Death of a Monster

Calm breathes.
The closet doors let in the faintest of moonlight as Lorraine hides within. As she slows her breathing to the faintest of whispers, a single tear rolls down her cheek. The idea she has been fighting against all night thunders into her mind, pulling her back to when she was six years old, hiding in her own identical closet…On that fateful night…

Lorraine kissed her parents and brothers goodnight before heading to her bedroom, her innocent smile showing her missing tooth.
"Make sure you brush the rest of your teeth! The tooth fairy isn't paying for all of them tonight!"
"Yes Mommy!" She skips past her room to the bathroom she shares with her older brothers, using the stool to step up to the sink faucet. Without any toothpaste Lorraine quickly brushes her teeth before rinsing and spitting, just like her parents taught her to.
Once finished with the bathroom, Lorraine heads back to her room, grabbing her favorite doll Margot as she enters. Margot has the same mottled skin that Lorraine and her brothers share with their mom. "You're the most beautiful doll in the world Margot. Like Mommy tells me that I'm the most beautiful girl in the world." Lorraine's squealing laughter draws the attention of her brothers.
"Hey there princess. What are you laughing about?"
"I'm happy that I have Margot."
Jeremy, the oldest at seventeen sits on the bed next to Lorraine, holding his hand out for Margot. When Lorraine hands the doll over, Jeremy gives it a tight hug, then holds it at arm's length. "You'd better protect my sister. Don't be letting any monsters crawl out from under her bed now."
Nathan grabs Margot from Jeremy's hand, opening the back of the doll violently as he turns away.
"Nathan! What do you think you're doing!"
"It's okay." Nathan turns back showing how he's already closed the doll back up. "I just, put something special in Margot. Try talking to her again Lorraine."
Lorraine takes Margot from Nathan's hand. "What did Nathan put inside you?"
"Nathan put a small A.I. speaker inside Margot, so now Margot can talk with Lorraine." The robotic voice comes from inside Margot, surprising Lorraine.
Jeremy turns to Nathan. "You're kidding. You got your science project to work? What A.I. did you use?"
"I wrote a new one." Nathan smirks with self satisfaction. "The best part is, I can also use it as a two way comm, so when I go to college next month I can check in on Lorraine. It doesn't matter where she takes it either, the A.I. system can link to any open wifi channels."
"That's awesome little bro. You have any idea how proud all of us are that you're going to College at only twelve years old? The best I can do is join the Army."
Lorraine holds Jeremy's hand. "I think we're all poud of you too." Lorraine starts to tear up, but before she starts crying Nathan and Jeremy both move in and hug their little sister. "I don't want you to leave."
"It's okay, you know we're going to come back to you princess."
The three siblings hug each other until Lorraine starts drifting to sleep. Jeremy tucks her into her bed just before she closes her eyes, as their parents hug each other in the doorway of her bedroom. Jeremy and Nathan stand before their parents, giving Lorraine one final sight of her family.

The sudden crash in the middle of the night startles Lorraine awake. She can hear someone fighting in the living room.
Margot's robotic voice scares her as she tries to listen to the fighting. "Lorraine, hide in the closet, and don't come out until your brother comes for you."
Lorraine slides off the bed, sliding her feet across the carpet, just like Jeremy taught her to be silent. Once inside the closet, Lorraine closes the slotted doors, which allows the side panel to open. She hides in the side panel, clicking it into place.
The fighting in the living room scares Lorraine, until she can't handle it anymore. She holds her hands over her ears in terror, but even through her closed hands she can hear her father's shotgun go off several times. The voices outside of her room are muffled, obscured by the space and walls between Lorraine and whoever is talking. The voices go quiet, ceasing their talking for a moment. The silence is cut short as several screams ring out, followed by the sound of fighting again.
Through the course of the fighting another blast from the shotgun is fired, but it's the last time. The fighting continues for several more minutes before a final thud is heard, and the house goes silent again.
The door to Lorraine's room is opened, followed immediately by someone opening her closet doors, rifling through her clothes and toys, looking for her. She knows this person isn't part of her family, otherwise they would have known to shut the doors again to open the panel. The stranger slams the closet shut, giving up on finding Lorraine in the closet. The panel opens quietly, letting Lorraine out.
Bravely she steps into her closet, peering out through the slots of her door.
Searching through her room is a large figure, peering under her bed, tossing the covers all over.
Suddenly, Margot speaks again. "She isn't here. You'll never find her. You won't even find me again."
The figure in the room grabs Margot, snarling at the doll. "We'll see about that boy! Your sister is inconsequential, but you will suffer for having crossed me!"
"I doubt that. You see, you can go on hunting me, but you won't find me until I'm ready to face you. Trust me, when I'm ready, you won't even be ashes anymore."
The figure throws Margot against the wall before slamming itself through the window, taking flight into the night air with humongous wings.
The silence following the monster's departure is deafening, until Margot speaks again. "Lorraine. I know you can hear me. I won't be able to see you for a very long time, so you're going to have to be brave. You're probably going to live with Aunt Lizzie from now on, but at least you should be safe with her. I'm sorry for what I've done to our family. I love you." After a moment of silence the robotic voice utters one final sentence. "Proximity sensors incapacitated, Admin activated hibernation commenting."

After that, Margot never spoke again, but true to her words, Lorraine went to live with Aunt Lizzie. In the living room that night Lorraine's parents and her brother Jeremy were slaughtered, ripped apart by the monster. Lorraine never figured out why, but it was searching for Nathan that night. As she grew older Lorraine began to piece together the meaning of the monster's conversation with Margot, deducing that somehow Nathan had wronged the monster, and it wanted payback.
The years following revealed much to Lorraine, such as her father's family being involved with supernatural occurrences. The entirety of her father's family were employed as a network of supernatural researchers and hunters with specialist members joining an elite force in the Army. Lorraine followed suit, joining the Paranormal Developments Division, which allowed her to track similar patterns to her family's murder. All of her investigations have been inching her closer to finding and killing the monster that took her family. The one who killed them is a subspecies of Gargoyle, one that feeds on humans as opposed to the traditional ones that protect humans. In her time with the P.D.D. Lorraine has interacted with dozens of so-called mythological beings like Gargoyles, Leprechauns, all manner of Fae, including one very angry Dulahan. Still, she never lost sight of her true target.
Outside of the closet doors a shadowy figure lumbers into the silent bedroom before collapsing on the bed. Through the slits in the door Lorraine can see the trail of blood the monster has dragged across the floor.
Lorraine takes another steadying breath, needing to calm herself again after realizing she failed to protect another family.
On the bed, the monster breathes deeply, sleeping soundly. Lorraine cracks the closet door open, stepping silently across the room to her target while raising her father's shotgun towards its head.
Suddenly a loud beeping comes from Lorraine's necklace. The necklace she made with the A.I. unit when she got rid of the doll Margot.
The monster wakes up, rolling over to reveal its face with the same mottled skin that Lorraine wears.
"Lorraine?"
Bewildered, Lorraine steps back, the unit around her neck beginning to speak in its robotic voice again. "Operations restored. Functionality responsive. Welcome back Nathan."
"Lorraine, how did you find me?"
"I've been hunting the gargoyle that killed our family. The one that's been hunting you."
Nathan stands up, far taller than his sister, more muscular than any of her fellow soldiers. "Yeah, he hasn't given up on me yet. He nearly had me tonight." Nathan opens his coat to reveal a large wound in his side. "At least I distracted him from his actual target tonight. You should have seen his face when I walked in on him." A small laugh follows.
"We need to get you to the hospital."
"Relax. Totem, activate refresh protocol." A wave of brown light emits from inside Nathan's body, sealing off the wound immediately. "Nanites in my bloodstream allow me to heal almost instantly. I made them about three years ago the last time Quirmix almost had me."
A deep growl emanates from the window. "So that's how you survived? What if I rip your head off?" The gargoyle Quirmix lumbers through the open window.
Nathan laughs. Lorraine staggers back, leveling the shotgun at Quirmix. "Hold on Lorraine." Nathan turns back to Quirmix. "Don't you think it's odd that my window was open?"
With that an intense heat emanates from the wall, scorching the fur of the gargoyle, burning the leathery wings to tatters. Behind Quirmix the wall shimmers, melting, sealing the hole that was the window.
Quirmix shakes off the attack, glancing back. "It's fine boy. I'll walk out the front door with your head." The gargoyle gives Lorraine an appraising look over. "How nice, I can finish your whole family. It's about damn time." Quirmix lunges at Nathan, only to fall short.
"You really should have learned to case a location before entering. That way, you might have understood the special parameters I've installed. You see, I've adjusted this house to be accommodating to human lives, but very prejudicial towards alternative species. Like right now, my sister and I can freely move about." Nathan steps close before kicking Quirmix in the head. "But you have no viable means of fighting back. Do you want to know why?"
Lorraine speaks up. "What did you do to him Nathan?"
"The moment anyone enters this structure they are inundated with nanites, not unlike the ones I have in my body, the major difference being that I have all the control over them. That's why the nanites in Quirmix have begun disrupting his synaptic relays. See, they're emitting electrical charges to overload the axon and dendrites along the nervous system, fully immobilizing Quirmix here. Although, they were a bit slow in activating, so that's a drawback I'm going to have to address in the next software patch. Anyways." Nathan grabs hold of Quirmix by the scruff of his neck. "I did promise I'd be ready for you, and that there would be nothing left of you, not even ashes."
Nathan drags Quirmix out of the room, down the stairs, all the way to the basement. Once in the basement, Nathan grabs a syringe, injecting it into his enemy before he locks Quirmix in a glass cube, the door sealing completely as if it never existed. Nathan and Lorraine watch as Quirmix begins to stir, the nanites in his body apparently ceasing their disruption of his nervous system.
"What did you put inside me?"
"Well, you don't need to know, but I'll explain to my sister so she's not too shocked by what happens." Quirmix doubles over, retching black ooze from his mouth. "The first part is a chemical compound that will liquefy Quirmix's body. Once that finishes then a secondary compound will activate beginning the dissolution of the residue. I don't like to leave traces of my unsanctioned kills." Nathan pulls out a cigar, cutting the tip before lighting it.
"Those will kill you."
"If I was still a normal man, then yes." Nathan takes another puff from the cigar as he watches Quirmix's legs begin to dissolve. "So how did you stumble across me? I've done a fair job of hiding myself. Oh, let me guess, you were actually tracking Quirmix right? He's always been quite brutish, uncouth with his own hunting. That's why I dissolved our partnership when I was twelve. Unfortunately, I hadn't discovered the minute differences in biology between regular Gargoyles and the Stigma Gargoyles. You see, they're hyper resilient to ballistics, and they lack the light spectrum weakness of regular Gargoyles. Due to that, I needed to spend the last twenty years perfecting this serum. I'm sure the P.D.D. will have plenty of questions regarding his disappearance."
"Why would the P.D.D. care about another monster being taken off the board?"
"You know about the P.D.D?"
"I'm currently part of their strike team."
"Damn Lizzie. She was supposed to keep you safe. Let me guess, you know about Father's side of the family being hunters right? Of course you do." Nathan puffs on the cigar again as Quirmix's face sloughs from his skull into the evergrowing pool of sludge. "Do you know why we excel at hunting monsters? That's rhetorical, no one other than I know about the fact that we are partially monsters ourselves."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, to start, Father's family is descended from a woman who was raped by an entire sect of Tengou Rini, an almost extinct clan of monsters that left Japan around twelve-hundred A.D. She kept the subsequent child when she was rescued, and it grew to be a fantastic hunter, leading to it propagating it's bloodline, which in turn remained strong down the lineage until Father. Then he needed to resign from hunting because he fell in love with Mother, who herself was a Stala Siren. Your genes probably haven't kicked in yet, seeing as mine only awoke three years ago to save me from Quirmix."
Lorraine shakes her head. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Our family has hunted monsters for ages, and you think it's because…"
Nathan steps in front of Lorraine, quickly closing the distance between them. "No Lorraine, I know. I've done the research on our blood, not just ours, but every member of Fathers family that hunted me. When I left the P.D.D. they labeled me a traitor, and called in their best operatives to erase me. That's because I knew too much. From the age of nine I had been hunting alongside Quirmix, until the night I ran. During that time I gained access to all of the P.D.D.'s most secure information. All their files on our family… Even their plans to use you as breeding stock when you were old enough. I couldn't let that happen. So I tried to kill Quirmix, and prove our generation to be rather useless to the P.D.D. so they would change their plans. I couldn't let them hurt my baby sister." Nathan takes one last puff from his cigar before extinguishing it. Checking on Quirmix's remaining ooze, Nathan heaves a heavy sigh.
"What now? What are you going to do now Nathan? Now that Quirmix is dead?"
"I'll relocate again. I know the P.D.D. won't give up hunting me. They'll probably send you after me in time. Unless you come with me?"
Before Nathan can turn around Lorraine levels the shotgun at the back of his head, pulling the trigger. For twenty years she has dreamed of killing the monster who was responsible for her family's death, and now, with her brothers blood splattered over her face, she begins to cry, knowing she has fulfilled her mission.
"Lorraine Uzmik, reporting in. My partner Quirmix has been killed in action, but the target has been disp
atched. I repeat, Nathan Uzmik, rogue P.D.D. agent, has been terminated."