FROM THE BOOK OF MONSTERS ( FN 1 )

by Daniel Braum

Pg. 270.

Excerpt from the account of Raul Sanchez given to Father M. Sorenson. ( FN 2)
Translated from Spanish by D. Francis Leslie. PHD ( FN 3)
Ash Wednesday. 1983.

I had just come from church. Some of the old farmers asked for help with something that had been tearing up their fields. ( FN 4) Something had dug a huge pit right where they said; a tunnel about four feet around at the bottom. So I climbed down, and immediately realized something was there.

At first I thought I was looking at the hindquarters of a fat, giant mole. Then it turned and looked at me. Its face was a human face but was shriveled and purple. When I saw its teeth, which were jagged and triangular, like an old shark’s, I realized I was face to face with a demon from the first world. ( FN 5 ) I thought I was going to die. But I was wearing the Ash and the two brothers were protecting me. It tunneled into the earth and I never saw it again. ( FN 6)

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Footnotes:

(1) The name commonly associated with the untitled volumes of D. Francis Leslie’s accounts, transcriptions, and translations of unexplained biological and paranormal occurrences from around the globe. -DB

(2) Original footnote from D. Francis Leslie: These skeptical notes predate Sorenson’s account of The Green Man and related episodes in the now infamous town.

(3) PHD appears after D. Francis Leslie’s but confirmation of where this doctorate was obtained and of what discipline remains unconfirmed at the time of this printing. I located a degree in Veterinary medicine for one Franklyn Brahma, one of his suspected alias, from a school in Thailand. I’ve heard accounts of F Brahma traveling with some of the more reclusive crypto-botanists in China but was unable to find any documentation. -DB

(4) A Handwritten Note from Father Sorenson’s transcription read as follows: It is more likely Sanchez was investigating an animal of some sort that was tunneling under his fields of illicit crops. I am of the opinion this story was concocted to keep prying eyes and thieving competition out of the area.

(5) Original footnote from D. Francis Leslie: Despite the references to Mayan mythology and cosmology I doubt Father Sorensen believed Raul was a religious man.

(6) Original footnote from D. Francis Leslie: There are tales of strange creatures attacking livestock and even children. Finding out if these accounts are connected to Mr. Sanchez’s tale will require additional investigation.

The Singing Bowl

by Kat Beyer

She’s dust and gone, but this remains: a smooth fine pot painted in her own fluid hand. Each little figure paces the circular path around the pot with her arms full, this one with minute wheat ears, each tiny grain outlined, that one with a lamb perfect to the last curl. And they sing, the words rising up from their mouths in little streams of letters we cannot translate though they look so familiar, an alphabet just round the corner from us.

They sing just on the edge of hearing. I thought I was going mad when I heard it, until I saw some children at the Museum listening, pressing their ears against the glass until the guard came and told them off.

I think she knew she would be dust. I mean, we all know it, but I think she really knew, and she knew a way around it, a way to put her voice in the clay more lasting than her perfect lines. But why? I believe that to anyone who listens, the answer is plain: she only wanted, long after her own mouth was stopped, to be heard just for a moment.