Monsters Do Exist

Posted on Mon Oct 19th, 2026 @ 12:04pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Kate Kono

2,103 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Creatures of the Night
Location: Planet Stoker - Vaseria

Belmont looked over at Sam, "You might want to check out this diminutive sprite, make sure she isn't a pint or two low thanks to an unexplained encounter."

"There's no blood loss that I can detect" Sam rechecked her readings before looking back at Kate. "You're not going out there, your neurotransmitters are all over the shop."

“My neurotransmitters are always out of whack when I go shopping!” Kate’s voice was loud, almost defiant, yet her eyes held a look of deference toward Sam. She lowered her voice to a near whisper, the words strained with resolve. “I can’t lose another.”

**And now the continuation...**


"Loss is one of the only constants in life, and something you come to know isn't personal. You are not safe here StarFleet, no one is" Belmont said as he made his way towards the door. "When you look too long into the abyss, the abyss looks back. Stories of monsters that you may have heard in your childhood aren't stories here."

" Do you know what is at work here? What beings can manipulate thoughts and feelings?" Sam asked, knowing he most likely couldn't but it was worth the ask anyways. There was something dark going on here, but she had found that most 'scary' monsters had scientific explanations behind them.

"I'd like to know more about them."

Belmont stood in the doorway and bowed his head. "I know exactly what is at work here, and more to the point, who. His name is Vlad Dracula Tepes. My family and his have a long and bloody history, just as is true with Lady Anna, and Lady Anna's associate, Gabriel Helsing. If you want to know more, if you want to deal with what is viewed here as a real curse, then come with me. We move in haste to my home, and pray we don't run into what is making that howling."

"Then let's go. Fear is oft bred from misundetstanding or a lack of information." Sam felt brave enough to announce. "There may be reasons why this individual does what they do."

Kate followed Belmont out into the damp cold, her boots sinking slightly into the muddy ground. She kept her breathing even, a deliberate effort to steady the tremor in her hands that she balled into fists at her sides. The rain had eased to a fine mist that clung to her hair and uniform, but it did nothing to cut the chill that felt deeper than the weather. Every instinct screamed at her to turn back, to the warmth and the light and the known, but she fixed her eyes on Belmont’s back and matched his pace. Her voice, when it came, was raised just enough to be heard over the wind, tight with a bravado she didn’t feel.

“Is there a hovercraft? A cart? Anything? Or do we have to trek through the mud like it’s the sixteenth century?”

"For now, we walk. We'll get to more advanced means of transportation in due course, assuming we survive long enough for it to matter." Belmont looked back, seeing Kate and then seeing Sam and the others tagging behind. He called out to them, "It would be best that you catch up. You have a far better chance of not dying close to me, at least until something attacks."

Sam couldn't help her curiosity, tricorder out and recording on every frequency she could record simultaneously. If there was something out there, she wanted hard data, and proof.

They travelled northwest out of town, walking towards a shadowy forest with a Gothic structure visible in the distance. Belmont looked to the east at the large open field and the fog that was pushing down from the mountains. Looking back towards the forest, five sets of red eyes peered at them. Belmont stopped, staring down the creatures. As the tall gaunt pale skinned creatures came into view under the moonlight, Belmont sighed annoyed, "Wendigo. I really didn't want to deal with this tonight."

Sam's tricorder lit up like a Christmas tree but she focused on the interaction and what her eyes were telling her. These creatures understood langauge, and reasoning, what else did they know? She moved up to beside Belmont. "We mean you no harm, we are just passing through"

"I'd ask if you can defend yourselves, but chances are all you have are phasers" Belmont said, his eyes never leaving the approaching wendigo. He reached into his jacket an pulled out a large silver stake and tossed it to Kate. "Hope you know how to use this. Just apply liberally to their heart and do be mindful of their claws. They bite as well."

Belmont pulled another silver stake out and charged at the wendigo. The creatures snarled as they charged towards him. Two on the outskirts jumped past Belmont and landed only a few feet from Kate. Belmont dodged the initial claw swift like he was doing the limbo, and then jammed the silver stake into the chest of a wendigo. The creature cried out as blue flames flashed out of the wound and it fell to the ground. It no longer looked like the vile creature that it had been only mere moments before, but instead looked like a normal person, possibly one of the town folk.

"What the..." Sam couldn't help but exclaim, having dropped to her knees with her medkit beside the fallen creature now townsperson. She looked up - bewildered. "What the heck just happened?"

Belmont continued fighting with the Wendigo, dodging their strikes. He saw one closing in on Sam. He made a tactical roll away from those he was fighting and threw the stake in his hand at the charging one, the stake piercing the heart from the rear, the tip protruding from the chest as blue flame once again shown as the creature fell to the ground, transformed into another human. "Wendigo are cursed people. Similar to werewolves, though they are completely loyal to vampires, unlike the Lycans."

"What kind of 'curse' turns people into werewolves?" Sam blurted, scanning the villager who was looking bewildered. "And how?" She had oh so many questions.

Cold dread seized Kate’s throat as one of the creatures stalked toward her, lips peeled back from yellowed fangs. “This stuff we get into on these away missions,” she whispered, breath clouding in the frigid air. She took a step back and felt the ground give; a branch snapped somewhere behind her, followed by a low, wet snarl. Her fingers fumbled for her phaser, thumb sliding the setting to max until the casing vibrated with that dangerous, high-pitched hum. She let it drop into the mud and lunged instead with the silver stake.

She knew human anatomy, but this thing… its chest was a mess of matted fur and unnatural bone. The stake sank deep into muscle, not heart. The wendigo shrieked, a sound like tearing metal, and she threw herself sideways as claws raked the air where her face had been.

Then came the blast from the overloaded phaser.

A concussive thump punched the air from her lungs and flung her backward. Where the second creature had been, a thick pink mist hung for a second in the moonlight. Chunks of fur and gristle pattered down around her like obscene rain. A piece of tail landed softly beside her hand. A flaming half-body, absurdly wedged in the crook of an oak branch like a forgotten rotisserie chicken, smoldered high above them. A single arm dangled, dripping something thick and glistening onto the forest floor, while the moon, peeked through swift clouds, backlit the whole morbid scene with the dramatic flair of a cheap stage effect.

The last wendigo charged as she scrambled backward through the cold mud. A raw scream ripped from her throat, swallowed by the dense trees. Her fingers tore at slick roots and cold earth, gaining no purchase. The thing was on her before she could get her feet under her. The air left her lungs in a pained whoosh as a massive paw slammed into the small of her back, pinning her to the ground. Her chin dug into the mud, the taste of soil and decay filling her mouth. A violent shiver wracked her body. She could only whimper, a pathetic sound lost in the hiss of hot breath against the nape of her neck, the promise of razor sharp teeth just inches from her skin.

Sam fired her phaser, aiming for the beast in the chest and hoping for the best. She jumped to her feet and attempted to get in between Kate and the creature.

The phaser blast struck the creature’s chest in a crackle of blue energy which did manage to get it to take its foot off the Lieutenant, but it did not vanish or falter. Instead, it shuddered, a low growl rumbling from deep within as its matted fur stood on end. The smell of ozone and something older, something wet and animal, filled the air around them.

On the muddy ground, Kate scrambled backward on her elbows and heels, her breath ragged. Sam stood over her, weapon raised, her own pulse visible in her throat. The wolf-thing lowered its head, lips peeling back from teeth that looked too long and too numerous, its haunches tensing like coiled springs.

A silver stake plunged through its back out protruded out its chest, splattering blood on Kate and Sam. The creature fell to the ground just to the side of Kate as the blue flame visibly burned as the creature reverted back to its human state. Belmont walked over and looked at the two ladies, "Well, no hiding the reality of this world from you now. Welcome to a planet filled with all the horrors we were told existed on Earth. As you can see, monsters very much exist. Now then, let's get a move on. Wendigos are the least of our problems on a night like this."

Belmont looked at Kate and saw the claw marks that had drawn blood, "Lucky for you I killed that Wendigo. You would've become one because of that wound had I not killed it. Fun curse, better that you didn't have to suffer it."

He looked to Sam, "I'm sure you have all sorts of medical questions doctor. Let me get you all to safety, then I'll be happy to give you answers."


**************

Gabriel led Shran, Deanna, and Sypha up the stairs and down the corridors of this Gothic style home. As they approached the large study, Shran got his first glimpse of Lady Anna. She didn't look as he expected her to look. She was a tall slender, athletic warrior woman with thick, voluminous, dark brown hair cascading past her shoulders, dressed in black pants, possibly breeches considering the time period everyone seemed to be acting like it was around here, and he could see her wearing a short bolero-style crimson velvet jacket. As she turned towards the open doorway, you could see she was wearing a cream-colored peasant style chemise and a black leather underbust corset, and a silver crucifix hung around her neck.

"Anna, you have guests, courtesy of Sypha" Gabriel said as they entered the room.

Anna looked at Shran and Deanna, then looked over at Sypha. "You aren't with Belmont?"

"He is our next stop, but I felt it best to bring the captain here to see you first. Nightfall was close at hand."

Anna nodded her understanding. "I appreciate that. Belmont is a bit more eccentric than I am. He might give you the wrong idea about our little planet." She looked to Shran, "So, a StarFleet captain. Quite impressive. I think you're the highest-ranking officer we have ever had here up until now was a lieutenant. Well, that isn't completely true. There was Capt. Eliot, but he was only a captain in name, and even then, we have not seen him in some time. He was the captain of a ship..." she looked to Helsing, "what was that ship's name?"

Gabriel pondered for a moment but said nothing.

"The Demeter" Sypha offered, a chill in her voice.

"Yes, the Demeter. Freighter. Used to run supplies here" Anna continued.

"Used to?" Deanna questioned.

"The ship occasionally made runs from Earth to here and back. The last time it made a run from Earth, we didn't hear back from it. Likely brought something that you wouldn't believe" Gabriel said.

"Everything I have seen, you won't surprise me. Go ahead, give it a try" Shran said sarcastically.


TBC

 

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