Wes Parker: Monster Hunter (Volume Three)

  Wes Parker

  Monster Hunter

  Volume Three

  Short Stories

  By C.J. Pike

  Copyright ? 2014 by C.J. Pike

  This collection is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are draw from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely accidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any forms or means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

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  A Quick Note

  This book is a collection of short stories

  that were originally posted on my blog.

  You can visit there for more hunting.

  It had been three weeks since my run in with the werewolves and vampires. Roy was doing a lot better but he had been loaded with a lot of vampire venom, so he had a ways to go. He was just lucky that he hadn't been bitten by a werewolf also. He would have died right on the spot.

  If you're just joining us, Roy is a human that fights monsters. I met him while hunting some vampires, which were working with werewolves. He got hurt really badly. If you're confused go back to the last story "Hairy and the Vampires." I'm not re-explaining everything. If you are still confused then go even further back.

  We had stayed in the same motel for the first couple of weeks-who knows how much money that had cost-but eventually we had to leave. Roy was well enough to move so we took our chances.

  We had driven across the country just to end up in another crap bag motel, but we had to. If I showed up in a fancy hotel I would have a better chance of being recognized. It was the nature of our job. We had left because, can you guess? Ding, ding, ding! There was another monster to hunt. Every day, all day there is another monster to hunt. I was literally going to be spending the rest of my life hunting them down and killing them. I don't like to complain, though.

  There were disappearances in a town that wasn't too far from Las Vegas. I thought about maybe going through there if I had some time. The one good thing was that at least it was warm. I was done with the cold air.

  It had been a week since we had arrived and I hadn't found anything yet. There was nothing about the disappearances that gave away whatever the monster was. Who knows, maybe it was another demented human being. I knew that wasn't true because I could feel that it wasn't a human.

  "You find anything yet?" Roy asked me.

  "Do you see blood on my clothes?" I replied.

  "If I was out there I would have found whatever it is by now."

  "Go on out then. You look well enough"

  "You know I'd rather be out there."

  "Maybe next time you can try not getting hurt."

  "Not all of us can be paladins."

  "Only some of us can be so lucky."

  I sat on the crappy bed that was dawned with some pretty shady looking sheets. I didn't really care, though.

  "Hungry?" I asked him.

  "A little," he answered.

  "What do you want?"

  "Pizza."

  "Pizza."

  I ordered us some pizza and we waited. I was glad to find someone who liked pizza as much as I did. This would be the fifth night in a row. Thankfully I am a paladin or the pounds would start adding up very fast.

  "So, you didn't get any leads?" Roy asked again.

  "If I did I would tell you," I responded. "There is nothing out there. And to be honest everyone just talked a bunch of crap about everyone else. This isn't a nice town."

  "Life isn't nice, kid."

  "Yeah, I know."

  Roy was watching the news. There was a reporter walking the strip. I wasn't really listening to her because I was way too busy thinking about the pizza that was on its way. Roy looked like he was listening but who knows. I decided to start listening to her.

  "Apparently the thief grabbed the woman by the neck and threw her into one of the freezer doors," she said. "Witnesses have identified the suspect as a male, Caucasian with long hair and standing about six feet tall." The woman stopped. "What? Where?"

  The woman turned around. Now she had my attention.

  "There's nothing there," she said.

  All of a sudden the woman was ripped out of the camera shot into the air. She was gone.

  "What the hell was that?" Roy shouted.

  "I don't know," I said. "I've never seen anything move that fast."

  "Never?"

  "Never. I have no idea what that was." It was true. I didn't. All I know was that whatever the monster was it was in Vegas and a lot of people saw that happen. This was going to be a nightmare.

  I didn't wait around for anything else to happen. I headed right into Las Vegas. Whatever was terrorizing the town we were in decided to head into Sin City. At least I knew where to start looking but I had no idea what the monster even was. I left Roy back at the motel because he wouldn't be able to do anything to help me. I was on my own. Of course, I was always on my own so that didn't really matter to me.

  The city was amazing. There were so many bright lights and so many people. The only problem was that I would say about 80 percent of them were completely drunk.

  I found my way to the spot where the woman was ripped up in the air. It was in front of a convenience store just outside the city. I wasn't the only one that had showed up. Obviously everyone was there to find out what had happened to that news reporter. The police were there too, which made me feel very uncomfortable. Even worse other news teams were there so I had to stay out of the camera view.

  There wasn't a whole lot I could do without being noticed and I probably wasn't going to find much by looking on the ground anyway.

  "Sir, did you see what happened?" someone said. It took me a second but I realized that they were talking to me. It was a reporter followed by a cameraman.

  "No," I said quickly.

  "Do you know anyone involved?"

  "No."

  "Do you have any comments?"

  "Yeah: Go away."

  My phone started ringing. I knew who it was before I even looked at the phone.

  "Now you've done it," I said to the reporter. He ignored me and walked away.

  I answered the phone.

  "You guys are fast," I said.

  "What's the matter with you?" Kelly asked. To remind those of you who may have forgotten and inform those of you who decided to join the story in the middle, Kelly works for an agency of humans that hunts down monsters. It's not like Roy who is on his own.

  "I wanted my 15 minutes of fame."

  "Are you an idiot?"

  "It's not like I wanted to be on camera, you dumbass. Didn't you see what happened here?"

  "A moment ago, yes. We're sending a team out."

  "Without you?" I asked

  "Yes," she replied. I don't know if I've ever worked with anyone in the agency without her. "Do you know what it is yet?"

  "Not a clue," I answered.

  "Odd."

  "I have never seen anything move like that and I have seen a lot of different monsters."

  "Neither have we."

  "No ideas on your end then?"

  "No. We're looking through some files to see if maybe something was forgotten over the years but nothing yet. We'll figure it out."

  I was sure that they would figure it out, but I wanted to figure it out before they did. Don't call me a child. Everyone is competitive in one way or another so don'
t sit there behind your computer screen or tablet or whatever you're using to read this and act all high and mighty.

  "Listen," I began, "I've got this under control. There's no reason to send anyone out here."

  "Wes, we're sending a team out," she reiterated.

  "Okay. I'll let you know when I kill it."

  "Wes, no."

  "Bye." I hung up the phone.

  I knew they were coming and I couldn't stop that. I didn't know how far out they would be so I had to move fast. This was possibly a new monster and I didn't want to give anyone else the credit for killing it, which meant at most I had until the end of the night to find and kill it. Happy hunting, Wes.

  I wasn't going to find whatever captured the woman by looking on the ground. This thing was probably hanging out on the tops of buildings, where most people don't go, snatching up people from the ground. That meant one of two things: either it had very, very long arms or it could climb walls. Unless Spider-man has a gambling problem I think it's safe to say that it's not him.

  I tried to find a way into the building through the back but there were plenty of people, mainly police, standing back there so there was no way I was going to sneak in there. The only thing I could do was go into one of the surrounding buildings and look from there. First, I wanted to talk to the convenience store clerk to see if I could just get a little bit of information.

  The guy was standing with a police officer who was asking him some questions. I waited until he was done and walked over to him.

  "Hi," I said.

  "Hey," he replied. He didn't really seem too shaken up.

  "This is crazy, huh?"

  "Yeah, man. I was robbed, which is whatever, and that news reporter. Way too weird."

  "Did you see what grabbed her?"

  "No. I was talking to the cops already and missed it."

  "Did you ever hear anything on the roof before? Were there any other weird things going on?"

  "No." He turned and looked at me. "You a cop or something?"

  "No," I answered. "Why?"

  "You're asking a lot of questions. You are way too young to be a cop."

  "I'm a student. Just trying to learn."

  "Well, go learn somewhere else before I get the real cops over here."

  I put my hands up and walked away. What a jerk. He was cool at first and then totally switched gears. Oh well.

  I walked away and headed to the building next door. There wasn't anyone surrounding that building or paying attention to it so I ventured inside. It was some type of office building that was clearly closed but I've done a little breaking and entering plenty of times in the past. No biggy.

  The building was dark and completely empty, which worked for me because that decreased my chances of getting caught, significantly. I navigated through the building and eventually found the door that led to the roof. The building was about seven stories high, so I was pretty far up.

  My first thought as I stepped through the door was that there was no one on the roof with me. I was wrong.

  "What are you doing up here?" a man asked me as he stumbled from behind a vent. His clothes were a mess and so was he. There was a liquor bottle in his hand.

  "What are you doing?" I asked back.

  "That's noneaya business." He could barely speak. "My wifethinks shesssooo god? She leaves me because of one sim mistake? Stupid."

  He was obviously at a bad point in his life and I didn't really want to get in the middle of that.

  "Look," I began, "I'll just go into the next building."

  "Don't you move," he said, waving the bottle at me.

  "Okay, bud."

  "I'm notyabud, dumb stupid."

  I chuckled. I know I shouldn't have chuckled but the man just sounded so ridiculous.

  "You think this funny?" he asked.

  "No," I said.

  "Then whyareyou laughing?"

  "I don't know."

  "I should beat you bloody."

  "I think I'll just leave now."

  I could kick the crap out of him but I didn't really want to do that.

  "Get over here so I can beatyasenseless," he demanded.

  He didn't really have the chance to do that, though. He was suddenly ripped off the roof. Whatever took him was still moving too fast to see exactly what it was but I could make out just a little bit and one thing was clear: it could fly.

  I quickly went through my head, trying to figure out what monsters I knew could fly. There were only elves, because of their magic, and fairies. I knew for sure that it wasn't either of them. If it were elves then it would be a bunch of them and they wouldn't have left the other town. And fairies are the size of a small child and are severely ugly. This was something else. I was scared. I'm allowed to be scared you know.

  The man was yelling as he and the monster shrunk away in the distance, which didn't take long because that thing was hauling ass. I tried my best to see where it was taking him but I lost them. I could see that they were heading into the heart of the city, though. So, I did too.

  I found a parking garage on the strip and left my car there. I thought about leaving it back near the convenience store but I didn't feel it was safe there. At least I knew that this place was guarded.

  The strip was full of all kinds of interesting people but to be honest I wasn't paying too much attention to them because I had my eyes up in the sky, looking at the tops of the buildings for the monster. My guess was that the guy that thing just took was dead. One less life I didn't save. Good job.

  "Whoa!" someone shouted.

  I turned just in time to see the girl I was about to walk into. We collided into each other and I almost knocked her over. I grabbed her just in time and accidentally pulled her right into me. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

  "Uh, hi," I half said half breathed.

  "Hi," she said back.

  "Sorry for bumping into you." I let go of her and she took a step back.

  "It was my fault, too. I wasn't paying attention."

  We both just looked at each other and smiled. I could feel my stomach turn into knots.

  "Oh, I'm Wes," I said.

  "Julie," she replied. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I hadn't felt like this since Kerry. I felt a quick surge of guilt, but I pushed that feeling away.

  "What were you looking at?" she asked me.

  "I was just admiring the buildings," I lied. I knew I should've be looking for the monster but I didn't want to walk away from this girl. I could get the monster after. I always get the monster I am after. Almost always.

  "You're not from around here," she said bluntly.

  "What gave it away?"

  "You just seem out of place."

  "Doesn't everyone here?"

  "Fair enough. You also look too young to gamble."

  "How old do you think I am?" I asked.

  She thought about it for a second. "Seventeen."

  Damn. "Yeah."

  She perked up a little bit, proud of herself.

  "You look a little young yourself. To be gambling I mean."

  She seemed to break out of some sort of daze and wore a look of concern.

  "I know," she said. "I go to school outside the city. I'm just here looking for my dad."

  "I see," I said.

  "He got into a huge fight with my mom and then took off. She wouldn't tell me what it was about."

  "Oh." I felt a pit forming in my stomach.

  "He has a drinking problem and I'm afraid he is going to do something stupid."

  "Maybe I can help you look?"

  "No. I don't want you to drag you into my problems."

  "I want to help. I mean, I don't mind."

  "Okay, thanks. I thought he was probably in one of the casinos but I don't know. I've tried looking in a few but the bouncers know me pretty well because of him. They haven't seen him."

  "Does he usually gamble?"

  "Yeah. But I was thinking about checking his work. He goes there
sometimes when he and my mother fight, if he's not out gambling. He owns his own business outside the city."

  "Where's that?" I asked.

  "It's actually right next to that placed that got robbed," she said. "He is usually on the roof."

  Crap, crap, crap. I really wished that she hadn't said that. I was going to be the one to have to try to explain that her dad was taken by a monster that could fly and was probably dead. I really liked this girl, too.

  Maybe it was all just a big coincidence. Maybe there were a lot of fathers in Vegas who get drunk and hang out on rooftops after getting into a big fight with their wife. Yeah, I know. That was definitely not the case. I just wasn't sure how I was going to explain it to her with her believing me and not scaring her off. I kept replaying the conversation in my head and it really didn't sound good.

  She started walking off, so I followed her.

  "We can grab my car and drive over there," she suggested.

  "Have you checked all of the casinos?" I asked her.

  "Only the ones he usually goes to."

  "Maybe tonight he decided to go to another one. If he's drunk he could have ended up anywhere." Although that was very true, it was a dumb thing to say.

  She scowled. I don't think she was necessarily mad at me but just worried.

  "I know he could have," she said.

  "I'm sorry," I apologized. "I didn't mean to say that." I did, though. And it was true. Well, he wasn't just anywhere. He was somewhere with a scary, flying monster.

  "I know my dad. If he isn't at a casino, then he is at his job."

  "Should we split up?"

  She looked at me doubtfully. I could see it in her eyes.

  "You can just go if you want," she said angrily.

  "No," I said. "I just think that maybe I can look around here and have some better luck."

  "How do I know you won't just take off?"

  "Here's my number." I gave it to her. "Call it."

  She did and my phone rang.

  "See," I promised. "We can keep in touch and I have your number now, too."

  She still seemed skeptical but she gave in. "Fine. I'll look at his office and you look around here. His name is George." She described him to me and he sounded just like the guy that was snagged from the rooftop.

  "Okay. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

  "If you find him don't try to talk to him. He gets very obnoxious when he's been drinking." I knew that was true. "Just call me and I'll be right there."

  "If I see him, don't approach him. Got it."

  "Right."

  "I think I can handle this."

  "I don't even know how to thank you. Why are you doing this?"

  I took in a deep breath. I couldn't tell her the truth-either truth. I was doing it because it's what I do and finding him meant that I would find the monster, probably. But I was also doing it because I thought she was cute as hell.

  "It just seems like the right thing to do," I said.

  She walked up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She then walked away.

  "Call me," she called behind her.

  "Yeah," I sighed. I watched her walk away for as long as I could.

  I snapped out of the daze I was stuck in and tried to figure out my next move. Her going to the office building would keep her away from danger, and I could keep dodging her long enough to find the monster and her dad. Time to start looking for a needle in a hay stack.

  I knew that I was still going to have to look for this thing on the rooftops, which meant I was going to have to go through one of the buildings. The problem was they were all full and no one was going to let me get through without making a scene. I was just going to have to try my luck.

  After walking down the strip for a couple minutes I found myself in front of one of the hotels. Without thinking I just walked through the front door. The place was really fancy and looked very expensive. It was somewhere I would never stay.

  There were people at the front desk but none of them were paying attention. I figured the best thing I could do was act like I was already staying there. I know. When does everything I do ever go the way that I want? One of the bouncers stepped in front of me, stopping me dead in my tracks. He looked big and if I wasn't me I would be intimidated. The only reason I was nervous is that he could make a scene.

  "Can I help you?" he asked me.

  "Nope," I replied.

  "Can I see your ID?"

  "ID? Just to get to my hotel room?"

  He just stared at me.

  "Look," I began, "we both know that I'm too young to gamble. I just want to get to my room."

  He still didn't say anything.

  "I'm on vacation with my dad?" I tried.

  "I'll also need to see your room key," he said.

  "I lost that."

  "Let's check at the front desk then."

  I think it kind of goes without saying that within the next 30 seconds I was back outside. Anywhere else and I could have just walked right through. It didn't help that I had to walk through the casino that was in there to get to the rooms. So, I was back at square one.

  My phone started to ring. It was Julie.

  "Hi," I said.

  "He's not here," she said. "But the back door had been broken into so now I'm kind of worried."

  That was me, I thought to myself. I wasn't going to tell her that, though. She had gotten there a lot faster than I had expected.

  "I'm sure he's okay," I lied. I felt so awful for doing that.

  "I kind of thought you'd be gone by now," she admitted.

  "I told you I wasn't going anywhere."

  "Thank you. Have you found out anything?"

  "No. I went into one place but the guy kicked me out right away."

  "I hope my dad's okay."

  "I'm sure he's just drunk at some casino or bar or something, hiding from everyone."

  "You think so?"

  No. Not at all. "Yes."

  "I hope so. Where can I find you?"

  I tried to think of something to tell her because I didn't want her to find me in case I found the monster. She needed to be as far away from me as she could.

  "I'm not really sure," I lied.

  "What do you see around you?"

  "There's nothing where I am." That sounded stupid.

  "Okay." She sounded frustrated. "Can you walk to anything close by?"

  I never got the chance to answer her. At that moment something latched onto my shoulders, digging into my skin, and lifted me into the air.

  So there I was, flying through the air with some monster's claws digging into my shoulders. I can say that it was certainly not a comfortable feeling. Somehow I had managed to hang on to my phone but I didn't waste any time hanging it up. I didn't want Julie to hear what was going to happen. I didn't even know what was going to happen. I certainly couldn't just try to get away from its grip because we were way too high in the air at that point. Plus I wasn't in a good position to try. So, I just waited to see where it was taking me.

  It was interesting, seeing things from that point of view. If you can believe it I have never been on a plane before so I have never flown. I can imagine that flying on a plane would be a little different than being dragged through the air by some monster. I still couldn't see what it was.

  My phone started to ring and the monster started making some squawking noise. It was making the thing angry. It was hard to focus on anything with its claws in me but I did manage to silence the phone.

  The thing brought to me to a rooftop and dropped me. I was a little disoriented so I didn't see exactly where it went but I think it flew away.

  I looked around and I was sitting in what looked like some sort of nest. There was just a bunch of garbage all bunched together in a circle. Plus there were human remains as well. I couldn't tell if one of them was Julie's father or not.

  My phone started ringing again. It was Roy.

  "Hey," I said with a grunt.

  "What's wrong
with you?" he asked.

  "I think I found the monster."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because it just picked me off the ground and dropped me in its nest." The phone beeped at me because Julie was calling, but I ignored her.

  "What?! It can fly?"

  "Yeah, it can."

  "I don't know anything that can fly. Not that big and fast anyway."

  "Me either. Maybe we're lucky enough to have discovered a new type of monster."

  "I hope not."

  I grunted as I started to move around. Paladin or not, having something stab you in three different places on each shoulder hurts. I stood up and started moving away from the nest. I needed to get away from the bones mostly.

  "At least you're all cozy at some nice motel," I said.

  "Yeah, real cozy," he replied. "Just a dozen or so healing vampire bites and scratches."

  "See. Optimism. Always good practice."

  "If I could see you I would punch you."

  "You mean you would try."

  I know I should have been paying attention. If I was I might have seen the monster coming back at me.

  It didn't grab me this time but instead just knock me over. It felt like I got hit by a Mack Truck. The thing knocked me 20 feet across the roof.

  I stood back up, turned around, and prepared myself for another hit but it didn't come. This monster was tactical and I didn't like that. I didn't have my axes-I couldn't walk around Vegas with two axes strapped to my belt-but I did have my guns. Luckily neither of them fell off when it grabbed me. I took them both out and readied myself for another attack.

  There was a whimpering somewhere off beyond the nest.

  "Hello?" I called out, but there was no answer.

  I stepped toward the noise but went with caution. There was no telling if there was a person there or if this monster could mimic humans.

  "Is there someone there?" I asked. There was still no reply.

  I continued.

  "If there is someone there you should say so," I stated. "Otherwise I am going to just start shooting."

  There was a shuffle and something moved. I took a quick shot but it was just a warning. If there was someone there I didn't want to kill them.

  "Get out here!" I demanded.

  The person finally did. I couldn't believe it. I felt a huge wave of relief as he headed toward me. It was Julie's dad.

  I couldn't believe it. He was still alive. He looked a little less drunk than before, which I'm sure was because adrenaline had kicked in. I slowly approached him.

  "Are you okay?" I asked him.

  He just shook his head.

  "Do you remember me?" I asked.

  He stared at me for a second confused. "You were on the roof before."

  "Yes. I'm going to get you out of here. Your daughter is looking for you."

  "Julie? You met Julie?"

  "Yeah."

  "Is she hurt?"

  "No, she's fine."

  "How did you meet her? She could be in trouble." He was still slurring his words a little bit but at least he was making sense.

  "The whole city is in danger."

  "That thing is going to come back and kill us." He was really starting to panic.

  "I won't let it," I promised.

  "You can't stop that," he practically shouted.

  "You should really keep your voice down."

  "How can you be so calm?"

  If he continued to talk as loud as he was that thing was definitely going to come back, and I really didn't want it to. I was going to have to kill it at some point, though. I just wanted to face it when I didn't have Julie's father with me.

  "I need to get you out of here," I said.

  "We can't get out," he responded. "The door is locked."

  "I can get through."

  "How? Who do you think you are?"

  "Wes Parker: Monster Hunter."

  "Monster what?"

  "Hunter." It wasn't like he was going to remember when this was all said and done. Plus he could clearly see that monsters did in fact exist.

  I was getting a little anxious that the monster hadn't come back yet. It could be grabbing someone else or waiting for a good moment to strike me again. It must know what I am or at least had felt my presence when I arrived here. Otherwise I figured it would have just attacked me head on.

  I quickly looked around fearing that it was watching me. I didn't see anything, however.

  "We should really go," I said.

  "Is it back?" he asked in a pathetic, high pitched voice.

  "I don't know. It will be."

  I started walking for the door that led into the building when I heard it land on the ledge off to my right. Judging by the sound it made as its feet hit the roof, it was big. I looked over, scared to do so, and saw that I was exactly right. It was taller than me, covered in scales, with a long snout and it had large wings. There was no mistaking what it was and I had no idea they even existed. It was a dragon.

  I honestly didn't know that dragons were real. It wasn't huge like they usually are in the movies and books. It was more like the size of a very large grizzly bear, but it was still very intimidating. I'm not even sure it was a dragon because I had never heard of them existing, but it looked just like one.

  It spread its wings out and let out a very high pitched squeal. I would have expected it to let out a horrific roar but it was more like a giant bat. It was scary none-the-less. It stepped down off the ledge and approached us, ready to pounce on its prey. That was us. I slowly started to back away with Julie's dad behind me.

  "It's going to eat us," Julie's dad whispered.

  "Shut up," I said back. I didn't want to spook the animal. It already looked aggressive enough. "Just head to the door, very slowly."

  He did just that and moved toward the exit door that he claimed wouldn't open. The dragon followed us, letting out occasional hisses, sticking out its tongue like a snake as it did.

  "We are going to have to move quickly," I said. "I'm going to rip open the door and then we'll have to get in there."

  "It's going to kill us," he replied.

  "Not if we move fast enough."

  "You're an idiot."

  "When this is over, I'm going to punch you in the face."

  We reached the door and the dragon was still keeping some distance in between us, probably wary of what I might do. I really wondered if it knew what I was. I had Julie's dad try to open the door but it didn't budge.

  "You see?" he said.

  "Okay," I began. "I'm going to rip the door open in three seconds."

  "It's getting closer."

  "Three. Two. One."

  I ripped open the door and shoved the man through it, wondering if he was going to break any bones. If I went down there with him the dragon could have just followed us so I couldn't take that chance.

  The dragon didn't waste any time and pounced on me like a feral cat. I managed to roll out of the way in time but barely. As I rolled up into a kneeling position I stuck my guns out, ready to fire, but the monster was way too fast. I didn't have time to shoot as it took a bite into my arm. I yelled in pain but I didn't give up.

  I took one of my guns and shoved it into the creatures back. I pulled the trigger, firing a bullet right in. Thankfully it wasn't like the thing had scales that were impenetrable because the bullet did hit its mark. The thing let go of my arm and let out another squeal. Then it flew away.

  I checked my arm and saw that I would live. I found my phone and called Roy.

  "Wes, you die?" he asked.

  "If I died I wouldn't be calling you," I pointed out.

  "I know."

  I let that sink in for a second and then snapped back into reality.

  "It's a damn dragon," I said.

  "What?" he replied. "Dragons?"

  "Yeah."

  "There's no such thing."

  "There's no such thing as vampires either."

  "Good point."

&nbs
p; "This thing is not going to be easy to kill. It's strong, fast and it can fly."

  "When are they ever easy to kill? How's a giant dragon not noticed in Las Vegas?"

  "It's not as big as you think."

  I thought I heard something fly above me but it was just a bird.

  "I need to get down from here," I said.

  I got down, but I really wanted to use the stairs. Instead the dragon came swooping down and knocked me right off of the building.

  There I was, falling to ground, heading to my inevitable death. They say that when you die your entire life flashes before your eyes. It didn't. That must have meant that I was going to survive. Of course I survived. I don't know why I have to remind you but if I was dead I wouldn't be able to tell you about this story.

  So, it turns out I wasn't going to hit the ground. No. The dragon didn't catch me at the last second. I bounced off a balcony and then landed on the ground. I didn't plummet to hard pavement below, but hitting that cement overhang didn't feel too good either. There was no doubt that something inside me had broken.

  I was lying on the ground, moaning and groaning like a little baby and luckily no one saw me fall. Either there was no one around or they were all too drunk. I looked at the building that we were just on top of and could see that it was abandoned, which made sense. The dragon wouldn't want to be nesting at a populated spot.

  "Wes?" I heard a female voice. I turned and saw Julie. Great. I'll admit that despite not wanting her around right then my heart still jumped.

  "Hey," I moaned.

  "Why are you lying on the ground?"

  "Just taking a break." Ha, get it? There's a little Arnold one-liner for you.

  "Are you okay?"

  "I've been better."

  I stood up and she came over to help me.

  "What happened to you before?" she asked. "I thought you took off on me."

  "I told you I wouldn't," I reassured her. "I thought I saw your dad so I got excited and dropped my phone."

  "So you didn't find him?"

  "Well, I did."

  She looked back and forth, trying to find her dad.

  "Where is he?" she asked.

  "Um," I stumbled. I wasn't really sure how much I should tell her. "He's in there." I pointed to the building.

  She just shook her head. "That place is all boarded up. How did you get in there?"

  "We came from the roof." I just spit it out, without even thinking about.

  "Why were you on the roof?"

  "We were sort of taken up there."

  She let out a long sigh and she seemed even more worried than she already was. I didn't really blame her, especially considering I knew that there was a dragon flying around. Where was that monster anyway?

  "Who took you?" she asked. "How did you get away? Why did you leave him?"

  "I didn't," I said. "I was sort of knocked off the roof."

  "You were knocked off of the roof?"

  "Yeah."

  She just started to chuckle.

  "I knew you were crazy," she said. "I shouldn't have trusted you from the beginning. Who knocked you off the building? Who took you?"

  "It wasn't really a who, but more of a what," I admitted.

  "What are you two kids doing here?" a police offer asked as he approached us. Uh, oh.

  He was walking towards us slowly and he looked angry. I just wanted to flash his brain so he would forget this and we could go save Julie's dad, but I couldn't just do that in front of Julie either. It was a sticky situation.

  "I asked you a question," he stated.

  We never got a chance to answer him. The dragon came swooping in and yanked him into the air. Julie literally jumped in the air and let out a short scream.

  "That's what knocked me off the roof," I said.

  We both watched as the dragon took the police officer away. That was another person that I was going to have to save. Hopefully the thing will bring the guy right up to the roof I was just at. That would make things a lot easier.

  Julie had turned white and couldn't seem to close her mouth. Granted anyone who didn't know about monsters would be a little more than freaked out.

  "What the hell was that?" she yelled.

  "That was a dragon," I informed her. "I think."

  "A what?"

  "A dragon."

  "A dragon? How? What?" She couldn't even voice what she was thinking.

  "Yeah. So, monsters are real."

  "Did that thing take my dad?"

  "It took me too."

  She just let out guttural sobs.

  "It's okay," I promised. "He's unharmed. He's a little drunk but not hurt."

  "We have to go save him," she said.

  "He's okay right now. I really need to go save that cop."

  "What about my dad?"

  I looked at her and found myself in quite the predicament. I really needed to go save that cop but I couldn't just leave her dad or her alone. The one good thing was if the dragon did bring the officer to the top of this building then I had to go in there anyway. That was the first place I was going to look so it kind of worked out.

  "Let's get in there then," I said.

  She didn't wait and just headed for the building. It was completely boarded up and not accessible, but thankfully I'm me. I could get in.

  "How do we get in here?" she asked as she was trying to pull some of the wood off. "We need to get in there now." She was brave. Anyone else might only think about themselves and try to run but she didn't. She wanted to run right into building that could ultimately lead to her death. This girl was awesome.

  "Step aside," I said. In a totally non chauvinistic way, of course. I just needed her to move so I could get us in there.

  I grabbed the boards and ripped them off like they were Styrofoam.

  "How did you do that?" she asked me.

  "I work out," I lied. Who has time for that? I get to look like this without even trying. Jealous? Oh yeah. You can't really see me, can you? That's a shame. Oh, sorry. Back to the story.

  I kicked open the door and we both headed in. The place was a complete mess. There was debris everywhere. She took out her cellphone out and used it as a flashlight. I suppose I should have a flashlight on hand but I never really need one. I'm sure I've told you I can see in the dark better than a human.

  "He could be anywhere in here," she said.

  "We'll find him," I said.

  "Dad!" she yelled out loud.

  "Don't do that. At all. No loud noise unless you want that thing to find us. It could be up on the roof right now."

  "Sorry."

  "It's okay."

  We continued to walk through the building, looking for her dad. The first two floors were empty. On the third floor we heard something shuffling in one of the rooms.

  "What was that?" Julie asked, grabbing me as she did so.

  I crept forward with Julie right behind me. When we were no more than a few feet away from where the sound came from, Julie's dad jumped out from behind an old desk. I jumped, so what?

  "Dad!" Julie bellowed. She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked her.

  "He's been helping me." She pointed to me.

  His face turned red with anger. "Why would you bring her in here?"

  "It's okay," I assured him. "The dragon wouldn't come in here."

  I hate being wrong. I'm not ignorant enough to pretend like I'm not. There was a thump off to my right. I turned to look down the hallway and sure enough, there was the dragon, staring right at me.

  This was not a position that I wanted to be in. If it were just me and the dragon I would be fine. Well, no, I would still be screwed but at least I wouldn't have two people to worry about.

  The dragon walked towards us with slow, calculated steps, ready to pounce at any second. We all backed away, trying to keep as much distance from the thing as we could. It was less than 15 feet away. Julie and her dad were both breathi
ng very heavily but luckily neither of them made any loud noises or quick movements.

  "I'm going to distract the thing," I informed them in a low whisper. "Then you two head for the door."

  "You can't," Julie whimpered.

  "I can." Without waiting I jumped at the monster.

  We collided and it head butted me right in the shoulder where it had bit me earlier, which hurt. I had actually forgotten that happened. It tried to jump past me at the other two but I grabbed the thing by the tail and tore it to the ground.

  "RUN!" I yelled. Julie and her dad took off.

  I still had a hold of the dragon's tail, so I whipped the thing off to the side and out a window. It managed to keep its balance in the air and turned itself around to face me. It let out another one of its high-pitched squeals right before it started flying back towards me.

  I had both of my guns aimed forward and just started firing, hitting the monster several times. It still kept coming, though. When the dragon was a few feet away from me it reached out to grab me, but I dropped to the floor on my back and it just flew by. As I landed I aimed my guns and continued to fire, shooting upside down and backwards. Not an easy task.

  It landed on the ground and whipped around to look at me. It then reeled its head back and started to suck in a lot of air. There was no way this thing could actually breath fire, could it? It could. I rolled out of the way and into a room, putting a wall between me and the fire. There was so much debris that it caught fire the moment the flames licked it.

  I heard thumping as the dragon came running from around the corner, fire still shooting from its mouth. I started running as quickly as I could, trying to avoid the hot flames. The thing was fast so it was hard to get away but luckily I am quick, too, so I managed to keep it back far enough.

  There was a weak wall ahead of me so I picked up my speed and busted right through it. I then jumped to the side so that when the dragon came through I could punch it right in the face, which I did. The thing let out a little squeak and ran off.

  The dragon flew towards a window. I couldn't let it get away this time, so I ran after it as quickly as I could. It smashed through the widow, creating an explosion of glass. I jumped out the window right after it and grabbed onto its wings. The thing just freaked out. It started flying around in all different directions and was squealing constantly. There was no way that anyone below didn't see what was going on.

  We flew around like it was missing a wing and ended up going halfway across the city in another slightly abandoned area. There seemed to be a lot of vacant buildings, more than I would have expected for this city.

  The dragon plummeted onto a smaller building and we rolled around on each other until eventually I pushed myself away from it. Then it flew away. I really hated that it ran away, again.

  My phone rang. I didn't recognize the number.

  "Hello?" I said.

  "Wes?" came a male voice.

  "Yeah?"

  "This is Kevin. I work with Kelly. Where are you?"

  "To be honest I'm not sure. Can't you lock on my phone?"

  "Yes."

  "Okay, then do that."

  "Keep the line open."

  "Yup." My phone beeped as another call was coming in. "I have another call. Hang on."

  I picked up the other call. "Roy."

  "We have a problem," he said flatly.

  Just then the dragon landed on the ground in front of me.

  "You better make it quick," I said, "because I'm a little busy here."

  "Another person went missing earlier, in the town we're staying in," he told me.

  "How? The dragon has been here."

  I hate when I asked stupid questions. I really do hate it. There was a loud thud behind me. I dared to turn around and couldn't believe my eyes. It was another dragon and it was bigger.

  I really wasn't expecting that. I wondered which one was the male and which one was the female. I assumed it was one and the other. My guess was the bigger one was the female, and it looked really pissed off. I wish I had my axes with me.

  They both started circling me, measuring up their prey. I guessed that if there were two of them that they were probably there to mate, and I definitely didn't want them to do that. The dragons started hissing at me, bringing the tension way up. I took my guns back out and prepared myself for the fight of my life.

  The smaller dragon faked like it was going to come at me so I turned towards it a little. Then the bigger one attacked, biting the same shoulder the other one had. I yelled in pain and tried to get away, but the thing was not letting go. It whipped me back and forth a few times before it finally let go and threw me across the roof. I landed with a thud and then rolled a few times. My shoulder felt like it was on fire.

  The two dragons came running at me with great speed. They both fanned out so that they could approach me on each side. I followed them with my Desert Eagles but no matter how many times I managed to hit them they just kept coming. I don't know if they had a ridiculous healing rate or if there was just so much adrenaline pumping through them that it didn't even faze them. Either way it wasn't really working out for me.

  When they were both a few feet away from me, one on my left and the other on my right, I did a back flip to avoid them. The collided into each other and it was actually pretty funny. I laughed a little but the feeling faded.

  The attack went on for a while and for the most part they were getting the best of me, but I managed to dodge them enough to stay alive.

  All of a sudden the door leading inside the building busted open and a bunch of guys with guns came running out. It was the agency. They all stopped and dropped their guns, shocked at what they were seeing. One of them seemed to have his head on his shoulders, though.

  "Wes!" he shouted. "Here!"

  He threw something at me. As it got closer I could see that it was a sword. It wasn't my axes but it would do.

  I grabbed the sword out of the air just as the smaller dragon was approaching. When it was just a foot or so away I swung the sword as hard as I could and cut the things head clean off. This sword was extremely sharp.

  The other dragon let out a blood curdling squeal that forced me to drop to my knees. I just killed its mate. It was furious. I didn't care, though. There's no telling how many people these things have killed.

  The dragon lifted in the air and flew right at me. I tried to jump to the side and cut its head off but it was moving faster than I expected, so it slammed right into me. We tumbled together and then toppled over the side of the building. We plummeted to the street below until we both hit the ground with me on top, thank god, so the dragon took all of the impact. That isn't to say that it didn't hurt.

  I pushed myself off of the dragon and backed away. The monster obviously took the hit kind of hard because it took a couple seconds to get up, stumbling as it did. And then we stared. It was just one on one, equally matched. I really wanted to get this over with before anyone noticed what was going on. People might have already. I didn't notice. I was a little too focused on the dragon that was bigger than me facing me down.

  "I think we both know how this is going to end," I said to it.

  It hissed at me.

  "You want to do this anyway?" I asked. "Okay then. I was just hoping for an easy submission."

  The thing charged at me, again, but this time I was ready. It came at me straight on, keeping its head mid-level right at my chest. I took the sword and swung upward, aiming to take off its head. The dragon knew that was coming and dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding being chopped. Have you ever watched that show, Chopped? Sometimes when I'm sitting in a motel I'll catch it and it's so hard to not get an appetite after. I could really use a burger. Oh, sorry, fighting a dragon.

  So, it moved to the right to avoid getting its head cut off. When it came back at me, however, I had my gun ready and stuck it right in its face.

  "Eat this," I said. I'm just kidding. That would be extremely cheesy.


  I didn't wait to pull the trigger and just let the bullet fly. It hit its mark and the dragon wasn't getting up.

  I dropped down to my knees and took in a deep breath, relieved that it was finally over. Now all I had to do was get the thing out of there before anyone noticed.

  "What the hell was that?" someone shouted.

  "Donny, get the shot," said someone else.

  Not only were there people behind me but there were cameras as well. Crap.

  I couldn't believe it. This was worse than the whole ordeal with the carnival. Kelly was already angry-I was angry with myself, too-that I was on camera before, but this was even worse than that. I had to hope that no one saw my face.

  "Sssir," someone stuttered. "What is that?"

  I didn't say anything. I had to think about what I wanted to do. I couldn't just wipe their memories because even if I did this was on TV. And then there are things like social media so this was definitely being seen by people somewhere. You people and your damn Facebook. Maybe the news people weren't shooting live.

  "We're reporting live," the news woman said. I almost felt like punching her in the face.

  I was going to have to flash them to distract them. The only thing is I didn't know if I could drag the dragon-ha-with me because it was huge. And the police were definitely going to be there any second. I was just going to have to take my chances.

  I stuck my hand facing backwards and flashed everyone with my bright light-hold the giggles. I then grabbed the dragon and started pulling it as fast as I could. I was almost in the alley way.

  "How did he get over there?" someone asked. I grunted in aggravation.

  Once again I stuck out my hand flashed the light to distract everyone. When I got into the alley I could see that the agents were there with a van, waiting for me. The back door was open.

  "Throw it in," one of them said. I did just that. "Now get in." I climbed in right after the dragon.

  Once everyone was in the van started driving.

  "It's for you," one of the agents informed me, holding out a phone. I grabbed it.

  "Hello?" I asked.

  "Are you kidding me?" Kelly shouted through the phone.

  I pulled the phone away and started pointing at it.

  "She's mad," I whispered. I put the phone back up to my ear.

  "Are you listening?" she asked me.

  "Yeah, yeah," I said.

  "I want you to come in with them. We need to talk."

  "That's not really going to work for me."

  "I really must insist."

  I looked around and all of the agents looked ready to restrain me.

  "Do you really think they will be able to stop me?" I asked her.

  "No," she admitted.

  "Good."

  We stopped at a traffic light and I quickly erased everyone's mind in the van and jumped out the back door. Running with speed I didn't know I could manage, I headed back to my car. There was something that I needed to do before I left, though.

  On my way to my car I headed back to the burning building to find Julie and her father. She was still there, amazingly. I ran right up to her.

  "You're still here?" I said.

  "We were waiting for you," she said.

  "Walk this way, quickly."

  We walked away from the building as quickly as we could.

  "I'm going to do something to your dad," I said. "I'm going to make him forget."

  "You aren't going to do nothing," he informed me.

  Without waiting for an answer I wiped his memories. Julie took the brunt of the flash but I kept her memories intact.

  "Listen to me," I said. "If anyone comes asking you about me or the dragons pretend like you've forgotten. Okay?"

  "Why didn't you do the same thing to me?" she asked.

  I was selfish. "I don't know."

  "I'm glad you didn't."

  I leaned in and kissed her. She didn't pull away from me, which was amazing.

  "Will I ever see you again?" she asked me as we finally pulled away.

  "I hope so," I said. And then I took off.

  When I got back to my car I called Roy to let him know what happened and that we needed to leave as soon as I got back. We had to get as far away from the agency as we could. They weren't really going to do anything, even though I exposed myself and the dragons to world. But why would I take my chances?