Page 25 of In Darkness and Dank

“Anyway. Okay. Him and this other scientist, Hutte, he’s the Black guy, are looking for this bacteria. A germ. Super tiny germ. So tiny you can’t even see it with your eyes. And well, they found it in the river over there and maybe sorta they found some more of it when we dug up one of your graves.”

“Graves?”

“Where your dead are.” Kittisak cringed. “The dead monsters like you? I mean, the monsters who have died. In the woven caskets? One of them got buried with a gold necklace?”

Shu growled.

“Hey, I’m sorry!” Kittisak exclaimed. “I tried to fix it, okay? Look, I convinced them to stop grave robbing and to keep looking for this special lagoon that our guide, Paiva, was talking about instead. I’m starting to think that it might be this lagoon, and I—”

“Kitty,” Shu soothed, his hand caressing Kittisak’s cheek. “I know.”

“Wait, what?”

“I see.” Shu smiled. “I see you fix.”

“But… I…”

“Kitty good mano.” Shu inched closer. “I know. Kitty beautiful mano too.”

“Shu, you…” Kittisak couldn’t think.

Shu was gazing at him sweetly, the birds were singing, and the soft roar of the waterfall provided the most romantic backdrop imaginable. The press of Shu’s hand on his face was gentle, tender, and Kittisak forgot how to breathe when he glanced down at Shu’s full lips.

“What do you want?” Kittisak asked urgently.

“Want? Prrrprp. Prrp. Word is…” Shu fidgeted, clearly struggling to communicate and eager to be heard. “Shu wants...”

“Just tell me,” Kittisak whispered. “Tell me what you want.”

“Bejo, Kitty?” Shu asked bashfully, closing the distance between them until his lips were brushing over Kittisak’s. “Please?”

“Bejo?” Kittisak smiled, and his heart zoomed into the back of his throat. “Okay, well, I think I know what that one means, and—”

A furious roar cut Kittisak off, and his head snapped forward to see another monster coming out of the water and barreling at them. It was nearly twice the size of Shu, a darker shade of shimmering cerulean, and its sharp teeth were bared and its claws were lunging for Shu.

“Oh, shit!”

5

“Oh, shit!” Shu agreed, scrambling forward to put himself in between the other monster and Kittisak.

Kittisak nearly fell off the ledge. He righted himself and looked around for a weapon. He saw the fallen branch Shu had moved out of the way earlier and grabbed for a sizable chunk to break off, grunting with effort before it finally snapped.

Shu and the other monster collided, snarling and roaring at each other as they wrestled. They went off the ledge to the rocks below, and the larger monster seemed to be winning. It threw Shu to the ground, easily pinning him down.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Kittisak slid off the ledge, adrenaline making his entire body feel light and springy. They’d just been about to kiss, and there was no way in hell he was letting this new monster kick his monster’s ass. He came at the sparring beasts with the branch in hand, shouting, “Hey, asshole!”

Shu and the other monster both looked.

“Let go of him!” Kittisak swung as hard as he could, knocking the larger monster in the head. “Let go! Now!”

The larger monster growled, and it snapped its teeth at Kittisak.

Kittisak reared back to swing again.

Shu was trying to push the monster off and succeeded while it was distracted by Kittisak, and he sat up quickly.

Too quickly for Kittisak to adjust his aim, unfortunately, as the branch came crashing down on top of Shu’s head instead.

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