Alcor watched the man in silence for a few moments. The man also didn't make a move or rush him. He sat there calmly while waiting for Alcor to speak. Alcor glanced at Ananya and saw a slight hint of encouragement in her eyes as if asking Alcor to speak without a worry.
"Fine, if you want the truth of that night, or at least what I saw from my perspective, then here it is." Alcor began to speak.
"For the past few months, I have got interested in playing and streaming games. I spend a majority of time in it, often forgetting to take care of my home and my day-to-day necessities."
"The night of my incident, I had finished a very long gaming stream and realized that I had nothing to eat at home. As such I decided to stretch my legs and go to the local mall for some shopping. I was watching some videos on my mobile while coming back, so I decided to take a quieter and more sparsely populated way home to avoid people and traffic."
"When I was walking through one of the back alleys, I suddenly felt a searing pain in my waist. My mobile and bags fell out of my hand and I cried out in pain. As I stumbled forward weakly, a new wave of pain assaulted my senses as something was being pulled out of my gut."
"As I fell to the ground, I could feel a warm liquid, which I later realized was blood, rapidly soak my back. I was slightly going into shock and my body felt paralyzed due to the loss of energy and blood. I could do nothing else at that point but barely tilt my head to look at my attacker."
"At that point, I didn't know if it was the dim lighting or hallucinations caused by weakness from my blood loss, but my attacker didn't look at all like a human. My attacker seemed to have a humanoid figure but with greenish wrinkled skin and an ugly face."
"He was also short in height, barely coming up to even five feet, yet he didn't look like a child. He wore weird patched leather clothing and held a small dagger-like weapon in his hand, still dripping with my blood."
"Under my gaze, that person seemed to make weird growling animalistic sounds. When he opened his small mouth with blackened lips, I could see yellowed, dirty, yet sharp-looking teeth that filled his mouth, along with a long snake-like tongue that was dripping saliva as he licked his lips."
"However, just as he was about to move towards me once more, we heard a girl shouting from one of the houses, and lights were rapidly flipped on along with windows being opened. My attacker was startled by this and seemed to look between me and the house with intense conflict."
"Finally, he made up his mind and decided to give up on hurting me further and ran away at a pretty amazing speed, better than the top athletes at the Olympics. Naina arrived shortly after and kept me company until the ambulance and the police arrived. That is everything I remember from that night." Alcor said.
"Hmm. What about you Ms. Naina? "
"Me?" Naina asked in a startled tone, "Well I don't have as many details as Rodas. I was just chilling at my home when I suddenly heard some sounds from the alley at the back of my house."
"When I looked through the window, I saw a shadowy figure standing over Rodas while holding some sort of short weapon. Rodas had fallen to the ground at that point and seemed to be lying very still."
"I panicked and started shouting, creating noise, and turning on lights to catch the attention of the attacker and make him panic. My plan seemed to work as by the time I reached the back alley, the attacker was nowhere to be seen."
"I rushed to Rodas and tried to keep him awake. I had already called the police and ambulance before coming out of the house so at that point all I could do was prevent Rodas from going into unconsciousness." Naina concluded her tale.
"Hmm," the man from the Special Investigation Department glanced at his partner again. On seeing his partner nod, the man let out a small sigh.
"Well, Ms. Naina, I just need to clarify one thing. I want you to think back really hard and with as much focus you can muster about the night of the incident again. Please try to remember if both Rodas and his attacker were visible to you as a shadowy figure that night. Or was it just his attacker who looked like a shadowy figure when you looked from the window?"
Naina closed her eyes and pursed her lips as she thought back to the events of that night again. After five minutes of quiet and repeated contemplation, Naina opened her eyes.
"I have thought back to it again and again. Though the lighting in the back alley was dim that night, I could still see Rodas's appearance, the color of his clothes, and the stuff that had fallen around him."
"However, his attacker just looked like a shadowy humanoid figure. Even the weapon was a shadowy mass. I had just assumed that night it was a knife or a dagger based on its shape and length. I had attributed it all to my panic and the lighting in the back alley until you asked me to think about it right now."
"I was afraid of this." the man from Special Investigation Department gave another sigh.
"Alright, what I am about to tell you has to be kept as a secret, Mr. Rodas and Ms. Naina. If you ever try to reveal it or discuss it in public, you can be charged with treason and be imprisoned without a trial. Am I clear about this?"
After Naina and Rodas nodded in agreement, the man from Special Investigation Department continued speaking, "Mr. Rodas, maybe subconsciously and without meaning to, you still noticed the discrepancies about your attacker that night."
"You described him as humanoid instead of a person like someone skeptical and dismissive would have done. This shows you are very observant and don't dismiss what you observed as some sort of mistake until you have firmly verified it. That is a very good trait in the face of what I am about to tell you next."
"The being that Ms. Naina and you encountered that night was not a human. You encountered a monster in that alley and lived to tell the tale."
"Please don't misunderstand," the man said on seeing the surprised expression on Rodas and the incredulous expression on Naina, "I don't mean some person who is so evil that we refer to him as a monster. I mean a genuine 'out of the novels and into our nightmares' monster."
"This world has always had the legends and myths about monstrous beings that would harm humans. You two just met one such monster, and were lucky enough to scare it away somehow."
"Of course, not everyone can see monsters, as they are constructed from a special form of energy not compatible with most humans. But there are always some extremely rare cases like Mr. Rodas, who can perceive the monsters in their entirety. There are also some less rare cases like Ms. Naina who view the monsters as a silhouette or a shadow."
"All the countries and governments of the world know about the existence of monsters and have kept the news hidden to avoid a mass panic. This is because 90% of the human population cant perceive the existence of monsters. Even among those that can, only 5-10% are like Mr. Rodas, who can see monsters clearly."
"Most of the people that can perceive monsters are like Ms. Naina in varying degrees. They see vague shadows and silhouettes from the corner of their eyes and attribute it to their imagination. In comparison, Ms. Naina's perception is actually pretty strong, standing right at the border of seeing the monster's true features."
"Every country's government and many of the major organizations in the world actively recruit people who can see monsters, whether completely or partially. This is so that we can train them to help save humanity by fighting against monsters."
"Therefore, on behalf of our government, I would like to ask you this: Would you join us in saving humanity by becoming Monster Hunters?"