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I’ve gotten into a pretty good routine at work. Sunny started to send me on my way with snacks or a packed lunch. Sometimes those snacks saved my life by offering them to a monster that wanted to take a bite out of me on delivery jobs. On occasion, I did a job with a different co-worker if Max needed to help with another job. I was human in a mailing company of monsters and yet survived this long. Any time I got comfortable, the world decides to show me just how dangerous it can be.
I don’t remember much about the start of that day. I went to work, a sandwich from Sunny safely packed away in my jacket pocket. When I arrived, I saw Max rolling on the floor without his uniform jacket on. He kept rubbing his back against the carpet. I asked his sister what was wrong, and she explained he rolled in some grass with some pretty nasty bugs. He suffered from some bites and couldn’t scratch himself through the uniform jacket. I told him to put his jacket back on before we went off to the first job of the day. I was handed a simple envelope with a request to deliver the letter to an empty warehouse.
I know I walked through a door toward the delivery location. Then a ringing started in my ears. I turned, seeing nothing but darkness around me. My chest felt heavy along with my bad arm.
“Max?” I called trying not to freak out.
The empty darkness spread outwards with no sign of my friend. I didn’t understand what was happening. Fear overtook my body. My mind felt like I’d forgotten something very important. I didn’t know where I was or how I got there. I pressed, trying my best to remember what happened. We walked through the door, and then what?
A small flicker of a memory came. Only a fraction of a hint of the rest of the day before the darkness took over. Max and I walked into the warehouse looking for the person to deliver the letter to. I knew we got that far but then what?
A flood of anxiety came over me causing me to nearly double over. I’d forgotten why dread took over my mind and yet it was still there. My breathing got fast and rough as I slowly got down to my knees unable to stand up with the flood of emotions going through my body. I kept thinking about Max as if I knew something happened to him and yet my brain refused to tell me what. I gritted my teeth trying to push past it all. I needed to get out of this darkness and back to my friend but felt so weighed down by my emotions I didn’t know the cause of it.
“There you are. It’s been a while.”
My head snapped up at the voice. I never thought I would ever see the person standing in front of me again. He held my old phone in one hand, his white hair shining in the darkness.
“Elly…?” I asked slowly.
This small boy was The Silver King. I didn’t fully understand the title, but he was super important. In fact, he was the most powerful creature, and every other monster respected him like a God. I heard he greatly disliked people treating him like the cute kid he looked like. He should have picked a less cute name if that was the case. The shock of seeing him wore off. I realized if he stood here, that things were very bad.
“How are you liking the job?” He asked, ignoring how scared I felt.
“This isn’t the time for a job performance review! I need to find Max!” I sputtered trying to stand up.
A weight tugged at my bad arm. I realized I couldn’t get up because of it. It didn’t hurt, which was nice but that didn’t make me worry any less.
“It’s the only time I have. I’m very busy. Invading your dream is the best I can do to ask some questions.” Elly explained sounding a bit bored.
“My dream? I’m asleep?” I questioned.
Elly nodded and yet, I didn’t feel better. Why was I sleeping? We were on the job, right? Did something attack me and knock me out?
“Don’t worry about other stuff right now. You can deal with it when you wake up. Tell me how the job has been going.” The boy said to get my attention again.
I paused to think of what I wanted to say. I’ve nearly died so many times with this job. I’ve seen horrors normal humans wouldn’t be able to deal with. I felt the guilt of being the reason why Slithers ate a person, regardless of how much he deserved it. Rufus lost a leg because of me. He still had issues walking and a bunch of people who cared about him got angry at me for that. I’d cut off my arm to save Max and needed to deal with the annoying creature that ate it. And I found out my apartment building was haunted and still carried the grief of what happened to that poor girl who died behind the walls of the building. Elly gave me time to think about all of this and decide my answer.
“It’s pretty scary most times. I have issues sleeping and I really think I won’t last long doing this job. But I like it. I care about the people I’m working with, even the annoying ones. Now can I wake up? I think something happened to Max.” I answered back.
I looked over my shoulder as if a way to snap back awake might appear. When I looked back, I was shocked to see a smile on Elly’s face. From the little bits of information, I heard about him, he acted like a sullen kid. I decided I wanted to ask him a question that had been bothering me for a while.
“Why… Did you give me this job?” I said.
He paused and then lifted my old phone. He used it to trap Vicky to save me and gave me a new one for work. It took me a few seconds to clue into why he brought it along then my face turned red from embarrassment.
“You sent Vicky a text thanking her for the date after she turned into a monster and tried to eat you. I figured you would be the type of person who could work well with creatures of the night. My job as King is to serve them. You proved I made the right choice.” He explained and for a second sounded a bit older than his small body appeared.
“Thank you. I have had some days where I really didn’t want this job but overall, I’m glad for it.” I admitted to him.
“Do you love the monsters you work with?” He questioned sounding a bit gentle.
The ones I’ve met have killed and eaten humans in the past. They would do it again if needed. And yet, I found myself still being able to care about them. In truth, I almost felt as if I turned my back on my own species and didn’t really care.
“I do. They’re important to me.” I said with a nod.
“Then you should wake up and tell them.”
I heard his voice then the feeling of falling overtook my body. My eyes opened to a mass of pain. I let myself get adjusted to the feeling before being collected enough to figure out what was going on. All at once, the memories of what happened came flooding back. We arrived inside the warehouse trying to figure out who requested the letter to be delivered. Max strayed a few steps away from me to look at a small box by one of the large cement support pillars inside the empty building. His face dropped into an expression I’d never seen from him before. He ran towards me and wrapped his uniform jacket over my head protecting it. A split second later, the entire building came down on top of us in a massive explosion.
Max acted fast enough to protect me from the damage. I woke up to him over me resting on his elbows and knees. My left arm helped out a little. It transformed into a large fur-covered claw that held a massive amount of rubble from dropping down on us. The weight threatened to separate my arm from my shoulder. All the pain faded when I saw my best friend fully in the dim light.
Because Max used his jacket to save my face from being burned off, he left himself exposed. He supported the weight of literal tons of stone on his back, with some iron bars finding their way through his body. His face hovered over my own dripping blood onto my cheek. His body transformed slightly to stay alive. His eyes glowed yellow in the dark and his mouth became filled with sharp teeth. His arms fully turned into claws that itched to dig into the meal so nearby. Along with blood from his head wound, some saliva dropped down. He wanted to eat me. My best friend was slowly dying, and his body reacted in an understandable way.
“Max…” I choked out unable to think of anything else to say.
My mouth was dry from the dust in the air and my throat hurt from tears. He noticed I was awake and instead of acting worried, his face turned into a smile glad this his partner was alive.
“Are you alright Toby?” He asked, his voice weak.
I nodded, unable to speak just yet. I didn’t know what the building suddenly came down, or how to get out of this.
“I’m pretty sure this was a trap from The Hunters. Sometimes their delivery requests slip through and they kill the ones who show up. I’m sorry you got tangled up in all this.” Max explained, trying to keep himself calm.
I found myself shaking my head. Those Hunters killed his family in the past. He’d lost so much to them and yet he never turned his hatred toward humans. Max got worried I died because of the feud between humans and monsters. If I could move my arms, I wanted to hug him. There might not be another person on Earth as sweet as him.
“Is there any way to get out of this?” I asked him.
I looked around trying to find an escape route. Aside from some small cracks to let some sunlight through, there weren’t any openings the rubble large enough to get through. If Max moved, we risked having the cement shift and us getting crushed under it.
“I’m thinking about that. It’s not my strongest trait so it’s taking me a while.” Max joked in a strained voice.
I looked down to see just how much blood his stomach wound was already bleeding out to the ground under us. I didn’t know how he was still alive after all of this. I fought back the panic to try and think of anything to help. My head snapped back up wondering why Max didn’t try an obvious thing.
“Can’t you drink some of my blood? You wouldn’t need to move much, and it would heal you, right?” I offered.
I didn’t know if he took some of my blood if it would give him enough energy to get free. At the very least, I didn’t want him to suffer for much longer. Max shook his head, tears coming to his yellow eyes. At my offer, I saw fur start spreading and his face becoming even more animalistic. He fought it back trying not to become a monster and I understood why he hadn’t taken a bite while I slept.
“If I let myself drink your blood, I won’t be able to stop. I’ll kill you. I don’t want that.” He said, voice shaking.
He raised his head so I could see his distraught face. His body started turning into the creature he really was against his will. If this kept up, he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back from eating me to recover. Max knew he could become a feral monster and hated it. His eyes flooded with tears and the rubble on top of his back shifted slightly. I pulled my good arm out from under him to clear away some of his tears with my palm. He pressed a cheek into my hand, nearly unable to keep himself from breaking down.
“I don’t want to lose another sibling.” He sniffled.
The sight tore at my heart. His mother had been killed years ago and I heard a few more family members died as well. I never asked who he needed to bury back then. It was possible he had a few brothers that died and never talked about it. He’d been carrying the burden of them most of his life. I didn’t want to add my death to all of that. But right now, it looked as if only one of us would be getting out of this alive.
“I feel the same way you know. I would rather you live through this instead of us both dying.” I told him in a stern voice trying to get my point across.
He chewed on his bottom lip understanding but not accepting the idea. He would rather die than let another family member he loved go without being able to do anything about it. I thought back to the talk I had with Elly and knew this was the time to say a certain thing.
“I’ve really liked working with all of you. It’s been scary but-”
“Don’t.” Max whispered interrupting me, but I kept going.
“I’m glad we met. I’ll never forgive myself for Rufus getting hurt on my first day. But if he didn’t, I might not have partnered up with you. We’ve met a lot of people, you know? Your sisters are great. Slithers helped me out even though they didn’t need to. Belizas is well, herself. And we got to help Sunny too.”
Max listened, tears coming down his face in silent sobs. I should have been scared to death. My best friend needed to eat me alive to save his life. It would hurt and yet I felt happy looking back on it all. It would be worth it because of one simple fact.
“I love you. You’re the best brother anyone could ever ask for.”
I’m surprised I didn’t break out into tears saying something so emotional. Max let out a small hiccup. Aside from his monstrous features, he looked a bit younger at that moment. He carefully leaned down to press his forehead against my own causing some dust to kick up around us. I kept my hand on his cheek praying this would be what he remembered and not the feeling of sinking his teeth into someone important to him.
“There is a way out of this. If I tell you my true name, I can take some of your blood and you can control me, so I won’t go feral.” Max whispered. His tone was heavy.
My stomach turned over the suggestion. I’ve heard a little bit about true names. It was something a human like myself would never understand. If a person knew a true name of a creature, they could control them until it died. The name was something so protected and dear to the creatures they refused to even let their family hear it. It essentially was giving someone access to their very soul. I shook my head, not wanting Max to go through being so exposed in such a personal way.
He brought his head back enough for me to see his face. His expression showed me everything I needed to know. He didn’t bring up this option until after I told him my feelings. He now knew he could trust me with his entire self. He would have rather died with me than give away his name to someone if they didn’t truly love him as family.
I didn’t stop him from leaning over again, his mouth by my ear to whisper a word that meant more than anything else in the entire world to the both of us. I don’t think I could explain what language that single word sounded like if anything remotely close to any kind of structured word. It was more like a sound filled with emotions. The quick whisper reminded me of bright orange sunlight through the trees. It honestly sounded the same way love felt.
Max pulled back, cheeks red from crying and expecting a negative reaction. Anyone who put themselves out there in such a way would have acted the same way. Even though we were in such a dire situation, I looked up at him and started to laugh. His face broke and we both fell into quiet laughter from accepting each other so completely.
“Max, please take some of my blood to get us out of here.” I told him in a small voice after our giggles died down.
Anything I said to him now carried weight. If I asked him to kill himself, he would without a second thought. I needed to be careful in how I spoke to him in the future. Any request could be turned into an order. With a smile full of sharp teeth. He brought his face down to bite into my exposed neck. It hurt like a bitch but was worth it.
A ripple started through his clothing. He pulled his face away and a burst of power came from his body. I knew about magic but never felt it that way before. Colors swirled around us, and the world changed for a few seconds. In a flash the cement debris that pinned us down got tossed aside, landing hard in the empty parking lot the warehouse used to sit in.
I’d covered my eyes to keep the dust from them. When I opened them again, I was staring at a cleared area and for the first time, I saw Max for what he really was. A wolf taller than a building stood shaking the dirt from its golden-brown fur. He stomped a foot and life exploded from his paw leaving behind a lush area of green. Flowers that glowed like the moon bloomed then faded in a burst of light. For the first time in a long while, Max finally could stretch out his real body. He didn’t care if we might be near a city or if other humans might see him. He just arched back his head and let out a long cheerful howl towards the setting sun.
The sound echoed through the sky and turned into his laugh. His massive body shifted into the human one I’ve always known him as. He quickly scooped me up in a hug and we laughed like idiots again just glad to be alive.
A door suddenly appeared off to the side. It burst open spilling out at least ten of his sisters. They all ran over clearly worried to death. They must have found out about the trap, and everyone only just arrived to help. Rufus came next followed by a very scared Sunny. Belizas came, tripping over her own feet. Some creatures I’ve worked with in the sorting room hurried through along with A’nk. They all piled into us talking over each other. Sunny found us and wrapped both his dear friends into a hug refusing to let go.
It took a very long time to get everyone settled and the situation was explained. Even after we told them what happened, everyone still kept talking convinced we were still hurt. My fake arm looked like a normal human one, but I found I couldn’t feel it at all. They said I might need to get it replaced again, but I wasn’t really worried.
I nearly died again. I doubted very many people faced death as often as I did. I Looked over each person that came rushing over when they heard Max and I got in trouble. I realized then I would gladly die a hundred times over if that meant I could keep the family I found because I got forced into a very scary job dealing with monsters.