The Monster and the Man

The man awoke as sunlight filtered in through the mouth of the cave and began to warm his face with the light of a new dawn. He arose and walked to the mouth of the cave. Off to his left was a large pool filled with clear water glittening in the sunlight. Every fiber in his being screamed at him to run to the pool and drink deeply of it contents but he resisted and walked out away from the cave and the pool into the sandy dunes.

He crossed over the top of a large dune so that the pool would be out of sight and he came upon a cliff. There he looked down at his chest and stared at the black spot spreading across his skin. He grabbed the black flesh and began to rip it off. Layer after layer he tore and ripped until a pile formed in the sand wet with a black liquid. Soon the man was finished and only his own red flesh remained and then he stood up (for he had fallen to his knees during this painful ordeal). The black mass began to bubble up until it grew into the form of some monster. Human like in appearance but hunched over and its face was disfigured, a mouth brimming with fangs, claws razor sharp, tipping each finger. The beast roared and sprang at the man who launched himself at the creature.

For hours they struggled against each other, the desert heat beating down on them. The creature gashed the man with its claws time and again, as the man pounded it with his fists and feet. Exhaustion threatened to over power the man, not just from the battle but from some inner lack of energy that made him close to collapse. After hours of this grueling contest, the man pinned the creature on the ground and smashed its head until it struggled no more.

the man fell into the sand and lay there gasping for breath and from pain at his wounds the monster inflicted upon him. he turned and saw the creatures body had become a small black stone much which he promptly placed into the hole in his chest. The wound healed and on the skin a small black spot formed. instantly, life and vitality rushed back into the man.

He returned to his cave, passing the water wich now appeared murking and filthy, and sat down to eat. Slowly he began to realize a longing begin to grow in his body, a longing for the water. But he resisted, he knew what the water did, what it really was. Once he had drank the water and he had been overcome with a madness and had killed several people. After that he vowed never again to drink of the water.

The next morning he arose and walked to the cliffside and once again ripped out the blackness from his chest and fought the monster. Then stuck the stone back in his chest and went about his day avoiding the water. This was how he lived day after day, and it was how he always remembered living, the monster was a part of life.

One day as he was scraping out the blackness, a merchant on a stallion rode by but stopped when he saw the monster form and begin to attack the man. The merchant approached but dared not to intervene but waited patiently until the man had subdued the monster. What surprised the merchant the most was when the man put the stone back in his chest.

"Why do you put the stone back in your chest?" he asked.

"For if i do not, i will surely die." the man replied out of breath but happy to have a visitor.

"But if you place the stone back in your chest will the monster return?"

The man nodded.

"Well it seems to me good sir that you are in quite a tight spot." the merchant said shaking his head.

"Do you know how i can escape this endless struggle?" the man asked, a ray of hope rising within him.

"Well," the merchant began, mounting his horse, "that is simple." He turned and stared the man straight in the eyes. "You just have to decide which you want more; for you to live, or the mosnter to die." And with that he rode off into the sand dunes without a backwards glance.

This troubled the man and he dwelled on what the merchant said all that day and deep into the night. He had never thought about destroying the monster, only subduing it so this idea filled his mind until the sun rose the next day. He had gotten no sleep, he was exhausted, and the lust for the pool was stronger than it ever had before, but the man had made up his mind.

He strode out of the cave without a glance at the pool and proceded to the edge of the cliff. there with great effort he ripped out every last speck of the black flesh that infected his chest and as the monster rose out of the balck mass, the man felt all of his exhaustion hit him in one massive wave. The monster rushed towards him and threw him into the sand. It would be so easy for him to just give up and allow the monster to take him over...

but something deep inside him screamed. A distant shout, ringing in his mind. The voice spoke no words but its message was clear...his soul would never again house the monster. He lifted himself out of the sand and struck the monster with a mighty fist. The monster retaliated, scratching and clawing his body. The monster seemed to understand the man's intentions for it fought with a fury born from desperation, but the man fought with equal furiosity. Hours passed as the two grappled in the sand until at last the man pinned the monster to the ground and took its head in his hands and bashed it over and over upon the ground unti the monster breathed its last.

Slowly the man stood and watched as the corpse condensed into the familiar black stone. He slowly reached down and lifted it up to his eyes. He looked down at his chest, bloody, a gaping hole. He looked back at the stone and then hurled it off the cliff. He watched as it fell and smached into a thousand pieces on the rocks below. Instantly the man's body was struck with a wave of pain unlike anything he had ever experienced, and the man sank to the ground. The pain only intensified as he lay there and he felt his life slowly drain from his body. But as he faded into death, while his body was racked with agaony, his soul was filled with joy, freedom, release, victory...

Thus the monster and the man died. But only the man died in victory.

The Shell of a Man

He sat forlornly in his chair. The only light coming from a lamp on the end table and the screen of his desktop.

shreeks in the night. they were coming. coming in droves.

the screen wasl filled with folders of different projects he had slaved over, obsessed with, worked his fingers to the bone to complete but none of them mattered to him now. all that he saw was the picture behind them all. a woman and a little girl reading a book together on a swing on a sunlit lawn, a grand oak giving them shade.

the screams grew louder. a crash. he knew it was the picket fence. they were coming.

he looked down at his desk, strewn with papers. research, work, efforts to stop these monsters who only sought to devour, but they had all ended in disappointment. on top of all this were two items, a handgun and the inside of a music box. the latter he picks up with delicate fingers. he examines the bottom which is marked in marker "Princess's First Birthday"

A slam at the door followed by pounding and more shreeks. they were at the door.

he cranked the small metal nob and then held it up to his eyes. the little cogs began to turn and the tiny instrument began to pluck out its sheery little tune of home and flowers and little girls smiling up at you as you walk in the door.

Slam!

He set it down on the desk and listened to the song, tempo slowed with age to the point where the melody transformed from chipper to nostalgic. a single tear splashed onto the papers that littered the desk, soaking through and smearing the ink.

Bash! Smack! A bone chilling wail!

Somehow the song rose to a crescendo to where it droned out the banging and the shouts. He forgot about the monsters and remembered. His wife holding a pink baby crying as it adjusts to the newness of life. a little girl waddling up to her awaiting father who catches her in a loving embrace. The princess catches something. Some foreign ailment. it saps her strength like a leech and shrivels her body like a leaf whose tree has died before it can bloom. Then the shouts. Finally the princess is gone. Then the princess died.

The solid wood door cracks.

A darkness crosses his face. They took her. He could not save her because they took her with their poison. They ate here alive while she was still in his arms. before they truely came they had taken her. The woman was soon to follow. Now he turned to the handgun laying on the desk. He grabbed it and stood from his chair. He strode over to the door.

Bang! Smash! Another deathly screech! There were many. They all wanted inside.

He cocked the weapon and unlatched the bolt locked. The door immediately bulged inward as the hordes pressed in harder feeling the hunt was soon to begin. He would not be hunted like an animal. He would die like a man.

He grasped the door handle and threw open the door.

A shot rang through the night. Shreeks. Nine more shots. Then the shreeks continued and crashes and bangs joined in the din.

Ten days later.

The men slipped in the house through a back door, their rifles aimed ahead at all times, they were weary of what may lurk around every corner. they soon discovered the house was empty, void of danger or otherwise. the only signs of life were a few bones scattered on the floor licked clean. One man saw something peculiar on a desk. He stepped forward and picked it up. it was the mechanism to a music box. he cranked hte lever and listened to the resulting melody. Without explanation tears welled up in his eyes and he turned away from his comrads fearful they might see.