BEAUTIFUL MONSTER

86 : 1930

The atmosphere in the Shogun was sour and rotten like eggs that have been boiled twice over and stained shit-brown, piss-yellow and bogey-green. Darius was sat behind the wheel, and his face was twisted into a child-like sulk. He had used up the last half an hour ranting about how childish Orion and I were and how we needed to grow up and take things more seriously. He got pissed after returning to the Shogun to find Orion was blasting the radio to everyone in the street and shaking the ground. It was a Nicki Minaj song and singing along to my queen wasn't something I could do quietly. In all honesty, he had an attitude because finding monsters ready to die for a war that probably wouldn't affect them was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Driving back home around nightfall was peaceful. The streets were quiet and empty like a deadly disease had swept through mankind and wiped everyone out. The roads were almost empty and even as the situation for a speed arose Darius kept to the speed limit, the perfect model citizen.

"Oi, do you think the government know aliens exist?" I asked from the backseat.

"Maybe. Probably. Why do you ask?" Orion twisted around in his seat.

"No reason. It's farcical to think that Armstrong was on the moon, and we think that's amazing but then there's entire planets and lives of creatures and ideas about gods and creators that we've never been introduced to before. It's mind blowing."

"Knowledge is beautiful but experience is out of this world. Human lives are so short. There's a whole lot more to living than being indoctrinated to an obedient, contributing member of human society. The average human is amazed at the footprint of a man on the moon, imagine experiencing life anywhere other than Earth. Everything is different and experiencing lives of others first-hand is valuable."

"Yeah. I had an awful time at Vawn but I would love to go to other realms and backpack to other worlds."

"Keep dreaming, kid. You haven't finished reading Of Mice and Men yet, and what, it's been four months now?"

"No need to call me out like that, Darius."

"Oh, I already know – didn't you think George and Lenny were romantically involved?"

"Reader's interpretation is neither right nor wrong," I said, quoting my English teacher, "anyway, reading is shite. It bores me. I'd rather dine with a pus-eating goblin than read some 1798 book about the American dream."

Darius acted disturbed. "You're a weird kid."

"A weird, dumb kid. Wasn't it like, 1930 or something?"

I kicked Orion's seat. "Shut up, shit-head."

+                   +                       +

The days of the calendar flew by, flapping its wings and kissing any lost opportunity goodbye. Obsessed with Fi, Ajax revolved his days around her, keeping track of every breath and every kill of hers. Hans devolved fast, unravelling like a yarn ball, screaming to whoever would listen that his corpse of a wife had a miscarriage. I spent my days either watching over Ellie being sedated or calling Cade for news about Mum's condition. The list to recruit for doomsday was becoming shorter and Darius was becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of responses.