Creatures of the land of the damned

“Where I come from, the land has never seen the light of the sun.” The well aged Gentleman said finishing his cup of coffee.

“You asked me who I am, but I say it does now matter, for I am but a tool, a weapon to keep the dark at bay. I am the gatekeeper of my home.”

I had met this mystery of a man purely by chance. It happened about 4 hours ago, he barged into my house without saying a word. At first, I thought he was a burglar, but he asked for nothing, he said nothing, he just ran around my house, checking every closet, bed, and dark corner he could find. He was about to leave when something made him stop. He turned, raised his gun and aimed it at me. “Duck.” It was the only thing he said during the who intrusion, but he’s low growling voice carried enough authority, I listened to him without any objection. As I dove to the ground, he fired his gun and the only thing I heard afterwards was a loud shriek. I turned and saw remains of a creature still hanging from the rooms corner, with its guts hanging out.

The shock had frozen me in place, but I realised that the rough looking intruder was there for this creature. The sound of the front door closing snapped me out of my trance. “Wait!” I ran after the man. Even though he just left, I could barely catch up. But after chasing him for a few minutes in a slow jog, I had finally caught up to him. “Wait.” I said while being completely out of breath. “What was that back there?” He stopped, looked at me and said: “That was a Jikininki, or at least it used to be. The trip to this world changes them, but their innate hunger stays the same.” Pulling up the collar of the coat, the man started off once more. “Can… can you tell me more about what just happened? I know a coffee place nearby.” But he didn’t stop, step by step, the distance increased. “I’ll pay for the information.” That made the man stop. He ruffled his pocket, and realised he was low on money. That’s how I ended up in this situation with this man.

“Where I come from, the land has seen no light, no sun, no warmth nor joy.” He said glancing over at me. “The place is a desolate land of the damned. Every creature from your worst nightmares show up there. Starting with the Boogeyman that all children fear, all the way to the most horrific cryptoids to ever be imagined.” The man lowered his eyes, showing how the place he is talking about is close to him as his home and yet a place he’d never wish to see again.

“The land is covered with an eternal fog that wets your feet and the ground you stand on. It makes sure you would not be able to sleep, rest or even warm up by the fire no matter what you did. The fog has its own mind. It would crawl up a tree, a mountain or just a creature it sees itself, but never does it take a life, for taking a life would just free you from the pain this place provides.”

He poured another cup of coffee and extended his hand. I paid the man fifty euros and waited for him to continue. “The world makes no sound. There are no birds, no wolves, not even a god forsaken bug crawling around. The only thing that’s there are the monsters summoned by the peoples’ darkest nightmares.” His face darkened. “Every creature, be they big, small this, fat, every creature seems to have one shared thought… they… must… feed. So each day, each night They would roam. Every single one of them a master of their own ability they use for their style of hunting.”

“There are many types of Creatures, but I just split them into six groups.” He raised his hand as if to indicate the five types. The man lowered for fingers and only left the pointing finger out. “The first are the low tier ones, or the newcomers. These are easy to deal with since they are not yet capable to use their abilities and bodies to their best. They tend to act on pure instinct, which makes them easy to read and counter.”

“The second tier would be beasts. They are not much different than the newbies, the only big difference is their brute force. These foul creatures can destroy a building with just one leap, but because of their power, they sacrificed their tactical thinking, SO they are as hard to deal with as a raging bull.”

“Next would be the wimps. While they sound weak, it’s not their power that’s troublesome, it’s the way they use it. Since they have no strong power, they focused more on the many ways it can be used for their gain and ways to make their power seem a lot more difficult to deal with. I have seen many other hunters fall to pray to a mentally advanced wimp while falling into a trap.”

“The fourth would be the old ones. Their numbers keep growing and falling at weird rates. Meeting one of them and living to tell the tale is something to be proud of and terrified of at the same time. They never forget, they never lose trace, if one has targeted you, it will never let go.” “Wait, then how do you know about them?” The man smiled and put his weapon on the table. “I used to be one of them.

“The fifth one, I have never seen, heard or met anyone who has met one, but there have been said to be a tier that’s closer to a god than a monster. Tier five, the ancient ones. Each one of them has the power to change the world in mere minutes. It’s been told that they are the ones that keep the place as it is. That one of them controls the sky, another is tied to the fog while the last one controls the spawn of all the creatures in the world, but I think, they are just the first ones ever made. And the power that they have, is connected to the fear of the men who made them, for the biggest fear of the time was the fear of Gods punishment, so the creatures themselves are as close to being Gods.”

“These creatures’ makeup the inhabitants of the damned world, but only the lowest tier ones ever escape, I guess the stronger ones are incapable of passing the veil.” I sat back, hearing all of this. “But wait, you said there are 6 groups.” The man sighed. “The last group is the worst. They are the ones who made me like this. They came to the world recently, but they are a tier of their own. Those are… the Human scientists.” He finished his jug of coffee in one gulp. ”These creatures, they trap, enslave and test on the cryptids. They don’t care about what happens to the barrier, they only care about making the cryptids into a weapon. They made me into what I am, just so I could hunt down their failures, the creatures that escaped or were released without a way to recall them.”

The man stood up. “This is as much as I can tell you, thank you for the meal.” He just left, never looking back, never meeting my glance throughout the whole conversation. The man had left my life just as silently, confusing and sudden as he had arrived. It has been 5 years since then, even after all this time, I fear to stay alone in the dark.