The Beast of Existence

The Quest

Lau is on a swing, going along with the momentum of his feets and the body control that a child usually possess, his eyes looking straight forward see his feets going up and down, along with the entire world around him, he likes to imagine that he stays perfectly still while he’s on the swing, and that the entire world is the one moving itself, and everything along with it, everything but himself.

He’s been up on the swing for a while now, and when he puts a foot out of the swing, he looks around, inspecting the park, he notices the lack of a single familiar face around him, he’s surrounded by people, childs like him and adults, but he feel an immense emptiness inside, accompanied by the loneliest feeling he ever experienced; his parents are apparently gone, and he begins to cry.

At first is a small concern, but as the seconds go by, he feels more and more the weight of a deepened enveloping feeling of strayness and yearning.

This little child is weeping, right next to the swing, where a new kid is now occupying, and this new kid swings as close to him as he could ever be without actually touching him with his lower limbs.

Lau, has lost all hopes as he goes to one of the benches, he suddenly notices his car in the distance; he runs towards it with a blinding happiness, as he is approaching the car his impulse is suddenly stopped, as he feels a hand holding his forearm, he falls sited to the ground, he turns his head up and there is an old man looking right at him holding his small arm, his face is dirty and his breath stinks awfully, his clothes are rags, dirty and muddy, the homeless man had lost red eyes, and speaks in a unknown language for the small child, but he doesn't let go of the grip of his arm.

Lau shouts and cries for help, everybody in the park directs their attention towards the child, the old man has a needle on his hand, the top of which was covered in blood, and the small child felt the most horrific of fears. A single mother who was nearby got to the scene quickly and with a determined pull she recovered the crying kid, as she did, the old man continued with his incomprehensible ramblings, the ones of a diluted drug addict .

His mom ran to his aid, holding him in confort, trying to calm him down; Lau reminisced of this episode of his childhood, as he felt a similar feeling when he saw a ghoulish creature looking back at him from inside his room.

Lau was filled with a shivering force that went from the top of his stomach, all the way to his fingers and toes; he felt a flee or fight instinct controlling him, as he saw the creature, but despite all of this, he stood still on the top of that table, as he looked at the beast that awaited for him in his room.

Lau got down and walked to the bedroom, he opened the door slowly, not taking his eyes off this thing for even a second, when the door was fully opened, he admired the grotesque image this thing was.

“Hi..”- said Lau in disbelief, the creature breath heavily, “Yes” -said the freakish being, it was about seven feet tall, was covered in black and grey hair, very bushy and a bit straight on the top, it had two bulging big round eyes, colored in yellow and surrounding the iris with a reddish tone, it had a big pointy mouth and big teeth, it was broad and had immensely big paws, he stood straight on the lower limbs, and was hunched at the top of his body, lowering the head. 

“I chose wisely” -said the macabre beast, with a tone of relief, as he drooled the floor, and in between a heavy breathing.

“you chose what?” -said Lau, scared but with a collected demeanor on the outside. 

“I chose correctly, in revealing myself to you”

“What are you?”

“I'm the ghost Lau, you spoke to me a night ago”

“Did I?”

“Yes, you woke up and begin to reveal your concerns to me”

“s**t, hold on, is this real?”

The monster just stared at Lau, silently, with a ghoulish face, and his mouth so full of sharp teeth that even resemble a steril grin.

“Am I not high?”

“No” - Said the beast with a monotone soft voice.

Lau now realise the grotesque creature was real, he extend his hand and feels the hair on this thing, it's thick and long, it was dense and made of a very strong fiber, Lau felt sick and immediately pulled his hand back to him; as he realized this thing had now and forever altered his reality, his face was filled with terror and disgust.

Lau vomits on his floor, as he shakingly sits down to the ground, trying to collect himself; he looks up, back at the monster, which is just standing there, staring at him, with it's unsettling face.

“Lau, don't panic, I'm here to thank you” - Lau just looks at him parallyzed.

“I used to wander around, no purpose whatsoever, so when I heard you speak, I just felt so captivated, I felt your pain, it reflected my own; so I followed you around that day, and saw you, saw how you numbed the pain, and suddenly as you kept talking to me, unaware of it; I materialize in this world, I could interact with it, so I remember what you told me, that you felt despise for the cheerful ones, so I took two of them out for you…”

“You did what!?”

“I killed those two persons Lau, it filled me with excitement and pleasure”

“Holy s**t, this can't be real, why are you so f****d up?”

“I thought you were going to be pleased Lau”

“I have to find my mom...” - said Lau with a squeaky voice, as he got up and walked toward the door, he turned around as if he had just realized something.”... did my mom see you?”

“An old woman?... No, I was already here when she got home, I saw her from your room but she left very quickly”

“I have to go to the police...”

“And tell them what?”

“Well I know for a fact that I can’t tell them about you, they would lock me up for sure, plus I think they are more aware of this sort of incident than I am. They didn’t weirded out about the video”

Lau and his ghoulish companion purposely walked towards the police station; the night was foggy and cold, it was as if a huge cloud had fallen into the streets, and the dim lights of the street worked as lanterns to guide them through the night, Lau was experiencing every stage of feelings from a traumatic event sequentially.

He felt a deep terror of this creature and his appearance made him uneasy, with every glance he took of it on the corner of his eye, or in the reflection of a window, he wanted to throw up, he couldn't stand the aspect that this thing had; later he felt joy, he felt special since he was the only one who could see the beast; thirdly he told himself that this could not be real, and it was nothing but a bad nightmare, one that seems a bit too real to be false; and lastly he was coming to terms that the thing was real, and that he needed a way to get rid of it, for his presence would culminate in the deterioration of his own sanity.

The beast walked right next to Lau, with a very affirmative stroll, but at times it seemed like it was floating through the mist.

Lau was so determined to get there that he had been careless about the time, the sky looked as if the sun was on the rise, and he looked at his clock, it was 5 am; Lau had to get to the hospital for his shift. The beast was still around him, following him, Lau felt unmotivated by his continuous presence. 

Lau got to the entrance of the hospital, as he was walking he felt a body moving rapidly, passing by right next to him and into the hospital, it was the beast, as soon as they reached the main gate, it ran in a awkward manner, but at the same time with the quickness of an unearthly creature, jump the entire building and landed in the back area. 

Lau panicked, “s**t! I have to find that thing!” thought to himself; as he was running into the hospital he was approached by Leah.

“Lau, hi, how are you, listen I need to talk to you.”

“Hey, Leah, listen I want to talk to you too, but I have to run…”

“Yeah, Lau is just... about last night, I think I f****d it up”

As she said this Lau was walking very fast into the hospital trying to attend to her while being on the lookout for the massive threat, with Leah chasing him around.

“Listen don’t worry about it”

“Yes Lau, I worry, you’re a nice guy, I just don’t want to give you the wrong impression, I just had too many drinks.”

“Leah I get it, this always happens to me, I’m used to it, we can talk later” - said Lau while going in and out of rooms and halls, walking and speaking in an urgent manner, searching for a menacing creature.

“I don't want you to think I’m just a girl that messes around, I really think you're special, and I know you like me, but I still want to be friends, it's nice to have a normal person to talk to around here, you really get it like me.”

“Leah listen I think I'm probably going insane and…”

“You must be if you like me.”

“That's not what I meant, you're a great girl, but there's so much s**t going on, I couldn't find my mom last night, so I have to call the police and file a missing person, she wasn't home when I got there, also…”

“Really? well let's go to the station right now, come i’ll go with you”

“But wait there's this other thing, there's… an… a… animal, an animal is loose here inside and I need to find it.”

“An animal?”

“It's like a huge bear but beastier, that I need to take out”

“Is that a metaphor or something?”

“No, listen is an animal, and I need to find it or someone could get hurt…”

“Ok, I help you”

“But stay with me”