My thoughts kept me awake late into the night as I lay, puffy eyed, pondering, and lost in my own mind. Contemplating how the extent of my talents could be used to benefit the greater good of the human race had lately consumed my thoughts. Somewhere between understanding the unimportance of my existence and the knowledge of my ability to defeat the undefeatable I had found a dreadfully grievous yet incredibly exciting feeling that my time to do something larger than myself was nearing.    
    

Endless battles had become an everyday reality for me, and no amount of monsters slain ever seemed to suffice. I was always condemned with the feeling that a larger beast, a more frightening entity was lurking somewhere. But where and when I would find it always haunted me, like a blackened river of trepidation and exhilarance seeping through the wrinkles of my brain. It was coming, and when it arrived, it would destroy everything unless I stopped it.    
    

Thus the search ended, simultaneous with the beginning of my largest battle yet the night that the man (the organizer of my battles. My slaying agent. Slaygent, if you will) arrived at my door with information on my newest battle.
     

“The wrath of the Great Cavia is at last upon us.” He spoke softly, diligently, as if we weren’t speaking of the very beast slayers had feared for decades. The Great Cavia, a legend to beast and man alike. An entity said to radiate such crippling fear that one would die from their own mind’s weakness. The very thought of facing such a malicious beast sent an icy shiver down my spine. However, I straightened up and exhaled with resilience as to hide any manifestation of vulnerability in my voice. Afterall, I was the greatest slayer the world had ever seen.
    

“What a good day this is turning out to be,” I chuckled. “A nice, tough battle is long overdue. What is the dwelling of this ferocious beast?”
    

“He is currently contained in a heavily guarded facility smack-dab in the middle of downtown New York, about 3 miles from here. We are safe for now, but soon enough he will break free from the bars keeping him at bay, and all the world will feel his wrath. You must understand the importance of this mission. The fate of the city, and maybe even the world lies in your hands.”
    

“I’ve faced worse.” Smirking with conviction, I rose from my seat and paced over to the sparkling scabbard that held my most prized weapon. Salient blade glistening, embossed handle gleaming, the alluring sword captivated me as I delicately removed it. I nodded at the man, and off into the night we ambled.
    

Through the window of the cab, the city seemed so innocent. People, joyous and jubilant, skipped around with shopping bags in hand, popping in and out of stores and restaurants with carefree expressions. It seemed to be that the only thing denser the the cloud of light pollution was the thick emission of pure ignorance, a poison if taken in the wrong dosage. All of these citizens seemed to have their fair share of the substance as they went about their daily lives aimlessly, without a care of the monsters that walk among them, lurking in the shadows day in and day out. They looked at me as if I were merely one of them, as if i didn’t work tirelessly to protect them from the horrendous entities threatening their livelihoods.                            
  

A few minutes later, we arrived at the containment facility. Multiple brick pillars lined the front of the building, almost mimicking guards with their stoic fashion, and a few small windows preceded a bustle of uniform people inside.
     “Those are the scientists,” the man uttered quietly, as to avoid the verbal interception of unwanted spies. “They will stop at nothing to harness the beast’s power and will not hesitate to--- oh how do I put this delicately--- to discard anyone who attempts to stand in the way of their experiments.”
    

“So how do we intend to surpass these scoundrels?” I asked.
     “I’ve determined upon much speculation that the only thing that gets freely in and out of that building are these boxes of heavy sedatives they disguise as food and the people that deliver them.”
     “So we’ll sneak in alongside those people? How do we know they’re being delivered today?”
    

“We don’t. And that simply wouldn’t work. We must become the people ourselves. I’ve already looked up the number of the facility. You’ll call them and impersonate a delivery company with a late shipment. A short time later, you’ll show up at the back door wearing this disguise.” The man held up a navy polo shirt with SANCHO’S DELIVERIES scrawled across the front and the name Ricky Pateli in the upper righthand corner.
     “Where did you get that?”
  

   “That is not of importance. Allow me to continue. You’ll show up at the back door with a ‘package’. I’ve left the box we will use behind that dumpster over there. I’ll be inside of it and you’ll wheel me in as a delivery man would. Once inside, we’ll proceed to find and kill the beast. Do you understand?”
     “I understand.”
     And thus the scheme that would save all of humanity began. The phone call went quite well. I assume the workers of the facility had been trained to act unsuspicious to the outside world. It was almost as if they weren’t hiding the fate of humanity behind couple of walls.
     After the call was completed, we located the box and transportation apparatus that were, sure enough, waiting behind the dumpster. The man fit snugly inside and sat dead silent. I approached the door with the utmost caution and knocked. A tiny young woman answered with a smile. The sick fiend, I thought in disgust.
     “Oh hello! You must be here for the delivery,” she spouted in a stridulous tone.
     “Yes ma’am,” I sang with a smile.
     “Come right in. We’ve been running quite low lately, you’ve arrive just in time!”
    

I followed her in, wheeling the heavy man with confidence. The walls of the facility were lined with strange creatures scampering about in tiny wire cages. They stared me down with longing eyes. What is this unnatural genetic witchcraft? I thought to myself, staring at one furry mess of a thing in particular. It gave a disturbed whine as I passed. The bastards. 
    

On I walked through the maze of unthinkable terror. The beast was somewhere in this contorted, nightmarish mess.  I looked around with deep inspection. Suddenly my heart took a plunge and my breathing momentarily ceased.
    

For there it lay, the sleeping monster, the maker of havoc, the counter of all that is good in the world and the symbol of every bad thing, every savage, lying cheat to make a shadow on this sorry excuse for a planet. The great Cavia, a tyrant of the underworld in the flesh, stood before me with immense intimidation. Streaks of rich gold and midnight black encompassed it’s body. Acute claws protruded from the end of each limb and two colossal teeth escaped the beasts mouth with intimidating malice.
     “There he is,” I whispered to the man. I looked to make sure the woman was gone, then gave the man the go ahead to climb out of the box.
     “You know what to do now. You’ve slain many beasts before. Now is your time. Free him,” the man commanded.
     My body shook with resistance as I unlatched the cage. Out he stepped, shaking the stability of the universe with every step. His profound black eyes seemed to beset my body, as if they were portals to the depths of hell that I could at any time be violently pulled inside of, never to return. I unsheathed my sword and the familiar mix of adrenaline and overpowering purpose overcame my body as I prepared to take the first stab. I drew my sword back with the intensity of all the great slayers that had come before me. They will worship me, thought as I prepared to swing. I will be their savior and my glory will never die. My time has come. I took a deep breath and---  
    

“Excuse me!” the petite woman yelled as I prepared to swing. “What do you think you’re doing?” I turned to the man for guidance, only to see an empty space where he had stood just seconds before. Where could he have gone? I lifted the lid off the box to see if the man had crawled back inside. It appeared to be completely empty. In my frustration, I kicked the box over, and to my dismay, something very gruesome emitting a terrible stench fell out with a thud.
    

“AHHHHH!” the woman shrieked in sheer terror at the grotesque object by the box. “John! John!” she sobbed hysterically, sprinting away. “A dead body! There’s a dead body and a man is trying to kill the guinea pigs! Help!”
     “What are you talking about?!” The John entity stepped out and cradled the woman, comfortingly.
     “Over there!” she pointed in my direction maniacally.
   

  “Call the police, Leah,” he ordered. “I’ll take care of the man.” He pulled out a can of pepper spray pointed it at me. “Drop the sword. Put your hands on your head and stand over there,” he pointed to a corner near the back of the room. Though highly unintimidated, I did what he said. After all, they weren’t the ones I was after.
     “We’re at the PetSmart on the corner 4th and Fredrickson. Hurry, he has a weapon!” the woman cried into the phone.
     A few minutes later, several police officers burst through the door, guns in hand.
     “Put your hands behind your back,” on of the officers commanded.
     “Wait,” one of the other officers said as I was being handcuffed. “The name on his shirt. Ricky Pateli. I know that name from somewhere.”
     “By God, Hudson, you’re right. That’s the name of the delivery man who went missing last week.” They looked intently at each other, before striding over to the hideous mass, still lying by the beast’s cage. “It’s him. Do you know what this means?”
     “We may have caught the video game killer.”
     “I’m sorry,” the sobbing woman interrupted. “The video game killer?”
    

“The force has been keeping it on the downlow to avoid panic, but several people have gone missing in the past couple weeks, mostly in the suburbs of Wisconsin. When their bodies are found, they have a piece of paper on them with a printout of a different ‘beast-like’ character from a video game called Slayers of the Underworld. The man must be extremely mentally unstable and has this alternate reality that he’s some kind of hero. You know, out to save the world from all the monsters, that sort of thing. We didn’t think he’d pop up here in New York, but last week when this Ricky guy went missing, his wife found the printout of a monster and their doorstep with a little note on it labeled ‘I’m using this one’. He’s obviously running from the law. Doesn’t wanna be locked up again.”
     “Again?”
    “Yes, he’s proved to be quite the escape artist. We’ve had this guy some of the highest security asylums in the country. Before he began killing innocent people, of course. Used to do the same thing, only with animals. No surprise he turned up here, in a pet store.”
     The woman stared, dumbfounded.
   “You have the right to remain silent,” the officer rehearsed. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law,” He grabbed me by the arm as if I were some kind of animal and began to walk me out to the squad car.
     The fools. I thought to myself. Now the Cavia will destroy all of the land. They will pay the price for their idiocy.
     I looked back at the facility of evil. “They’ll regret this,” I muttered. Though somehow I felt a slight uncertainty in my statement. For even when I was moments away from killing the great evil doer, I hadn’t felt a very strong sense of purpose. It’s was almost as if I had the wrong beast. Almost as if the prophecy was wrong, that Cavia wasn’t the one that would destroy the world and all of humanity as we know it.
    

“You must complete the task,” a man’s voice whispered. I turned in it’s direction. There my slaygent sat in the squad car beside me. “You must slay he who puts Cavia to shame. He who, through simple lack of solid intentions but extremely just motivation has sought out the most shameful cracks in the human spirit. The cracks that reveal not light, but a darkness more luminous than any shine could produce. And from that darkness comes great destruction and a blind sense of triumph. The world is a sick place, and the cure lies not slaying monsters, but in destroying those who create them. It is your final task.”
    

“You’re right. I must slay it. It is the only way.” I reached into my pants and found the pocket knife I had hidden between my legs. “For humanity,” I whispered, bringing the knife to my own throat.