Chapter 22

Half an hour went by, Shinji was not okay with letting a sleeping monster walk behind them. They wouldn’t be able to defend themselves if the monster would wake up all of a sudden.
The monster turned into a dog which clutched a human hand.
“How can anyone dream this gory and still not awake?” Fujimoto watched it.
“You said he will go!” Shinji got a little bit loud.
“You smell like his mother. Maybe this is why he is still following us.” Housekeeper couldn’t keep his calm this time.
Fujimoto remembered of the time of being grasped by tentacles. Fujimoto and housekeeper had got rid of the smell because they had been inside cat’s stomach when Shinji was dealing with its teeth.
“Now you blame me for this?”
“Yes I do. Fujimoto, how can you stand this f*****?”
“Hey!” Fujimoto stood between them, “We need to find Papa Monster right.”
“With this shape shifting creature?” Shinji frowned, “We have to get rid of this one before we even think about locating Papa Monster.”
“Lock him in a room, housekeeper.” Fujimoto turned at him.
“I doubt how helpful will it be. But if we can lock him up in dungeon then he will be there for a long time.” Housekeeper replied.
“Where is the dungeon?”
“Follow the stairs which go downwards. Eventually you will get to there. But be sure to mark the turns. This place can get like a maze.”
“Fujimoto, come.” Shinji said after thinking for a while.
“Footsteps of two people can wake him.”
Fujimoto gave Housekeeper a strange look.
“Look,” Housekeeper began elaborating, “we should keep though of finding Papa Monster on hold for a while. Fujimoto and I will search food for these monsters. Any monster can wake anytime. There are plenty of rats around here. Meanwhile, Shinji will go to lock this creature up and we will meet again back at this place.”
Shinji gulped, “Hmm…”
He then changed his way in search of stairway which would take them down.

Some time went by, Shinji had his attention on the monster following him down the winding stairs. He was having hard time in walking when most of his attention was diverted towards the killing creature behind him.
Son Monster was still not in a fixed shape. Shinji wondered what made it dream for so long.
Thinking the same thing, Shinji misjudged a step and tripped. He slipped front side first, almost taking the fall on his face. But his hands came in between himself and possible broken teeth.
Pain was same regardless.
Despite of the anguish, he realized he wasn’t on stairs anymore. Where he was a flat surface with some slippery slime everywhere.
Did he wake? He remembered and moved his head towards son. Shinji saw the monster which now had taken shape of Housekeeper.
It was dreaming about him.
“Is there something wrong with him?” Shinji whispered, hoping it would cause lucid effect in his dream. His sight went at the long crack which looked very similar to those which he had seen many times in the house.
But Shinji was interested in monster’s spectacle.
Monster showed Shinji a bag. Then he dropped a human hand out of there.
“What are you dreaming about?” Shinji said.
From the corner of his eye, he saw two glowing balls.
Father Monster? He shivered when those luminous objects turned out to be eyeballs. The eyeballs also looked like Tetsu’s crystal ball with a crack.
When the creature came closer, Shinji was able to tell what it looked like.
A toad bigger than him was observing them.
“Is this my food?” Toad said with saliva trickling drop after a drop from his mouth.

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