Monsters

I don’t know what it is I saw today. It’s hard to even think about it. Any of it.

It was dark inside the house, and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust, so the smell was what hit me first. Like rotten eggs and matches, a sharp smell but one that would turn your stomach if you didn’t get a breath of clean air pretty quickly. But by the time I’d been in there a minute, before I could really get my bearings, that was when I realized I couldn’t -- couldn’t breathe, that is.
 
Everything was happening at once. There was a body, a woman I think, which would make sense since it was his mum’s house. Who knew how long she’d been dead, but that was probably part of what the smell was. There were scraps of paper on the ground, and my first thought was to grab them but then...something was happening, like a dust devil or something, but inside the house. And it had an intent to it - is that the right word? And at the same time, I was panicking, because I couldn’t breathe. It was like I imagine drowning to be like, where both consciously and unconsciously you’re trying to take air in, and it’s not happening, and that doesn’t make any sense because why would that not work?
 
I remember words in the air. Physically, the letters, suspended there, but not on paper. They just… were. Made of light. Or flame. Yes! They were letters made of fire.
 
“WHERE IS THE BOOK”
 
And then we ran. Oh yes - Shaw was there with me. He grabbed a scrap of paper off the floor. We looked later - it was all math, and angles, and locations. Some church, the Isle of Dogs, I forget what else.
 
We got outside, and everything was a blur still. I remember that the edges of my vision were starting to go dark, and there were little sparkles -- I guess I was close to passing out? I almost tripped coming down the steps but then I blinked and… I could breathe. I stood there - we both did- just gasping for a minute. The air was cold and I could feel it all the way down into my chest. I was shaking still, and didn’t stop for a while yet after that.
 
We got back to the shop and I was beyond tired - but that’s just it. I’d gone past tired and I was super awake again. Shaw and I were just telling Anne and The Professor about what happened, and they thought we were completely taking the piss and I was trying to tell them no, it did happen.
 
And then there was a crash from the back hall, by the supply closet. And this thing….
 
OK. Going to keep writing just to get this out of my head but even now it doesn’t make sense and I can’t…. I can’t think.
 
There was this thing. Bigger than a dog, but we’ve been calling it “the dog” because….we have to call it something, right? I think it was the thing that saw me last night, the one I wrote about before. This….awful shrieking, croaking sound. And the eyes. And...arms? Were they arms? They were sharp at the ends, and there was this mouth. I can’t think about the way it looked any more, my hands are shaking again.
 
Alright, some gin helped a bit. I swear, my next paycheck is just going straight into gin at this rate.
 
The Professor tried to throw a typewriter at it. Thanks for that, Doc. I’m sure he doesn’t have the first idea how much that cost, but I do, and now it’s smashed to bits and of course he didn’t even come close to hitting it. I threw a stool at it, and it seemed like it hurt it at least a little. Anne had her gun out because some of Mallet’s boys had been sniffing ‘round the shop earlier, and so she went for that and shot it. I heard the shot, anyway, but it didn’t seem very hurt. So then Shaw runs up to it, because of course he does, and slashes at it with that little tiny flick knife of his. I think one of the… arms? Tentacles? Tongues? Some long thing had cut him, and then when he cut the thing back it just sort of chomped at him with that mouth. I think he screamed, or maybe it was me. It probably was me. He went down like a sack of potatoes and I knew we had to get him out of there or it was going to kill him. So I ran up and grabbed a leg, and then Miss Anne snapped to and got the other one. The Professor opened the door and we got out of there.
 
The Professor patched him up a bit, but the thing had poisoned him and he was in a bad way. Worse than pale, he was practically grey. And so much blood, but blackened where the poison had gotten into the cuts. I knew we had to get him to hospital, and fortunately there’s one right close by to where we wound up when we stopped running.
 
We got him to hospital, and there was a detective there who took down our information. Why did I give him my actual name? I wasn’t thinking straight, clearly, because I just babbled out the entire thing. To a copper! Me! Well not quite the whole thing, because Anne and I sort of agreed without saying anything that we were going to say it was a dog. He gave us his name but I’ve no idea now what it was. Anne probably does. She’s good at remembering details like that.
 
The Professor went out for milk, because of course he did, and finally they let us in to see Shaw. Still in a bad way, but actually alive and breathing and no longer poisoned. Mr. Genius Professor decided to see if he could get any of the goo from the thing off of Shaw’s knife, and apparently poisoned himself just from touching it. So they were both a mess, but we decided to go back to the shop and clean things up anyway.
 
More of that slime, but we knew now not to touch it. Got it cleaned up, and all the blood. No sign of the “dog”.
 
There’s a hole in the supply closet floor. The “dog” had broken up through the floor from a tunnel. Boards just splintered - how strong was that thing? And the door was smashed to bits too, just hanging at an angle, barely. I told Anne we need to fill in that hole with concrete or something.
 
So now I’m home and I’ve stopped shaking finally. Shaw’s asleep in the living room - bless him, he has had a day of it and I didn’t want him to be alone. Me too, but I didn’t get munched on by some dog/snake/toad thing, and thank heavens for that.
 
But you know what?
 
The world is so much more brilliant than I thought. It’s not just stupid ex-boyfriends and drafty apartments and jerks like Drummell (I didn't even get to the bit with him, right bastard he is).
 
There’s monsters. And magic.
 
What else is there?
 
PS - I’m glad I’m getting this out of my head and on to paper. Last thing I need is spilling all this to Grandfather when I see him this weekend, like I did to that copper tonight.