Creatures On Fire

Brutish Desire (Monstrum)

A/N: This story is based on my dreams with a particular monster.

Dana felt her face and entire body getting covered in cold sweat while she watched as the monster that looked like it had crawled out of depths of Hell, now was looming over her. She had never seen anything like that before. Actually, she had never even believed that monsters existed. Dana now felt so stupid when thinking that monster existed only in books and movies, or in people's dreams. And now here she was, facing a creature that made her feel like a tiny flea before a giant. But regretting her silliness was now too late. This mountain of muscles with a shining face now stood right above her, and all Dana could do was close her eyes and pray for a quick death.

But it never came.

Shaking all over, Dana dared to open her eyes and saw bright orange light shining right into her face. She had no idea why the monster hesitated to kill her, but then it did something that could cause nothing but pure, unadulterated surprise in the frightened woman's heart. Instead of a cold-blooded murder, the macabre creature almost gently pressed one side of its face to her hair, pulling the air through its nostrils and puffing out. It was sniffing her for some reason, so much Dana could understand. And while the monster did that, it emitted such a loud growl, that it resonated in vibrations through Dana's body. Each time it felt her smell, the creature rubbed its face against her head, reminding her of a satisfied cat's movements when it thus marked something that belongs to him or her. With every minute of such actions, Dana's surprise grew stronger. She really had no idea why this beast behaved like that; it was totally uncharacteristic of it, considering its brutal nature. She had already seen many times how it chased any sailor it spotted with such a roar that could easily make your eardrums pop if you stand too close. In such moments only one instinct took control of her: run and never look back. Not all the crew member were lucky to escape the monster's deadly grasp; Dana's blood turned cold when she heard painful screams of death or bones cracking when this spawn of Hell got a hold of its victims. He just squished them like bugs, and they had no chance against him. Those who had better luck, in turn, jumped overboard into the sea; and Dana couldn't blame them. It was definitely better to choose death by drowning in the sea rather than get into the hands of a creature like the one that was looming over her. Oh, and more than that, it even had a name. Roaming around the ship, Dana stumbled on several documents strewn around the rooms; and there she learned that this particular being was labeled "The Brute".

Very appropriate name for such a creature; it perfectly goes together with its behavior. But what was totally unexpected that it was also capable of being almost tender.

Just like it was now with a female named Dana.

While she tried to figure out the monster's intentions, Dana at first reconsidered her decision to join the crew. Her mother was nervous when she applied for a cook's job on the ship, considering that the crew consisted mostly of males. But Dana got on well with her crew mates, and nothing foretold any trouble. Who could have known what was in one of the containers that they were transporting and how it would end? What's even stranger, no one in the crew knew what cargo it was. They were just given a task to transport the cargo from point A to point B without asking any unnecessary questions. Like if it wasn't suspicious enough. But no one could have imagined that this top secret cargo happened to be a monster of an unknown nature. And as long as Dana managed to study its appearance, she grew sure with each moment that it wasn't actually a supernatural being, but some kind of a bizarre mutant that has been human some time ago.

It's because his left arm looked almost fully human.

Dana sat up and tilted her head. The more she looked at the monster, studying it with her glance, the less fear she felt and the stronger her curiosity grew instead. It seemed like the creature wasn't even planning to kill her. But what did it want then? She was confused. Was it trying to show her that it had no intentions to kill her with its movements? Most likely it was, but what now? How long was it going to last? Finally she decided to take the courage and speak.