Page 16 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“And what if I don’t want to give it?” Theo asked.

The monster was implacable. “It will make no difference,” he said. “Your service will be given regardless.”

It was like the MDF all over again, and Theo clenched his fists against those same feelings of fury and helplessness that had filled him when his legal challenge was refused. “But we’re here…right now…” he said. “The rips are in the same spot in both dimensions, aren’t they?”

“Exactly.”

“So in my world right here is the toilet?”

“Yes.”

“I could go right back there, right now.”

“But you will not,” the monster said.

There was clearly no moving him on this, and Theo had to take a deep breath to try to control the emotions running through him. The monster also continued to push them onwards and his pace was brutal, leaving even Theo slightly out of breath after a few minutes. That annoyed him and Theo pulled them to a stop again.

“I demand to return home!” he said.

The monster did not waver. “Demands are pointless.”

“But—”

“You can return to your world once you have aided me,” the monster said. “I will promise you that.”

“I’ll go home?” Theo asked.

The monster nodded. “Yes.”

He started moving again, the pace just as hard, and Theo had no choice but to follow, though truthfully there was little choice as the monster kept him close anyway, reaching out to grab him whenever it looked like Theo was falling behind.

“When?” Theo eventually said.

“Soon,” the monster replied. “Our window of time is short.”

“And the rip…” Theo gestured behind him even as he wondered what the monster meant by that cryptic statement. “It is like that with every rip? The rip in the sky by my house is in the same place in this world?”

The monster tilted his head. “Yes, this is basic physics.”

“I don’t…” Theo shook his head. “I don’t know much about the rips. No one does!”

“That is not true,” the monster said. “The governments of your world have simply chosen not to share their knowledge with the wider population.”

“Then they know about you?” Theo asked.

“Me specifically?” the monster replied.

“That you are…human?”

The monster growled again. Growled. And Theo was struck all over again just how impossible this whole thing was.

“We are not human,” he said.

“We?”

“I will answer your questions,” the monster replied. “You will also answer mine. But we cannot do that if you have been eaten by the rages.” He gestured to the forest.

“Monsters…”

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