I laid down on my worn and misshapen bed, I could do nothing but that. The constant blinding brightness of the neon signs outside and the hum and thuds of technologically advanced construction machines working on buildings did not help me sleep. This is how I spend my nights alone, sleep-deprived by the constant outside devices. I lived in Apartment Complex 444 in room 113, it was cheaper than other apartments so it doesn’t have great security; which is great for me because I smuggled stuff from in and out of the city. Your basic run-of-the-mill illegal firearms, people who want to get out but can’t afford it, even some specialized and homebrew “sugar” for a celebrity guy I was in touch with.

This is New Limbo City; a city built after the destruction of New York City paid for by The United Federations of America. It’s a joke of “sweet big bustling America”. Crime, deviance, debauchery, might I add it smells like a pile of rotting corpses just waiting to decompose. Of course existential suicide as well. Every unlucky fool that comes in and out of this forsaken city always has horrible things to say about it. 

One thing you have to understand about New Limbo and the whole deal about it is that the UFA are scummy. Tried to rebuild America after a war over in Russia went berserk and trashed both countries with nuclear bombs. With no states left, they had to resort to building cities and fishing for ancient historical archives. Their unofficial motto in my mind is “rebuild America, but in the way we want to, not the way the Founding Fathers wanted to.”

Another thing is that if you thought sex, murder, theft, and alcoholism were rampant during the age of Old America. Oh boy, you’re in for a ride, you’ll be left without a soul after your first night in New Limbo. Your soul gets sold the second you even plant your foot into it.

I wasn’t any different, I will admit that I went down to Club Ploutonion every time I got done with a job, the drinks were strong and almost made the dancers look anything but a makeup and perfume-covered lost soul with dead bloodshot eyes. The only reason they haven’t been fired and replaced by holograms yet is that they’re still making the bosses money. I’m not “holier than thou” I can admit when I’ve done things that have infected my soul.

It’s a nest for all the sickness you could imagine, but I have to call it home because the “good work” is here (my smuggling). New Limbo always ran on a loop: Wake up, walk to your job, work in a place you don’t want to work in, walk home, go to a club if the constant dread does not utterly crush you, get in bed, go in your VR Fantasies for a little bit, go to sleep; and it goes on and on like that, you don’t even get paid well for working 20 hours a day.

There is one interesting thing about New Limbo City, however; an incident that would change the course of my life and the city’s structure permanently, and I think it’s finally time to talk about my experiences with “them”. I promise everything written down in my notes is what happened in New Limbo, anyone with “the chip” would call me a conspiracy theorist or a nutjob; but I know better. Now I shall tell the story of how the Beast Killed Beauty.
* * *
It started on May 13th, at exactly 9:47 in the morning; it was broad daylight. I paced slowly down the streets, somewhere near a fast food restaurant; can’t remember the name. I wasn’t feeling that great mentally that morning so I kept looking around, staring at everything and everyone. Walking by littered alleys, like a crow observing it’s surronding I kept moseying along, not minding a single thing, till I saw a blood-covered feminine figure facing a hall in the alleyway next to me…

I stood there frozen in terror, I had no clue what was going on. I didn’t want to get closer, but morbid curiosity led me to try and call out to her… “Hello?” I called out to the woman, no response. “Hello!?” I yelled with all that I could, that time I did get a response however, she slowly turned her scarred body and I could see the bones in her fingers even from over here.

“Run…” She had a rough harsh voice, it sounded as if she had smoked her entire life and then screamed her lungs out. The bloody woman pointed exactly behind me, “run… It’s coming, go that way now. Run. Run Run.” Her voice got louder and louder until she snapped her head back to where she was originally facing, it seemed like she was trying to save my life; which was very odd for a New Limbo citizen to do. While I was comprehending the fact someone was being nice to me for the first time in years, I saw it…

From the halls of the alleyway; a ragged and deformed thing emerged from the darkness, dark red liquid dripped from its mouth, its teeth gnashed and from its maws, it growled a horrible sound; like nails on a chalkboard. Its limbs were far too exaggerated, its reptilian hissing spread throughout the walls, and its claws dragged against them, its fingers curled and twitched. I could hear its heavy and hot breaths traveling and echoing throughout the alley.

This thing was not human or robotic… It was something worse. The ghoulish abomination slowly approached the bloody woman, she drew her shaking eyes up to the goliath-like monstrosity which stared back with malice…And then it sliced her head clean off before I could even blink. I covered my mouth so I didn’t scream bloody murder, it gripped tight onto the woman’s limp body and started devouring it like a snake. Its jaws were unhinged and the smell of death filled the air. I was fighting the urge just to vomit everywhere, but if I did that it would hear me, and then I would be its next meal.

As it pushed her body more and more down its gullet the more I wanted to just run, and so I did. I wanted to just sprint away and forget everything about this whole night, just go home and forget… But I can not forget, I could never forgive myself for not saving this poor woman who tried to save me. But I had to run, I couldn’t let her sacrifice be in vain. I took one step and like an idiot; I stepped on a crunchy paper bag that was littered on the floor.

The beast turned its malformed head to look directly into my soul, and it swallowed her whole corpse while cackling. An unholy laughter, a celebration of death and torment, it knew what it was doing, this wasn’t a simple-minded hunter just fighting for survival, this was a cunning killer with murderous intent within its very core. Now, it’s been quite a while since this happened to me but that cackle still haunts me in my sleep, I can still hear it and see that damned gaze burned into my head.

I ran as fast as I could and as far as my legs would take me, I jumped into the road and danced around the cars trying not to get hit. Unfortunately, I was hit by an oncoming brand-new shiny cybertaxi with state-of-the-art advancements making it stronger and better than Pre-War taxis, not enough to cause any serious damage to myself but I still remember what he said to me. “AY!? What are you doing?!” The driver yelled loudly, he had a horrible fake accent in an attempt to appeal to more customers. “I am running for my life from that thing!” I pointed to the creature following me, trying to get him to let me have a free ride. “Buddy I don’t know what you’re on but there’s nothing there! Now get out of the road I’ve got places to be and pimps to pick up.” He slammed his foot on the gas in an attempt to get me off, but I only used this as a chance to get away from the bloodthirsty beast.

I made my way onto the roof of the car, regained my balance, and stood on the roof of the taxi while staring at the behemoth which was following me, it lowered its posture and crawled on the floor like a wolf. It sprinted after me, knocking cars and trash cans out of the way so it could devour me. I tried to get the taxi driver’s attention by pointing to the chaos unfolding in the streets. “Pal, nothing is happening there! Now get off my car or else I’ll fling you off myself ya punk!”

I held on for dear life to the taxi sign on his car, I knew he would try to use the brakes and throw me off. What confused me is how he didn’t see it, it was right there! It was knocking cars out of the way, car alarms were going off and the sound of crushed metal was ringing throughout the streets. This man was deceived and lied to, and I feel bad for him, he can’t see the truth of what is right in front of him. The creature quickly jumped onto a building and seemed to retreat. My lungs started to breathe normally once I saw it get out of sight.

That was until I noticed the goliath of a beast fling itself into me. It grabbed hold of me, its claws tore into my skin and it threw me, my body went flying into the window of a laundromat, and broken shards of glass and debris pierced my entire body. I remember collapsing onto the floor, scaring a bunch of confused mothers with horrible haircuts and dads who were done with their lives. After that, everything went black for at least a day or two.

Time crawled to a stop until I was brought back to life in some hospital, someone called the police and they took it seriously enough to bring me here. I was covered in bandages, I couldn’t see at all, for my eyes were bandaged too. “Is everything alright, Mister John Doe?” They had no records of my existence; which is odd because I have been arrested in the past. Obviously, as a kid, I wasn’t good at what I did but as I got older I got more sneaky about it, so maybe I just became too sneaky to the point where I’m a ghost.

“I can’t see,” I replied, the Doctor must have scrolled through some notes on his tablet as I could hear the sound of tapping on an electronic device. “Good, that means the bandages are not loose. You sustained some pretty bad injuries, your entire body was covered in glass and some debris. We had to perform surgery immediately on you with state-of-the-art technology, which took us quite a few hours, Mister Doe. But it was worth it.” The Doctor rambled on and on, patting himself and his team on the back for being able to save my life.

“How long will I have to be here to recover?” I asked with sincerity in my voice. “If I were to guess, maybe 3 days thanks to the wonders of medical advancements.” The Doctor patted me on the shoulder softly and added, “Listen, son, what you’ve been through was horrible and I wish it never happened. But thank goodness you’re okay.” It was odd hearing a doctor who cared about his job, I “looked” at him and asked something that would only add to my confusion. “What about that weird creature thing, the one that chased me?”

Although I couldn’t see him I could certainly tell how he was feeling due to the slight adjustments in his breath. “What are you talking about?” I clenched my fists together and said “I’m not crazy, I know what I saw. That creature cut off that woman’s head!” The Doctor (just going to call him Doc from here on out as I never got his name) turned up the TV to let me listen to it, it was a news report about the bloody woman from yesterday.

“Authorities are reporting that there has been no sighting of the suspect or suspects involved, there have been reports of a taxi operator running over a man just near the crime scene, however-” and it all just became like white noise to me, what is going on? What is happening? Why can no one see what I see? Was this a ploy? A bet? I don’t understand why this is happening to me.

Doc looked at me and spoke softly, “Sir you might be experiencing brain damage or PTSD. Might I suggest you try out the new 6X3-CHIP?” I asked the Doctor what it was and he responded, “It’s a new implant, meant to help with mental disorders, currency both crypto, and credit, and gives you pinpoint accurate information.”

I stared at him and laid my head back after trying to give him my best glare. “No thank you, I don’t need any more implants.” His voice strained and became nervous, “please sir this is vital, in a few years all currency will be replaced by the CHIP..” He no longer seemed kind but instead seemed domineering and overbearing. I took up a dominant tone and told him slowly “No. Thank. You.”

After which Doc just gave up and handed me a paper. “Is this my bill?” I asked, he sighed and said “Since you’re a John Doe I can not legally charge you yet. This is so you can get an identity, when your time here is done bring this into an office.” I simply sighed in defeat and drifted back to sleep, even though it’s been a whole day since the attack; I was still exhausted.

So many questions lingered in my mind: Why did no one else see it? What is this chip? And what was that thing? All of these plagued my mind while I tried to sleep, but after a short time, I regained control of my head. I needed to sleep, but I needed answers.
* * *

I had a dream that I can still remember, it was something that shot fear into me I can’t truly describe. I awoke in a realm of a dried blood sky and gray grass, my arm twitching, and the skin went down to the bone. In Front of me, a gate made of black brimstone. Inscribed on it was a warning “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.” Next to the doors; a massive creature lay dead on the floor, bleeding and experiencing rigor mortis. I pounded on the door although I did not want to, I could not control myself from knocking on the blackened door.

The gate creaked and moaned harshly as it moved open, it grinded on the floor as the stone walls slid. The Hellish sounds of damned screams rang out from inside, wailing and cries begging for God. The haunting sobbing of sinners was far too much to handle, their songs of pain and sorrow filling my soul with fear. I stuck my twitching and unpredictable hand through the opening doors, and in an instant; my hand was sliced off by forces unseen.

I could only silently watch as my arm and hand fell onto the floor, the blood oozing from my humerus made me want to do only one thing… Scream. I woke up in a flash, my eyelids jolting awake and my heart racing. “A dream?” I questioned and asked myself, I couldn’t see at all. I was freaking out and wanting to struggle but I remembered that I was still in the hospital. The Doc the night before told me that I’d have my bandages removed the following morning, so I just drifted back to sleep… A deep…dreamless slumber.