Page 50 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“I know,” Theo said.

“If we don’t, and the serum wears off…” He shook his head, his chest rumbling, an action that Theo was beginning to find oddly attractive. “They will consume us.”

“They’ll eat me alive.”

“Yes.”

“And that will be that.”

“Yes.” He paused. “We will be consumed together though and that is something to be pleased about at least.”

Theo took a deep breath. How easily they could talk about being consumed by monsters! But then, hadn’t this been their life for many years now? Only, it was entirely possible Theo and Baku could put a stop to that. It seemed mad to consider it but if this did work then they would be able to replicate it.

Theo imagined how his world might be with the munching monsters removed and the rips they had created closed up once and for all. The MDF could regroup and focus on understanding what other monsters were wandering around their countries and what the hell they were up to. They could probably even put a stop to the conscription as surely there would be enough soldiers to deal with the screechers and the spitting monsters and all the others. Theo could change thousands of lives with his actions in the next twenty-four hours. It didn’t quite seem real, as he still wasn’t really sure he was the man for the job, and yet fate had made it so.

The monster has made it so.

Theo exhaled carefully. That was true but it was honestly too late to do a thing about it now and Theo was in this until the very end…and making their way through the forest was the first obstacle. Pragmatic, he had always been so.

“I guess we should get started then,” he eventually said.

“Stay close to me,” Baku said replied.

“I will.”

It was the monster that hesitated for a moment then. “Still no kisses?”

Theo smiled. He couldn’t help himself. “Not until this is done.”

“It will strengthen our resolve.”

“My resolve is already strong,” Theo said. “I want this done.”

The monster nodded at that, and together they entered the forest.

The grass on the very edge of the forest was wriggling again and Theo looked down, unsurprised to see the weird, maggot creatures there. Some of them were crawling up the trees. Every time they got to a certain height a scuttling green beetle scampered down and ate them. Where were their survival instincts?

Where are yours?

Theo gripped his knife, struck by that, but then decided to ignore it. Instead, he concentrated on following carefully next to Baku. The trees in the forest were numerous, the species varied, and every so often they saw another monster of some kind, though Theo was starting to realise they were just animals, different to real Earth animals, but animals all the same.

Something that looked like a squirrel jumped from tree to tree. It was small, furry, and looked like an Earth squirrel…until it spotted a bug and an eight foot long, fuzzy tongue shot out.

Flying beetles buzzed from tree to tree. They were the size of Theo’s hand, and every so often one ate another one and then immediately vomited it back out where it fell to the forest floor and then split into two.

A skulking cat-like creature followed them for a little while, its eyes on Theo’s ankles, and he was ready to stab it before Baku explained that the cat creature was following them because other little creatures were, and the cat was picking them off one by one.

Most disturbing of all was a huge, flying butterfly that rested on a bush covered in pink flowers, and carefully ate flower after flower, each of which screamed in response.

Theo measured his reaction to each of the monsters and each of the passes through the trees—which were beyond crowded—by the way Baku responded to them. If he suddenly became alert, Theo did so as well. If he paused, Theo copied him. And if he sped up slightly, Theo did the same.

The hours passed in that way, one after the other, and they passed in a more tiring way than if they had run them. The slowness, the deliberateness, it was draining. Theo had to work really hard to keep his concentration up but even so it was starting to wander a little as midday passed, the afternoon proper began, and the sun began to throw shadows across the forest floor…

How much longer he wondered?

How close were they to the rip?

How many munching monsters awaited them?

---