I don't own Kong: Skull Island, nor anything else in Legendary's Monsterverse. I am hoping that in the future I'll write more stories for Kong and Godzilla.

Enjoy.

Monsters Exist.

"They exist, they're real. They're actually real…."

Sitting in a corner of the old wreck that doubled as some kind of shrine and Marlow's home, Brooks was too busy thinking about what had just happened to really concern himself with the people that lived here, the Iwi even if he was fascinated by them and was curious about how they managed to survive here if what Marlow had told them was true about the creatures that lived on the island. He should have been trying to get some sleep since the next day would be a busy one, but he couldn't.

It was never easy having your entire belief system virtually shattered like a pane of glass, so Brooks needed time to assimilate what he'd just found out for himself.

Despite his short association with Monarch, Brooks had never really believed in the MUTOs. Oh, he had seen photographs and documented "proof" of their existence, but he had always been sceptical; monsters were something you'd expect to find in a fantasy novel, not in real life.

He remembered how he had seen the sci-fi horror movies of the 50s. "THEM!" had been a prime example of the fears people had of atomic radiation, and they had let their fantasies run ragged. Brooks could understand and appreciate the fears many people had about radioactivity, but the idea monsters had ruled the Earth long before mankind, long before dinosaurs even…. and that they were still alive was a bit too much to take.

Randa had made him rewatch some of those movies to make him realise that although many of them were fantastic, some of them could exist in real life.

Despite the joy he had found at being believed and that someone actually listened to him without laughing their head off, Brooks had been disheartened by Randa's 'theories' that a hollow earth would have been perfect for such monsters to live. He had believed Randa to be a crackpot even after hearing the older man's story about the USS Lawton and how she'd been sunk. But not anymore.

But then, so had those who had claimed his theories of a "Hollow Earth" to be a crackpot idea, and he had been a laughingstock; oh, he didn't believe the Earth was completely hollow like an easter egg so if you drilled all the way down the Earth would crack and fall apart, he just believed there were places on the planet that were more hollow than most.

Sitting in his corner, watching his friends sleep off the day and waiting for the next one, Brooks wondered if Randa had survived Kong's attack; Slivko hadn't said anything about him, but Packard and some of the others of the Sky Devil squadron were still alive even if their helicopters had been smashed to bits and they were stranded on this island. Brooks and the others had learnt quite a bit already, and just thinking about that made him think about Kong.

Although he had looked like a giant gorilla, Brooks could see for himself Kong was way above the gorillas and that didn't take into account just how massive he was. No, it was like himself or any other human being made to stand shoulder to shoulder with a neanderthal or one of the early proto-humans. But Kong was just the tip of the iceberg here, as far as MUTOs went. When Marlow had told them about the creatures he called "Skullcrawlers" and described in detail what they were like and how they wiped out Kong's race, Brooks still found himself wondering if he and the rest of this expedition, and indeed the rest of Monarch were even capable of doing anything or whether they were out of their depth.

Randa was obsessed to find MUTOs and prove their existence, but only so then he could show the world that they were wasting their time and energy fighting one another when the real threat to their existence was either trapped under tonnes and tonnes of rock, ice, or gallons of ocean. It was Randa's single-minded beliefs in the dangers of the MUTOs that made it hard for Brooks to take him seriously half of the time, but then again Kong hadn't exactly proven himself to be the gentle giant either before Marlow had told them why and after hearing about those Skullcrawlers Brooks could understand why the giant ape had been furious.

But despite everything that had happened, Brooks wondered what would happen when Monarch learnt about the creatures of Skull Island because no matter how you looked at it, despite the death toll Skull Island was a success as far as Monarch was concerned. Not only had they discovered MUTOs, but they had also discovered an island that didn't seem to follow the laws of nature. There were animals here that seemed like a blend between plant and animal, but since Randa had told him time and again myth could be more than just stories handed down over the centuries. Skull Island had been one of those myths, a place where the normal laws of nature didn't seem to apply.

Brooks blew out a breath as he recalled how Randa had nearly been pushed over the edge by the lack of results when Monarch commissioned dozens of expeditions as they tried to find Skull Island and finally find out if there was an isolated eco-system out there that supported MUTOs that had been undisturbed for centuries. In many ways, Landsat's satellites discovering the island had been a blessing and a curse. Brooks wondered how Senator Willis would have felt if he had learnt just how long Monarch had been searching for the place, but it was academic now since they were here.

Willis hadn't thought much of Randa, but then few did.

Brooks wondered, because of his experience with the organisation, exactly how Monarch was going to react when they found out about the MUTOs on this island, especially Kong. Many in Monarch believed the MUTOs were a threat, especially Randa who believed they were soulless monsters. But not all of them seemed that bad; some of them were actually indifferent to the humans on the island, and they didn't seem to bother or concern the Iwi that much.

The Iwi…

Brooks wished he could speak to them, but their unusual language was just as intriguing as the wildlife here where there were no rules. But he had been spooked like everyone else when they had just appeared out of no-where in those ruins, and the way Marlow was able to communicate without words…. Had they some kind of body language that Marlow had discovered over the years he'd been here?

Brooks shook his head and wondered what Randa, if he was alive, was doing right now. Darkly, he wondered if the other man was pleased to be vindicated at last, for having the proof he had wanted for 30 years… Randa had seen the power of Kong, and he had probably seen the number of MUTOs on the island. Brooks wondered what he was going to do when they got home.

But he shook his head, he had other things he wanted to do.

Like get off this island.

With that, he closed his eyes.