The Buzzerks

The first time I felt alive was when my dad trained me to hunt Buzzerks. They were apparently a dangerous breed of monsters that only came out at night, so we hid out for days waiting to kill one. I wasn't exactly sure why my father was so obsessed with these things, but I finally got to spend time with him, so that kind of made up for it.

"Henri, focus," he snapped as he lowered his rifle. "You need to be prepared. They could come out at any minute."

My stomach growled. "Dad, I'm hungry. We've been out here for days," I complained.

"There are rations in my backpack. That should tide you over," he nodded, patting me on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes and went to grab a pack when I heard him gasp. "Henri, get over here. I heard something rustling in the trees."

I took my position beside him and he handed me my rifle. We waited for exactly five minutes before we saw one dart out, catching a glimpse of its purple fur. I gasped. I've never seen one up close. We stood still waiting and waiting until it came out. My dad started shooting while I looked on in horror. The monster looked harmless lying there wounded and crying. I didn't think twice, I pushed my dad's rifle away from the monster, causing him to start shooting at random trees. I ran out to help the monster get up.

It was shaking as it stood up slowly with my help. Its eyes were blue, fur purple and small. It didn't look dangerous at all. My hero stunt was cut short when my dad stormed up to me and grabbed my arm tightly. "Don't you ever do that again, young man. I know I didn't raise some pathetic, sissy of a boy."

I tried to shake my arm out of his grip, but it was so strong that I knew I was going to have immediate bruising.

"Thank you for helping me."

"What in God's green Earth, did that thing just talk?" He looked like he was about to faint.

It backed up slowly. "I didn't want to be a bother. I was just looking for my family. We got separated a couple years ago."

"I must be hallucinating," he chuckled. "Let's go, Henri. We need to get back to the cabin."

"But I want to help it," I screamed in protest.

"I'm a boy," he corrected meekly. "I'll leave now. I don't want to be a bother."

"You come near me or my family again, I'll make sure I shoot you dead next time," my father warned.

The Buzzerk held his head low as he disappeared into the trees. He grabbed my arm once more and pulled me back to the cabin. When we got inside, my mom was cooking tomato soup.

"Smells good, Rita," he said as he walked over to kiss her cheek.

"Anything interesting happen on the Steak-Out?" She chuckled as she stirred the soup.

"Yeah! We saw a real life Buzzerk and he was kind and just wanted to find his family," I beamed, shrugging off my coat.

"We were hallucinating, Rita," he waved me off. "The thing was talking and we all know monsters can't talk."

"Well, this one did!" I yelled knowing I would get smacked, but having some new found confidence out of nowhere. "He was talking and he needs help finding his family!"

My mom smiled at me. "Quite an imagination on you, Henri. You should get back into drawing. You could be a pro some day."

"I'm not joking," I muttered to myself. Sometimes I felt like a misunderstood monster in a crowd of boring plants. I wanted to help him, but I didn't know how. I was just a boring boy with nothing special about me at all.

After supper, I lay in my bed looking up at the cloudless sky. No stars, just a bunch of empty nothing. That's exactly how I felt. I could never make my dad proud of me no matter how hard I tried.

Just then, I heard a rock hit my window. I jumped up and opened it to see the Buzzerk waving at me.

"Go away, you're going to get me in trouble," I whispers-shouted. I closed the window and got back into bed before my dad could hear me, but another rock hit the window, so I got out of bed again and put a hoodie on to sneak out the backdoor. Luckily, the backyard cameras weren't working tonight.

I ducked behind the bushes as the Buzzerk came up to me. He held out his paw to show giant welts and he yelped when I touched them. "Did you get caught again?"

"This time someone used a M240."

I shook my head wishing I could show people that monster's are good and not somethings you can just kill. "We need to find your family."

"Oh, Henri," he sighed. "They're long gone by now. I've just given up."

"I wish you could live with me. Although, my dad would never allow it," I gave him a small smile.

"It's fine, Henri. I appreciate you being so nice to me, but my kind aren't seen as cute or pets, they see us as evil entities that deserve death. A lot of my friends are dead. I'm all alone."

"People really suck," I huffed, pulling my hood up. It was starting to get cold. "Man, I wish I had your fur to stay warm."

"Yeah, it comes in handy around these months. Try late Summer and you'll be dying... metaphorically of course."

I chuckled. "You're so funny and as long as I know you're kind, that's all that matters."

"Woah, I can't believe I have a new friend," he smiled.

"I can't believe I have a new friend too."

We continued to laugh until the morning suddenly came

without my knowledge.

"Henri! We're you outside the whole night???"