Little Monkey

 I awoke. I was dizzy, bewildered, and nauseous. I didn’t know where I was, but what more could a person expect when you’re in a room darker than a night sky void of stars. Suddenly a bright light flooded the room, and I was blind for a few seconds. When the moment passed, I found myself in a cave made of ice. Where the hell was I, and why did it feel like I was having the most horrible hangover?

“Hello, little monkey.” A voice rang through my head, which felt like a thousand nails being slammed into my skull. I covered my head with my hands, and let out a small yelp of pain. “What the hell?” I thought aloud. The voice was deceptive, and rattled like a snakes tongue. It seemed to talk in a very slow manner, almost seductively, but it didn’t sound like a man or woman’s voice. I waited for a second, staring up at the icicles on the ceiling, thinking that the voice would tell me where I was. Yet, I heard nothing, except for the heavy silence that littered the air.

I thought that there was no point in just waiting there, so I started to walk through the ice covered cove. As I neared a corner, I began to hear odd sounds. Sounds of cracking, gurgling, and flowing liquid. I pinned my back against the icy wall, holding my breath. I didn’t know why, but I felt as if I were in danger. Then I saw something red out of the corner of my eye. Down and around my feet trickled a stream of crimson blood.

I covered my mouth quickly, holding in my screams of fear. “Let me ask you, little monkey, have you ever heard of an Aswang?” Another shot of fresh, searing pain drove through my head. “I suppose you shouldn’t answer me right now.” The voice chuckled deviously. “Well, I’ll tell you anyways. An Aswang is said to be cannibal, something disgustingly ugly that feeds on the dead.” I waited for more information, but none came from the voice.

I was about to turn the corner, when the voice suddenly began speaking again. “You know, little monkey, there’s a knife right around that corner for you to use, so there’s no need to be afraid.” I took in a large gulp, and ran as fast I could to get the knife that lay on the ground. I quickly snatched it and looked up. What I saw was disturbing on multiple levels.

There was a woman, one standing on the ground, curled almost into a fetal position. It’s skin had a deathly green hue to it, and it’s white shirt was torn in many places at the back, which is what was facing me. It had no hair, and seemed to be eating something. Something… gooey. I held my knife up in the air with both hands, which were trembling in fear and yelled, “G- get away!” When I yelled that, it turned it’s face my way.

What I saw next was so disgustingly twisted, that I almost released the contents of my stomach. It’s hands were covered in meaty flesh and thick, dark red bodily fluids. It’s tongue hung out of it’s seemingly broken jaw as it licked the remnants of food off it’s fingers. What was the most disturbing though, was the fact that I somehow recognized the person that stared back at me. “Lizzi, is that you?” There was no response, except for some low groans out of her mouth. I didn’t get to ask another question before it charged at me. I held my knife out high and shut my eyes tight, bracing for impact; something I was happy I did, because the next thing I knew, I was rolling on the ground with the beast on top of me. I stabbed and I stabbed and I stabbed, holding absolutely nothing back. Finally, after leaving multiple gashes in it’s revolting complexion, it fell off me, and hit the ground with a thud. My entire torso was covered in the blood of the filthy creature.

Lizzi, she’d just had a child, but I killed her. She was a damn good friend, and a great mother as far as I could tell. I’d known her since I was a child, and we always saw each other. We always saw each other, but I hadn’t seen her in a while until recently before this incident… Why hadn’t I seen her? I couldn’t think about that, no, my mind was set on grief at that moment.

I leaned over the dead beast’s corpse, letting my tears fall onto the rotten skin keeping the beautiful woman that hid beneath captured. Knife still in hand, I looked down at the ground where I saw a small stream of blood forming, leading down to the corpse that was half eaten. I got to my feet slowly, and followed the boiling fluid. As I neared the motionless cadaver, I gasped in surprise.

Her husband lay there, cold and lifeless. His eyes curled in the back of his head, he stared back at his own brain. His stomach was cut open in a large, oval shape, and his intestines hung limply over his rotting skin. I could basically see everything inside of him, except for a heart. Every kind of instrument that his body needed to survive was there, but not his heart. “Did the monster actually eat his heart?” I asked myself. Suddenly, I felt an abrupt pressure rising from my stomach, probably the vomit that had tried to rise earlier.

I pulled my hands to my face, but it wasn’t enough to stop the remaining chunks of food in my stomach from being released. I let go of the contents of my stomach inside of the man’s torso, mixing both blood and other bodily fluids with the yellow, viscous liquid that poured out of my mouth uncontrollably. When I finally stopped, I wiped my lips with my hand and closed the poor bastard’s eyes. With that I turned to the monster that had a large red puddle growing under it, and gave a silent prayer for the person I knew was in there somewhere.

I stood back up to my full height, when I heard footsteps on the ice. I turned back to the corpse of the man behind me, and saw a fox standing there. However, this fox was different. The fur that covered it was a fiery red, and it’s face was foreshadowed by a sly, tooth filled grin; but the thing that was truly interesting, was it’s tails… There were nine of them. It had nine large, extremely puffy tails. I was entranced by the creatures amazing beauty, but soon enough I had to shut my eyes, and when I opened them, the creature was gone.

“Where the hell am I, and what’s happening?” I pondered. “Is this a dream? No, it can’t be, everything feels so… Real.” Right after I’d said those words, I was interrupted by the voice that kept bugging me. It sounded amused, almost to the point where it sounded pleasured by my pain. “No point in staying, little monkey, you’ll get caught if you just stay there.” The pain of the voice’s booming volume was beginning to drive me mad.

I took in a deep breath, keeping myself conscious after the excruciating experience of the voice speaking again. I decided that the voice was right, there really was no point in just staying in one spot. I stepped over the body, and continued around another corner, when I saw a child. It was small baby, probably not even a year old. Nothing looked particularly odd about it, but it seemed to be crying. It was facing me, and it’s hands were over it’s eyes, drying the tears that were falling. “Is that, Lizzi’s child?” I thought aloud once more. I rushed over to the small child in distress, and grabbed it with my arms, carefully cradling it in my arms. I started to rock the baby back and forth gently, which quickly numbed it’s obvious mental pain. “Y’know, you might be the only person that’s normal here,” I joked sarcastically. “Have you ever heard of a Tiyanak, little monkey?” That time I almost blacked out. I felt myself becoming heavier and heavier, until it felt like I couldn’t hold my own weight.

Yet, remembering I had a small, innocent child in my hands, I caught myself. “I’m tired of this bullshit!” I screamed. “Who the hell are you, and what do you want with me!?” I demanded an answer, yet none was given, only a dastardly heavy laugh that echoed through the cave, not my head. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a long, loud groan coming from the baby in my arms. When I looked down, I was shocked at what I saw. The child had grown eyes as large as the moon, and red as the devil’s pitchfork, and it’s teeth had become long and narrow, like the claws of a demon.

Before I could react, I’d found myself gushing blood out my arm. The child bit me, and left a large, gaping hole in my arm. I quickly let go of the child, which fell hard against the ground, cracking it’s skull. I swiftly sprinted passed the child, clasping my newly cut wound with my hand. “You truly are amusing, little monkey,” the voice claimed in my head. Salty tears streamed down my face as I ran, until I was stopped by the agonizing physical pain that came from the voice. I fell to the frozen ground, hitting my head hard against the ice, only to then fall into darkness.

When I awoke again, I found myself in a completely pitch black room, but I could see a figure pinned up against an invisible wall. It was yet another corpse, this one with dried old blood, unlike the one I’d seen before. I scanned the body from the bottom up. It’s legs were contorted and twisted in hundreds of different places that they shouldn’t have been, and were completely stripped of any clothes; just as the rest of the body. When I saw the arms, I couldn’t help but notice what had happened to them. In one, they was a large crater in the flesh that created it, and in the other, a silent heart. When I finally got to the face, I saw what was pinning the body up. There was a knife, the same one used by myself in killing the monster, shoved into the man’s throat, and his face looked identical to mine. “Let me ask you, little monkey, have you ever heard of a Kitsune?”

With that, the body disappeared, and I found myself in complete darkness once more and for a second I couldn’t tell if I was alive or dead, asleep or awake, a man or a monster. Out of nowhere, I awoke again, seemingly for the last time. When I opened my eyes, I found myself holding a knife close to my neck with both hands, trembling and sweating in fear. I threw the knife on the ground, when I felt a searing pain come from my left arm. I lifted it close to my face, and saw a gaping hole, the same kind I gained when the child bit me.

When I moved my bleeding arm out of view, I saw a scene I’ll never forget. Three bodies lay on the ground. One was Lizzi, which was face planted on the ground, shirt torn to shreds with multiple stab wounds covering her body. The other, her husband, who was laying face up, stomach cut wide open, and had his silent heart sitting beside his head. The last body, was a small child, probably not even one yet, head cracked open, and a puddle of blood forming beneath him.

I burst tears, looking around the room, hoping for once, that I was still in whatever kind of hallucinatory hell I was in before. But no, this was real life, I could remember all my memories, something I couldn’t do in my dream. The room was made of pure white bricks, and had a poster on one wall that told me contained a list of items you could order for lunch. The only way out was a large metal door it seemed, but just as I was about to rush towards it, someone entered.

A young Japanese woman wearing a nurse’s outfit entered the room, suddenly shocked to see the scene I’d created. Yet, I could have sworn that under that false surprise, there was a slight grin across her lips. “Mr. Scott, I- I’ll have to ask you to come with me.” I just stared at her, when I noticed a few small strands of fiery red fur caught on her shirt.

 Be careful when you sleep tonight.

In Case You Didn't Know
 Kitsune:

In Japanese folklore the Kitsune is an intelligent and magical being. The creature’s strength increases with age, wisdom, and life experience. Kitsune is a Japanese fox. They have the ability to assume human form and are great tricksters. The creatures are noted for having as many as nine tails. A Kitsune may take human form when it reaches a certain age, usually 100 years. They prefer to assume the shape of a beautiful woman, young girl, or elderly man. The creatures have the ability to clone the appearance of an individual. They can willingly manifest themselves in people’s dreams and create illusions so elaborate that they are perceived as reality. The kitsune can fly, become invisible, and often times generate fire or lightning. In some regions of the world the creatures can bend time, space, and drive people mad.

 Aswang:

An Aswang is a mythical creature in Filipino folklore. The legend of the Aswang is well known throughout the Philippines. The creature is described as a combination of vampire and witch and is almost always female. The Aswang is an eater of the dead and a cannibal. They are capable of transforming into either a huge black dog or a black boar. The creatures stalk and eat human beings at night. At night, they transform into the deadly beast. One key feature of the Aswang is its bloodshot eyes.

 Tiyanak:

The Tiyanak is similar to the Greek mythological siren in that it lures its prey with its voice. A person hears a baby cry from deep in the woods and then follows the sound to rescue the baby. Stories claim that the person eventually finds a baby. When it is picked up, the baby then shape-shifts into a monster with large, sharp teeth. It then eats the person and transforms back to a baby to await its next victim.