By: Sandy Wang

I
No one noticed her. She was like a shadow, never talking to anyone, blending perfectly into the background. Her name was Rune, and she had once been an overly extroverted girl, talking to everyone she met.

II

Five years ago…

Rune’s parents had both been on business trips for a week, so she was staying with her grandparents. Her grandma was very kind to everyone, but she did not believe children should be spoiled. Her grandpa had once served in the military, so he was quite a tough guy, but still had a soft spot whenever he saw Rune. Her grandparents lived in a gigantic mansion thanks to her parents’ prosperous jobs. The mansion included 18 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, 5 living rooms, a movie theater, a bowling alley, a mini golf course, a pool, a jacuzzi, and, Rune’s favorite, a library.

Rune’s grandparents had an enormous collection of books in every genre you could imagine, including history, novels, horror, and manga. Interestingly, only one of the books was off limits to her, even as a 14-year-old. The book had a cracked, leather binding and faded words on it, which she could barely make out. After studying the book’s cover meticulously without her grandparents knowing, she found that the title of the book was called Monsters that Actually Exist: How to Defeat Them.

Two weeks later, Rune’s grandparents brought her very bad news. Both of her parents were gone due to a car crash while they were driving home. Devastated, Rune sulked to her room and burst into tears, refusing to come out even for meals. She stayed like this for days, when she suddenly realized something. Her parents hadn’t gone to the same place, since they worked at different places, so was it just a coincidence that both of them got into deadly car crashes or was something else going on here?

Rune sat cross legged on the edge of her bed staring at the blank wall in front of her for hours, and the longer she sat, the more she was convinced that it couldn’t have been a coincidence. But what could it have been? It obviously couldn’t have been a monster – they don’t exist. Or do they? Rune thought of the forbidden book and had the urge to just burst out of her room and grab the book, but she knew she had to plan carefully in order to not get caught by her grandparents.

That night, while her grandparents were sleeping, Rune tiptoed down the hallway to the library, which was right next to her grandparents’ main bedroom and tried opening the door. To her surprise, it was locked, while none NONE of the other doors except the front door were. However, Rune knew that her grandparents would always keep a spare key near the door, being the grandparents they are, in case they lost the original one. After inspecting the door and finding no other hiding place, Rune reached her hand onto the top of the door frame and felt the metal structure of the spare key in her hand.

The unlocked door opened soundlessly, and Rune slipped into the library, firmly closed the door behind her, and turned on the lights. Moving quickly, she grabbed the book off its shelf, but to her dismay, it contained hundreds of monsters. However, she remembered that her grandparents would never lie to her, and they had told her that her parents disappeared in a car crash, so the monster must be related to cars.

A few pages in, Rune found what she was looking for – the Lepastris. It looked like a tree and would use its branches to snatch cars off the road and delete the memory of everyone that saw it happen. The people in the car would then disappear inside the trunk, where they would remain unconscious until someone rescued them.

Immediately alert at the fact that she could rescue her parents, Rune read that she had to take a unicorn horn and cut Lepastris with it. Right at that moment, Rune’s grandparents burst into the library…

(to be continued)

Image Credit by cottonbro studio