MONSTER HUNTING

How do I look, dear Dane

Dane walked to the funeral home as the man he encountered today told him to. The idea of something existing amongst humans pushed Dane to follow the scribbled down letter like a fool.

Reaching the funeral home at the head of the hill, he looked around, trying to ease his tension. It was foggy. It was dark and haunted.

Suddenly, Dane hears the noise of bone crunching. It was similar to the sound from rustling leaves…but only more precise to bone fractures.

Because he could smell death and blood from over his shoulder.

He dared to turn around.

Only to see…

Five monstrous transformations feasting on a dead body!

And the dead body…even with the face chewed out, he could make it out who it was!

IT WAS THE MAD MAN WHO GAVE HIM THE LETTER!

Dane sprinted out of the funeral house with his life in his hands! The monsters noticed him, and started chasing him as well!

But as soon as Dane ran past the gates of the funeral house, the monsters disappeared! Not even their shadows were left behind! However, Dane was too shaken up to even think straight. He ran and ran, and ran.

Dane was robbed of peace and tranquility for the entire night. He couldn't fathom what he witnessed. Was he dreaming, or was it real?

He ran from the funeral house like there was no tomorrow. His legs gave out as he missed the route to his own house. Dane entered a different lane than usual.

He couldn't contact the police either. Somehow his mobile and laptop had lost connection to the outside world. He didn't even want to go to his own house!

He needed company.

His shaky fists rapped on the door of a lonely house in the middle of the yard. She lived in a farmhouse given to her by her parents. It was quite decent with a cottage touch.

A giant forest patch extended just over the farmland behind the house!

"Ruth!?" He yelled her name.

If it wasn't for his girlfriend living inside, he would've been scared to death just by the view around him. It was an eerie place for him, especially after what he witnessed a while ago.

"Coming!~" His sweet girlfriend's melodic voice greeted him. For someone being a goody two shoes, she sounded super active in the middle of the night.

"Ruth!" He yelled again. When Ruth opened the door, she saw the distraught man looking everywhere around himself. He was covered in a layer of sweat.

"Whoa. What's wrong?" She asked.

"M-M-M-MONSTERS! RUTH, THERE ARE MONSTERS AROUND HERE AND THEY'RE FUCKING REAL!." He screamed to justify himself. However, Ruth's eyes lit up as it scared Dane.

'Why was she wide-eyed and amused rather than being shocked!? They're monsters, dammit! Not some toys she thinks she can play with!' Dane thought about her in his mind. But all she had to say after was,

"One of those lonely days again?" She stepped outside, holding his sweaty face with her sweater paws.

"No, Ruth! I'm not lying! ." He somehow convinced himself to tell anything about the two incidents. If not her, who else could believe him? But it looks like she dismisses him too. Like she thinks HE is the mad man.

"Mhmm," Ruth licked her lips, smiling slyly. Ruth dismissed his craziness, and reached for his lips, began kissing him like an enchantress. Dane could feel his thoughts leaving his head. Everything he ever witnessed seemed to have been dismissed into thin air.

Ruth kissed him passionately, but it was unnecessary. And he wasn't convinced enough with himself of his witness! Those were monsters...right? If he told Ruth about it, she would laugh at his face and give him a piece of reality. Again.

But…Monsters are fiction...right?

When Dane came back to his senses, he pushed the woman away from himself.

"What are you doing?" She looked at him, wiping the corners of her mouth which was glistening with their kiss.

"Kissing my boyfriend? Just come inside, will you? Work is stressing the hell out of you." Ruth said while shaking her head.

"A-Alright~" But, he slept with a mind scrambled like eggs.

Those monsters he saw there…they were real. Right?

The next evening, Ruth and Dane went to a little party together. It was from Ruth's company innovation launch party and Dane - who wasn't from the more 'lighter' employee demands like hers - became her twirling cohort accompaniment.

"Cheers." He said to the old man before turning to his beautiful girlfriend dressed in a bright yellow dress. He, on the other hand, wore a white shirt, tucked into a pair of maroon pants. He couldn't put too much effort into looking good. Especially after the nightmare of a 4DX dream he had last night.

"This is my last cheers of the night, Ruth. Let's go back home."

"And have more fun?" Asked Ruth, making Dane roll his eyes. He took his hand out of his pocket to hold her hand. As a dutiful boyfriend, he must satisfy her to the best of his abilities. And he nodded with a sigh.

"Fun? Are you kidding me right now, Ruth? You're going home to get screwed—?"

Ruth hissed at how loud her best friend — Charlize was, "Do you need a fucking mic, Liz!?"

Charlize was a typical third wheel with Dane and Ruth. Annoying and chill. Charlize and Ruth have been best friends since high school. Now that they're all of the same age, Charlize tried to be friends with Dane as well.

But Dane was your typical introvert with no strong friendship bonds or whatsoever. Charlize almost convinced Ruth to leave Dane.

Because Charlize realizes something about the two.

One was a creature so vile that humanity is terrified of it. And the other one…is its ultimate hunter. But Charlize never talked to them about her current profession.

They wouldn't think it was real.

"No, but I do need a ride back home, love. And you're driving. Be our chauffeur." Demanded Charlize, wanting Ruth to drive. Completing his celebratory glass of champagne in one gulp, Dane deduced,

All through their conversation, Dane stayed silent and found a newfound interest at staring on other peoples' shoes.

After yesterday's nightmare of events, Dane was dejected from feeling normal and hence needed some more slacking off. Be it by any means.

"So!" Ruth asked suddenly, beaming out of the blue. The poor man was watching out at the evening sky filled with blue vastness. And he jumped.

"Mind telling me what you'll buy for me next week, Dane dear?"

"...what is next week?"

"...my birthday."

In the car, Ruth began blabbering about her skittish interest in buying new clothes and jewelry. It was any other day for Dane. She's an independent woman and she can do anything with what she earns. The problem was raised when she started expecting expensive gifts from him.

In his three years of dating her, he's never found a more terrible reason to break up with her. Why was he keeping up with her then?

Because she filled a void in his lonely heart.

She crept up and removed all the junk from his nonchalant past for him. That's why he stays loyal, more like a dog than a man.

"Oh my God, Dane! Wake up! Argh! You've been so distant with me ever since you ran up to my house last night in the middle of my beauty sleep!" He looked at her side-eyed. No. She did not sound sleepy when she welcomed him inside.

"Wait. What!?" Charlize yelled in excitement. She wanted to know the whole story!

"Dane!"

"WHAT!?" He finally snapped back. The car grew silent as Ruth took a small curve into another route.

Of course, no one noticed.

Charlize felt like a third wheel between them for the first time in her life. If she could, she would jump out of the car right away. But it was too late.

The street looked gloomy and the apartments were slowly scaling down to small huts and lastly barren, fenced lands.

They entered a tunnel, a huge highway passing over it. The tunnel was rather long and unlit even though they were sockets for light bulbs along the curved walls. And then...

"I saw monsters last night. And I'm not fucking delusional." The man repeats himself. Ruth pressed her feet on the brakes way too hard. Charlize was almost repositioned on the car as she yelled at the now-silent Ruth.

"What the hell, Ruth!? Ow...I could've gotten my head exploded!" Exclaimed Dane. He held the seat belt behind him, ready to clasp it over his chest.

But Ruth's demonic voice suddenly made the air feel dense and uneasy around them.

The gale was fast and furious as it brought a shimmering amount of mist and barren land dust with it through the tunnel. They were all smart enough to close all the windows of the car beforehand. It was late in the night after all.

The night cannot be trusted.

"R-Ruth...?"

Dane noticed an unnoticed scar, similar to a decade-old bruising on her neck. It kept creeping over her cheek. It was blue…and purple…and had scales.

And her teeth were barred, a sickly smile on her face. Saliva was oozing out of her mouth. Charlize didn't like it when her best friend was smiling like that. She was watching her transformation from the rear view mirror.

Suddenly, a low snarl mixed with a terribly pitched growl makes Dane hold himself back from touching his girlfriend.

"Ruth!" He screamed at her, fiddling harshly with the door handle. The headlights were the only source of light all over the tunnel.

Dane was reliving his fright all over again. It was as if the nights despised him.

"Ruth—!" A loud gasp left his mouth as he tried to corner away from her in the cramped space of the car.

"Tell me, Dane..." She turned to him, the smile plastered on her face again,

"Did the monsters look like...this?"