And last night I took on a new patient.

I'm going to get straight to the point. Monsters are real. All of them. You might think you know a lot about them but you don't. The stories and legends got so much wrong and I've had the privilege of getting to learn the truth about most of them.

For example, no self-respecting vampire would be caught dead - or alive - standing at your door waiting for an invite. And shapeshifters do not change once a month and howl at the moon. That's just ridiculous. And the popular ones are just the tip of the iceberg.

Do with that information what you will.

One thing that the stories did get right, however, was the teeth. Sharp, crowded, tall, tiny. They all have them, and sometimes they need attention. A monster without teeth loses a huge percentage of its scare factor in an instant. It's something they pay handsomely to avoid.

That creature that's haunted your nightmares, the one with a few too many teeth? Real. And probably in acute oral pain.

My name is Dr. Dayna Danworth and I own a dental practice for the paranormal.

It wasn't what I expected when attending dental school, to be sometimes shoulders deep in some of the most putrid and awful-smelling mouths you've ever seen. But the opportunity fell into my lap and it more than pays the bills. The money is worth the risk and I get to live very comfortably.

Regardless, the risk is very real. I was reminded of that last night during my appointment with a new patient. It left me somewhat shaken; a rarity in my field.

Some of my patients are able to present as human for at least enough time to make it to the practice without issue. To the general public, it looks like your average, private, city dentist and the daytime patients are generally the easier ones to deal with.

This particular patient was not able to feign humanity. This meant overnight work, something that I was no stranger to but that I always detested. Overnights and the rare home visits generally always yielded difficult patients.

Thankfully, I was able to charge double for the inconvenience, triple if I had to travel. Often the astronomical price turned out to be entirely justified and this was no different.

My receptionist, Coco, had booked him in. I love her to pieces and she's a true friend, who has the best of intentions, but she's truly terrible at the basics of her job. She never collects the relevant information for new sign-ups and doesn't ask any questions that might prepare me.

If it weren't for her relentless charm, I would have fired her years ago. But Coco has been with me from the beginning, has her own skill set, and despite my frustrations, she's here to stay.

Mr. Eurastix was booked in for 11 pm. He wanted the full cover of darkness for his arrival. That was all Coco knew. Blackout blinds down, I prepped the room, knots forming in my stomach.

"Dayna, do you want a coffee?" Coco shouted from the front desk, where she watched the security camera waiting for our arrival.

"Water's fine."

"You're mad, aren't you? I'm sorry, Day. How the fuck are you supposed to ask someone what kind of monster they are? I feel rude." Coco was always worried about offending, it was sweet, but useless.

"You could at least ask what the problem is! Didn't you learn from the incident with the woman of the water? Traipsed me all the way out to a rock pool with a bag of tools and no informa-"

My rant was cut off by the sound of the buzzer. My patient had arrived and he was standing just outside. Coco shot me a guilty and apologetic look and approached the door to unbolt it.

Within milliseconds, she was floored and totally winded. The door was left swinging with not a soul to be seen. Great.

I squinted, searching for a minuscule creature, or something translucent perhaps, but nothing. Instead, there was a sinister, high-pitched voice from behind me, inches from my left ear. It sounded like one of those cringeworthy, over-enthused children's TV presenters and it made my skin crawl.

"Nice to meet you, Doctor! My name is Mosaph Eurastix. You can call me Mo if you prefer."

His presence cooled the immediate area around me and Coco wrenched herself up from the ground to bolt the door shut. I would've gone to help her, but I assure you she'd faced much worse whilst working with me and I felt there were more pressing matters at the moment. Instead, I turned to face my newest patient.

I understood immediately the need for darkness.

Mo wasn't a big, hairy creature. He was far more humanoid than I expected from a patient requesting an overnight appointment. He wore a floor-length hooded cloak swamping his seemingly average body.

But Mo had a fleshy face.

He had striking red irises, with pupils that were shaped differently from a human's. Over the top of his eyes was a thin, fleshy layer that created a veiny, translucent veil. As if an eyelid had formed but never separated, leaving him with his own protective eye windows.

The same paper-thin skin veiled the opening to his mouth, ever so slightly muffling his high-pitched words and failing to conceal a perfectly circular arrangement of small, razor-sharp teeth. His mouth didn't move as you would expect. Instead, the voice projected from the back of his throat and through the skin.

Where most people would be horrified, I was fascinated. There's a certain point in an industry like mine where you're entirely desensitized to the horrific sights of these monsters. I'd never seen one like Mo before. I wasn't scared, more curious.

"Welcome, Mo. I think you owe my employee here an apology, don't you?" I stared him firmly in the eyes. "Dr. Danworth." I stretched out a cautious hand. This was something I did often, I was always fascinated to see their hands. Mo's were like mine. Except for the thin, veiny pieces of skin that connected each finger. It made a change from the array of claws I'd become accustomed to.

"I do apologize, I was merely concerned that I might be seen. I didn't mean to cause any harm! That could've caused some trouble," he laughed.

The excess skin was everywhere. The more I looked at him the more I noticed. It covered his ears, connected his lobes to his head, covered his nostrils and seemingly his actual skin beneath it, and even webbed his chin to what I presumed was his chest under the cloak. It was a mess.

"Can I get you a coffee, sir?" Coco beamed, unfazed as ever. It was the kind of moment that reminded me why I kept her around. Top-notch customer service, however useless her admin was.

"Not for me, thank you. In fact, that's partly why I'm here. As you can see, I have some restriction drinking at all." He lifted his webbed hand, flesh covering the fingernails, and stroked the delicate skin that covered his mouth.

"Let's get straight to it then, follow me."

I lead Mo into my treatment room, winking at Coco as a signal for her to keep an eye on the treatment room camera. He took a seat on the chair and I turned my lamp on. The bright light shining through the flesh made for quite a sight, illuminating the perfectly circular jaw underneath the clung-on skin and creating ghastly shadows.

"Please tell me a bit about yourself and what I can do for you."

"Woah. I wasn't expecting a date, doctor. What do you want to know?" His voice was cheeky and came laced with giggles but something about it still made my skin crawl. It was as if Mo sucked all the joy out of the room; some of them had that effect.

"And you aren't going to get one. But I need to know about your specific afflictions and diet etcetera in order to treat you correctly." I watched as Mo became visibly uncomfortable at the prospect of explaining what he was. "Don't worry, there's no judgment here."

"Well, doc, I don't always look like this for a start. It's never gotten this bad before. Usually, the skin appears... then it hardens and... I eat it."

He looked at me as if I was supposed to be in some kind of deep shock, but I'd kept geckos as a kid. When a gecko sheds its skin it does it in one go like it's taking off a tiny cardigan, then they consume the remains. It's highly nutritious. Mo's red eyes were quite reptilian. I stupidly thought at that stage that I had him all worked out.

"So you need some assistance with removal? I work with teeth, Mr. Eurastix, not the rest of the anatomy."

"You just need to cut this, doc." He nonchalantly pointed at the flap of skin stretched across his circular jaw. "The rest should dislodge easily then you can get to work on the teeth."

"And what appears to be the issue with those?"

"Isn't it obvious? I did tell your receptionist." Mo rolled his red eyes behind their horrendous fleshy windows.

For fuck's sake, Coco.

That's what I thought but I didn't say it. I would never lament her in front of a patient. I inspected what I could see of the rounded jaw and gathering of pointed teeth through the lamp and tried to ponder what he could possibly want.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Eurastix, but I haven't worked with anyone with your particular afflictions before. You will have to bring me up to speed."

"Well, I don't subsist entirely on my shed, doc. My teeth were designed for a purpose but they've lost their... edge. Part of the reason I'm dealing with all of... this." His eyes brightened with a ravenous hunger and he pulled at the skin connecting from his chin.

"So you're looking for a sharpening? May I ask what you eat?"

I was curious. I make it my business to catalog each monster that I work with for my own personal research, but I couldn't liken him to any other. He wasn't reminiscent of even an old urban legend. I couldn't place him but over the years I'd come to understand that most were defined by their bite. It was always a good starting point.

"I eat brains," he answered in the most unassuming voice I'd ever heard.

I'd had worse, but this was new. Was he what your average person might describe as a zombie? I had been certain that they were nothing but a myth. I would've regretted it had I not asked the question but that still didn't prepare me for the answer.

"No!" Mo laughed a high-pitched, false and cold laugh. "What I am is far worse than the laughable construct of a zombie. All we share is diet. Nothing more. Now I think it's time you got to work, doc."

I gulped but didn't respond. I picked up my scalpel and prodded at the excess skin covering his rounded jaw with the point. Despite its delicate appearance, even with force, it remained infallible. Within minutes, I found myself viciously stabbing at my patient's mouth.

Yet another occurrence I hadn't expected in dental school.

I placed the scalpel down and walked over to the locked cupboard in the corner of the room. It was the one I used to house my special tools for special cases. Mo didn't even flinch when I returned with a diamond-tipped drill in my hands.

My second attempt was more successful. The drill met some resistance and created an awful noise in the process, but after breaking a sweat it finally pierced the layer, sending grotesque blood and unidentifiable matter across the floor.

The smell that filled the room was indescribable. I dropped the drill on the side as I heard Coco gag at the front desk. It almost stunned me enough to stop me from catching Mo's next move.

Each flap of excess skin started to pull and tear away from its position on his face and hands, moving upward from beneath his cloak and making it very apparent that he was covered head to toe in the stuck shed.

He sucked in with the ferociousness of an angry Henry hoover as he consumed his own flesh as it ripped to reveal fresh, raw skin. The scene was truly horrific. But as the thin windows of skin peeled away from Mo's eyes to reveal a brilliant scarlet he looked truly satisfied.

That's what I want, right? Satisfied patients.

Placing a new face mask over my mouth and nose, I attempted to combat the smell that had saturated the first one.

"Better?" I asked, as Mo slurped the final bloodied pieces of himself down. He nodded with glee.

"I can't wait for a real meal now. I've been sooo hungry." He looked at me like dinner. I held in vomit as I tried to get a look at his now unobstructed teeth.

"Well, if you want to enjoy a real meal then you won't make one of me before your teeth are done," I laughed nervously and he delighted at my discomfort.

"Are you scared of me, Dr. Danworth? I thought you were experienced. You came highly recommended by the Beast of Cordyline Hill."

Of course, I did. I fucking hated that guy. He was the patient I always dreaded and now he'd sent me another living nightmare.

"Not at all, Mo, just a joke. Shall we move on with the sharpening?"

I could see that he knew I was lying. Although he couldn't contort his circular mouth it was in the eyes. I've found that even in the most monstrous of eyes there is emotion. People say that they're windows to the soul, but they're also windows to the soulless.

I picked up my file and got to work.

The jaw was solid and perfectly fused into its shape. Lining the entire edge were around 80 roughly three-inch-long, incisor-shaped teeth. They had clearly been blunted with time, but it didn't make them or him any less intimidating.

They sharpened up with ease. Grinding against them, I felt like some sort of Classical Greek sculptor. Carving my masterpiece.

I tried not to give too much thought to the poor victims that would fall prey to those particular teeth. I couldn't work out how he got to the brain but I was certain that it wasn't pretty. Nasty, but natural. Think of it like the food chain of the animal kingdom; it's just the part no one talks about.

I put my all into my work and soon found myself faced with a perfect set of monster gnashers - if I do say so myself.

"You're all done, Mr. Eurastix. Would you like to take a look?" I lowered the circular mirror slowly and he snatched it from my hands at a similar speed to how he'd entered the practice. It took me aback a little.

With his red raw hands, he ran his fingers along the jagged edges of his teeth, checking that each individual one was to his liking. It made me incredibly nervous, watching him scrutinize my masterpiece.

"They're perfect," he uttered under his breath.

I smiled sweetly, determined to get the patient out of my practice and into the world... away from me.

"I'm glad you think so, you can make payment at the front desk with Coco." I turned my back to him to tidy my equipment for mere seconds. A rookie mistake.

Seconds were more than enough.

I felt a harsh pulling on my hair accompanied by suckling noises. It was painful, each individual strand being tugged hard from the end, roots snapping. Fuck. I screamed. The slurping noises coming from behind me intensified.

THUD

With one final tug on my hair, Mo hit the floor and I turned to see Coco standing over him with a large ceramic tooth that usually decorated reception. She dragged him out of the treatment room and into the entrance as I tried to tidy my hair with my fingers and compose myself.

I tried to remain professional but I found myself hyperventilating.

"What do you think you're doing, sir? The doctor here provided you a service, now please pay up and leave," Coco bit at him the moment he opened his creepy eyes. These were the moments that I was best reminded of the reasons she retained her job.

Mo looked up at her in shock, steadying himself on his raw hands.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me, doctor. I'm just so hungry, and I'm sure you've got such a juicy brain." He stared me dead in the eye with his bright red irises and extended an equally bright red tongue, licking each sharp tooth gently. Menacingly.

His tone wasn't genuinely apologetic at all. Desperately shaken I waited with bated breath as he reached into his cloak pocket and handed a stack of cash to Coco.

"It's time you leave, Mr. Eurastix. I can recommend a colleague in the industry for further appointments but I won't be continuing to treat you." I opened up the bolted door and gestured for him to leave.

"Oh, doctor, whether or not you treat me we will meet again, I assure you."

After a lingering glare, Mo lifted his hood to cover his face and stepped outside into the dark night.

My relief soon turned sour. I hadn't noticed the drunken gentleman walking along the path, but Mo certainly had.

I watched in abject horror as he grabbed the man by both shoulders and latched on hair first to the back of his head. The man screamed in pain, pleading. The awful slurping noise was unbearable.

I ran towards my patient but before I could make it outside to try and help he latched his ring of fangs around the man's scalp. The bite was followed by an almighty crunch, deadening the screams.

There was no hope for the man.

Mo slurped at the inside of his crunched skull as if it were a delicious fresh oyster. He moaned and groaned with intense pleasure as he chomped down on the contents of the head. When he was finished he dropped his victim to the ground, hollowed out, and turned to me.

"Thanks, doc, I feel so much better now. I'll tell the Beast you said hello."

He practically chirped those words. Then he was gone. Disappeared.

Mo had moved so fast and destroyed the passerby with such deadly precision; I realized that if he had wanted me dead then I would have been. And his final words, about the Beast. It made me wonder if the Beast of Cordyline Hill had sent him in the first place.

Coco made a call to PSEC, or for those who don't know The Paranormal Services Emergency Cleaners to dispose of the body. They were swift and professional... as always.

It's terrible, but this hadn't been the first fatality on my watch because of a patient, and my guilt was unfathomable.

Today I've spent hours pondering why I continue to do this job. Why I put myself at risk of death on a nightly basis. But in all honesty, it's quite simple. My fascination just won't allow me to quit.

Adding my notes on Mosaph Eurastix to my research files, I felt electrified. Another monster for my collection, and I can't wait to find the next one.

This new patient was a real old hag.

Running a leading paranormal dentist in the city is no picnic. There's plaque, fangs, and more than the occasional incident. It's good money, but that's not why I do it.

What keeps me going is pure fascination. Ever since my first day, I've been in awe of the monsters that hide in plain sight, the numerous species that brazenly kill while humans mock the prospect of their existence with costumes and movies.

I aim to collect them all. Not like Pokemon. I'm not some kind of sicko preserving them in formaldehyde either. No. More like the type of collection you might find in a museum. An educational tool of sorts.

I catalog the defining features of my patients; keeping what may be the most comprehensive database of monsters in the country. Some of the friendlier ones have even allowed me to hold on to extracted teeth.

I thought it was about time I shared some of my findings.

Last time I told you about Mosaph Eurastix; a curious humanoid with reptilian skin and a hunger for brains. Aside from his diet, I couldn't liken him to any myth or legend that I'd researched. He was a true oddity.

Oddities, as I affectionately call them, make up a huge proportion of my patients. Unique monsters that can't be categorized or defined by a well-known spooky tale. Some, like Mosaph, are sinister and vicious. Others are gentle, earning the title of monster by appearance only.

Not all my patients are a complete mystery though. Some of the stories got more than a few things right, making the patient almost instantly recognizable, even to an unsuspecting human.

Ms. Eudora Finch was a patient who made up part of that category. None of my patients are dull, but some make a bigger impact than others and Eudora was an especially memorable character.

She was a daytime patient. Usually, they're the ones who give me the least trouble. Dare I say it but daytime can sometimes be boring.

The particular day that Ms. Finch came into my life had been especially slow. It's been a long time but I remember that I was tired. I'd had an overnight appointment with a set of adorable twins who were average by day but took on a demonic form at night. They were favorites of mine, and remained quite cute as monsters go, but they were also especially energetic and could be clumsy with their long claws.

After working with them and gaining multiple scratches, I'd struggled to sleep. I barely got four hours before the alarm went and I found myself back at the practice, Coco in my face with a coffee, the insufferable morning person that she is. Exhausted, I watched the clock tick as I performed mundane checkups on regulars. She was my last appointment of the day.

Ms. Finch looked sweet. There was a plastic polka dot bonnet wrapped around her head as protection from the rain, underneath were a set of unruly blue rinsed curls. Behind her, she carted one of those shopping bags on wheels.

Eudora wasn't a handsome woman, her features were crooked and her skin wrinkled. Regardless, she had Coco totally charmed in minutes with her impeccable manners. Coco was a sucker for a polite old lady, an admirable trait that could also be deemed suicidal in our industry.

I left the treatment room after a while alone, expecting to strike her off as a no-show when I found them.

"Coco, who's this?" I asked, confused as to why my receptionist was sitting on the waiting room sofa with an elderly woman.

"Ooh... Dayna! This is Eudora, she's your four o'clock. We got chatting and..."

"Dr. Danworth! What a pleasure to meet you!" Eudora locked eyes with me, as if she was no longer remotely interested in Coco's existence. "I'm so glad you agreed to help me with this issue, it's difficult to find anyone who will treat someone like me. My gratitude is immense and I intend to reward you greatly."

I've been in this business a long time. A traditionally ugly, enchanting elderly woman offering great reward in return for assistance screamed witch. Specifically a crone or hag depending on which term you prefer.

"Money will do just fine," I answered.

She wasn't the first that I'd seen, and she certainly wouldn't be the last. Crones always had particularly awful teeth to work on, their extended life coupled with poor hygiene practices all around generally resulted in diseased mouths and extractions. Never pretty, but then I never did expect glamour from my work.

Eudora Finch's species provided me with quite the moral dilemma whenever I found myself in their proximity. I work with teeth, so diet is important to me and my research. I'd learned to compartmentalize the death and destruction that my patients caused in the name of a good snack but I'm human and sometimes I find that more difficult.

A defining feature of these witches and an unfortunate accuracy from a number of the stories I've read about them is their hunger for children. A fact I struggled to push aside in the name of inclusion.

"And what exactly is the problem, Mrs. Finch?" I had been so focused on thoughts of her diet that for a split second, I forgot that we were in the waiting room. "I apologize, I'm getting ahead of myself; let's go to the treatment room to discuss it." I stood up to lead her down the hall.

"It's Ms. actually. Could you imagine a man able to love this face?" She let out, for lack of a better word, a cackle, raising dirty, stubby fingers to her wrinkled face. I giggled uncomfortably and continued walking as she followed, noting the trolley still dragging behind her.

"Would you like to leave your bag at the desk with Coco, Ms. Finch? I assure you it would be safe."

"I'd prefer to keep it near me actually, Doctor, if you don't mind. It has some items of... sentimental value... that I like to keep a close eye on."

Concerned, but not enough to argue, I nodded and raised an arm coaxing her into the room and onto the large black, leather chair. She obliged without issue.

"So... the problem, Ms. Finch?" I know I may sound as if I were being rude, but I'd found that witches of all subsets would take a mile when given an inch and I wasn't prepared to put myself in that position. I kept a heavy guard up.

She sighed and looked at the floor, shame in her eyes.

"I was tricked, Dr. Danworth. I'll get straight to the point. I was promised the firstborn child of a couple with fertility issues that I helped."

"I don't settle disputes, but I have a great friend at Campbell's Law clinic who can."

"I'm not looking to settle a dispute. The couple knew the consequences of not holding up their end of the deal and they've met them. It always troubles me that people find it so easy to break promises.

"I gave them everything. They'd have had twenty more healthy, beautiful children if they'd wanted but, instead, they chose to deprive me of what was rightfully mine. It was misguided of them."

"I'm still not understanding what this has to do with your teeth?" My skin crawled. The idea of her chomping down on... it just doesn't bear thinking about.

"This particular couple thought they were clever, Doctor. They must have poured hours into creating that faux child. They weren't wealthy, but the father was a sculptor, and well... I better show you."

She opened her mouth to reveal a set of teeth so damaged that they rivaled the worst I'd ever seen. Broken, chipped, exposed nerves and the diseased gums that witches were renowned for. In layman's terms, she had bitten hard on something hard.

Mentally, I celebrated the couple's ingenuity. The love and dedication that they had for their child had been truly admirable. It made it harder to accept the awful fates that I'm sure Eudora had ensured they meet... and the fate of their young one.

I may have been uncomfortable. But it's part of the job, even in times like those it's important that I put aside my prejudice and complete the work at hand. After all, I wasn't there to save people, just to fix teeth.

"I think a false set is the best avenue to go down. There are a few options... implants, veneers, and dentures. I'm afraid that your gums will struggle to take the implants... and veneers are an incredibly expensive process that will require more than one visit."

"Dentures will do just fine, Doctor. I just can't go on like this. Existing on soft foods is just no fun."

I tried to imagine the soft foods that she might be referring to... worms, maybe? A specific mixture in a cauldron? I didn't expect it would be that on the nose. But then the stories did get the actual crooked nose right so you never know.

"Can I grab you a drink or anything before we start? This could get quite uncomfortable, Ms. Finch."

"I'm no stranger to discomfort, dear. Just get on with it."

On the instruction of my patient, I got to work. Injections, extraction, cleaning, and a putty mold. I would be able to send her home with temporary teeth that day; but she would need to return for a reshape and realignment. It was a shame she hadn't opted for veneers, they would've been a great earner.

It was about as close as I ever got to what I expected at dental school. Fitting dentures for elderly women. I had never expected to be fitting dentures that may one day consume an infant, however, a fact of which pulled me starkly back to reality.

The tiredness still hit me in waves and Eudora Finch wasn't half as entertaining as the demon twins. I slogged my way to the end but ensured I didn't sacrifice the quality of my work because of how I felt. Coco grew increasingly bored at the front desk.

Finally, the moment came to pull down the mirror and allow Ms. Finch to inspect her new gnashers. They changed her face completely, making her almost attractive. But they did nothing to correct her wonky features.

"Thank you, Doctor. They're beautiful." She rubbed at the perfect white teeth with her brown, dirtied fingers, causing me to hold in a cringe.

"You're welcome, Ms. Finch. You can pay Coco at the front desk and I'll see you in a month's time for alignment."

I should've known by the look of discomfort on her face that I wasn't going to receive traditional payment for the job but I am ever the optimist. And I really wanted the old hag out of my chair.

"We can organize installments if you weren't expecting the price. I understand it's a lot of money."

"You have done me a great service today, Dr. Danworth and in return..."

My heart sank. She was a crone, nothing unexpected or new like Mo; and crones never gave anything for free. Accepting their present was like catching an STD. Uncomfortable and difficult to get rid of. I tried to stop her.

"I don't want it! Whatever cursed item you're going to try and ham fist into my life... I'm not interested! Just leave the practice!"

I stood with as much confidence as I could muster and pointed to the now-open doorway. She smiled an evil smile and let out another cackle that only further drove the despair I felt.

"You're meant to be a professional, Doctor. I thought you would be more familiar with the dealings of my people. The service has been provided... and so will the gift."

Eudora was correct. I knew that the curse she would put on me for turning down her gift would be far worse than the one I was obliged to accept. That didn't mean that I was going to realign her dentures though, that ship had sailed. I can be one petty paranormal dentist when I want to be.

"What is the gift?" I asked nervously.

She shot me another wicked look and reached for the battered old shopping trolley. I felt sick. I'd heard lots about the deals and gifts that crones specialize in but I'd never been a party to one myself. The others that I'd treated had all paid with little fuss.

"They gave me a concrete baby. Could you imagine how hurt I was? And not just the teeth. Emotionally. I was invested in that child, Doctor, she was rightfully mine. So I doomed the parents to match the firstborn that they provided me with."

"What happened to the baby?" I asked, shaking, my heart pounding in my chest.

"I collected her, of course. That's what I'm owed then that's what I'm going to get, right?

"But then I looked at her. I'm not totally heartless, Doctor, she had survived the deal I made with her parents and they felt the consequences. I'm fair. Besides, it was obvious she was more than just a tasty snack."

Her filthy digits fiddled with the fastener on the bag and I held back a violent urge to vomit. A baby would've cried, right? What the fuck was she about to hand me.

"I can't keep her. She causes a whole host of issues and whenever I feel a pang of hunger the temptation rises. That and my discovery..."

She pulled a large draping shawl from the bag and unwrapped it to reveal a beautiful, healthy-looking child dressed in a brilliant white gown, unspoiled by her captor's grime. Relief washed over me, in honesty I had expected far worse. Then the panic set in.

"You can't keep her?! And what makes you think I can?! You could've left her on a hospital doorstep... or anywhere she'd be found and loved! I don't want her!"

My lifestyle wasn't conducive to the safe rearing of children. I knew and accepted that. My feeble attempts to find love over the years had always been a catastrophic failure. I wasn't destined for parenthood.

"Did you even listen, doctor? I said there was a discovery, if you'd have just let me finish." She shot me daggers.

I gulped. It didn't sound good. I let Eudora continue, knowing I'd probably sacrificed my chance of a clear answer.

"It soon became apparent that her parents hadn't only come to me for fertility help. Just another reason that I can't claim her. I couldn't leave her on any old doorstep. I had to seek out someone more understanding of the things that people don't acknowledge. Someone like you. I assure you, I see your fascination, your need to know. She is a special gift. You'll see."

Eudora put the baby in my arms and got up swiftly, grabbing her trolley and making her way to the exit. I protested but she didn't turn back once, until eventually, I heard her leave.

"Coco, dear, it was a pleasure to meet you!" followed by the sound of the door swinging shut.

The baby gurgled in my arms and I stared at her little face in acute shock. Unsure what to do I screamed for Coco. She locked the door first, a genuine moment of common sense from her, and joined me in the treatment room.

We spent more than a few moments in silence staring at the bundle. I spent most of that time in terror, wondering what Ms. Finch had meant. Who else could the stone parents have gone to for assistance? I wish that I was still as naive to that question now as I was back then. Despite the abundance of stories, fertility magic-wielding monsters aren't ten a penny.

At the time, I hadn't come across any non-crones with that particular trait.

Coco was much more maternal than I was. After hearing the story, she felt an immediate connection to the little girl. She took the child from my arms and started to rock and bounce her.

"What are we gonna do, Dayna? She needs a good home." She kept talking as I tuned out. "She's beautiful, don't you think!? Isn't Nellie a lovely name... or how about Sadie?!"

I started to weigh up my options, running through a Rolodex of paranormal-affiliated contacts that I might be able to call. Without knowing the details, I couldn't in good faith contact a regular adoption agency.

Then it happened.

Coco screamed. As I had been tugging at my hair trying to make sense of a stream of nonstop thoughts, she had been babbling her lips with a finger to entertain the baby. She had made the terrible mistake of gently doing the same to the giggling baby's lips.

It was a wonder that she had kept hold of her and hadn't dropped the infant. There was a remarkable amount of blood.

In retrospect, the little girl was just playing, but at the time it was quite the drama. It was only her giggling at Coco's screams that made her affliction apparent. And I knew instantly that there was only one option left for the baby.

Her bright blue eyes needed me... and so did the rows of sharp, pointed teeth that my receptionist had just fallen victim to. I had to take her home.

That's how Coco lost her finger. And how I became the mother of a monster.

Sometimes I do home visits.

Dr. Dayna Danworth here. Your friendly neighborhood paranormal dentist. Last time I introduced you to my daughter, a baby that had been born cursed and given to me in return for a pair of dentures.

I decided not to opt for Sadie or Nellie as Coco had suggested. Both lovely names but neither felt fitting for the little girl that I bonded with in the weeks following my appointment with the crone, Eudora Finch.

She became Pearl. Coco said that it was too much like a bad dentist pun for pearly whites but it fit her perfectly, and it stuck. My beautiful little Pearl.

She wasn't planned and she certainly wasn't easy. I had to hire a nanny well-versed in all things monstrous. I couldn't risk her developing a taste for fingers or an unsuspecting babysitter going into cardiac arrest at the sight of her pointed teeth. So I made inquiries in the professional circles I run in.

Evan was a fantastic caretaker. He had experience with special children and came highly recommended by the nannying agency. Evan had a stomach of steel and wasn't at all phased by feeding her small rodents. He took quite some delight in her giggle, in fact.

There really are services out there for everyone.

I felt safe coming to the practice and knowing that Pearl was with Evan, but I did cancel overnights for quite some time, opting to spend them with her. It took a few months before I was ready to do those shifts again and I insisted on finishing by 1 am at the very latest. I didn't want to be an absent mother, not like mine had been.

The first home visit I did after taking on Pearl was especially hard. Home visits were never my favorites pre little monster and they only became more of a nuisance after. They were fantastic money though, and I was providing for two now.

A home visit would only occur when a particular patient was absolutely unable to come to the practice. Often they would take place in caves and balanced on precarious ocean rocks. Sirens, shadow dwellers, and elemental monsters always came to mind immediately when Coco bounded up to me, eyes bright, with the two words I dreaded most.

"Field trip!"

That night, I was packed. My go bag by the door was familiar yet felt somehow so different this time. I brushed it aside. It was just teeth, right?

I left two small chicks to thaw on the kitchen side and kissed Pearl on the forehead before handing her to Evan. It broke me that first night. Coco was excited as ever, she enjoyed home visits and when she rolled up to collect me she resembled a kid in line for a rollercoaster.

I could never understand it. She'd sustained more than a few injuries on these trips but nothing dampened her eagerness. I love her, I really do, but it was tiresome. I was annoyed before I even got in the car.

Her negligence didn't have the same comedic charm when traveling to a remote set of coordinates. With the other life, I now had to think of the stakes being higher and I couldn't help but lament Coco for her inability to gather any real information on new patients.

"Where are we driving? Evan's great but I didn't intend to leave Pearl full-time." It was about an hour into the drive and I was starting to worry that it was going to be a longer trip than I anticipated.

"It's not that far, a little village called Abelfort. It looked quite quaint on the postcard."

"Postcard?"

"Oh! I thought I showed you! Not every day a patient books by postcard, is it?"

I took in a breath and tried to soothe myself. Coco knew she was about to get a barrage for her dopey indiscretions and interjected before I could start.

"It's in the glovebox, Dayna. Can you just try to be a bit fun for once in your life?" Without taking her eyes off the road, she managed to scold me with them.

I didn't say another word. She was right, I could be uptight sometimes. I was even more so in those months after receiving Pearl and I felt bad for taking it out on her. Silently, I opened the glovebox in front of me and pulled out a slightly crumpled postcard. Another thing she was right about; Abelfort did look quaint.

I turned the card over and was met with the most beautiful cursive I've ever seen. The exact wording escapes me; I was too caught up in the lettering, but the note was insistent that the appointment take place in the village under the cover of darkness.

The cover of darkness had become quite the cliche in my industry. A term that had become worthy of eye rolls across the board. Having seen the photograph of the gorgeous village center, I remember being entirely unbothered for the remainder of the drive, right up until the last turn.

"Strange." Coco stopped the car on a country lane at the edge of a vast field, characterized only by a large, dilapidated farmhouse.

"What?"

"Well... I'm supposed to make a sharp right turn here. Directly into the field."

"That doesn't sound saf-" It was too late. Before I could even finish the sentence, Coco had spun the steering wheel and sent the car straight over the uneven, muddy terrain. I clung to my seat, knuckles turning white as she laughed.

"Will you relax, Dayna! I got some special tires put on this thing. It's about time they got some use!" She chuckled with utter delight, accelerating and making revving noises in time with the car. After about 400 yards she slammed her foot on the brake pedal, directly outside the old farmhouse.

"Here!" she squealed. Just like a teenager would as the school bus pulls up to a boring museum. It didn't matter where I took her, she just enjoyed being out.

"Remind me of the patient's name, please? It wasn't on the postcard."

"Oh... erm. She didn't say. I called to confirm the booking but our conversation was very brief."

As I despaired at the inadequacy, I tried to take in my surroundings and look for any clues as to what I may have been dealing with.

The farmhouse looked haunted; boarded-up windows and broken outer cladding decorated the building like bunting. I wasn't a nonbeliever, my job simply wouldn't allow that, but I couldn't see why a ghost would require my services.

The land was expansive, with thick woodland at the borders. I was in awe of the sheer beauty of the nature, even in the dark night. It took me a few moments to notice that not only had we driven across grass, but that there were no traditional dirt tracks leading to the house. It seemed as though a crane had picked it up and plonked it in the middle of a lush, green field.

It didn't bode well. Any monster that adverse to visitors and locals accessing them generally had good reason for it. I had never arrived at a home visit in an actual home either, it was a welcome change of pace from the dingy swamps and dark caves I had anticipated.

"Well, I guess we better meet the patient."

I stepped toward the rotting, wooden door, secured by multiple locks and bolts, barely visible through the worn paneling. I knocked three times, loudly, heart in my throat. The anticipation never got any easier.

It's ironic, but the perfectly average-looking woman who came to the door was more of a shock than any monster could've been. She was young but had large, swollen bags under her eyes and wild, graying hair. Aside from being a little disheveled, she seemed unmistakably human.

I'm not one to discriminate, but you expect them to look freaky when they don't attend the practice.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Dayna Danworth, this is my assistant Coco, pleased to meet you..." I held out my hand in the hope that the woman would lead with her name.

"Esme Jacobs." She grabbed my hand and opened the door as far onward as it would go, ushering us in. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. Did anyone see you make the turn? I don't want the village knowing I have company."

"We're professionals, Ms. Jacobs. We can assure you we were discreet." Coco chimed in. I wondered what part of her car clambering across mud was discreet but I decided not to voice my concerns. Coco had a far better bedside manner than I could dream of.

Sat at a dusty old, green sofa in Esme's dimly lit lounge she presented us with a cup of tea each. I never cared for tea much, but as a British staple I had it offered to me often. If anything could strengthen human-monster relations it would be tea. Coco took time to compliment her mugs.

"Ms. Jacobs, I hate to be so direct, but I need to know why we're here?" I asked, breaking up the initial pleasantries.

"Of course, Doctor. I was told that you work with... abnormal..."

"Well, that's why I'm a little confused. Forgive me for being presumptive but you seem perfectly able to attend my dentistry... May I ask?"

"It's not me!" Esme laughed. It wasn't a joyous laugh; instead, it was cold and filled with pain. "I wouldn't be forking out this kind of money for myself, it's all I have, but if we don't fix this then my whole family will perish."

My interest was piqued. I started trying to guess what she may be referring to, the suggestion that her family would perish helped me to categorize the patient before I'd even met them. Esme Jacobs was living with a curse.

Bloodline and area-specific monsters were a fascination to me. At the time of Esme Jacobs' appointment, I was yet to meet the Beast of Cordyline Hill and was somewhat naive to the power these creatures had on any that crossed their path. I retained the excitement of a newbie.

"What is it? And where do you keep it?" I asked, making sense of the lack of access to the farmhouse.

"He's my family's biggest secret... and our deepest shame. He's much older than I am, but I'll tell you the story my mother told me before she died. The burden she passed on."

I sipped my tea, catching a glimpse of Coco, already enthralled in the tale.

"My great-grandmother was married to the son of the village mayor at the age of twenty-two. Her father owned the land that this house sits on and the marriage was mostly political. There wasn't an iota of love involved.

"She had an affair with my great-grandfather, who she was deeply in love with but wasn't deemed worthy of her. She hid the affair from her husband, meeting with her sweetheart in secret. They had three children, two girls and a boy, who the husband believed were his.

"The affair was exposed when the boy grew into the spitting image of my grandfather, causing a huge scandal in the village. The mayor's son was humiliated. Rightly so, I suppose, but it didn't justify his course of action."

"What happened?" Coco asked, totally entranced by Esme Jacobs.

"He took a hunting rifle and shot his kids. Made my grandmother watch before turning the gun on her and then finally himself. One of the girls survived, albeit with horrific injuries, and was raised by her biological father in exile, hence my existence."

She was flippant. Despite the enormity of the tragedy she described she seemed quite dissociated from it. It only furthered my curiosity.

"Forgive me, Esme, but that doesn't explain why I'm here." I tried to keep the appointment moving.

"My grandfather struggled with the loss of his soulmate and the children, he drank himself senseless at first. People reported him talking to himself by the edge of the land, next to the trees. But he wasn't alone.

"They've been a local legend for hundreds of years. The people of this village believe that there's a race of forest folk, who aren't like us... who can grant wishes."

I knew exactly where the story was headed, the mere mention of deceased children and forest folk helped every piece come together like a jigsaw.

"Where were the kids buried?" I asked, interrupting her story.

She looked quite indignant, as if no one had ever been so dismissive of tales of the forest folk. I wasn't intending to be dismissive, however, forest folk as she called them were highly elusive creatures; fascinating monsters. Not one that I'd had the pleasure of working with. But not half as fascinating as the particular wish I knew they'd granted.

"I don't know. No one ever mentioned it," she replied, racking her brain for an old conversation or tidbit of knowledge that just wasn't there.

"I would be prepared to put money on it being that same spot by the edge of the land, next to the trees. Are you familiar with the term changeling Esme?"

Coco smiled. I think she enjoyed the home visits because she saw them like a live-action national geographic show that she could watch unfold in front of her. To be honest, on this occasion I felt much the same. Changelings were an often spoken of but rarely seen monster.

The forest folk are more commonly known in story form as dryads or the fae. Fairies; to reduce them to a kid's tale. Changelings are a faux child that the fae give to a human family in place of the real thing that they are said to have taken.

The story fit. The only part that didn't make sense was that the children were already dead, not the usual prey for creatures of this type, who were said to prefer healthy, living young.

"Of course, I am. And I wish that it were that simple, those things seem positively delightful compared to him." She winced in the direction of a rickety-looking wooden door across the room from the sofa, tucked in the hallway.

"They rejected the dead child?" I thought aloud to myself, trying to suppress the stream of thoughts hitting me. "Thought it was a gift gone wrong?" My limited knowledge let me down. I stopped looking at the floor and stared Esme straight in the eyes.

"I'd like to meet my patient please."

It's cliche. To keep a monster in the basement. I wish that some of the people cursed with such home visitors would start getting more creative. I thought of Pearl, and her stone parents. Would they have kept her in the basement if they'd lived to see her for what she was?

The farmhouse basement was at least spacious. I'm not some sort of monster rights activist but I do struggle with some of the cages and makeshift homes I've witnessed. He at least had some legroom.

He sat alone, chained in the corner of the dark room, on the cold concrete floor. I wondered why it was only him, no changeling for the deceased little girl in sight. He was pale, dead-looking in fact, with blue veins connecting his features like a dot-to-dot.

I could understand why she wouldn't want to bring him into the practice. A child that resembled a walking corpse would garner quite some attention in the city.

"What's your name?" I asked as gently as I could. Catching a tiny glimmer of light hitting him from an air vent I noticed his emaciated frame. He didn't respond to my question, so I turned my attention to Esme.

"What's his name? And what does he eat?" I asked, angry at the state of the boy. I knew that changelings were rumored to be incredibly dangerous, but seeing a perceived child in that condition would tug at anyone's heartstrings.

"It's Dennis. And this is the problem, Doctor..."

"What does he eat?!" I was much firmer the second time. I wasn't fucking around.

"Livestock... animals... people when he gets the chance. But he broke his teeth trying to get through the bars and now he can't eat a thing. I can't let him die... If I do, the forest folk will never bring the real Dennis back. He hasn't aged a day since he returned, he craves blood, he's a monster." Esme started to cry as she gestured to the air vent, dented metal barely visible.

I shook my head and approached Dennis. I was familiar with the idea that the fae would eventually return the original child but after so many generations I was surprised that Ms. Jacobs was deluded enough to expect that outcome. To keep him locked away simply seemed cruel.

"Hi, Dennis, my name is Dayna. Esme tells me you've hurt your teeth. I'm a doctor and I'm here to try and help. Could I take a look?"

Dennis turned to me, black eyes the central focus of his gaunt face. There was no iris remaining, just pools of darkness. His eyes glazed like he wanted to cry and I imagined the years that he'd been locked up in the vast, empty room. He nodded at me, desperately, before opening his mouth to reveal two rows of shattered, jagged teeth.

"Could you leave me with Dennis now please?" I turned to Esme and Coco.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Esme tried to protest.

"I assure you, I'm more than equipped to deal with my patient," I retorted, not wanting to spend another moment in the presence of a person who thought this treatment was okay.

Reluctantly, Esme led Coco back upstairs, leaving me and my bag of tools alone with Dennis. I had a few burning questions to ask before getting to work.

"Are you okay, buddy?"

"It hurts, Doctor."

I looked at what remained of his teeth, certain that it was agonizing.

"Was it always just you? Did you have a sister, too?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about her. She's been gone for a long time now, how did you know?" He looked up at me with a wisdom in his dark eyes.

My heart sank as I remembered a particularly nasty human belief. That in order to influence the return of a child stolen by the fae you could harm the changeling, forcing them to swap the original back for it. It was a belief that caused a lot of unnecessary suffering in less regulated times.

At least when the female changeling died and the daughter didn't return the Jacobs family was intelligent enough to stop harming Dennis. It made it all the more deplorable that Esme kept up the facade. What was her stake in all this? I realized that I had been wrestling with my inner monologue for quite some time when Dennis spoke.

"She can't have children of her own."

The tiny voice had answered my thoughts. That was new. Something the stories hadn't already taught me.

"How did you..."

"You want to know why. She keeps me here because she can't have children of her own. Her husband left her for it. If I die so does the bloodline, and the last hope of continuing it."

His words were wise beyond the years his body tricked me into thinking he'd been alive, but I knew that Dennis was much older than any human I'd met. I was completely enamored. Despite the years of deprivation, his power shone through.

Fixing his teeth seemed so arbitrary. A prolonging of his suffering and inevitable demise in the cold, dingy basement. They looked painful, but not half as painful as eternal imprisonment. Sure, the money was great but wasn't it dirty? I found myself in the biggest quandary of my career.

So I took action. Action that I never thought I'd take.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the diamond-tipped drill that was already a favored piece of equipment. The very same drill that I would later use to penetrate Mosaph Eurastix hardened shed skin. And I used it.

As quickly as I could I drilled through the shackle that chained Dennis's ankle to the wall. He watched me the entire time, tears pouring down his face. As the drill burst through the final millimeters of metal and cracked open the shackle he said only seven words.

"Thank you. You are an excellent mother."

And I said one.

"Run."

Run he did. As emaciated as Dennis was he had some serious speed. I struggled to keep up, sprinting behind him up the stairs, ready to grab Coco and get in the car. I should have anticipated the changeling's actions. I sometimes wonder if I did and subconsciously encouraged them.

As I reached the top step Dennis had stopped sharp before the main door, grabbing hold of Esme by the throat with his bony hand. In an instant, he squeezed. She barely let out a wheeze before dropping to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

As awful as it sounds, I was quite pleased to see her meet her end so unceremoniously at the hands of her prisoner.

Coco babbled, trying to make sense of what was going on, I shot her a look and we made our way outside, standing in the rickety doorway as Dennis sprinted across the field.

"What the fuck, Day?"

"Just get in the car! I'll explain. Quickly, we don't want to be seen here."

She nodded and we fumbled with the handles on either side of the vehicle. My hand shook as I fastened my seat belt, thinking about the corpse of my making that we left behind. Had that been worth the freedom of a monster?

Coco revved up the engine and switched on the lights illuminating the trees ahead. She accelerated forward before swinging the car around to cut back across the field where we'd entered.

Just before that turn, I caught the most beautiful sight of my life. Hundreds of people, all stood with lanterns in the forested border staring back at me. There was no malice in their faces, just an outpouring of gratitude.

To the center of the group was a tall, beautiful woman who radiated a natural light. Both her hands perched on the shoulder of a young boy. A young boy who was recognizable. The same... but different. He looked healthy, plumper. His family had fixed him. I'd never quite felt reverence for a patient like it.

I should've cursed the lack of payment for such a high-risk job. But as Dennis smiled at me from his mother's arms and I caught a glimpse of his perfect teeth I knew I'd made the right decision.

Sometimes we are the monsters.

It's not just teeth they need help with.

It's me, Dayna. I know it's been a while since my last post but I got more emotional than I expected whilst telling you all about Dennis. You never expect to side with the monster; it feels fundamentally wrong... but so does a little boy in chains and I stand by my decision.

That's the problem with working with the types of patients that I do. Empathy, morality, ethics; they all become a blur. Add to that the responsibility of an unexpected infant and it's a recipe for emotionally-driven decisions.

I told Coco not to book any field trips for a few months after our experience in the village of Abelfort. She listened at first. I think she knew that I needed some time to adjust to motherhood before I was ready to be back out there dealing with deadly teeth in remote locations. I was grateful for it, but that gratitude was premature.

Around a month into my home visit hiatus, she came to me with that familiar, excitable look in her eyes. It was early, before we even opened the practice. I suspected this was to allow time for my inevitable freakout. She played the dope well but there was so much more to Coco.

"Day, you need to get your bags packed. I'll pick you up at-"

"Stop! What did I ask!? No field trips. I'm not packing a bag, Pearl needs me." I was firm and wildly gesticulating. I'd found the only way to cut through her persistent pleading was a strong start.

Coco jutted out her bottom lip and it wobbled slightly as her eyes glazed with forming tears. Maybe I'd been a little harsh.

"You've forgotten, haven't you? Everything's booked, Evan knows," she asked, an audible lump in her throat.

I knew instantly that I'd made a mistake. I'd been so wrapped up in myself, everything that I had going on, that I had completely omitted Coco's favorite event of the year from my mind. She was right, Evan did know and had known for weeks.

The Paranormal Services Convention.

It's exactly what you think it is. Booths, panels, like some kind of demented wedding fair. It was an annual event that I had always found utterly loathsome. Coco, however, was a social butterfly and thrived on mingling and monotonous small talk. I knew what it meant to her, so every year I reluctantly played ball.

"I'm sorry, of course, I hadn't forgotten! Just a temporary moment of morning madness. Are you excited?" I chuckled softly and cracked a smile in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Coco's eyes brightened and her bottom lip returned to its original position. She knew that I was overselling my enthusiasm but she appreciated it all the same. She threw her arms around me and within seconds was showing me outfit options on her phone.

I spent the day performing my duties whilst simultaneously stressing about the Convention. I was so distracted I almost nicked the gums of a shapeshifter that I was working on. She could have lost a tentacle if I hadn't acted fast.

The Convention was a great networking opportunity, sure, but it was also an enclosed space housing hundreds of monsters and more than a few service providers that I'd rather avoid.

And Campbell.

Campbell ran the leading law clinic in the industry. Settling civil disputes for those of a paranormal persuasion. He dealt in curses, broken promises, and magical mistakes. After a brief fling, I had found him to be a less than magical romantic mistake and someone I would rather not be thrust into monotonous small talk with, yet every year I was. And every year he tried to make a move that would make my skin crawl.

I held Pearl extra close that night as I fed her a bottle of blended blood and organs. She lapped it up, giggling and burping as she stared into my eyes, helpless. I'd never felt love like it. Leaving her again was going to hurt, albeit a little less than the time before.

Coco was outside in her car at 4.30 am sharp. The convention was held three hours away, in the wreckage of a castle buried deep in woodland. It was home to the Harakungu, one of the oldest known monsters walking the earth and a respected figure, who was instrumental in negotiating relations with humans.

The Harakungu was an oddity, a formidable creature, unlikely to ever pass in the human world with his long, needle-thin fangs that crowded his mouth and the spines that ran from the top of his head right down his back, protruding through fabrics that he draped himself in.

He somewhat famously dreamt of a fully integrated society, but settled for a small network of open-minded individuals after the genocide of witches at Salem and the countless times that, when faced with a monster, man's response had been simply to kill it.

The Harakungu terrified me, but I respected him. No one was entirely sure of the extent of his power, but he had a lot of influence in the paranormal world, as close as a monster could be to what I would call a celebrity.

His dilapidated castle was a truly spectacular facade, housing an interior palace, only accessible to those invited. If you stumbled upon it in the woods you would think it nothing more than a pile of destroyed stone. The Harakungu was filthy rich, and his funding made the convention and more than a few of the services it promoted possible.

"Ready, Dayna?" Coco asked, a wicked glint in her eyes as we reached a familiar quiet road lined by a densely forested area.

I took a deep inhale.

"Ready."

Coco swiveled the steering wheel propelling us into the trees. I shut my eyes tight as tiny branches made scraping noises against every window and the car jolted with each bump. It was so reminiscent of the turn we'd taken into the field at Abelfort that I struggled to suppress images of Dennis from my mind.

In seconds we had broken the threshold of trees and made it to the familiar clearing, with the familiar stone ruins. Shaken from the journey, I unclipped my seatbelt and staggered out of the vehicle while Coco beamed.

"I'm so excited, Day! I'm going to pick up so many samples." She fiddled with the underneath of her driver's seat before pulling out a tote bag adorned with the words Little Monster.

"Bad taste much?" I quipped.

She didn't get a chance to respond or bite back. Instead, we were greeted with a shrill tone.

"Ahhhh! The ladies of Danworth's Dental practice! Ravishing as ever, thank you for taking the time!" The voice belonged to August Proctor, a master of ritual and general annoyance.

He was someone who would help plan and ensure any event, seance, or ritual went discreetly and smoothly... for a hefty fee, of course. For as many years as I had been attending, August would greet guests at the convention. I'd long suspected he lived in the Harakungu's pocket.

"August. Always a pleasure," I lied as I extended a hand and smiled through gritted teeth. "Any key speeches this year?"

A young man emerged from behind August and made his way toward Coco, gesturing for her car keys. He was unmistakably human, a baby Proctor for sure. I'd attended university with August, it made me feel mighty old to know he had a kid that age. Coco handed over the keys and the boy got in the car and drove off calmly, deeper into the woods.

August caught me looking.

"I hear you've finally joined the rest of us in parenthood, Dayna. Congratulations!"

"How would you know that?" I replied, flatly, with what I expected to be quite the look of disdain on my face. I'd always struggled to hide emotion.

"Relax! My son went to school with Evan, small world, huh?!" He chuckled and I took silent note to berate my babysitter upon return. I wasn't prepared for the world to know about Pearl's existence yet and my hand had just been forced. I decided not to engage August further on the matter.

"The car will be okay, right?" I asked.

"When have I ever let you down! And as for speeches - you won't want to miss Aurora Inez's panel on consent, she's got a siren and a vampire guesting. Hard-hitting stuff."

I watched as Coco's eyes lit up and August animated with enthusiasm. Aurora Inez was a well-known succubus, I supposed it could be quite the contentious topic and not the sort of politics I wanted to get into. I planned to give that talk a hard pass.

"You gals ready to head inside?" August exclaimed, throwing an arm around each of us. I cringed deep within my soul, both at his touch and the use of the word gals.

Standing in the wooded clearing, the stone rocks protruding from the earth like spines on a porcupine, I wondered how my life had ever gotten to where it was. I used to love the woods as a kid, now everything was just littered with monsters. August finally took his hand off my shoulder and I took a deep breath.

The only entrance to the Harakungu's palace was at the foot of a tree on the border, in the gaps between a particular pile of stones. They were tight, reminding me of the extreme caves that thrill seekers explore. Not much phased me but I'd always been terribly claustrophobic and I'd never quite found a way to ease it.

My heart pounded as I lowered my legs into the narrow gap and prepared to drop through the cavern. I looked at Coco. For all her faults I'd always found her incredibly comforting. She smiled back and I pushed forward with my legs as I raised my arms to descend.

In one quick drop through the darkness, I was surrounded by a plethora of sights and colors. It was somewhat overstimulating, dropping into the center of the grand hall via a small crack in the wall. The stones above would never have indicated the sheer decadence and opulent sights below.

The perimeter of the room was lined with booths; ranging from poorly-constructed tables to spectacular displays of professional marketing. I noted all the big players in the industry. Mangleglove's Optical Services, the Ethical Organ Collectors, Connected Railways, the Paranormal Postage Society, and Campbell's Law.

PSEC, the paranormal services emergency cleaners took pride of the place; no surprise when they were entirely funded by the Harakungu in an attempt to keep monsters as hidden as possible.

"Will you ever let us run a booth? I've got some great design ideas that I think you'll love," Coco begged, hopeful as she scanned the enormous room for pretty colors.

"You know how I feel about marketing. Our work speaks for itself, we don't need to fork out for a fancy booth and key rings that none of the monsters in attendance want or need. It's supposed to be a market for them. This whole thing is so... painfully human. I'm amazed he goes for it."

"It's not all about the marketing, Doctor Danworth."

My entire body shuddered as I felt thick breaths go down my shirt from behind. The voice of the Harakungu was unmistakable. I was standing just inches away from an ancient, immortal beast and he'd heard me criticizing him. Great.

I turned.

"I've always admired your unique take on relations, Doctor, your desire not to participate with peers. Although I find it somewhat troubling that you would describe anything as painfully human. Do you loathe your own kind that much? Do you feel contempt?" Every word he spoke had purpose, his flow twisted each sentence into its own riddle with heavy breaths and pauses.

I struggled to answer. I stuttered a few times before I managed any words.

"I just... I just want to do my job. I'm not in it to make friends. I would rather spend time with my patients than my peers. I see the value of networking though, which is why I'm here."

The last part was a lie and he knew it. His eyes were elongated vertically, with a vibrant yellow coloring of the iris. The mouth full of needles salivated and the spikes atop his head stood proudly; despite his inability to provide me with recognizable facial expressions, I knew that he saw straight through me. He looked me up and down, burrowing into my soul with those yellow eyes, then turned to Coco and back to me.

"I think you could benefit from some humanity, Doctor. We may not see eye to eye on relations but you are a passionate ally and for that I thank you. Enjoy the day, ladies."

He didn't wait for me to say another word, he glided into the crowd ahead, eventually disappearing into the meandering hoards. Coco elbowed me in the ribs and laughed once he was out of sight.

"He's right, you know. Grumpy. That's you." She laughed at her own joke, reveling in it.

"Totally. I'll adopt the humanity of my ancestors, the same ones that would've gone at them with torches and pitchforks." I rolled my eyes and smiled wryly at the irony of the Harakungu's suggestion.

Coco dropped the subject and we made our way through the stream of humans and beasts. It was rare, even in an industry like mine to see so many unimaginable creatures in one place. It was quite a challenge not to stare. Oddities, urban legends, and area-specific monsters all congregated, making no attempt to hide their true nature.

I even spotted my favorite patient, a shapeshifter named Kevin, walking freely in his adapted form as a human-animal hybrid. Kevin was no ferocious werewolf type, or even anything reminiscent of a Minotaur. Instead, he was a grotesque amalgamation of a person and a beaver. It would be comical if he didn't look so horrific. He shot me a wave from the secluded homes booth. Maybe he was hoping to move somewhere a little more private.

The day went by uneventfully at first. Coco collected pens, key rings, stress balls, and a huge selection of sweets. She was like a small child on Halloween. Maybe she could come trick or treating with me and Pearl in a few years, I was certain she'd love it.

It had been uneventful. Until, of course, we reached Campbell's Law. I tried to shuffle quickly, turning a corner to the next row of booths but it was too late, he'd already spotted me and was making a beeline.

"Dayna! You look fantastic. Come here, let's have a hug!" He pulled me in and as if on perfect queue he reached his hand a little too low behind me. Campbell's classic move. I shuddered, waiting out the awkward embrace.

"She doesn't like that, you know," Coco interjected, unfiltered as ever. I appreciated it.

"She liked it when..."

"It was years ago, Campbell. Let it go," I jumped in, trying to put a stop to any escalation. "Have a great day." I grabbed Coco's wrist and stormed away from the law booth. In my anger and haste, I made a near-fatal mistake that changed the course of the event entirely.

I bashed headfirst into an oddity.

It wasn't one of my patients, which made the situation even more alarming. All over its body were short, solid spines, forming an impenetrable protective layer. I would've been more curious, probably asked a few questions, made a note in my database. But it was mere seconds after our collision that I realized its spines had punctured my fragile human skin.

Warm blood clung my clothing to my body as it started to seep from the various holes now covering my torso and face. I ran my fingers across the facial wounds. They were superficial, shallow punctures, but damn was there a lot of blood. It had been a miracle I hadn't lost an eye.

It's not a position anyone wants to be in. Bleeding out in a room full of beings who would quite literally kill for a taste. Whilst attending dental school, I hadn't considered that particular scenario a risk of the job.

It took a minute or so, maybe I was in shock, I don't know. But eventually, every tiny hole erupted in searing pain. I attribute it now to a possible venom, but the oddity didn't stick around to tell me. I felt as if I were burning, cooking from the makeshift acupuncture holes I was covered in. I tried to hold back the scream, I really did.

But I am painfully human.

It attracted plenty of attention. Thankfully at the type of event we were at, the monsters were doing their upmost to maintain decorum and not give in to their ravenous nature. Thousands of eyes in all shapes and sizes focused on me, hunger in each one, yet they abstained.

A few rushed to my aid, of all species. I watched, writhing as my clothes turned a deep crimson and I continued to burn. I hurt my own ears shrieking but I couldn't hold it in, any outlet for the pain would do.

It was only a matter of time I suppose, in a congregation of that size, before someone gave in to temptation.

It may seem predictable, for a vampire to be unable to control her urges, but as I said to you when I started sharing my experiences - the stories did get some things right. I barely caught the flash of brilliant white fangs but they were so distinctive I couldn't miss them.

No other creature had teeth like a vampire.

She ran toward me, a battle cry exiting her mouth and echoing throughout the entire palace. The whole room erupted into chaos. Limbs, tentacles, and teeth everywhere, I braced myself for a quick and disappointing death. Through the pain I desperately pictured Pearl, I wanted her to be the last thing that I thought of before the vampire got to me.

I hadn't expected to be saved. But if I had I would've placed bets on Coco or even the Harakungu himself in some kind of noble attempt to protect his precious relations. I wouldn't have expected anyone else to jump to my aid.

The tall, imposing figure rushed to my side in competition with the vampiric woman. He got to me just in time to open his mouth, revealing a horribly crowded set of thick, sharp teeth; the only discernible monster feature aside from his enormous stature. He let out a ferocious roar.

I tried to focus on the scene but my vision began to blur. The room gently faded to black as I passed out from blood loss in the gigantic arms of my rescuer.

I didn't know how much time passed before I woke. I didn't know what kind of catastrophe might have been had while I was unconscious. I wasn't in the Harakungu's palace anymore. Instead, I was laid across the backseat of Coco's car, in the wood clearing with the stones.

Groggy, I started to take in my surroundings. I ached but the burning pain was gone. My clothes were still blood-drenched but I couldn't feel any of the chasms that had caused the bleeding in the first place. August and his son sat perched on one of the stones meters from the car. It was odd for August not to be in the middle of any drama but it soon became apparent why he was keeping a distance.

The man from the palace was so engrossed in monotonous small talk with Coco that he almost didn't notice me sit up. He had to have been at least 7 feet tall and was built large, like a nightclub security guard after way too many roids. And those teeth. I'd never seen crowding like it; they jutted out in all different directions, it amazed me that he was able to breathe through the cluster at all. The one who saved me.

"Day! It was so cool. He stopped the vampire and got us out through the crowd, then made all your cuts go away!"

Coco's mouth ran a mile a minute as per usual, I couldn't focus on her though. I was far too fascinated by the monster before me.

"What's your name?" I asked tentatively, still adjusting to consciousness.

His response was innocuous at the time but was one that would soon become etched in my mind forever... for all the wrong reasons.

"Hello, Doctor, I was hoping I'd run into you here. I need your help. They call me the Beast of Cordyline Hill."

I prefer the city to villages.

I thought about the Beast of Cordyline Hill often in the week that followed the convention and the incident that had occurred there.

If I had continued to lose blood at the rate I was losing it in the moments after my accident then I would've died. Quickly. That's if nothing else had made its way to me before I succumbed to the blood loss.

Coco said that once he got me out of the underground palace he held onto my arm and one by one each puncture wound closed and disappeared, as if it had never been there in the first place. The Beast of Cordyline Hill had healed me. I owed him my life.

And all he wanted in return was an appointment.

I wasn't familiar with the Beast, but I knew about Cordyline Hill, a well-known hotspot in the industry for monster activity. A place I would later grow to detest the mere mention of.

Secluded, idyllic, and only served by the paranormally inclined Connected Railways the village was barely ever noticed by average humans. The few that did reside there were entirely accustomed to the strangeness.

It was situated just far enough out of sight that without directions and intention, it was difficult to just happen upon it. Cordyline Hill was a haven for the abnormal.

It was an area I had only visited once, not long before I met the aforementioned Beast at the convention. Forgive me for the lack of linear events but it's important you know about that trip to the village before I tell you next time how the Beast's appointment went.

Coco and I traveled there the morning after my first night with Pearl.

My life turned upside down the day I became a mother. I'm sure there are plenty of you with children thinking the same thing, but I assure you, your experience wasn't a patch on mine, I had nothing to go on.

I knew Pearl needed a good home as soon as she consumed Coco's finger on that first day in the practice, after Eudora Finch had placed her in my arms and fled. I'd spent years gathering information on monsters of all varieties and, while scared, I was pretty confident I could handle her.

What other choice did I have anyway? Dump her at a regular hospital for her to become a spectacle? Or leave her with someone else well-versed in all things paranormal, none of whom I trusted.

There wasn't really a choice at all.

Sometimes I missed my routine from before I had to consider anyone else. My selfish, wonderful routine. Wake up, drink a coffee, stare at the dishes from the night before, wondering how long they were going to sit there, wait for Coco to pull up outside my apartment, and get ready for another day scraping fangs.

Coco was terminally delightful in the mornings, whereas I could barely function. Every time I heard her car horn I would berate myself for never learning to drive and that particular part of the routine hadn't changed post-Pearl.

I'd never planned for kids. They weren't something that I'd ever factored into my life, but every time Pearl giggled and flashed me a glimpse of those pointed teeth my heart melted. I may have missed my routine, and I may have resented having to wash up regularly, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I loved her. Whether or not I gave birth to her was utterly irrelevant.

Despite all that fluffy shit, no amount of warm maternal instincts could prepare me for actually having to care for Pearl. The first night had me about ready to walk out of my apartment and never look back.

I should've known when she ate the finger that she wasn't going to subsist comfortably on a diet of milk and baby food. I don't really know why I bothered buying them, probably the undeniable human conditioning. That first night I was so disoriented I was surprised I managed to acquire any supplies. All I got was formula, puréed food, and nappies but when I offered them she screamed.

There's no sound more distressing in this world than a baby crying. It's one of those noises that we're preconditioned as a species to react to. I just couldn't stop her tears. I bounced, I played gently, I changed her, I even tried singing to her but nothing worked.

She was so hungry.

It was difficult. Pearl was an oddity; something of unknown origin. The crone had given her to me knowing that she wasn't the result of a spell she'd cast, and without information on what she was a result of I couldn't liken her to anything in the database I'd collected. I didn't know what she ate. Aside from Coco's finger, of course.

She wouldn't attempt any traditional infant food. To be honest, I would've cried if someone tried to feed me that purée shit, too. Nothing worked. Not until I offered her raw steak. The second a droplet of blood hit the tray on the makeshift high chair I'd built for the night she lit up. So did I.

It sounds strange, but I found it quite endearing watching her tear the cut of meat to shreds. Blood smeared across her face I snapped a few photos, they reminded me of the ones you see of kids covered in spaghetti, except a little more sinister. Cute, right?

It wasn't the biggest breakthrough, it was something that should have been obvious from the start, especially to an individual in my profession looking at a set of perfect incisors like hers. But it was a piece of information I had that I hadn't before.

My daughter was a carnivore.

After she finished, piece of bone crunched and all, she gave me the first real cuddle that we ever shared. It was a beautiful moment. In an instant, I went from a child-adverse spinster to a woman with maternal feelings I had previously been convinced weren't in me. It really was a different kind of love. I even found the blood on my shirt endearing.

The night would've been pure bliss, all things considered. I started to drift off on the sofa with Pearl in my arms, then I was jolted awake by that distressing screaming noise again.

That didn't cause the problem, she just needed changing and eventually, she accepted a bottle. I knew I would have to come up with a better solution than formula but at least she was drinking something.

The problem was caused when there was a knock at the door.

Fuck. I knew I wasn't ready to present my daughter to the world. In the circles I ran in she was perfectly normal, but to the average human she was an abomination. That early on I hadn't considered the trouble I would run into trying to hide her.

I could fix it. I could build her a set of teeth, something to cover up the fangs, but not that early, she was too little, it would've been too obvious. No baby had a full set of teeth. I had to keep her hidden.

I ran to the bedroom with her in my arms and placed her on the center of the bed, building a cushion fortress around her in a misguided attempt to keep her in one spot. I looked her dead in the eyes and shushed her. A baby.

I shushed a baby. Someone gave me a degree, guys.

The knocking continued.

"I'm coming!"

I opened the door and was faced with my upstairs neighbor, Mrs. Pepperbottom, a nosey widower who made it her business to know everyone else's.

I know, what a name. It sounded a lot jollier than she actually was as a person, the type of name that you'd expect on an eccentric character but in reality, my neighbor was extraordinarily plain. Face wrinkled up like a prune, she raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down, hovering momentarily on the slightly bloodied patch of my shirt. I watched her struggle to bite her tongue.

"Who's baby is it, Dayna? It is rather late, I'm struggling to hear the television over the crying and I won't be able to sleep through that."

"Sorry, Mrs. Pepperbottom," I snickered a little and she shot me a look of disdain. "She's my cousin's child, and she'll be staying for a few weeks while her mother recovers from an operation."

The woman huffed. We hadn't ever been the best of neighbors, which I'm sure Coco's early morning horn contributed to.

"I would've appreciated some warning. I gather there isn't a father in the picture? In my day we had to parent through any illness, I wish your cousin a speedy recovery."

Without an ounce of sincerity in her words or a moment to let me respond, she stormed off back up the stairs of the communal hallway. I breathed a sigh of relief and bolted the door shut.

I hadn't thought any of it through properly. So I did what I always did in a crisis and I called Coco.

Coco may have been a liability in the workplace but as a friend and functioning member of society, she did far better than I ever could. Ironic really. She set me straight and helped me plan for looking after Pearl. She canceled every appointment at the practice for a week and made one with a babysitting agency for the next day.

The next morning as I sipped a coffee and Pearl gulped back a bottle that she clearly wasn't enjoying, there was a loud honk from outside. I could've cried when we made it out there, Pearl wrapped in a huge blanket hiding her teeth, and I saw the car seat that Coco had installed in the back. I could feel Mrs. Pepperbottom's eagle eyes from her window above but I couldn't care less.

"What time's our appointment?"

"10 am."

"How far is it?"

"About an hour and a half away, Day. Pearl,s first road trip!" Coco grinned and Pearl giggled. Despite their somewhat violent meeting those two seemed to have an understanding from the start. I envied it a little.

"How did you find these guys?"

"It wasn't easy. I had to dig out an old business card from last year's convention but they only had a small booth that wasn't giving out freebies so I couldn't remember their name. I can't wait for this year, not long now!"

I rolled my eyes, unaware of the dangers that I was going to face at the event. It didn't surprise me that the babysitter's booth was small. Regardless of my lack of interest in regular children, I found young monsters both terrifying and fascinating.

It's ironic really, human kids are scared of dentists and this dentist is scared of monster kids.

They were rare and unusual, often unpredictable and they were sometimes far more dangerous than their older counterparts.

I hadn't collected a huge amount of information on monster children. I had a few that came into the practice; mostly oddities, some the result of fertility spells like Pearl and others the result of old land or a family curse. Even the occasional complete anomaly, just born that way.

Most of the more well-known monsters, like crones, vampires, and certain types of shapeshifters were made that way, not born. Others like sirens and succubi were notoriously private and if they did have infants, I knew nothing about them.

That's not to say that it was impossible to encounter younger versions of those creatures. One of the more disturbing stories I'd come across working within paranormal services was that of the eternal children.

Eternal children was the name given to young kids turned by vampires. Not all of these are claimed by their maker, however, with human families of dying children manipulated into buying their immortality. Desperate parents with connections to the monster world paid thousands to make their kid better.

What they're left with is a violent, bloodthirsty creature with no impulse control and no mentor, who will never grow up. Many of the families died horribly at the hands of the child they'd tried to save, leaving the eternal children to wander aimlessly in search of prey. I'd heard that they were far more copious in number than anyone suspected, expertly camouflaging themselves all over the world.

I'd always wondered how many of them lived on the back roads of the city, hiding in plain sight.

The rest of the road trip was pretty quiet. I watched as fields and flowers flickered past the window and rocked the car seat gently, holding it secure. Pearl slept most of the way and Coco sang in unison with the radio. It was peaceful.

We pulled up to a modernized barn, nestled in a clearing of trees in the remote village of Cordyline Hill. It was an idyllic place, with flowers and huge, spiky succulent-type plants scattered across the landscape. I'd heard about it often as one of the centers for paranormal services but hadn't yet had the chance to visit.

"This is it."

We got out of the car and I lifted the car seat out to carry Pearl into the barn. It was so much easier than having nothing to put her in. I was excited for our supplies trip after the appointment, there were so many things that I needed. I was grateful for Coco, no partner but I still didn't feel alone raising Pearl.

We entered to a glossy, sleek reception desk in the gorgeous interior. Instantly I knew that babysitting services for my little monster weren't going to come cheap.

A gorgeous woman in her early twenties sat at the desk, sleek black hair and deep brown eyes that were utterly entrancing. She was so beautiful I wondered if she were entirely human.

"Welcome to No More Nightmares Nannies! Do you have an appointment?"

I tried to think of words but I just couldn't stop looking at her, babbling wildly. I was overwhelmed by the whole situation. I stuttered a few times and Coco chuckled and interjected.

"Forgive my friend here; we're booked in under Dr. Danworth."

She scanned the computer screen in front of her and smiled.

"Take a seat. Armand will be with you soon."

Armand. I recognized the name but with everything I had going on and the trance the receptionist had me under I couldn't place it. I sat in the waiting area trying to work it out, hoping that it wasn't another university acquaintance that I'd rather forget.

Coco nudged me in the ribs.

"Anyone would think you'd never seen a pretty woman before. Are you okay, Day?"

"I think so. I think she might be... special."

"I didn't notice," Coco answered, oblivious as ever as she picked up a magazine and started thumbing through it.

The waiting room reminded me of a regular human doctor's surgery, or even the one at my practice, but the secluded location had allowed this service to take more liberties than mine. I was regularly visited by human patients requesting a space and didn't exist in a haven like the village, so the practice had to remain innocuous.

No More Nightmares had taken the opposite approach. The walls were adorned with portrait-sized photographs of monstrous children having fun. One of a young girl with a tentacled face playing catch with a woman, another of a spiked oddity enjoying lunch with a horned child, and pride of place was a relatively average-looking little boy with a vacant expression between two people I presumed to be his parents.

There was no mistake in the placement of that portrait. The two fangs, barely visible, protruding between the young boy's lips told me all I needed. He was one of them, one of the eternal children. Displayed as if he were some kind of trophy. I recognized his father instantly and realized where I had heard the name Armand before.

Minutes later a man entered the waiting room from a side hallway and called my name. The same man that I had just been looking at in the portrait of the eternal child. Armand Locket.

He hadn't been an old acquaintance, but I did recognize him. Armand had recruited me years ago, along with a handful of colleagues, into the paranormal industry. He was a pleasant man and someone that had been nurturing and supportive. It had been years since he'd been on my mind. Armand was the reason for my job, my life, and my daughter.

"I had to take the appointment personally when I saw your name, Dayna... Sorry... Dr. Danworth. I'm so pleased you decided to stick with this industry, you showed an aptitude for dealing with all the craziness right from day one." He threw his arms around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek before turning. "And the lovely Coco! Who could forget a delightful thing like you?"

"It's so good to see you, Armand. You don't need to call me Doctor!" I smiled.

"Who is this little bundle then, I gather she's the reason for your visit today? You wouldn't drive out here just for my pretty face." He gestured to the car seat delicately balanced on the waiting room chair next to me.

"This is Pearl."

Armand cooed over my baby, still sleeping soundly in her car seat, tiny sharp fangs sticking out as she lightly snored. He ushered us through to a grand office with luxurious high ceilings complete with exposed barn beams and shut the door.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how did Pearl come into your care?"

"Hah. You guessed she isn't biologically mine then."

"You never did express a want for kids, but I couldn't imagine you turning down someone in need, no matter how hard you may appear on the exterior."

"She was a gift from a crone."

Armand laughed knowingly. "Say no more."

"If you don't mind me asking, Armand... The boy, in your picture."

"Yes. He's one of the eternal children. I promise he never ended up wandering the streets like the majority of them, though. A few years after we last saw each other my wife and I experienced a great tragedy.

"Our son, Darius, became incredibly ill, nothing the doctors could do. It was a tough decision, Dayna. Honestly, I didn't make it lightly. But I couldn't watch my wife suffer whilst knowing I had another option. Darius isn't the same, but he's here, and as a byproduct so is my wife. For that, I'm grateful."

Armand welled up a little bit, swallowed the obvious lump in his throat, and changed the subject.

"I know too well how difficult it is raising a special little one with a full-time job! I suppose you need someone quite regular for our lovely little Pearl. Great name by the way, very... fitting."

"I told her! I told her it was a bad dental pun!" Coco exclaimed, vindicated that she hadn't been the only one to see it. Armand laughed with her.

"Yes. I need someone I can trust, I'm not entirely sure what she's capable of yet, I just know that she's carnivorous," I started.

Coco raised her hand and wiggled the stump.

"Learned the hard way," she cut in.

"I just don't think I'm ready to share her with the world yet. Privacy is paramount."

"No problem, Dayna, nothing we can't deal with at No More Nightmares. I have the perfect person, she's young, fit, and grew up in a household with an oddity for a sister. Although human herself, she knows what she's doing. I have plenty of references."

"That sounds great, are you sure she's trustworthy?"

"Absolutely, I've used her to care for my own son on occasion. My wife is getting older and it's hard for her now."

His answer broke my heart a little. As great as it was that Darius wasn't on the streets now at some point his parents were going to die and he would be left, ravenous and free. It wasn't my place to say a word, so I didn't.

"If she's good enough for you, she's good enough for me."

We signed a document and discussed pricing. It was a big hit financially, but I pulled in enough money at the practice to cover it. I was going to need to accept a few home visits if I wanted any disposable income though.

Exiting the office, I felt responsible. I'd done the first big thing I would ever do as a parent and I couldn't have been more elated.

Then in a flash, my entire world was threatened.

To the left, further up the hallway was a disappointed-looking young man and to the right, toward the exit was doom. An older woman, much older than me came toward us, a young boy walking beside her with his hand in hers. The same boy from the picture. The same wife.

Darius looked much less average in person, his pale skin almost shone in the barn lights. His vacant expression was cold and unfeeling and sucked all of the air from the hall. I watched him sniff the air.

Vampires are known for their speed and their proficiency for quick attacks. I learned that day that Eternal Children were no different. He sprinted at us, in a direct path to Pearl. I screamed. Armand shouted for his boy to stop but it happened too quickly.

Initially, I feared for my baby, I put an arm out to try and stop him, desperate to protect her. But there hadn't been any need. Pearl opened her mouth wide as Darius reached her and bit down on his hand, crushing bone and mangling tendon. She locked her jaw and refused to let go as Darius whined and whimpered.

Armand's wife started to wail. I tried to stop Pearl but I'd not even had her a week. I had no real idea what to do.

Darius made the fatal mistake of trying to bite back but Pearl was too fast for him. I watched as she unclamped her jaw and, still in her car seat, aimed her face at his throat.

Just as things were about to get bloody I heard a jangling noise from the opposite end of the corridor. It caught the kid's attention. Pearl turned and giggled in amusement as Darius' blood dripped from her teeth, I even noticed a piece of necrotic-looking vein stuck to one fang.

The disappointed-looking boy was just playing with a set of keys. It was simple, yet genius. An injured Darius had retreated, sobbing into his mother's dress whilst Pearl was utterly distracted by the clanking of metal.

Armand's wife grabbed hold of her son tightly and gained better control of the situation.

"I'm so sorry," she whimpered, expecting a barrage of abuse from me.

"She's not hurt. I should be apologizing," I answered, looking at the creepy little boy's mangled arm.

"He isn't either. Trust me," she answered, terror in her eyes as the kid continued sobbing. The look on her face said she didn't believe his tears and I was inclined to believe the look on her face. There was something more sinister about Darius than most monsters I'd encountered.

"Thank you!" I turned to the boy. "You saved his life!"

Armand shook his hand in gratitude.

"Don't mention it. I better go." He started to walk away.

"Wait! Do you work here?" I stopped him; in contrast to the feeling I got from Darius, this guy gave me a great gut feeling.

"I just failed the interview, ma'am," he answered, suddenly explaining the defeated look on his face. I shot Armand a look and he tried to change my mind, despite knowing it was already made.

"You've already signed, Dayna. I can't hire someone based on a universal way to amuse a baby."

"I will buy myself out of the contract if I have to, Armand, and you know it."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. It may have been years but I had always prided myself on being incredibly difficult and I'm sure he hadn't forgotten that easily. I watched his face change as he relented and turned to the boy.

"Welcome aboard No More Nightmares, son. Meet Dr. Danworth, your first client. What's your name?"

The boy smiled across his entire face and I felt a wash of trust.

"It's Evan, sir. Nice to meet you all."

After the necessary paperwork had been completed, Coco and I ventured out to the car, buckled Pearl in, and I took in my surroundings as we drove away.

Just before we exited the village, I noticed a small shack on the edge of the border, up a large hill. I didn't know at the time, but that was home to the Beast who would soon become the source of all of my nightmares.

My experience with him at the convention had been an oddly positive one but all good things come to an end.

It's time we talked about the Beast.

It's time. Time to talk about the oddity in the room. I know you're all desperate to know what the Beast of a quaint little village, who went on to be my savior at the convention could have possibly done to cause so much offense.

I know I can be brash, but I assure you my opinion of the Beast wasn't formed lightly and certainly wasn't the mere result of my antisocial tendencies. No. He's the source of a thousand sleepless nights and the bringer of tragedies you aren't aware of yet.

We'll get there, I promise, but there's so much more you need to know.

When I met the Beast, his teeth had stood out. I'd never seen such crowded, angry-looking fangs. I'm loathed to even describe them as fangs, they resembled thick tusks, battling each other for space.

Instantly I knew what to do. He needed a multiple extraction job and when he asked me about it I could hear his pain. His gums were swollen and red-raw and his mouth couldn't shut at all. Even I winced a little looking at them.

He saved my life. So I didn't charge.

I offered my services pro bono, with genuine gratitude. Fascinated by his abilities and unusual adaptations, I found myself genuinely excited for the appointment.

Pearl had taken over my whole world and since taking her on I'd put my pursuit of monster knowledge on the back burner. I'd let my emotions get to me in Abelfort and I hadn't checked my database in far too long. I was so wrapped up in motherhood.

The Beast reignited my passion.

I booked him in for a week after my incident at the Harakungu's underground palace. It was the earliest I had available and in the run-up I enjoyed a mundane week filled with regular, local patients.

When the day came I was inexplicably nervous. I was used to monsters, nothing shocked me, but he was like nothing I'd ever seen before. He could heal.

I had so many questions I was ready to burst.

I felt like I did when I first opened the practice, waiting for the first patient to sit down. I'd been fortunate back then to land a golden patient for my first, but I doubted the Beast was going to be half as easy as kind, elderly shapeshifter, Mr. Prentice.

"Day, do you want a coffee?" Coco's voice rang in my ears. It wasn't her fault, I appreciated her kindness but I'd been up much of the night with Pearl and it was the end of the shift, with only the one appointment to go.

I'd just finished a plaque removal and deep cleanse on a particularly foul-smelling oddity, who lived on a diet of insects and small mammals. The mention of a coffee or any other liquid made me heave. I never knew bugs could make teeth so... brown.

"I'm good, thanks."

Coco shrugged and switched on the kettle behind reception anyway.

"Pliers at the ready?" she asked. "Do you think he'll let you keep one?"

That was a prospect that hadn't crossed my mind. I loved to keep extraction trophies. Creepy, I know, but they were great for research and my collection was truly fascinating. The Beast needed multiple teeth removed, I'm sure if I asked nicely he'd consider it.

"I hope so," I responded, grinning. "I need to get set up, can you keep an eye out here?"

Coco nodded and swirled a spoon in the No. 1 receptionist mug I'd gotten her for Christmas, bobbing her head to the faint sound of the radio. I made my way along the hall to my treatment room and gagged a little at the lingering smell.

I spritzed the room with freshener, placed my used instruments into the sterilizer, and disposed of anything single-use. I laid out pliers and a syringe full of anesthetic, sanitized the chair, and readied myself. While I waited for my patient I sat at my computer, smiling at the photograph of Pearl that sat next to it.

Her little face kept me going through the day. Coco and I were planning to pick her up a small bird on the way home, for dinner. I couldn't wait to see her but just for this appointment, I was grateful for my job and for her sitter, Evan.

Distant sounds of a chattering Coco were what alerted me to his arrival. I waited for a few minutes before I went to collect him. I usually lamented my friend for her overt friendliness with patients but when I entered the waiting room to see her giggling away next to a giant, warm and smiley man I couldn't blame her.

Despite his obvious affliction, the Beast was traditionally attractive and gave off an air of charm that was intoxicating. Longish, tousles waves just stroked his shoulders and his arms were muscular through his clothing, which was incredibly human for a monster living in a hotspot like Cordyline Hill.

I don't know what I'd been expecting but robes would've been less of a shock than the jeans/shirt combo he was in. If it hadn't been for the abominable mouth and near-giant height, I suspected he'd have been quite the traditionally desirable bachelor.

"Good afternoon, Doctor, it's nice to see you on your feet!" He spoke with a slight impediment, words struggling to carry through the forest of teeth and inflamed gum.

"It's nice to be on them," I replied. "Would you like to come through?" I gestured to the hall and let him lead the way to the treatment room, turning just in time to catch a glimpse of Coco swooning slightly at her desk.

"Have a seat..." I stumbled, realizing that it felt quite jarring to refer to someone in person as the Beast. "What do you prefer I call you? Is it Beast or do you have a name?"

The Beast struggled to squish himself into my extra large dental chair, the armrests pushing into the sides of his enormous legs.

"I had a name. But no one's asked me that question in a very long time. Beast will do for now."

I noticed a slightly wistful look in his eyes as he mentioned names. It gave me my first clue as to his nature. If he had once been named then I suspected the Beast of Cordyline Hill had been made, not born. I was almost certain he had once been human. This was rare for oddities, even more so for area-specific monsters who are usually what they appear to be for an eternity.

He was an anomaly.

"Can I get you anything to drink?"

"It just slips through the gaps, Doctor. I'd give anything for a glass of water. It's been months."

My brain was whirring. Was he immortal?

"How do you survive without hydration? If you don't me asking? You can call me Dayna if you prefer, by the way, you saved my life and no money is exchanging hands, no need for formalities."

"I wouldn't call it surviving... Dayna."

His cryptic responses weren't going to cut it. I'd never been one to keep my thoughts to myself and I felt the word vomit coming.

"Forgive my rudeness but there's really no delicate way to ask this. What happened to you... to make you like this?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"It isn't frequent that the monster saves the human. I don't believe you were always a monster and I've always been incredibly nosy. Tell me to shut up and I'll fix your teeth without any more questions if you'd prefer, but you said that no one's asked your name in a long time and I'd hazard a guess that you don't get to talk very often."

I felt myself shaking a little. The Beast had saved me but he was also more than capable of crushing me in an instant. And there I was, asking him detailed, personal questions like I was some sort of therapist. For fuck's sake, Dayna.

He looked uncomfortable, but not like he was going to crush me. I watched as he mulled over my requests and battled his own confusion that I even wanted to know. Then he offered me a deal.

"You think I'm a monster? Ha. Nothing new from the wonders of humanity. Fix me and I'll tell you my story. You can consider it a tip if you want," he spat.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. Deal."

I washed my hands and put on a fresh pair of gloves before picking up the anesthetic needle. My backtracking hadn't worked and the Beast was still looking at me with a level of disappointment I could practically taste.

"That won't be necessary, Dayna."

"Do you not feel pain?"

"I do. I'm not invincible. But I don't want that needle and you can't force it on me. Start pulling them... please."

I shuddered at the thought of feeling each tooth yanked at the root from its home. The feeling of the cold metal of my pliers touching his swollen gum and clamping down on exposed nerves. I looked down at my patient, noted his stern face, and realized there was no point in arguing. So I picked up my tool and asked him to open wide.

I counted a total of 76 teeth, more than double the average human. I'd seen monsters with hundreds before but unlike those examples, his anatomy was overwhelmingly human and not able to support the sheer number.

Extraction was a workout. Each tooth was much larger in circumference than I was accustomed to working with. He never made a sound but the expression on his face had enough pain in it to keep me wincing on his behalf.

After around half an hour of medical torture, he was done and I was exhausted. I took off my gloves and turned to the tap by my station.

"Finished." I handed him a small, plastic cup of water. "Try that."

He sat up and took a few deep breaths before closing his mouth for the first time since we'd met. A real, distinguishable smile was visible, something I'd yet to see on the Beast's face. Without the tusks on display, he was just a giant human man.

I felt like a hero as he shot the water and looked at me, desperate for a second. It was chasing a feeling like that that had gotten me into dental school in the first place, albeit originally for slightly different patients.

"Thank you!" He savored every drop of his drink and I continued refilling the cup. "You have no idea how much this will change my life."

"You're welcome. Mind if I keep one of those?" I gestured to a pile of extracted, bloody teeth on tissue.

"You're a very strange woman, aren't you? Knock yourself out. They're no use to me."

"Thanks." I ignored his strange comment. "It's your turn now. Time to answer my questions."

"How do I know you aren't out to lynch me and just trying to find out my weaknesses."

"You don't. Nothing's certain. But you do have my word."

"Strange. That's your word. I'm going to trust you, Dayna. Don't misuse it, or you will find out why they call me the Beast."

I sat opposite him and nodded. I think he knew at the time that I was serious, but then we hadn't hit any complications yet.

"My name was Edric Miller."

"Edric," I responded automatically, noting the visible reaction my patient had to hearing someone else say it. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I was born in Cordyline Hill, long before it was like it is now. My father was a miller and my mother died in childbirth, which my father resented me greatly for. It wasn't a comfortable existence back then; damp wooden home with no electrics and none of the selection of foods that are readily available today.

"We lived an average existence. I had no dreams to be any more than what my father was.

"All things considered my father and I were amongst the wealthier villagers and as such when I grew so did the list of prospective wives. None of them interested me.

"Then I met a girl... a woman, traveling through the village. Her name was Rhea and she was electric, more alive than anyone I'd met before. It wasn't a regular occurrence at the time to find a woman traveling alone. She came from a wealthy family, more than able to fund her adventures.

"We spent months together in the village, building a relationship, a life... dreams. But Rhea couldn't be tethered to one place, she wanted to keep moving and she wanted me to go with her."

Eyes wide, fully enthralled in the Beast's tale, I asked, "Did you?"

"I agreed to, of course. I thought Rhea was my soulmate and wherever she would be would in turn be home. I gave her only one condition and that was that she married me. I wept when she said yes.

"Rhea became somewhat cagey once we were engaged. She was distant and less vibrant than she had been. Eventually, after I queried meeting her father to officially ask for her hand, she told me her secret."

The Beast lowered his eyes and attempted to shuffle in the almost comically tiny chair. This wasn't a story he'd told for a long time, I wondered exactly how long. Decades, hundreds of years? I didn't want to interrupt, but I knew at some point I had to ask. After a few moments, he continued.

"Rhea wasn't human. I laughed when she told me." He rolled his eyes at the irony. "She said that she wanted to let me into her world, take her to meet her family, but that I had to know that her father was an actual monster.

"It seemed ridiculous. I wouldn't have believed a word that came out of her mouth had she not been able to provide me with proof. I thought she was hysterical as she raised a blade to her arm and cut right down the middle. Blood poured out and I became inconsolable; but not for long.

"She just touched the wound and it's like her skin started to stitch back together, piece by tiny piece, until there was no wound at all. All within the space of a few minutes. I hadn't previously been a believer in witches but in that moment I was sure I was going to marry one. And I didn't care.

"I was so blinded by love and so oblivious to her true nature that I followed her, all through the countryside, sleeping under the stars, making love in meadows of wildflowers. I didn't know it that early on but we'd conceived a child. A romance with a witch would've been an unconventional life but I was prepared to give up everything for her.

"I followed Rhea. We traveled, ending up in another small village. A clearing in the woods that you've been to before. Where we first met, Dayna. Do you get it yet?"

I took a moment to mull over his words as things started to fall into place, his story asking far more questions than it was answering. I was beginning to regret asking the initial question at all.

"Rhea was... was she?"

"The Harakungu's daughter."

Those three words opened an entire world of unexpected possibilities. I mentioned before that the Harakungu was a celebrity of sorts in the monster world, his story seemingly universally known. Yet not once had I ever heard of a daughter, a human-passing one at that.

"What happened next?" I asked, desperate to know how Edric Miller had come to be the Beast of Cordyline Hill.

"I wasn't this big... before. I was never small, though. I loved her enough to humor her ridiculous notion that I simply had to squeeze through the entrance. I expected to be covered in mud and making some serious decisions about my future with the madwoman. Then I dropped into the palace.

"Most people don't know this about him but what you see isn't what he looks like."

I shuddered thinking about the Harakungu's yellow eyes and needle-sharp fangs.

"What does he look like?"

"Nothing. Everything. He can change his form however he sees fit. When I met him he was far closer to human-passing, although the grand set of wings were quite the giveaway. I was terrified and way out of my depth but every time I looked at Rhea I saw the madness as worth it.

"We stayed in the palace for weeks, he was good to me at first. The disdain for humans was clear, he'd traveled across the whole world watching humans kill anything remotely like him for thousands of years. Still, he accepted my presence for Rhea's sake and to mask his own hypocrisy. Rhea's mother was human and other than that fact she was never spoken of.

"He grew angry as his daughter's belly began to swell and we realized we were expecting a child. He sat me down and threatened me, made it clear that no human would be joining his family. I had to submit to my curse... to live with a part of the Harakungu's power... as a monster or die and never see Rhea again."

"What happened to her? And the baby?"

"It's like a piece of tragic literature. Rhea perished in childbirth, just like my mother had, except months too early for the baby to survive. I lost them both. The Harakungu insisted it wasn't possible, made every attempt to save them but no power would bring them back. I tried to heal her like I did you but she was cold. Gone."

I felt a tear roll down my cheek, imagining a life without my own child. I had so much empathy for the Beast. I could understand his choices, how he'd come to be a monster. He continued.

"He was devastated and furious, unable to bear the sight of me. He sent me away, broken and like... this. I went back to my father, who kept me chained up like the disappointment I'd always been to him. Until I broke the chains and tore him apart. Since then I've lived in the same home, on the edge of town, abused by almost all who stumble across me."

"Do you really let them abuse you?" I asked. Despite my compassion, I struggled to imagine the Beast taking trouble from angry villagers.

"Not anymore. I used to but it didn't get me anywhere. I grew to share my ex-father-in-law's opinions of my previous species, perhaps even feel them to more of an extreme. Forgive me, Dayna, but humans are the vermin."

"I don't disagree with you entirely. Why did you go to the convention, wasn't it painful?" I'd already overstepped my mark so I continued to query.

"To meet you, I had to eat, to drink. There were a few others I was looking out for, too, but I'd prefer to keep that private. It's been hundreds of years, the Harakungu didn't hold a grudge for tragedies beyond my control, especially when I keep his secrets. He would lose a lot of credibility if it was known that he reproduced with a person, so I'm tolerated. Still, I don't often go out of my way to be around him."

I nodded. "I'm sorry. Let me book you in for a six-month check and I'll remove any that regrow. Free, of course."

"Thanks, Dayna. I'm grateful, honestly."

I turned and walked out of the treatment room, leaving the Beast smiling on the chair. I checked on Coco, who was watching some Netflix on her computer at the front desk, and got her to book in his follow-up then I returned to the room to walk him out.

He was stood up when I returned and his demeanor had changed. The smile that had followed his relief was nowhere to be seen but it wasn't the result of sadness after telling his story. It was as if something had happened to change his personality entirely just in the time I was out of the room.

He looked agitated. Angry.

"I've booked you in for..."

"That won't be necessary."

"Oh, what's..."

"Do you want to hear another story, Doctor? This one's even more tragic."

I struggled to understand why he was being so formal all of a sudden.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Hundreds of years. That's how long I've been beaten, set light to and victimized by humanity. Yet still, when shown kindness I've given it back. Just like I have for you, Dayna."

"I'm incredibly grateful, I don't understand." I saw him seething, the teeth I had previously been all over suddenly seemed quite intimidating and by fixing the crowding I had given him the ability to bite. My heart pounded.

"I helped a nice couple not long ago," he rambled, pacing across the room, knocking over dental instruments with his giant body parts as he walked. "I felt real sorry for them. Reminded me of me after I lost Rhea. They'd had 8 miscarriages. Infertility is an awful thing. So I fixed her. Healed her. And they had a baby."

I gulped, realizing the direction the conversation was going.

"What I didn't know was that the couple had visited a witch as well, by the name of Eudora Finch. She killed the couple in an attempt to claim the child that she had nothing to do with. Do you know what witches do with babies, Dayna?"

"They eat them," I answered, knowing that he knew that Eudora hadn't eaten Pearl.

"They eat them! Good answer. I suspected that was what had happened too, Eudora ate the baby and the couple became a bad plot of a sad fairy tale."

I didn't say a word but glanced over to my computer desk, where the photograph of my daughter should've been. My worst fears were confirmed when I noticed the frame, face down on the floor. Terrified, I went to shout for Coco but the Beast spoke first.

"That isn't what happened though, Dayna. You know that though. Eudora didn't know about my involvement in the child's conception, just as I hadn't known about the couple's desperate plea to her. Recently, in fact, I've learned that Eudora didn't eat the poor, orphaned, monster baby at all. She gave her to a human. One that without so much as a conversation, branded me a monster."

I thought back to my offhand comment at the start of the appointment. A faux pas without this information but a fatal mistake with. The venom he spoke with was pungent, permeating the room with its vitriol.

As he'd told me his tale he had considered me an ally, but now I was nothing more than a threat, taking a monster-child for my own. I could've handed her over. Solved the issue in an instant.

That was never going to happen though, Pearl was my daughter and I wasn't going to palm her off to a bitter, unstable creature who would teach her hatred. In the space of minutes, the Beast became an enemy of proportions that childless me could never have understood.

"I will find her."

That was all that the Beast of Cordyline Hill hissed at me before pushing past and storming through the hall and out of the practice. He slammed the door so hard on his exit that the glass panel shattered. Flustered and trying to follow, I grabbed hold of Coco, who was confused and babbling.

"Day, what happened?!"

I didn't answer. My mind was too full. I tried to process the danger I was in but I couldn't, it was only the beginning. All I knew at the time was that I had to take Coco and go home to Pearl.

We had to run.

There's nowhere you can hide from them.

It's me, Doctor Dayna Danworth. Your antisocial neighborhood monster dentist, back again.

Wow, that was a mouthful.

I'm sorry to keep leaving you all hanging, we've reached parts that are difficult to relive.

I don't even know what to say. I was as confused as all of you were by the sudden change in the Beast of Cordyline Hill at the end of our appointment. I wish I could provide satisfactory answers, but that would mean there were answers that I deemed satisfactory.

I could understand his reservations; a long and soiled history with humanity, a deceased family, and the idea of someone with no biological monster connection raising a child he felt was rightfully his.

Regardless, that didn't explain the aggression he showed me, especially not after our polite and cordial prior interactions.

I was baffled. If I hadn't been so dumbstruck I'd have tried to speak to him at the time. To calm him down. But if you'd seen the look in his eyes you'd have frozen just like I did. The Beast could've snapped me in two without giving me time for a last breath.

That aggression, that look in his eyes, the speed he flipped... whatever caused it didn't matter. It showed me that he wasn't fit to care for Pearl.

My use of the term monster, that he claimed had been the issue, was never intended to offend. It was laughable. I don't think that was the issue at all. I was the issue. Tolerable until I affected him, he couldn't get past one thing.

I was human.

He had hatred for us; that much had been apparent long before he spotted Pearl's photograph, although somewhat more subtly. I suspected that hatred, however, lay somewhere with jealousy and that gave me an inkling of hope that some of his human self, Edric, was left behind.

After he left and some time had passed for me to babble an explanation to Coco, we locked up and got straight in the car, she sped the entire way to my flat - nothing new but somehow more urgent than usual. In the car, I was hysterical, unsure of what to do.

The Beast knew where I worked but as far as I knew he didn't know my home address. Still, I found myself shaking as I fumbled at the door, struggling to zone in on the keyhole, desperate to see my baby. It was ridiculous and unnecessary.

Pearl was fine.

Of course, she was. She was home, giggling over a baby TV show that Evan had put on to entertain her while he cooked. The pure love I felt as I saw my sharp-toothed daughter melted a lot of the anxiety away. She may have had the Beast's teeth, but she had a beautiful spirit.

The Beast said he'd find her, but he hadn't said when. A monster of his proportions in the city wouldn't have the luxury of waiting and following. The more time that passed and the less I feared the monster turning up at my door demanding my child, the more of a plan started to formulate in my mind.

"Dayna! Wasn't expecting you back so early, Pearl's... What's wrong?" Evan's face dropped as he turned and noticed the look of horror in my eyes.

I sat down and hysterically told him the same story I'd struggled to tell Coco back at the practice.

"Where did he go?" Evan asked, Pearl now sat on his knee as he bounced her gently. She warmed my soul.

I stuttered. Realistically, I didn't know where he'd gone. I had speculation but no assurance. Coco had been certain we weren't followed on the way home and I suspected the Beast would need to make inquiries about me to get any further than the practice.

If he had killed me he couldn't get to Pearl and I think he knew I wasn't going to lead him to her after his outburst. That's why he fled. I didn't think for a second that he was going to turn up an hour later and rip me to shreds.

The monster in him couldn't keep in his rage and the human didn't want to let it explode.

As I mentioned, the Beast of Cordyline Hill didn't have the option to walk around waiting either, he stuck out too much in such an average part of the city, visiting me had been enough of a risk. If my office hadn't been so close to a connected station he would have been a home visit for sure. Maybe that would've been best.

If he stalked me he'd be lynched. As long as he didn't know where I was going home to, we were safe. Pearl was safe.

"He left... I don't know. I know he took the train here, connected railways. Maybe the station?" I babbled again, trying to get my head straight.

"And you weren't followed?" Evan continued, gripping Pearl so she didn't wobble and fall, he was so good to her.

"I made sure," Coco rebutted seriously. I wasn't sure how she could be so certain but I didn't doubt her.

"That's good, did he see the car?"

Evan presented a point I hadn't thought about, Coco's car was innocuous yet distinctive, full of charms and dangling things, and always parked directly outside the practice. If the Beast had made the connection it was now a beacon, Pearl's car seat in the back the treasure.

"He probably did," I answered, noting Coco's panic as she realized the same. "We have to presume he did."

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

The "we" was poignant. It felt good to know that Evan was on my side, protecting my daughter. Not many babysitters would be willing to help shield a baby from a Beast without severe renegotiation of pay. I made mental note to give him a raise regardless.

"We're going to hide her, and I'm going to talk to him. He didn't give me a chance and I will get my turn to speak. But Pearl can't be anywhere near the situation," I slowly forced out. "I've met worse monsters than him."

That was all the plan I had. I thought of the Beast's story, the revelations about the Harakungu and the hypocrisy of monsters rejecting humanity. The death and the hatred didn't benefit either party. The words I'd accidentally shared with the ancient monster in his underground palace at the paranormal services convention sprung to mind.

This plan was... painfully human.

"You can stay with me if you like, my flat's small but you'll be safe. Then if he looks for Coco's car it's still here but you aren't. My car's parked two streets away and if he's considered that a nanny might exist he'll go back to No More Nightmares first to try and get information out of Armand."

"He's right, Day, you should call Armand." Coco looked genuinely frightened. She never did. Something about seeing her like that and watching Pearl smile up at me changed something in my head. Removed all the fear.

"No! I can fix this. Thank you, Evan, we'll stay with you tonight just as a precaution but tomorrow I'm heading to Cordyline Hill and I will fix this. Coco can deal with the patients and Pearl can stay with you. He was angry and emotional. There's a person in there and I will get through. I'm not raising Pearl running."

Both of them looked at me uncomfortably but I didn't care. I was determined that Edric Miller would be reachable, reasonable, and the person that I'd known right up until those last tense moments.

"You aren't going alone, Day, don't be ridiculous," Coco piped up.

"I have to. He has to know I'm not scared."

That was it. It was risky, full of potential problems, and came without a contingency for failure. It was also non-negotiable and both of them knew that. So we packed some things and we bundled into Evans's car.

Passing Mrs. Pepperbottom's car I was relieved to be going. I doubted the Beast would be so brazen, but I didn't need my neighbors subjected to a world they knew nothing about.

"How far do you live?" I asked, realizing I didn't even know what Evan went home to. I felt a pang of sadness at my own self-interest and made a conscious note to pay better attention to others.

"Oh, I'm only down the road from the practice, just opposite the opening to the park. The big tower block."

I cuddled Pearl to my chest; we'd had to leave her seat in Coco's car and I'd wrapped her in my jacket in an attempt to keep her safe and hidden.

I didn't have much practical knowledge of the Beast and his abilities. Did he have an acute scent? Tracking abilities? Or was he just a poor, misunderstood, angry healer? I'd packed my journal that formed part of my database in my bag. Despite the stakes, I still hoped to learn something.

I had more than a few patients who lived in the same block as Evan and I was familiar with it by mention only. Thinking about those patients, I wondered if Pearl would even be a spectacle at all in that building. I'd suspected we lived in somewhat of a hotspot for a long time and Evan's block had made me a hell of a lot of money. I struggled to hold in a burning question.

"Evan?"

"Yes, Dayna?"

"Are you a monster?"

There was a silence. Coco cringed, she'd always hated that question, probably one of the reasons she was such a difficult receptionist. She thought I threw it around far too easily. From the backseat, I couldn't see Evan's face, focused on the road.

"Well, how did you even know about the job you were applying for? And that block - Coco how many times have you written that address on patient forms? It's a valid-"

"I'm not a monster," Evan replied sincerely, his smile still audible but a slight sadness in his voice. Unbothered by the response either way, I sighed with relief that I hadn't caused major offense. I had to stop doing that. "I grew up in Cordyline Hill, my mother is Carla Parks, she was recruited from a normal university just like you were," he finished.

"Carla is your mum!?" Coco exclaimed.

"Parks isn't my surname, people don't often make the connection. It isn't something I advertise," Evan answered, solemnly.

I didn't respond to his revelations. I was reeling. Carla Parks was head of one of the most controversial services in the monster industry. She led the so-called Ethical Organ Collectors, an organization steeped in scandal and conspiracy.

It was originally set up to provide sustainable, ethically sourced food for monsters that exist solely on organ-based diets. It isn't a huge market of monsters but the consumption from that market is positively enormous.

I hadn't met him at this point in my tale but looking back I expect Mosaph Eurastix, who first prompted me to share my story, was a regular customer of Evan's mother.

TEOC, as Carla's organization was commonly known, claimed to contact those who were terminally ill and near to their final breath, asking them to voluntarily donate their organs to save the lives of a new species. It was sketchy and not a whole truth, but TEOC marketed it brilliantly, focusing on the long and fulfilling life the human led.

I'd always struggled to think of humans as if we were free-range chickens.

In reality, there were stories of a black market-style organ harvesting ring. The worst of the stories involved kidnapping and sourcing humans as live prey for monsters to play with, the best of them involved manipulating dementia patients on their deathbeds. Either way, the "ethical" organ collectors made my skin crawl.

Evan felt the same. That much was obvious; he remained quiet after his admission until we pulled up on the familiar road, my office just yards away from the towering block of flats we were next to.

"Home sweet home!" Evan chirped, helping me out of the car with Pearl.

"It's just one night. I promise."

"Well, you're welcome for as long as you need."

I was grateful for Evan, I really was. But I couldn't shake the thought of his mother. The mentally invasive theory that maybe, just maybe, he worked for her. That we might be walking to our deaths. I didn't want to feel that way, paranoid and desperate. Fearful of someone who had been nothing but a friend for months by this stage.

I had always taken pride in my decent judge of character but after the Beast's appointment, that confidence had been shattered.

I will only admit this once, here. But prior to his freak-out, I had genuinely started to like Edric Miller, the Beast of Cordyline Hill.

I shook aside my paranoia and followed Evan into the looming building, noticing a small but well-manicured patch of garden to the side of the concrete and one small bench facing away from me. A young girl sat on it alone in the dark, just watching the garden, she could only have been in her early twenties.

My thoughts turned back to Evan's home and my fascination with its inhabitants that had already made it into my database. I was certain there were plenty more in the building that weren't on my books. I silently cursed myself for not bringing a few business cards.

Clutching Pearl, I made a beeline to the lift that stood perfectly opposite the main door.

"No, Dayna, we're taking the stairs, I'm not too far up, don't worry."

"She's too lazy for stairs," Coco giggled back at Evan, mocking my inactive disposition as she bounded toward the cold metal doors with me.

"No, honestly... It breaks down all the time. Come on. I'm only on floor five." Evan looked sincere, serious even, and I wasn't prepared to argue with someone showing me such kindness.

I sighed and readjusted my baby on my hip, making sure the blanket covered her face and in turn, her teeth. We started to climb the stairs. After what felt like a few too many steps - a symptom of my poor fitness, I'm sure - and passing more of those bald cats than I'd ever seen in one place, we reached a landing with a large painted number 5.

"Don't mind him. He's never been a bother," Evan piped up, in response to Coco approaching a still man in the stairwell, so astoundingly human and average that I was sure he couldn't be human at all.

"What's the deal with this place?" I asked, trying and failing to take in the man's facial features. I remember getting close to him, inches away, and I still couldn't tell you what he looked like. The man didn't flinch. Not even a blink. "Who is he?"

"I don't know. Does it matter? We're all just... living," Evan answered, nonchalantly.

I was a scientist. I'd never been satisfied with any answer containing the word just. Mr. Average, stoic in the stairwell, was a type of monster I'd never seen before, a catalyst for my natural curiosity. I parted my lips to speak again but Evan had already opened the main door to the hall of flats and was ushering Coco through.

I considered one last glimpse at Mr. Average but decided that interestingly, it would be fruitless. A note that would later make its way into my journal.

Evan's flat was small but neat and clean. We set up Pearl's travel cot that we'd bundled into the boot of the car and our host set up the sofas for Coco and me. Once we settled, I nursed a cup of tea and cuddled my sleeping daughter as the other two looked at me disapprovingly.

Everything felt so surreal. A few months prior to that moment I would never have imagined myself with a baby, let alone hiding with her from a vicious beast as an unknown monster stood just meters outside. In the home of the most controversial woman in the industry's son.

"How long has that man outside been there?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"About six months now. He never moves, never does anything. Just stands there."

"And no one in this building finds that strange?"

Evan just laughed at my question. It was a warm laugh, one that said he'd probably heard that question asked about different things a thousand times. He seemed so comfortable around the unexplainable though, I could swear he smiled at the walls.

"Not everything needs an explanation, Dayna. There are no humans or monsters here, no one's that self-aware. I like it. Have you ever considered just sharing your world with monsters? Not separating the two; no experiments or notes, just existing? It's peaceful."

I paused, thinking about his words. I thought about the man, not too far from the flat door.

"You sound like a hippy, you know?" Coco butted in before I could respond. Evan, exasperated at her inference, sighed.

"You sound like my mother."

Eurgh. Coco cringed as she thought of Carla Parks, practical supervillain and former university colleague of ours. She realized her visible reaction and the look on Evan's face and steadied herself. "I'm sorry, it just..."

"It's okay. I get it."

"Are the stories true?" I asked.

Evan lowered his eyes and scoffed solemnly. "Which ones?" he responded. "The human trafficking or the live stream events?"

"I haven't heard anything about a live stream," I answered, mind racing, feeling queasy at the thought of what sick entertainment her business must have made.

"That's because most people don't know the half of it, they think it's all just conspiracy so no one looks into it. I've tried to talk to people, but no one takes me seriously. Carla never advertised the fact she had a kid, so I sound like another lunatic. It's been that way since I left. She doesn't even deem me enough of a threat to come after."

"When did you leave?"

"I left as soon as I thought I could survive on my own. I've been alone since I was sixteen. This was the only place that didn't ask for a guarantor, the neighbors were strange, but they're nice. I didn't have to put up with... help with...."

"I'm sorry, Evan. You must have seen some real shit," Coco interrupted, taking a seat next to him and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I always thought there was something creepy about your mum, even before the Organ Collectors started."

I tried to fight my insatiable curiosity. I tried to let Evan and Coco have their emotional moment. I did. Motherhood bought with it a level of restraint I wasn't sure I had but it couldn't quash that remaining fascination. I'd always had it and I always would, it was my hubris.

"What does she live stream? What happened to make you leave?"

Evan looked visibly sickened. It was instantly apparent that I'd unlocked something quite traumatic. I felt bad but I had to know. I had to.

"I held the camera for a long time. She puts on a real performance; hosting as if it were some kind of sporting event. Human hunting. Those monsters... the ones that only eat people... they aren't the fluffy creatures her marketing guys make them out to be. They're predators. And they pay a lot of money for prey they can hunt without risk or human interference.

"My mother provides that. She owns land all over the country where she hosts these events, an entire shadow staff of retrievers, who collect the type of prey she's looking for.

"The weak mostly; sick, disabled, dying. Her ethics aren't entirely a lie, just twisted. Well... I thought so." A single tear rolled down Evan's cheek. Coco moved her hand from his shoulder to around his neck, holding him close.

Pearl gurgled a little and I gestured for him to wait a minute as I got up and bounced her gently for a moment before placing her back down and taking my seat.

"I'm sorry, carry on."

"The few months before I left things had started to escalate. Some of the customers were making tougher and more disturbing requests. Carla was more than happy to oblige.

"The night I left was a major event, she claimed it was being streamed at a prestigious club night in Las Vegas. The hunter for the night was some kind of big deal in the monster world and he'd handpicked his own prey. We were there just to give him the private space to hunt and to film it..."

The tear that had escaped turned into another, which turned into a whimper and an inability to continue his story. I could see the guilt written all over his face, the disgust that he was ever party to what went on.

"You don't have to-" I started.

"No. I do," he cut me off, took a deep breath, and continued his story. "He was only about four feet tall, with this sickly blue skin and claws that could slice through metal if he tried. I don't know who he was but he was excited when he arrived.

"He stood in the tree line and I put my eye to the camera. I focused on the cage, waiting for the prey -people - to get let out. Mother said the people in Vegas would want to see their scared faces.

"The collector waited for the sound of the starting gunshot then released the door of the giant cage. Two people piled out, one teenage girl about my age and an older man, about sixty. It took them a few seconds to realize they could run but they ran. They took off so fast I struggled to pan the camera quick enough to catch it. The monster didn't run after them though. It waited. I couldn't work out why and I wish I never had.

"Carla hit me from behind and pointed back at the cage without a word so she wouldn't interrupt the stream. I panned back to see the third victim. The little girl."

Coco gasped. I felt my heart sink. For years there had been whispers in the industry about Carla's sketchy behavior but no one took it seriously, no one listened, and no one suspected the level of evil it was at.

"She couldn't have been more than six," Evan sobbed, unable to steady his emotion any longer. "The fear in her eyes was the worst I'd ever seen. She wasn't dying. She wasn't sick. She hadn't signed away her organs to a friendly hospital visitor. I felt every lie I'd ever been told smack me in the face in that moment.

"She was a fucking terrified little girl and my mother was prepared to watch her torn apart for money. And she expected me to film it."

My throat filled with bile. I'd never been extra sensitive to the suffering of children before. All suffering was suffering, right? But imagining a girl like Pearl, only a few years older, being hunted by Carla Parks set off a special kind of hatred I didn't know I could feel.

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"I don't want to know," Coco interjected, knowing that her protest wouldn't stop me from asking.

"It was so fast, the monster took one look at her and started to sprint. I dropped the camera and I just ran. For the sake of filming, I was just that much closer that I got to her first. I threw myself in front of her and took the claws while she ran into the woods behind the cage.

"If Carla hadn't stopped him, I'd be dead. She had just enough sway to get that creature off me. There must be a heart somewhere in that cold bitch, she couldn't watch her own son die. But she was angry. She told me to go. Said I could find my little friend and a new place to stay. That she wasn't prepared to keep a liability around."

Evan stood up and slowly lifted his t-shirt, revealing thick, deep, purple scars across his back confirming his story. They'd healed badly, with raised lumps and indented flesh.

"I looked for the little girl but I couldn't find her. Honestly, I probably just spared her from a monster to hand her to the elements. I was on the streets for a while until I could get a job and afford this place. But it was all worth it to be away from her. I thought I'd take down TEOC but I didn't stand a chance. She's bulletproof."

Coco and I spent a while comforting Evan but it was difficult to know what to say. We were shocked. I wanted to think of a way to help him, to take down Carla, but I had to focus on one issue at a time.

Until I'd fixed my problems with the Beast of Cordyline Hill, the Ethical Organ Collectors had to stay off my radar. I didn't need to make any more enemies or put my friend and babysitter in danger at the hand of his abhorrent mother.

After Evan retreated to bed and Coco began to snore on the sofa opposite the one that would be my bed for the night, I laid awake plotting my journey to the village Edric Miller called home. I'd never taken a train with connected railways and I couldn't be certain my miserable plan would work.

I wish I'd saved myself the hope and admitted I already knew that it never could.

A faint noise from outside got my attention, some sort of minor kerfuffle coming from the park opposite. As I sat up to peer down from the window to the street outside I felt the air knocked from my body.

There he was, staring up at me. The Beast of Cordyline Hill.

The baby and the Beast.

It's me, Dayna. This time solemn, without a witty or dry opening for you. This part of the story doesn't warrant that, and I'm afraid some of you who hoped for mediation will be sorely disappointed.

For that, I'm truly sorry.

When we left off, I was hopeful that I could negotiate with the Beast of Cordyline Hill, too; that I would be able to come to a peaceful compromise.

I was wrong. Misguided and painfully wrong.

When I saw him, I didn't make a sound. I didn't want to alert Coco or Evan, or worse, wake up Pearl. I just sat there, face in the window, staring at the Beast.

The scene outside was bordering on picturesque, Evan's flat was just high enough for a stunning view of the near-empty piece of city, and just low enough that I and Edric could watch each other with unblinking eyes. Had it not been for the sheer anxiety, the quiet treetops would've been quite peaceful.

It was late. Late enough that only the few up to no good human creatures of the city walked the night, scurrying through the streets paying no mind to anything around them. And the Beast, draped in a dark hood, drew little to no attention.

The young girl on the garden bench from before had gone. A stillness had fallen outside the tower block. Behind the Beast was a street filled with parked cars and large, iron gates opening onto the pitch-black park.

My reliance on his otherworldly appearance to keep me safe was shattered by the lack of nearby life and his ability to blend into the darkness. Without teeth visible, he was nothing but a giant man.

A man that I was sure no average human would bother.

He locked eyes with me the instant my head appeared. I found this alarming. How had he known where I was? How had he known which window I would be in?

I started to wonder about Evan. He was the son of the most controversial figure in the industry and scars or not, I couldn't accept his story with complete certainty. I wondered if he had sold us out to the Beast. If Coco, Pearl, and I were just sitting ducks.

As thoughts snowballed I felt Edric Miller's eyes burrowing into my soul, even from that distance. They were hypnotic, as if they were searching for a part of me I hadn't even met yet and drawing me out, closer to him.

I couldn't just sit there. I had to do something.

I couldn't be prey.

Despite my discomfort and reservations, I wanted desperately to trust Evan. His love for Pearl had always seemed so genuine and he was willing to help without question. The disdain he had for his mother and her actions was so clear that I felt bad for even considering the possibility that Evan was acting.

But I had to.

I glanced at the sofa where Coco lay, her gorgeous, dark braids brushing the edge of the fabric as she snored like a tractor. I knew I could trust her. She would do anything in her power to protect my daughter, from anyone she needed to.

That was the only certainty I had.

So I took a risk. I left Pearl in her crib and I went to face the Beast; knowing if my uncomfortable feeling about Evan turned out to be at all founded, that Coco would look after Pearl.

I peered into her crib briefly as I opened the flat door as carefully and quietly as possible. She gurgled slightly, making tiny, sleeping baby faces. My heart filled and my nerves hardened. It was all worth it for her. My daughter.

Biology and monster magic didn't mean a fucking thing.

Running into the stairwell I was faced with the still man, familiar yet unrecognizable. Despite my sheer panic, his world hadn't changed, Mr. Average had remained where he was. He provided me some comfort as I rushed toward the metal doors of the lift.

It had to be quicker than the stairs, right?

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Doctor."

A chill ran up my spine as the young voice from behind me echoed the cryptic warning that Evan had given me on entry to the building.

I turned to the spot behind Mr. Average, where a small figure perched on a concrete windowsill, feet occasionally balancing on the handrail that ran beneath it but mostly swinging back and forth.

As the figure became clear I recognized one of my youngest patients. A girl; one half of a set of twins, deep black holes for eyes and pointed horns.

I'd wondered throughout many of our appointments if her affliction were a direct result of the building we stood in. Having finally seen it for myself I was almost certain my theory was right.

"What's in there?" I asked, pointing toward the mysterious lift, skipping the formalities in keeping with the urgency of the situation. The lift had become quite ominous.

"It doesn't matter, Doctor, just take the stairs. I like coming to your office, I wouldn't want that to stop." She grinned at me, revealing a set of shining, sharp teeth that had clearly been well-maintained since I saw her last. I'd always enjoyed my appointments with her and her brother, too.

I heeded her warning but not before offering her some words of encouragement that would've usually come with a sticker.

"It's nice to see you looking after those teeth. Thanks, Ellie."

With that I started to charge down the stairs, leaving the still man and the little monster behind, the latter waving me off.

What had felt like a perilous journey on the way up was over in seemingly a mere few steps, as if the building itself were willing me to reach the Beast.

I made it to the entrance lobby in seconds, threw open the main doors, and there was... nothingness.

The empty street felt bigger than it had before, the cold, late-night wind kissed my cheek as I looked around for the monstrosity that it should've been impossible to lose.

The gaps between the trees that lined the pathway through the park were black and infinite. I could feel an energy around me that was so dark and oppressive, I could barely stand. There was more power in the air than I could've ever anticipated.

"Wake up, Doctor, I thought you were sharper than that."

The Beast's cold voice crept up behind me, echoing through the still-open doors of the tower block. I turned, expecting to see him standing inches from me, ready to kill. Instead, he sat inside, nonchalantly on the bottom few stairs, leaning heavily against the wall.

I cringed, taking in the expression on his face, the furrowed brow and the aggression in his deep-set eyes; raw, hostile emotion. A few steps back into the building and the loud clank of the doors shutting left me alone with him in the lobby.

I wondered if any of the inhabitants of the building would respond to cries for help?

I opened my mouth to speak but he didn't allow me to make a sound, raising a patronizing, wagging finger.

"It's my turn. You'll get yours, I'm sure, but right now, in this moment, you're going to listen to me.

"I know she's here. There's no point in any niceties, Dayna. No point denying that you aren't the sole thing standing in the way of the only chance I have at fatherhood.

"When I lost Rhea I'd already given up everything; my future, my past... my humanity. All in the name of a family that was ripped away from me. I had to watch her die, watch them both die, knowing there wasn't a thing I could do to help her. Do you know how that feels?"

The question was rhetorical but I couldn't ignore the lump in my throat that formed in response.

The tickling memory of my own mother flooded my brain, just like the alcohol had hers, sprawled out on the whiskey-soaked couch as I shoveled dry cereal into my mouth at six years old. Years of that until she got really sick.

The tubes in the hospital and the incessant beeping of machinery, interrupting rhythmically as I tried to study. Her liver failing as she sabotaged every chance of a transplant with her addiction. The missed classes and parties, the romances I never got to have. The stale vomit. The human monster. I knew exactly how that felt.

"I spent hundreds of years in the village, mourning my love and our beautiful, breathless child," the Beast continued, a genuine tear escaping his steely eyes. "I wanted to die, too, so I could go to them. Hell, even nothingness had to be better. But it isn't that simple when you are what I am.

"So I stayed as everything around me decayed; my parents, my friends, my home, my soul. I became a local legend, a spectacle for kids to ridicule, and an existence that your kind debated. And still. Still, I helped anyone I could.

"That little girl's parents searched for me, they begged and pleaded with their god that the magic the kids claimed I had was real. The hag's, too, I'm sure. I didn't know that at the time, I thought they saw through this." He gestured to his teeth, baring them at me as his eyes welled with bitter tears.

"I didn't know they'd cast out a net, hoping to find any creature able to fix their problem. Exploiting those who hide in the shadows for their own gain."

I remembered his story as he'd first told it on my dental chair while I watched the hurt in his eyes build. There was a man buried beneath the monster, a person who just wanted his family back. A person that was left with the same empty feeling the child in me had when my mother finally choked on her own spew.

For that, I had true sympathy.

His emotion infected the entire room, building a heavy, thick smog that clouded my thoughts. Slowly, he stood, taking a few steps forward and slapping an enormous and frustrated hand on the metal of the lift door.

There was a whimper. Whimpers.

For the first time, I had an insight into the real reason I'd been advised to stay away from it. It wasn't cursed and it didn't frequently break down.

It was home to what sounded like multiple monsters, monsters who were terrified of the one on the other side of the metal.

It didn't bode well considering how fearsome Evan and my young patient had considered them to be. I wondered for a moment if I would be safer in that little box. Safer amongst the whimpers.

"How did you find me?" I managed, nervously.

The Beast smiled and traced his tongue along the tips of his thick fangs as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, clear plastic cup before tossing it to the ground. It made an awful, echoing sound as it collided with the concrete.

I remembered how many of those little plastic cups I'd handed him at the practice.

I'd handed him my scent, a personalized tracking device in a neat little bow. I realized in that moment that the Beast's powers went beyond just healing, he'd found me with ease and the intense darkness I could feel was perfectly intentional.

"Humans." He rolled his eyes. "See, I don't want you to feel disrespected, Doctor, I actually think you're quite intelligent. As a species though? Pathetic. It's a wonder you haven't been wiped out, that you manage to keep the rest of us in the shadows. I suppose you're the elite in cruelty."

"I was never cruel to you," I pleaded, realizing my feeble assumption that I would talk him down and live happily ever after with Pearl had been mistaken.

"You don't get it, do you? You claim to help, you're polite on the surface. But all you do is seek to humanize. She's a killer. A monster just like me. Just like Rhea was, like our child would have been. My second chance. I could stomach you in a professional capacity, Doctor, but raising something I created? Not a chance.

"You've got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here, Doctor. I'm going to offer you the benefit of the doubt, a chance to hand her over. You didn't realize before, I get that, but now you know what she is you will give her back. Or I will take her."

I thought of the sleeping baby upstairs. The child that I'd bonded with, raised for months. My blood boiled at the complete disregard for my parenting. I'd kept her alive, loved her. I loved her.

"You aren't taking her. She is my daughter," I spoke firmly, an inaudible wobble in my voice as I fought to mask the fear.

The Beast scoffed at my pitiful anger, it only incensed him even further. Towering over me he took a few steps closer, closing the gap and imposing his gigantic presence.

Almost foaming through his perfectly organized fangs he was a vision of terror, one I couldn't bear to imagine with Pearl in his arms. When he continued, he spoke with vitriol that had its own foul stench.

"You said it first, back in your office. She's a monster. A thing that can never be a part of the world you exist in. People like you. People that see us as nothing more than a subject to learn about while you profit off our struggles, you can't possibly be blind to the sort of treatment the rest of your kind give us? Stupid enough to think that you can protect something like her?"

His words were an attack on everything I'd believed about myself. For a moment, he made me question my own intentions with Pearl.

Had I seen her as some kind of selfish and twisted experiment in my pursuit for knowledge? I thought back to my fascination with the Beast, my thirst for information, I even considered the small buzz I got from realizing he'd used abilities to track me down. Maybe he was right.

Or maybe it was time I stopped cowering and did what my mother never did for me.

"If you think that baby is nothing but a killer then it's you that doesn't understand. It's you treating her like some sort of commodity for your own fucked up beliefs and it's you that's the problem. You'll have to rip me to shreds to get to her!"

My hands started to shake. I talked a big game but I knew that if he wanted to, the Beast could easily call my bluff and tear me limb from limb. I cursed myself for not having woken Coco before I departed the flat, for being complacent in my defenses.

This time the Beast delighted, the smog became heavier and I felt my knees buckle as he grinned. I curled my hands into tight fists and my knuckles pulsated in time with my heart. He noticed every tiny, subtle feeling, no matter how hard I tried to conceal it.

"That's it! Feel it! Feel that rage!"

I did, I felt every part of it coursing through my veins, forcing my heart to beat faster than it ever had before.

"Do you know what that feeling is, Doctor?" he asked calmly, inches from my face as I panted in rage and terror. "Did you know that when a mother thinks her child is in danger she's capable of lifting cars? Capable of fighting a polar bear with her bare hands to protect her young? Incredible, unimaginable strength. Who's the Beast now?"

"I'd do anything for her," I hissed back at him, fighting the smog to stay balanced. I raised a fist, puny, I know, and as expected the Beast encased it with his own in an instant, flipping me over and onto the ground with barely a wrist movement.

Winded, I struggled to breathe but it didn't deter me. I got back up and threw my weight at the Beast but was knocked to the ground again with ease. I felt the impact on my bones as I hit the cement. He craned over me, beady eyes that had once been filled with tears and emotion now vacant, expressionless and cold.

"Now, Doctor, I want you to imagine the capabilities of a father in that same position.

"You never stood a chance in the first place."

That was the last thing that I remember hearing before the Beast reached into the pocket that hadn't held the plastic cup and pulled out a closed fist. He winked at me before blowing sharply into it and shooting a fine mist of yellowish powder into my face.

Within seconds, there was nothing but black.

I wish I had a more dramatic recollection of the events after that moment but there isn't much I can report from my time knocked out cold on the floor.

I often wondered if any residents had passed me, or if they'd encountered the Beast in the halls. It was late and if I'm honest I doubted the Beast would be of much note to come across in a place like that.

I haven't returned to the block since that night. I never got the answers I sought and I'm not certain I ever will.

When I finally woke up, I was surprised to even be alive. The first ray of morning light coming through the frosted glass of the main doors hit me like a train.

I sprinted.

Aching from the impact with the ground I forced myself up, ignored the pain, and sprinted up the stairs, towards Evan's flat.

My friends, my daughter. Pearl.

I willed the Beast to be on the ground of the flat, a mess that we could employ PSEC to clean and never give a second thought to. I hoped that my faith in Coco's abilities to protect Pearl hadn't been overzealous.

It was no reflection on Coco. No. Once again, I'd underestimated the Beast of Cordyline Hill.

The still man remained in position on the stairs; an observer, stationary as a baby was taken from her crib. The flat door was wide open, the scene much like the one I'd left, except for the missing child.

Coco was in the same position, braids still dangling from the sofa. The snoring had stopped, however, and her face was coated with a fine yellow dusting, just like the unidentifiable mist the Beast has used to put me to sleep.

I stumbled into the hall, panic building as I noted Evan's open bedroom door.

Still unable to shake the feeling that he had been complicit in the event I stepped inside, relieved to be instantly proven wrong. Evan lay silently, golden powder layering his face.

I woke Coco first, shaking her hard and babbling desperate nonsense, Evan not long after.

There was a somber feeling in the flat. A gaping hole where a baby's giggle once sat. I felt powerless, we all did. We'd been ambushed and we'd lost. Now Pearl was caught up in the Beast's maniacal hatred of humankind. Of the people who loved her.

I wasn't about to let it drop. A mother's love knows no bounds.

A friend in need's a friend indeed but a friend who'll bleed is better.

Hollow.

That's all I've got for you this time. It's a feeling you think you've felt before, until you've really felt it. Without Pearl, I was hollow. A shell of a person. Broken.

It was as if the Beast had reached inside me and ripped out my soul. My baby didn't leave my mind for a second. Was she scared? Was he taking care of her?

Her empty crib stared back at me as a glaring reminder of my failure. Of my stupidity. Of my inability to protect my baby from the Beast that made her.

It was sick but for a moment I considered if I should forget her and return to normality without the child I'd never asked for. I considered it, but I couldn't bear the thought.

It's the moment I realized that family is a story that's often told wrong. It isn't blood, as evidenced by my own poor excuse for a mother, and it isn't a fairytale that romanticizes the monsters that walk among us. It's raw, painful love. The kind that you don't ask for but can't live without.

I couldn't live without her.

At this point, I wondered if I would've preferred he killed me. He could've. I know it and you know it, too. I didn't know what the powder he'd used to knock the three of us out was, but aside from its powerful sedation qualities, it hadn't appeared to bring any real harm. Why didn't he just kill?

Many of you mentioned your own confusion at his mercy and suggested it may be a symbol of the last of his humanity. I can't pretend that hadn't crossed my mind at the time.

I was wrong. You were wrong.

"We'll find them, Day, we'll get her back." Coco wrapped her arms around me and tried to be comforting. She was somewhat, but she couldn't fill that gaping void in my chest.

The air inside the flat was heavy with Pearl's absence and sheer panic.

Panic. It's a funny thing.

We all reacted differently; I stayed silent and frozen, traumatized by the things I hadn't done. Coco did as she always did, she babbled incessantly, and Evan... Evan paced.

The pacing was aggressive. There were banging and scrunching sounds as he started to collect necessities. I'd shaken my previous reservations about his involvement in the Beast's sudden appearance but I couldn't avoid the thought that Evan was acting strangely.

It was a stressful situation, sure, but he was usually so calm. Initially, he'd been the organizer, helping us to work out a plan, giving us a place to stay.

"What did he say to you, Day, where was he going?" Coco asked, white noise surrounding her as I started to feel overwhelmed, the pacing like a pendulum for me to follow. I mumbled a meek response.

"I don't know. I don't remember anything after he blew that stuff in my face."

CRASH

Evan's fist made contact with the wall, punching a small hole into the plaster. It shook me out of my trance-like state. I couldn't hold my tongue. Nothing new there, I suppose.

"What is it? What aren't you telling us?!" They were the first truly coherent words that I'd spoken since waking in the concrete lobby.

I stepped toward him, feeling the same motherly rage build inside me as I had during my conversation with the Beast.

Evan inhaled sharply and relaxed his hand, letting it hang loosely by his side again. With the other hand, he gripped his dark hair in frustration and fought back tears.

"I promise I didn't know for sure... I never saw him..."

"Talk," I snarled in response.

"I know what that stuff he used was. It proves he's a customer of the organ collectors. I suspected as much, but I'd never seen or heard of him in my time there. Just a suspicion... I mean, what the fuck else does something like that eat, right?"

It was the one question I hadn't asked, a poor indictment of my skills as a dentist. It was the simplest question and usually always my first. Transfixed by the Beast and his story during our appointment, I had never thought to ask about his diet.

He couldn't drink when he first arrived at the practice. I'd given him back his ability to bite and he'd run straight to Evan's mother, Carla. I'd done that. I became quite enveloped in my own shame for a moment, until a single real voice cut through the hundreds in my mind.

"What was it?" Coco asked, trying to diffuse the tension in the room as she dusted a few specks of yellow from her face.

"Have you ever met the forest people?"

Evan's response jarred me, what did those particular creatures have to do with anything? I thought of Dennis, of the simpler times just doing my job and our adventure in the village of Abelfort. Whatever the answer, he was genuinely distressed.

"Of course," Coco replied as I seethed silently in the background

"They keep themselves to themselves mostly, right?" he continued, a look of pure disgust on his face.

The forest people, or the fae, were a traditionally illusive species. Dennis was the first and to this day the only forest person I'd had the pleasure of working on. They were famously disconnected from the paranormal and human worlds, choosing to stay mostly amongst the trees.

Coco nodded and Evan continued.

"They're powerful. One of the most powerful creatures to walk the planet, in fact. It's the type of power that you can't snuff out entirely, even in death. Their... parts... can be worth a fortune to the right customer." Evan shuddered at his own words, taking a deep breath before he carried on.

"One of my mother's shadier contacts offered her a product that could be a great asset to the collection side of the company, a product that promised to harness that power as the strongest sedative in the world. Perfect for prey extraction."

Realizing the direction the conversation was taking, I started to feel queasy, tugging at my skin to ensure every speck of dust was gone. Fae were a noble, proud race. I remembered their grace and gratitude as they lined the forest to guide us out safely after we rescued one of theirs. They'd been reduced to a weapon. A sick fucking pun. Dust.

Fairy dust.

"That's... awful. Are we poisoned?" I asked groggily, trying to process and think of anything but Pearl. That wasn't helping me to clear my mind.

"No. That was the main selling point for Carla. It knocks a person out for a few hours but after that, they're ready to run and scream, dead power can't last an eternity. It just made collection easier, it sold for a bomb to customers, too. Trouble-free kidnapping." Evan panted as we all rubbed at our faces; attempting, with much futility, to be subtle.

"Why didn't he kill me?" I asked, not expecting an answer of any kind.

Neither of my friends were able to provide me with an answer to that question. The moment was punctuated with an awkward silence.

A little calmer after our conversation, Evan gathered our coats and his car keys and bundled us down the stairs. Once again the flights felt short, like the block was helping us along. For the first time, I wondered if there was more to the place than just its inhabitants. Were the bricks and mortar their own monster?

I hoped that one day I'd be able to answer that question but with my baby missing, it was the least of my concerns.

There was no real aim. Maybe if we'd had any sort of plan things may have gone better than they did, but instead, we just fled aimlessly in the direction of Cordyline Hill.

Leaving the building felt quite unusual, as if we were stepping from some sort of safe haven into the wide unknown. A cold, human world that wasn't geared up for the kind of problems we were experiencing.

Evan stepped toward the driver's side as we reached his car but Coco quickly interjected.

"Hand me the keys," she demanded.

"Do it. Get in the passenger seat."

Evan didn't dare fight us both. If it hadn't been for the situation I'd have chuckled, he was in for quite the surprise with Coco's emergency driving.

I worried a little for the state of his car. If she wrecked it I'd have to replace it, along with giving Evan a hero's raise like I'd already planned. He was becoming a very expensive babysitter, albeit through no fault of his own.

We sped out of the city. It was the crack of dawn and the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, as the sides of the roads became expanses of field and forest I noticed the dew sparkling, creating little lines of light as we whizzed past.

The journey was mostly silent until halfway, when Evan uttered two words.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" I answered.

"For not being able to keep you all safe. I just wanted to do better. When I couldn't find that little girl from the cage I hated myself. I applied for this job because I just wanted to help someone instead."

My heart broke a little at his words. I knew what it was like to feel like a failure and I recognized that expression written all over his face.

"It's not your fault. It's mine. I was too complacent, I should've done my research on Pearl. That photograph should never have been on my desk."

"Both of you shut up," Coco interrupted the pity party with an authoritarian tone. It wasn't chipper, like her usual persona, but it also didn't feel pointed or devoid of care. "Wallowing gets us nowhere. Pearl deserves to be raised by people who teach her to love, smile, and believe in herself."

There was a quiet. A million sassy remarks about her greeting card-style quote crossed my mind but none of them felt fitting. Sometimes the cheesy messages that you find on greeting cards have their place.

"Right?" she prodded.

"Right," Evan answered, sniffing back a sob and forcing a smile onto his face as he turned to look at me.

For a moment he was the goofy kid in the hall of No More Nightmares again, jangling his keys to save a vampire from my child. I suppose he always was. I felt a pang of guilt for ever suspecting that he had nefarious intentions.

Evan hadn't been in our lives for long but he was family. This traumatic experience, his vulnerability and honesty about his mother, and his sheer determination to help had shown me what a pure and wonderful person he was. I felt motherly toward him, I wanted to keep him safe, too.

"Right," I affirmed, cringing at the camaraderie that I simultaneously valued so dearly.

The three of us continued on, the once strange atmosphere lifted and less tension filled the air. Any remaining periods of silence were cut through by the tinned pop music on the stereo. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, I felt humbled to have friends willing to face a Beast with me.

"He's not going to give her back easily. What's the plan? What if he just knocks us out again?" I started to word vomit, desperate to share my panic.

"I doubt he has any more of the dust, it's expensive beyond what you can imagine. He had enough to knock three of us out, I'd put money on that being the entire supply," Evan responded.

"We still can't dismiss the possibility. We also can't ignore the fact that he could physically overpower any one of us."

As I finished my sentence I felt the car speed up in response, Coco incensed by my words.

"That sneaky bastard took your baby while we were sleeping. I'm not asleep anymore, Day, I won't let him keep her."

Coco spoke with a smile on her face, I knew it even though she was facing the road and I couldn't see it, her voice sounded different when she smiled.

I believed that she believed her words. I'd seen Coco fight before but not since our university days. She could be fearsome... terrifying, in fact, but I wasn't certain she could tear down a monster like the Beast. It had been so long, I wondered if she could still fight at all.

If it was even still in her.

None of it really mattered. All that mattered was that we got Pearl home. We didn't discuss it but we'd all considered the fact the Beast might have to take his last breath before he let go of the baby.

We were all aware that we might be driving home murderers.

It took us just over an hour to reach Cordyline Hill, a journey that would've taken much longer had it not been for Coco's erratic driving. As I suspected, Evan spent much of it gripping his seat and wincing.

The village didn't have the same postcard appeal that it had the first time we'd visited. It was cloudy, with morning sun shooting through the gaps in the sky like poorly drawn blinds. The light irritated me, making it hard to take in the sweeping landscape and quaint cottages.

My heart started to race as the shack came into view. I'd noticed it upon leaving No More Nightmares but at the time it hadn't seemed like anything at all. Now it sat, decrepit and dilapidated, a beacon of everything I wanted to protect Pearl from.

"That's it, isn't it?" Coco stopped the car just far enough along the winding country road that the shack was nothing but a blurry shell.

They both turned to me as I nodded, palms starting to feel clammy. It's as if I could feel my daughter's presence, a strange kind of magnetic bond. I knew he had her there.

With my nod came a culmination of our lack of planning, a turn of events that had I been clear-headed, I may have predicted in time to limit the disastrous consequences.

We got out of the car, abandoning it in a small dirt lay-by on the seemingly endless road. And we walked. We walked like lambs to the slaughter, every step another step closer to doom.

The image of the shack got bigger as we neared it and the twisting in the pit of my stomach intensified. The road was dead still, not a single other soul in sight. In such a glorious countryside setting you would expect to hear birds, but the air was stagnant without any signs of life.

Until the cry.

It was a cry that stopped my pounding heart, a familiar, primal sound that I knew was calling for me. Pearl.

Only yards from the shack we heard it, and whilst I took a moment to sigh relief that my daughter was alive and that we hadn't struggled to find her, my friends didn't react the same.

Coco took my hand and sped up, ready for some kind of demented battle. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was Evan.

Evan ran.

He ran toward the shack so quickly I couldn't comprehend that he'd gone. Coco and I screamed after him and made a desperate attempt at pursuit but it was too late. He disappeared, pushing a broken door that barely hung on its hinges, into the home of the monster.

Looking back, I wonder if it was our screams that alerted the Beast.

We reached the opening just in time to see Evan, fingertips away from a giggling Pearl, obviously delighted to see a familiar face. A smile almost crept onto my own lips but that was wiped away in an instant.

I watched helplessly as a giant hand wrapped around Evan's neck, dirty fingernails tightening enough to lift him meters off the ground.

"Stop!" I screamed, taking a step inside the isolated wooden building, knowing no one that could help would hear me.

It didn't matter.

The Beast flashed me a smug, toothy grin as he dropped the young boy to the floor, like an object. Like nothing. Evan's entire body convulsed with the force of him hitting the cold, hard ground. He tried to push himself up but he couldn't, I'm certain he'd broken multiple bones.

Edric Miller turned to me and I searched for the shred of humanity you'd all hoped for. The humanity I'd hoped for. It just wasn't there.

"I didn't expect you to be so stupid, Doctor. Coco, it's a pleasure." He winked in the direction of a seething Coco, his arrogance permeating every inch of the rancid shack.

There had been another change in the Beast. This time it wasn't one that brought confusion, or muddied my view on what lurked beneath his cretinous surface. This time I saw exactly who he was.

He was a monster.

Quicker than we could react he took action that I don't think either of us anticipated in the moment. If it had been expected things may have ended differently. Action that changed the course of my life forever.

The Beast turned away from us, smiling down at the injured boy before him, and he forced an enormous hand into his chest, puncturing skin and ripping out innards.

That sounds flippant. To reduce the violent death of someone I cared so deeply for into one sentence. I don't mean it to. The moment lasted less than a second but it felt like, in that shack, time froze.

I watched as the spark in his eyes, head flopped to face us, went out for the last time. I watched as blood ran. So much blood. It layered the floor in a macabre river of suffering. I watched as the Beast reveled in the pain he was inflicting, lifting parts of Evan to his disgusting, perfectly manicured fangs. I watched as Evan died, trying to help my baby.

Pearl started to cry. I started to cry, too.

All in a split second. That's all it takes for your world to change forever.

It only took another split second for my world to change again, like the peaks and drops of a rollercoaster, forcing me along its track, twisting my stomach along the way.

As I looked on in horror, devastated by the events, something started to happen in the background. Shadows started to form; behind me, around me, creeping up each time-worn crevice and cranny of rotted wood.

I felt an anger that was somewhat familiar, yet stronger than ever before. It wasn't the motherly anger that the Beast had been excited to ignite. In fact, it wasn't even my anger. It was one that he ought to have been far more afraid of.

I noticed the shadowed specter rising behind me, encompassing everything inside the room, the shadow that had been there, dormant, to protect me for so long.

The Beast stopped consuming Evan's corpse to look up in a terrified wonder at the creature before him. One that had outsized him quite considerably.

I'd seen it before, only a handful of times and not for quite a number of years. I suppose it hadn't been given much prior reason to manifest.

She hadn't been given a reason.

I thought back to my doubt on the journey that it was still there, still in her; the monster. I should've never doubted at all.

Of course, Coco still had it in her.