Monstro City

Chapter 2 - "Sweet Diversions"

   The train drops me off at an actual stop. It's a bit away from the city, but it doesn't take me too long to reach it. It gives me time to think about what I'm going through. And it's a lot. I haven't accepted my death yet, but I want to. It's not easy to accept something you can't understand. If I don't know who I am, how am I supposed to process all of this? The whole thing is beginning to feel like a bad dream.

   Or a nightmare.

   The city is not what I imagined when I saw it from afar. There's nothing normal about it. A lively city like New York City has nothing on Monstro City. This city is . . . from another world. To begin describing it, I have to start with the roads.

   They're red. And I'm certain they are covered in blood. The roads are the only spacious thing about this city. The buildings? Not just massive, but monstrous.

   The color scheme is extremely hellish. Some buildings are simply grey, others are as black as the void above our heads, and others are red or purple. It's like a parody movie of what a satanic city could look like. Every detail contributes to the creepy atmosphere.

   I avoid stepping on the road, afraid it might swallow me into the ground. It feels familiar walking around like I'm back on earth, but I know this is anything but ordinary. I'm aware that it isn't supposed to be normal. I remember what cities on earth look like, but my brain is having trouble seeing all of this with my whole ass eyes.

   I walk on the sidewalk, my eyes darting around like a curious baby discovering the world for the first time. I've never noticed anything in the sky because it's always dark, but I can see red in the far corner of the city, as if a magical sun is rising. But I doubt it's a sun.

   The first few buildings are relatively quiet. There is no one on the streets, no one at the windows, and nothing appears out of thin air to scare the crap out of me. Even so, if someone is watching me through the windows, I can't see them through the black tint.

   I'm tempted to go up to one of the doors and check if it's locked, but judging by how hard my heart is pounding, I decide against it.

   I continue forward, deeper into the city. I know I haven't seen much—the map I saw when choosing a city was larger than anything I've ever seen in my life. And if this is the underworld, or hell, or whatever the fuck—five cities are insufficient to house all of the people who have died over the thousands of years we've existed.

   But who the fuck am I kidding? I don't understand shit. There's a chance this isn't even the only hell. I should be happy that when I died, I didn't cease to exist. I'm still alive—or, well, I'm conscious.

   "GET BACK HERE!"

   I hear the first voice since entering the city. I look to my right and see a monster running down the street. Another monster is chasing after it. The first monster is made up of a combination of bones, flesh, and muscle. It's truly repulsive. The one behind it has no eyes and only a mouth. A mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

   A lot of things don't make sense here, but if I don't want to go insane, I have to accept that this world will not function like the one I grew up in. As humans, we spend our lives wondering what lies beyond this enigmatic barrier between life and death. We seem to accept that our minds are incapable of comprehending such complex ideas, so why am I wasting my time attempting to piece them together? I'm a newborn. I am here to learn about this new life that has been bestowed upon me.

   "THIEF!"

   I'm curious about what's happening, so I quietly cross the bloody street and start chasing the two monsters. It appears that the first monster stole something from the second. Perhaps a bowl of human eyes? That can be valuable here.