A young woman is driving home late at night, alone. The dark road seems to wind and writhe in every conceivable direction. Her eyelids are heavy as her hands remain loosely on the steering wheel.
She thinks to herself about how she's been at that party far too long. She had only intended to be there for an hour or so but the strapping young man that had grabbed her attention at the beginning had kept her captivated all night. Their connection was almost instant. She couldn't help but daydream about him, even as her car wound down the seemingly endless stretch of asphalt that lay before her. She had even left him her number. Would he call her tomorrow? Oh how she hoped he would—
*CLANG*
The sound jolts the woman back to reality and her foot instinctively slams on the brakes. For a moment she's wide awake again as her car comes to a sudden stop. She takes a few breaths and looks up slowly.
Her high beams illuminate something lying in the road. Was it an animal? Something alive? The young woman didn't know. She could just barely make out the outline of it. The way it was colored, it almost blended into the road. It was only by virtue of the shadow cast by the figure that she was able to tell it was there. It's no wonder she didn't see it until it was too late.
The young woman, wanting to know about any damages to her car, slowly reaches for a flashlight she kept for emergencies in her glove compartment. Slowly but surely, she opens the car door and steps outside before making her way to the front of the car. The car itself looks more or less unscathed. It was as if nothing had happened to it.
After that inspection, curiosity draws her to the thing lying in the road. As she makes her way over, it's clear that the thing was some sort of animal. She could make out four legs on a body about the size of a chihuahua. What she sees, however, is nothing close to a dog.
The creature is completely hairless. Black skin covers every inch of its hide. There's no tail, only a large, open wound on the hindquarters where a tail should be. The legs ended in feet, all of which had seven toes each. Each toe has a curved claw. Razor sharp.
The head was most troubling for the young woman. The pill-shaped head was about the size of a jack russel's, but it la led any distinct facial features. It had no eyes and no nostrils. No ears. Just a smooth, hairless face. The only thing there was a mouth running the length of its head. A mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth.
The young woman had never seen anything like it before. Maybe some sort of mutation? She didn't know and she didn't want anyone else to hit it. As she tried to move it out of the way, however, she hears something. She looks around at first. Nothing. No sounds from the nearby woods. She tries moving the creature again.
There it is again! The young woman looks again, this time at the creature. She sees its chest moving up and down. Sees its breath fogging in the cold night. Its legs twitch in the darkness. It may have just gotten hit by a car but it was far from lifeless.
The young woman can't believe her eyes. She must've been going forty or fifty down the road. Yet, save for the wound on the animal's rear, it seemed to only be stunned.
But what if it isn't just stunned? What if she had really hurt it? It would never survive out in the wild. She couldn't just leave it.
As the creature lay still again, she moves back to her car. She pulls out a blanket that she happened to have with her and comes back over. Carefully, she wraps up the small creature and scoops it up, carrying it back to her car.
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A veterinarian sits alone in an exam room. He's had to stay late tonight in order to do some paperwork. Never did he suspect it would be interrupted by his unusual guest.
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Monster Hunters Incorporated: The Truth Behind the Myths
Science FictionMonsters are everywhere, not just under your bed and in your closet. The world is a host to all sorts of creatures big and small. Powerful and weak. Docile and deadly. Monster Hunters Inc., or MHI for short, is an international organization dedicate...