Aubrey cleaned the mess in his house; the vomit, the blood, and now, the door. His parents were, thankfully, gone for the week, but he still needed to replace it.
He drove to the nearest Hobby Lobby and only there did he realize he had no clue how to replace a door.
…
Entering a bookstore, Aubrey walked around with his hands in his pockets.
He had a bad habit of ignoring problems he couldn't solve, and distracting himself by doing other things. With nothing else to do, he went to a Barnes and Noble near the Hobby Lobby and wandered around.
Eventually, as he was walking, a woman approached him.
"Good evening sir, are you looking for anything?"
Aubrey turned around, having heard an awfully sweet voice. And, accompanying that voice,
Oh my gosh.
Star-struck, Aubrey was silent at the sight of the woman. Hypersensitive at the moment, he picked up on that relatively quickly.
"Uh, no, I'm just, uh, checking stuff out."
"Oh, alright then. Let me know if you need anything!" She exclaimed a bit loudly, to which the person at the front desk—her coworker, shushed her. A throaty laugh came out and she whispered "Sorry!"
She walked away from Aubrey, who remained still, unable to entirely process what had happened. He walked over to a seating area near the windows and sat down, his hand dangling over his mouth in shock.
Oh my gosh. What a beautiful woman.
Immediately, he got on his phone and started texting his friends.
"Guys I just saw a super beautiful girl at the bookstore and she talked to me I'm scared"
"Mf at the bookstore"
"Guys I can't read what did he say"
"He said jet fuel can't melt steel beams"
"Can't believe Obama did that"
As always, they weren't helpful. Though, it was also Aubrey's fault for being stupid. Perhaps he was expecting them to say something like "Oh no, a woman scared you at the bookstore? Are you alright my glorious king?"
The drastic tone shift between fighting for his life against a skinwalker-wendigo hybrid, his loss of humanity, and now his shenanigans was quite a rollercoaster for Aubrey, so he left it at that. He decided to at least buy something, looking around for a while until he found a book.
No Longer Human? Sounds like me.
How strange to say such a thing.
He got the book, which he knew he wouldn't read, and went to check it out. There, he once more saw the woman, who had likely gone back to being a cashier in the time he spent looking for the book.
He checked it out, and the woman's eyebrows raised.
"Oh wow, I like this one too. It's pretty morbid, but it's quite good," she said, as Aubrey nodded his head in agreement despite not having read the book.
Beautiful women had a lot of power, after all. Quite frightening.
His eyes glanced at her, and it still was like seeing her for the first time all over again.
Her short, wavy light brown hair made Aubrey feel warm on the inside. Her dark brown, near-black eyes framed by glasses, too seemed to inspire romantic dreams inside of him.
Whenever he looked at her, he could not help but understand what every single love song and story had meant. These feelings, to him, were entirely new.
"Uhh, you alright?" She asked, to which Aubrey cleared his throat.
"Yeah, sorry, sorry, my bad. Uh, goodbye."
Aubrey took his book and bag and began to walk away.
"Uh, sir, you gotta pay!"
Aubrey's heart collapsed.
…
Having gotten through that horribly awkward experience, Aubrey sat at home. He glanced over at the door, or rather the lackthereof, and began to sweat.
Shiitt. What am I gonna do about it? I can't do anything about the door, I don't know how to replace one. Do I call someone to do it? Don't they need to measure it or something? I have a, what, medium sized door? Cruddd…
Ultimately, he'd have to rely on his dad, most likely. His dad really was an amazing guy.
He decided to sleep his feelings away. Climbing into his bed, he tucked himself in and hugged his pillow.
Closing his eyes, Aubrey drifted off to sleep.
—Not.
After all, one of his symptoms was his lack of sleep. Even if he waited for the rest of eternity, he would never fall asleep without inducing some sort of brain damage unto himself.
He waited 30 minutes or so, until eventually, he got bored. He opened his eyes, looking at the familiar ceiling, before gaining another sense.
—This is really bad.
That same fear he felt before opening the door to the skinwalker/wendigo, he felt now. He jumped out of bed, swallowing his saliva from fear before hearing a giggle.
He quickly turned around, seeing three children walk through his open doorframe.
He had the instinct to reach under his bed, but he hadn't reloaded his gun, so it was empty. By "weird" standards, as in the standards one might expect from an absurd situation like his own, there was a rule of thumb.
Do not trust anything.
Even if it's a kitten, even if it's the voice of a loved one, one must not let their guard down. Therefore, seeing three children inside his home without his permission, he felt overwhelmingly on edge.
The three children, two boys and one girl, gently opened their eyes, revealing utter blackness.
"We usually ask to be let in," the girl said.
"But you're different," one of the boys—who shall be named "Boy One," followed.
"Aren't you?" Boy Two finished.
The children giggled, with Aubrey clenching his fists and putting them up, sort of like a boxer. Unlike every other fight he'd been in within the past few days, this one was one which at least gave him time to prepare, so he used to prepare himself.
Seeing his silly stance, the children giggled in complete unison, harmonizing their laughter perfectly.
"Who are you!?" Aubrey shouted, keeping his hands tense.
"We just,"
"Want to,"
"See you."
"I… I killed a bear with my bare hands! I'll rip you three to shreds—get out of my house or I'll kill you!"
Fear and Wrath are close acquaintances.
The three giggled once more, and Aubrey kicked off the ground, running at one of the boys and swinging his fist. The boy managed to evade, as Aubrey hadn't thrown an actual punch since third grade. The other two got behind him and kicked the back of his knees, bringing him to the ground.
"You're funny,"
"Mister."
"You…!" Aubrey growled, before the children grouped up in the corner of the room.
"You're one of,"
"Us now, so we'll,"
"Answer some questions for you!"
"Yeah—tell me what the fuck you guys are!?"
"We're monsters,"
"And so,"
"Are you!"
Aubrey sighed.
"I knew that. I just… I just want to know what's going on. What's happening? Why are there so many 'monsters' in my life? Including you."
The children let out a synchronized "Tee~hee~hee!"
"Monsters can detect,"
"Other monsters when they're close,"
"To them. The WendigoWalkers,"
"Tribe gained a new member,"
"But you're not accepted by them,"
"Because you were human."
"A… a tribe?" Aubrey asked, befuddled.
"Mhm! Sooooo many,"
"Monsters are out there,"
"You're just one in a sea of them!"
Aubrey covered his mouth, looking down and trying to think.
So many monsters? How many, exactly? Wait, I think I remember reading about this earlier… the black-eyed children, or something like that. Wait, is Bigfoot real, then?
"How many kinds of monsters?"
"That's,"
"A hard,"
"Question, sir!"
Damn brats are pretty much useless.
"What kinds of monsters? Like… Bigfoot?"
"Ooh! Ooh! Mr Monkey Man,"
"Sure is fun to,"
"Be around!"
"And Nessie?" Aubrey added.
"She's fun,"
"To swim,"
"With!"
"...So if there's wendigos and skinwalkers, plus Bigfoot and Nessie… vampires?"
"Vampires are,"
"Really mean!"
"Werewolves are cooler!"
Aubrey took a seat on his bed, nodding his head in some semblance of understanding. More accurately, he understood that he did not understand.
Black eyed children, bigfoot, vampires and the like… they're all real, apparently. Wait, so it's not just a bunch of crazy talk, or old folktales?
Well, I actually should have known that by this point, but still… The scope is wide.
"You mentioned SkinWendigos or whatever. Like… What's the deal with that? Are there both Skinwalkers and Wendigos, one of them had a baby, or…?"
"Before we answer,"
"That question mister,"
"I want candy!"
Aubrey sighed.
"Help yourself in the kitchen."
"YAYYY!!!"
The children bolted out of the room and went into the pantry, grabbing candy galore before sitting down and eating it.
"One day, a wendigo,"
"And a skinwalker,"
"Had… S-E-X. Then the first WendigoWalker came out!"
And I'm assuming, from there, the W.W things grew in size, leading all the way to me. Great.
Aubrey sighed and sat down with the kids at the kitchen table.
"So. All sorts of folktales and the like are real. How do I get them to leave me alone?"
"You can't,"
"Do that,"
"Mister."
"After all,"
"The WendigoWalker Tribe,"
"Doesn't like you!"
"You're not accepted,"
"Not by your own kind,"
"Or anyone else."
Aubrey's arms crossed.
"...Is that so? Then is there any way to prepare myself?"
"Wendigo's get stronger by eating frozen meat,"
"Skinwalkers get stronger by eating other monsters and gaining traits from them,"
"So for you, mister, eat all the monsters you can!"
Then, synchronized, they exclaimed "Om nom nom!"
To which, Aubrey took in that information and accepted it. And, as he sat still, he noticed his hunger began to kick in once more.
"Alright, get out of my home."
"Okieee!"
"But, one more,"
"Thing, mister!"
"Oh? And what's that?"
"Monsters,"
"Attract,"
"Other monsters~!"
The children politely got up from the seat and left his house.
"We'll see,"
"You later,"
"Mister!"
They waved their hands, and vanished into thin air. Aubrey closed the door.
How frightening… but I probably would have figured that out on my own. So I need to devour everything.
I've been mostly reactive, haven't I? All the W.W's tracked down my house, and tried to kill me in my own home. I think I should go on the offense, no?
With a small smirk, Aubrey's wolfish side began to show.
Although, I don't know where they are. I'll wait a bit, especially since I still need to buy ammo.
It was so.