Page 24 of A Very Monstrous Desire

Baku nodded. “Yes, the seasons are the same.”

“Is everything the same?” Theo shook his head. “That was a stupid question, of course everything isn’t the same.”

“But much is, so it is not a stupid question at all.” Baku started walking again though he waited for Theo to match his stride before he really began to pick up the pace. “This planet is much the same as your planet in its composition,” he added. “There are the same number of other planets in this system. We too have a single star.”

“And a universe?”

“A single universe yes.”

“Not a multi-verse?”

Baku nodded slowly. “Perhaps. The joins between our worlds suggest as much.”

“I feel like I have a million questions that I want to ask,” Theo said. They had passed through the worst of the wriggling maggot things now. Another flock of rainbow-eyed beetles passed overhead. They did not seem to be attracted to Baku’s silver hair but then even if they had been, Theo suspected the monster could swat them aside with one large hand.

“Ask your questions,” the monster said. “We have a long, gruelling walk ahead.”

They began to move down a hill, putting the forest behind them. If Theo’s sense of direction was correct, Baku was taking them in a loop away from the forest but then back down to meet the coast. It would add hours to their journey but was apparently preferrable to risking the entirety of the forest. Theo was sure it had something to do with whatever Baku called the rages. And how fucking awful were they if a monster his size wanted to avoid them?

“On our planet Europe is one of the most temperate areas,” he began.

“Here too.”

“But your people don’t live here?”

“We did for hundreds of thousands of years,” Baku said. “Then the rages came. It has been some time since we have lived here now.”

“The rages are the monsters that live in the forest?” Theo asked.

“In all the forests. They have taken over the area you would call Europe in almost its entirety.”

“Are they…are they people?”

Baku seemed to struggle with that a moment before answering. “Something close and yet not.”

“Are you the only people then on this planet?”

“By people do you mean sentient beings or beings that look like us?” Baku asked.

They came to the bottom of the hill. In the distance Theo could see what looked like the outlines of a small settlement. It was completely abandoned and reminded him of ancient structures in some parts of Europe. Had it been from when Baku’s people lived on these lands? If so, it could be hundreds and hundreds of years old. Vines grew around the pillars, and several trees shot up from the space in between what had once been buildings. Those same blue flowers wrapped around the vines and shot their blue liquid out in varied pulses.

“I guess I mean beings that are capable of language, of higher thought,” Theo said just as one of the vines shot out to capture some of the liquid. “And I suppose that look like us too.”

The monster pointed to a trail through the grasslands ahead. It was much higher than what they had just walked through, at least waist height for Theo. The alien maggot things were quite a bit bigger as well though there were fewer of them.

“Then we are not the only ones,” the monster said.

“There’s more than you and just the rages?” Theo asked, flicking an alien maggot off his thigh.

“Yes.”

“Have any of them come through into our world?”

“Many.”

So, there were sentient monsters roaming Europe. Theo had always suspected as much. But why had they come through? What did they want? The government kept a firm grip on any information regarding their new monster neighbours and not least because Theo did not think they even knew how many had come through or what type they were.

But people…

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