The Monstrous Hunt

by Tara K. Young

negativity. They became desperate and sought out any negativity they could ingest. Even though the two people in the Viking centre were not supposed to die, the negativity of their failing marriage made them too tempting to the dying Myyga.

  You can clean souls and walk with the dead but you can die?

  Apparently. You are the one who taught us that it could happen.

  Stop blaming me for this! You are the ones who did all of it.

  We are the one who chose you to test but that is where our fault ends. We mistook your approach to life as indifference. You did not care about anyone or anything but we were sure it was not due to any hatred.

  As the populations of the world increase, we need more and more Myyga. Those who can be indifferent to death are best suited and the ones we choose. Unfortunately, we overlooked a very strong hatred within you and as you proved with Amelia, you are capable of very dark things.

  Once you were marked at the fair, you began to live in both worlds; that of the living and that of the dead. But it was your failures to see the truth of the matter that lead us here. You were not indifferent as we had hoped and you interfered with the first death you encountered. Your negativity and your obsessions disrupted our work and have created a problem we have never before faced.

  That thing at the crime scene?

  Yes. It is born of all the negativity the Myyga would have cleansed. Once unleashed, it needed to feed upon more and the world is not wanting for negativity.

  York has been decimated. The governments are insane with theories of biological terrorism and epidemics. The beast will only continue to expand and will not remain within York for much longer. We must fix this problem immediately.

  If you cleanse the negativity from souls, why can't you just send all the Myyga to take care of it?

  Why do you think we created more? That is what the Myyga showed you. They showed you that we were forced to make more, without tests, without the proper path. We tried but we could never have won.

  Why should we be blamed for what you caused? Why should we have to send every last Myyga to the worst of deaths to fix what you created?

  Even if we wanted to go that far, it would be impossible. The beast has bred too much negativity. It is too strong for a few Myyga and its very presence weakens the doors to Hell. We can no longer risk going near lest we make the situation worse. With each lost Myyga, it grows.

  But you can risk me?

  Yes.

  Thanks.

  Unfortunately, I cannot say I have much faith in your abilities.

  Try not to be so encouraging.

  But after what I have seen of your pursuit of Amelia, I do have faith in the power of your negativity.

  Are you mental? That thing will eat me up like a snack! You really think that my negativity is more powerful than that of some corrupt official and the rest of the worst of York?

  That is not quite what I said.

  Oh good, because that would be the stupidest plan I have ever heard. I've already encountered that thing once and it was bad enough. I still feel violated from when it touched my heart.

  And yet you remain standing. Was the rest of York so fortunate?

  Why me?

  That is something you will have to find out for yourself. We must return. I will bring you with me. It will only take a heartbeat.

  Where are we?

  You don't recognize it?

  I can't tell. It's so dark.

  We are outside York. The Myyga have been forced to flee. The living have all been consumed.

  But there are people down that road. I can see them moving and there are big vehicles, as big as my flat.

  Military and doctors. They can go no further. They have lost many already in their attempts.

  I thought the beast was going to spread, that it would seek out more negativity to feed it?

  Yes, in time it will, but it has been content to remain for the moment.

  If all those people have died getting near it, how am I ever going to get there?

  You are not of the living world anymore and I have faith in your darkness. The beast can overpower most very easily. You are another matter entirely. It could feed upon you forever and you would survive. It would have no need to spread with you as its meal.

  You are sacrificing me to it? That's why you want me to stop it?

  It is the only way.

  I don't believe you.

  That is your choice but whether you go to it is not.

  I'm not ready.

  I find very little reason to care. Good-bye Oliver.