Page 2 of Monstrous Truths


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Robot bitch is the term I hear most often.

The second is cock tease, all because I decided to embrace my femininity and changed from loose clothes to form-fitting dresses that make me feel like I can take on the world.

Flipping over so I’m facing the plain white ceiling of my boring apartment, I find myself wishing for something to change. Anything really. This cold, sterile life I am living is wearing on me, and the research that once excited me doesn’t anymore. I feel like I’m wasting my potential.

I fall asleep with hope on my mind.

TWO

CATO

The stars shine brightly through the glass dome above me as my tail lazily wraps around the wooden leg of the bench I lie on. The recent book I borrowed from the library rests on my rising and falling chest. My left arm dangles off the side, touching the once beautiful mosaic floor of my favourite place.

Sitting up with a sigh, I hold the book tightly, like a precious treasure, and climb to my feet. I stretch out my muscles, which are tight from sitting here so long as I read. My eyes sweep greedily around the space. I’m in the art section of the museum, the paintings keeping me company as I wander through the halls. The ropes that once protected the valuable art are long gone, most of the walls are stained, and some of the paintings are missing, though I tried to save as many as I could. Leaves blow in from the open front doors, travelling deeper into the museum.

The monument is forgotten, like us.

The huge, domed ceiling in the next section makes my breath catch, as always. The intricate marble structures and paintings must have taken years to create, and now they have been left behind to rot with no one to appreciate their beauty but me.

Don’t get me wrong, my tribe appreciates beauty, art, science, and knowledge, but most prefer to spend their time scouring the human libraries or researching our people. It’s a noble cause, and one I should be focusing on, but something called to me this night. It was a whisper, and I couldn’t resist. It led me here, and now some foreign feeling pounds through my heart.

Change—that’s what it felt like, but I couldn’t logically explain why.

Unlike the Nightfangs, which is the tribe my friend Akuji rules, who trust their instincts to keep them alive, I prefer to focus on what I know and can prove. However, I cannot deny my instincts, which are screaming at me that everything is going to change soon. Frowning, I force myself to speed up. I burst out of the once double front doors and onto the cracked steps of the building. Before me is the square that my people have claimed as ours.

It has an intact water fountain proudly standing in the middle, with a huge, bronze statue set in the heart, lions around the bottom, and a man with a scroll standing proudly between them—Professor Athesa, the man who established the concept of science and society as we know it.

Passing the statue, I spot candles burning in the library and smile softly, knowing my friends, my people, will be there, but I head to our home instead.

The university campus stretches before me. There were once buildings between it and the museum, but they were destroyed in the war, and we built tracks to easily access our base, or den, as the warrior tribe calls it. There’s a roar, and I lift my head, my eyes narrowing as I stare into the distance. It was far away, in the Darklings’ land. It’s none of my business, yet I stand here for a moment longer, wondering which poor monster has been killed now.

No, it’s none of my business.

Rolling my shoulders back to ease the tension there, I move through the double doors of the old, red brick building. The main university building, which somehow survived the war, has stunning architecture and spans the whole block. It once held classrooms, theatres, lecture rooms, and more, but it’s all changed now, thanks to us. We’ve made it our own. We built skywalks between it and the buildings on either side, which were also part of the university, expanding the area for our tribe. We don’t take in rogues often, but we do sometimes take in wanderers from the warrior tribe.

After all, I was one before.

We have had a few children born in the last few months alone, so we need to expand the nursery. It’s situated in the middle of the complex so they are the most protected. Unlike Akuji’s tribe, we don’t live underground all the time. We have converted basements for those who prefer it, but after a few years, our people created barriers for windows and doors that descend at sunrise to protect our people. It means we can work through the day if need be and also use more rooms in the building. The tunnels under the university were also extended to reach farther out in the city, so as not to limit ourselves like the daylight does.

One of my main research goals is to lessen the effects of the sun. Although we are nocturnal creatures, some of our people, including me, think we could boost our natural aversion to sunlight so the next generation of our people can have all the best opportunities.

The horn sounds—a warning that dawn is a few hours away. The alert reminds those who are spread out across the city and those who guard the perimeter of our lands. During the day, our cameras turn on, allowing us to watch for any humans. Not that they wander in here, but you can never be too careful. At night, they recharge using the moonlight. It’s genius, really, even if I do say so myself, considering I created them.

Once inside, I greet my people, answer some questions, and converse before escaping upstairs to my lab. It’s built on the top floor, and since it’s constructed of old science classrooms, it’s not as state of the art as I would like, but it will do, and it’s all mine. Even the bravest of our people don’t like being that close to the sun during daylight, worrying it will somehow get to us. Me? I trust in our creations, and I lead by example. It also gives me the space I need to focus on my research in solitude after a hard night of leading our people.

It’s a job I also love, but under it all, I am a scientist more than I am a leader. They still continue to elect me year after year, saying I am the best they have ever had. Logically, I know I have advanced our tribe and expanded our territory, as well as brought peace between the Nightfang tribe and our own, the Acumens, but sometimes, splitting my time makes me testy.

Hence the need for silence.

Here, I can evaluate my complicated feelings and roaring instincts. I have fought long and hard to maintain control over my beast and to be a logical being rather than an emotional one, but sometimes it’s hard. We are hardwired to fight, mate, and follow our beast’s instincts, but that doesn’t mean I have to be nothing but a monster.

I can be so much more, and I will.

Sighing, I set my book down at the door, wash my hands, and slide into my lab coat. It’s a little snug again—the fourth time this year. I will need to make a new one out of scraps I find in the city, but wearing it brings me back to my logical human side, rather than a bumbling monster playing scientist.

I know the other tribes respect the knowledge we can provide, but they think we are strange. That’s okay, though, since not all of us need to be obsessed with fighting and killing. There is enough room in our city for all of us, hence the split of our tribes.

Sitting down at my notes, I chew on my pen as I read over them again. It’s on another formula to test for resistance to sunlight. I never test them on anyone but me, but I feel like I’m getting close.

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