Monsters

Chapter 8: The Man with the Scar

Chapter 8: Mel

Jane's apartment

New York City, United States of America

March 16, 2014

4:55

It was close to an hour of crying on the bathroom when I heard the sound of someone rummaging through papers in the other room.

"Jane?" I called, wiping the tears away from my eyes. Was she home already? Maybe it wasn't as bad as we all thought and Seth would come walking through the door with her. Maybe the reality wasn't so brutal. Or maybe Jane was coming back with bad news and Seth was gone forever. Either way I had to look strong. I got up slowly from my position and looked in the mirror. My cheeks were covered in black mascara and my eyes bloodshot from crying. I grabbed a tissue and cleaned myself up as best as possible.

After a brief 45 seconds I hastily turned into the other room, hoping to see Jane, but there was no sight of anyone. I searched the room slowly, my footsteps echoing around the apartment.

A small but obviously lethal knife caught my sight from beneath the round oak coffee that now stood in front of me. I bent over to pick it up when I noticed the smell of sulfur lingering in the air. My head turned behind, searching the room and I stood up again slowly as if I didn't want to startle whatever was causing that smell.

I was alone.

Taking a deep breath, I relaxed, but my relief didn't last for long. I looked back down at the knife that had been underneath the table and noticed the knife had disappeared. What happened to the knife? Maybe I was more delirious than I had thought. I did lose a lot of blood, but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone had taken the knife.

I didn't have much time to ponder as a voice called out from the windowsill, answering my own question, "It's over here," it mused and I turned around to see the man from Central Park balancing the knife across the palm of his hand.

My lips trembled with fear and I stammered, "Get out."

The man shook his head slowly and replied, forming a mischevious grin across his face, "So nice to make your acquantince again, Melanie Stevens." I took a step back, grabbing the closest object I could find and he laughed. "You'll find that I'm already quite clean," he responded as I looked down to see the feather duster that I had just picked up.

I threw it down in frustration and yelled back at him, "What's wrong with you?"

"Everything's wrong with me, my young lady." His smile disappeared for a second and he stared past me at the wall. Noticing his distraction, I carefully side stepped towards the door, but before I got far, he lunged in front of the door and blocked my path.

His smile returned to his face and he laughed, "Trying to run away, I see. Now that reminds me of your sweet ol' Jane. It's a shame she's moving across the world. It'll be hard to talk to her. I know I'll manage, but unfortunately you don't have the same kind of power that I have. You'll never get to see eachother again. What a shame, don't you think?" His words punched my gut hard, but I didn't cry. Not this time. Tears were useless, I had to come back with something he could understand.

I remembered back to the novel I had been reading just hours before. Twilight's Tempest and Cameron Collins, the man who hunted the beasts and monsters that ravaged the world. A single phrase came to my mind, what would Cameron Collins do. He was brave and cunning and always did the unexpected, but most of all he acted with the confidence of a monster hunter. I just killed Cerberus, how hard can killing this man possibly be? I took a deep breath and I did the only thing that made sense.

I ran towards him, stole the knife from his hand and held it to his throat. He coughed nervously as his shoulders stiffened at the sight of the blade at his throat.

I spat at his face, "If you think you can hurt me, you'll have to think again," the words tasted sour on my tongue, "I'm going to kill you right here and now, so I never have to hear your stupid voice ever again."

My breathing heavy, I began to bring the knife closer towards his skin, but I halted as he whispered, "But then you'll never find out why I'm coming after you."