by Shaun Meeks
The next few seconds are like a dream. Not one of those good ones where you’re a superhero flying or laying down with some perfect beauty. This is one of those nightmares you have where you’re running at something, trying to get away from whatever is chasing you, and yet no matter how fast you go, the goal just stays the same distance away. You cry out and run faster, but you get no closer to your goal. It’s how I feel as I try to get out to the light of day, hoping to escape the Colossus that wants to eat me.
The bag on my back feels as though it weighs a ton; it slams against me and bounces up and down painfully, but I won’t toss it aside as my only real hope lies in there. The crashing behind me gets louder, but I can’t stop and don’t dare to look back. Even as the world behind me explodes with a sound of demolishing brick and drywall, I don’t stop. Bits of debris hit the backs of my leg and my head, but they’re nothing compared to the way I’ll feel if I let the Colossus get me. So feet, don’t fail me now.
The door is right there, in arms reach and that’s when I feel a gust of wind rush behind me and know the beast is right there and it just took a swipe at me. It cries out again and I’m sure it’s close enough to make contact this time, but I’m at the door, finally at it and I should be fine. I’ll be out in the open with more places to run, so I should be able to get away.
That’s my hope, anyway.
I get one foot out the door and suddenly my feet aren’t on the ground anymore. I’m flying through the air for a split second and then my body slams on the cobblestone walkway. The wind is knocked out of me and my body is pinned there with the weight of the monster on me. Damn it! I can’t let its skin touch mine. I do remember that they’re poison. I can’t let it—
My head feels a little light and I’m having trouble breathing. It’s the heaviest thing I’ve ever felt, how I imagine a car would weigh if it was on me. I start to gasp for air as I struggle to get free without letting it touch my bare skin. There are people all around. I can’t see them, but I can hear their screams of terror as the monster lies there, no doubt about to bite my damn head off. I need to get out. I have to use my size as an advantage and wiggle through some spot. I pull my hands into the sleeves of my shirt and decide to move backwards, knowing the thing has small legs.
“Get your phone out and film this, bro!”
I hear the voice of some idiot calling out for an Instagram or YouTube moment and hate that. Sure, don’t help, video the fucking thing.
I get half a foot down from where I was and it’s only then that I notice the Colossus hasn’t actually attacked me. It’s not really fighting or doing much of anything. That is until it starts to scream like a banshee and thrash around. My right leg gets battered under the gyrating motion, but I use this time to figure out a trail of escape and move. It’s a close call, nearly getting my head crushed by the tree trunk thick elbow of the monster, but I get out in one piece. I jump to my feet, check to make sure I’m fine, and then look back at the Colossus.
It’s not good for the monster.
The flesh of the creature is bubbling, hissing as it goes from black to a grey and moving closer to a clear white. It’s as though someone coloured him in with a marker or crayons and now it’s playing in reverse. Clear foam boils from the monster’s mouth and its eyes begin to pop and drool down its colourless face, moments before it finally turns to dust. When it’s all done the remains look like nothing more than an old fire pit.
The last of them are dead.
Finally.
“You okay, dude?” someone asks to my left, and all I do is nod absently. “What was that thing?”
“Special effects,” I tell him without really thinking about it. “We’re filming a movie here.”
“Really? Cool!” he says, not bothering to wonder where the camera is. More than likely he’s a big stoner who’ll forget about this in a week or two. Around him I hear murmurs of bullshit and what a liar. A woman close by says something about a government conspiracy, but since there is nothing else to prove otherwise, no evidence left of the monster other than what they have on their phones, what are they really going to say?
For me, I stare at the ashes a little longer, trying to work out what happened. I should be dead. There’s no way I should be alive while the Colossus’ are all dead. Normally I give credit to planning and knowing what I’m doing, but this was all dumb luck. Every bit of it. There’s no way I should be standing there when I don’t even know how the thing died.
I don’t know how long it takes me, but out of the blue, as I look at the faces of the crowd in the fading light, I get it. It was right there in the book.
If all else fails to fall them, the winds of the dragon wing or the fire of Ra will extinguish the life of a Colossus
I wish I had just done this for all of them. Would’ve been much easier and maybe Godfrey would still be alive. Man, that kind of hurts just to think about. Sure, we’ve had some issues in the past, times where I was sure he’d sold me bogus goods and nearly got me killed, but I’ve known him for so long. He was one of the real constants in my life, and now he’s gone.
The crowd slowly thins out as there’s nothing left to see. The monster is gone and the action is over, so it’s back to having a good time and drinking for them. Once they’ve all moved on, only a few lingering close by, I decide to go back into the old warehouse. I can’t just leave Godfrey there. Not only will it raise way too many questions if he’s found, but in the end he was a friend and I can’t let him just rot there.
I head in and carefully walk down the nearly ruined stairs. Seeing the destruction the Colossus made has me in awe. In a way, I feel bad for them. Here these creatures were, ancient beings that lived on Earth long before humans started to walk, and in the span of a few minutes they’re wiped out by me. It’s not their fault that some asshole called them up and they were forced to fight for him. They had no free will in the matter and that makes me feel for the creatures. I’d kill them again if put in the same situation, mind you. When it comes to live or die, I always chose the selfish way.
Still, I can’t imagine what it’s like to just do because you’re told, never letting your own choice guide you. Even with my job there have been times when I’ve bent and broken the rules. There’s always the chance that I could get in trouble, but I won’t do anything that doesn’t feel right or will do more harm than good. In the end, I listen to my heart as well as my obligation when doing anything.
Once I get downstairs I’m hit by a horrid smell. I walk through the room and find the smell is coming from the boiling ooze of the dead monsters. There’s a smell of sulphur and dirty feet, all mixed with the overwhelming reek of cooking cabbage. I cover my face and head over to where Godfrey fell. I’m guessing when I get to him I could try to carry him up the stairs, but not only is he too heavy, but I won’t get two feet out the door before more people come running over with their cameras and stupidity.
“They dead?”
His voice finds me before I find him and I can’t help but smile. I move quickly to where he is and find him leaning against a wall holding his side, clearly in pain.
“How bad is it?” I ask, as I kneel beside him.
“Bad, but I’ve been through worse. You get them all?”
“Yeah. Last one burnt up in the sun.”
“Good. And the shadowy man?”
I shake my head. “No luck there. He’s long gone.”
“Well, at least you got Garcia’s kids and the rest of them.”
“Rest of them?”
“The kids. They’re here, alive.”
“Where?” I ask, and look around, but see nothing.
“There’s a false wall over there,” he says, and points to his right. “I can hear them breathing so they’re alive.”
“That’s a neat trick.”
“I have a ton of them. There’s a lot about me you don’t know, Dill
on.”
“Okay, well, I need you to get out of here before we do anything about them. You think you can walk?”
“I guess I’ll have to try.”
Godfrey gets up and I see he’s bleeding from a few spots, but at least the cuts appear superficial. That’s a good thing. It takes him close to ten minutes to head back up to where the terrible bridge between the buildings is. I give him a few more minutes before I head back to where the kids are. As I go down, I pull my phone out and dial Garcia’s number. He answers it right away.
“Dillon!” he yells out as he answers, and I can tell he’s been crying. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but—”
“Thank you so much! You saved my boy, and I’ll never forget this. Never in a million years. I will—”
“That’s all well and good, but you need to listen. I need you to get back here as fast as you can, bring EMS with you, too.”
There’s a pause and I know why. I’m no psychic, but he has to be terrified at the idea of returning to this place. After what he’s seen and the fact that his son was nearly killed, coming back here is the last thing he must want to do.
“The kids are still alive. They’re here,” I tell him, knowing that’ll get him into gear.
“All of them?” he asks, and his voice cracks.
“I don’t know. I’m about to find out. Now, get back here and be the hero of the day.”
He hangs up and I head over to find where the kids are. The false wall has a door and after a bit of a struggle, I manage to open it. They’re all here, alive. I breathe a sigh of relief and go about untying, ungagging and waking them up. The kids are scared, but appear unscathed. No cuts on them, they seem as though they’d been fed and given water. I’m sure all their scars will be mental, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that.
Fifteen minutes later, I’ve led them up to the first floor and Detective Garcia shows up. He’s arrived before EMS and that’s good. It means I can slip away before anyone sees me. Less questions to answer. I’m sure there’ll be a whole lot of questions too, especially when a forensic team shows up and finds the goop in the basement that used to be the Colossus’. That’s not my concern though. Right now, I’m only thinking about the shadowy man who I still need to find.
I say goodbye to Garcia and head out. He says he’ll call later and let me know how it all went and then I’m off. I think about where I might find the shadowy man, but first things first. I need to get home and rest. It’s been a long day.
Unlike Godfrey, I can use the front door to leave, and I do. Nobody around knows what’s going on, but in a few minutes the whole Distillery District is going to turn into a circus of cameras and flashing lights. I know someone might bring up the video of my fighting the monster outside of the building, but who’s really going to take that seriously? I’m sure if someone shows it to the cops, it’ll look like nothing more than some bad video reminiscent of Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster. After all, we all know that monsters and demons aren’t real. Humans feel safer thinking they’re the only evil in the world.
Tuesday
I open my eyes and see it’s a quarter after three in the morning and groan. I thought it was later. I’m so tired and want nothing more than to close my eyes and sleep, but my brain is going a million miles a second, and there’s no way I’m going back down. I’d come home, had a shower, and got into bed just after ten at night, and five hours shouldn’t be close to enough sleep for me, but it’s all I think I’m getting today. There’s still the shadowy man to deal with, and I can’t afford to let him walk around and possibly call forth some other demon or monster to take me on. So I might as well get out of bed and try to figure out what to do next. All I can think is to see if Godfrey is up and about. Maybe he might have some ideas as I feel as I’m all out of fresh ones.
I call him and he’s awake.
“Sure. I’d be happy to have some company,” he says, and then I hang up and head out.
I take a cab to his store and as I walk towards his shop I see a line of homeless people close by. A few call out and ask for change, but I don’t have time for them. Not at the moment.
The door opens even before I get to it and Godfrey’s there, looking the way I remember him, reminiscent of a young Peter Tosh. He looks tired, worn out and I’m sure that’s just because he’s still hurting from the strike he took from the Colossus. I let the door shut behind me and follow him to the back room. He’s limps as he goes and holds his side.
“How bad is it?” I ask.
“Feels a little like every rib’s broken and my guts are bruised and crushed, but otherwise I’m fine,” he says, and tries to laugh, but when he does he takes in a sharp breath and I can tell how much it hurts him to laugh. I know that feeling all too well. “So, what’s your next move?”
I sit down and he does too and I hold my empty hands up, a great example of what choices I already have.
“All I know for sure is that I need to find him. Who knows what else he’s going to try and pull. He could call up something just as bad, or worse. He could even find a way to get to Rouge. I don’t want to sit around and play that game.”
“I know. Maybe if we can figure out what he has planned, why he’s doing all this, it’ll be easier. Clearly stealing the kids wasn’t his ultimate goal, or they’d all be dead. But they weren’t. I saw that much on TV.”
“Not only were they alive, they were fed, hydrated and unscathed. What was the purpose of taking them at all?”
“Maybe to get you there, or at least to get you involved,” Godfrey suggests, and I feel a sense of déjà vu going on. This is what Rouge said and even though it seems like a long shot and overly complicated, I’m not sure what else it could be at this point. I’m still hesitant to accept it as the only possibility, and I tell him just that. He nods and continues, “Well, say the ultimate goal was to get the book, the only copy left in existence that I’m aware of. If this shadowy man knew I had it, maybe he used you to get to it, knowing monsters are your thing. You do have all those ads on late night TV and online as well.”
“Seems like a stretch. Why not just come after you?”
“How would they know I had it already? If they knew I did, they’d come straight at me, but if they thought I could at least get it, they use you as the middle man.”
“I see your point.” Sort of, but still, it comes off as such a roundabout way to get from point A to point B. Still, there’s so many loose ends that don’t really tie together, but it’s a starting point. It doesn’t really help us get any closer to the shadowy man, but if what Godfrey’s saying is true, then we have a way to get this asshole’s attention. “At least we still have the book.”
“On you?”
“No, it’s at…shit!”
I jump up from my seat and run for the door. The book’s back at my place and there’s nobody and nothing there to protect it. If an otherworldly monster or demon were to show up, sure, they’d never get in through the door with all the curses and spells I have guarding it. But the shadowy man and the monsters he already called are earthbound. There’s already a chance he called other creatures of this world and they’d be immune to all of my charms. Not sure why I didn’t bother to think of that.
It takes a few minutes to find a cab and I offer him an extra twenty to get me back to my place as fast as he can. He smiles and drives like the devil through the night. If Godfrey’s right and the ultimate goal was the book, I may already be too late, so I have to hope this shadowy man had no idea the book’s there. Hopefully he just assumed I had it on me, figuring I knew what he’s up to.
Maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high.
I’m feeling panic set in. Even though the cabbie is driving at near warp speed, it’s still not fast enough. I go back and forth looking from the time on my phone to peering out the window to see how close we are, a
nd each time it’s as though time is my enemy. I need to get to my place yesterday. All I want is to see the book and know I didn’t make some stupid mistake.
After what feels like an hour, but is less than ten minutes, the cab comes to a stop out front of my building. I hand him a fifty and get out. I run through the front door, leap up the stairs and for a moment, struggle with the keys to my apartment. It’s a cliché. One of those scenes in a horror movie where someone is trying to get inside, to flee a murderer, but they suddenly can’t remember which keys unlocks it. I feel as though I’m going to make matters even worse, that I’ll drop the keys and in that split second it’ll be too late. The fact that the door’s locked means I should relax a little. People don’t normally break into a place and then lock the door as they leave.
Finally the door’s open. I throw it wide and don’t bother to shut it as I rush to the bedroom and grab my bag. I can tell from the weight of it that the book’s still there, but I won’t feel better until I’m holding it. I undo the bag and there it is. Safe and sound. I pull it out, flip through the pages quickly to ensure it’s what it is, not a bait and switch. Once I do I close it and breathe a sigh of relief. I feel a bit silly, as if I over-reacted, but really, better safe than sorry.
With the book in hand I head back out into the living room, wondering if I should head back over to Godfrey’s or not. It’ll cost me even more money to do it, but I think I’d rather have company and an extra head on this, than to be alone. When I step out of the bedroom, the book nearly falls from my hands and I jump a little.
“Give me the book, Monster Hunter!”
In front of me is someone I know.
He’s dressed the exact same as the shadowy man, the same as the man in the basement of the Distillery warehouse, the hood of his sweater up just as it had before. The man looks smaller thought, not as strong or menacing as he had in the basement or the sewer, but there’s little doubt this is the bastard. He reaches up though and pulls it off and when I see his face, I’m in utter shock.
