We hunt Monsters

"Hey, hey, wake up," a gentle voice whispered to Wayne, urging him to open his eyes. As Wayne slowly awoke, he found his sister standing in front of his bed, a soft smile on her face. "Is that really you, sis?" Wayne asked, his eyes brimming with tears.

"Hey creepo, what's wrong with you today? Did you have a nightmare or something that you peed in your pants?" Karen teased, her laughter echoing in the room. Wayne immediately looked down, discovering the embarrassing truth of wet trousers.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed, hastily covering himself. Karen continued to laugh, teasing him before leaving the room. "Hurry up and change; I want to go to the river with you," she called back, her voice carrying a playful tone.

"Was it all just a dream?" Wayne wondered, perplexed, as he changed into fresh clothes. Rushing to meet his family, he left his room and entered the space he vividly remembered being stained with blood. To his astonishment, it was now tidy and clean. A wave of calm washed over Wayne. "I was just dreaming," he mused.

"Mum and Dad, you won't believe what Ralph did," Karen exclaimed, giggling.

"What happened?" Loice asked, her curiosity piqued, while Johnson looked at her with a knowing smile, his hunting rifle in hand.

"Ralph peed himself last night," Karen announced, bursting into laughter.

Blushing, Wayne tried to explain the dream he had, but his attempts were drowned out by their laughter. "Wayne, a man like you should never wet himself, whether you're afraid or not. As a man, you should be strong," Johnson said, standing up and walking toward him.

He grabbed Wayne's shoulder and said, "Well, as for now, you're the laughing stock." Wayne felt embarrassed, but at the same time, a sense of relief washed over him. Everything he thought had happened was just a dream.

"Hey, come on, big baby, let's go," Karen said, exiting the door. Wayne followed her awkwardly as they began walking through the thick forest in the mountains where they lived.

"Hahaha, you're such a loser," Karen teased, continuing to laugh at Wayne.

"Shut up," Wayne muttered as he walked behind her, skipping over rocks. They reached the river, and Karen started collecting water as Wayne played around, waiting for her to finish.

"Hey, what do you think about people who live outside the mountain?" Wayne asked Karen, gazing away toward the path leading down the mountain.

"Where did that come from? Don't tell me you're afraid of them?" she teased, giggling and insinuating that his nighttime accident was due to fear.

"Go die," Wayne retorted, looking away, blushing a little from embarrassment. He glanced back up the path he came from, then looked at his sister behind him.

"O-K," Karen said, her face suddenly contorted with bite marks, blood everywhere, her cheek torn open to reveal muscles and visible teeth. Her left eye was blood red, and the other seemed crushed.

"B-r-o-t-h-e-r, w-h-y d-i-d I d-i-e?" Karen's voice sounded forced, her throat slowly gushing blood.

Wayne's face filled with terror, his entire body paralyzed with fear. He saw five individuals behind him – three men and two women, the same people he saw entering their home and murdering his family.

"Karen!" Wayne screamed as he took a step back, and Karen walked toward him.

"Help mee-e," she pleaded, interrupted by monstrous creatures that he saw kill his father in the supposed dream. They bit off Karen's head, silencing her cries for help in a horrifying manner.

Wayne turned around and sprinted up the mountain path, his screams echoing through the desolate landscape.

"Mom, dad, huh-huh-huh," he panted as he reached his dwelling. Bursting through the door, his voice quivered with desperation, "Mom, huh-huh-huh, dad, huh-huh-huh." A chilling silence greeted him, broken only by the erratic beats of his own heart. As fear and trauma tightened their grip, he stumbled upon a gruesome tableau. His mother and father's decapitated heads adorned the table, the five malevolent figures reveling in a grotesque feast of his parents' flesh.

Holding glasses filled with his family's blood, they turned their attention to Wayne, their gaze a nightmarish tableau of horror. Pausing, tears welled in Wayne's eyes.

"Wayne, would you like to join us?" a voice emanated from the table. Another, deeper voice joined in, "Yes, join us." Wayne's eyes widened in disbelief as he realized the voices originated from his mother and father's severed heads, speaking in unison.

"Join us, join us, join us!" they chanted, their eyes and noses bleeding profusely. Wayne staggered backward, his legs trembling, hesitating in the face of the unthinkable.

Turning abruptly, he fled the house. Stepping outside, he confronted the monstrous creature he had witnessed being killed by his father. Its gaping mouth, filled with blood, loomed before him, three gray eyes staring into his soul as it crushed its jaws on his head.

"Haaa!" Wayne screamed, only to wake up in a cold sweat.

"Hey, hey, boy, you're alright," the man with the sword, the same one he saw in his house, spoke, attempting to calm him. The man reached out to brush the boy's head, but Wayne violently shoved the hand away, retreating to the corner of the carriage pulled by horses. The shadows of his nightmares lingered, casting a pall over his trembling form.

"This kid," the second man on the carriage remarked, observing Wayne.

"Don't blame the kid. It's a natural reaction, you know. Remember, you did the same when you joined the Yueri," the man driving the carriage said. Wayne looked at the driver with fear in his eyes. The first man then addressed Wayne, "Don't worry, kid. No one here wants to harm you. We all want to help you."

Wayne, still trembling, looked at the man in terror as he assumed a stance as if about to attack. Suddenly, the man leaped out of the carriage, jumping in front of it with a burst of speed. The carriage recoiled from the force, and Wayne stared at the first man as he swiftly cut down two monsters—reminiscent of the ones his father had killed back at his home. The gruesome scene unfolded before him, intensifying the horror that clung to his waking moments.

The carriage driver then deftly navigated around the lifeless corpses of the monsters. The first man gracefully jumped back into the carriage.

"Like I said, kid, we don't wanna hurt you," the man said as he returned his sword.

"I'm sorry for your loss, kid," the man on Wayne's left expressed a genuine sign of remorse etched on his face. Each of them echoed similar sentiments.

"So, you must be wondering what those things were, right?" the first man said, crossing his arms, preparing to explain.

Wayne paused, then slowly nodded.

"Well, I don't know either," the man replied, closing his eyes with a smile.

The man on Wayne's left sighed. "Look, kid, those things are a mystery. The only thing we know is that they appeared 60 years ago," he explained.

"Hold it, introductions first before your long explanations," the first man interrupted. "My name is Peri, and I'm the captain of these losers," he added with a touch of humor.

"I'm Arnold, and the guy on your left is Fern," the driver said, giggling.

"Asshole, I can introduce myself, you know," Fern said, expressing deep annoyance.

Wayne observed them as they bantered, feeling a strange sense of safety around them—different from the chilling fear he felt around the monsters that had claimed his family.

"Alright, let me continue. We're known as Yueri, a specialized group of soldiers fighting for the people, tasked with hunting down monsters we call the Reshiya," Fern explained, scratching his head.

"Right now, we'll be taking you to our base, where you can decide what you want to do," Peri added, looking ahead of the carriage.

Wayne, overwhelmed, folded his legs and hands, hiding his face as he began to cry. The three men left him to his emotions, understanding that sometimes it was best to let it all out. Thirty minutes passed, and finally, they reached the camp.

As Wayne raised his head, he saw a wall-like structure with 5-meter-high walls and a gouge in front of it, filled with spikes at the bottom and many dead monsters. A large wooden structure slowly formed a bridge for them to cross. Soldiers were stationed along the walls, spread out 15 meters from each other.

Entering the city of Goshi, they moved another 100 meters before reaching a second gate with the same design.

"This is double sure security to make sure if those things enter the first line of defense, they won't make it into the second," Peri explained, observing the final gate with soldiers positioned on top.

The gate opened for them as they entered, and Wayne was surprised to find a beautiful and majestic city. People appeared to be smiling, creating a spectacle that left Wayne in awe as he looked around the city.

"Captain Peri, Captain Peri, did you find my daughter?" a middle-aged man with bandages on his head implored. Wayne observed the man scanning the carriage, desperately searching for his daughter. Captain Peri sympathetically took out a piece of clothing and handed it to the man, who fell to his knees, overcome with grief.

"I'm sorry, but your daughter's body was nowhere in sight. I picked this up since it was the only clothing I found, and it had bite marks," Captain Peri explained to the mourning father.

"She's dead. This is what she was wearing when she left my house to go to the river," the man continued to lament the loss of his daughter.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Captain Peri expressed his condolences as the carriage continued moving. It eventually arrived at a building labeled Yeiri, adorned with sculpted wolves on the front. Wayne looked at it with fascination.

"Let's go, kid. We need to ask you some questions and see whether you have any relatives here," Fern, the carriage driver, said, escorting Wayne inside. Wayne felt slightly calmer than before.

Upstairs, Wayne entered a room where he saw a large, strong, appealing man with a scar on his face sitting at an office table.

"Commander, this is a survivor we saw today. As for why I brought him here, from what I saw in his home, he got in contact with the five," Fern explained to the man seated at the table.

"Really, that is crucial," he said, locking eyes with Wayne. "My boy, will you share with me your encounter with the five men, those unknown monsters?" he added.

Chapter end