Speaker 1: We walked across the darkened lobby, and once again I
found myself standing in front of the statue of the hydra.
It was illuminated by the dull shine of a recessed spotlight,
glowing beacon of all things strange in our cane. VIC
patted his tail and said, it is a real hydra
underneath all that stone. No shit, this is a real deal,
I said, for real, huh, and I gave the statue
a closer look. The hydra was somewhere between twenty five
and thirty feet long, serpentine body was at least three
feet thick, ending in a blunt tail, was bristling with large,
nasty looking spikes. They were all tipped with a pointed barb,
almost like a fishhook. One of its heads looked like
it belonged to a lizard, and another was reminiscent of
a canine creature, possibly a wolf. The rest of them
resembled a predatory bird, a lion, a shark, and a
hooded serpent. The serpent head looked like a cross between
a gargoyle and an angry cobra. It made me feel
strangely uncomfortable. I didn't like it at all. I looked
back at Vic and muttered, ohly crap, that's wild man.
As Marulda told me the same thing. But I thought
she was just fucking with me. Yay, it's the real deal,
Vic repeated, and he grunted with obvious pride at his
beloved trophy. He crossed his arms and said, now tell
me I'm lying, Billy, I'm dead serious. I motioned to
the sheer size of the hydrant and sputtered, how how'd
you even manage to do this? Dick slapped its tail
and exclaimed he wasn't easy to tell you that much.
Usually it would be pretty much impossible to catch a hydra.
They were really freaking big, super fast. There's scales like armor,
not to mention the bite force in those jaws. Forget
about it. The teeth could puncture through that kevlar, no problem.
On top of all that, these things are venomous as fuck.
And get this, their blood's like acid. No shit, it's
like in that show with all those space monsters what
do we call it? Uh? Are you talking about the
movie Aliens? And Nick snapped his fingers. Yeah, that one.
That was a fucking good show. She would they could
have one in the zoo, you know. But anyway, Yeah,
this is how I caught the hydra. Nick lowered his
voice as if the wrong person might somehow overhear us
in the enormous and empty lobby. He said, Now I
lucked out with this one. It was living in a
lake and an active volcano like it. He wasn't going
to explode on us or nothing, but it was. It
was oozing a flow of lava. Right. So I got
a hold of some people, called in some favors. They
created a special fish in net made with us material.
They could they could resist these extreme temperatures. Then I
pulled some more strings, got myself a decent sized fishing bow.
We dragged this friggin lake every day and night, back
and forth until we finally caught her. Vic laughed to
the look on my face, and he gave me a
light punch on the shoulder. Now, remember, Billy, nothing impossible,
not of you have the means and the will to
make it happen. Tried like a mad bastard to catch
the old gal. I did, and I did it. Now
she's mine. Even though I was still pretty angry with him,
I couldn't stop myself from smiling back at him. Only
Victor Bonechelli could dream up such a cartoonish and convoluted
scheme and then somehow managed to pull it off. I
asked him, So, what happened after you caught it? How
did this thing wind up being trapped inside a layer
of rock? Oh? I got it painted to look like that,
Vic replied, smugly, exactly encased in volcanic glass. This is
how I did it. He rubbed his hands together and
gave me a devious grin. So before I even start
trawling the lake with a boat, I had a crane
shipping in and setting up on the shore right found
a spot that was close to both the water and
the lava flow. Got the crane from Mario Gibaldi's construction company,
and anyway, we brought the hydra into the shore and
we used a crane to dimp it in the lava,
pulled out this huge globe of molten rock, and we
plunged it back into the water. He laughed again and
shook his head. It was pretty fucking dangerous, buddy, worked
geologist I hired. He wasn't sure what kind of all
kind of rock we were gonna pull out of the water.
Came up as a as a block of a city
in and I hired an artists who specialized in sculpting.
He carved up a lot of marble statues or whatever,
all that kind of stuff, and then up bringing a
few of his bodies to help. And they carved it
down or real nice, all the details real they really
stand out, smoothed it down, polished it up real nice too.
It was a great frigging job. He wrapped the statue
with his knuckles and grunted it his overgrown snake. Cost
me a fortune, and to sell off some of my
assets to make it happen called in a lot of favors,
but it was worth it. I just look at her,
She's priceless. I pointed out that he kept talking like
the hydro was somehow still alive beneath a thick layer
of volcanic glass. Vic scoffed at me and retorted, kids
these days, and I don't know nothing about the cryptids, sady,
I hold it. Someday in the future there'll be a
way to teach a new generation all about the cryptis,
the spirits, the ghoul, that kind of stuff. You know.
Maybe I look at it at some time, I can
see that. Vic was about the branch off into some
lengthy tangent about these damn kids and their lack of
cryptid lore. So I interrupted him with a fair point.
You're not wrong, but you know, back to the hydra.
Vic grunted, Oh, right, hydra. The only way to kill
it cut off the main head, the one controls everything.
Even if he knew which had go for still ain't
gonna be no easy task. But there's no way to
tell for sure. It could be any one of them.
And if you cut off any of the other heads
just grow right back. I shook my head in wonder
and murmured, this fucking thing is a menace. Vic slapped
his knee and cackled, Oh, you don't know the half
of it. Everyone's shitting bricks. When we pull it out
of the water, sounds that was making Holy shit. Even
that was enough to make you want to run for cover.
I'm telling you, if you don't count the suckubus, that's
the most dangerous creature in the whole building. I think
you can take on the dragon, the sasquatch, and the
thunderbird all at the same time. I'd bet the farm
on it. I cautiously said, So, I mean, I gotta ask,
what does any of this have to do with what
happened here tonight? Vic gave me a confused look, what
do you mean It's got nothing to do with nothing? Kidding,
It's just a story. I'm having a conversation, eh, I
got just trying to take your mind off things, that's all.
The hydro is my pride and joy. What were you
expecting to be a metaphor by life or something? What
are we a couple of philosophers over here? We're just
shooting a shit like two normal guys. I just thought,
never mind, maybe maybe I think too much? Yeah, and
do we very good at it? Vick grumbled. But come on,
let's go. We gotta get back into that zombie habitat
and get that film in done. You know what they say,
time is money, I interjected, and the bitterness in my
voice made Vic blink at me in surprise. His face
turned red. I could see that he was generally offended
by my attitude. He threw up his hands and yelled, oh,
so we had money, now, do we? It's the root
all evil, right, horseshit and money. Money ain't evil. Money
is fucking beautiful buys me beautiful things, houses and villas
and luxury cars. Fine booze, fine broads. I have these
things because I have money, Billy, I don't have them
because I was acting like a gloomy little douchebag. He
poked me in the chest demanded tell me something, kid,
What the hell did money ever do to you? At
that moment, the emergency alarm went off. Red lights began
flashing on the walls, and the sirens started blaring over
the intercom system. VIC bellowed, Nah the fuck, say what now?
I was already running back to the entrance door as
soon as the alarm went off. All thoughts and feelings
regarding my present state of affairs were rudely shoved to
the side. I rolled around and ran towards the danger
without a second thought. It might have been a gloomy
little douchebag, but I was also a caretaker's assistant. Running
into danger was my job, and I took my job
very seriously. Hey, I'll catch up to you. Go go.
A came bursting into the service tunnel just in time
to witness someone projectile vomiting against the wall. It was
the key grip and he was in a very bad shape.
The rest of the crew were standing at a healthy
distance away, grimacing as their colleagues evacuated the contents of
their guts with horrible force. I skidded to a halt
and I croaked, fuck that this isn't good. The key
Grip fell to his hands and knees, vomit dripping from
his chin. He showed me a nasty wound on his arm,
and he sobbed. He got me. I was too scared
to say anything. I thought maybe I could, just like you,
see a doctor after work. I didn't want to believe it.
I didn't want to believe it that I oh god.
He wretched again, ejecting a thin gruel of bile onto
the floor between his hands. He dropped onto his side
and groan, my head, it fucking hurts, It hurts so bad.
Vic came thundering down the corridor. He was already holding
his thirty eighth Special. He pointed it at the weeping,
shivering man on the floor, and he bellowed, everyone, cover
your ears. He comes to cure you, lying fuck. The
key Grip held out his hands in a warding off gesture.
He started to scream. The thirty eight went off twice,
two shots in rapid succession, and the scream was abruptly silenced.
Vic glared down at the spreading pool of blood on
the floor. He hit the alarm button to stop the
shrill wailing of the alarm, and he growled, Now look
at his shit, blood everywhere, puke dripping down the friggin walls.
It's all full of zombie germs, fucking zombie germs all
over the place. He looked at the director and rumbled, Nikki,
that's gonna be a rap for the night. As of
right now, this whole wing is now officially closed for cleanup,
and all these shifty bastards are officially on a quarantine
for the next twenty four hours. Don't try to argue.
If any of you uttered a single peat, I'll shoot
you right in a fucking face. And I ain't no joke,
this zombie thing. It's serious, hear me, It's really freaking serious.
Vic hollered these last three words at the top of
his lungs. Everyone flinched, and someone let out of a
tiny screech of terror. Even Nick was startled by the
raw fury in his voice. They don't made me do it,
they panted, as he waved the gun at him. Because
I will and I won't give a shit. The security
guns finally came running into the service tunnel. Vic gave
him a dangerous grin look who finally came breezing through
the door. I should start calling you to the Tardy Boys,
because it's a mystery why it takes you so long
to get the fuck over here. They both gave him
a blank stare. He exclaimed, what don't you get it?
It's like the hardy boys, but it's a tardy boys
consent because if the word tardi means you're you're fucking late.
You two screwballs. God, you got the IQ freinging potato.
The guards looked down on the floor and said nothing.
They both knew something bad was coming. Vick sneered, none,
the safe for yourself. Huh you think I can read
your minds or something. I can't read your minds because
you don't got one, but to try to read my
mind instead? Huh? Okay, I'm thinking of a number between
one and ten? What is it? Vic pointed to the
goon to his right with his free hand. He promptly
responded eight and clapped his hands together to keep them
from shaking. The other one gave Vic a deer in
the headlights stare and mumbled, uh, I'll take nine. I
guess no, three, I mean three, I mean yeah, yeah,
I think. The goon was shushed by a large, hairy
finger pressed against his lips. Asked in a gentle tone,
which one is it? Nine? Three? He pulled his finger away,
and the security guard quickly replied three. He wiped the
sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and repeated, yeah
it is three. Is that okay? Vick gave him a
cold smile and a slight nod. Sure, yeah, that's okay.
But you should have stuck with nine, he said calmly.
The barrel of the thirty eight started to rise into
the air. Number I was thinking about it was nine, Eh,
tough luck, kid. How the guy picked eight, so I
guess he wins. A second shot echoed along the corridor.
There was a fresh round of screaming from the ranks
of the film crew. The guard stumbled away, his hands
clamped over the stream of blood that was spurting from
his neck. His eyes rolled back into his head, and
he dropped to the floor in a heap. A pull
of Crimson began spreading out across the floor. Vic hollered,
shut up, all of you, shut the hell up. Lashing
out with astonishing quickness, he grabbed the remaining security goon
by the collar of his jacket. Vic gave him a
tremendous smack on the forehead with the hand grip of
the revolver. Blood poured down his face as he staggered back.
There was a dazed expression in his eyes. Vic shouted,
get the cleanup crew on the phone. We did him
here right away. Calling more security agents while you're at it,
whoever's available, tell him to come in. The guards started
to walk away, and Vic growled just a second. I
ain't done. When you finish making these calls, I want
you to get the fuck out of here, not just
out of my zoo, even out of the city, get
out of the freaking state. Don't ever come back. Don't
give me none of us shit. Don't don't give me
none of that my father sow and so both shit
because he ain't nothing around here. Vic pointed at the
goon and said, no one more thing. If anyone sees
your face around here again, I'll bury you boom into
the hole. You'll go. You got me into a fucking hole.
You'll go, and that's what will be the end of you.
Your father will accept that, or he could join you
in the hall. I'm the fuck either way, you get
your stupid ass out of my sight. The guard turned
heel and fled down the corridor. His face had become
a dripping mask of blood from the nasty split in
his forehead. VIC started reloading his gun, and he looked
over at the film crew. All right, listen up, you're
all gonna get in a nice, orderly line. Not you, Nicky,
You're good. The rest of these schmucks. I can't trust him.
Go on, line up, just like you did back in kindergarten,
everyone standing behind each other, just like that. Bally, go
open the empty habitat at the end of the tunnel,
the one down to the far side over there. I
scrambled to do as I was told. My ears were
ringing from the gunfire in the enclosed space of the
service tunnel. I punched in the coat and hauled open
the door. Vic was already marching the lineup down the corridor.
Some of them are crying, others had a blank look
of shock on their faces. The room had nothing but
four walls and a concrete floor. It was brightly lit
by three long banks of fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling.
Not exactly a cheerful place to spend the next twenty
four hours. Vic stood in the doorway after the last
one had entered the habitat. He said, we'll bring in
a bunch of cots and portable shitters, maybe two shitters. Actually,
I'll get Billy here to grab a bunch of snacks
and the visitors lounge bottles of water, soda pop, whatever
we got on hand. I'll make sure you get it.
I'm not an animal. I'm not gonna make you shit
on the floor and go hungry. He clapped his hands
together and exclaimed, speaking of which, I even feed you
guys a bunch of pepperoni pizza. That sound good. So
you don't like pizza'll go fuck yourself. I don't care
anyone here a vegetarian. I'll go get just some plain cheese,
no pepperoni. Wait, what's that hey, you in the back
with the goofy hairdo what'd you say? Just now? You're
what a vegan? What? Vic turned to me with a
bewildered look. He whispered, what the fuck is that, I
whispered back. It means they don't eat any animal products
at all. No meat, no dairy, no eggs. Vic fell
silent as he processes information. He shook his had murdered.
I ain't never heard of that before. So what the
fuck that brought? Eat just fruit and vegetables. Huh? I
wasn't she dead yet? I stifled the urge to laugh.
I quietly said, they eat beans and grains too. You
can grind up a lot of that stuff and like
turn into other stuff hamburger patties, hot dogs, that kind
of stuff. Dick snickered. Not even eggs. I mean, sure, whatever,
different strokes with different folks me I'd go fucking nuts.
He turned back to the door and called out, hey,
haircut lady probably got some salads on the menu. I'll
get you one of him. Okay, everyone just hang tight
for a bit. I'll go get the cots and shitters
over here as quick as I can. Vic paused as
he was swinging the door shut, and he yelled through
the crack. If anyone starts getting all fucked up in
there and just pushed the red button on a wall,
stay away from their puke. It's full of zombie virus.
Nick was waiting for us by the exit door. We
stared each other down as I approached. Vic stepped between
us and said, now, I know you two's got some
bad blood developing. Ye I'm gonna put stop to it
right now. Okay, we're gonna get We're gonna bury the hatchet.
We're gonna start fresh. Okay, you can't have that kind
of thing going on for the rest of the week,
so just let it go. Shake hands because it's over.
Couldn't believe my ears. It sputtered. No, no fucking way
that's happening. This guy sucks. He got two people killed
to night. No three people, I mean it was actually
four if you count them. Not sick, grunted. We ain't
counting shit over here. These accusations are harmful and I
don't want to hear about it again. It's done. Shake hands.
We both squeezed too hard, glaring at each other with
extreme hostility. Vick said, yeah, that's better. We're all gonna
get along now. Billy go to the visitors lounge and
fill up a couple of boxes with the freshman's take
them back to the crew, use one of them hand carts.
If you gotta make it easy on yourself, remember work smart,
not hard. He looked over it, Nicky and shrugged his shoulders. Hey, well,
I got I guess we're done for tonight, Nikki. Let's
go to my office crunch some numbers. What a mess, huh.
I blame myself. Really should have been paying more attention.
Nick waved it off and said, don't worry, Victor. Nothing
was lost that isn't replaceable. I think I got the
footage I needed. That's the important part. He looked over
at me as he was saying this, and he dropped
me a sly wing. I stared holes into his back
as they walked across the massive lobby to Vic's office.
I did not like that man. I did not like
him one bit. Near the end of the shift, I
snunck over to Vic's office and peeked into the reception area.
The security goons that were called in to take over
the rest of the night were hanging around in front
of the makeshift quarantine camp. They were taking turns peeking
through the observation window, laughing amongst themselves and making tasteless
jokes about rabies. The cleanup crew had already finished their
grizzly task, and they were long gone. Otherwise, the zoo
was silent as a tomb. The overhead lights in the
reception area were dark, and I didn't see any lights
shining through the crack around the door to Vic's office.
He was gone for the night, and so was Nick.
Vic and Nick two peas in a pod. I tipped
over to Miss Dahlia's pool and I lightly tapped the
water with my hand. I whispered, Missed Ahlia, Hey, I
need to talk to you, Missed Ahlia. A human size
column of water rose above the surface. It flowed over
the edge like a slinky, and it transformed into Miss
Dahlia as it hit the floor. She was wearing a
nightgown and her hair was bunched up beneath a nightcap.
She rubbed her eyes and croaked, what is it now, Billy?
What rule are we going to break in the middle
of the night. This time, I explained what happened with Esmerelda,
and I told her what I planned to do. The
sleepy water nymph coughed into her fist to clear her throat,
and she said, well, I think that's very kind of you, Billy. Okay,
come over to my desk. I'll get it for you.
Miss Dahlia rummaged through her filing cabinet, and then she
scribbled the information I needed on the back of an
empty envelope. She said, don't get caught by Len. Is
he still watching you? I nodded and said, yeah, I
think so, But I think he's watching me from a
bit farther away. Now. I did something something kind of
bad when I had to talk to Kaz at home.
It was the only way that I could get Lent
off my back long enough for me to get away
from him. I think he learned to give me some
space after that. Miss Dallia snorted, No, he learned to
stop trusting you. Lena is famous for holding a grudge.
Whatever you did, No, don't tell me. I don't want
to know. But whatever you did, he isn't going to forget.
I pressed my lips together in a sour line and replied, yeah,
I was afraid of that. Well, whatever happens, I can't
stop it. Good luck, Billy, Miss Dahlia murmured, and she
softly patted my cheeks with her slender hand. They tingled
from her touch, and I felt myself blush A bright
shade of red. I wanted to pull her close and
hold her tight, but instead I gave her a clumsy
salute and started backing away. I squeaked thanks again, and
my voice cracked like an adolescent. I winced at this,
and I had it sorry for being a pain in
the ass. I'll make it up to you sometime. She
gave me a slight smile and gently retorted, Oh, you better,
or I'm not going to help you anymore, Kevin, take
is a two way street, billy, It's time to start giving.
I was too flustered to respond, so I gave her
a double thumbs up and scampered for the door. Despite
all the crazy shit that happened to me since I
started working at the Zoo, I was still an awkward
kid at heart. I longed for a romantic connection with
miss Dahlia, desperately longed for it, but I didn't have
the slightest clue how to make that happen. I needed
to learn how to be smooth, charming, just like well,
just like Victor Bonicelli. VIC was a lot of things,
many of them bad, but awkward was not one of them.
The guy exuded an aura of confidence and charm without
even trying. Someday I cut the courage to throw a
caution into the wind and take her into my arms.
But until I learned how to stop acting like a
giant nerd and be fucking normal in her presence, Until then,
I would continue to perform extreme acts of dorkiness around her,
such as giving a double thumbs up and running away. Seriously,
what the fuck was that? I spent the rest of
the shift hiding in my chaine room, making faces at
myself in the mirror and savagely mocking my own stupidity.
As soon as I walked out the front door, I
smoked two cigarettes in a row, and I wailed myself
to forget about it. Someday I'd look back on it
and laugh, But that day it was not. Today. After work,
I made a quick stop at home, then I headed
off to the address Miss Dallia had written on the envelope.
It was a school day, so I made an educated
guess and I waited in my car down the street
from the closest elementary school. Unlike Kaz, who lived in
the very worst part of town Esmerelda lived in the suburbs.
Sure Enough, I saw her walking up to the school
with a dark haired little girl skipping joyfully beside her.
She looked like she was maybe seven years old. Her
daughter had inherited her mother's height, but unlike Esmerelda, she
appeared to be all smiles and sunshine. She hopped and
bopped along beside her mother, grinning away and talking NonStop.
As I walked up to the front entrance. As soon
as her daughter disappeared through the swinging doors, the artificial
joy drained from Esmerelda's features. She looked tired and deeply worried.
It made me feel really bad to see her like that,
and hell with whatever Vic had said about it, she
was a human being in distress. That was all that mattered.
And she came walking past my car. I rolled down
my window and called out, hey, Esmerela over here. She
stiffened up at the sound of my voice, and her
smoldering gaze locked onto my face like a cruise missile.
She stomped over to my car and leaned down to
glare at me through the window. What the fuck are
you doing here, she demanded? Are you fucking stupid? Do
you have a death wish or something? Get the fuck
away from me. I blurted out, don't punch me out.
It wasn't me. I didn't say anything. I'm almost positive
it was Nick who complained about you. She's snorted, Oh,
it was Nick McKnight who ratted me out. Wasn't it bullshit?
Why would he care? I gave her a somber look
and replied, like he wanted you out of the waves
so that he could do something really fucked up, something
he couldn't have gotten away with if you were there
to stop it. Get in, I'll tell you what happened.
She reluctantly climbed into the passenger side and slammed the
door shut. In an incredulous tone, she asked, this is
your car? Why? It's an ancient piece of shit? What
are you eighty years old? I wrinkled my nose at
her and said he belonged to my grandpa. He's dead. Now,
thanks for making fun of my dead grandpa. That's really
sweet of you, as Merelda growled, put a suck in it. Honestly,
I'm surprised. Do you even have a driver's license? I
assumed you took the bus to work. Okay, so what
happened last night? I told her the story from beginning
to end. She nodded thoughtfully and said, yeah, I would
have called him a bullshit liar, and then I would
have broken his fucking neck. It's fucked up. Yeah, I agreed,
it really is, and now I have to pretend that
everything's okay with his dickhead. The worst thing is, I
think Vic was in on it, you know, the very
least he knew what was gonna happen, and he didn't
try to stop it. As Marelda faintly murmured, Vic's a
piece of shit and he doesn't care about anything but
himself and his bottom line. Well, it sucks all around,
doesn't it. Hang in there, I guess what else you're
gonna do. I stared at the steering wheel for a
few seconds, mulling over what I was going to say next.
Finally I cleared my throat and said, well, I kind
of have a plan I've been working on. Could really
use your help. She immediately popped open the door and snapped, no, hell, no,
you out of your fucking mind. Do you somehow not
understand who you're dealing with and what he can do
to you, to all of us? Fuck out of here
with that shit, don't you know? What happened to the
guy you replaced? I grabbed her bulging bicep as she
started to slide out of the car. She looked down
in my hand with a dangerous look in her eye,
and I immediately pulled it back. I said, wait a second. Look.
I don't know how I'm gonna pull this off, but
I do know right from wrong. You've done a lot
of bad things in your life. Don't try to deny it.
We're all gonna die someday. Wouldn't you like to do
some good while you're still alive. I'll die a lot
faster if I mess with a bone and jelly crime family.
She answered curtly, I have a kid, you delirious, fucking dipshit.
I'm not gonna put her in harm's way for any cause,
good or bad. The answer isn't just no, The answer
is fuck no, you idealistic idiot. Now put this piece
of shit and drive and get out of here. I'm
going home. She slammed the car door, and I tossed
an envelope at her through the open window, so she
snatched it out of the air and demanded, what the
fuck is this? I applied quietly four thousand dollars. I
don't need it, she might soon enough. It's tough out there. Sorry,
you got fired. I argued for you to come back,
but Vic wasn't having it. I well, I I feel bad,
you know, I never wanted that to happen, so just
take it, okay. As Marlda stared down with the fat
envelope in her hands, with a mixture of anger, disdain,
and pure misery, she said, you don't have to do this, billy. No,
I agreed, I'm doing it anyway. I fired up the
buick and then added, feels good to help when others
are in need. You should try it sometime. As Merlda
glared at me and started telling me off, but I
was already driving away. There was nothing else I could
do for her, and truthfully, I'm not sure if she
even deserved it. Vic was right, it was ridiculous to
be a night and shining armor for someone who beat
you up. Regardless, it made me feel a little better
about the whole situation, and that made it worthwhile. Half
an hour later, I was lying in bed. A horrible
realization made me sit up straight and throw the covers aside.
I just witnessed the murder of two people that night,
and I knew about the murder of two others here.
I was drifting off to sleep like nothing happened. I
got up and poured myself a stiff rum and coke
in the kitchen. I rarely drank, and never in the morning,
but I needed it. I was suddenly trembling all over.
Four people had died, and I hardly even gave it
a second thought. I came home and plopped onto the bed.
The fuck was happening to me. I was changing, and
not for the better. This isn't normal, I said out loud.
I took a big gulp of my drink. It's actually
really fucked up. Don't let it become normal. I remembered
thinking of myself as a heretic amongst zelots, and I
wanted to punch myself in the face and self loathing.
I wasn't fucking Gandhi over here. And likewise, the other
employees of the zoo weren't a bunch of amoral, degenerate
freaks with no compassion. Just wore you down after a while.
That's all. The constant threat of violence, chaotic atmosphere, the
sheer force of Vic's personality, it all wore you down.
The only way that you kept functioning in this environment
was to numb yourself to constant madness. Otherwise you lose
your mind. Little by little, I was sinking into the quicksand,
and I didn't even know it was happening. I looked
at myself in the mirror, and I went to the
image staring back at me. I looked like at age
ten years since I started at the zoo. The worst
thing was the blank and hollow look in my eyes.
It reminded me of the pictures I had seen of
war veterans who were suffering from shell shock. After I
knocked back the rest of my drink, I flopped onto
the couch and stared at the ceiling. I kind of
wanted to have myself a good old fashioned cry fit,
but I couldn't make that happen. Even my tear ducks
wanted nothing to do with the situation. I was completely
on my own. I grabbed the couch pillow and curled
up on my side. I hugged the pillow to my
chest and started rocking back and forth. It was something
I used to do when I needed comfort as a
little kid. After a few minutes of this I started
getting sleepy again. That roam was working as magic. My
eyelids got heavy, and I dropped into a deep slumber
with a pillow still clutched tight to my chest. My
last go here and thought before I fell asleep, was
I won't let this become normal. I won't let them win.
When my eyelids fluttered open later that evening, I bolted
straight to the bathroom and violently threw up. I suppose
it was a delayed reaction to all the horrid shit
that happened the night before. Who knows, maybe the ram
on an empty stomach was a bad idea. I considered
calling him sick, but in the end, I held myself
out to the car and drove to work. In a way,
I wasn't much different than the cryptos at work. The
zoo was my prison, but it was also the only
thing that was tethering me to reality. If I wasn't
a caretaker's assistant, I would be nothing at all. Hey,
there're kids, it's me, mister Creepypasta. And before we say
good night, I just wanted to say thank you so
much for watching tonight's video, or for listening to tonight's episode,
or the podcast. I also want to say, if you
guys like the stories you're hearing now, please check out
The Creepy Hosta Collection, Volume one and Volume two. They're
available now on Amazon, They're available at Barnes and Noble.
They're available wherever you like to get books. They're some
of the best authors I've worked with over the years,
of my absolute favorite authors and some of my friends,
so I'd appreciate it if you guys check those things out.
There's also an audiobook that I wasn't involved with. I
don't know why Simon and Schuster did that, but they did,
so you can check that out too if you'd like
listing the books but you just don't want to hear me.
As always, I want to give a very big thank
you to everybody who supports me on Patreon, Patreon dot com,
slash mister Creeposta, people such as Diana Krauss, Asset System,
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for being here, and as always, sweet dreams