Chapter 1: Arrival

The ringing of the telephone woke her. Claire turned to check the clock. Just after 3 a.m. Damn. Now she wished she hadn't stayed up later than usual. She rolled over and answered the phone with a sleepy "Hello?"

"Dr. Thompson, it's Major Jeffers. I apologize for the late hour, but we've got an incoming for you." Of course they did. There was no other reason for him to call at 3 am.

"What's the ETA?" She asked, hoping for a little more time to sleep.

"The plane it's on is on landing approach now. We should have it to the Institute within 40 minutes." So much for sleep.

"Alright, I'll be there, Major. Thank you." She hung up the phone and rose from bed, stretching to get herself fully awake. She would have to hurry.

She ate what couldn't be called a proper breakfast as she drove. She wouldn't have chosen to live in the desert area of the American southwest, except that her job was here, but one thing you could say about it was that the nights were beautiful and full of stars.

She managed to arrive just behind the military truck that had taken over transport duties for the trip from the airfield to the Institute. She waited as it was let past the guard shack at the lone entrance that interrupted the high fence, and then pulled forward to show her ID to the unfortunate young soldier who had the graveyard shift this month. The guards here were always low-ranking troops rotated in from the same nearby military base the truck had just driven from. Some took it as a nice, relaxing break from their normal duties. Others disliked the boredom of the extremely uneventful post. None of them knew what went on in the building they guarded, except that access to it could only be granted to those with a security clearance so high they had never heard of it before, and probably never would again.

After the guard waved her through and closed the gate behind her, Claire parked and exited her car while watching the Major and his men unload their cargo from the truck. It was similar to the sealed medical gurneys that were used to transport people with highly infectious diseases, only larger and much more reinforced, with strong locks holding it closed. They followed behind her as she opened the main doors and went inside the building. She turned on the lights and turned around to look through the clear cover of the gurney at the creature they had brought in for her.

It was humanoid, and a huge one at eight feet tall. Not thin either, but broad shouldered and muscular, quite an imposing figure, actually. Its skin was somewhere between olive green and medium grey in color, smooth, not scaley, so it wasn't reptilian despite the lizard-like thick tail that reached down to its feet. It had no body hair and wore no clothing, but its crotch was smooth as an old fashioned Ken doll's, with no visible genitalia. Its toes and fingers were clawed, though the claws didn't look large or sharp enough to be all that useful for, say, hunting or fighting. And finally, the face was cruel and angular. Six-inch-long gazelle-like ridged horns extended up from thick primitive-looking brow ridges, angled outwards in a slight "v" shape and curved back over its head. Pointed ears and shaggy hair of various shades of gray completed the demonic visage. Claire supposed it was probably some type of lesser demon, a rarity these days, even for the Institute. Jeffers broke the silence, "Got an especially nasty looking one this time."

"You're not kidding about that. Alright, let's get it into containment," Claire said as she turned to lead them down the hallways, opening the security doors along the way. She stopped briefly in a lab room to drop off her purse and grab a tablet computer and a small bag of supplies, then they continued on to the cell block. She took them into Containment Room 1, which like the others was a large open space surrounding a 15 by 25 foot cell. The cell, being for observation as much as for containment, was walled with two separate layers of plexiglass several inches thick, with a mismatched series of small slits for ventilation. It was reinforced with a strong steel support structure. This one was designed for humanoid occupants, so in the near right corner a large raised slab with a mattress served as a bunk. The far right corner had a short internal wall that contained plumbing, forming a shower stall. Outside the stall stood a prison-style toilet, the type with a sink built in to the top. The left side of the cell had an internal wall all the way across, forming the entryway barred at each end with a security door. Entry through each was gained via a simple button, but leaving again required a thumb print, retina scan, and eight digit passcode at both doors. The idea being that a creature might be able to slip out though the first door as a person was leaving, but then wouldn't be able to gain exit through the outer door with anything short of mind control. This scenario was expected to in most cases result in the bloody death of said person, but better to lose one than to lose everybody in the building should a fierce creature escape the cell entirely.

Claire used the control panel on the wall to turn on the room's lights and video cameras, then followed the soldiers as they hauled the gurney through the entryway and over to the bunk. They undid the latches and raised the cover. She stabbed a syringe into the beast's arm to collect a blood sample. It began to growl and stir. "Crap, it's waking up! Didn't you give it another dose of tranq when you moved it off the plane?" Claire said as she drew the plunger. That was supposed to be standard procedure. Even with the gurney holding it in, you didn't want these things putting up a fight during transport.

"It looked good and out to me!" Jeffers said. Claire withdrew the syringe and stashed it in an insulated pocket in her supply bag with a cold pack. Jeffers and his men quickly dumped the creature out onto the bunk and the group made a hasty retreat through the entryway.

"Alright, thanks guys, you can show yourselves out," Claire said with a annoyed sigh. She would have to stay in the room now that the creature was waking up. She set the supply bag down by the door and checked the control panel to make sure the cameras were aligned properly and recording.

The beast groaned, pushed itself up on one elbow, and spoke in a deep grumbling voice, "What happened? Where am I?"

"You speak English! Excellent, that always makes things easier," Claire said. This drew the creature's attention, and he stumbled to his feet and turned to face her. She could now see that his eyes were completely red, the irises a brighter shade than the sclera, the part that would be the "whites" of the eyes in humans. When he spoke she noticed both his teeth and tongue where pointed.

"Who are you? What is this place?" he demanded.

"I am Dr. Claire Thompson, director of the U.S. Armed Forces Institute for Xenobiology and Cryptobiology," she replied.

The monster looked around, taking in his surroundings. His inhuman face showed worry and uncertainty at first, then changed to fierce determination. He pounded his fist against the plexiglass wall twice, judging its strength. Realizing that he would be unable to break through it, he again looked at Claire. She steeled herself against being intimidated by the huge brute and his cold gaze. He was probably used to being feared on sight, but she was safe outside the cell and had seen plenty of weird before. "Aliens and monsters. You study them. And now I am your latest specimen?"

Claire nodded. "That's correct. Myths and legends, both ancient and modern. We find out which ones are really out there and what makes them tick."

The creature sighed in defeat, and sank down to sit on the bunk. "Shit. Well, I suppose something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. Shit."

Claire was relieved that he was taking it so reasonably, and ventured, "And you, do you have a name?"

"Piss off," the demon snapped. Claire waited patiently. He turned his head to stare at her again, apparently considering it, and with another look of defeat he answered, "I do. I almost never have need for it, but ... it's Gruthsorik."

"Interesting name. What language root does it come from?" Claire asked.

"Not a human one," Gruthsorik replied coldly.

"Well then Gruthsorik, it's nice to meet you," she said. "I apologize for the sparseness of the accommodations, it's not especially designed for comfort, but since you'll be here with us for the foreseeable future if there's anything I can get for you within reason, please feel free to ask."

"Fuck you," the beast sneered, making it clear he was not interested in talking with his captor. Well, there would be plenty of time for that. From within the cell, talking was all he would be able to do. Claire decided not to press it yet, though. Besides, she needed to get that blood sample into the DNA sequencer while it was fresh.

"Alright, I have to run and take care of a few things here, but I'll be back in a little while. If you need something, you can reach me via the intercom on the panel by the door there," she said, pointing at the inner entryway door of the cell. The panel also had controls to dim the room lights for sleeping, and to adjust the room's HVAC temperature settings. Then she picked up the supply bag and disappeared into the hallway.

Not long after, Claire reentered the room, tablet computer in hand. "Hello again," she said cheerfully. Gruthsorik was sitting on the bunk sulking and barely glanced up. Well, the silent treatment was better than being swore at. "I've received your capture report. Let's see what it says about you." She pulled a chair up to the cell wall and sat down to read. It began with the standard form information, date, agent reporting, operation commanding officer, location of capture, tentative creature identification... "Tentacle rape monster?" she blurted out in surprise. Sometimes the agents who managed the captures would get overly fanciful with that line of the form.

"At your service," came the reply from within the cell, confirming that it was no exaggeration.

Claire was visibly confused. "But I thought those were just an invention of Japanese cartoon pornography to get around their censorship laws. Sex based demons are common throughout folklore of course, the most well known being the incubus and succubus, but there's no mythological basis that I know of that suggests the existence of tentacle monsters."

"I've been to Japan. Nice country. Lovely women," Gruthsorik said in response. Claire wasn't satisfied, but she decided to sort it out later. Onward with the report. The next section was an abstract, giving the important details in brief. As she read it, the full implications of "rape monster" sank in, and she became very uncomfortable despite the barrier between her and the beast. She put on her best poker face and continued.

"It says here you attacked a college student in a classroom. She happened to be talking on the phone though and her friend on the other end called the police, who arrived in time to intervene."

"What?!" shouted Gruthsorik, incredulous. "There was no phone! I may be many things but stupid is not one of them." Claire paged through the document, looking for the answer.

"Ah. She was using one of those Bluetooth earpiece headsets with her cell phone. Little thing with a short range radio link to the phone itself. Maybe it was under her hair and you couldn't see it." Gruthsorik's face cycled from confused to understanding and back to defeat.

"Son of a bitch," he grumbled. "And for that I end up here. I hate technology. It was all so much easier when the most complicated things you humans knew how to make were wheels, swords, and the bow and arrow."

"You ... say that from personal experience?" Claire asked in surprise.

"Am I really that old, you mean? Yes, I am. Congratulations, Doctor, you've caught yourself a genuine ancient evil," the beast admitted. It was no mere sarcasm, either. This meant he wasn't just a new type of monster for the Institute, he was virtually their holy grail of unnatural creatures.

"This is incredible," Claire said, barely hiding her enthusiasm. "We've never been able to obtain solid evidence that an immortal class of demons really existed."

"Immortal? That's an exaggeration," Gruthsorik said. "True, high level demons do not age, but there are ways to die other than natural causes that work perfectly well. Power struggles between them almost always proved fatal for one or both. Many more were killed by demon hunters back in the days when humans still believed in such things and the proper methods and incantations for combating unholy creatures were still commonly known. I've always assumed that a few managed to lay low and survive into the modern era like myself. Though actually I haven't even run across any lower level demonic creatures in centuries, either. I suppose you have, though."

"The Institute has had a few that fit the description of lesser demons, yes," Claire confirmed. He was correct, though. Cryptid creatures are by definition either rare, very good at staying out of sight, or both. Historical population numbers are nonexistent of course, so the trends are completely unknown, but by modern standards several of them are endangered species. Case in point, the peaceful but very skittish giant hairy hominid (known variously as the sasquatch, yeti, hibagon, yowie, and other names as well) was presumably long in decline anyway, but suffered further from loss of habitat to human expansion. An ongoing effort was underway at a secret reserve to restore the population while keeping them hidden from civilian creature hunters. On the other hand, extremely low species population was perhaps the only thing that kept creatures like the rakshasa from becoming global apex predators.

"Alright, let's continue then," Claire said, trying to rein in her excitement. There were still some matters to sort through. "They sent along some raw recordings. This is the testimony of your last victim. Her name is Monica Stern. I'd like you to listen to this and confirm its accuracy."

She started the playback. A man's voice spoke first, "Alright Monica, you can start now. Please, tell me what happened to you."

The girl spoke haltingly, "I was in the department's student lounge, where they keep all the reference books, working late into the evening on a report that's due tomorrow..."