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aaronfj77 · 8 months ago

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The Monster Slayer

I remember the day the mighty Monster Slayer arrived at my village.

They had told stories of the fearsome warriors, clad in shimmering Armor. Carrying weapons fit to carve a monster from claw to fang. When the cart began bumbling up the cobblestones of the village, tossing grass and pebbles to the wayside, I had imagined a massive cage to cart the beast away in. Yet it was a simple covered cart that tinkled and clinked as it was pushed forward.

That’s right.

Pushed! It wasn't being pulled by any calamity or foul beast made to bend to the whim of the slayer, but was instead being pushed happily along by an older gentleman. Who when wiping his brow from the steady heat, made a sort of whistling sound. His hair and beard were both white. He wore green suspenders over a simple cotton shirt that had longer sleeves he had rolled up and buttons down the middle. He had shiny metalic frames that enclosed his eyes in an orange shimmered glass.

Far from our towns savior.

The town dragon in the north western caves had become quite rowdy. She had started hissing out steam at all who would pass. She even almost ate one of Mr. Leary’s sheep on one hearding afternoon! Something had to be done about the beast before it devoured the entire town! The village had called on the local lord to send us someone willing to do what needed to be done! Not this, simple old whistling fool. Yet, this “slayer” that had been sent surely wasn’t up to this task.

How wrong I was!

The small white bearded man just kept pushing his cart towards the mouth of the cave and inevitability towards the mouth of the Dragon. His whistling alerted the Dragon immediately. The growls and rumblings could be heard for miles. The very fields quaked as she sensed an approach. The man simply continued to push his cart merrily closer. About thirty paces from the entrance, he began to shout into the cave! I couldn’t hear what he was yelling but he seemed to be arguing with the dragon!

She would grumble and shake houses near by, he would in turn yell right back in a tone that could only be described as petty annoyance. The Dragon ended their verbal fight with a roar that caused boulders and rocks to slide down the mountain side. Once the slide was over, the man huffed and walked over to his cart.

When he removed the cover on the cart, I became briefly blinded. Bits of metal and steel shimmered like beacons under the high sun. Finally! Here was our mighty slayer! The cart had to be filled with sharpened Elorian Steel and thick armor made to withstand a Dragon’s tail spikes! Or at least strong enough that your bones don’t all crack at once when the tail hit you.

When the shimmering died down and I could see the cart again, I quickly became annoyed once more. Yes, there was some metalic objects but much of it was bottles and small steel tubes. The clinking hadn’t been weapons or armors but vials and steel tools that I didn’t quite recognize. I had once met a traveling alchemist that had similar such items but nothing to this caliber.

He pulled from his cart, a single item, so small I couldn’t even see it in his hands. I moved closer to observe and saw as the elderly man planted the item in the ground at his feet like a seed. Much like a seed in fact as seconds later a sprout popped from the ground with such velocity it shot dirt in a few different directions. Then the old man mumbled something about time.

He reached for one of the vials on the cart, pulled a dropper and added a single drop Into the vial. He held it up to the sun and began to swirl the liquid around. Smoke itself began to rise from the vial and once it was billowing quite a bit, he poured its contents onto the sprout.

In the time it had taken him to turn and put the vial back on the cart, a fully grown nymph had grown from the sprout. She was a creature I had only seen rough sketches of. A woman made of tree or a tree made to look like a woman. I could never tell which they were supposed to be.

She immediately smacked him on the back of the head with a whispy one of her branches. He grunted at the injury and began arguing with the nymph! I couldn’t make out many words from the man but it seemed they got into a heated discussion about timing and something called “sedation”. I didn’t fully know the term but I could tell it was quite important.

As the man started working away on his cart, the nymph began to grow things off of her branches. She grew leaves that looked like snowfall mixing with fresh blood, a fruit that curved at its base and cycled between seeming blue or green depending on how the light hit it, and finally she grew from a spot just above her right shoulder, a massive seed.

A hard-shelled seed with long hairs sticking out of it. As she handed them to the man, he would add them slowly to what he was making. For the leaves, he ground them into a pale pink paste which he smeared inside of a jar. He took the fruit, peeled off the exterior using the first weapon I had seen him bring out, a paring knife like the one my mother used on Potatoes. Once it was peeled, he sliced the fruit into thin pieces and dropped them into the jar with the paste.

When she handed him the seed, he took extra care to hold it away from his body. He placed it into a clamp on the cart. As he pulled a lever, the clamp tightened around the seed and a thin stream of liquid started to seep from the bottom. The man, using tongs, picked up the jar and held it under the stream until it was about half full. He released the lever and the clamp stopped juicing the seed.

He placed the seed, now drained, into a tight woven bag that he put back on his cart.

He placed a sealed lid on the glass jar and began to shake it! He shook it up and down and back and forth. When he was done with his spasms, he paused then shook it again. Once he finished that time, the nymph smacked him again and gestured for him to shake it one more time. He shook it a final time, then abruptly stopped.

He walked to the mouth of the cave, and again, he yelled as fiercely as the beast had before. The nymph shook her head and walked away from the cave just as the old man placed the jar down on the ground and walked away to join her. No fighting? No battle? I had thought surely, he was making some kind of strange explosive but no such force came! Instead, the creature itself came forth.

Deli’strua, the golden dragon beneath the Thunderpeak mountains, strolled forth from the maw of the cave.

I… I didn’t think I would get to see her alive.

I don’t know anyone alive in my family who has ever met the great dragon. I figured I would see her being carted away after the fight. That she would be limp and gone. All fire from her eyes and lungs gone.

Instead, for the first time in seven generations of my family, I saw the dragon.

She made the opening the cave, that for my entire life had loomed above everything but the peaks and the sky themselves, seem like such a small space. Like a dog barely fitting through a small opening in a door. She fully stepped out of the entrance and as she did the sun blazed off her golden scales. Over lapping like thicker larger scales of a fish, they shined almost as brilliantly as the sun itself.

Her shimmering form leaned down towards the jar the man had placed. Her mouth opened, and instead of flames hotter than any hearth could ever be shooting out and eviscerating the jar, the dragon’s tongue scooped it into her mouth.

I thought for a moment if the glass would hurt the dragon. If the jar broke inside, would the shards still cut her? Surely not. The heat inside her chest would probably melt the glass back to nothing more than a thought.

So that was how this dragon slayer worked. He was a poisoner who worked his sword from a distance. Concocting strange potions like a coward. Nothing about this man was like the legends had said. Surely enough, the dragon laid down on the ground mere moments later. She curled her massive body around herself like a cat by a fire, shimmering like a pile of breathing gold. She laid there and did not move again.

The man and nymph walked back to their cart and began to argue again. I assumed it was about how to move the carcass away from the village now that the beast was slain. Once the man pulled a large silver tool from his cart, I understood for certain what was happening. This man was going to stab the dragon after he had already killed the beast. The nymph must have been trying to stop this wicked man from disrespecting such a magnificent creature. She couldn’t and he continued to approach the beast.

As I watched, I noticed something else. The Dragon was still breathing! Its body had a steady rise and fall that I had only noticed after watching it for some time. He continued to approach the Dragon, walking directly towards its head! A cruel malevolent man to put a beast to sleep then kill it while it could not defend itself! Much worse than stabbing the body after your kill! Such as the way of this strange man.

Fool’s die heroes in their minds, while only the wicked survive.

When he got to the creature’s head, he began to climb up. Did he intend to stab the beast in the eye? He lifted the creature’s mouth open.

Let me not try to confuse you.

This strange old man, seemed to, with direct intention put himself into the great dragon’s mouth!

He extended a tool from the bottom of the lip to the top holding it in place above his head.

Up until this point, I had been looking from a nearby hill, but I found myself slowly creeping forward to see as much of this strange interaction as I could. I stumbled down the hill and nearly fell completely on my face as I made my way down the slope.

The nymph noticed me now and walked over to help me up. I took her branches in hand and looked upon her in wonder. She seemed to be speaking to me but the only sound I heard was that of winds blowing through an empty wood. I told her as such and she nodded and smiled almost sadly.

We both turned back to the man and the dragon. He at this point was applying some kind of paste onto one of the dragon’s teeth! The fang itself was twice the length as he was but he applied the paste to everywhere he could reach. When he was done, he wiped his hand on a towel and put the paste away again. He grabbed the beam holding open the mouth, removed it, and slowly climbed back down. He then simply walked away from the beast! He didn’t strike it, or stab it! He left the beautiful dragon simply sleeping as if she had just fallen asleep there.

When he saw me, he jumped slightly. It had been a larger reaction from the old man than from when he yelled at the dragon!

He walked right past me to get to his cart without saying a word. He put everything away at double pace. I wished to ask a question of the old man even if it came at risk of argument as it seemed all things did with him. I asked simply what he had done to our dragon. Had he actually poisoned her or had he done something much more benign? He just shook his head and mumbled something without looking at me. I asked him to repeat himself and he said in a much clearer tone than before,

“Just a toothache.”

I asked him further, what exactly he had done to help?

“I gave her some juice from a juliepit seed, it put her to sleep long enough for me to apply some numbing antibacterial paste. It will help with the pain. Will you leave me alone now?”

I asked one final question of him. If the seed and paste on the tooth was the only things necessary to help, then what was everything else he put into that jar? He shrugged and looked at me with annoyance.

“Flavor.”

As quickly as he arrived, he pushed his cart away whistling quietly to himself. The nymph gave me one final wave then ran after the man and walked alongside him and his cart. I watched them leave, utterly perplexed by what had happened. When they were out of sight, I watched the dragon. She slept until just before sunset. When she began to stir, I ran quickly up the hill again and hid behind a tree until she fully woke up. She yawned her massive maw and smacked her lips. I watched as she ran her tongue around the tooth the man had worked on. She sighed in what I know from personal experience regarding toothaches, was relief. I figured she would go back into her cave as she always had, but when she took flight, I was struck by her awesome form. The now distant sun shimmering barely of her scales was fought by the now bright moon turning them into a pale blue as she flew into distant skies.

I don’t think I could ever forget the day the monster Slayer came to our village.

#writers #writing #creative writing #dragons #fantasy short story #short story #writeblr #oc #like a medieval vet #monster slayer #monster hunter

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thedarkwithinusbook1 · 24 days ago

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The Dark Within Us - "It's In Our Blood"

North Chaseville Lofts - II -

Home was a place I knew I could go to after an awful day. Sometimes I'd feel as if I had really let the world down, and my mother would be there. It would be some of the smaller things, school or girls, and sometimes it'd be issues that made me existentially terrified. Whatever it was, she was there for; no matter what I needed, or didn't need, she never pried or made it into a big thing. She just knew how to help me ground myself and regain control again. I loved her for that, and I was always happy that she was in my life.

Today was a different type of existential terror.

I went up the stairs with Matt, making my way to my mom's apartment. My feet lagged, each step that I took feeling heavier and heavier. I wasn't sure what terrified me more: going home after what had just happened at Heavenfall, bringing a monster-slaying stranger into my mom's apartment, or telling my mom everything without being called a liar.

I felt Matt reach up to my shoulder from behind. "Hey," he said softly, "are you gonna be okay going up there?"

I stopped at the top of the stairs, just down the hall from my apartment door. I sighed, then turned back to Matt. His eyes stared up at me with a type of concern I hadn't expected from a boy I just met. They were kind, concerned, but also...tired. I took a deep breath. "I just...don't know what to do now," I said to Matt.

Matt nodded softly, making his way up the last step of the stairs, meeting me eye to eye. "This is your next move," he said. "Everything has changed for you now, but you can choose to pretend this world doesn't exist, or let your mom in on what's going on."

I scoffed, slowly making my way down the hall. "My mom wouldn't believe any of this," I muttered. "She'd think I was on something."

Matt chuckled. "Sure. She might. She could believe everything you tell her, too. You have to decide whether it's worth it to let her know that much."

I nodded, weighing my options. Lying to my mom was one thing, but admitting a dark and insane truth as monsters of darkness attacking me at my school, a place of holy worship, was something I couldn't put into words to her. Growing up in a Catholic household proved difficult some days, and this was one of those days. With doubt in the beliefs I was raised to put my faith into, I didn't know how to bring any of this up to my mom.

When I finally got out of my own head and cleared my thoughts, I realized I had made my way to our front door, and Matt had been right beside me this whole time. I could've told him to go away, and make himself scarce, but a gut feeling told me I'd need him beside me for this next bit. I let out a deep breath, and found myself knocking at the door, awaiting my mother's response.

"Ronnie?" I heard my mother call from inside. "Espera, mijo; it's locked," she said. I bowed my head, waiting for her to come to the door. I could feel Matt standing tall and strong next to me. He had so much more mettle than I ever did. I'd like to blame school, or my extracurriculars somehow, but I couldn't with a literal demon hunter beside me.

I heard the door unlock, and let out a sigh of relief. The front door opened, and my mom stood on the other side of the door with a faint smile on her face. She glanced at Matt briefly, then stepped back to let us in. "Hungry?" she asked.

I smiled, and turned back to Matt, who nodded. I shrugged. "Sure, mom." We walked into the apartment, and I wondered why my mom didn't question Matt's presence. Matt followed behind and closed the apartment door, entering the small place I called home. My mom's pieces of furniture were all second-hand pieces; stuff from her mom, or her dad, or her mom and dad's parents. They were the grandparents I never met, and never would've even been able to share stories with because of the language barrier between us. It never bothered me, though, because I always had Mom around.

Matt glanced around the apartment and smiled. "I like this," he said, gesturing to a tapestry up against our wall. I chuckled, nodding at the Virgin Mary imagery on the tapestry.

My mom looked up at Matt, head poking over the kitchen counter with pots and pans on top. "It's pretty, no?"

I sat down at the kitchen table behind the couch, and watched as Matt wandered around the living room. As I stared at him, I felt a strange familiarity with him, as if he had been in my life all along. Once he entered my thoughts, the reminder of the attack at Heavenfall came rushing in; the flashback shattered in my mind like broken glass. I felt numb as all I could see was that monster's face as it ran towards me. My legs were shaking and my arms were shivering.

"Ronnie?" my mother called. I gasped, and suddenly she was kneeling down next to me, holding my hands in hers. "Breathe, mijo, ok? Don't forget to breathe." Matt stood beside me, hand behind my back. I could feel his hand rise and fall with each heavy breath I took. My mom patted my hand and stood. "Tea," she said.

. . .

I wrapped my hands around the warm mug, watching the steam rise from the cup. Plates of rice and chicken were placed around the table I sat at. Matt and my mother sat beside me, each slowly eating their plates of food. I struggled to lift the mug from the table. I could feel their eyes burning into me, staring to examine my condition. Concern, sure, but...I hated feeling weak.

Matt cleared his throat. "Thank you for the meal, Mrs. Reid," he said. "Super good."

My mom waved him off. "It's just leftovers," she scoffed. "But call me Lorena. I never took Ronnie's father's name."

I glanced up, noticing Matt's eyes perk up at this detail. He nodded slowly, chewing his meal as he turned back to me. I looked back at my mother, surprised at what she said. She almost never talked about my dad.

I pushed my mug away, then built up the courage to finally speak. "Mom," I croaked, "I...was attacked today."

My mom's knife dropped from her hand, clattering against her plate. She turned to me with wide eyes. "Who attacked you?" she asked. "Where was this? Why are you just NOW telling me this?"

I stammered, struggling to find the words, when Matt chimed in. "Lorena, it's my fault," he said. "I, uh...wasn't quick enough to defend him. It was really bad, and I think it was kind of a shock for Ronnie too, you know?"

I listened as the two began to discuss Heavenfall's safety parameters, and how Matt waltzed right in as I had been attacked, but the school had no other security detail, despite its hefty tuition rates. The two ridiculed the institution's lack of initiative on the matter when I shook my head. "Kind of a shock?" I muttered. "It was a demon, Mom."

My mom and Matt turned back to me, the conversation between them trailing off. My mom leaned closer. "Demon?"

I turned to Matt, who gave a slight nod, then back to my mom. "A demon," I said. "I don't know what happened...Matt, over here, knows a little bit more, but yes. I just...feel like I'm losing my mind."

I sat there, trying to control my breathing, when I noticed the glances my mom shared with Matt. Something began to feel strange again. I didn't know what it was that they knew, or that I didn't know, but I was sure that something was beginning to be kept from me. Was I becoming crazy? Paranoid, even? Maybe. Maybe I really was losing my mind, but how would I know? Do crazy people know that they are crazy?

I turned to Matt. "Is what you told me real?" I asked. I watched for his response.

Matt chewed his spoonful of rice and swallowed. "About?"

I struggled to speak as I opened my mouth and softly croaked, "About...the Darkslayers?"

Matt took another spoonful of rice and nodded. "Oh, yeah," he said with his mouth full of food. "Yep. Race of warriors, darkness and hearts of light, all that."

I blinked in utter shock, then turned to my mother, whose reaction surprised me just a little bit more. Rather than also being in shock, she frowned. She looked...upset. "M-Mom?"

My mother looked up at me, eyes welling up in tears. "Lo siento," she said. "I...I hate that this is happening."

I felt my face grow numb as I felt a sense of panic. "Mom, what is happening?" I asked. "Did...you know this would happen?"

My mother pushed her plate of food away from her, then sat up from her chair. She walked around the dinner table, making her way towards the hallway. She approached one of the doors; her bedroom door. "I don't have all of the answers for you, Ronnie. But Matt here can help. So can your father."

I gasped as I watched my mom open her bedroom door. "My father?" I cried.

My mom stepped to the side, and out came a tall, heavy built man with dark hair and gray sideburns. His beard was a mix of gray and black with stubble reaching over his lips and cheeks, and his eyes were dark with bags under his eyelids. His hair was clean cut, and the white button up shirt he wore was neat and form-fitting, revealing how fit he seemed to be at his age. He smiled weakly at me. "Hi, son."

I almost choked on my own vomit seeing this man. I had grown up almost never seeing or knowing my father. As far as I knew, he had just vanished. He was never around in my mother's life, and seemingly never needed to be. She worked so hard being a single parent, being both my mother and my father in his absence. I never felt the need to ask about him, nor did she ever seem to want to bring him up. He was an enigma of sorts; a piece of history I was never taught, and never bothered learning either. And now he was here in my kitchen.

He cleared his throat. "Are you oka-"

"17 years," I growled, cutting him off, "and today is the day? This is when you decided to come on by?"

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. Matt suddenly leaned closer to me. "Ronnie, take a breath. Hear the man out."

I shrugged Matt's hand off of my shoulder. "I don't even KNOW you, man! Six hours ago, you didn't exist, and my father was a ghost!"

"Shh, Ronnie, no," my mom said, hushing me. "You don't know the whole story."

"Apparently not!" I cried out, feeling my numb fingers clenched tightly. "My entire world has just gone to hell, and all of you are treating me like a child who knows nothing, and I'm realizing that I don't know anything, and I don't understand why or how long it's been like this for!"

My mom rushed to my side and held me tight. Her long soft hair draped over my head like a blanket almost. "Mijo, escucha...it's really him. And he knows what to do."

The man smiled at my mother, then slowly came around the kitchen table. He brushed past Matt, then kneeled in front of me. "Your mom did everything for you, Ronnie. I...wasn't here. I wanted to be, but life had different plans for me." He glanced at Matt, then sighed. "I didn't know what it was like to have a son when I had you, but now that I'm here..." He turned back to me, with a weak smile and a single tear dropping from his eye. "I want to make sure you never have to feel the way you did today."

His voice was deep and low, but almost soothing. I turned to face him, just a little bit, as he nodded and continued. "That fear of death is...something that awakened you. It's in your blood; our blood. It showed you what this world can truly be like, but unfortunately, that looming fear is something that you inherited. Matt has it, and I have it...and now, you do too."

I glanced over at Matt, who stared down at his feet, arms crossed over his chest. I could see him nod slowly at this detail, as if he had endured what I endured today. I sniffled, wiping a tear away from my face, then pulled away from my mom, who stroked my hair before stepping back. I cleared my throat, then spoke. "W-what do you mean, inherited?"

He smiled. "Well...Matt explained, didn't he?" he asked, turning to Matt.

Matt sighed. "Hyperios; the last few warriors left facing the resurgence of Darkness. Robert here is a Hyperios Darkslayer, and I am too." Matt turned to face me. "Ronnie, so are you. That's why today happened."

I nodded at Matt, turning back to Robert. I stared at his wrinkles, taking in his facial features across his aged face. His eyes, his faint smile at me told me what I was afraid of. I didn't know if I trusted this man, but the longer I stared at him, the more I knew...he really was my father.

My mother stepped close to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. "Sweetie, he's right," she said. I looked up at her, still in disbelief of everything. "When I met your father, he...would tell me stories. He fought monsters, and lived a very hard life. I didn't know all of this when I fell in love with him, but...then I had you." My mom sat in a chair beside me. "I didn't know if this life was one I wanted with him, where I'd always be on the run with my baby. But Robert knew he had to do what he was born to do, but take care of his son as well."

I blinked at this last note, son, when my mother waved her hands around the apartment. "All of this, all that you have, and your time at the Academy, would not have been possible without him. I only make so much, so thankfully Robert would help pay for what you needed." My mother turned back to Robert. "He did what he could as a father without putting you or me in danger."

Robert nodded. "I didn't want this to be the way you found out, Ronnie, but it's where we are now. The resurgence of Darkness is emerging from the West, and it is here, and now it has a hold on you." Robert stood up, reaching for a bag placed beside the couch. "There is little time for us to destroy its source while also showing you what it means to be a Hyperios Warrior, but it needs to be done."

I was at a loss for words. After the day I had, after what I saw at Heavenfall Academy, and after all I had learned in the span of an hour, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and forget about it. I wanted to forget everything; about the monsters, about Matt, about the demon slaying race of warriors, and about my estranged absentee father who decided to invade my life and ask me to destroy a source in the West. Before I knew it, I was already up out of the chair, and I had walked straight into the bedroom.

Maybe my mother and Robert called after me, but I wasn't listening. I tuned everything out as all I could hear were my own thoughts, and blood pulsing through my ears with each beat of my heart. My head was throbbing, and my mind was racing. What the hell had my life begun?

A knocking began to fade into sound as I broke out of my thoughts and glanced at my bedroom door. I could hear a voice faintly speak on the other side; "It's Matt. Can I come in?"

I sighed, and called back to Matt, "Yeah." Matt slowly cracked the door slightly and slid into my room and quietly closed the door behind him. He smiled, taking a glance around the room. I had random medals and trophies plastered across my shelves and walls. "You...were on the debate team?"

I scoffed softly, amused at the question. "Yeah, I was."

Matt nodded, smiling at the medals, bringing one close to him in his hand. "And baseball," he said, impressed. He glanced at another. "But that one is for track?"

I sighed. "I did a lot of stuff throughout school," I admitted. "All of it kept me busy, but I liked it."

Matt turned to me and smiled. "I can see why it would," he said. "It's like, all of the practice and dedication it took to get where you did paid off in the end, but why stop at succeeding once?" He waved his arms across my wall of medals and trophies. "You can't stop once you get good, can you?"

I smirked, nodding at Matt's flattery. "I guess, yeah."

Matt nodded, then made his way to my desk chair and sat down. He turned the chair to face me, then sighed. I felt the pressure of what he was about to say. "Y'know, I've known Robert for a really long time," he started. "Most of my life, really. I wish I grew up like you, to be honest. All of this, all you did in your life before today, it all seems really fulfilling. Growing up, all I had was bloodshed. My parents died at the hands of some Darklings, and Robert saved me. He took me in, raised me and trained me to be a Darkslayer like my parents were."

I shuddered at that last detail before Matt chuckled. "Yes, Ronnie, my parents were Darkslayers, and they died. A lot of us die, and a lot of us have died, but running with Robert has taught me how to live well enough to survive, and I'll be the first to admit, it's a miracle I made it as far as I have. I, uh, couldn't have done it without your dad, Ronnie."

I let Matt's words sink in; the truth of the matter was that as much of a ghost he was to me, my father was a true hero for others. I couldn't have known that, but now that my life was in danger, he had come to save me. My father, essentially a stranger, came back for me, and I was expected to leave my life behind to journey with him.

Matt leaned forward, reaching for my hands and grasping them softly. It caught me off guard, but then he spoke. "I get the hesitation, man. Going on a road trip down a road that'll lead to certain death is not the best reunion for your dad and you, but...for the last few years, he has done NOTHING except marvel at your successes and tell me how much he misses you."

I felt tears finally well up in my eyes. I hated believing any of this was true, but suddenly, there felt like there was nothing but sincerity in his words. Matt truly trusted Robert, and he truly believed Robert wanted to be back in my life again. I cursed the fact that the only circumstance in which this was happening was due to my surprise duty to fight supernatural entities, but...this was my life. I looked up at Matt, and nodded softly. "I just...I don't want to leave my mom behind," I admitted.

Matt smiled softly at me, then nodded in agreement. "If things work out, you'll be back in less than a week, and your mom and you will be alright."

I gave my room one more glance, gazing at the memories I've made living in Chaseville with my mom. The little neighborhood parties we went to on holidays, our mornings at church going to Spanish mass despite me not knowing any Spanish, our lazy nights ordering takeout from small local food trucks, all of it was at risk of going away forever. If things worked out, my mom and I would be able to do all of that all over again. Hopefully.

Suddenly, a knock came from my bedroom door. "Ronnie, are you okay?" called my mother.

Matt sat up from the bed and turned to me. I sighed, gesturing to Matt. "Yeah, ma, I'm here."

The door cracked open, with my mom poking her head through. She glanced at Matt and smiled. "Mijo, you mind if-?"

"Y-yeah," Matt replied softly. "I'll let you two chat." Matt walked to the bedroom door, where my mom held it wide open for him to leave the room. She sighed, entered my room, and closed the door behind her.

My mom approached me. "What, um...what are you thinking?"

She sat next to me on the bed and placed a warm hand over mine. I sighed, searching for the words. "I...think I...always knew?" I shook my head. "I mean, like, I always had...a feeling, I guess, that there was something strange going on. Not about dad not being around, but with feeling different. Like, things were perfect, but almost too perfect for me, I think. I never thought about it until recently I guess, but things were always like that. Always...perfect."

My mom nodded. "They were, weren't they?"

I shrugged. "But none of it was real, was it? This is real. Monsters, and dark whatever, and needing to go out and stop them from coming back anywhere."

My mom sighed. "Yes, mijo." She glanced around the room for a moment before continuing. "You...don't have to go, though." I looked up at my mom, surprised. She placed her hand on mine. "This life doesn't have to be for you."

I considered her words, and considered the options. Stay home, forget any of this ever happened, and continue living life as I knew it, or…

And that's when I realized, I would never be able to forget any of this. How could I?

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