

Ben and Daniel both nod their heads, Larry is on the ground and passed out.

Ben asks, “What the hell was that thing? I thought I knew it. I thought it was my friend!” He exclaims angrily before spitting on the ground, Larry’s rifle still firmly held in his hands with a tight grip.

“I don’t know. A fucking Changeling, Skin Shifter, Mimic, Doppelganger, a fucking Mind Fucker! I don’t know! I thought it was my friend too, one of us.”

“And you stabbed it through the chest with your bare hand!?” He exclaims, rather flabbergasted.

“Not on purpose! My body acted on its own when it touched me!”

“So, it even had you under its control... What happened? When did it show up?”

“I, I don’t remember… It was just there, following us around on our patrol. It should have just been Larry and me. I don’t even know how long it was with us… It could have showed up at any time…” I tell him, raising the head up to look into the abyss of its face. It doesn’t even have a face. There is nothing but a hole, a pit reaching till the back of its withered and grey skull leading to a hole where its throat used to be. There are no teeth, no eyes, no ears, nothing. Just a hole.

I turn to look back to Ben. “I’m going to go report this to the Staff Sergeant! I’ll have them send the medics, keep an eye on Larry and keep any weapons away from him in case he wakes up!” I tell them as I go to fetch the body, transferring the head to be held by my tail while I drag the mangled corpse behind me.

“What has you worried? You killed the thing, didn’t you?” He asks.

I turn to look at him, stopping as I walk toward the skylight, “What if this isn’t the only one? What if there are more already mixed in with us? What if more come?”

His eyes widen in shock, and he nods, “Move damn it, go! Tell him! We’ll keep an eye up here.”

I walk towards the skylight, “Don’t trust anyone that you can’t remember the name of! There should only be the three of you; if some forth new person appears out of nowhere, don’t trust them!” I tell them before turning and jumping down into the lower levels of the airport. A bad report to give and a disgusting corpse to show off.

Uhhhh, I just want to go home and snuggle with Sky! Why did it have to be mind-rape monsters? Let me fight big ass things with too many teeth and claws, I would rather do that! Damn it!