I wouldn't say that there was anything special about the day everything began. It was just a normal Thursday, near identical to the one that had come before. Hardly even remotely exciting, barely a day I'd remember even weeks after if not for... Sorry, am I rambling already?
Okay, introductions. Well, my full legal name is Michael Williams. But most of my colleagues tend to call me by my code name, Exo. I'm seventeen years old, though I was sixteen when this began. I attend a completely regular college, average in every way- that is when my current schedule allows me to at least, and I have a double life. As well as academia, I have a what I'd call a 'very interesting job'; something that if you'd told my younger self I'd end up doing, they'd scoff. In essence, I hunt cryptids for a living. And, to be fair, I do it a damn sight more effectively than most others in the field, in my humble opinion! Mainly because I seem to have a sort of sixth sense in regards to taming and capturing these elusive and improbable beasts. Well, maybe not taming. Considering the fact that they typically chase me, attack me and otherwise try to kill me. Dangerous, I know. But how did I get here? How about we start at the beginning of my story.
It was Thursday 17th, pretty much four months ago exactly; just after college had finished for the day. The sun was high in the sky, and I was taking a shortcut home through the local forest. Well, it was hardly a shortcut; after all it actually added to the length of my journey, but the forest itself was a serene distraction from the mundanity of the walk. Admittedly, I wasn't really looking where I was going though, since I daydreamed a lot back then, back when fantasy was more interesting than my real life. About the sorts of things your typical unsporty sixteen year old thinks about. Interesting shows on TV, video games, saving the world with my remarkable talents... as soon as I figured out what those talents actually were. Sometimes, I'd even daydream about girls, but that's almost definitely a rabbit hole best left unexplored. So, as I said, I was slowly meandering home, eyes glued to my phone, scrolling, just waiting for something interesting to come up, barely paying enough attention to my surroundings to not trip over a branch or tree root, when I heard a mighty cracking and snapping sound, followed by a colossal thud behind me.
'Other students come through here, it probably just sounded bigger than it was!' I told myself, shaking, you know, like the average idiot would have done. But hey, that's the thing with our brains. We fill in those difficult-to-fill gaps through any means necessary. Any unexplainable, well, anythings gets rationalised and normalised. When it can't be, then we attribute it to 'paranormal activity' and 'ghosts'. And frankly, back then, I didn't believe in Bigfoot any more than the Tooth Fairy. A notion that almost seems ridiculous to me now. Anyway, away from that psychoanalytical nonsense, and back to that scene. Heart pounding from my chest, I slowly turned around to try and see what exactly had happened to scare the life out of me. Part of me had hoped, ridiculous as it seemed, that somebody had just trodden on a particularly large twig and somehow made the sound of a small explosion, scaring the life out of me in the process. But as I turned, I was perturbed to learn that nobody was there at all. There wasn't even a snapped stick there, not really. Well, to be fair, what was there could definitely be described as a 'snapped stick', in some shape or form. It was just a little bigger than I'd expected it to be. Because, as I stood and looked upon the scene in shock and horror, what I saw was a once towering oak tree, one I had walked past just seconds ago, now snapped in two, lying on the ground.
Needless to say, it was something of a shock. And, of course, my brain was flooded with all sorts of questions. Questions such as, 'What could have snapped such a colossal tree in two, nigh silently in doing so, whilst being so incredibly careful enough as to not leave any trace of its presence; to such a degree that it had vanished entirely before I had even turned around?'. And other, less verbose ones, of course. To be honest, my mind was reeling too much to make sense of the situation. I considered that it could have been a prank, but what sense did that make? Maybe I'd somehow missed that tree being there before, and I'd simply hallucinated the sound, but somehow, I didn't think that was the case. And so it was then, in the immortal, reckless, death-be-damned state that only a bored college student with no self-preservation can really find themselves in, I decided to actually investigate this strange occurrence. And with that, the first domino that lead to my life today had been pushed. That was the one, single decision that started my new, dangerous life of cryptozoology off.
First of all, I checked the area around the giant stump of the tree. The wound was jagged and sharp, with icicle sized splinters of fresh bark all over the forest floor. If a machine had cut it, wouldn't it be clean? And there was no way a machine could have been smuggled in and away so quietly. Besides, the rest of the tree was still resting next to it on the floor. A woodcutter, or other such individual, would have taken it, surely? So what was the purpose of felling it to begin with? A threat? Perhaps a warning? Investigating even further, I noticed that the ground right next to the tree-stump had been disturbed- but only on one side of it. Almost as though the tree has been pushed over rather than cut, and that it had snapped just before the roots had fully left the ground. It was as my eyes were focused on the ground that my vision trailed further onwards, and I saw the footprints. Enormous, and freshly imprinted on the muddy forest floor, they trailed deeper into the forest, humanlike and yet far too large for any human to have made them. My rational brain could have simply left things alone right there, of course, kept scrolling and walking, and blaming my encounter on 'ghosts of the forest' or whatever malarkey I'd have used to justify the day. But, truthfully, there was no way I just could go home now. In fact, I don't think I ever could have forgiven myself had I not followed the prints that day. So instead I proceeded forward, deeper into the woods, and followed them.
I was still following the prints, phone away now and with much more focus on my surroundings, when I felt that uneasy feeling. The one everyone has felt at some point in their life. When your hairs stand up on end, and you suddenly become very aware of everything around you, like a primal switch has just activated and pumped your brain with endorphins. In other words, the feeling of knowing that you're being watched. I snapped my head around, as quickly as I could, and then I saw it. Just for a second before it escaped my view, but unmistakeable in that one moment in time. A human-like, but coarsely furred head on a hulking hairy body that looked as though it belonged on billboard advertising steroids. Two thick, brown, muscular arms helped propel the creature forward at speed; it seemed to have crouched and moved like an ape when it had noticed my acknowledgment of it. The whole thing's bizarre body, in its entirety save the face, hands and feet was covered in a thick, deep brown fur that reminded me of a stained, old carpet from a nursing home; except that it looked thick enough to stop a knife. Terrified, I froze in the moment. But I couldn't pretend that I hadn't seen it; it already knew that I had. So, turning my head again, I looked to where it had stopped still, and I locked eyes with it's own intelligent pair. And with no other warning, it raised its muscular, cudgel-like arms, let out a defiant, furious roar and charged towards me.
I ran. God did I run. Propelled only by blind fear and a few wheat biscuits I'd had for breakfast, I ran as fast as I could through that forest. Trees were a blur and my feet barely touched the dirt. I didn't know if the direction I was running was home, and I didn't care either. All I wanted to do in that moment was to escape from this hulking, aggressive ape creature that I could swear was getting closer by the second. In my stress, I turned around to look at it, just for a single moment. And then, smack! I slammed at full speed, face-first into a tree and fell to the floor, knocking the wind out of me. Head spinning and vision reeling, I rolled onto my back and began shuffling across the forest floor away from the thick-furred menace, blood pouring from my nose and soaking into my shirt as it grew closer and closer, towering over me, arms raised, ready to smash down on me and deal the killing blow.
Suddenly, the beast recoiled, turning and writhing briefly in its standing pose, before its eyes closed and it began collapsing to the ground in my direction. I rolled barely aside as it crushed the ground beneath where I would have been, unconscious. My eyes were drawn to the vibrant colour of the red feathered dart that was now plunged into the monster's back; a sharp contrast against the creature's chestnut hair; and I realised that I was not alone in these woods. In a daze, I turned to the direction the dart must have come from to try and thank my rescuer, even if they had almost made me into a pancake in the process. However I didn't have the time to even open my mouth before suddenly, I felt an arm wrap around my throat from behind, one that smelt like the forest and old cologne, and then everything faded to black.
"I must apologise for my guards." a chipper, feminine voice relayed, as soon as consciousness returned to me. "They are quite remarkably cautious, after all."
It took me a few seconds to realise I was sat in a chair, not a particularly comfortable one but I wasn't tied down or anything similar as far as I could tell. My nosebleed had stopped, and somebody had cleaned up the blood whilst I was unconscious. I didn't know how long it had been, but in the moment, I just felt lucky to be still alive. My eyes were still adjusting to wherever I was, and it was not particularly light in there which did not help me one bit.
"Who are you?" I asked my mysterious captor, as soon as I felt able to speak.
"My name is Eva." the voice replied. Then, a shadow I had not noticed before stepped towards me, into enough light that I could properly see her features. She appeared to be quite a tall, thin woman, with a stern but soft face, in a way that reminded me of a librarian. Her hair looked to be a fair length, but it was hard to tell as most of it seemed to be contained in a neat top bun. She looked to be wearing a white blouse, covered by a grey formal jacket, buttons open, and her apparel was completed by similarly coloured businesslike trousers and black pumps.
"And where am I exactly, Eva, that is if I'm allowed to know?" I asked this strange woman through unsteady breaths, still not sure if I was out of danger just yet.
"You are in my Lab," my mysterious assaillent spoke calmly, as the sound of roaring came from a room further into the facility, and fear rose in me again.
"I... th... what?" I panicked, all of a sudden wondering what awful experiments would be done on me.
"No need for concern, Michael. Right now, you are in the Cryptotrappers HQ."
I didn't even want to know how she knew my name. Right now, I just wanted to figure out whether I needed to be concerned for my safety. Eventually, I managed to find my voice again, and just for a moment, the curiosity that had led to this situation in the first place peaked again.
"Why exactly are you telling me all of this?" I asked. "What's stopping me from reporting this to the police as soon as I get out of here?"
Eva didn't flinch at my threat, instead pulling a seat of her own into the light and sitting opposite me.
"We have a job for you."
At this point, I was as intrigued as I was terrified.
"For me? I mean- okay, sure, I'll bite. What exactly is the job?"
Eva smiled, sat forwards in her chair and began to explain to me exactly what her foundation did.
"Here on the Cryptotrappers team, we seek to capture, study and protect cryptids. 'Seek to' being the issue at the moment. Unfortunately, our track record has been, well, quite dire in regards to actually capturing cryptids. Sightings, samples of fur and feathers, but nothing else. They never stayed around long enough for us to act. And so, despite our goal, we have been unable to capture a cryptid, in all of our facility's history. Not until today, at least. See, you have something about you, an ability of sorts that seems to draw them out like nothing else. My, admittedly small, team and I, we've been following you, Michael Williams. Not for too long, but for long enough to know some things about you, and to know that you certainly are a magnet for the unnatural. Think back, Michael. Any unexplainable things in your past? Things you may have written off as paranoia and an overactive imagination? Don't feel bad if you don't, some people like you are shielded by their own mind, but just to give me benefit of the doubt here, try to think back."
It took a while but eventually I did return to memories that I had no idea how I'd managed to repress. Thinking back on it with this lens, seeing cryptids was honestly nothing new for me. Shadows in the lake on holidays away, strange figures on hills in the countryside, being chased by the neighbour's dog as a child that my mother swore blind that they didn't have. With the hindsight, the fact that I hadn't realised something strange was afoot seemed absurd in itself.
"So, I'll take it that you do remember something, correct?" Eva gently asked, reading my face like a pamphlet and snapping me back to reality. "If so, please, consider joining our organisation, Michael."
Before I could give my answer and potentially resign myself to joining this strange business, I had a single question to ask.
"Well, what if I say no?"
"Oh! Well, um..." Eva answered, seemingly caught off guard by the question. "Then, well, your memory will be wiped with... um... forms of narcotics that we occasionally employ? And you'll be dropped in the forest where we met with this all feeling like a very bad dream in itself... I think?"
Her voice wavered as she spoke, and she also appeared to be looking past me at times, seemingly seeking reassurance from some unseen figure in the shadows behind me. It was right then that I first began to realise just exactly how home-grown this organisation might be, despite Eva's initial air of professionalism.
"You can't actually do that, can you." I bluntly asked, as Eva did everything she could to avoid eye contact.
"Okay, admittedly, no, there's no way we could actually do that." Eva admitted. "We'd get you to sign an NDA and Si... I mean, my assistant, would show you out of the facility. But can you at least consider the option? Please?"
Sighing, it seemed there was only one real choice for me to take.
"Alright, fine then. I'm in" I answered, reaching out to shake Eva's hand.
"Great" Eva smiled, firmly taking my hand in hers. "You start tomorrow"