The Monster Tamer

Doc found a comfortable position to sit and looked at me with a serious expression on his face.

"The things that I will tell you might look like something you only see in the movies, but I will tell you here right now that everything is real." Doc started. "I hope you are not a skeptical person because I myself will not believe it if I did not see and experience it myself." He explained.

"I understand." I nodded in understanding. "I am an open minded person, and I think I will take what you say at face value after seeing and experiencing things I cannot give explanation."

"Then I will start." Doc said. I gulped in the anticipation of what happened the eight years I was in a coma. "Let me ask you first, Claudia. Do you believe in those monsters you see in fairy tales?"

"Monster in fairy tales? Do you mean like witches, vampires and werewolves?" I asked.

"Yes, those ones." Doc replied. "What if I tell you that they are real?"

I was deep in contemplation with what Doc had just said.𝒇𝐫ℯ𝑒𝒘ℯ𝑏n𝑜ѵ𝐞l.c𝗼𝗺

"So, you are telling me that monsters like that do exist?" I asked being open minded with the idea.

"Yes, they are real." Doc replied with a serious expression. "In March of 2020, there was the first sighting in the central part of the United States of what they thought to be a werewolf."

"A werewolf?" I was surprised. I am not sure if it was just a coincidence, but I lived in the central part of the United States and that is where I had an accident. And the cause of my accident was a white wolf that is bigger than any wolf I have ever seen.

"Yes." Doc replied. "At first, they thought it was just a wolf that was overgrown in size, but more sightings have been surfacing that the government investigated it. That was when they found a pack of humans that can shapeshift as werewolves. Of course, the government took action and sent military men to subdue these creatures. In their fight with them, they learned that these creatures are more powerful than us humans. Our normal weapons do little damage to them and that was when they dug deep in the folklore and knew that only silver was the only thing that can deal a heavy damage to them."

"So, they used silver bullets?" I asked in curiosity. Of course, I knew such things in watching movies and TV shows. But who would have thought that those creatures will be real, and their weakness is true as well?

"You are correct." Doc replied with a nod. "Humans had a fighting chance with these creatures, but what they did not expect that there were others."

"Others? As in other monsters that you only found in horror stories?" I asked.

"Yes." Doc replied. "You would have thought that these monsters were only a figment of writer's imagination, something that can be said as fiction. But we did not know that behind those fictional works were myths and legends from long ago. The stories that were passed down generation by generation held truth. We just thought that they were fictional because these creatures were used in different kinds of stories and media, such as books, movies, TV shows and the likes."

"So, you mean there were vampires and witches as well?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Not only that, but there were also ghouls, goblins, orcs… name monster you have heard of and they sure exist." Doc replied.

I was letting all of these information sink on me. Now I have an idea as to what kind of battle took place in the hospital that I woke up in.

"But you told me that the humans fought back, correct?" I asked. "All of these monsters at least had weaknesses, right? Then why did the human race fall?" This was the question I was really inkling to ask. Doc had a deep sigh before replying to my question.

"Yes, the humans had a fighting chance with the monsters that suddenly emerged into our world." Doc replied. "But after a year of fighting, the gates of hell opened. Unimaginable horror was unleashed unto the world."

"G-Gates of hell?" I said in disbelief.

"At first scientist and researchers were finding out the answer to why these monsters just started to let their presence known when they have hidden in plain sight for thousands of years. And they got their answer when the gates of hell opened." Doc explained. "There really is no physical or tangible gate like what you are thinking, but in places there are portals that will suddenly open, and a huge number of hellish creatures started to emerge. Those creatures are different from the ones I our myths and legends, we can only dub them as demons. But in time we called all of these monsters daemons."

"Daemons… I heard one of the people with Stephen say that." I looked and Stephen and he nodded.

"Those daemons have tough skin, and our weapons are no match for them." Stephen said. "Not only that, but they were also much stronger than the ones that first emerged. Even those that first emerged seemed to have powered up when the gates of hell started to open."

"So that's why my bullets ricocheted after I fired at the monster back then." I now have some understanding. "But then… the weapons you and your comrades were using was very effective against that daemon."

"Yes, those weapons were specifically manufactured to work against daemons." Stephen replied. "Scientist and researchers were able to manufacture strong weapons to counter these creatures."

"Then, why did humanity fall?" I asked once again. "I mean… our race has advanced technology, and those weapons are proof. What happened?" More questions are starting to form in my mind after answers are being given to me.

"The weapons had a flaw." Doc was the one to answer. "These weapons are packed with much energy that a normal human body cannot withstand the recoil and backlash."

"That is why we are wearing special armors to protect ourselves from the recoil of the energy that is being fired from the weapon." Stephen added. "But the armor can only take a specific amount of backlash and so we have a time limit in using the special made weapons. If we exceed the given time, the armor we are wearing will break and further use of the weapon can harm our body directly."

The information from Doc and Stephen are starting to sink in my mind.

"More and more daemons started to emerge in our world and humans were slow on fighting back." Doc said with a sad face. "We lost the war with them four years ago. And the world is as you can see it. The apocalypse of mankind was brought by the monsters."

There was a brief silence. I can see the regret and sadness in Doc and Stephen's faces.

"But some humans survived, like you?" I asked in the hopes of my family members surviving the apocalypse that took place.

"There are some human communities that were formed. But they are always at a small population." Stephen replied. "It is because if a big concentration of humans is formed, daemons tend to emerge and quickly wipe them off."

"But there are at least a few communities at some distances." Doc replied. "We get to interact with some, but we rather have to stick to ourselves. Without the laws to restrict humans on what to do, many bad people had emerged."

"There are some groups of bad people that raid communities and tend to rob and do unspeakable things to others." Stephen said with anger etched on his face. "Rather than helping one another in this time of chaos, they do such atrocious things." He squeezed his fists hard.

"These daemons… do you have any idea how they opened these gates of hell that you mentioned?" I asked one of the questions I deemed important. "I mean, why did they invade our world and why are they doing this?"

"We also do not have any answers to that." Doc replied. "When the war with the daemons started, scientist and researchers tried to analyze the data they got but there were only theories and no tangible answer. Maybe if we could just ask those daemons that have human form and consciousness there would be some answers, but there were no successful interactions with them since the war started."

There was silence for a while after Doc and Stephen had explained to me what happened. The things they have said were swirling inside my head that I felt dizzy.

"Let us stop here." Doc said. "You need to rest." He stood up and patted Stephen on his shoulder.

"Rest well for now. Do not think of yourself as a burden, okay?" Stephen gave me a friendly smile. "I know you do not have a home to go to, you are always welcome to stay here with us."

"T-Thanks…" I said awkwardly. "I will think about it."

Doc and Stephen walked out of the room and I was left all alone. Their story was a lot to take in. I laid down in bed and sighed deeply.

"I do not have a choice but to stay here for now." I told myself. "Maybe I will stay put for a while. Once I get used to this new world, I can go search for my family."

I thought of my daughter in an instant.

"Cindy would be sixteen by now." I said deep in thought. Thinking of my daughter as a teenager brought a smile on my face. "I am sure that she would be a beautiful young lady."

I strayed away from the thoughts that Cindy or my family did not survive in this apocalyptic world. I kept my hopes up, not wanting to think of the worst.