Nikon's eyes flew open; his heart pounded in his chest.
It was still dark outside.
An uneasy feeling settled in Nikon's stomach, "something's not right. I never wake myself up."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"That would do it," Nikon sighed, sitting up, "someone or something is at my door."
Nikon slid silently out of his bed, shivering slightly as his feet hit the cold floor. He tiptoed to the kitchen, arming himself with a knife.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Nikon carefully undid his locks. In one fluid motion, Nikon jerked his door open and pressed the knife against a soft, fleshy neck.
Nikon hissed as the bright hall lights hit his eyes. As his eyes adjusted, a short, ample man came into focus.
"Oops," Nikon said.
"Oops is right," the man pushed the knife away disgustedly, "you're lucky that I don't kick you out."
"You're lucky that I didn't slit your throat," is what Nikon wanted to say, but swallowing his snarky reply, he said, "yes Mr. Wells."
Nikon waited for Mr. Wells to speak, but he didn't. Mr. Wells seemed to be rather unfocused. His eyes darted nervously from side to side, and sweat was forming on his brow.
Nikon frowned, "look Mr. Wells, I've had a rather long day, I'm very tired, and I presume that waking me up to threaten my staying here is not the only reason you're here. Now what do you want?"
Mr. Wells fixed his scared gaze on Nikon, "it's down there."
Nikon sighed, "what is down where?"
Mr. Wells leaned in, grabbing Nikon's shirt. He whispered, "a monster's in the basement."
"Then you can call Monster Hunters HQ, because I," Nikon freed himself from the sweaty fists, "am off duty."
Mr. Wells grabbed the closing door, "you don't understand!"
Nikon glared at the chubby, balding man, "oh I understand perfectly. You're a stingy little man who uses everyone you know! And I don't care about some stupid little mon-" Nikon froze.
A faint banging reached Nikon's ears. He stared past Mr. Wells, deep in thought, "it must be big. This could be a chance to prove myself." After an awkward silence, for Mr. Wells, Nikon spoke, "show me."
Relief washed over Mr. Wells' face, "good. Now hurry; we don't want to alarm any of the other tenants."
"Yeah," Nikon thought sarcastically, "because it's totally normal for you to bang on doors in the middle of the night."
Nikon followed Mr. Wells down the carpeted hallway. Before they could start down the stairs, they met someone coming up.
"What're you doing up?" Mr. Wells asked.
"Daddy!" the girl said, "is there a monster up here? We heard lots of noise."
Nikon covered a smirk, as Mr. Wells answered, "no sweetheart, not up here, downstairs."
"Oh," the girl caught sight of Nikon, "hi Mr. Page! Are you gonna kill the monster?"
Nikon nodded.
"Great!" the girl's eyes lit up. She began running down the stairs, "hurry! I wanna watch!"
"You're going to bed!" Mr. Wells yelled, as he and Nikon followed.
Down on the first floor, Mrs. Wells was surrounded by several worried tenants.
"Please calm down everyone," Mr. Wells said, "I've got a professional monster hunter here. You can all go back to bed."
After some confused mumbling and shuffling, the lobby was empty except for Mr. Wells and Nikon.
Mr. Wells led Nikon to a plain door in the far corner of the lobby.
"It's a little late to be asking," Nikon said, "but what kind of monster is it?"
"One you can handle," Mr. Wells assured him, "now hurry!"
"So like lizard-rats or spider-snakes?"
"Yeah sure," Mr. Wells opened the door.
"Oh and one more thing Mr. Wells," Nikon looked back, "it would be best if you still called Monster Hunters to get someone from Sanitation to pick up the corpse."
"Right," Mr. Wells said closing the door.
"Must have quieted down," Nikon thought, looking around the silent room.
Nikon stood at the top of a short, wooden staircase. The room was dimly lit by a flickering, bare bulb hanging from an exposed beam.
From the towers of totes and stacks of boxes, Nikon concluded that this room was mostly used for storage.
"Great," Nikon muttered, "lots of hiding places."
Nikon slowly began his descent, and, as he suspected, the stairs began creaking. Nikon stopped as a few of the boxes shifted.
"I could just jump to the bottom," Nikon mused, "however with a knife, maybe not."
Nikon glanced at the boxes. They were still again.
Nikon made his decision. He gently placed a foot on the stair below. Slowly his weight shifted from one foot to the other. No sound. His slow, tedious progress continued until he reached the frigid concrete floor.
Nikon let out a breath that he was unconsciously holding.
"Now comes the hard part," Nikon thought, "finding it before it finds me."
Nikon gingerly weaved between the closely packed boxes. He was heading towards the area where he had seen the moving boxes.
A soft rustling sound came from somewhere in front of him. Then it hit him, an awful, rancid smell. It was all that Nikon could do to keep from making a gagging noise.
Nikon started running through a mental checklist of monsters.
"Giant porcupine-skunk? No, this is different. Perhaps something from the swamp came through the city sewer system? No, there would be a trail of water. This smell, it's. . . it's like a corpse!"
Nikon was nearing the source of the smell. He covered his nose and mouth with his shirt.
"Let's see graveyard pests," Nikon thought. Before he could think of one, Nikon laid his eyes on the monster. His heart began pounding.
The monster was crouched down with its back to Nikon. Small drops of blood and tiny tails were scattered on the ground around it. It was crunching quietly.
Nikon quickly backed away, out of sight. "It eats mice? I thought it only ate huma-" Nikon didn't want to finish that thought.
"That lying little weasel," Nikon frowned, "it's like a spider-snake? Ha! I can handle it? Wrong!"
"I have to get out of here," Nikon decided, "by myself there's s no way that I could handle a zombie."
Nikon backtracked through the boxes as quickly and quietly as he could.
Nikon reached the bottom of the stairs. The staircase that had seemed so short to Nikon a few minutes earlier, now seemed to stretch on for miles.
"Just do it like you did it before," Nikon thought trying to calm his nerves, "easy."
Nikon glanced behind himself. Everything was still. Nikon began the long journey upwards.
He glanced back after every step, but for now the zombie was content where it was.
After what felt like hours, but was only a few minutes, Nikon reached the top of the stairs.
Nikon extended a sweaty hand towards the doorknob. His hand stopped, palm hovering over the knob.
"If I leave now, Ace and the hunters will never let me live it down," Nikon thought, "but staying would practically be suicide."
"Unless, I actually killed it. Then my family could really be proud of me," Nikon wrestled with himself, "however, I'm not qualified to hunt humanoid monsters."
Nikon's hand closed around the knob and turned it.
The door however, did not open.
Nikon pushed against the door while still turning the knob, "is it stuck?"
Mr. Wells spoke from the other side, "is it dead?"
Nikon ventured a whisper, "no. I can't kill a zombie. You have to let me out."
"I thought you might change your mind," Mr. Wells said, "which is why I locked the door."
Nikon saw a box wiggle, "Mr. Wells I'm going to die if you don't open this door!"
"You can do it Nikon," Mr. Wells said, "and don't worry, I'll call Monster Hunters so you'll have some help soon."
"No Mr. Wells I'll be dead before they get here," Nikon whispered. Another stack of boxes wiggled, this time closer to Nikon.
"Mr. Wells?"
No answer. Mr. Wells was gone.