They look like people

04

Nightmares? They had alway been present in my life.

My entire childhood had been a living nightmare. Even now, those memories are haunting my night and sometimes crushing my reality for some fleeting seconds.

Was it that hard to escape my own demons, my past? It was the hope that had begun to build three years ago inside me, that made everything worse. I had hoped to finally free myself from the Blackwell orphanage, hoped that I could live a normal life... I had even hoped to make my dream of opening my own restaurant come true.

And what did you get? Monsters, scraped knees and death. Life can't be trusted.

The darkness covering Corovan street appeared to shiver and to swirl at the man's word. It's coldness almost felt like icy fingers caressing my skin. I trembled. And just like that, the darkness vanished.

It strangely made me think of our trip to the cinema with our class at the orphanage, when I was nine. I could barely remember what we watched, but I remembered the end of the session. As the lights were all turned on at the same time, I felt like I was waking up from a dream.

I blinked a few times and squinted my eyes as orange light flooded the alley again. The coldness disappeared too and everything looked and felt like nothing happened.

I wished with all my strength, hoped - again that cruel thing - that what I just saw wasn't real. Just like another nightmare I couldn't shake off, but no, the night's happenings were real and were endlessly circling in my mind like a morbid horror movie.

"Come on, get up."

The man with the leather coat walked past me with long, measured steps. As my eyes adjusted again to the lighting of the street, I discovered the man's features with more details. He probably was in his mid-thirties, with brown strands in a messy bun on his neck and every sharp trait of his face was strained and tense with boiling anger and hate.

I tried to contain a hysterical chuckle. This man, armed with a blade and looking like the lead singer of some gothic punk group just said that Monsterhunters existed. That Monsters existed.

My mind couldn't quite wrap itself around those words. There had to be a logical answer.

My whole body was numb and the pain on the back of my head and spine was like a distant throbbing, my palms and knees prickling from the scratches. Millions of thoughts and questions were swirling through my mind and I had the feeling I would faint. It was too much.

Did I stay on the ground for a few seconds or for hours? Did the stranger go away? I had no clue, I was too concentrated on counting my fast heartbeats, on the trembling that seized me with each little night wind that brushed my sweaty skin. It was like I was in a trance, my mind foggy with panicked thoughts and the Corovan street as far away as another dimension.

A warm hand suddenly grazed my shoulders and I flinched violently with a sharp inhale.

"Are you okay?" , asked a light, feminine voice and her sudden apparition made shock ripple through me.

Was it a woman my age? Was she older? Did she say something else? All I could remember was her helping me to stand up. I know that she wore the same leather coat as the man, but everything that was happening to me transformed in hazy pictures, disjointed one from another. I couldn't give any sense to what I was seeing.

I think she held me as I staggered weakly to my feet. At least I could feel strong hands holding my arms, pushing me in the direction of some shiny black car that was parked in the middle of the road.