#HE CUT HIS HAND AT THE EXACT SAME LOCATION THE ANCHOR WAS DURING OUR ENTIRE TIME TOGETHER

[amburuthings]

Thread of fate – Part 3 Part one • Part two (2016)

[arahul-abyssia]

Looks like it's September again (already, somehow), so that means that it's Nintember again, which means I'll be writing again! Same dealio as last time, one story per five prompts, up to six writings total. (And I'll be putting most of each under a cut, because mobile users can't skip posts)

And for my first entry for @starprincesshlc and @jklantern 's wonderful little event, I shall once again be attempting to twist some modicum of continuity, characterization, and canon-compliance out of a world that clearly cares scarcely for all three.

The Great Act

~~ Art, Green, Dizzy, Fire, Strength ~~

It was the loud buzzing of his phone’s alarm clock that dragged him from his slumber. He awoke to find himself sprawled across the couch, which was in no way long enough for his lanky body and spindly legs. As he blearily reached out and slapped at the coffee table, hoping to find the rude device by pure luck, he also blearily reached out and slapped at his memories, trying to figure out what series of events had led him there. For a moment, they floated just out of reach, and then suddenly flooded back to him all at once.

Oh. Right. It’s all over.

Another sporting event had come and gone, and as usual, in spite of all the effort he put into training and practice, he had ultimately lost to the same people he always did. No matter the sport, no matter the plan, no matter the time, they always won. And why shouldn’t they? The heroes always win in the end, always securing victory against the villains.

And he was one of them: the purple-clad counterpart, mirror, and supposed rival to one of the land’s most revered figures. Meant to oppose, and meant to lose.

He was Waluigi.

The name still sounded absurd to him. He had no idea how two men whose names were ‘Mario’ and ‘Wario’ and who naturally served as near-perfect foils of each other, had managed to meet and form such a publicizable rivalry without any deliberate effort, but such was the case. However, the notion that the brother of one had his own doppelganger in the brother of the other (or cousin, they never did manage to keep that story straight), with the same dichotomies of name, body, and personality? That was simply and utterly ridiculous, far beyond even the realm of ‘too good to be true’. And yet, if anyone had caught on, they hadn’t made it known to him.

Lost in thought and routine, he realized he had reached and opened his wardrobe, where numerous sets of that purple hat, shirt, and overalls were staring him in the face. In a sickening sense, they were the centerpiece of a great work of art, the fabrication that was his entire public existence, the character that he and Wario had constructed so that he might further be the ‘evil counterpart’ to everyone’s favorite red-clothed fire-throwing hero. Mario was stout and a bit fat, Wario was stouter and fatter; Luigi was tall and a bit thin, so Waluigi was taller and thinner. Mario had an M as his emblem, Wario had an inverted M; Luigi had an L, so Waluigi had an inverted L. To any casual outside observer, it was perfect.

But unlike Mario and Wario, whose rivalry had been formed in their youth, Waluigi had never even met Luigi until Wario had made him his sporting partner. The most he had known of the legendary Mario Brothers was just that: they were legends, for the countless adventures and quests they went on. In truth, despite how much he played it up during each and every game, he bore no true grudge against the man he was supposed to hate; Wario had, for a time, convinced him that Luigi’s presence in the public eye was somehow detracting from his own, but he had long since realized that that wasn’t the case; in fact, it often seemed like Luigi himself was being snubbed by the public, with the vast majority of the glory placed upon Mario, no matter how much Luigi contributed.

And yet, despite his existence being little more than a convenient story, despite the stress that constantly acting like a jerk brought, and despite always losing at the games no matter what, none of it brought him any sadness: for all its ups and downs, he felt himself to be rather good at keeping up the act, and the sports were, at the end of the day, still fun.

So why do I still feel so… bad?

Routine and thought had once more brought Waluigi elsewhere, and he found himself once more on his couch, now dressed in his usual outfit, with some sort of drink in his hands, probably coffee or tea; he didn’t care to determine which at that moment. His eyes casually wandered around the room as he brought the mug to his lips.

Then, just as the liquid touched his tongue--apparently he had managed to make tea out of coffee beans--the answer came to him. All across the room’s walls and shelves was sporting equipment of every sort--tennis racquets, shin-guards, helmets, golf clubs, old kart wheels, giant dice blocks, a probably excessive number of deflated balls--and absolutely no other sort of decoration. He leaned forward to place the mug on the table, and in doing so noticed his gloved hands and violet sleeves. Who wore the outfit of a character that they supposedly were not, every single day? Apparently, him.

He didn’t do anything else. He had let the character that was Waluigi consume his life to the point that had no idea who he was outside of it. He had nothing that he did when sports weren’t involved. Wario didn’t dedicate all his time to his rivalry; he owned an entire video game company--an unstable and poorly-run one, certainly, but it was nevertheless another use of his time. Mario and Luigi had their own grand adventures, of course, which is also what Peach, the Yoshis, Bowser, and his horde of minions were all typically involved in.

They all had lives outside of the games, and what did he do during the interim times? He either tried to practice, on his own, in the few suitable locations that he could find when the world was arranged for adventure, in a vain attempt to not lose as bad when the next game came around, or he wallowed in his home, doing absolutely nothing of any import.

But what could he do? Waluigi was never anything beyond a fabricated counterpart to both Wario and Luigi, but he could not remember, even slightly, what or who he was before he embraced that role. That nearly all of his memories prior to his first meeting with his partner were lost to him, was, he shuddered to admit, rather unsettling. Not even his old name--if he even had had one, he could not recall anymore--would reveal itself to him, and it was not as though he could simply find out through some external means: he was never the best at record-keeping, and to really sell their act, he had had his name legally changed to “Waluigi” and all references to his previous identity erased.

He shook his head, attempting to clear his mind of thoughts. There was little sense in worrying and fretting over who he was in that moment--the chance of any sort of useful epiphany emerging from it was even slimmer than he was.

Ugh… better just try to distract myself…

The first suitable option to catch his eye was the TV remote lying on the table. He quickly grabbed it and flicked on the set, and was immediately assaulted by the cheery enunciation of the Lakitu news anchors on the aptly-named Lakitu News Channel. He recalled that that was the channel he had left the set on last night, after he had gotten quite fed up with the incessant and inane blathering about the events of that day’s final matches, and it took only about five seconds to figure out that they were still on that topic. Scowling, he began flipping through the various channels available, hoping to find something interesting enough to block out the melancholic thoughts that were biting at his mind, like a hundred tiny Muncher and Nipper Plants.

After a painfully long series of more newsrooms--all talking about the exact same thing, of course--and unappealing shows--Half of these are for children and other half would just make me feel even worse!--he stumbled across some sort of advice segment hosted by a Birdo (was it the Birdo? He couldn’t tell). With absolutely no better options, he resigned himself to sit back and listen halfheartedly to whatever trite tips she tried to provide; maybe they’d be amusing enough to at least give him a small chuckle.

“I hope you all enjoyed our lovely guest! Now, before we move on to the submissions from all you wonderful viewers, I’d like to reiterate some old, but tried and true, advice, which I hold very close to my heart.”

Oh, here we go…

“Something which you probably hear very often is to always be yourself, or to always be true to yourself…”

Feh, I can think of several people who definitely shouldn’t do that…

“But it may be that you don’t like who ‘yourself’ is, or perhaps you don’t know what self you even have to be true to…”

Hah! As if… uh…

“And to that end, I’d like to say that there is always room for change. There’s always a way to make something new of yourself, to alter the parts of you that you want to, to become a different, better person. ‘Yourself’ can be whoever you want it to be; never are you locked along one unending bleak path. Try new things! Experiment! Don’t let yourself be trapped in an endless cycle.

“Believe me when I say I have personal experience with this: I’ve done so many different things over a rather short period of time, trying to find what I wanted to do with myself, who I wanted to be. Even now, I’m still not entirely sure if this is my supposed ‘calling’…! But I never got anywhere by doing nothing: it was on me to break out of my shell and search for myself, and now it’s on you to do the same.

“You don’t have to begin drastically, with a flying leap of faith--I think we’ve all walked over enough cliffs by now to know that!--but, if this is the sort of mindset you find yourself in, why not try taking some small steps today? It could be as simple as wearing a new outfit, or talking to someone new, or partaking in a new pastime.”

Birdo continued to elaborate on her point, but Waluigi--or, whoever he was beneath that--had stopped listening. He wanted to make some snark about what she said; he wanted to rationalize how what she described couldn’t ever apply to him; but, he found that he couldn’t. He had attempted to follow similar advice long in the past, and failed, but something about the way she phrased it, managed to affect him more deeply than he had thought possible. It was as though her words had dug beneath his shields and layers and pierced something somewhere in his core; pulled a lever, turned a handle, flipped a switch.

A strange sensation washed over him, one he could only describe as a blazing fire--nay, an inferno--igniting within him. He had felt the touch of flame countless times over the years, but not even the innumerable rage-fueled volleys he had endured, all combined into a single force, could compare to what now burned in his soul.

He leapt up from the sofa and ran to his bathroom. Staring at him from within the mirror was a character, a costume, a facade. It was not who he was. He grabbed a towel, dampened it, and proceeded to scrub away the pink paint on his nose; Wario and Waluigi’s noses were defined by that bright rosy color, but his was not. He then tore open a cabinet and grabbed his bottle of mustache product; normally, it was used to create the signature angular mustache of Waluigi, but today, it would shape the hairs into something softer and curlier. Whether that was what he would ultimately like did not matter: he was experimenting! He was changing himself!

Though the man that stared back at him from the glass now bore a much different visage, it was still framed by the purple cap and shirt, yellow emblem, and dark indigo overalls. He tore them off, then opened his wardrobe once more and threw all the copies of that same outfit to the ground. Hidden behind them were old clothes that he hadn’t worn for many, many years. He grabbed the first garments he saw--a casual dress shirt and gaudy neon-yellow shorts. Did those go well together? It didn’t matter. Without hesitating, he put them on.

He quickly glanced in the mirror again: the ensemble was nearly complete, but just missing one last touch. He thought on it for a moment, then stricken with brilliance, hurried to his modest backyard, where the roses he performed with in the games grew. He plucked one from its bush and affixed it to his hair, then ran back to the mirror to observe himself one more time.

His mismatched get-up would likely garner many stares from others, though he wouldn’t mind them at all; if he had anything in common with Waluigi, it was that they both loved being the center of attention. Even still, that’s not what mattered. A whole new day lay before him, a whole new day to be someone new, someone different; to move on from the cycle he had been stuck in, to take a whole new step forward.

He returned to the sitting room and turned off the television, then went to the front door. Taking a deep breath, he turned the handle, threw it open, and marched into the daylight, the daylight which felt far fresher and warmer than it had in a long time, though even it held no candle to the flame that continued to blaze within him.

Ready or not, world; here I come!!

[sending-the-message]

Why the birds migrated north by DenDanDo

Last time I remember Friday night being such a delightful feeling was college, and even that lasted until junior year. However one thing was different, and that was the lack of a goal to look forward to. I knew my life was only just starting, being 26 and finally being settled and single, but this is the beginning of the end, if I don’t find a better purpose than working as a Biologist in the town of Meteli, I will waste my life away.

Trying to get my mind off of the future, I attempted to focus on watching the news, as a very interesting story was being told. From what I heard, something strange is lurking in Meteli. The news anchor Jerome didn’t look very enthusiastic speaking of it, as if he doesn’t believe it himself.

There have been three sightings in Meteli so far, The anchor said before cutting to a woman being interviewed. Her name was listed as Elizabeth Jenkins,"I couldn't belive it," she said, "The thing had yellow eyes sunken into his face, a big smile with clunky looking but sharp teeth. Wings as large as himself!” Meteli’s winged creature was then seen consuming a bald eagle by Elizabeth. Other sightings include Mr. Patterson who’s dog was unfortunately taken by the beast, who proceeded to fly off with him.

I turned off the channel because I already knew what was to be said next, the story of little Michael. Mr. Selino told the story after a week of sorrow.

Michael is an 8 year old boy who was killed by “Meteli’s winged creature”, it was July 13th of summer, which was about a month ago from present day. Michael was alone, playing with his new kite his father gave him for his birthday. It was around 8:30 that his father wanted him back inside since it was getting dark, but Michael thought it wouldn’t hurt to stay out another few minutes.

And so did his father.

That was the worst decision Mr. Selino had made in his life. Watching through the window, smiling and thinking in his head I have succeeded, something swooped down from the sky, and with a face full of joy slashed little Michael right across his skinny little chest. It took a few seconds for Mr. Selino to react, but when he did, it was a stumbling, teary-eyed reaction. None of the doctors in the emergency room thought he would pass away that night, they weren’t even considering that outcome, they were too busy questioning.

Well, nonetheless, the scar was infected, leading to poor little Michael’s death. The doctors were to blame, as Jerome claimed they were questioning him more than treating his son. According to Jerome, the beast was about 9 feet tall, had a skull-crushing set of teeth, and always smiling, and had similar characteristics to what Elizabeth described.

However, I still don’t know where I should stand in this whole situation. The three reports on TV seem very believable, but many kids in Christopher’s school claim they have seen the beast, leaving me and him to believe it is just a big myth.

No, Christopher is not my son, he is actually my brother.

The day he became my responsibility two years ago was a very cold, windy day where it would occasionally drizzle, but no consistent rain. I was home alone with nine year old Christopher. I was still searching for the perfect opportunity in Meteli, living with my parents.

“Henwy.” he said, still having speaking problems at the age

“What is it Chris?”

He had a habit of telling me completely useless or irrelevant information to waste my time.

“Are you gonna leave Meteli?”

“I don’t know, Chris, maybe if I find a better job somewhere else.”

“Please don’t, I love you.”

I looked at him with slight disbelief in my eyes, he saw it too. But after few seconds, I could tell he wasn’t joking. I kneeled down, and stare at him.

“Chris, I don’t want to leave you, but you know mom and dad will take care of you, right?”

“Yeah, but you’re my rowe model.”

I smiled, then walked over to the ringing phone.

There are some moments where you don’t forget every detail, a strong memory that you wish didn’t exist. The one on the top of my list goes to the phone call that informed me my parents were involved in a car accident. It was date night for them.

It took a month before Christopher could go to school again, making him behind his entire class. After some tutoring from me, though, he caught up. Huh, I wonder if-

“HENRY!”

My thought was interrupted by a voice in the house.

It was Christopher, you can probably tell two things from this:

Yes, Christopher does live with me now, he has for the past two years His speaking has improved! He can finally pronounce his R’s right.

I couldn’t tell where he was at first, until he walked into the living room. I completely forgot he was home from school. When I checked my watch I was surprised to see it was already 7:00, but being August I shouldn’t be surprised why it’s not dark yet. By the way Christopher was looking at me, I could tell he was hungry for more than my terribly prepared steak. It was also the Friday of my first real job, so taking him out for dinner wasn’t a bad idea.

With the few seconds I had to think of an idea, I spouted the first thing that came to mind.

“Wanna go bowling?”

I was expecting an awkward response with a hidden message saying “no”, but I was surprised to see him quickly respond.

“YES, I’LL GO GET READY NOW.”

This put a smile on my face, me and Christopher haven’t had a good bonding moment in a while, and I figured bowling could kill two birds with one stone.

After putting on my ripped up jacket that I’ve had since college, still smelling like my old dorm, I made my way back to the living room where the front door was located. I saw Christopher impatiently waiting for me. I smiled, and we walked out the front door.

...And this is where it starts, where I realize something IS odd about Meteli, something supernatural. You see, I’m a biologist, and I would know if something in the ecosystem and environment has changed.

The feeling of winter was exactly the same as last year, and all previous years, but one element was the different. As I saw the wind blow the final leaves off of the dead trees, squirrels collecting their final acorns for hibernation, and the feeling of the cold air freezing my face to the point where I didn’t feel like speaking, I saw the birds. I see em every winter, flying south to warmer climates, but this time…

This time they were migrating north, the exact opposite of where any birds want to go. Staying up north during the winter would mean staying in the freezing cold day and night. I’ve never seen anything like this, why would they do this?

Before bringing up the strange event to Christopher, I thought about it.

Is this really the mood I would like to set for this night?

So I shook my mind off of it, if I even remember it maybe I would discuss it with my co-workers who would laugh their asses off assuming I don’t know north from south, but that wasn’t the case. North is always forward from my house, and south backwards. Convenient, right? I had Christopher sit front seat with me, smiling as I walked to the other side of my Toyota and got settled in.

But the ride wasn’t as exciting as I assumed it would be, these weird thoughts kept coming up that I heard from the news.

So far there are 7 kids missing in the past 5 months, please, if anyone ever spots these faces, report immediately

Huge rat population increase as tertiary consumers fall in the food web.

Meteli’s winged creature, myth or real?

No, Meteli’s been the exact same since I moved here at the age of 13, and it isn’t changing, this in the news always seem strange. Once again, mind washed of weird thoughts, I focused on what I was currently doing.

Luckily Christopher didn’t notice anything strange about me, he was just staring at the window of the car looking outside.

“Henry, is there a monster in Meteli?”

Without looking at him or even considering my response, I said,

“No, we would know for sure if there was. You see Henry, if there was some weird creature out here, what would it eat? Where would it live? No signs of any major ecosystem changes.”

I hoped he would understand what I said and acknowledge it, but no.

“How about the missing kids? And Michael.”

“People can... see things when extreme situations occur, and kids go missing all the time.”

“Okay, so I “saw something” a week ago?”

That’s when I looked at him, but making sure to stay mostly focused on the road, this isn’t going to be a ‘My parents part 2’.

“What do you mean? What did you see? More importantly, why are you telling me this now!” Regretting some of what I said, he responded,

“I saw something Henry, but I didn’t want to tell you because you would think I’m weird.”

At the red light, I grabbed his hand.

“You can tell me anything and I will believe you.”

After he contemplated whether or not he should tell me, he finally began.

“Last week, I could have sworn I saw something by my window, the shadow of the thing was visible through the walls.”

I continued to listen, trying to keep an open mind.

“...Then the shadow figure looked at me, and I was so scared I hid under my blankets until it flew away.”

“W-was it in your room?”

I tried not to show the slight disbelief in my eyes.

“No, he was outside my window, just looking at me. Was it the monster Henry? Is he here?”

For a second, my thought began to change, but I shook my head.

“Hallucinations, did you eat something weird?”

“No?”

“If you’re ever scared, just come to my bedroom okay?”

He nodded his head, looking slightly disappointed, and to be honest I was disappointed in myself, I mean seriously? I could have at least attempted to believe it really happened, and what if it really did? Christopher said it like he truly meant it happened. That’s one mistake so far this night.

Once we arrived, the conversation we previously had was cleared from both our minds, hopefully, because it was for me. Christopher was sprinting to the door, I laughed and told him to slow down, it was a poury day. I quickly erased the thought of my parents death as the weather reminded me of it.

Like I always do.

The night was fun, I felt like a child again and I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say the memory was ruined by what happened next, if anything, it enhanced it and taught me to stop being a pussy and running away from things and face them.

As we were walking out of the bowling alley, stomachs filled with pizza and slushies, talking and laughing, we heard a scream. It was coming from the opposite side of the building, so I sprinted over there, telling Christopher to come along but to stay behind me.

I stand by the decision for Christopher to come along and see a little girl get her neck ripped by a tall winged beast, though, because now we both experienced the truth.

“MY BABY GIRL!” The mother screamed.

We didn’t know what to do but to just watch, as it turned it’s head towards us, head slightly tilted to the right. The mother of the what looked to be a 6 year old was just crying, holding her little girl in her hands, as she bleed out. The beast with the terrifying face flew off after we got a good look at it.

I didn’t even notice my phone out recording in my hand, it made me feel guilty for some reason.

Christopher looked so frightened, I took him back to the car in a hurry. Yes, without even helping, without even calling 911 or anything. Once again I ran away from problems. That was the second mistake I made that night.

I was sick of it.

Christopher sat in the back seat of the car on the way home, and I couldn’t tell if it was because he prefered it when scared, or if he didn’t want to sit with me because he was upset that I didn’t take action. I had to do something. I have to deal with this Meteli situation myself. No more running away.

On the drive back I was juggling two ideas in my head, trying to decide which plan to execute. One one side, it was to tuck Christopher into bed and tell him to get rest. On the other, I would talk to Christopher about the situation and how I was going to take action. Then the thought came back to my mind.

No more running away, face it now.

Easy decision, talking to Christopher.

We both exited the car and walked in the house through the garage, but I stopped him before we entered the house.

“What?!”

He said, after proceeding to look over his shoulder.

I didn’t say anything, instead I closed the garage door and pulled out two plastic chairs we used to use when we watched the fireworks on Independence Day. I began to speak, about everything, about what could be going on in Meteli, about the birds…

“No, what we saw was real, it wasn’t a hallucination Chris, what I said to you in the car before we arrived was bullshit, something is lurking in Meteli, something strange.”

“Is it a monster?”

“We can call it that if you would like, but nonetheless, it is an organism, at it has to survive off of our ecosystem somehow.”

Christopher didn’t perceive my message I tried to get across to him through what I said, so I explained it.

“He is an animal, he has to eat, he has to drink, and he needs a habitat.”

“HENRY, you aren’t saying-”

“Chris, you don’t have to come, but i’m going to take down this thing no matter the risk.”

I could tell he understood I am finally taking matter into my own hands, after all I am now a witness to a… murder? So Christopher nodded his head, and I was surprised to see he still found me sane, and that he found my decision to try and defeat Meteli’s winged creature wasn’t arbitrary at all.

“So why not report what we saw?”

Chris still looked nervous about my plan.

“Without tangible evidence, how do we prove we saw it?”

“Didn’t you take a video?”

This got me reaching into my pocket, without the thought of sending this to the police. I looked at Christopher before playing the video, asking him if he was sure he wanted to see the horrifying video again. He agreed to look away, leaving me to have to watch it alone.

“MY BABY GIRL”

There it was again, the thing staring at the camera, then flying off… flying off to the hills!

Aha! The old temple of Meteli, where kids used to go make forts when it rained until the structure grew old and began to break down. It was always a journey to climb up the hill and reach the temple, but after years of being untouched, the forest became home to many more organisms and contributed to the ecosystem of Meteli. I specifically remember the Science Department of Meteli on the news stating that the hills and temple ‘unsafe’ for kids and even adults, telling people to stay away from it as people might destroy the ecosystem..

Maybe if I reported to only the scie-

No, I have to remember, by myself. I was a bit too excited about what I recorded. After plugging “Meteli’s winged creature” into Google, I couldn’t find anything about it flying to the temple, meaning I am withholding evidence, which is illegal. I quickly explained to Christopher.

“He lives in the temple, Chris, he lives in the temple and he feeds off of the ecosystem in the hills.”

“Doesn’t he eat humans?”

“No, he-”

Wait a minute, why does it kill humans?

“No, he eats…”

It was in my mind somewhere floating around, what was it..?

“EAGLES, it eats eagles, it’s a quaternary consumer Chris!”

I was proud of myself for putting pieces together, of course the one piece floating in my mind about why it kills humans bothered me. But of course, it couldn’t just eat eagles, it probably eats multiple tertiary consumers in the food web, maybe some secondary. Christopher looked confused, so I explained the food web, and why the secondary consumer population is rising, how Meteli’s winged creature is nothing more than an animal, fitting into, but heavily affecting the ecosystem.

“CHRIS”

I say, as he begins to understand the whole situation.

“I KNOW WHY THE BIRDS MIGRATED NORTH”

At this point, Christopher was so confused he didn’t even look like he was listening as I spoke. I even forgot we just witnessed a violent killing with all the excitement. I finally found the purpose I was looking for

“In the video, his habitat! The degrading temple in the hills!”

“Henry it’s not just an animal, why would it kill humans?”

Once again he reminded me of the missing piece in the puzzle that bothered me. I went over everything I knew so far with him.

“Remember Chris, i’m a biologist, I know this stuff. His habitat is at the top of the hills near the road taking you downtown. His role in the ecosystem is a quaternary consumer, as he eats the tertiary, making it the top of the food web. Now I don’t know where it came from, or what it is, or why it kills humans, but it seems to be a nocturnal creature, meaning it is out there feasting right now.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Relax Chris, like I said, it doesn’t eat humans, it-”

Then it hit me.

“It kills humans for sport…”

Finally, Christopher began to perceive everything at once, it all made sense to him.

“We have a- a monster in Meteli who likes to hunt humans for the fun of it. It’s smart, and i’m going to greet him when he comes back to his little home in the morning.”

“What? You’re crazy! It’ll kill you instantly like it kille-”

“I’m going prepared, dumbass.”

Christopher started shaking his head.

“No, no, my brother’s gone crazy.”

I rolled my eyes and got out some poster paper with a pre-sharpened pencil to begin my planning. That was of course, after I grabbed my Monster energy drink from my mini fridge under the desk. It was going to be a long night and an even longer morning. Before I started to draw out an outline for my plan, some other ideas started to come up.

“Chris, you said you saw it at your window that night, correct?”

“Yeah but you said it was a-”

“NO, I was wrong, so you saw it? Are you sure it’s what we saw tonight?”

“Yes, for sure, the shadow.”

My mind was going crazy with thoughts, but I finally understood. Smarter animals behave more like humans. They start looking for more than food on the daily basis, they look for sources of entertainment. Dogs who catch sticks, cats who play with yarn, and dolphins who have sex for fun.

“It scares and kills for fun.”

I spoke my thought outloud unintentionally. Christopher, who finally pulled out his own chair while he watched me think said,

“What? And how do you know all this stuff suddenly?”

“It’s basic Ethology.”

“Nerd.”

I gave a fake laugh, and Christopher knew it. Quite frankly he was still shaking over the whole incident with the little girl who got her throat slit by the claws of the beast. And while I was too, I was also caught up with my thinking.

So I wrote it all down.

It lives in the old temple of Meteli It feeds off of the ecosystem. Nocturnal, as it hunts and plays at night, no reports of activity during the morning. Description: Wings twice as large as it’s whole body, curved back, always smiling with yellow eyes sunken into face, spread apart skull-crushing teeth, wrinkly with no fur. Truly horrifying Kills for sport and scares for fun Missing children probably dead after venturing to temple.

That last one was just a thought, not an actual evidence based fact. With all of this information, I formed a quick plan with a map jotting down locations and times. It was out there right now, and I had a lot of time before it would go back for it’s rest. Best to catch it by surprise while it’s tired from hunting. I just had to remember, it’s smart, it knows not to get caught, I was the only one who knew all this information. When I finished my plan, I showed it to Christopher, who was shocked.

“Wait you’re actually going through with this?”

“Yep.”

“Alone?”

“Yep.”

The plan was simple.

Plan execution time: 6:00 AM, Saturday

It had to be when dawn breaks tomorrow.

Arrival time: 6:30 Equipment: - Flashlight - Net Gun - Energy Bars - Camera - Garden Hoe

It was either catch it with the net gun I received from the lab, or kill it with a dull garden hoe. I’m hoping plan one works out, if I could bring this thing in alive it would be much better. This was a risk I was willing to take, and it was more for me than Meteli or Christopher.

“What if you die? I can’t lose you Henry! Stop this!”

“Chris, i’m doing this no matter what you say.”

“What if I tell on you?”

“I will never trust you again.”

This gave Christopher more of a reaction than I had hoped for. Then it happened, I saw the expression on his face that I wasn’t expecting, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to see. I heard it in my head before he said it.

“You’re not going alone, i’m coming with you.”

“No. Final answer.”

“It’s either that or I snitch, sorry Henry, i’m doing this for you.”

“Do you realize how dangerous this is?”

“Yes, we are literally hunting a monster.”

I corrected him in hopes to make this less serious.

“First of all, ‘I’ am hunting an ‘organism’.”

“Stop using fancy biology words!”

I smirked as I began to rethink my decision of leaving him alone at the house.

“I do need a camera man…”

Doing it for US, not me… I corrected myself this time. So it was going to be a duo adventure, but why risk Christopher’s life?

“You’re going to be the cameraman, nothing more. If I die, at least you need to show what happened and everything we know.”

“But you’re not going to die.”

Of course that was something he was just saying, but he looked to confident in his statement, like he had something planned. I ignored my instincts, first good decision that night.

“We still have eight more hours Chris, you can go to sleep.”

“Don’t think I won’t wake up, I have a hidden alarm and I always wake up to go to the bathroom.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smiling. I decided it would be a good idea to get some sleep, so I set a 6 hour clock. I usually have a hard time waking up, but after the 6 hours was up, I instantly stood on my feet, chugged a new energy drink and walked back to the garage. It was 2 more hours until execution, so I had time to gather my equipment and rethink my plan. Everything seemed perfect, I had my route planned, no escape plan, though.

And I didn’t need one.

Before walking over to Christopher’s room to wake him up and train him before going out, I thought to myself. Do I really wanna bring my eleven year old brother into this? Yes I do, I don’t want him to grow up a pussy like me. He needs this as much as I do, I have to remember, this is a duo.

To my surprise, he opened the garage door. I flinched, like I said, i’m a pussy. He spoke first.

“Are we really doing this?”

“You don’t have to come.”

That was a test, I wanted him to come at this point.

“No, I have to.”

Yes you do I thought to myself.

“Then let’s take down that motherfu-”

KRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Christopher’s sentence was interrupted by a shrieking sound coming from who knows where. One thing I knew for sure was the whole town could hear it. Meaning the news will be on it soon, and the Meteli Science Department are going to investigate the sound.

Shit

This wasn’t good, but it was still 4:30 AM, meaning I would get to it first. They probably know nothing of it, or haven’t bothered to investigate. I’m guessing it’s door number two. Don’t ask why the Meteli Science Department don’t investigate a monster, nobody does, they work their own ways. Some are afraid they could be doing inhumane experiments in the lab, but i’ve been there and I can say they probably don’t.

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

There it was again, the horrifying sound that sends a chill up my spine and hurts my eardrum.

“Uhm is that him?”

“Probably, but Chris, we don’t know it’s sex yet.”

The next hour and a half was me speaking to Christopher about precautions to take, and not to get close if something bad happens. He didn’t like that one.

6:00 AM

It was go time, we had all our stuff in an old but not damaged hiking backpack we used back when mom and dad would take us up to Yosemite during the summer. I miss those days. As we walked out the door, outside wasn’t the same. No it wasn’t. The smell was the first sense that got me thinking. It was a smell of decay, something you smell that only brings bad thoughts to your head. Then of course the weather, yes it was 6:00 AM, but it doesn’t get that damp in Meteli during the winter. The worst was the sense, it’s hard to explain, but just by being outside you knew some evil spirit took unwelcome residence in Meteli. I looked into the sky to see no birds. There was the possibility that we wouldn’t need to greet the beast, and it would come to us, so I told Christopher to begin the recording. I could tell by his hands that the recording would be very shaky. Oh well.

6:15 AM

I could see the temple now, we heard the cry from the beast two more times so far, but no sightings. Why is it making sounds this morning all of a sudden? Maybe it can sense it’s death to be near. It cannot be that strong otherwise it wouldn’t hide that much, but that only proves his intelligence to be superior.

6:30 AM

There wasn’t much to set up other than Christopher’s positioning. I made sure it was an angle where he could escape and get some good footage. That is if it actually comes, the thought of my plan failing kept slipping away from my mind. I was too sure it would come, it doesn’t know me, it only got a glimpse, I haven’t made any moves towards it so far. This was my one shot, otherwise I would have to report to the science department and have a whole investigation started. At that point it would probably leave Meteli. Maybe that’s for the best. I tossed Christopher an energy bar across the dark inside of the temple that has been breaking down as time has passed from my childhood. People used to go up here and pray for their crops, but during our generation it was the norm to hang out here. Now there is moss growing everywhere and water dripping from the ceiling. I figured I had time to shine my flashlight around before it arrived, and maybe find so-

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh no, it was close. Shit, if I only thought earlier to look around and make sure this was the right location. If I recall correctly, though, it doesn’t have any fur, so maybe it sheds it’s skin. Maybe the missing children he probably brought up here to-

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It was here…

7:00 AM

First this I did was check to make sure Christopher was okay, and he was. He was still shaking, but he had a good angle of recording. He looked at me with wide open eyes, and I signaled that everything was okay. The important thing was to keep calm during this whole thing.

At this point I could hear its footsteps and demonic noises. It was right around the corner, I could see his enormous wings cast a shadow when he landed as sunlight from dawn broke on the mossy stones leading to the temple. Each footstep the beast took towards the dark entrance accelerated my heart rate, I knew that either a new beginning or an end was near for me. Christopher was shivering in the corner, he put the flashlight down so my face was no longer revealing.

I could see it now. It doesn’t just smile for show, it always smiles, that’s part of its facial feature. Indeed it was about 9 feet tall, I could see blood stains on his chunky teeth, meaning it just finished it’s dinner. It had black rings around its two eyes that were sunken deep into it’s head. Oddly enough, the head proportion was off with it’s body.

As the creature was about to step it’s razor sharp clawed foot into the inside of the temple, it stopped.

My mind snapped at that moment.

Shit… It’s nocturnal, meaning it can see in the dark.

7:30 AM

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It didn’t fly, it didn’t open it’s wings at first. The thing launched it’s entire body at me like a torpedo at the speed of a train, pinning me against the jagged walls where I couldn’t see anything but the light at the entrance of the temple. I resisted, and realized it really isn’t as strong as I thought. Still, it kept me against the wall, sniffing me all around, especially my hair for some reason. Christopher shined the flashlight at me and did exactly what I told him not to do, he interfered. “LET GO OF HIM”

“SHUT UP CHRIS”

It quickly turned around, and with the flashlight on me, I could see its claws out and ready to finish me off. He already damaged the back of my head and scratched both of my arms leaving them to bleed. Christopher started running over, which was dangerous because I no longer saw fear in his face.

My backpack

Of course! I was still wearing it, otherwise my back would be bleeding in pain from the impact. This distraction gave me time to pull out my net gun.

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It was focused on Christopher, now, but didn’t attack him. Like I said, it was smart, it knows something is planned so it began walking slowly towards him, spreading his wings out with suspicion in his face, but still keeping his blood stained smile. Christopher was walking in his direction as well.

Chris what the hell are you doing

I thought to myself, but didn’t let it distract me. The net gun was huge in size, but what really made it inconvenient was the weight. I pointed it towards it and screamed to get it’s attention back.

But it didn’t even flinch, it just kept walking towards Christopher, and this is where he realized what he had gotten himself into as his legs began to tremble. It was loaded, but the damn gun was jammed. I smacked it against the smooth surface hoping something would happen, as the thing was inches away from tearing my brother’s face apart.

Got it

I turned towards the thing, and pulled the trigger. Before the net even came close to the thing, it yanked it out of the air, and dropped it, just like that. I knew it wasn’t enough to catch it, but maybe if I could have at least limited it’s mobility.

“HENRY DO SOMETHING, KILL IT”

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It held Christopher up by the neck with one hand. My hand grasped the garden hoe before I even realized I had one, hell, I forgot the whole plan with what was going on. I charged at the tall beast before it could tell what I was doing. I ran faster than I ever did in any of my P.E. classes, and swung harder than any baseball bat I ever held in my life.

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH

The sharp end of the hoe dug deep into it’s back, making it let go of Christopher. He fell to the ground.

“Ow”

The beast screeched a loud cry, I could no longer see the smile on it’s face, instead I saw an angry expression, from yellow to red glowing eyes in the dark.

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The scream made the whole temple shake, some stone was falling from the ceiling that me and Christopher had to dodge from severely damaging our head’s. It yanked the hoe out of it’s back, revealing its weak side, but I knew it was in a greater rage than ever before. It spread its wings, but no longer had the strength to fly. The focus was all on me, now, it couldn’t care less about Christopher, and the hoe was way out of reach for both of us.

KRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I could tell it was ready to finish me off, its claw was raised, my throat was out, but then it smiled. It still had its red eyes, but smiled as it reached one of its fingers to the left side of my throat.

Why hasn’t it killed me yet, why is it taking so long?

But of course! Meteli’s winged creature is a smart being, it’s gonna take its sweet-ass time to make me suffer the most for making it suffer. The first cut leaking blood down my neck was already too much, I knew I was done for. All I needed to do now was to signal Christopher to get the hell out of here. Where was the bastard?

BOOM

8:00 AM

A hole went through the back of the creature's head, then it collapsed onto the ground. Its wings were flat on the ground, body flinching, with a smile kept on its face. The smell of smoke traveled up my nose, making me realize what had just happened.

I looked up to see Christopher, a flashlight in one hand, and a handgun in the other. No words would come out of me, so he spoke first.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to use it.”

He saved my life so I wasn’t going to bitch at him for having a gun and not telling me. The gun he held was the one our father kept in his drawer on his side of the bed just incase. I completely forgot about it.

“I hid it under my bed after mom and dad died because I wanted to use it on myself.”

“What? Chris? And you never talked to-”

“You didn’t seem like you wanted to talk after what happened.”

I looked at the body of the monster that Christopher had just killed. It was over, the monster that’s been terrorizing Meteli for who knows how long. No more screeches or movement came from it, instead it lied ther-

“OH MY GOD, HENRY COME OVER HERE.”

I rushed over to the direction Christopher was pointing the flashlight. What I saw made what Christopher just killed more than a monster.

The skulls of the 7 children it took were neatly aligned below the stone altar that’s built into the temple. There were spiders in the eyes that made it their very own home. It was truly disgusting. Luckily that was the only decoration it had in its ex-home. I walked over to the body while Christopher was tugging on me as he wanted to go home, I handed him an energy bar, and he rejected it, we both felt too sick. After just fighting the monster of Meteli, I wasn’t scared of touching it. Its wrinkly skin was very cold, it-

No, SHE was definitely dead. I requested the flashlight from Christopher as I saw a weird marking below its belly. Some sort of birthmark or scar- maybe?

“Holy-”

It wasn’t a birthmark or a scar, it was stamp, and it read:

Property of Meteli Science Department

Crack

That was the sound of one of the enormous eggs in the corner of the temple.