Report of the Three Objects ch.02

   A man sits at a cold metal desk in handcuffs, he knows the mirror on the wall has people behind it, watching him; people who prefer to remain faceless. He also knows why he is here, there on a laptop sitting in front of him is his report, with that disturbing message at the end, having been posted on the internet. He has already told these people, these people who came to his house in the middle of the night, took him, and all his equipment, ransacked his place for any and all files both physical and digital, that he doesn’t know who posted that, or how they got it in the first place. Although they seem more upset that he wrote it in the first place.

   “Mr. Thompson,” says the interviewer, “We already know who posted this.”

  He slides him a photo of the object from Antarctica.

 “The aliens?” asks Mr. Thompson.

  The interviewer doesn’t laugh, crack a smile, or anything; he just says, “They aren’t aliens…at least not as far as we know. If they are it’s not important, they’ve been here longer than we have.

I am about to tell you some things, some things way outside of your pay grade Mr. Thompson.

But you won’t have a choice but to know them; not if you want to stay alive Mr. Thompson.

These three objects you wrote about in your report.”

  He taps the photo, “this right here,”

  He pulls the photo back to the file and pulls out some pictures, one of a winged bat like she-demon in the jungle, another of a petite short haired Japanese girl, “this is what is in those so called objects.”

  “which one?” asks Mr. Thompson confused.

  “Both,” says the interviewer, “we might call them vampires, but the word doesn’t really suit them. What you saw, what you called…objects, was their wings wrapped around their bodies and sealed up tight while they sleep. They are older than the human race, shape shifting monsters; apparently the progenitors of a good deal of what we call monsters and gods.”

   “You’re joking?” asks Mr. Thompson

  “Do I look like someone who would joke with you Mr. Thompson?” says the man sternly.

 “How could they predate humans when they look like humans?” asks Mr. Thompson.

  “We don’t know what they really look like, like I told you thirty seconds ago, they are shape shifters. You see they sneak out of their bodies with their minds and take the form of what is around them; for all we know their infections may have caused the human race to evolve from earlier primates. But that’s just something the egg-head types like to ponder; these things make them get all philosophical. Make no mistake Mr. Thompson, they are monsters. The creatures in Siberia and that cult in South America; slaughtered when one woke up. We also have reason to believe they are descended from the same hives as their own murderers. Before you ask Mr. Thompson, no I won’t explain their genetics or hive structure, I honestly don’t fully know it, and I don’t really give a rat’s ass.”

   He taps the photo of the Japanese girl and pushes it towards Mr. Thompson, “this is who broke
into your apartment and posted online, we have no doubt about it. This treacherous bitch.”

   Mr. Thompson can hear the venom in the man’s voice.

  “Let me tell you a story,” says the interviewer, “since you want to know everything about them. This isn’t one of the three you know about. We’ve unfortunately been aware of eight of these monsters including the three you know about; it’s how we knew to keep the Antarctic one on ice. One of their very few exploitable weaknesses, and all it does it make them go to sleep…sleep in an indestructible cocoon; not that we can harm them when awake.”

   The interviewer picks up the photo and looks at it a moment before setting it down, “She was the first of her kind…these Hive Empresses the boys in the labs are calling them now. When I started in this gig we were calling them Vampire Princesses or Vampire Queens; before we knew they could make other monsters and do that…”

  The man shivers, “hive drones thing,”

  He looks at the mirror and nods, hearing something in his earpiece, “My personal history isn’t important,” he says not really saying that for Mr. Thompson’s benefit, “This girl was found by the Japanese during WWII. Japan was getting desperate for steel for the war. Not sure if you knew this but Japan is a very small country; steel isn’t easy to produce and iron needs to be mined. They dug deep, deep into a mountain their own occult circles knew to be infested with something they called Tengu; a kind of bird demon like creature. Modern weapons took care of that problem. They found deep in the earth what you referred to in your report, that special metal. A miner was the one to find it, the sleeper. Pulled free from the mine it opened up. They didn’t even notice that the cocoon shrank away like a shadow into the girl. A girl, a teenage naked girl. She acted naïve, claiming to have no memories of her past; but she could fight, and she hungered for blood…and a few other things they would discover later but aren’t important now.”

   The man pauses watching the silent Mr. Thompson, “The Japanese knew thanks to their spies that the Germans, Italians, Chinese, and yes us Americans had occult programs. They knew about western monsters and magic and feared both their enemies and allies that they knew would turn on them later; what with the whole view point of Aryan superiority.  They wanted to use her as a weapon; and they did. She became their vampire slayer, she would hunt monsters both local and abroad, clear out islands of isolated monsters, go on secret missions; and so on. They named her Himiko. Stories about her, and the man she turned into a vampire demon to act as her bodyguard…or rather front so she wouldn’t have to give away too often how strong she is, got around. They inspired the children and grandchildren of the soldiers to write stories and make anime and movies; it’s even become a common staple of vampires now to have the vampire hunter who has all the strengths but not as many weaknesses as the vampire. “

   The interviewer pauses giving Mr. Thompson a chance to ask, “What…happened with her…and what’s the deal with the metal?”

   “Smart man,” says the interviewer, “smarter than most who get pulled into this world. Most at this point just ask me what happened with Himiko; but you asked the important question; just what the fuck was up with that metal. I mean you of course are in a different position, you knew about the metal first, and are only now learning about these blood sucking progenitors. Antarctica, Siberia, and now you can add Japan to where the metal has been found…that you know of. But it wasn’t in South America. It took our researchers forever to find out what was keeping that one at rest; she sure as hell wasn’t feeding on the sacrifices those vampires were giving her.”

   He pauses looking at the mirror, no doubt being given the go-ahead to speak, “The metal is artificial; we have no idea how it’s made or who made it. Some long lost civilization that apparently found some way to imprison these empresses of the night apparently. The metal somehow blocks their psychic powers, prevents them from projecting from their bodies as they sleep to live in our world like ghosts knowing when it’s time to awaken for real. It sends them back to their own body trapping them in dreamless sleep, with no sense of time passing; that is until someone makes even a tiny crack in that seal; then they can seek out sentient minds, even lure us to them, make people really want to dig there. Time can corrupt any prison, we are sure
that is what happened with the Antarctic one, just time got to the prison.”

   “Why pull them out?” asks Mr. Thompson.

  “Well,” says the interviewer, “because the miners and scientists don’t know any better when they find them; and we need the metal to deal with the ones we have.”

  He sneers, “It’s the only thing we have that while not fatal can stun them. Keep them in line. Just so happens we can’t find it without finding them…which we didn’t officially confirm till Antarctica.”

   “That…that recently? But you had one…working for you?” asks Mr. Thompson.

  “Hence why she’s a treacherous bitch,” says the interviewer, “give away numerous weaknesses of other monsters, but never her own. At least until we knew about them; we insisted she tells us where more of the metal could be found; not because it could harm her. The stuff doesn’t harm them just by touching them like some metals with some creatures; it just interferes with them under certain conditions.”

   He pauses and resume, “But you don’t need to know more about that.” No doubt told by the hidden individuals not to continue that line of discussion.


  He continues, “Himiko did tell us, she is how we learned of the Siberia site; she didn’t tell us about any local monsters. We figured because she herself had been asleep for so long. But she served the Japanese government, and our united alliance against the occult for seventy years…seventy years of loyalty…until South America.”

  The interviewer takes a deep breath and looks over at the mirror, his shades hiding his expression of hesitation; “We know what you know about the South American incident; the expedition, coming across a temple, the local cult killing them and intending to sacrifice them. What you don’t know, what I told you earlier is that they were vampires, and they thought they were keeping the Hive Empress asleep with the sacrifices; hundreds of years of dead bodies thrown into that pit. Turns out it was tobacco leaves, the victims were decorated in them for ceremonial reasons; and the temple surrounded in tobacco plants, the vampires didn’t even know it; maybe an ancestor did but kept it a secret or made it ceremonial. Yes, we didn’t know until this decade that tobacco repelled them and made them feel sick even to the point of staying asleep. Himiko always hated cigarette smoke and refused to allow it near her; but we always chalked that up to having a strong sense of smell; there were tons of things she hated the smell of.”

   He pauses before continuing, “We didn’t know what was down there anyway; she had always told us she was the last of her kind; the one and only last true vampire. For seventy years we believed that, had no idea others of her kind were even out there; she did though. When we got to South America she tracked the other creature into the jungle; they fought. We were there…I was there, I noticed as ferocious as their fighting was there was something off about it; not to be too detailed, don’t want anyone getting off on this.”

  Even with the shades on its clear he is glaring at the mirror, “Wrapping armored tongues, tentacles, the whole thing became a dance and displays of strength against each other.”

  He shakes his head and leans in over the desk, “Mr. Thompson, they are hermaphrodites; they may infect others, impregnate people and monsters to create super-human spawn, or do that drone thing…but another queen…empress...or whatever they want to call them can only be made by them breeding with each other. We know this because she explained it to us, after we used the special metal weapons to break up the fight. We told her we were backing her up, she wasn’t happy about it. We tricked her, we had to, trapping her to find what the hell the deal was, we discovered she couldn’t detect the metal if it was covered in gold. So had a trap ready, disguised as a shipping crate for her to hide in when crossing borders.”

   “Hold on,” interrupts Mr. Thompson, “if you caught her, how’d she break into my house?”


  “We had her shipped to the United States,” says the interviewer, “however the crate was ripped open from the outside. We suspect her so called body guard who had escaped us had tracked her and released her by the time we reached the states. What’s more important is that while imprisoned she answered a few questions for us, don’t ask why she would tell the truth, she’s not human and doesn’t think like us; something we’d have to remind ourselves of.”

   He looks at the mirror, “and something we should never let ourselves forget no matter how much she tried to look human.”

   “Why are you telling me all this?” asks Mr. Thompson.

  “See,” says the interviewer, “the smart questions, well Mr. Thompson on your own you were able to discover a connection to two others similar to something you only saw for brief moments in Antarctica and a metal you had no way of being able to identify; and yet you were able to trace both back to Siberia and locate…and interview a survivor from that incident; then you also were able to make a connection to the South American case, and then also locate and interview a survivor. Would you like to know what really happened to her?”

   “You said that other one fought the one from the temple…which didn’t feed on the woman…hmmm, and besides you still haven’t told me why you’d tell me all this.”

   The interviewer seems to ignore his question and says, “Our best guess is that while the tobacco leaves would decay from the old bodies, the queen would try to move up, decaying juice however making this a slow trip, and the living plants on and around the temple with the priests smoking during ceremonies making this difficult. That woman, Ms. Jefferson, she was wounded when they threw her in as you know, they also didn’t search her person before throwing her in. She had a lighter and a flare, she tried to set the place on fire, burning up the tobacco plants; she fell through the bodies, or dug down, or perhaps was dragged down. For whatever reason that queen took to her, and maybe it was the fire but the queen healed her and broke free, slaughtering that cult. We have since lost track of that queen. The one from Siberia is a similar story, killed the local vampires and vanished; our guess is either went to sleep from the cold in another location or else fled to a warmer area. The metal by the way we now have a way to track; good thing too, we need it to fight them; something of a catch-22 for all we know every location of this metal could be a prison for one of these queen vampires, they sure all look the same, the corrupted dome or cube. We dig up the metal to fight Himiko and the others, and we risk setting more of these monsters free. Its not an easy decision, they are game changers Mr. Thompson; able to completely alter a situation for good or bad; the vampires have had a nice long run, making their cults and societies and weaseling into politics; having something show up that could kill and/or replace them on whim puts the fear of God in them; losing Himiko really hurt our position in all that.”

   Mr. Thompson shakes his head, “and why in God’s name would you tell me about that? These Hive Empresses, that the three I knew of weren’t all of them, that there was a fourth,”

  “Eight,” says the interviewer, “that we know of,”

  Mr. Thompson shakes his head again, “eight…and the importance of the metal, not to mention that vampires are not only real but actually have some society with political ties? Are you just fucking with me; or do you like to air this shit out to people who you plan to make…disappear?”

  “This isn’t an interrogation,” says the man, “this is an interview. My employers like what they
see in you, not to mention that our way-ward secret weapon has gone to your home, you have investigative skills they want to exploit. We have a monster out there Mr. Thompson, a horrible shape shifting monster that is a monster to other monsters; a monster’s monster that knows government secrets…of a dozen and more governments; and they want you to help catch her; especially as this ancient living nightmare is stalking you.”

  “So,” says Mr. Thompson, “I don’t really have a choice; either I work with you as bait, or you use me as bait.”

  “The difference is Mr. Thompson,” says the interviewer, “the worm isn’t normally given a net and able to call for back up when the fish arrives.”