Humanity's Demons

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Most people don’t know where they came from. They are likened to demons, harbingers of destruction and chaos.

“The end times are here!” The local beggar cried when they first became public knowledge.

It was during a wedding for one of my mother’s friends, and I was about twenty years of age at that time. My mother had forced me to come along. My father did not come. As the bride was walking down the aisle of the cathedral, there was a loud roar like thunder. Then, the ceiling of the church began to fall. Everyone ran to exit as quick as the can, screaming and crying. I looked back and up through the gaps in the ceiling and saw a shape rush by like a bullet distant in the sky. That was the only glimpse I could catch. Not everyone could make it out. The groom, the priest, and many others died in the falling rubble.

Everyone ran back to their homes and into their basements. People were being snatched from the ground one by one. We cowered and hoped that it would all pass. The chaos continued through the night, but by morning it was gone.

Most people don’t know where they came from. No one except for me.

I never knew my father. He always locked himself behind the doors of his laboratory, rarely to be seen by anyone. He showed his face at the table for dinner, though he mostly kept quiet, not even making eye contact with anyone else at the table. Nothing but silence as we all ate.

Sometimes he did have very brief conversations with my mother, and when he did, his voice was like shards of ice. But to me, his only son, it was as if I didn’t exist to him. Never a warm embrace nor an encouraging word. Try as I did to gain his approval, it all proved to be in vain. I thought I was worthless to be receiving this sort of treatment.

There were nights where I’d hear the sounds of some creature screeching and machines whirring coming from my father’s laboratory. It sounded like a torture chamber. Sleep was always difficult in our home. My mother didn’t seem to have trouble. Perhaps she got used to these things. And I don’t know if my father ever slept, though no one would ever know if he did. I don’t know the last time I had a good night’s rest. On the far corner of my room was a dark shadowy area. Sometimes I’d look there whilst laying in my bed and swore I saw two eyes staring right at me, never blinking. Sometimes I’d close my eyes and feel as if someone or something was breathing on my face. Sometimes I felt the bed shaking as if something was moving about under the bed. But when the morning came, there was nothing. Nothing in the corner of the room, nothing under the bed, nothing anywhere. Had I gone insane?

I was an outcast at school, the son of madman. The other kids in my class always talked about me behind my back, and when I approached the other kids, hoping to make just one friend, they’d all turn and go someplace else. I was alone. Things only got worse when children began disappearing.

No one trusted me.

One morning, a group of hunters ran back to town from the forest claiming to see a massive beast as large as buffalo, but long like a serpent. They claimed to have saw it devouring a herd of wild boar, which all laid dead with huge gashes in their side and burns all across on their bodies. The other men just laughed, told them to take a break from drinking for a while. They came to the town guard.

“We don’t have time to play make-believe,” they said.

I remember seeing them talking with each other at the town center that same afternoon while walking home from school. I didn’t hear what any of them said, but dread was their faces, as if they were about to face execution. Whatever they were going to do, they were all reluctant, but have accepted it as their duty. They took their rifles and marched into the woods. No one ever saw them again.

More nights passed. More screeching and wailing. Sometimes, it sounded like it came from inside our house. Other times, it sounded like it came from outside. About a week later, a squad of soldiers from the town guard came back from the forest searching for the missing townsfolk. They carried several body bags. Later, they came by several houses to inform them of the death of their loved ones.

Rumors grew that my hometown was cursed. Many families moved out, though a lot stayed. Those that did stay lived each day in paranoia and distrust. This town used to be lively. It used to be friendly and warm. Now, there is nothing here but hopelessness for its residents.

For a time, it was quiet. Then the creature struck again years later.