《The Beasts Under Your Bed》Prologue
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The concert hall, once so full and vibrant, was mostly empty now. Not that the band had finished playing, or that the crowd had gotten bored, but rather because a massive canine-esque monstrosity had appeared and started making everyone present into its snack, totally ignorant of the fact that midnight snacks should be had at midnight, and not in the middle of the day. However, when it tried to sink it's massive, dagger-like teeth into a man with a suspicious overcoat on, it got promptly shot in the face. While this was not enough to kill it outright, it did recoil from the shot, and stared at the man, snarling and saliva dripping from its mouth. The man pointed the large caliber revolver at the creature, and grinned.
"So, you thought you'd come here, eat some people, and have a gay ol' time, aye?" He asked, kind of rhetorically considering A; the creature wasn't coherent enough to understand him and B; the screaming masses that were still fleeing for the exits made any attempt to speak pointless. Still, quips were the lifeblood of sanity, and one could not hunt giant, eldritch abominations from beyond the realm of normality for a living without developing a mental tick to keep from turning into a gibbering mess. “Well, unfortunately for you, I am here to tell you that the party is cancelled. Buffet is closed. Cafe is shutting down for the night. And don't ask why buffet sounds like it should have a y in it, that's just how language is" He then shot the creature in the face as it lunged for him again, an explosive gout of fire erupting from the point of impact and knocking the creature into the stage, severely scorching it's face.
It tried to stand, but the front leg was filled with several flaming rounds which all but rendered it useless. "See, we knew you were coming, and so my first goal was to stop you from getting here in the first place. Didn't exactly work, as you can see" he continued, fluidly sliding to the side and sticking a bullet into the creature's eye as it tried one last, desperate lunge. Anatomy wasn't the same with these things, so there was little hope that hitting its eye was a kill-shot, but it certainly stayed on the ground, mewling in pain. "So, now, I gotta keep shooting you with my Arigo until you stop moving and start to melt. I'll admit, it is the more fun of the two options"
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The creature, who had been thoroughly outmatched, lay on the floor, pottered with holes, and baring its teeth in a vicious growl, not that it could do much else at this point. A black liquid, with the consistency of oil, slowly ran down its face from the ocular wound. It hissed when it hit the floor, and then evaporated into nothing. The Man opened the cylinder of his revolver, and dumped the casings onto the ground. There was a soft clatter, and then they vanished as if they had never really existed in the first place. Which, some smart people with high IQ and far too much time on their hands would argue that they didn't. The Man didn't quite understand all that, he just shot things. And occasionally punched things. Rarely, hit things with his trump card, but these days he practically never got to play that.
"Now. We've got sit, stay, and don't eat the people down. Not a bad collection of skills, if I do say so. But there is just one more I’d like you to learn before we call it a day" he said, cocking back the hammer and pointing it at the hound. "Play dead". The order was punctuated by six loud gunshots, filling the empty hall with a surprisingly sharp noise. The creature readily learned the last trick, and stopped moving, or making any sort of noise. Then, as if the air had suddenly turned corrosive, it started to melt. Nodding to himself, The Man dumped out the casings again, then holstered his gun and gave one last look around. Now he wasn't distracted by an evil demon from Across the Road trying to eat his face, his sharp eyes picked out a small girl hiding behind the curtains on the stage. She must have thought that it was safer than trying to flee. So, putting on his best, most friendly face, he walked over to her, and kneeled down in front of her.
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"Hey kiddo. No need to be scared now. I've dealt with the ugly one. So, can you tell me your name?" He asked. The girl simply cowered a bit more behind the curtain, so he decided to try open up some more. "I'm Drax. Drax Ator. I'm the good guy. So, do yo-" he was cut off, as the young girl's index fingernail had hyper-extended from her finger, and punched through his chest, penetrating his heart and going out the other side. Drax looked down at it, confused, and then looked to the girl. "Foul..." he managed, before several more fingernails punctured his chest, slicing his heart to ribbons, and killing him quite effectively.
"You kill my puppy then expect to talk? That is a faux pas, Mr. Drax" The girl said, in an airy voice that seemed to originate from several different points at once. She walked up to the body, and stared, smiling for a few moments, before the sound of powerful engines could be heard clearly outside. She scoffed softly, not fancying her chances with a dozen SIR agents, so turned and sliced open the air with her long fingernail, a vertical slit opening up in front of her. She walked through it, and vanished from the hall, the slit closing up several moments later, and leaving one dead man, on the stage.
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