The Record of Unusual Creatures

It was midnight.

It was the quietest time in the Southern Suburbs. The light had gone out in every house. Even cats and dogs were nowhere to be seen on the streets. Except for the cold glow from the street lights, the town was immersed in silence, as though it was frozen in the night.

The dark clouds in the sky had blocked off the crescent moon. Only a small glimmer leaked through the gap between the clouds. The half-veiled moon barely sprinkled its scarlet light on the roof of the Hao Family mansion with a fuzzy and illusory texture.

A burst of fluttering sounds suddenly broke the silent night, which had seemingly solidified forever. The clouds in the sky seemed to retreat at once. The bright moonlight trickled from the clouds, and under the moonlight, a swarm of bats descended.

The bats circled the air above the Hao Family house twice in a surprisingly orderly fashion before swooping down through the opened skylight into the house. The corridor in the house dimmed suddenly as the bats rushed in. These nocturnal creatures quickly formed into an elegant yet slightly cool-looking girl with black hair.

Vivian had returned from her usual “stroll.” She looked back at the moonlight outside; the clouds had once again blocked the night sky, and this time, not even a glimmer of the moon could find its way through the clouds.

It was 1.30 am, the house was as quiet as usual. Even the night owls, Rollie and Y’lisabet, were in the Land of Nod. The only person who could still stay awake and active at this time of the night was the vampire. The vampire maiden had a different biological clock. If not for getting too little sleep for the past few days, Vivian would have mooched around outside a little longer.

Bothered by the sleeping problem, Vivian could not help but stretch out with a long yawn, ready to hit the sack.

But before returning to the basement, where Vivian’s bedroom was, she first went into the kitchen. First, Vivian added rice and water to the automatic rice cooker and set the cooking time for the next day. This way, she could save time the following day. Then she filled up a large basin of water and let it air overnight on the floor in the kitchen. Lil Pea preferred to swim in the aired water because the strange chlorine smell would have evaporated after a few hours.

After the kitchen, she checked the water dispenser. Often time, the careless Doggie drained the last drop of water but did not bother to change the bottle. She then cleaned up the biscuit crumbs on the coffee table; most likely, it was the mess that Rollie left behind after stealing food in the middle of the night. Vivian had to clean up the ‘crime scene’ lest Hao Ren would pull the dumb cat’s ear and give her an earful the next day.

Vivian gave the living hall a final check and felt a sense of accomplishment.

The vampire maiden finally returned to her room in the basement.

Instead of turning the light on, Vivian hummed some simple melodies. She was using echolocation instead of eye vision to navigate in the dark. It saved very little electricity, but Vivian was used to this frugal habit. Even though the day of having to worry about the next meal was long over, the thriftiness in her remained.

With the wave of her hand, a swarm of bats appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Vivian, transforming her clothes into a black nightgown. She lay on the bed, ready to fall asleep.

But quickly, she sat back up again and frowned in the dark, listening to the voice coming from a particular direction.

Vivian heard someone calling her name again, and it was still the same inexplicably auditory hallucination.

This hallucination had appeared at least eight times for the past few days. Each time, it felt as real as it got.

Vivian shook her head and placed her hand on the amulet that Raven 12345 gifted her. A sense of calm and peace of mind began to fill her.

The hallucination was brief, and it disappeared just as fast and like it had never happened before. With the calming effect of the amulet, Vivian felt a lull. Putting everything at the back of her mind, Vivian lay back down and slowly fell asleep.

The basement returned to silence. Only the medical pods and teleporting equipment emitted a couple of idling beeps occasionally. Darkness gathered from all directions, and everything was normal.

But after a while, some vague, imaginary and incomprehensible stuff gradually emerged from the darkness.

In the corner of the basement, on the ceiling, at the bedside where Vivian was sleeping, phantom-like things gradually emerged. They were initially dark and murky, almost blending in with the darkness of the surroundings. But slowly, these things had gained more real colors and quickly emerge from the background. The shadows became clear and began to take on various forms: birds and beasts, people and horses, palace walls and pavilions, and even mountains and lakes.

The basement seemed to have suddenly expanded, and the walls and furniture had disappeared into thin air. The place had turned into a vast open space, in which other than the bed where Vivian was sleeping, phantoms were roaming in the surroundings. These phantoms overlapped with one another like an absurd, historical drama with a messed up timeline and ridiculous logic. Those things that had vanished in the past came to the fore in these repertoires.

A Viking pirate, with bare upper body and cracked horned helmet, emerged out of the shadows. The pirate came to Vivian’s bed, but with one foot in the air as if looking into the distance, water splashing under his feet. There appeared a wooden ship’s side and messy ropes under his feet.

Then, fire flew across the sky, the Viking pirates shattered like glass, and a fleet rushed up from behind the pirate ship. The fleet hoisted the flag of a Greek city-state. An ancient Greek naval officer stood on the bow, drew a long sword, and pointed to a horrible sea monster rising to the sea surface.

Poseidon emerged from the headboard of Vivian’s bed. This giant with hair as thick as seaweed pointed a trident to the Greek warships. In an instant, the storm on the sea tore those warships into pieces.

An endless sea of yellow sand replaced the scene of the choppy sea. Persians in robes hustled in the desert. A merchant hurrying a camel stopped in front of Vivian’s bed and bent down. But the merchant was not looking at the bed. Apparently, in that different space and time, he was looking at something else.

A long sword suddenly swung across the illusion of the Persian merchant, followed by the raining of bolts as if a swarm of locusts in the air. The Persian caravan was gone. An army draped in black armor appeared in the distance. A mighty officer was screaming on horseback, “The Qin Emperor has a decree; you will be rewarded based on the number of heads you have hunted. Irrespective of your ranks, let’s take up your courage and fight!”

But quickly, sandstorm drowned the shout of the general, and his army turned into a phantom. A golden battleship emerged out from the fury sandstorm and slowly flew across the sky. The golden candor of the giant sail was almost as bright as the sun.

A sea of worshippers appeared. They bowed on the yellow sand, beside the pyramid, and in the fertile soil on the banks of the Nile. The princes and the civilians alike were praising the name of Ra and Horus.

A powerful ray came from the west, the solar ship was torn apart in a massive explosion, and the whole of Egypt fell into a sea of ​​fire.

The replaying of the confusingly overlapping scenes of history did not affect the bed where Vivian was sleeping. It just looked like a lonely island. Vivian’s brows knitted together as if she had a bad dream.

Vivian flipped in her bed. And all of a sudden, the phantoms shook violently and collapsed silently, the Mount Olympus crumbled, and the Temple of Ra came down. Pompeii, Troy, Asgard, Thinis, Babylon, and the legendary tower of Babel—everything started to disintegrate.

But the scene of the silent disintegration suddenly froze as Vivian regained her calmness. She whispered a few words; perhaps it was about tomorrow’s menu, the grocery list, or a TV show. Vivian had fallen back to sleep again, and the illusion in the basement was frozen in time.

After a moment of strange silence, these illusions dissipated like a receding tide. The sight of the basement returned to the state just like it was before the illusions.

But not everything had faded. At the bedside, some translucent things remained there. Primitive people dressed in animal skins and with unkempt hair gathered in circles. Light fire from another space and time illuminated their faces, making them look like horrifying ghosts. These primitive people worshipped Vivian. They kissed the ground every time they bowed. Their subtle and fuzzy voices were heard coming from another space and time.

“The Great King of Blood, the Great King of Nightmare, the Great King of Death…”

Darkness gathered in all directions, and finally, the last phantom disappeared.

The dark clouds had dispersed from the night sky. The crescent moon reemerged, but it was about to sink into the horizon. It still shone with unusual brightness. The moonlight penetrated through a louver above the basement and showered Vivian.

Under the last ray of moonlight that night, Vivian flipped in her bed again. Seemingly disturbed by the light, she frowned and whispered, “It is time to wake up.”