Stolen Memories

I was sucked into the twisted memories of the goblin. The memories were already bizarre because of the dark mind of the goblin and then they were further corrupted by the power of Shadow. I saw the memories as a twisted mix of grey, black and red colors. I didn't view the memories form the point of view of the goblin rather it was like I was watching a gruesome horror movie. At first a series of memories rushed past so fast I couldn't only catch snippets of violence, murder and mad cackling. I thought I was going to be sick due to the wildly rushing memories. This was far worse than the first time I had stolen memories.

When I was sixteen, my father had taken me hunting a Hodag, it was a type of amphibious monster. It resembled a cross between a frog and crocodile with a set of horns on its head. After the hunt I ate the creature's heart and even though it was more beastly than a goblin its memories were less disturbing. The Hodag was powered by Blood like a werewolf and its memories were less violent and deranged. It had been more like watching a nature show. There were memories of swimming in the water, eating fish, resting in its cave home. Nothing like the nightmares of violence I saw from the Goblin.

After the initial rush of horrifying memories, I focused on what I was looking for. Why were they looking for me? As I pushed that question to the forefront of my mind, I was pulled to the memory of a goblin tournament. I saw about a dozen goblins savagely attacking one another. They bite and scratched and smashed each other's heads until only three remained, the three that I had fought in the alley behind my apartment.

After winning the tournament the three goblins were brought before a throne made of human, animal, and goblin bones. The three goblins kneeled before the throne with their long-pointed noses scrapping the dirty floor. Next to the throne stood a goblin wearing what looked like a tattered bath robe, with bone piercings in his nose, ears, and eyebrows with an aura of intelligence and power. This goblin, some type of shaman or witchdoctor from what little I knew about goblin, held a staff topped with a dog skull in one hand and a steaming cup of some foul liquid in the other. On the throne sat a creature that looked like a cross of goblin and human; he had the general body size and shape of a human, had pointed goblin ears, a long nose, but not as long as a regular goblin, and he had long sharp claws on the ends of his hands. He wore a tattered business suit and on top of his head he wore a crown made of twisted wire, scrapes of trash, cheap jewelry, and bone.

The goblin on the throne spoke in a twisted deep voice, "Champions you will go forth into the world of men and fetch the daughter of the moon and bring her to me, for she belongs to me and only me. You will not kill her or harm her, do you understand?"

The three goblins nodded that they understood, one of the goblins nodded his head so hard he banged his forehead on the floor in front of him.

"Perfect, now one of you shall receive the blessing our shaman has prepared for you, it will give you the power to track down any man, beast or monster." The crowned goblin pointed to the goblin whose heart I had eaten. "You killed the most other goblin in the tournament step forward and accept my gift."

The goblin stepped forward and took the bubbling cup from the shaman's hand and took a long drink of the foul liquid. The goblin doubled over in pain, and then collapsed to the ground. After a moment the goblin shaman kicked him and snarled, "Rise weakling."

The goblin shakily pushed himself back into a kneeling position.

The goblin on the throne rose pulled a shoe out from under his suit. "This belongs to the daughter of the moon use it to find her and bring her to me before the next full moon."

"Hey that is my shoe, you scumbag. How did you find it?" I yelled at the goblin on the throne. He ignored me and the memory continued to unfold.

"Yes, your highness. I swear we will follow your command," the goblin swore in its crackly voice.

"Silence, I don't care about your stupid words. Go and bring me the daughter of the moon." The goblin on the throne dismissed the three goblins with a wave.

As the three goblins retreated, the goblin shoved his long nose into my shoe and sniffed it deeply.

"Ewwww! You freaks keep getting grosser and creepier." I whispered to myself as the twisted memories ended.

The shadowy memories of the goblin faded, and I found myself sprawled out beneath my dinning room table. "Ugh, this is worse than a hangover." I muttered to myself as I rubbed my head. "It must have been the Shadow because it wasn't this bad before." As I climbed out from under the table the door buzzer rang. "Oh, crap it must be Dean." I screeched as I stood up from the floor and rushed to the door. The world spun a little as I ran to the door, but I managed to reach the intercom without tripping over my own feet.

"Hey, Julie it me." Dean's voice came over the intercom.

"Come on up honey. I can't wait to see you." I buzzed him in and looked around my apartment in horror. The whole place reeked like a fire in a landfill because of the cooked goblin heart. My breath. I huffed into my hand and tried to smell how bad my breath was. It was terrible. This was going to be a disaster. I needed to tell him about some weird monster stuff, and I couldn't have Dean thinking I was some psycho heart eating freak. Crap!

I throw open all the windows in my apartment and light four scented candles to drive out the wretched smell. Then I ran to the bathroom and started brushing my teeth furiously. There was no way I had time to change into some cute clothes or fix my hair, but if I had to wash the smell out of my mouth so I didn't smell like a mangy, dumpster diving, racoon.

While I was still scrubbing away at my teeth Dean knocked on the door. I spat the tooth paste out into the sink and took a deep breath before I opened the door.

"Hey cutie," Dean leaned in and gave me a kiss. "Did you just brush your teeth?"

"Yeah, I had a bad taste in my mouth, and I wanted to clear it out before you got here." I explained as I rubbed my left arm, a nervous habit of mine.

We walked to the dining room table and Dean sat down his bag of takeout food. "Oh, a candle lit dinner. If I had known this was going to be a romantic evening in I would have picked up something fancier than gyros." Dean chuckled.

"Some unexpected werewolf stuff came up and it stunk up the apartment." I starred at my worn red rug as I spoke too embarrassed to look at Dean's pretty blue eyes.

Dean pulled me into a tight hug and asked, "Is everything alright? Does this have anything to do with Kevin's suspicions about you?"

I melted into Dean's warm embrace and soaked in the moment. After a minute I sighed and slipped out of his arms. "Thanks Dean I needed that. The two things are not connected but they both are connected to heritages; so, I better explain that first."

We sat down across from each other and Dean handed me my gyro. "Ok I am all ears," he said as he bit into his food.

"Heritages can be anything and both humans and monsters can have them. Sometimes everyone in a family has is and sometimes they will skip three or four generations. My family has a heritage, but I will get to that latter. I think Kevin has a heritage that lets him sense monsters, I don't know if it lets him sense all monsters or only Blood Monsters."

"Blood Monster?" Dean asked with tzatziki from his gyro dripping onto his chin.

"I am a Blood Monster, Dean." I explained. "Werewolves, trolls, and sasquatches are all types of Blood Monsters. The other main group of monsters are Shadow Monsters, which include ghosts, zombies, hide-behinds, and goblins. There are of course exceptions outside of these two main groups, but we don't need to get into that right now. The point is Kevin can sense that I am paranormal, and it is not a simple suspicion or a hunch. Something from deep inside of him is telling him that I am dangerous. You will never be able to convince him that I am just a normal girl. In fact, the more you try to convince him that there is nothing unusual about me the more his Heritage and instincts will lash out. This type of Heritage is one of the worst nightmares for monsters like me that live alongside humans."

"Ok so what do you suggest we do?" Dean asked as he whipped the sauce off his square chin.

"We should tell him that he is right. I am not an average woman, but I told you what is going on and we are moving forward with our relationship. You should also tell him to be cautious of anyone else he gets that feeling around and he should probably tell you if he does get that feeling again" I took a deep breath. "It is putting a lot of faith in Kevin that he won't try and find out more, but I think that is our safest move. What do you think?" I asked trying to see what Dean thought of the whole situation.

"How likely is it that Kevin is going to run into more monsters? How many are there in the city?" Dean asked.

"There aren't many left in the city; werewolves and most other monsters prefer living in the wild, or at least rural farm areas. There are also groups of monster hunters who hunt down any monsters that prey on humans. Finally, I have killed a couple of monsters in the city. So, I doubt he is going to be running into monsters frequently." I replied.

"Wait you've killed monsters? When?"

"I have killed lots of monsters, usually, it is a rouge kobold or imp but those are barely even a threat to a normal person. There were only two times worth mentioning. First, when we had just started dating, I was out with Katie and I spotted a couple of vampires. They were stalking a couple of girls, and I couldn't let that happen for a lot of reasons. A single feeding won't usually kill a person or turn them into a vampire like in the movies, but a lot of vampires kill their victims after feeding just out of cruelty. Plus, nothing attracts monster hunters faster than vampires. The second time was just last night outside of my apartment."

"What happened last night?" Dean asked.

I heard a scratching sound coming from outside my apartment. "Goblins," I answered Dean while trying to listen to the sound coming from outside. The scratching grew louder. "And they're back!" I yelled as I jumped up from my chair.