The Man and the Monster

This is an adaptation of riddle I loved as a kid. My father loved telling me the riddle to scare me. It usually did. This will be a story version of the riddle. The answer to the riddle is the kicker. Think long and hard about the story. Then, and only then, you might be very horrified.

The Man and The Monster
There once was a Man, and a Monster. They had been friends as long as they could remember. They ate together, they played together, and as they were now grown up, they worked together. It was near vacation week, where The Company in which The Man and The Monster worked, would let it's employees go on vacation for a week. (Self-Explanatory, really.) Now because The Man and The Monster were friends, they decided that they would take a vacation together. The Man and The Monster discussed on where they should go, and settled on going camping for a few days.

The Man and The Monster worked hard, anxiously waiting until it was time to go camping. After a few days, it was finally vacation week. The Man and The Monster had packed their bags and hit the road. They had found a perfect camping spot, and were headed towards it now. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and because it was in the middle of spring, there were many beautiful flowers blooming. All in all, a great time to go camping. When they reached the campsite, it had become dark, and The Man and The Monster started to set up their tent. They got out their bags, and placed it outside the tent, since there was no room inside.

However, The Man and The Monster did not take into account the weather, and if they watched the news, it would have said that there would be rain overnight and very close to the campsite. When The Man and The Monster woke up, they had discovered that all their stuff had been washed away by the heavy rain, including their maps, their food, and their survival gear. To make matters worse, the campsite they had picked was in the middle of the woods. The rain had washed their footprints away, so they couldn't just follow their tracks back home.

Since they didn't have a clue where to go, The Man and The Monster set off to try to find their way back home. They walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. Soon it was dark again. The Man and The Monster couldn't find their way home. They were lost. The part of the woods they were in didn't have any animals, so they couldn't hunt for anything, and went to sleep hungry that night.

The next day, The Man and The Monster tried to find their way. Luckily, they found a lake, and refilled their water supply. Unluckily, they were still lost, and were still hungry. The day after that, it was the same story. They couldn't find any food, and went to sleep hungry after that. The Man, being an optimist, rationalized that they would find their way back home tomorrow. The Monster however, wasn't so happy. He was hungry. The Monster was real hungry. Being a monster, The Monster did something horrible. Something truly horrible.

While The Man was sleeping, The Monster snook up to him. The Monster's hunger was unbearable. The Monster had gone days without food. The Monster was prepared to do anything to stop his hunger pangs. The Monster took The Man's life. The Man never even knew why he had died, for he was sleeping, as he will be forever. The Monster made a fire with the nearby twigs and leaves, and cooked The Man. The Monster ate The Man, and so he was no longer hungry.

The very next day, like The Man had said, they had found their way back home. Except, it wasn't they. It was just The Monster. The Monster had simply said The Man went missing. The Monster covered it up. The Monster never told anyone. The Monster kept his horrendous secret to himself. '''The Monster never told anyone his secret. Only The Monster knew the secret.'''

What does that make me, the one telling you this?