Time Creature: Vetumnus #1 (special preview)

I turn on my heel to stare him down. He then pushes his hood away from his face, half of which is that of a powerfully handsome man with dark blue skin, white hair, and a mouth like a jack-o-lantern. The other side is skull-like, another cage filled with clockwork and gears. I then see his eye, which was once a clock with many hands, only now, it is cracked with a bullet hole dead in the center.

“Ow,” I whisper.

“Yeah, fucking ow!” Vetumnus snarls at me as his skin goes bright green. He then sighs and pulls back, his long mouth pulling into a sneer that shows off the shark-like teeth in his mouth. “She threatened me, Moneta, she made me leave.” The tall white ears on his head twitch forward then slick backwards.

“For thirty years?” I snap back at him.

“I was making sure!” Vetumnus snarls at me, bending over so he can get in my face. “Time is relative, my dear.”

“Well it’s no relative of mine!” I bark back at him. “You left, you don’t get to come back like everything is the same. You abandoned me without a word!”

He stands back up. “I left word,” he whispers. “Did you not get it?”

I furrow my brow at him. “What word? All these years I have received nothing. Close the fucking door! You’re letting the borogoves in!”

Vetumnus turns around, shutting the door then chasing after me as I run into my bedroom. He grabs the door handle, jiggling it as I sit on the edge of the bed.

“Moneta, unlock the door!” He roars.

“Make me!” I bellow back.

He bangs hard on the solid door. “I left you a letter! A big one! Basically a book! Your grandmother promised to-” he then screams and I see bright blue light from under the crack of the door. “That colossal bitch!” 

Under the bed there is a chest with some of my grandmother’s possessions. I had found it in her room not long after she’d passed, but there was no key to it, so I left it be. I had kept it in the off chance I ever found the key or was bored and broke the lock.

“Moneta! Let me in, please,” Vetumnus begs gently. “Let me apologize in any way I possibly can.”

I kneel down onto the floor then lay on my belly to slip under the bed.

“I made a massive mistake, I know. I have been terrified all this time, but I so wanted to see you so I could tell you how much I hate your fucking family.” He bangs on the door again.

I pull out the chest and yank on the lock.

“Are you even listening to me?” Vetumnus whines.