Monster

I walk through the dark parts of the city, the darkest, looking for those places that even rats avoid.

I love places like this, the spots that the streetlights didn’t catch, a crack in the concrete, a crack in me, in the system, a crack between heaven and earth, invisible to human radar.

I walk along a path, narrow as the mouth of a stingy man, and on my right is an ancient rock on which is a fortress made of long-baked bricks, and on the left is a river that flows forever.

I look down, I see a thick bush. I wonder if I should go under it and sleep there, curl up like a Siberian worm. I would be a human spider on a web of nettles, at the mercy of the forces of nature.

And I walk on. I pass by holes and ditches; everything is almost shadow. There are no people, the pigeons are sleeping.

I pass by some gaps in which garbage is thrown; it seems a little creepy but it doesn’t touch me, I go further.

At that moment, there is a bend. Looking at the water, I come down from the cracked concrete and look to the left. Something rustled, like a breath of wind. Only there is no wind, just rustling.

I look and see nothing but rocks, bricks, rivers and darkness, primordial, neutral, potent darkness.

I move on and stop, I hear a thump of footsteps, a creak strange as if a metal being is following me.

I turn around and see something coming towards me behind the rock, something creepy and grotesque. Something that covers a few meters in a few seconds, something that seems not to move but floats over the concrete.

It appears right in front of me. Karkadju, Gorgon, Karankonjula, Mamatu, Fraug. A being of horror, screaming in the dark. A creature of sulphur, a being that contains all my fears, horrors, sins, neuroses, dirt, all the neutrons of filth and nonsense I have ever sown here on planet Earth.

It stands in front of me and looks at me, with its lifeless but focused eyes, like a mountain looking at a matchstick, ready to tear off my head and swallow it like a good day.

And I stand, looking at his metal-wooden limbs, his jaws with rusty razors instead of teeth, his claws with which he cuts concrete.

Karkadju looks at me and sways slightly, as if amused.

Something like fear appears in me, briefly. I drive it away, fuck fear, I have been afraid all my life, it is not unknown to me. After fear comes remorse, regret, sadness, sorrow, pain, and then joy.

I look at Gorgon, I look at his razors with which he can cut me on the shreds.

Fuck you, I tell him.

Horror watches.

I keep going, I don’t turn around.

I get to the road and see a car, and go towards it. It turns out to be a police car.

They stare at me, I look at them. I feel like going home.

The car stops, they get out, I stop.

They come to me.

Good evening, ID.

What do you need to know, I ask.

Routine check. They approach, I am suspicious of them.

I look away; through them, I remember everything I forgot, a tear trickles my cheek.

Boy, give me your ID.

You don’t need it, you won’t need it, there’s nothing in it that can tell you anything about me, I say.

Are you kidding?

No, I’m not fucking with you, I tell them. A little while ago, I met Karkadju, Gorgon, he wanted to cut off my head. What does the fucking ID have to do with it now, I’m going home to sleep.

The two of them stare, they come closer to me, they are nervous, tears are flowing down my cheeks and I am getting ready to leave.

Look, there, behind, only ten meters away, there is a Karkaju, maybe he will come here.

They are looking at me, now they are getting ready to attack, when that rustling starts behind me, as if some branches are being moved.

One of the cops moans when he sees an ancient figure walking towards him.

Her mouth is open and acid is dripping from it, acid full of bitter truths.

I start to run. They stared hypnotised at this apparition of metal and blood and flesh.

I keep going, while the two of them remain behind me staring at Karkaju. Frozen in time and space.

I don’t know what happened to them.

Maybe they turned into shadows, and now they are rustling in the wind.

Karkadju.