He sent a quick note in draft format (so it could be deleted immediately after reading) to Jer in shorthand over their shared video game messaging app. All he wrote was, “IRL, fnd way to rdm your fthr’s name. MOAR LTR!”
With his mind reeling and a spring in his step, Jasper slipped out of his lab and headed toward the steel checkpoint bridge, which guarded passage between the North Brother Island monster borough and the South Brother Island mini-utopia. The bridge was nicknamed “Purgatory” because it led to either heavenly suburbia or a hellish slum.
It was impossible for a monster to acquire two-way access, and damn near impossible for a human to come and go as he pleased between the two islands. Jasper had received a special permit, largely due to his work and recent success at creating medications that specifically improved monsters’ health at both a low production cost and a high retail value.
He’d been frolicking and playing house among his test subjects and friends without restraint and was treated well by all manner of monsters once he started smuggling meds to them at lower cost. Eating, drinking, and fucking turned into long nights which turned into finding himself in underground clubs and the fulfillment of desires that most people could only dream of.
With eagerness and trepidation, Jasper moved through the checkpoint and across the bridge, headed to an underground spot named The Maw that was located directly under a restaurant called Fin and Fowl.
Twilight descended over North Brother Island like a cloak as Jasper trudged down an alley that was slick from a late-afternoon rain. He stopped only once, hearing the sound of footfalls. Glancing over a shoulder, he spotted the outline of a figure at the other end of the alley. From out of the shadows appeared a tall beastnik with two horns sprouting from the dome of his head and fangs protruding from beneath his upper lip.
Jasper blinked, and when he looked back, the creature was gone. Turning, he hustled forward and spotted the entrance to the Fin and Fowl. At the entrance stood a hulking beastnik bouncer. All seven-foot-three and three hundred pounds of muscle and oversized bone, the creature placed a paw on Jasper’s chest and demanded ID.
Jasper’s eyes narrowed, then closed. There was something in the air, a nearly imperceptible tremor, the kind of faint vibration carried on the wind moments before a thunderstorm. Jasper didn’t know what it meant, but he flashed a smile at the bouncer along with a greenish orange metal coin, a signal that he was permitted to party in the borough and not a threat to monsters. The bouncer waved him past, and Jasper ambled down a set of rusty stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs was a landing and wooden door that Jasper shouldered open. The bar on the other side of the door was veiled with smoke and noisy conversation that melded with the banging wooden sticks against a drum head.
Jasper waded through the clubgoers, watching a scrawny single-horned beastnik smacking a drum kit perched on a dais. The kid was thundering away; he was a monstrous Buddy Rich, flashing speedy wrists. Jasper smiled and clapped, getting nods and smiles from the other creatures who’d seen him before.
He threw up a hand to a bartender who slid him a shot of Wither, the amber-colored hooch that beastniks loved. It smelled of meat, cloves, and fire, and tickled the back of his throat as he downed it. Two more followed and soon Jasper was feeling rather randy when a hand wrapped around his leg.
Jasper looked down to see that it wasn’t a hand at all, but a tail. The woman attached to the tail was lithe with the neck of a swan and feathery skin that was firm yet delicate. Her flesh was flawless, the color of burned copper, and when she smiled, her presence seemed to pierce the air in the room. She was a harpy; she had a human face, but was also part bird with claws and wings. By any standard, Celine was a creature of unparalleled beauty.
“Late as always,” Celine said.
“It just so happens that I made a breakthrough tonight, my dear,” Jasper replied, his hands trembling with excitement at the thought of what he’d uncovered.
“Care to share?”
“And breach my Big Pharma confidentiality agreement? Are you trying to get me killed?”
“I’ve tried several times and failed,” Celine answered, miming shooting at Jasper with a finger gun.
Jasper conjured a smile and downed another shot. Then he took Celine’s hand in his. “Has anyone ever told you that you are the most beautiful person on either side of the river?”
“You have,” she replied, “but don’t let other humans hear you talk like that. You know how they are about calling a monster a person.”
“You think I give a shit what other humans think of me?” Jasper joked. “And, by the way, I mean it. Every time.” He winked.
“You also say one day we’ll go away from here.”
“And one day we will.” He grinned like he knew something she didn’t.
Celine tugged her hand away. “You are a duplicitous, repugnant little creature, Arnold Jasper.”
“I’m a man.”
“Difference without a distinction,” Celine said with a smirk.
Jasper pulled something out of his pocket. It was a genetically engineered rosebud in a tiny clear box. He and a colleague had created the flower on their lunch breaks. Jasper blew on it and the petals opened. He placed the rose in the middle of Celine’s palm.
“Why do I always find a way to forgive you, Jasper?” she asked.
“Because you love me.”
“I hate you.”
“They say hate is the most primal emotion, on an equal footing with love. Basically, if you hate someone it’s biologically no different from loving them.”
She laughed. “You’re so full of shit.”
“Ah, but I made you laugh, didn’t I?”
She blushed and Jasper tapped a finger on her nose. “And that, lovely, is why you always find a way to forgive me.”
Celine pocketed the rose and took his hand, leading him toward a spot at the back of the bar. She waved a hand in front of a small scanner and section of wall opened to reveal a narrow passage.
Jasper followed Celine inside and across a catwalk ending in a spiral staircase. The walls were tagged with graffiti that read “Matthias Lives,” and “Fuck Doc Will,” as well as the usual phone numbers, scrawled declarations of love, and unusually-shaped dick drawings.
At the bottom of the staircase was The Maw, a wide lounge populated by beastniks and a few humans, mostly politicians and other people of high station, some of whom sported masks. They only mingled in the shadows, not really fully welcome here, but their crypto currency always was.
Celine led Jasper forward. Onstage were several horned, obviously female forest creatures that looked like fauns instead of demonesses, cavorting to the sound of a brassy band. Beastniks and humans, breaking the rules by their very presence here, danced, drank, and laughed together. Some lurked in the corners of the room, beyond the light and prying eyes, engaged in solicitous fondling and touching–for the right price.
Separate from the others, Jasper and Celine danced to the music for what seemed like an eternity.
Later, Celine led Jasper, sweaty and slightly disoriented, past a large wooden table at the back of the club and into a room where the walls resembled Japanese shoji, translucent paper stretched over wooden frames. Silhouettes could be seen through the paper, but making out details was impossible.
Celine lit three incense sticks and powered up the room’s surround sound music as a backbeat began echoing. Jasper removed his shoes and leaned back on a cushion, grinning, half-drunk, and high from the “incense,” which clearly contained something more powerful than was strictly legal. The lights went down, the only illumination provided by a series of votives in glass cups along the walls.
Celine removed her clothes and began dancing sinuously to the beat.
Jasper marveled at her athletic body, her firm skin, and unblemished breasts which heaved with every thrust of her hips. In seconds, she was atop the man. He looked up at her, sensing an almost feral percolation emanating from
her. He knew from his research that monsters emitted more powerful and stronger-smelling pheromones, which provoked sexual attraction. Knowing the science behind it only served to bolster his lust. He loved the idea that biological instincts drove his desires. The more he felt like he was a product of nature, the more animalistic his yearnings became.
He tried to lose himself in the moment, per usual, but his thoughts about his discovery kept intruding. He loved Celine, he truly did, despite his affections for other women—or possibly because of the others. Everyone else tended to make her stand out more, but what would happen when his discovery got out? Would she still have feelings for him, or would it change everything? More importantly, would she be safe? In his estimation, the only thing that would possibly serve to lessen the shock would be to tell her ahead of time, before the whole world found out. After stewing in his anxiety for several more seconds that seemed to stretch into hours, he finally made his decision. Yes, yes, the moment was right. He not only should tell her, he wanted to share it with her.
“I have to tell you something,” he muttered.
“Not now, sexy man,” she cooed.
“I found it,” he whispered.
She stopped and looked down at him. “What?”
“It! I found it, my love. I cracked the biological code. I found the secret to everything...”
Her eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”
He readied to tell her, but he heard the sound of rushing air and then a loud thump. The words collapsed in his mouth as hot blood sheeted his face.
Celine collapsed on top of him.
A quarter-sized hole punched through her chest.
Jasper gasped and scrambled backward, staring at Celine’s motionless body. He yelled for help and heard more muffled gunshots. Figures were visible through the translucent walls, coming toward him.
Jasper did his best to hide beneath Celine’s body, careful not to move. His eyes welled as he stared directly into her unmoving eyes. Loud footfalls took two steps into the private side room, followed by a loud puffing and snorting, like that of a hound sniffing out a scent. Another torturous moment passed before the source of the terror left the room and continued rampaging through The Maw, killing indiscriminately.
After climbing back into his clothes, Jasper retreated to the rear emergency exit, barefoot, as silenced bullets hissed and snapped past his head. Not a fighter, and certainly no match for whatever horrific creature was destroying what he loved most in this world, he exited up a staircase at the back of The Maw and ran out through a rear alley into the dark of night.
Everything about this was off. Tragic, yes, but the attack also didn’t make sense. There was more than met the eye. Monsters weren’t allowed to have guns of any kind. And yet, Celine was shot, followed by a monster of some kind breathing and huffing as it sniffed inside the small room. There was most certainly something strange about the attack. This was something new and dangerous. Whatever was behind the senseless violence could unravel everything.
Jasper realized that he’d made a terrible mistake in not sharing his discovery yet. If the attackers found him, it was possible the world-changing discovery would never see the light of day, and things would go on as they had for the last decade or so.
He picked up his pace and ran as fast as his merely human feet would carry him. He was devastated by the loss of Celine, but he didn’t have time to grieve or even give the emotions he was feeling room to breathe.
The memory of her collapsing into his arms, while making love only moments before, played over and over behind his eyes. The only reason he’d managed to slip out was that her lifeless body had concealed him long enough to go unnoticed. The thoughts caused him to stop running and retch, vomit covering a pothole-filled side street.
As he wiped his mouth, he realized this was a targeted attack. Someone was going after a specific person, and must have known humans would be at The Maw. Could it have had something to do with his research? How could he have been so wrong as to think he could keep his discovery from GenAdvance? He knew they were monitoring his research and had keystroke loggers on his workstation, but he was careful to encrypt the actual equations. They didn’t have his actual formula breakthrough yet. If that was true, and they’d come to the bar to force it out of him, that meant he was responsible for Celine’s demise. He stopped to retch again.
As he finished, he heard someone walking down the street and spun on his heels, taking off in the direction of the old post office. He and Jer had a secret dead drop site there for passing messages about GenAdvance and their combined research. As he ran, he tripped over the large feet of a drunk monster. Jasper tumbled to the sidewalk, scraping his elbows and bumping his head. The monster fell from the impact, and grunted as he landed.
The monster pushed off the ground, and picked up a stained cap with a logo for Monster Mashers, a defunct football team that was exclusive to monsters before global containment. He tapped the cap back onto his head. Two knuckle-shaped horns stuck out of the cap through torn holes in the fabric. He smiled at Jasper, displaying a mouth full of yellow, serrated teeth.
Jasper wasn’t sure whether to be frightened of the monster or relieved that it wasn’t the attackers pursuing him. The drunk monster shoved a finger into Jasper’s chest, his long, sharp, and ragged claw drawing blood through his shirt.
“The fuck are you doing in this part of town?” he asked.
Jasper stumbled backward, trying not to show too much fear. “I-I j-just need to get to the post office,” he stuttered.
“Hasn’t been used in years,” the monster slurred. He lurched forward and hovered over Jasper with foul-smelling breath. “Why the hell would you need to go there? Something’s fishy.”
“As far as I can tell, your breath is the only thing fishy,” Jasper snapped.
A long, painful moment passed between them. Then the drunk monster planted his paws onto his belly and let out a raucous laugh. “That’s good. You’re funny. And mean. I think I like you.”
Jasper flashed his charming grin as if he’d just performed for an audience, causing the drunk monster to laugh again. “Happy to be of service,” he quipped. “I also write dark humor eulogies if you ever need one.”
“Nah,” the monster belched. “I don’t care who shows up at my funeral, since I won’t be there anyway.”
Jasper chuckled. “Good one,” he lied. “Right. Because you’ll be dead, so not there. Nice.”
The drunk creature grinned from ear-to-ear, emitting the detestable odor toward Jasper, who did his best not to recoil.
“Okay, it was good to meet you,” Jasper said, “but I really am in a hurry.”
The monster grumbled and slid down against a brick wall onto his ass. “Fine. Well, the company was good while it lasted. Good luck, little guy.”
“Thanks,” Jasper replied, and dashed down an alley, grimacing as his bare feet were nicked by rocks and bits of glass. He sprinted past monster pimps and escorts who catcalled him.
Jasper paused at a street corner. He spotted the battered post office across the street.
The building was ringed with rusted razor-wire. Piles of debris and crumbling bricks lined the perimeter.
Jasper rushed over and wedged himself through a gap in the razor-wire. He stumbled to the side door with broken hinges. He scratched his hands on the splintered edges as he pushed through the small opening between door and frame and finally entered the post office.
The interior was dark and deserted. It smelled sterile. The air was drier than outside.
Jasper scurried down to the section with post-office boxes. He scanned the boxes and stopped when he found the one spray-painted ‘M.D.’
He pulled the box out and delicately placed a small wooden box inside, along with a scrap of paper. He’d been carrying these, and had meant to leave them with Celine, but this would have to do for now.
As quickly as he entered, Jasper rushed back out of the post office. He slipped out the way
he came and dashed in the direction of Purgatory, the bridge that divided the world of monsters and humans.
From the roof of the post office, something large watched the little man below as he beat a hasty retreat. Jasper labored past, not noticing a dark form gliding overhead and across the rooftops behind him.
The guards at the entry to the bridge were busy chatting and didn’t notice that Jasper was barefoot as he shuttled through the checkpoint.
A final guard, a bored grunt, checked his identification and scanned him for the Transhumana Monstrare genetic code. After a series of beeps and hums, Jasper was cleared, and the guard waved him forward.
Back on South Brother Island, Jasper limped up a long driveway that ended at a monolithic glass building perched on a hill. The research facility was the tallest building on GenAdvance Hill. An illuminated sign read: “GenAdvance: Community, Identity, Stability. One Gene At A Time.” The official purpose of the facility and the labs within was to identify monsters with contagious strands of Transhumana Monstrare, as well as to research potential vaccines and “cures.” The truth they didn’t show on the news was that they were tasked with finding real and fabricated flaws in monsters so that they could in turn develop and sell the shit out of medication.
After the global corralling of monsters into containment facilities, they’d essentially become indentured servants for GenAdvance. Their strength and unique abilities that had given them an advantage in several industries for centuries was now the cause of their enslavement. In turn, GenAdvance was taking back what little pay they were given for basic sustenance through medication that was sometimes necessary and most times not.
Jasper held up his corporate badge in front an automated sensor, causing a flash of green light and a clicking noise. He punched in his passcode, and a scanner at eye level sparkled across his eyes, clearing him for entry.
Inside the GenAdvance headquarters building, thick glass offices lined either side of long, winding corridors.
Monster M.D.: A Monster Girl Harem Mystery Thriller (Monster M.D. ) Page 2
