JohnDoeGames' Library

The Monster Inside
Chapter One: Alone
Dec 12th, 1999.
It is almost midnight and I am sitting in the dark. The room around me is empty. There is no carpet on the floor or even a curtain in front of the window. It is just me, a whiskey bottle and an ashtray.

I sit on the floor with my back against the wall, sucking the sweet nicotine from my last cigarette. I think of what she said to me before she left.
"This isn't who you are, Jack!" What did that even mean? If this isn't who I am... Then who am I? She picked up her little dog, and stepped out of my life.

I messed it up. Like I always mess everything up. That is what I do. I am a messer-upper. But this time I got nothing left. I lost my home, I don't have a job and there is nothing I can do about any of it.

I blow a ring of smoke into the air and stand up to find a place where I can relieve myself. I decide on a dark corner. I feel my urine wetting my feet when the puddle in the corner grows. Suddenly I am aware of how wrong this is... I am naked, standing in my own urine, wearing nothing but stained, smelly underwear. Like a failure.

But there isn't much time to think about that. Flashing blue and red lights shine through the curtainless window. They become brighter and brighter with each flash. The noise of sirens hurts my ears. Why are there so many of them? Something bad must have happened close by. I want to take a peek out of the window, but I am too drunk to get myself close enough to see anything.

A horrible sound startles me for a second, but then I realize what it is. A bullhorn! If they try to convince a criminal to come out before they storm it, you know it is bad. Like real bad.
"Jack Humble! This is your first, last and only chance!" Wait... Jack Humble? That is me! I am Jack Humble! Why do they call for me? "Come out with your hands in the air, or we will open fire! You have 60 seconds! 59... 58... 57..."

What could I have done to cause this? Is he seriously counting down? What do I do now? I look for my pants, my socks, my shirt or my shoes, but I can't find any of them. Did I even wear any? I don't even remember what this place is, or how I got here.

"22... 21... 20..."

Oh, come on, man. I guess there is nothing I can do. I have to go outside in my underwear. Please don't let there be a camera crew.

Chapter Two: Detained.
Dec 13th, 1999.
I just woke up in a dark cell. How I got here is a mystery to me. I think I may have gotten myself arrested last night, but for what?

My head hurts, badly. I might have a black eye. I try touching the skin around it and it hurts, like terrible bruises. My ribs hurt too. Not too bad, but I definitely feel them when I cough.

I am wearing some kind of pajamas, but they are certainly not mine. They do not seem like a prison jumpsuit either. There are some patterns printed on them, but I can't see what they are. It is just too dark.

Someone is coming, I can hear them. Yes, those are definitely footsteps. Heavy, strong footsteps. The closer they come, the louder they get. Click, clack, click, clack, CLICK CLACK, CLICK, CLACK, BOOM!! BOOM!! The footsteps sound so loud that I have to cover my ears and scream: "STOP!! JUST STOP PLEASE!!!"

The footsteps stop. They do not move away, they do not reply to my screaming, they just seem to stand there, on the other side of the door. I could almost see the shadow of their feet underneath the door, but I know it must be just in my imagination. Everything is pitch black.

After what feels like an hour, I finally hear another noise. Metal on metal. Yes, I know that sound... It is the sound of keys! I can hear it slide into the lock now. I move away as fast as I can, into the darkest corner of the room.

The door slowly opens and all I can see is light, so bright, it feels like it burns right through my brains. I cover my eyes while I howl in pain. I hear the heavy footsteps enter the cell, but I hear something else too. It is another set of footsteps. Lighter, as by someone wearing sneakers.

"Open your eyes, Jack" The voice is female and I don't have to wonder who it is. I know that voice, I would recognize it anywhere. It is my wife. "It is me, Jessica."

When I slowly open my eyes I see 2 silhouettes standing between me and the bright light shining in through the open door. One I recognize as my wife... The other I don't even recognize as a human. It looks like I am looking at the silhouette of King Kong. The man is at least nine feet tall, and his muscles are so large, you could punch through a concrete wall with those.

"Where am I?" I ask. "Why did you bring me here?"
"You know why." It was the giant male figure who answered. In one quick motion you pick me up with one hand and lay me roughly over his shoulder. "Be quiet. We are here to get you out."

I don't understand any of it. Where is here? And if they did not put me there, then who did? And why is my wife hanging around with a colossal beast of a man, whose shoulders are extremely soft, by the way. Is that fur?

"Put me down, mountain-man!" I scream. "I didn't do anything to anybody, you hear me? I did nothing!"
"We know." Jessica spoke softly, while she followed my carrier down the hall. "But it looks like you did. And now people are after you. And once they get to you, they will kill you."
"But... What?" I still don't understand any of it. "What do people think I did? Does it have anything to do with what you said before you left last night?"

Suddenly the giant puts me back on my feet. Jessica doesn't give me the chance to get comfortable just yet. She grabs my shoulders as soon as my feet touch the ground. She is shaking me. Why is she shaking me?
"That was two years ago!" she yells in my face and keeps shaking me. "I left you two years ago!"

The hand of the giant almost crushes me when he puts it on my shoulder, in an attempt to comfort me.
"It is the booze, man." His voice is higher than I expected, and he has a strange accent. Is it German? "It makes you forget. But the memories always come back." I think he is actually crying.

"We're here..." Jessica points at a small crack in the wall. My eyes need a second to adjust to the light. But Jessica does not seem to have that problem. She looks straight in the crack. "It is safe."
"After you." The giant makes a gesture but it was hard to tell if he was talking to Jessica or me. He slowly steps into the light and for the first time, I get a good look at the man. "Come on, you first!"
"Aaaargh!!!" I scream. There are no words, just noise. I try to run away from him, into the dark. But my eyes are not adjusted to the dark anymore. I did not see the brick wall I just ran into. I think I am passing out...

Chapter Three: The Giant.
Dec 13th, 1999.
"Thanks for getting me out of that cell." I mumble. Jessica made me thank the scary giant.
"Ah, it is all good man." I can hear no anger in his voice. But why is his ape-like face looking like he wants to rip me apart?

Jessica puts a cup of tea in front of me. "With vanilla, no sugar. Just how you like it." She's right. She always knew what I liked. "Now, why don't you tell us the last thing you remember before yesterday?"
I don't understand why she is asking. She was there. "We had a fight, a big one. About... About..."
"The fight we had when I found out about your experiment." She slaps herself in the face. "Of course! Then that must be your biggest regret."

My experiment! I completely forgot about that. I worked on a formula, they could remove the most traumatizing memories from our mind. They would be locked away, never to be thought off again, without losing any important data from that memory.

"Yes!" I feel my lungs fill with air, and it feels as if I breathe for the very first time. "It worked! That is why they are after me, isn't it?" Oh no... Now I am excited and scared!
"No!" Giant ape-face stands up. "It did NOT work!"
"It did." How dare he? "I went to war, I saw things... I..." Oh my god! The memories... They are back. I remember everything. The burning houses, the bomb at night, screaming of little children. I remember it all!

"You remember, don't you? I can see it in your face." Jessica sighs. "That is when you changed, Jack." I can see a tear rolling down her cheek.
"And so did I." The giant stands up, and offers me his giant, right hand. "I don't think we introduced ourselves properly, although I am a little offended you do not recognize me."
"Uhm..." That is actually all I can say, while I shake his... uhm... hand. "Abe? Holy sh... ABE!"
Abe laughs loudly and picks me up.

Abe is... well, WAS my lab ape. The formula I used for my experiment was based on years and years of studying primates. Over the years Abe turned out to be my best friend.
"How are you speaking?" I recognize him now, although he is even bigger than I remember. But he never talked before.
"Your experiment," he says. "It did not do what you expected it to do, but it did two other things. It took knowledge from you, and put it in me. Your suppressed trauma is alive... In me. Your memory is in me."
"But how does that make you speak?" I do not need to wait for an answer. "I remember how to speak, so you remember..." I can see how that would work. "So, you said it did two things... What is the other thing?"

Chapter Four: The other thing.
...

You decide how the story goes from here. What did the formula do? Why does he has no memory of the past two years? I have a theory... What about this?

The formula blocks all trauma from his mind, right? And the last thing he remembers is his wife leaving him. What if living without his wife is his biggest trauma? It would be a clever twist, and somewhere deep inside, it would be very romantic.

Let me know what you think in the comments please!