A man in a three piece business suit walks into a run down bar, it smells and reeks of garbage. He has scars scattered across his face, and disheveled brown hair. He spots a gray haired old man with tattered clothes sitting down and says, “I’ve heard you’re a former slayer, and you have information. Information about those monsters.” The old man chuckles, “I do, I do, what is your offer?” The suited man drops two bags. “10 million”, the suited man scowls. The old man runs up and inspects the bag, smiling when he finds hundred dollar bills, “Go ahead and ask away.” The man inches closer, “What are monsters?” The old man smiles, “Monsters are manifestations of human emotion. When humans become overwhelmed by any sort of emotion and under the specific circumstances, they pool and take over an object, usually related to the emotional outburst. The monster takes form around the object and becomes a living, breathing thing, it can be pain, sadness, or even happiness.”
As the man explains, a boy is in a room drawing away on a paper with markers and crayons. The figure is a humanoid creature with claws and a mask on its head. The boy’s mom calls, “Dear, would you mind coming down? Dinner is ready.” “In a second mom!” The boy replies. “I just need to finish this drawing, he’s looking so good!” The old man continues, “Monsters, shortly after appearing, begin to try to kill humans, the more aggressive and strong the emotion, the more aggressive and strong the monster. A monster made of happiness may not attack unless provoked, but a monster made of anger will begin a rampage.” As he says this the boy continues to hum and draw the figure. Outside the door is a towering creature. It has rows of eyes, massive hands, and has a staggering build.
“Monsters cause terror to humanity, and always will”. The suited man asks another question, “How exactly are monsters created?” The old man replies, “Many ways, any sort of emotional outburst. For example, if you win the lottery, your happiness and joy could cause the winning ticket to become a monster. Although most of the time, monsters usually come from hatred, anger, and finally death.”
As the old man says death, the strange creature bursts through the boy’s door. The boy is surprised and sees the monster walk towards his parents, who begin panicking and duck down beneath the kitchen counter. He watches in fear and quickly hides under a table, he looks and sees the creature approach his parents’ location. The many eyed creature grabs both of them in each massive hand, they scream, struggle, and yell for help, help that won’t arrive. The creature reveals its horrendous and large mouth, calmly devouring the two adults. The old man continues as this happens, “Death causes the most emotions, losing someone forever makes people extremely emotional. Think about funerals, you are sad even if you didn’t know that person well, now imagine if it was someone close, or perhaps your closest.”
The boy watches in terror as the monster devours his parents, he whimpers, “I could have been with them, I could have protected them, I could have died with them…” Tears fall onto the paper showing the figure. The boy yells, drawing the monster’s attention, “IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU DUMB DRAWING. I COULD HAVE DIED WITH MOMMY AND DADDY!” The monster slowly approaches with a growl as the boy continues to sob. He suddenly starts to smile as tears run down his cheeks, “I still love you, you’re my friend… clawster.” The drawing begins to glow and a humming noise plays. The monster reaches out with its hand, but suddenly slashes are heard.
The monster’s hands get cut down into slices and all that remains is a humanoid figure the same as the drawing wearing the mask on its head, and an angry monster who starts to regenerate its lost limbs. The boy sits in the corner in shock. The boy then begins smiling as he realizes what happened. “Clawster? I knew it, you were real!” The figure puts the mask on his head and looks back at the boy with a smile, revealing its sharp toothed grin. Its hands became claws, gray began to spread across his hand and shone like metal, the tips looking to be extremely sharp. The suited man then asks the old man, “Why isn’t this more well known?” The old man chuckles, “If people knew, things would get out of hand. One of the most common ways a monster is formed is through fear, one of the strongest emotions. If people knew that if they were just a bit too scared, a monster could appear and kill them, it would be chaos.”
As he says this, Clawster attacks the monster before its hands could fully regenerate. He uses his claws to lunge himself forward using the floor, the monster opens its mouth and chomps towards him, but Clawster sidesteps and places his claws on its head. He drags his claws down its skull, creating slash marks and causing it to shriek out in pain. “Monsters would pop up like mushrooms as humans die left and right, creating more monsters.” Clawster notices the monster crouching down, clearly winded from the strikes. He jumps up and descends, slashing and cutting the creature into pieces as he falls. Time slows down as Clawster is airborne looking down, moving his claws back and forth as the monster’s flesh tears and rips. Blood splatters as Clawster smiles and sticks out his tongue, the boy grins even wider as he witnesses his parents’ murderer get annihilated. Clawster stands above the corpse, sliced and diced. The boy approaches him and checks the corpse and looks up at Clawster, who has now taken off the mask. Clawster’s hands slowly shift back into normal hands, losing their metallic properties. The boy cried out, “I knew you would protect me!”. The two embrace each other in a hug as the scene around them is littered with debris and gore.
The old man shows a stern look on his face, “This is very dangerous information, it could kill people. Which is why this knowledge is hidden severely from the pub-” The suited man interrupts, “Exactly”. The old man looks towards the suited man, “-lic.” He sees a gun barrel pointed towards him as the suited man has a cold and distant gaze. Two gunshots are heard in the distance as the suited man whistles as he walks away with two bags of money on his shoulders and blood stains on his suit.
–End of Prologue–
Next Chapter:
Chapter 1 – The Boy and His Monster
