He was Afraid of a Monster

“The weather is too hot to be outside, honey,” my mom called, her head poking outside the glass door.

“Maybe soon mom,” I replied with a sigh, not turning my eyes towards her.

I was outside, enjoying the wind, grass, and the doves up above. The desert filled with animals and cactus blooming behind my backyard walls. So I was pretty used to seeing animals often. At night I could here coyotes howling, which actually calmed me down. I’m different from most people. When I here coyotes I don’t run from it, I run towards it. I’ve always hopped over our walls and walked around the desert. I’ve gotten pricked by many cacti in doing so, but also getting close to so many animals. I even found a snake skin once. A beautiful skin. It shimmered in the light, and now lives above my bed hanging for all to admire. But that is another story, today I will tell you about a creature out in the desert. This creature made everything that starred into its soul run for dear life. It had a black heart, and a black mind. Some may have called it, el chupacabra.

It was a clear day over summer vacation. School was out and it was time to relax. The sun was blazing hot, and no clouds protected the earth from the fire ball today. I stared out into the desert. I thought maybe I should go inside, maybe today wasn’t the best day to go into the desert. Maybe I should just watch some tv and relax. My dog, Pepper, was inside the house lapping up her water and I thought that maybe I should just go inside and cuddle her. I was about to turn around when I looked out at the desert once more. I nearly jumped sky high in the air as I saw something weird, something insane, something that when I looked at it, it looked straight back at me.

It’s top teeth stuck out, big, pointy, yellow and red. It was the size of a large dog. It was thin and limped along between the brush. He was sand and dust in color, with ears perking up detecting every sound, every breath. His tail was long with patches of pink all around his thin body. Barely any of his sand colored hair poked out of his bare skin, and his claws were nasty, bending every which way. His nose was crooked, and bled whenever he sniffed. He looked terrifying, hungry, like he came off of the page of a horror story. But the most interesting thing about him, was his eyes. They were black, sad, empty, and were filled with loneliness. He stared at me with these eyes. Like he was asking for help. He then slithered away not making a sound.

He probably hadn’t eaten for days, and he probably was sick. I never saw him again, he probably died the next day. It’s terrible to think of what happens to poor animals in this world.

Most people who may have saw that creature, might have killed it where it stood. They may have called it a beast. They may have told everyone that they saved them from a man eating monster. And yes, he may have looked like a monster, but he was scared of monsters to.

The newspaper reporter stood in awe and looked at me.

“So, you didn’t kill it?!” He said with a slightly shocked tone of voice.

“No I didn’t kill it, I believe I just said that,” I replied smoothly.

“What.. what… but why?” He asked annoyingly.

“Did you not listen to anything I just said?!” I rolled my eyes at him, how dumb can this guy be?

“But it was a monster you should’ve killed it!”

“I never said it was a monster! I said, ‘he may have looked like a monster,’ not that he was one! I’m just telling you this story so people can be on the watch out for any more like him, and think of ways to help them.”

“Oh, I thought you were telling me this so people would go kill it for award money,” he said a little embarrassed looking down at his notes.

“That is not why, no why would I do that, that is the opposite of what I’m doing here!”

“I now realize that,” he said. After writing a few more things down, he continued.

“Now Ms. Denlier-“

“Call me Jenny, I’m not fond of my last name,” he said hands in my hips.

“Ok… Jenny. Anything else you’d like to tell me about the story?”

“No, I think that’s it.”

“Ok, I will get this published to people can ‘be aware of these creatures,’ as you said,” he smiled.

“Ok,” I replied also with a smile, “thanks.”

“No prob.”