I am a Mythologist. It was a profession passed down from generation to generation and I’ve always been interested in it. The old tales my dad used to tell me about fairies, cyclops and big giant wolves always had me on edge. There was something he never spoke about however. That was giants. Whenever I brought up the thought of giants he would clearly change from cheerful to stone cold, Even fearful at times. One night my dad came home drunk, I could smell the whisky on his breath from 10 feet away. He was clearly in a state of panic as the only detail i remember vividly, Were his big eyes, They were almost black. When it was time for me to sleep I asked him for some tales and no matter how mad he was he always told me something I never had heard of. I miss those times.
He was telling me a story about an ancient fairy garden that produces dreams when I brought up giants. Without a single word he switched out the lights and left my room, Leaving me to soak in the eeriness of if he was mad or not.
When dad left I was around 16. He one day left for a journey to Ireland because they found evidence of something, I don’t know exactly what it was but his notes suggested it was something to do with angels. There were very detailed illustrations of them and how they looked and it was completely different to what i could have expected an angel to look like. It had more then 2 legs, Wings were small like a baby birds but the most striking detail was the eyes. They had the same big black eyes like the night my father had when he was drunk. I crunched out the memory for the trauma it gave me. I felt uncomfortable looking at it.
When I got out of college I had a degree in mythology. I had a few friends who were interested but most either became something else or a partner field like Archaeology. One night i got a call from one of these friends. I’ll call him Troy. He was clearly frantic as if he was in a hurry and asked me for help, Apparently on one of the digs they had found evidence of something that needed to be identified. My first and most obvious question was “Why would you need a mythologist for that?” He avoided it and said they could fly me out tomorrow, This was in Afghanistan but it was in a more desolated area. So i wasn’t too fearful of potential threats. After some time of thinking i agreed and i was flown out no less then when the sun had fully rose.
When i stepped onto the dry sandy landscape of the country i was shocked. The sun was blazing so hot it felt like i would be reduced to ash. I felt uncomfortable and i moved to the spot where i was meant to be picked up, When the pickup arrived i hopped in and after a few hours of treacherous heat and sandy roads we finally arrived to a very large dig site. There were scientists, Journalists but most confusing of all? There were armed guards.
As i shuffled over Troy greeted me with a tight hug and gestured for me to follow him and so i did. We walked in to one of the many research tents and there were very old illustrations, books and more. But the one thing that caught my eye was a bottle that was waxed shut with a rolled up piece of paper. I looked at it and he caught my gaze and explained.
“We uh, We found this at the site, We think it might be a codex or a dating, If we are right and able to figure out what it says it could change quite a-lot about the history of this place, All the things we wondered could now be proven!”
Then i asked the burning question “Why do you need me then?” A massive lump formed in his throat as he walked out, Me trailing behind. When we arrived to the main attraction i couldn’t believe what i was seeing. In this big rectangular like hole stood a skeleton. This skeleton was no less 12 feet tall and was almost 5 feet wide. I almost thought this was a joke or an animal till i saw the very clearly blue oxidized copper spear and massive iron brace in with the skeleton. Then the memories flashed of my fathers avoidance of giants. As a mythologist you don’t actually think any of this is possible, It’s mostly cultural study. By the time i had looked at this thing long enough it was very dark, Around 11 pm. So we all headed to bed. The only thing i remember thinking was “Is this real, Have we found evidence of giants?” And so i passed out in my own pool of thoughts.
When I awoke i heard lots of scampering chatting and most confusingly the sound of guns being loaded. I sprung out of bed rushing to see that the skeleton had disappeared. But even worse. So had Troy. He was absolutely nowhere to be seen, I heard people talking but i saw a crowd up ahead and so i followed. When I stood to see what they saw I was shocked. There were massive trails of clear drag marks but also. There were footprints, At least 4 feet in length. The drag marks lead into a valley of mounds and so we planned to follow them. Our main thought was that troy had taken the body and planned to sell it. When I went into his tent everything was clearly frantically thrown around as if he had scampered to get out of bed quick. But also, The bottle with the message was gone.
I ran out and I went with the group. Following the trails I started to become anxious, Fearful even. Something about this wasn’t right. How could he have moved that massive skeleton out of that pit and not have made any noise, Never the less the weight. The spear and the brace was also gone. How was any of this possible. When the trail started to shift it went up a ramp like slope into the top portions of these mounds, They were around 100 to 500 meters tall. When we followed them we arrived at a cave and without any hesitation the group shuffled in. I stood there in shock, But before I could think my legs did for me and I moved in.
The first thing I noticed was the smell, It was rancid, Worse then death. But the second thing was the darkness, I had a torch with me but before I lit it i felt helpless, If I got lost in here without a torch I would never make it out, I would be forced to die slowly, Constricted by only the boundaries of rocky walls. When I lit the room I saw the group was a bit ahead and so I jogged to catch up, When I hit a loose rock and it bounced into the wall making a loud echo. Then we heard it.
Loud heavy footsteps came from the cave right in front of the group, The first thought was a wild animal and so a lot of us rushed out. When we made it we heard yelling and screaming, Then the noise started to muffle till it all stopped. We heard crunching, Slurping. The sound of a predator feeding on its prey. One of the very many armed guards quickly loaded his rifle and the sounds stopped. The footsteps slow this time came towards us and the guards immediately put there weapons up waiting.
A massive shape of a human formed from the darkness, From even that I could tell it was around 15 feet maybe even more. Then it emerged. From that cave a massive axe swung out striking one of the guards in the body and sending him off the mountain, There were no screams, He was dead instantly. The figure emerged and from what i saw will be engraved in my memory like a message. It stood tall, Its skin was a pale stark grey and its features were strict, It had black deep eyes sunken into its head far more then naturally should, Its nose was slightly cut off and it had horrendous scars on its face, But its mouth is what i remember the most. It had a grin with thousands of tiny razor sharp teeth and there were blood on them, It was primal, A supernatural being that should have not existed.
It wore bones with rags on it and it had a brace. It was wearing the body of what we had extracted, Like a trophy. But the final thing that haunts me was what hung off its body, There were twine ropes with body parts mounted on them like trophies, They were troys. The guards opened fire on the beast as it let out a deep gutteral roar, Almost like the screech of metal. I watched as it grabbed the closest person, One of the guards and without any trouble the beast squeezed, The guard turned to nothing more then a red paste and it dripped out of the things knuckles.
That’s when I ran between its feet and into its lair. I ran and ran till i found where it had been hiding. There was a small cavern and there stood a bunch of dead grass, Sticks and other things. I don’t know how this thing got grass in the middle of fucking Afghanistan but I didn’t care. As I ran up to it i saw the message and I approached it. The bottle was easy to break and I thought in my last moments I would read it. This is what it read.
“To all who finds this. I am dead, I am not the body of the monster that has been found, I am rather the man by the name of Lucas Hitch-Wood. What you have dug up is a giant, A massive beast that resides in all places but is mostly known was fantasy.”
Lucas Hitch-Wood was my fathers name. The note was in smeared ink and was clearly written in a hurry. I looked at the bottle and noticed something, It was an old whisky bottle. Everything finally clicked. He never went to Ireland. He went here. He knew they existed. As I said this more gunshots echoed and screams eminated from the pitch dark my torch couldn’t luminate, In a hurry i ran to a wall and i saw something shiny. There was a watch, A silver watch which i recognised. It was my fathers. I saw bones scattered and i realized he had died here.
I sobbed like a baby till the shots stopped, I thought it was coming back then i heard my name being called. I rushed out to the see the beast had fallen, Dead. Its eyes lay open to reveal the same dark sunken voids I had seen moments ago.. That was the last i remembered, The black voids of that things eyes, Then i passed out, I awoke in hospital and was told i had suffered from intense stress which caused the fainting. As the nurse walked out 2 men in suits walked in. I had heard of this, The men in black.
“What you saw that day is something that very few have ever seen. We have contacted who you work for and have managed to get you a sum of money in exchange for sworn secrecy. A contract will be provided for this soon.” I was payed 300 thousand dollars to be quiet about the horrors i witnessed that day.
Now when i walk around the streets i notice more black eyes staring at me, It’s not long before i join my dad, The stress has been to much, I’m considering just taking a shitload of pills and dozing off in peace.
Be warned of the giants. They exist and they walk in plain sight.